GATHERINGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3944, 8 December 1880, Page 3

GATHERINGS.

A touching incident — A phyßj'cian feeling ft patient's pulse. Essays on the sun and moon come under the head of hght literature. Victoria has 500 different samples of her own wine at the Exhibition. How many of Now Zoaland production P Sarah Bernhardt ia said to be taking two lesaona in Engliah daily. Actresses will now have to look to (heir laurels. In 18179,. 928 miles of railway on the narrow gauge were coui. iructod in the United States. The butchers of Wellington have started a society for mutual improvement. Athletio sports will form a special feature of the society. A sociable man ia one who, when he hasten / minutea to spare, goeß and bothors somebody who hasn't. Tho following original advertisement apipeared in a Northern paper: — " Marriage./— Butler.— Beid.— On the 24th inst., at Jdt. Peter's Church, Edwin Butler, bullook-drper, of Upper Hutt, to Alioo Emily Eeiu, of Wadostown. No cards, no cakos, no nothing." Sensible Edwin ! " Is there an opening here for an intellectual writer ?" aßked a seedy, red-nosed' individual of an editor. " Yes, my friend," roplied the man of quills ; " a considerate carpenter, foreseeing your visit, left an opening for you t turn the mob t • fche right." ' England, It:>lr, aad Franco are claiming compensation i>r the damages caused by the bombardment at Peruvian and Bolivian towns. Don't they wish they may gefc ifc? The commiseionera sonfc by Japan fco investigate the prison oystcms of the world havo arrived in Ne^ York from Europe. Aftor visiting Washington and Boston they will come to San Francisco. In tho Chinese army thirty men beat torntome for overy hundred men who fight. No Chinaman can ft|hfc without a big noise around him to stiffen his spine. The Bey. Dr Bromby of Victoria, at a rocent Sunday evening service advooatod the opening o,f museum., libraries, and pioture galleries .on Sundays, but ho objects to lectures (a la Proctor) for whioh payment is exacted. Logical Bromby ! Lord Brougham once whon he was in a facr-tious mood, boing asked td define a lawyer, aaid : " A lawyer is a learned gontlenjian who rescues your ostate from your onemies and koops it himsolf." Two countrymen from Bangiora were looking at a watch "marked down " iv Peterson's window, which, among other virtues, showed fcho day of fcho month, day of tho .week, aud tho phaaes of the moon. "Pooh! you call thut much of a thiug ?" said one. Where I live you can buy a watch, and tho hour-hand will mark tho daily stock quotations, the theatro programme, and your waali-Hat."' The linc-B hnvo fallen in pleasant places to 1-Vo fesaor Fiako of Cornell Univorsity. He has just married tho daughter of the late Hon. J. M'Graw, of Ithaca, and tho bride briii^B with hor a fortune of £1,000,000 sterling. In aenrehing over the effects of Sir Bobt. Bur. lett, brother of the Baroness BurdettCoulfcp, £270,000 in bank notos wore found stowed away. And yot tho Baroness allows her nephew, a baronot, to eke out a miserable existence in Now Zealand aa a gum-dig^cr. Tie jumped on board tho railroad train, And cried, " Farewell, Lueinda Jano, My preciouß, sweet Lueinda !" Alia! how soon lie changed hio cry, _'.:;<., while tho toar stood in lus eye, He raid, "Confound loose eindor!" A young man namod Jones, in humble eir.Uiii. tniices living at Pendleton, has become the recipient; of a legacy of £200,000. The amount was boqucatcd to him by his father, ■Ah.i «vas a wholesale bookseller and atationer i" ' ".ndon, who diod some jcars ago. Jones, it i -ins, ran away from homo when he was * hi *, nnd hns been employed afc an ironworks afc Pendleton, quite, howover, unknown to his relatives, father's solicitors advertised for him, and aoon found him. .According to London Truth, it is calculated by tho advocates of a reformed systom of spelling that, by tho adoption of tho phonetic rule, there would be a saving t a a writer of ono hour nnd twenty minutea in a day of ei^-lit houra, or 100 houra in a ) car of 300 days. A saving of 20 por cent would bo effected on tho same amount of literary matter in the Times nowspapor, and an equal saving in tiie coat of now boola. Overall departments of English litoraturo it is calculated that there would bo a saving of £10,000,000 annually.