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Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2026, 4 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

A remarkable wedding took place the other day at St. Maude. Tbe bride was Miss Maria Pezon, the daughter of Baptiste I’e/.on, the famous lion-tamer, and the bridegroom, Alexander I’czon, her cousin, also a tamer. A banquet of 11)0 covers was given by the father of the bride, to which the Paris press was invited. The company included liontamers, menagerie directors, strolling players, and others, whose vocation it is to furnish amusement at fairs. According to the menu handed round the wedding fare consisted of

" potage tie lezard, saucisson do lion, homhes Siberiennes, elephant roti. poulcts a la leopard,” and such dishes. It is rather disappointing, though, to find that the guests who consumed these heroic delicacies believe that they ate nothing but roast beef, clucks, and so on. The Government of Sema Las just granted a monopoly for the sale of tobacco to a Vienna bank in consideration for the loan of £2,500,000 during tbe last war. Patriotic smokers are now threatening to discontinue the use of tobacco, and the strike is likely to become general, as was the case in Hungary under precisely the same circumstances jii 1*52. and in Lombardo-Veuotia in 1850, when the Italian patriots tried toinjuroAustria by a general abstention from the weed. At that time there existed private committees whose business it was to induce smokers, by threats or gentle suasion, to renounce t heirfavourite habit. Those who would not comply with the demand were branded as “ Schwarzelber ’’ (Austrians) and excluded from the pale of good society.

How to tell When a Person is Dead While wc arc decidedly in favour of cremation. we do not admit that the fear of being buried alive should be a reason to cause us to reject burial and to adopt cremation. There are two simple tests by which we can always convince ourselves whether a person is really dead or not. One test is the same that has been crowned with a prize by the French Government, which had for years offered a large reward for the discovery of any method, always applicable, always reliable, and one that may be practiced by the most ignorant. The method of determining actual death which was considered by the French Government as being worthy of the reward is the following ; IV hen the lingers of a person who is supposed to be dead arc fully extended, but kept near together, and if placed in front of a candle light in a dark room, a peculiar bright colour, due to the capillary circulation, will be visible where the fingers touch each other, if there is any life left. The other is based upon the well-known fact that the muscles of a human being will never respond for a longer time to the strongest electrical current than for one hour and a half after death : while, as long as life lasts, may its evidence lie ever so Hi Me, the contractility of the muscles, if not affected bv some forms of paralysis—ami in cases 1 Inis | aitccicd, when (loath tjo.ear. it alwjivs I is real—remains.