Miscellaneous.

Colonist, Issue 26, 19 January 1858, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

How to Make Soldiers.-—Sydney Herbit's excuse-for the failure of levies' during the late war was' that he could' not , make a soldier in less than two years;, that [ it was no use in filling the ranks with boys,' and then emptying them with death on the first exposure to hardship. Panmure is'of opinion that two hours is quite long enough.' to constitute a veteran. Accordingly march, or. at least swim, is the word; and no sooner is the attesting shilling taken, and the surgeon's" certificate received, than . the youth-' ful warrior is clapped into a hot r :bath,' pummice-stoned till he shines like' a new copper stewing pan, cropped till his head is ' a facsimile of the scrubbing-brush He has been scoured with, a cravat of the consistency of cast-iron placed round his neck, J half a hundredweight of trappings of one sort or other put upon his back, 1 and off he starts for Chatham, Portsmouth, or some: place else, and finds himself turning inside" out with sea sickness ere he has' come' to recollect that'the.head on his shoulders isthe property of the Crown, and that he can't sneeze except in comfbrmity with the articles 1 of war.— London Correspondence of the Birmingham Journal.

, Extraordinary Delusion.—We once heard of a traveller at a Pennsylvania hotel,' 1 who rose from his bed at night to examine the weather; but instead of looking 'out . upon the sky, thrust his head through the' glass window of a cupboard- 'Landlord,* cried the astonished man, { this is, very singular weather; the night is dark as Egypt,. and smells of cheese!'