GENERAL NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1112, 21 January 1885, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Mrs Limoges is very bric-a-brac in her tastes, but is not very ready to pay her bills. The other day the groceryman called. "Can I see Mrs L. ?" he said to the servant. " What do you want ?" " I've got a bill here for some groceries she bought last month." "Only a month old?" asked the girl in surprise. " Ain't, that old enough ?" " No, sir, it is not. Mrs Limoges, I'd have you know, is a lover of the antique, and should she see a bill only a month old she would have a fit of nervous prostration." " Well, that beats the duce. When shall I come " " Oh, some time in the future. The older the bill gets the better ; but don't you ever dare to come around with any of those vulgar new bills that the stains of timp have never touched," Bnd she slammed the door in his face.

Nose-cutting (says the " Bombay Gazette") has long been deemed a proper punishment for infidelity, and a balm to the injured feelings of the husband or the paramour. At the criminal sessions recently three offenders, who had been guilty of this description of crime, were called up to receive sentence. The first of them was Jaitha Hurjee.who, after tying his wife's hands with a waisteloth, cut off! her nose, her left ear, and a portion of her right ear. The second was Sonda Hammer, who cut off with a dagger a portion of the nose of his mistress Sonabai, and coolly ate the fragment. The third man was Shaboodin Hamidoodin, a singer at the Victoria Theatre, who cut off the nose of a woman named Hazimanjahn, a singer at the same theatre, who lived with him. Mr Justice Scott, the presiding judge, remarked that the women had been maimed and disfigured for the rest of their lives, and sentenced each of the prisoners to rigorous imprisonment for three years. Praying for reporters is not confined to the Salvation Army. At a mid-day prayer meeting held in the Sandhurst Theatre lately, Mrs Hampson, the lady evangelist, announced that over 280 requests for prayer had been received. These included seven special cases, which she mentioned separately. The first request was for a husband, the next for two sons, and the third for a T.M.C.A. Those were passed over quickly, the audience contenting themselves no doubt with offerings their supplications on these cases inwardly. The next request read out was " that a prayer be offered up for the dear reporters, who attended the meeting daily, but who were as yet unsaved." No sooner had the good lady made the announcement than a unanimous and hearty "Amen" went up from the assembled throng. The scribes present were visibly effected by this expression of kindly feeling and regard to their spiritual welfare, but rather uncertain as to whether the cordial " Amen " with which the request was received betokened that they were regarded aa being worse sinners than those mentioned in the other cases, or whether it was a sign of the good feeling which exists between them and the public. Gerald Massey in lecturing in Melbourne on " Sea Kings," made the following eloquent remarks on EnSland's future : — " Whether this young England of the Southern Seas will federate with us or not, whether you come over to help to reform or not, we shall still. go on, trying to effect the work that is to be done. We shall preserve the dear old training-ground, where we have taught the youngsters to beat their forefathers at their own game, and possibly out-run them in some far-off future race. Our old England is neither dying, nor decrepid, nor decaying. Mr Gladstone may wax old and falter ; and Lord Derby may want to stand still ; but they must move on, or move off and leave the way clear for others whether in Egypt or in New Guinea. Mr Gladstone, for all his greatness, never seems to be able to take the hint, when Providence gives him the wink, or to divine the language of that dull thunder thud of the English heart which is more eloquent than words. It takes him too long to know what we are silently meaning. Nevertheless, our England is not a weary Titan, staggering beneath the too vast orbit of its fate. Arnold's imagine is inadequate and untrustworthy. If she waxes aged and timid in her old men, her young men must bring back the courage of her lusty youth. You may believe one of her dearest lovers, who believes in her as his own immortality, when' he i tells you that they will wait long and sit up late who watch the setting sun of England go down in the darkness. Her sunset on one side of the world is its dawn upon the other. , : i