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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1987, 18 May 1875, Page 4

MoBNING IN THE TSOPICS.—-It Will hardly be credited by those who have never visited a hill country in the tropics, that soon after sunrise the noise of awakening "beetles and tree-loving insects is so great as to drown the bellowing of a bull, or the roar of a tiger a few paces off. The sound resembles most nearly the metallic whirr of a hundred Bradford looms. One beetle in particular, known to the natives as the "trumpeter," busies himself all day long in producing a booming noise with his wings. I have cautiously approached a tree on which I knew a number of these trumpeter beetles to have settled, when suddenly the sound stopped, the alarm was spread from tree to tree, and there was a lull in the forest music, which only recommenced when I had returned to the beaten track."— '• Straits of Malacca," by J. Thomson.

Jones she Just,—Jones went to a theatre the other evening. The play was bad, the acting worse. On all sides Jones's friends were hissing both. " You take it comfortably," said a friend to Jones. " I came in with an order, and I don't feel at liberty to express an adverse opinion," was the reply. Presently, however, Jones rose hurriedly, indignation in every line of his face. "By Jove! I must go out and pay," he exclaimed.-

The story is told of a civil service candidate writing against the question, " What is the distance oi the sun from the earth?" that he couldn't tell the exact distance, but he didn't think it was near enough to interfere with his duties as post-office clerk.