MISCELLANEOUS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume 3, Issue 188, 23 June 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The British steamer Laconia, from . Alexandria, arrived at Algiers on f March 14, with 278 Algerian pilgrims 1 who bad been to Mecca. Before weighing anchor at Tunis 117 were washed overboard by a tremendous wave and drowned. Th« WAnnsiia’sKETUßJv —These islands which we call “ homo” are far away; afar off we idealise them, in the forest depths we dream bright visions of their firesides of welcome ; In the snow-sheeted lake, and the icy ■(retch of river, and the motionless ■oaky, bow sweetly sound the notes of brook and bird; how brightly rises the glimpses of summer eves when the whita mists float over the scented meadows, and the corncrake sounds from hie lair in the meadow sweet! It is there, away in the east, far off, where tha moon ia rising above the forked pines, er the up coming stars edge the tee piles on the dim eastern shores of yon sheeted lake. Far away, a speck amidst the waves of distance, bright, happy,and peaceful; bolding out its welcome, and ’ following with its anxious thoughts the wanderer who ■ails away over tha ocean, and roams (ho Upaaias of (be earth. / aomn far day we come ' Jhadb ■gain; the great steamship tw«ehe* : the long idealised shore. God*, bbW ’ the scene changes! We fee) bursting with joy to see it all again, to ■ay, ** Oh! bow glad I am to see you all!” We My it with our eyes to (ho yohng lady behind the refreshaani buffet at the railroad station. Alas! she mistakes our exuberance for impertinence, and endeavors to annihilate ns with a glance, enough In freexe even her high spirited sherry. We pass the bobby on his ) bast with a smile of recognition, but that firroewna functionary, not a whit softened, regards ns as a “ party” likely to afford him transient employment in the matter of “ running in.” The railway porter alone reems to enter into ear feelings of joy, but alas! it is only with a view to that donation with which we are aura to present him. . We have enlisted .bis sympathies as Her Majesty enlists her recruits, by the aid of a shilling. Xra an boor has passed, the vision sp frequently seen through the mist of •May miles has vanished, sad we hast taken oar place in the vast humMf ernwd of tSnglaod's hire, to wish ' hack to the dreamy solihw aph Xhp Wild North Laud.

• . The Native population of Fiji is set down at 140,000, while the white , residents number 1.756. i A cement is used by Puscher which is particularly serviceable, says the • Druggi-t’s Circular, in attaching the brass mountings on glass lamps, as it ( is unaffected by petroleum and all of this class of burning fluids. It is prepared by boiling three parts of resin with one part of caustic soda and five parts of water thus making a. kind of soap, which is mixed with one half its weight of plaster of Paris Zinc white, white lead, or precipitated chalk may be used instead of the plaster; but when they are used the cement w ill bo longer in hardening. It has a great adhesive quality. The possibility of dissolving it to remove the mountings, will recommend it to many persons. Learned Legislators.—ls this old ? If not, it is neat. It is told by the Melbourne ller%!d, of two meinbers of the New South Wales Legislature : —These wiseacres were arguing in the Parliamentary refreshmentroom, when the following colloquy ensued :—lst Member— 41 You blow about edication ! Why I don’t believe as bow you ever bad two-penn’orlh ot schoolin’in rour life!” 2ml Member —*‘I knows more about it nor you do, any way. Why, I don’t believe you can repeat Hie Lord’s Prayer!” Ist Member— 44 r game to bet you a fivei*l can, come now.” 2nd Member—“ Done ; stake the money.” The cash being duly posted on either side, the second member remarked, “ Now then, begin.” Ist Member —“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in you’ve won the money; but I’m blessed if I thought you knew it.” —Spectator.

A Horsey Clergyman.— He made a capital clergyman ; his racing experience had taught him how to 41 come at the finis,” and consequently his sermons always led up to a point of interest towards the end; unlike some divines I have endured, who, after exhausting all their real subject matter in the first ten minutes, instead of sending you home with something to chew on, dragged their ©low length along, and used the second half of their discourse as a sponge wherewith to erase the impression made by the first. To be sure the ruling passion would crop out at times; as for instance, when be summed up the fiercely impetuous character of the son of Niinshi thus : “In short, my friends, Jenu was a man who never could bring his horses in cool,” or when he chose that text about 14 many running in a race,” and descanting on the difficulty of attain ing perfection, feared that we should find 4 ‘ some only second in the race for righteousness, many a bad third, and” (with great emphasis) “ the rest —iiowlleßE !” One recorded act of hi« equals the enthusiasm of the patriarch of Alexandria, who left the performance of mass to attend the accouchement of a favorite mare. One day, in the midst of his sermon, he suddenly exclaimed, “ Good heavens! he 11; stake hiuiseff!” and rushed out to the assistance of his black cob, whom he had observed through the window to have got into difficulties (and a ditch) by attempting to jump a hedge out of his paddock. To do him justice, he returned the moment the cob was extricated, and resuming with great decorum, “Thirdly (as I was about to say when I was called away)” concluded bis discourse with great fervor. It is said that he once desired the prayers of the congregation for a sick nerson dangerously ill • which “ person” proved, on inquiry, to bo the cob aforesaid, who at that time was suffering from inflammation of the lungs, and who was to him as the apple of his eye. But this I do not believe —From ,4 Tom Treherne’s Tandem,” in Temple Bar.