CHAPTER III.—CONTINUED.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 196, 12 August 1873, Page 2

CHAPTER 111. — CONTINUED.

Shu was a great low to her husbnnd, a lost of which ho trts sensible every day. She had been the most complete and satisfactory victim with which fate had ever supplied kirn* a.nd she was not to be replaced. Ha had, to be sure,, tenant* whom he could oppress, but they ' took the law of him '-Mia. had sertants whom he could bully, but .they went away — he had animajs whom he could ill use, but they were vatuahle, and ill-treatment spoiled their value. Hit wife bad neither gone away nor appealed to the lmw' (which, indeed, would not have aided her in those dsy«) ; and the more he had tormented her, the more valuable she had become as a victim. Q[ course, he could have married again. H« notoriously vile temper would not bay» counterbalanced hit hand- , some face and his ' comfortable' fortune, in the estimation of young ladies, who, with irrationality, imagine thttf men will behave well to them, who have behaved ill to | ethers. But lie djd nut tempt any one of his female acquaintances to, t^is supreme evidence of folly and vanity. Perhaps the motive was a cautious, scrupulous doubt whether, he might reasonably expect to find another woman to manageable as Amy had •been; perhaps he never really had a spark of inclination for any hut her ; however that may be, jMr Clint did not marry again. Nor did he ill-treat his, children after the fashion or to the extent which their young mother had. dreaded. In their very early years, he neglected them shamefully, and when they came in his way, he gftie* rally Bwore at them, and occasionally beat them, but on •&{% subject he received a leuon which availed. The nurses refused to remain in hit service, and he .foundjftiat ft troublesome result of his violence. It is a fact that Reginald Clint was less intolerable a,fterhiß wife's deatfb. than .during her lifetime j forced to restrain himself for' his own sake, by the romo.vnl of the one only individual in respect of whom a man enjoys absolute immunity. The children were passionately attached to one another, and neither exhibited tho least resemblance to their father. Walter, who was sent early to school, and made friends for himself immediately, had inuah of tho brightness, cleverueas, and liveliness which had ao soon been stamped out of his young mother; but his n ture lacked the patience, the firmness, and [the high tone of hers. He was merry, indolent, changeable, affectionate, difficult to inspire with any lofty conviction or elevated molivo, trioky —as every child w,ho is ill, or capriciously treated, inevitably becomes — mimetic, impulsive, and very good-looking, though not so handsome as his father, or so uncommon in his appaarance aa hii sister. ? Ihe brother and sister met only in the holidays, for years. Miriam had been sent to Miss Monitor's school in her tenth, year, in consequenge of the death of his .housekeeper, who had given her a little elementary instruction.- Long before then, the child had come to appreciate her father's character ; and though she did not thei^ or ever, actually hate him, she regarded him with contempt and distaste much ■ stronger than (the feelings, entertained fur hint by Walter, whose nature bad more softness and less intensity, and whom his father treated much worse. The fact was that Miriam had more character ; she sojnelimes asserted herself, tha. lometin qj oirried a point by overt opposition against the gloomy tyrant ; but Walter did not. He occasionally de- ' ceived his father, but he never defeated him. The caprice, which was as, strongly charcteristic of Reginald Clint's nature as was his tyranny, exhibited itself towards bis son by his rofusal to send him to a university, though, the boy ha.d been given to understand he was to go! to Cambridge on leaving school. But his father changed his mood, which he called his mm.d x and kept Walter loiter-* ing in suspense and idleness at home, until a new source ofbitterness arose between them. Walter Clint was precisely qualified by his pleasant surface tqlents, his good manners, and his good looks, to become popular in a country neigh- ' borhood, and the general dislike to hit father did not prevent his making friend.B. This was gall and wormwood to the unhappy misanthrope of the Firs, and he punished his, son for the high spirits which offended him, and the enjoyment which lie could not altogether prevent, by keeping him in uncertainty respecting bis intentions with regard to him in the future, a.nd by placing him in what' he meant to" be humiliating straits for want of money. He would make • him no regular allowance ; he maintained an inquisitorial watch on his expenditure, though even in this respect k% was capricious, and he took a savage pleasure, in • reminding his son that he was totally dependent upon him — that he had no • rights." The only thing that Reginald Clint had to thank God for wot, that hit father had made his money , in trade, though he ha.d ohosen to invest it in land ; ,that it, had no cursed penalties attached to its possestion, so that he had the power of doing as ho pleased with it; not like those proud aristocrats, who had to put up with the infernal impudence and extravagance of their sons : he called, property on such terms a curse. Now, hi* was really property, for lie could leave it to a hospital, or to a housemaid, if he ehoo30 ; and if hit son and daughter dared to run counter to him, he bound himself to dispose of it in some « such way, by the superfluous invocation upon himself of future penalties. The recipients of Mb Clmt'i sentiments were, generally, hit steward— be kept a large farm in hit own hands ; a retired attorney of no very brilliant repute, he was his nearest neighbour} and Mr ijfartin, the village doctor, whose professional services he needed rather frequently, and remunerated vtpry grudgingly. Mr Clint bud taken to solitary drinking and excessive smoking ; the latMfcat an early period ; the former since* his wife's death, and for a long time without it being known even to his servants. .Bui his temper and theap habits wero not calculated to. secure health, and Mr Martin was a tolerably frequent visitor at the Firs. He despised and disliked hjs unmanageable patient, and felt a generous pity for Walter, for whom he would have gladly fopesfen a speedy succession tp th* property, which, if Mr Clint lived much longer, he considered it but too probable he would never enjoy. ' lie always was a brute,' thought Mr Ma.rtiu, on one particular occasion, ■» hen his interesting patient had bfen expatiating on the pleasure it afforded him to reflect that hi could punish Walter for the prime of visiting at 'that cursed pld h.\ppcrit«'s house'— he alluded to the pious and excellent vicar of tho parish, the Ret John Cooke— by leaving him a beggnr — ' be always whs a brute, and he hot been driving himself into extra brutality by drink for to long, that there't really no saying where he may stop— short of such madness as will onable us to look him up, I am afraid, but not short, of the madness of disinheriting thi« boy, and driving that high-spirited girl, Miriam— a, f U p more dangerous person than her brother to try ilj-treatinent;

I upon— to desperation. I wis.li Walter could get n way ;it I would be his best chance in the present and in the future. L Ojte hfo they lead is detestable ; it is ruining the boy ; and W idling would give him such a chance as absence.' I A few days later n violent quarrel occurred between the I father and tho son, and Walter left the house. Mr Clint I liad been half drunk when the dispute arose . it was on the I customary score of Walter's hawng friends m the neigh - I whom his father did not, ehooso to know ; and Ins I "olenco of language and bis tin eats ha 1 *urp»wvl all the I unfortunate young man's previous experience. Exhaustion I and illness followed this horr>Me abnndonmwit to the I demon which po»»e- s ed him, and Mr Martin was sent lor I That gentleman made good use of the oppoi lunity ; low ered I his patient by medical treatment until ho had no lo»g« r the Mfthjscal lower to be violent and abusive, frightened him BToy a gra\o and solemn warning that the penalty of indulgW in« in drink and fury to a similar extent on a future occaI s'ton would probably be a sudden death ; a warning at I which Mr Clint, if ho had not been prostrate under the I elleet of pin sic, would simply have sneered; and then cautiously approached the subject of his future relations with liis son That, he should declare he did not care whar became (f I the cursed bl ick^imr I, did not surprise or move Mi- Martin ; but " licit Mr Clint added th.it he might go whither he pleased, provided he did not , enter his house again, the doc tor saw hiswa\. The. details of tho negotiation wliich ho undertook in "sheer kindness of heart, and because tlie condition of ntlairs at the Firs vrus inexpressibly shookiun to In- sen-e of decency and propriety, need not be recapitu- ' luted here He had to manage the son as well as tho father, and Walter was not the easiest of subjects when it was a f |jJL<ation ot inducing him to apply himself to the task of embiaeing a career in life. Mr Martin did, however, achieve a sort of success. Mr Clint agreed to allow his son a Midi -lent sum to enable him to live in lodgings in London, and «tudy medicine, the only profession which he could be induced to learn, and which he ardently hoped he might in the lutuie be saved from the necessity of practising MiMart in gave Walter some introductions to furtn.M 1 friends of liv (inn, and the ,>oung man began his new life. All thii miser ible history hud been very imperfectly made known to Mniani; but she had understood how bitter her father's ■feelings towards his son were, and how sternly he was bent ,on gratifying them, when, just a year before the episode of candidate for the lady's-maid's place occurred, Mias received peremptory instructions frojn Mr Clint that Mirum was not to be permitted to see her brother, under any pretext whatever. During the ensuing Christmas "viikjUqii, when Miriam passed » dreary fortnight at the Frrt, she had made a courageous attempt to induce her father to rescind the sentence of her brother's banishment ; but m^aiii; and she had been forced to console herself .with a hope that on her final return home, the now existing unnatural state of things would come to an end. It was not unbecoming vanity which led a handsome clever girl like Miriam to believe tha* her constant presence must win on her father; but Miriam had not been sufficiently | with him to understand Reginald Clint.

Liter \ky Gossip. — The Melbourne correspondent of no ago paper says: — "A friend in London to whom I am indebted for some pleasant gossip about men 1 and tilings, has made me acquainted with* the authorship of certain articles which have appeared in the Times newspaper w itli respect to that strange mixture of diablerie and imposture known as Spiritualism. Ho sajs the writer of thorn is a cjmpar.it i\ el y young man named Broom, who emigrated to itfew Zealand when he was only eighteen, and spont some jears there in sheep farming. 1 hare a shrewd sn-.pii'ion that no is the autlior of that clover satire pubJiihed under the title of 'Erewhon.' Be this as it may, after five >ears of bush Wb ho returned to England, where he met and fell in love with Lady Barker, the youthful widow of a general officer. They married, and she accompanied h m to the ' Great Britain of the South,' where she gitliercd tlie materials for a chatty little volume called ' Station Life in New Zealand,' in which, by the way, she says that, although she has travelled a good deal in various p.irts of the wotld, she has never seen anything at all like Melbourne At the latter end of 1868, Mr Broom jf.u<jL hjs wife returned to the mother country, having suffered considerable losse-3 by flood and storm in the Canterbury b settlement Lady Barker had been intinritp before her second marriage with the Duches3 of Sutherland, and that pop'ilar lady ami queen of society ' took her up' again. Luly Barker, moreover, is said to be a ' medium,' and the Due'ie-n is shghrlv touched on the subject of Spiritualism. Mr Del mo, of the Time*, is one of her tame lions, and to him she introduced Mr Broom, who was encouraged to try Ins hand at the manufacture of thunder for Printing House Square, He succeeded so well in an article on the Stowo 1 HDi Byron controversy that he is now, I believe, a regular (o'itributor Moreover, by Mr Delano's potent influence the ex-sheepfariner from Canterbury, Jfew Zealand, oblaiiifl the lucrative appointment of secretary to the St. PaiiM Cathedral Decoration Fund. Since her book on Xi .* r/ aland, Lady Barker has written 'Spring Comedies,' • M ir.es .vbout,' and another, of which I have forgotten the title. I need not add that they are not tomahawked in the P Tidies. Tin: State of i«e Fem\lk Lybor Market jn London- •. Extraordinary Scene. — The Civil Service Oazette of a recent date says : — " The usually quiet locality of Can-non-row was the scene of .111 extraordinary excitement. Eleven situations for junior fount er-women being vacant at various metropolitan post offices, intimation of the same was given through the usual channels, and candidates were daectcd to apply personally at tho offices of the Civil Service Commissioners. In response to the advertisement, it is variously computed that from 1000 to 1500 applicants attended. It is more than probable the latter estimate is nearer the mark, if not considerably within it, as numbers of would-be candidates, on seeing tho rast crowds assembled, immediately turned back. The steps and courtyard of the * Commissioners were blocked, and locomotion to and from the offices and through Cannon-row itself for a time, notwithstanding the united exertions of several policemen, completely at a stand still. The unusual spectacle of such an extraordinary number of young women collected together attracted the attention of the neighborhood around, and as may be imagined, by no means tended to facilitate the traffic; 111 fact, for a time business was suspended in the immediate locality, the % arious windows looking into Cannon-row presented an appearance only to be ordinarily witnessed in our principal thoroughfares on the occasion of some great procession. The number who attended on the second day is put down at between five and sir hundred, the exact number, for the reason we have stated i f , is impossible to arrive at It may, however, be safely assumed that 2000 young women repaired to Cannon-row for tho purpose of competing for these situations ; tins much, however, is certiin, that the ■Commissioners did actually examine for these 11 vacancies over 1000 candidates Mamxgmuxg — A very remarkable case of malingering, extending over a period of three years, has recently been detected in Melbourne A prisoner named Baker was some four years ago pi vced in the Pontriilge Stockade, under a sentence of seven years' penal servitude. Shortly after his incarceration, he commenced to feign insanity and vra3 admitted to the prison hospital, doubts being entertained by the resident medical officer and also by Dr M'Crea, the chief i"edical officer, as to the real state of the man's wind. He became apparently quite helpless, having to be attended to, fed, and carried about ; and even in the summer, when the sjhei were tormenting him, he would not attempt by any movement to remove them ; his eyes were apparently a fixture, and nothing but an occisional incoherent ejaculation escaped his lips, Suspicious of the man, the chief medical olficer ordere 1 Baker's removal to the Melbourne gaol for closer surveillance and special treatment. Low diet and solitary confinement on former occasions have brought this class of criminals to their senses, and that treatment proved /effectual in the present case, for one of tho gaol warders on passing Baker's cell one day was called in by Baker, who told him he had been in a trance, and was astonished to find himself in the Melbourne gaol instead of the Pentridge Stockade. Baker feigned los 3 of recollection, and asked to see Dr M'Crea. Tho result of his deception will be that he will servo tho three years during which he hasbeen'malmgermg over again, probably with sonic punishment for the offence. French Experiments —Mention is made of some successful experiments by M. Chauveau, in separating, in a pustule of vaccine, a serous matter and molecular granulations, m order to inoculate with each, separately and comparatively Ho has found that tho vaccinal seru.n is virulent, and that the activity of the virus resides in the solid granulations. On the addition of water, tho granulations deposit themselves, and so long as the mixture is in repose, the water is unaffected. If however, the liquid be agitated, the granulations expand and eommunioxte the virulent property to tho whole. It has been determined that vaccine thus weikdied with fifty times its weight 'of water is aa crtain in its action as if in concentrated form. M. Chauveau therefore concludes that, in tie pus of the variola and of th«morbid affection, as well as in the vaccinal liquid, the specific activity which constitutes virulence, resides exclusively 111 the elementary corpuscles held in suspension by tho humors CONVULSION'S IN AN INFANT DPK TO ABUSE OF ALCOHOL in the, Nuk->e.— M. Vernay relates in the) Lijon. Medical a very striking case of the mischievous consequences which may result from the abuse of wine-drinking in a nurse. A child was taken with convulsions, and during five days all soi ts of means, like calomel, bromide of potassium, the hot bith, musk, belladonna, Ac, were uselessly employed M. Vernay was eventually told that the nurse drank six to eight glasses of French wine in the day, and had some more at ni^ht. It occurred to hjm that the convulsions in tho child might ho to due the quantity of alcoholic liquid thus absorbed by the nurse. The wine wvs ordoioil to l>e stoppsd, and the cniivuLsnins «c-isol mine l'it«-lv iffceStage eoiehes now run daily between Londjii^id liiiguiu.i, Dorking, Wycombe, Tunbridgo-wulU, Wosterhain, Keigatr, Hampton Court, and Watford. Others are contemplated to run to Alder-tiiot and Windsor. Tho drivers of these coaches &V0 peers and gontlomen of fortune.

Just his TiiADr— l'ho Rev Ueorge More was riding to Howgate, m the vicinity of the city. The day was stormy, snow falling heavily. Mr More was enveloped in a Spanish cloak, with a woman's shanltipd round his neck and shoulders. The loose garments coveicd with snow, und wining in t lie blast, startled the horse of < en ninei c ,ii 111 1 i\ AW v lio chanced to ride past. The alarmed "Nod plunjt'd mid menaced to tin ow its rider, who exel im>,> 1— " Y>u would fr •jl-ten the de\il, fir '" "May be," u>oll\ s.nd Mr \lrne, " lor it's just my trade " 'Judicial " lGNOitA\f k "' — Lord MaiT-fiehl, e\a:nining a man who was a witness in the Court of King's Bench, asked him what he knew of the defendant. •' Oil, in v lord, / know him; I was up -to him!" "'Up to him l '" repeats hw lordship; "what do yon mean bv being 'up to him 9 '"' " Mean, my lord ? Why, I was down upon him!" "'Qp to bun' and 'down upon him,'" echoes his lordship. Turning to Counsellor Duuniog, " What does the fellow mean p " " Wlij, I mean, my lord, as deep as he thought himself, I sagged him !" " I cannot conceive, man," says his lordship, " wTat }ou mean by this sort of language ; I do not understand it." " Not understand it !" rejoined the fellow with surprise. " L >rd, what a flat you must be." PraiSHMhNT IN Kind.— Early in the fifteenth century, a band of Highland robbers, headed by M' Donald of Uosse, having taken two cows from a poor woman, she vowed that she would wear no boots till she had complained to the king. The savages, in ridicule of her oath, nailed horse-shoes to the soles of her feet. When her wounds were healed, she proceeded to the royal presence, told her story, and showed her tears. The jusfc monarch instantly despatched an armed force to secure MJM J Donald who was brought to Perth, along with twelve of his associates. The king caused all of them to be shod in the same manner as they had done the poor woman ; and after they had been for three days ex1 hibited through the streets of the town as a public spectacle, M' Donald was beheaded, and his companions hung. A Financial Deterrent.— Mr Cardwell's new army scheme, while it benefits the soldier by giving him a clear shilling a day with a olear ration, provides that on a medical officer certifying that a soldier is m hospital from his own misconduct,* the whole of his pay should be stopped during such residence. Hitherto a part only had been withdrawn. We think this an excreimgyl wise measure. We may hope that in time the debauchery which has hitherto been the bane of the army will be considerably lessened. The new regulations for short-term service will increase facilities for marriage. The improved pay and position of the soldier will also tend to foiter that spirit of self-respect which is a greater safeguard against the worst kinds of dissipation. The heavy fine, also, on the consequences of vice which Mr Cardwell's plaja inflicts, cannot iail to have a deterrent effect. — Medical Times and Gazette. The following curious accountof a dwarfish race of human beings, said to resemble a race of monkeys found in Borneo and other places, is given by the Siam Weekly Advertiser : — " On the Island of Borneo has been found a certain race of wild creatures, of which kindred varieties have been discovered in the Philipme Islands, in Terra del Fucgo, and in South America. They walked unusually, almost erect, on two legs, and in that attitude measure about four feet in height. They construct no habitations, form no families, scai coly associate together, sleep in caves and trees, feed on snakes and vermin, on ants, eggs, and on each other. They cannot be tamed or forced to any labor, and are hunted end shot among the trees like the great gorilla, of which they are a stunted copy. When captured alive, one finds v» lth surprise, that their uncouth jabbering sounds are like artieulato language. They turn up a human face to gazo at their captors, and females show instincts of modesty ; and, m fine, these wretched bsings are men and women." The great iron plate, weighing 107 tons, on which the aiml block of the 35-ton Nasmyth steam-hammer will rest, m the new rolling-mills at the Royal gun factories, Royal Arsenal Woolwich (says The Time* of recent date), is now being laid in its placo, an operation of considerable skill, which is being watched with great interest, as tixs plate has to be turned completely over. Owing to its enormous size, about 22ft square, it had to be cast in an open mould, and in order to obtain certain necessary projections on its upper surface, that side had to be cast downwards, the upper surface ot an open pasting being necessarily flat, nn arrangement by which the advantage was also secured of having the best of the metal on the upper side. On Thursday last a gang of workmen, under the direction of Mr E. Meken, commenced to turn it over by means of powerful hydraulic jacks and strong tackle, and by the evening they had succeeded in tilting it into an upright position. During yesterday it was being gradually lowered into tho position it is to occupy in future, but it will bo several days before it is permanently fixed in its placo, and then tho anvil block, a mass of iron weighing 198 tons, will have to be mounted upon it. The ingenious contrivances and expedients by which these masses of metal wero moved about and turned have excited the admiration of many professional and scientific men who have assembled to witness the operations. Wo have probably all of us met with instances in which a word heedlessly spoken against the reputation of a femaLe has been magnified by malicious minds, until the cloud has been dark enough to overshadow her whole existence. To those who are accustomed — not necessarily from bad motives, but from thoughtlessness — to speak lightly of females, wo recommend three bints as worthy of consideration : — Norer use a lady's name in an improper place at an improper time, or in mixed company. Net er make any assertions about her that yon think are untrue, or allusions that you feel she herself would blush to hear. Wtien you meet men who do not scruple to make use of a woman's name in a reckless and unprincipled manner, shun thorn, for they are the very worst members of the community — men lost to every sense ot honor, every feeling of humanity. Many a good woman's character bus been ruined, and hor heart broken, by a lie, manufactured by some villain and repeated where it should not have been, and in the presence of those whose little judgment could not deter them from girculating the foul and bragging report. A slander is soon propagated, and the smallest thing derogatory to a woman's character will fly on the wings of the wind, and magnify as it circulates, until its monstrous weight crushes tho poor unfortunate yictim. Respect tho name of a woman , for your mother and sisters are women, and, as you would have their fair name untarnished and their lives unembittered by the slanderer's biting tongue, heed the jll that your own words may bring upon the mother, the sister or the wife of some fellow- creature.