MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 769, 2 October 1900, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

A JIM who had tramped from London and obtained admission to Dover "Workhouse ou * plea of destitution was found to have £194 sewn up in his clothing. According to the Lyttelton Times, Mrßeothan, the Stipendiary Magistrate at Christohurch, made the following reply to a man who applied for costs in h ease the Magistrate had just deeided : - " People who go to law must expect to lose, whether they win or not." The usefulness of the pocket of n woman's garment was demonstrated at the Christohurch Magistrate's Court. A girl who had been assaulted said that the would-be robber had failed to find her purse, aud had been compelled to accept her assurance that she had no money. The following unique advertisement appears in the well-regulated columns of the Lady :-" Young married lady (by birth), cyclist, accustomed to good society, would chaperone girl wishing to go for change. Expenses only." Heneetorth we may say of the married woman as of the poet, " Uxor nascitur, noufit." A London correspondent or the Sydney Daily Telegraph states that Sir Herbert Jerningham, the Governor aud Commander-in-Chief of Trinidad, is mentioned as a likely Governor of one of the States of the new Commonwealth, or, if the position should not be regarded as promotion for- him, as a possible sucessor to Lord Ranfurly in New Zealand. An ex-Mexican soldier named Leon, who has just died in a lunatic asylum near Tampico, is said to • have been the last survivor of the firing party who shot the unfortunate Emperor Maxmillian on June 19th, 1867- Leon, together with one or two comrades, protested against being selected the hateful duty, but the soldiers were assured that they would be shot themselves if they did not obey orders. Lady Sassoon recently presented a girl named Ellen Fiunis with a gold medal for attending Sandgate National Schools for nine years without having been abseuo or late once during that period. The girl is the daughter of a working man, and has 3,500 consecutive attendances attached to her name. It is said that she has established a record in the British Isles.

News from Ghent states that the local postmen are dissatisfied at the reply sent to them by their British colleagues rf'hom they had invited to attend a congress in connection with certain communal fete3. Host foreign countries, runs the complaint, sent delegates, but the' British postmen sent a postcard saying : your invitation, but we don't want to be assassinated.—Yours fraternally,Feed Gill."

Prisoners under sentence of death usually pray for a reprieve, but the State of Kansas has in one of its penitentiaries a man who has been living with a death sentence hanging over him for the past ten years, and he has petitioned three Governors of the State to sign his death warrant. He was sentenced ior the murder of his wife, and he declares he would rather suffer the extreme penalty of the law than accept a pardon, for his life has been a failure, and he feels he is getting old. Id a paper upon the resources and foreign trade of Australasia, Sir Robert Stout, in the Contemporary Reviow, voices the displeasure the colonies have felS at the Anglophobia manifested on the European continent, and especially displays soreness at the German acquisitions in Samoa. New Zealand has notoriously taken this transaction to heart, but protests would have been heard not from her only, but Australia as well, save for the instinctive feeling that, the Foreign Office must not be harried while the South Afncau crisis was acute. Sir Robert Stout affirms that Germany has now two Alsacos on her hand—one on the Rhima frontier, the other in the Pacific.

In a township not a hundred miles from Masterton (says the Wairarapa Star) a resident was astounded,.at receiving the following wire:—"Meet your unoleaned aunt." It subsequently dawned upon him that he had been re quested to meet his uncle and aunt. This reminds us of a little incident that occurred a few years back. The House of Representatives had been discussing the question of barmaids. A member possessed of prohibition proclivities ventured the remark that " Barmaids lured young men to destruction." The telegraph operator thought otherwise, for he advised the various newspapers that the virtuous member was of the opinion the " Barmaids loved young men to distraction.?

A curious case was lately tried before the Civil Courts in Vienna, regarding a claim arising out of a railway accident. The medical experts maintained that the shock of the smash had caused the heart of the plaintiff to change from its normal position to ouo lower down in his body. Ibis theory was received with incredulity by the jury, but their scepticism was satisfied when they applied their hands to the mau's ribs, and could feel the orgau beating in the usual manner. The medical men stated that the sufferer might live for several years, notwithstanding the extraordinary displacement of his heart, but that he was more liable to heart failure, aud would experience great, difficulty in doing his work. In these circumstances the jury awarded the plaintiff hsavy compensation.

An amusing story is going the rounds of the German. Press concerning the Emperor William.' His Majesty one morning arrived unexpectedly at the quarters nf the Ist Royal Dragoons outside Berlin. The squadrons were only waiting for the Colonel, who was half an hour late for the parade. When he appeared and saw the Emperor patiently waiting in the middle of the barrack yard, tie endeavoured to make his excuses, but the former, without a word, signed to him to take his place at the head of the regiment and to put the squadrons through their manoeuvres. The Kaiser watched them without a word, and returned to Berlin, leaving the Colonel a prey to the most lively fears as to the result of his unpunctuality. The. same day, a little before diauer, a Royal courier arrived at the harracks and handed the officer a small packet. Trembling from head to foot, the Colonel opened the mysterious parcel from the Kaiser, and discovered—an alarm clock !

A magnificent literary gift has been made to the colony of New South Wales by Mr Mitchell, an old colonist. The collection, which represents the work of a lifetime, is described as consisting of upwards of 30,000 volumes, including 2-1,000 upon Australian history alone, as well as choice editions of the standard works of all civilised countries, rare specimens of the earliest literature of every country that could boast a printing press in the 15th ceutury, pictures, maps, engravings, manuscripts, collections of autographs and photographs. It is. by reason of this unique character, beyond mere money value ; since many of the volumes, maps, and pictures which it contained are, and must eyer be, without duplicate in any collection in the world. And yet (says a contemporary) the first instalment of Mr Mitchell's gift is now lying in an adjunct to the meagre building which serves for public library for New South Wales, unclassified, uncatalogued, and practically useless to the public for whose benefit it was intended, whilst the public themselves, apparently, do not know and do not care '. Try Tee Argus Office for horse cards Satisfaction guaranteed.