MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3191, 5 May 1871, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

Hydrophobia has been so prevalent in the neighborhood of Wigan, that the Mayor of that borough issued an order directing all dogs to be confined for a month. The London teetollars contemplate starting a hospital " for the treatment of disease apart from alcholic medication." The experiment was tried with considerable success at the Lying-in Hospital, Endell street, a littie while ago. I It is but a day or two, says the Dublin Mail, since we heard from a lady who had been visiting in a gentleman's house at Westmeath,' who, being a stranger, was sotnewhatstartledat the sight of six policemen drawu up under arms in the hall, as she passed to the dining room. Upon expressing her surprise, she was informed that those men formed the escort of two or three guests who had come to dinner from their homes in the neighborhood. The whole party slept in the house, and in the morning, when the guests walked with the ladies for a short time in the grounds near the door i hey were closely attended by their armed guard. These are facts. The population of Shetland is estimated at about 31,000. The females exceed tlis mules by about 5000. It is estimated that in Glasgow there are nearly 200,000 men and women, come years of maturity and understanding, who are living in neglect of public religious ordinances. The fashion of powdering the hair both with white powder and gold dust is creeping in again A young lady in Edinburgh dressed for a ball the other night had her hair thickly powdered with gold dust. An accident of a singular nature has occurred in Edinburgh. A sweep, crossing the garret floor of a house for the purpose of cleansing a' chimney, went head foremost through the floor at a part where, it appeal's there was no support but the lath and plaster. Fortunately for his neck, he dropped into the middle of a bed where an old woman was lying at the time, no one being in the house but herself. Her consternation and terror may more easily imagined than described, especially as the complexion of the unexpected visitor was of that tint popularly supposed to mark connection with worse trades than chimney sweeping. The sweep, fortunately, was nothing the worse for his tumble. Mrs Esther Morris, justice of the peace in lowa, has temporarily retired from the bench to nurse her baby. Cincinnati arms her policemen with steel nippers for seizing their victims, instead of clubs and revolvers. The Industrial Schools Act is coming into operation more slowly in" Ireland, than the promoters of the movement were led to expect. Only four Protestant schools of this class have been established in Ireland, while there are twenty-eight Catholic Schools. is rumored that a parish priest in j the County Limerick, up to February 15th, netted the sum of £200 for marriage fees this Shrovetide. This fact fact, says the " Limerick Chronicle," is most significant of the prosperity of the agricultural class in this county. The first steps have been taken by the War Department to arm the forts and batteries recently constructed for the better defence of the Thames and Medway, with the more powerful guns specially manuf'actered for them. A young farmer in Lanarkshire, in the Slamman district of that County, lately " paid the debt of nature," and his young and still blooming wife, or rather widow, was apparently inconsolable at her loss, Amongst others by whom she was visited after her husband's death, was a neighboring farmer, unmarried, and who, like herself, was on the sunny side of thirty. She bitterly bewailed the loss she had sustained, and all the more so, as she would experience no little difficulty in getting the farm properly sown and cropped as formerly. " Oh, don't put yourself about concerning the sowing, I'll take jpare of that ; and perhaps there is no say:.ig but I may yet get yourself for better or worse,' " remarked the farmer. " Oh," she replied, with a sigh, " I've already been proposed to, and accepted the oiler. The undertaker did so, after measuring the body, so you have been oiuer lang o' spealcin /' " The farmer collapsed. A series of articles describing the '• Baby farming system" in Scotland is being published in the columns of the " North British Mail." At one of the more respectable " farms" in Scotland, at a seaside towu within view of Arthur's Seat, the women in charge are said to have offered to take an infunt and "provide everything" for five years, at a sum of 95 guineas. The lady commissioner who represented herself as desirous of placing a baby at this establishment replied to the first offer by Bnying that the child should of necessity be taken for life, and she enquired what were the lowest terms at which the in/ant could under this arrangement be received into the home. The answer came — " For life £25." Eventually the parties agreed to accept the infant for life at a sum of £15, and no inquiries

: as to the parentage of the child were ever to be made. A shoal of firmer or spotted casing whales entered Bressay Sound, Shetj land, on a recent morning, on the occasion of the heavy storm which had raged for thirty hours previously. A great t number of boats at once went out in pursuit, and after much manoeuvring, succeeded in chasing the shoal into the Bight of G-reinista, north of the town of Lenvick, where they were driven on shore and captured. A great part of the population was congregated on the shore watching the huut, which was rendered exciting by the shouts and firing from the boats, and the furious rushes and splashes of the whales as they were being driven on shore. When they had been forced into shoal water, their pursuers leapt after them, and harpooned the floundering cetaceoe. The sea at the spot was discoloured by the blood flowing frcm their wounds and ejected from their spout holes. When fairly aground, the whales rolled over and over, lashing with their tails, and snort-' ing and whining like wounded dogs, and sending showers of bloody spray over the spectators on the beach. Single whales often broke away through the line of boats, and required a good deal | of herding to prevent their escape into the Sound. At length the whole shoal ■ of eighteen whales were safely landed, j secured with ropes, and arranged side i by side on the beach. The scientific name of the variety is the cjlobis ceplialus mclas, and the specimens caught varied in length from eighteen to twentyfour feet.