Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

Wanganui Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5235, 13 December 1883, Page 2

The attention of owners of racehorses is directed to tho fact that the entrances and acceptances for the Manawatu races on Boxing Day close on Saturday, December 15, at 8 o'clock. A runholdor in Victoria, having been summoned under tho Rabbit Act, pleaded that ho had ordered 200 native cats aud 60 mongeeao. He had also used a quantity of biaulphate of carbon, and had spread about a ton of carrots with poison traps, Recently ho sont to Melbourne for 200 dogs. Mr Bolam, Inspector-General of Public Instruction in Victoria, who receutly figured in a discreditable manner in a divorce case in which he was the petitioner, resigned his position, to which a salary of £700 a year was attached. He has been made ActingInspector of Government Stores, at a salary of £550. In another column will be found the announcement of an art union of water-color paintings executed by a local artist, Mr R. W. Pownall, on New Zealand subjects. Tho pictures, four in number, are on view at the establishment of Messrs Collier and Co. in the Avenue, and are well worth inspecting apart from the purpose of purchasing a tricket. They have already received notice at our hands, and it is sufficient to say that the lucky winner of any of the prizes will have a picture, which he may consider both intrinsically and as a work of art a valuable possession. The first prize, Fresh Water Pool, Milford Sound, is a splendid painting measuring 4ft by 3ft 6in, aud the others, though smaller in size, are executed with equal skill. The number of tickets will be limited to 60, at one guinea each. The redoubtable Captain Jackson Barry has turned up " all safe "at Gisbornq, He signalled his advent into that locality by horse-whipping an editor. Ho also pulled that gentleman's noae to some purpose. Then he went in for muscular development in another quarter. He was transmogrified into a knight of the willow, and took part in a cricket match, on the side of the Licensed Victuallers versus the Licensed Interpreters. The gallant Captain wielded the willow to some purpose, for in the first innings he contributed 7 runs, and in the second 10 not out. While the Captain's innings lasted, it I is said the mixture of bats, balls, and wickets was rather puzzling to the umpires, who, however, persisted in giving the hardy old colonial another innings. It now appears, according to recent despatches, that the Czar's famous ride through the streets of Moscow, when entering the city on tho occasion of the coronation, was a sham, and that he was personated by an officer of the Imperial Guard made up to resemble him. The fears for his safety entertained by the secret police were too much for him, and he consented to the deception so skilfully and successfully carried out. The secret is said to have been discovered by the officials attached to the British Embassy, and they have not wholly maintained the silence which was enjoined on them. Something of the same kind was done during the Alphonso escalandre in Paris, when a young Spanish noble personated the King in a carriage for the benefit of the populace. One day during Cetewayo's visit to London, when he did not leave his house, his black Majesty, says a contemporary, was neither sick nor sorry, but was merely engaged in an occupation long ago ranked by Holy Writ among the impossibilities. Cetewayo cannot read, though ho can see, and he accepted the picture posters on our walls as absolute gospel. The one that attracted him most represented a juvenile specimen of black ivory who had washed himself half white with a certain soap. The Zulu monarch thereupon purchased half a ton of that commodity and proceeded to make himself " one of us," as he phrased it, All the day of his seclusion he spent in his tub, hia chiefs diligently scrubbing and soaping him till they were exhausted with fatigue. Cetewayo's disgust, when at dusk he was raw with scrubbing, but still black, was intense. Ho flung the rest of the soap at his faithful chiefs, and, oiling his tender skin, vowed never to believe in a poster again. A smoking-room is considered a modern improvement in country houses. Sir John Cullum, in his "History and Antiquities of Hawsted," describing Hawsted Place, which was rebuilt in 1570, says: — "Having crept through the wicket before mentioned, a door in the gateway on the right conducted you into a small apartment, called the smokingroom, a name acquired probably soon after it was built, and which it retained with good reason, as long as it stood. There is scarcely any old house without a room of this denomination. In these our ancestors, from about the middle of the reign of Elizabeth till within almost every one's memory, spent no inconsiderable part of their vacant hours, residing more at home than we do, and having fewer resources of elegant amusement. At one period, at least, this room was thought to be the scene of wit, for in 1688 Mr Hervcy, afterward Earl of Bristol, in a letter to Mr Thomas Cullum, desires ' to be remembered by the witty smokers at Hawsted.' Adjoining to this was a large wood closet, and a passage that led to the dining-room, of moderate dimensions, with a I large buffet. A snake so huge as to suggest the suspicion that the sea serpent has temporarily deserted his native element has been discovered in the Witzenberg Mountains, in South Africa. A resident, who went out to shoot rock-rabbits, was sitting quietly waiting, when suddenly from a largo opening in a rock cloae by, he heard a great noise among these animals. He sat still, wondering what it could mean, when presently an enormous snake appeared. He describes it as being scaly, and having ahead like a good-sized calf, a neck about two feet long, and a body about six feet in circumference, its length about twenty to. twenty-five yards. He saw the reptile first draw its hind body forward, theu, raising the front part of its body to the height of about fifteen feet, it gradually raised itself over a large krantz and disappeared. He thought of firiug.but his gun being loaded with very small shot, he was afraid of drawing its attention upon him. He also asserts that he ■\yas within fifteen or twenty yards, and h«7'd a good view of the snake for about five rjiiuutes, "How Promoters I'rey upon the People " isthettljof a book recently published in London. Its figures are amazing, and far exceed the boundless wealth of Monte Christo. During the last twenty-one years 19,633 joint stock companies were registered in England, with a total nominal capital of £2,365,305,000, or three times the amount of the national debt. Among the instances of foolish speculation it is mentioned that while the paid-up capital of all the British gas companies listed on the Stosk Exchange does not exceed £30,000,000, there have been ninety-one companies registered during the last few years, with nominal capitals of £28,000,000 to deal with the electric light. A story is told of a Rotherham ironfounder, who, after amassing a fortune of over £30,000, lost it all in limited companies and was left to fight his way through the Bankruptcy Court, with a liability for £54,000 more iv calls hanging around his neck. If the men who spent their lives in the accumulation of wealth could see the uses to which it is put by those who inherit it after them, they would agree with the "preacher," that its acquisition was all vanity. During their years of labor and privation they could not tell whether the men who were to come after them would be wise men or fools, and yet they have control of that which it took years to amass. During the past week Saratoga has been full of gossip in relation to the orgies of a dissolute young man, the inheritor of his father's wealth, and his reckless purchase of a diamond necklace, for which he drew a cheque for 20,000d015. Gossip even goes so far aa to say that when he made the purchase he knew so little what he was doing that he wrote the cheque for 24,000d015, but his sober companion induced him to tear it and draw for the stipulated price. Not long before this last purchase he had bought 8000 dols worth of diamonds, which he presented, and the wearer of the 20,000d0l necklace attracted much attention at a recent garden party. Gossip further says that the prodigal was so far gone in liquor when he retired to his room, that the morning after the purchase the chambermaid found the necklace under hia bed, and took the costly jewels to the office, the owner being for a time oblivious to tho fact of the purchase. or its disappearance until it was restored .to him. — Exchange.