MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Colonist, Issue 99, 1 October 1858, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

The Camarian. tellsi 'the following strange story :-—One day last week, as the express , train from Haverfordwest was going at full speed, and after it had just passed the Whitland station, a man was seen lying aicross the rails, whether asleep or drunk is, noi known; The alarm whistle was. instantly blown and the engine reversed. The man jumped on his legs arid endeavored to cross the line, but before he could do so -he was metl-ty the engine, .which struck; him off the line a considerable distance. Remarkable to relate, he suffered no personal injury whatever.

At the Swindon Locomotive Works:, pairs of engine wheels, affixed to their axles, are allowed to leave their place of manufacture, and gradually descend the "incline," so arranged that no force need be applied. A* short time since, a boy standing near approached.'a pair, of wheels and gave them a slight push; his loose necktie was caught by the axle, and in an instant the poor boy was throwing somersaults round the axletree. After about 20.revolutions, the wheels were ; stopped;; and the men having cut the cravat, the youth shortly recovered sensibility, and prjpved to be but little injured.-— Wiltshire Independent

A parliamentary return has appeared, showing the number of persons now imprisoned in England and Wales for offences committed against the ganift-laws. The list fills nearly seve*__.y pages.

Tke. r .Gulf Stream and the Hebrides. —l observed for the first time in the interior of this cottage, what I had frequent occasion to remark afterwards, that much of the wood used in buildings in the smaller "and outer islands of the Hebrides must have drifted across the Atlantic, borne eastwards and northwards by the great gulf stream. Many, of the beams .and boards, sorely drilled by the Teredo navalis, are of American timber, that from time to time has been cast upon the shore, a portion of it apparently from timber-laden vessels unfortunate in their voyage, but a portion of it also, with root and branch still attached, bearing mark of having been swept to the sea by transatlantic rivers. Nuts and seeds of tropical plants are occasionally picked up on the beach. * My friend gave me a bean or nut of the Dolichos tirens, or cow-itch shrub of the West Indies, which an islander had found on the shore some time in the previous year, and given to one of the manse children as a toy; and I attach some little interest to it, as a curiosity of the same class with the large canes and the fragment ofj carved wood found floating near the shores of Madeira by the brother-in-law of Columbus, and which, among other similar pieces of circumstantial evidence, led the great navigator to infer the existence of a western continent. Curiosities of this kind seem still more | common in the northern than in the western islands of Scotland. " Large exotic nuts or seeds," says Dr. Patrick NeillJ, in his interesting " Tour," " which, in Orkney, are known by the name of Molucca beans, are occasionally found among the rejectamenta of the sea, especially after westerly winds. There are two kinds commonly found; the larger (of which the fishermen very generally make snuff-boxes) seem to be seeds from the great pod of the Mimosa scandens of the West Indies; the smaller seeds from the pod of the Dolichos tirens, also a native of the same region. It is probable that the _currents_ofythe ocean, and. particularly that great current which issues from the Gulf of Florida,, and is hence denominated the Gulf Stream, -aid very much in transporting across' the mighty Atlantic these American products. They are generally quite fresh. and entire, and afford an additional proof how impervious to moisture, apd">how imperishable nuts and ■seeds generally 2it'e."—rThe . Cruise of. the Betsey. By Hugh Miller.

Death Struggle in France:—rA. singular icircumstance was lately revealed by one of jthe house-surgeons of the Charity Hospital !of Paris. In . one of the men's wards of jthis immense hospital, a man. was, dying at Jl2 o'clock at night. At this hour in the jsurgical wards there is no movement except in some cases, the lamps burn dimly, ;and the.guards are,ordinarily sleeping in their chairs. But there are always some of the patients more or less wakeful by reason of their sufferings. The man who was dying in the hospital hkd'in the pocket of his pataloons a tolerably well filled purse (not a rare circumstance in a Paris hospital). He was a miser. He kept his pantaloons carefully stowed away under his pillow, but his frequent attentions to .the safety'of his pocket book, aroused the attention and the cupidity of the man who-Occupied the aext bed to him. This man watched With'

-wakeful eyes for the proper moment to seize the dead man's treasure. When the miser no longer breathed audibly, and the other believing him dead, he stole quietly out of bed, and thrusting his hand under the pillow seized the pantaloons. But he was mistaken; there was still breath and life in the miser, and the attempt -to wrest from him his treasure seemed to give him life and breath that he had not. He seized the pantaloons, and a horrible struggle . took place between the dying man and the thief, for the.possession of the coveted money. But the miser's grasp was soon relaxed by death, and he fell back on.his bed, gurgling words from his throat;,that [ ought to have frozen, the .blood, of. the blackest pirate on- earth.— French Paper. Hospitality in Piedmont. — You can scarcely enter a dwelling in all Piedmont where the good man or the good woman will not beg you to, be seated, and! forthwith produce the noted cobwebbed flask, ." and, not ask' you whether you will drink, but fill the glasses all round, then bid and expect you to empty yours as a matter of course. Morning, noon, or night', it^inakes no difference; nor are the manners of the upper classes on this point at variance with. those of the lower, nor does.it matter- whe-„ - ther you are familiar in the house of-an.utter , stranger. -"Any frjend of. a friend-is a friend," and in less than two minutes you find yourself hobnobbing and glasfc.jirigling with a man you never saw before', and never in all probability will see again, but . who, if he cannot drink for the sake of - *' auld .lang syne," earnestly, solicits, glass in hand, " your better acquaint^nce."Women and young girls, with eyes as spark r ling and lips as red as the ruby : liquor before, you, .give you the encouragement of their smile and example; for no one shuns wine, nor need any one dread • the honest, genuine, harmless, though generous liquid. With all the disease, and ' the scarcity, and dearth, there is wine still in the country, and you might still have, at^ any.inn by the wayside, a.bottle, chiefly Montferrat, for 24 sous (Is.) —a very high . " price here; but in most private houses you have the relics of old vintages, from 1749 upwards, chiefly those of 1811 and 1846, which were famous years; and although the Piedmontese, in these hard times, stints himself in the beverage which is as necessary to him as the air he breathes, still, no sooner does a friend or stranger's figure darken his door than the old wine must be forthcoming, as if the mere fact that any man met with a." dry" welcome on the threshold of a Subalpine dwelling were likely to endanger the honor of the country v. -'""' — Gallengd's Country TAffJLv* Pit4fflonY. ~WA??&ils Influence. — Like the olive tree -~^said to fertilize the surrounding soil— there are some few ministering angels in female guise among us all and about our patlis, who sweetly serve to cheer and adorn life. Our amusements are insipid unless they contribute to them ; our efforts of noblest ambition feeble, unless they applaud —its rewards valueless, unless they* share them! There are, too, some rude spiritsin the world, whose bolder nature female in-- .^.^ fluence admirably serves to refine and tern- "' per; and perhaps it is not an extreme eulpgium of the poet —that without that influence many a man had been " a brute V The concurrence of both.sexes is as necessary to the perfection of our being, as to the exis-. tence of it:—Man may make a fine' melody, but woman is also required to make up harmony. A Maniac Sailor — A Fearful Scene. —A most fearful scene was witnessed in' South Market-place, lately. A sailor named Thos. Cook had returned from a. voyage that morning, and- though he did not show any lunacy when he came home, it is supposed his brain must: have been affected by the extreme heat that has prevailed at Hamburg, where his vessel came from. After tea he dressed, arid told his wife he was going out for a walk, and it appears that shortly after he left the,-house he was attacked with a sudden fit of madness, for he was noticed to run into St. Hildas-churchyard, and with the agility pf a cat clamber up by a spout on.to the roof, of that edifice. He then crept along a" water-way to the steeple, and clinging with his feet to a ledge running round the sides.not an inch in breadth, dug his fingers into the lime between, the stones in the sides of. the tower, and in a most miraculous manner. wrought himself to' the outside of it. He, looked like a fly on the side of the tower, and the crowd below expected that everymoment he would fall and be smashed to pieces. Having got to the outside he dropped with- his hands on, to the ledge, and with the weight of his whole body ,upon them managed to make the- entire circuit in safety.' Having; got back to the ,roof of the church, he smashed his watcjr .and threw it amongst-thepeople. "He then ! took off his necktie, coat and' linen shirt," , tore them into fragments, and pitched-' them, amongst the crowd, which by this time had numbered several hundreds. Having disburdened 'himself of the principal part of 'his dress, he scattered a .quantity of coppers, I and. cigars amongst the crowd, and (it was thought that he' was making, ready 4o .eapL from r the roof to the flags b'eheath,: when lie ' must ineyitably have been killed,1 but the jp6 r | ,lice and a. number of men, broke ."through |the belfry on to.the roof, and-4houghMhe Jmade a fierce attack, upon them they over-, ippwered hiiriVand Ke wa-_ removed' to. the! ,'pblice. station, where he .was ; put into, a, jstrait waistcoat. The medical men. think: 'that he will have to be' taken1 to a lunatic asylum. . The Chinese booksellers,have, an honest, way of selling their volumes.' They are disposed of not according to'their value at' a fixed price,,but according tpjthieir'height; If on weighing them they are, too lights the seller coolly tears-some leaves fronvanother' book, and puts'theiri into the'scale,!, There 1 are many, books, published', /now JieSy enough to be sold by- weight Even some, volumes of our light literature mijijht coi^e* under this category. -