CLIPTOMANIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 71, 11 October 1884, Page 4

CLIPTOMANIA.

In anticipation of his liberation from prison, " the Claimant " has been measured for a new suit of clothes. The order has been given to the tailor who made the last suit worn by "Sir Roger" before he adopted prison dress. Prohibition is more stringent in Kansas than in any other an ti -liquor state. Under these circumstances it is interesting to read that during the year ended June 30th tho barrels of beer brewed in the State v ere 3,299 more in number than those of the previous year. According to "London," Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan are thinking of a new opera to succeed the "Princess Ida." Mr Gilbert, who is suffering from gout, has had two years to think upon the subject, for " Princes Ida " is, of couise, little more than a reprint of the old Holborn vaudeville. Sir Arthur Sullivan has not yet written a note of the music, but the new work i.« expected to be ready not later than November next. St. Louis possesses a professional lover, ■i.e., a man who is paid by parents or gaurdians, when their daughters or wards are in danger of making a mesalliance, to cut the ineligible parti out. He is said to be as agreeable as he is handsome, and he has met with great good luck in his novel calling, having crushed the hopes of several suitors wiio threatened to be as successfu as they were ineligible. The father of cheap postage in the United States has died at Boston, New Jersey, in the 63rd year of his age. By a curious coincidence his name was Hill, like that of the father ot cheap postage in Biitain. His sterling traits of character won for him the name of "Honest John Hill. '\ To his untiring energy was due the abolition of franking privileges, the introduction of the postal card in the United States, and the more recent leduction of letter postage from three cents to two cents the half-ounce. He was a man of great personal excellence of character. Many people seem to imagine that Mr Yates, the libeller of Lord Lonsdale and Lady Grace Fane, is serving his four months in prison. This is not so— he is still at large, pending an appeal granted on a technical point. Four months have elapsed since the date of conviction, and the technical point has not yet been settled yet ; although; Mr Poland stated that "if the stay ot execution were allowed for a few days, then the writ of error could be obtained." And all this trouble has arisen out of a twelve-and-sixpenny paragraph. — "Whitehall Review." * In this country most of us are ready to scuttle out of the way of a mad dog. But at Wst we have some sort of method in " our madness." In Croatia the presence of a mad pig Mas sufficient to terrify a whole fair.iull of people out of their wits. To escape from the neighbourhood of a single lunatic porker— whose vagaries might in the first instance have been ended by a knock on the head— six men, one woman, and thirty cattle were trampled to death, not to speak of a whole hospital full of injured. The madness of the pig will mark a black-letter day in the Croatian calendar. Wilkie Collins began life as a tea merchant, but after a short time studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and presently abandoned that for literature. He is a rapid inventor and slow producer, writes at a massive desk, on one side of which hangs a picture of his father, and on the other is a tin box containing plots and schemes and ideas jotted down. In composing he first finds a central idea, then fits the characters, lets the characters evolve their own incidents, and begins his story at the beginning. A table showing the length of service in Parliament of the most eminent English statesmen new living contains the following figures: Mr Gladstone, 51 years; Lord Granville, 47 years ; Lord John Manners, 40 years; the Duke of Argyll and Lord Kimberley, each 37 years ; Lord Derby, 36 years; Lord Salisbury, 31 ye^rs; Sir Stafford Northcote, 28 years ; Lord Hartington, 27 years, and Mr Childers, 24 years. Lord Granville has served the longest time in office, 28 years 1 month, and the longest in the Cabinet, 21 years and 2 months. Mr Gladstone has been in office 22 years and 10 months, and in the Cabinet 20 years and 9 months. French mothers-in-law owe a debt of gratitude to M. Naquet, the author of the Divorce Bill. One ol the grounds on which a divorce can be claimed is I'lnjure— that is, giving offence to any member of the petitioner's family. If a man gets into a rage with u Mamma" he may expect to see his wife march out of the door on her way to the Court, there to file a petition. French husbands will have to be very civil indeed to their respected parents-in-law in future. Discussion sometimes arises nowadays as to the precise value of the title "Esquire," says " Truth." It is generally agreed that its use should not, if possible, be allowed to any gentleman worth, say, less than 10s a week, unless he be an office-boy, or otherwise "professionally" engaged. It has, however, been reserved for the press to fix the exact worth of the title. A journal published in the town of Burnham, a small but popular resort on the Somersetshire coast, has the following note at the head of its " List of Visitors " :— " The word ' Esq.' charged 3d, prepaid." Here is one of Dr. Macleod's anecdotes, communicated to "Good Words": — "There was an old invalid man on Tweedside, who was tended by a faithful Abigal. Like many frail persons, he was always anticipating his own speedy demise. ' I'm thlnkin', Nancy,' he said one day, ' that it canna be lang noo. I feel as if this verra nicht the end wud cam.' ' Indeed, laird,' said the attendant, ' if it were the Lord's will it wad be real convenient, for the coo's gaen to calve, and I dinna weel see hoo I am to tend on ye baith.' " A new light has just been invented, formed by the mixture of ordinary gas and atmospheric air under pressure, the two meeting at the point of illumination. It is an incandescent light, formed by rendering luminous a network of platinum wire. The inventors claim that it is the most beautiful, steady, wholesome, and economical artificial light hitherto invented. It has been tried at the railway works at Crewe with great success, and is probably suitable for great establishments of this kind. A contemporary tells the following good story: "It was for an Ohio debtor to fully unfold all the possibilities of getting rid of a dun, and in this case it was a woman. She owed her hired man-servant three hundred and twenty dollars, and being unable to pay them, as she found the man getting troublesome, she wooed the simple fellow and induced him to marry her, thus squaring all accounts between them effectually. In a less favoured land there would have been an end of the matter, but in Ohio a divorce only costs sixty dollars. This little formality she promptly went through, clearing two hundred and sixty dollars on the whole transaction,