Odds and Ends.

Western Star, Issue 280, 18 January 1879, Page 7

Odds and Ends.

A Peculiar Method of Dying. —By accident it was discovered that the acid of waste red currant skins in water turned a piece of black muslin a bright orange. In the water a valuable dress that had been dyed a hideous purple, on being dipped several times became a very beautiful aud rare brown. At a meeting of the Temperance League, the Eev. J. Macfarlane stated that the Japanese ambassadors lately in England were so shocked at the expenditure of one hundred and fifty millions a year on strong drink that, on their return to their own country they intended to send missionaries to Great Britain to try to abate the evil. The following extraordinary series of wrecks are recorded to have occurred on the Australian Coast in 1829 :—The Mermaid, Colonial Government cutter, left Sydney for Raffles Bay, but on entering Torres Stalls she got on shore audjwas l ost. All on board were saved upon a rock. In three dajrg after the Swifisnre, Captain Johnson, which sailed for Tasmania, hove in sight and took on board The Captain aud crew of the Mermaid, but iu three days she got on shore aud was wrecked. Two days afterwards the Governor Ready, also from Hobarton, Tasmania, (April 2), passing within sight, took the shipwrecked people belonging to the Mermaid aud Swistsure on board ; but was itself wrecked on May 18, and all the people saved by taking long boats. The ship Comet, also from Tasmania, soon after took the whole of the collected crews of the lost ships Mermaid, Swifisnre, and Governor Ready on board, but was herself wrecked, but all bands saved. At last the ship Jupiter, from Tasmania, came in sight, and taking all on board steered for Port Raffles at the entrance of which harbor she got on shore, and there received so much damage.that she may be said to have been wrecked.

What is Life ?—The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat and drink and sleep—to bo exposed to darkness and to light—to pace the round in the mill of habit, and turn thought into an imp'emeot of trade, this is not life. In all this, but a poor fraclion of the consciousness of humanity is awakened, and the sanctities still slumber which make it worth while to be. Knowledge, truth, love beauty, faith,alone can give vitality to.the mechanism of existence. The laugh of mirth that vibrates through the heart —the tears that freshen the dry wastes wlth'n—'he music that br’n's childhood back—the prayer that calls the future near—the doubt that makes us meditate—the death that startles us with mystery —th° hardship that forces us to struggle—the anxiety that ends in trust; —are all true nourishment s o£ our natural body. Bronze Figures.—ln Nara, Japan, was erected, twelve hundred years ago, the largest bronze figure the world has ever known. It weighs 450 tons, and the third temple now covers it, without apparent injury to the immense statue, We went round it, but could not form no estimate of its size. Our minister at Tokio told me that it was sixty feet from the seat of lotus leaves to. the top of its head, and that a man could climb through the nostril. An officer is said to have taken a chip of the casting, and an analysis of it gave five hundred pounds of gold in the alloy. A gr at ba'o of gilded wood sera off the dark features as they are revealed in the shadows of the roof. The Bulletin de I’Association de St. Francois de Sales mentions among the most recent cures effected by the agency of the late Pope Pius IX., that of an Augustine nun at Sienna, who was cured of a bad cancer in the face by the application to it of a portrait of Pius IX. ; and that of a medical man at Malaga, who was cured of a number of diseases by touching an old stocking of Pius IX., and who took immediately an oath never to apply to his clients any other means of cure but that which had succeeded so well with himself. In Texas a still-barn child was brought to life by the touch of a cross blessed by Pius IX. ; and m the c nvent of the Enfant Jesus at Coire.nea-’ Lyons a nun who had a cancer on her tongue and serious internal disease, invoked one night, while suffering acu'e pains, the aid of the late Pope, and, after being comforted by his apparit'on, was found completely cured next morning. The cures are cited, among others to make good the cha’ra of immediate beatification set up for Pius IX.