CLIPTOMANIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4749, 20 July 1883, Page 3

CLIPTOMANIA.

[Sbibctbd dt thb "Stab's London cobbhsjondhnt.j " Uncle Tom" is dead. Most of the London papers publish obituary notices of the old black pireon. the St James 1 Gazette says : — " Tho death of the Bevereni Josiah Henson, I the original of Mrs Btowe's ' Uncle Tom,' at j Dresden, Ontario, is announced by the American'papers. He was born in Maryland on June 15, 1789 j but the moat tryiDg of his experiences as a slave happened in Kentuoky. He was sold from matter to master, his pedigree being given the same as that of a horse. He bought his freedom, but was taken back into slavery again. He was sent to New Orleans in 1829, and was separated from his wife and ohildren. He then determined to escape ; and, joining bis wife and family near Louisville, he travelled to Canada on foot, carrying two of I his children in a knapsack. The story of his escape wae printed in the papers, and utilised by Mrs Stove, in her " Unole Tom's Cabin." Mr Henson oame to England sons jiars ago, and had an interview with the Queen, who gave him her photograph. He had 44 grandohildren, and about a doten great-grand-children. He suffered from paralysis, brought on, as he believed, by the cruel beatings he reoeired •as a slave. On oae occasion his muter, immortalised as ' Legree,' broke both his arms with a cudgel. Yet Mr Henion, it is stated, was oheerful and jovial to the last, despite his past sufferings, his infirmities, and bis ago." j

The World, noticing the fact that, although Uncle Tom suffered greatly when young, he yet lived to be 93 years old, says :— " The Times, in announcing the death of a negro preaober named Josiah Henson, who has aoquired fntne as having been the original of Mrs Stowo's Uncle Tom, states that the disease from which he died ' had been agf ra vated br the oruel treatment he experienced in slavery.' Considering that Mr Hens&n deceoi&d in hie ninety-fourth year, thic is suflciently absurd, even for tke Timet. If he ?M ill-used in. early days his prolonged life seems to prove that Carlylo was right when he told Emerson that a whip-thong found its natural place on a nigger's back."

Marwood, the publio executioner, is, we are told by the Referee, being medically treated, He is suffering from " overwork. 1 * The question of conferring a knighthood on 4 the eminent functionary for his distinguished services has been seriously discussed.

An incident thtt recently occurred in the new and thriving city of Chihuahua, If •zioo, it is to be hoped, taysthe New York Tribune^ mnnot be exactly paralleled anywhere in this country. Thirty m«unted men isft the oity to hunt Indians. They scalpsd eight, whom they caught unarmed, anil c«ptur«d a number of squaws and ponies. They then turned homeward, and reaching Chihuahua on Sunday wore publicly received on the plazA of the oily by the Major, as though they wore heroes returning from a glorious war. The whole city turned out to greet them, and amid the clanging of the cathedral bells, and the vivas of the populace, they rode through the streets decked with bunting, with eight bloody scalps dangling from a pole carried by eight men. Many of the poor squaws carried their infants on their backs j and men who called themselves bray» showed the>r superior manhood by striking these wretch* d barbarian mothers and thtir infants as they tr?d their weary way in the procession. The rquaws thus captured are imprisoned for life, and the Government pays 200 dole for every Indian scalp presented to it.

Oeow Wilde has cut off his luxurious looks, and his iwthetio friends are deploring the faot and regard him almost as a "pervert." For is this all. "For," says Figaro, "he has abandoned with his looks the drsss of the future he had adopted, that velvet tempered with sealskin he so long made a part of his cult, and is now olcthca, if not in his right mind, at all events in a comparatively fashionable style. His get-up is now, in faot, an ordinary one with Byronio tendencies, and the still earnest and faithful Pilooxes and Mandies and Fostlethwaites are stricken dumb, as in sight of a Botticelli, at their trusted leader's anostacy.

My friend, Mr W. 8. Gilbert (lays " Atlas" in the Wtrld) will not allow me to be right in my aaieitian that " just one moro " oomio opera is to be all that he and Sir irthur intend doing for theHavoy. On the contrary, they have just contracted to supply Mr Carte with novelties and revivals for five years to com* ; and the artists who have interpreted them s« admirably in tho past will continue to interpret thorn in the future.

The music of " lolanthe " was laid on one evening last May from the Savoy Theatre to Sir Arthur SullivUi'a chambers in Queen Ilnno'a Mansions. The success of the experiment opens out a wide field to hostesses in search of something new. During an evening party they might have music laid on from the opera, or from a concert, to one of their reception rooms.

Monsieur Meissocicr has discovered a way of doing without a pur«e, as will be seen from the following story, 'which appeared in the St Jamrs 1 Gazette:— A. nhort time ago a gentleman called on M. Detail!*, the wellknown military painter, who, as it happened, was out at the time. To while away tho moments till bia return, the visitor took up a oue and proceeded to praotise certain difficult strokes on thd paUtei's billiard-table. In the course of tbia pastime bis cue Blipped and made a frightful rent in the cloth. He gazed for a time in consternation at his handiwork, when, suddenly ttruok with an idea, he drew a note- book from his pooket, tore out a leaf, and rapidly made a eketoh of some sort upon it. He then pasted the leaf over as much of the gash as it would cover, took up his hat, and quietly left. M. Detaille, on his return, was naturally horrified when he perceived tho terriblo rent ; but his eye brightened when he looked more closely at the sorap of paper left by the author of the damage. Small as it was, it would have sufficod to cover many billiard-tables. The eketch was signed by his friend and neighbour, Me/sßonier.