CONVERSATION WITH A GHOST.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 428, 13 February 1875, Page 2

CONVERSATION WITH A GHOST.

One night (Ladyrßeresford, wife of Sir T^risrtiam, is the speaker) when Trisitram and 1 were in bed, I awoke suddenly from a bound sleep, and found to ray horror Lord Tyrone sitting by my bedside. 1 screamed out 'forhfcaven's sake, Lord Tyrone, what biings you here at this time of night ?' ' Have you then forgotten your promise V said he, in a manner of awful solemnity. ' Did we not mutually engage to appear to each other after death ? I have just quitted the world and am now permitted to appear to you for the purpose of assuring you of the truth of revealed religion, and that it i 9 the only one by which we can be saved. 1 am furlhpr suffered to inform you that you wjll in due time give birth to a son, that you will become a widow and marry a^ain, and that you will die on your forty-seventh birthdiy. 1 'Good heavens,' cried I, cannot I prevent this ? ' Yes,' i c replied, ' you are a free agent, and cun prevent it by abstaining from a second marriage. Hitherto you have had no trials. More lam not peimitted to tell you, but if after this warning, jou persist in your own infidelity, as regards religion, your lot in another world will be most miserable.' ' May I not ask,' said I, 'if you are happy?' ' Had I bten otherwise,' said he. ' I should not have been albwedto appear to you.' 4 I may then infer you are happy ?' He smiled. ' Hut how, said I, when the morning comes, shall I know {hat your appearance has been real, and not the mere phantom of a dream ?' ' Will not the news of my death convince you V ' No, t\ replied ; I might have had such a drean , and that dream uttghi accidentally become true. I wish for some stronger proof of its reality.' ' You Bha.ll have sui'h,' he said, then waiving bis hand, the crimson velvet bed curtains were instantly drawn through a large iron hoop, by which the tester of the bed was suspended. In that you cannot be mistakon ; no mortal arm could have performed thin. 'True, I replied,' but aßleep we sometimes possess much greater strength than awake. Although I could not have dunt this wheu atyafce, 4 might

iui'q noc imitate your writing wnen aw/ike l nrgnt Ho so m my sleep. 'You nre Imrd <>l belief, indee I ; T nvis* not toiic'i you it would inj'ire you irreparably It is p tf r 1 holi' s 'o tnu'-li mortal hVsh.' 'I do not regard a s-nall blemi-i'i,' sad I. 'You are a <ourng<'om womon.' nail lie. ' Tufi^liold oat, hind.' He t>uMu;d mv vnist. lIiS hand wui cold as itv ! In an instant cvi* y sinew nnd nprvo snrank, leaving an indelible >n<i>k, n* i r a pnir ef red-hot pincers had gripped me. 'Now,' said he, Mot no mortal eyo while you livj behold thai wrixt; to see it would be sacrilege.' He rose from his seat, walked a few steps from the bed, and laid his hand on a bureau which always stood in the room. ' In the morning,' he added, 'when jou behold this, you will find another proof than what you have seen and heard this night is not an idle dreanv or .the mere f.incy of your brain.' He stopnerl — I turned to look at him auain — he was gone. During the time I had conversed with him my thought, were perfectly calm and collected, but the moment he departed I felt dulled with terror, a cold perspiration camo over me, and I endeavoured in vain to awake Sir Tristam in order to tell what hud occurred. In this state of terror and agitation I lay for some time until a flood of tears came to my relief, when I droppod asleep. In the rnorniug when I awoke I found that Sir Triati*ra had got up without noticing anything that had happened during the night. On rising I found my pocket book lyinsj in the usual place with some pencil marks inside, which I knew at once to be in the handwriting of Lord Tyrone. I took a piece of black r.bbm and bound it tightly round my wriit, which presented the ap pearnnce of having been scarred nnd burnt during the niyht.' and then, turning to the bureau, I observed the imprpsaion of a man's hand deep burnt into the lid. — " Ap parations," by the Rev. Bourohier Wray Savile.

Th© English-speaking race for two hundred years have, as a mass, appreciated tbe vitality and victory of their language, the battles it has fought and won. The Normans under William the Conqueror and his successors overpowered the English Saions, broke down their nobility, and endea/oured to eerf their common people. They confiscated Saxon estates, demolished SaxottMnstitutiona, and labored to Latnnize the Saxon race in England. With the oppressors their was power, but. not power enough to put down the old, simple, honest Saxon language, It held its own against, Norman courts, cu^oms, learning, and scholars. Its pulse was feeble at Oxford and Cambridge, and in all the Cathedral ciHea of the realm, but quick and warm and sleepless in the -village and rural communities of the land It was the speech cf their inner home and heart life. It was the speech of their hopr«, prayers, faith, memory, and nffee/ion. It held its own and more against every burden and barrier. It worked its way upward from rank to rank of the ruling classes. It worked its in face of faggot and fire into the Bible, and the whora realm and outside empires shook with emotion when all* the holy words of Divine Eevelation were translated into it. Still, with all its power a-nd progress, with all its unparalleled faculties for moving the mind of the world with its life breathing literature, there is prrceptible and evident among the English and American writers, schools, scholars, and learning smat* terers, a kind of Old Norman offection for Latin, just as if the language of Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, and Macaulay, that is making the tour of the world, were still the Saxon patoi* of tVie rural districts of England. This affection seems to be reviving. We see it, in the titles of newbooks, nil in English between the lids. Go irto any wellstocked book shop, and you will notice "Lyra G-ermanica," " Lyra Anglicana," " Ecce Homo," and the like. The other day we saw a new magazine with a foot of Saxon clay and n head of Latin brass, or with the name "The Academia " We have recently stood by the side of four altars on which our noble English is sacrificed to the manes of a dead language, ilie immolation on two of these sacrilegious Bhrine9 is heathenish enough to make the dumb victim led to the slaughter cry out with indignation. The first of the twain is erected in that Christain temple, St. Paul's, to the memory of Samuel Johnson. He was the great captain, if not the Columbus, of the English language. He erected and crowned and introduced it to tho world as the grandest of human speeches ; and all who spoke and wrote it after his day crowned him with the honor due for this n.ightv undertaking. He was proud, and ample reason to be proud of the work, for it cost him infinite toil. He had brought to it intellectual energies that commanded the admiration of the whole English-speaking world. He had compacted and beautified the structure with all the treasures of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and other old masters ; and yet, after this long life's aspiration and work s£ full v aeeomplished, he, or his friends, knowing the beW "of his mind, made a heathen altar of his tomb, and pacrffieed upon 'it the great languige he had elaborated and adorned to the shades of tins dend Latin tongue! His ow^, which he had mnde so nolle, and held up to the world embellished with al! ita splendid jewellery, wus not good e^nigh for his epitaph ! The millions and the masses, who can read no oth>r may come bv t" 1 ' s or threes to 1119 monument in St Pnul'p, nnrl looking with wonder at his huge, half naked, gladiatoi-hke statue, and seeing the Latin insciiption beneath, may well take him for an old prize-fighter of pngan Rome, but never for the author of the great English dictionary, and a Christian besides. In this sacrifice to a dead language, the friends of the illustrious lexicographer, it must be said in their justification, only carried out his wellknown predilection, and, perhaps, his expressed wish. — Our Own fireside,

)ur readers no doubt remember the bortive scheme of the Superintendent o go home as immigration agent for lie province. It was defended on the ground that something was needed to nake this province better known m England. We may be wrong, but ye were given to understand hat the late Provincial Trea,urer was opposed to the Supennendent's sch&rfl: " It is trflV-we believe, that he proposed.it in the Executive Council, but that - of coarse was from motives of self denial, and he was x very when it was put a stop to. The fact was that the Provincial Treasurer had a better scheme. Our correspondent, Paul Pry, 'has no doubt hit the rigßt nail on the head. The Treasurer was great in finance, as every one knows, but that wasn't fts only strong point. Be was at least as great a printer and publisher as he was a treasurer. As a printer he had an Almanac, and as a treasurer he had some influence over the public purse. The province was not known as it should be by the English public, and Reed and Brett's Almanac was neither known nor bought as it should be by any one. Great minds are fertile in great expedients. The Treasurer solved the double problem by a grand stroke of public policy. He secured full publicity for all that was worth knowing about the province, which was one-half of the difficulty j and he secured a good sale for Reed and Brett's Almanac, which was the other and not the least important half. Ky a stroke of his pen he placed the province in possession of a thousand Almanacs, and by the same stroke handed over p£ioo to, the credit of the enterprising publishers of Reed and Brett's Almanac. It was the last political act of the late Treasurer, and we can hardly feel surprised Public spirit, like everything else that is only human, becomes exhausted by great efforts. This was enough to exhaust it in the late Treasurer. We need not say it is to be regretted. If Provincial Governments last so long will it be too much to hope that the late Treasurer may again take office, and again in *he public interest solve this proble n ? Or if he can do no more, possibly his partner might. But why should the experiment be confused in this way? Mr. Chapman, as every one knows, n'Tbliahes a much better Almanac. Why should not this go abroad to the world to show what we can do ? As a sample of our work it would be better, as a medium of reliable information it certainly could not be worse. The only ' question may be, when is this sort of thing to stop? Should we chance to have a brewer in the Executive, shall we send a thousand dozen of pale ale home to let intending settlers know what we can give them to drink ? The idea may be novel, but we imagine it would be useful to the brewer. If the Provincial Government will accept it as a small contribution we shall be happy to present them with this suggestion gratis, and of course we speak the sentiments of the late Treasurer when we say that he no doubt wished, and wished devoutly, thai he could afford to do the same with his Almanacs.

A hundred diggers left the Thames yesterday it is said for Ohinemuri. We can hardly wonder at this, and yet it is almost a pity. What do the hundred diggers propose to do while the field remains unopened ? There must be already quite a large population awaiting this long-expected event, and by all accounts they are not a very patient party as it is. Added numbers will hardly contribute much to the public stock of patience, and that had nearly run out some days ago. However, men will go when they expect to get an advantage in the first rush after gold, and it is useless to regret it, and equally useless to try to prevent it. The only thing to be done is to shorten the delay. We must admit that the authorities have not shown a great deal of common sense in their dealing with the matter so far. The principle of • striking while the iron is hot is clearly not the principle of the Native Office. The iron was pretty warm six weeks ago, and, for aught that appears, the final stroke which was to open Ohinemui might have been struck then quite as well as a week hence. We had supposed for a time that all that was needed was to stake off a few burying grounds, and mark the boundaries of a few spots possessing a special odour of sanctity and rotten corn. Of course a reasonable time should be allowed for important operations like these, and no one could object to the due execution of these preliminary performances. But it seems we were wrong. Mr. Mackay has been working at these reserves for weeks, and no one shall persuade us that now he is not spinning out the business untrt Sir Donald is ready. For it is evident that bir Donald is wanted to put the finishing touch to the arrangements. The bargain wants clinching in some way, and no one has a suitable hammer for' the job but the great Native Minister. It is in fact for him that the diggers are waiting, and we suspect have been for some time. In the meantime no one can deny that the Native Minister has been busy. We do him the justice to say that he is seldom an idle man. This time, moreover, we Mow where he has been, and we can^V— what he has been doing. No doubt the work was useful and important, and we are glad it has been done so far as it has. We confess we shall now be glad to see no more time lost about settling the Ohinemuri business. Time is money to our diggers, and they are losing time sk#ly. It may also/represent temper, and we cannot doubf that a good m^x have been losing that aj^ of late. Of course what is lost of either commodity cannot be regained, but we sincerely hope the process is nearly at an end. There is said to be a time

for everything, and we venture to think —with due deference to the Native Minister— that the present is the time for opening Ohinemuri, and letting our miners get to work before Satan finds some mischief for their idle hands to do.

Bread is the staff of life, but unfortunately, like every other human commodity, its supply and value are influenced by money greed. The price of the poor man's loaf is too frequently \uled by the combination of a few wealthy speculators in breadstuff's, who raise or depress the market as they list. Whenever an independent attempt is made to lower the price of flour by the importation of a supply, the ring at once unites to lower the price also, even at a temporary sacrifice, and so compel the importer to sell at a loss, and thus repulse other speculators. Too frequently, also, many of the bakers themselves are hopelessly in the hands of the millers and grain and flour merchants, paying such a percentage upon the credit system as renders it impossible to sell bread at a reasonable price. Thus the poorer classes reap no benefits from bountiful harvests, or abundance of labour, being the common victims of the miller and the baker. The bakers and the public of Auckland are no exception to this rule. Only a month ago a combined attempt Avas made by the bakers to raise the price of bread, and had it not been for the praiseworthy efforts of Mr. Woodward would doubtless have succeeded. A few weeks since the price of flour was reduced £2 per ton, and on Tuesday a circular was issued from the Wharf Mills announcing a further reduction of £2 per ton. The question is— when will the bakers make a proportionate reduction ? Times are good, it is true, labor and capital are abundant, but no excuse can exist for keeping up the price of bread to an exorbitant figure. If the bakers will persistin an attempt to obtain an enormous profit tho public have the remedy in their own hands by starting 1 a co-operative bakery. A reduction of £$ per ton calls for at least some abatement of charges by the bakers. Should the price of bread be longer maintained we trust that a public meeting will be convened, at which the necessary steps will be taken to establish a Co-operative Bread and Baking Company, on such a scale as to successfully compete with the bakers, and to destroy their monopoly.

At Boundary Creek, which separates the runs of Barton and Lexington, in the space of ten minutes five large snakes were killed in one small spot. Professor Purser believes that the moon, in revolving around the earth and drawing the tides behind her, causes the latter to act as a brake on the revolution of the gJiz, and he considers that it may be mathematically shown that this action is slowly but surely checking the earth's speed of rotation, so that days and nights are gradually lengthening. In a thousand million years or so they may become each a month long. The disease of measles has made its appearance at Papakura. His Honor the Superintendent has promised pecuniary aid to the Thames Mechanics' Institute towards the purchase of a site for that Institute. The Thames Advertiser mentions that a report was current in Grahamstown to the effect that lyi ozs. of alluvial gold had been brought down from Ohinemuri, and was being exhibited in a secret and confidential manner in the office of two mining agents. The Advertiser guards itself against stating whether the gold was first taken up to Ohinemuri to be brought down again. Stone with gold in it has also been exhibited in Grahamstown during the past few days, which is said to have been found at Ohinemuri. It will be seen by our Police Court report that a person was fined this morning for having a fire in his back yard in order to facilitate the weekly washing. During this hot weather it has become a very common practice to "boil the clothes in the back yard," and many persons no doubt are unaware that they are infringing the law in doing so, It would seem that it is necessary to give notice to next door neighbours in writing, and also to obtain a permission from the Town Clerk, or else the law is offended and a. fine may be imposed. Any housewife who, in wishing to save her kitchen, has been in the habit of making a fire in the yard, had better discontinue to do so, 01 at any rate comply with the requirements of the law as stated above. 1 In Aberdeen lately an alarming boiler explosion occurred at the Oak Tree Foundry. An engine belt was accidently displaced, and when the engine was started the boiler burst, the boiler was lifted thirty feet in the air from its bed. The roof was completely blown away. Four men and two children were seriously injured. i As'an instance of the working of the Press ! Telegraph Agency the Otago Guardian states that the fact that "the Formosa affair was settled by China paying Japan 500,000 taels compensation " was telegraphed to that journal by the Agency ten and a-half weeks after a leading article had appeared in that journal on the subject. Down at Invercargill a ball was proposed to ! the American transit expedition. The idea was ultimately shelved on the ground that "it would be inappropriate to entertain philosophers who spend their whole life in the study of science by jumping about like Bosjesmans." In Austria, until lately, blasphemy was punishable by ten years' imprisonment with hard labour, but the sentence has now been reduced to one year's imprisonment. A poor man named John Critchley recently died in England of disease of the liver and bronchitis. At the inquest it was proved that he had not slept in a bed for sixteen years, but in a loft. Rear- Admiral Sir Leopold McClinlock and Captain Allan Young, accompanied by two officials skilled in engineering and carpentering, recently visited Dundee and inspected several of the steamers of the whale fleet, with the view of an Arctic expedition being fitted out by the Government. The new Bolar expedition, ' which will be the best ever organised, I will consist of three perfectly equipped vessels, 1 manned by first-rate seamen, and will be accompanied by practical as well as scientific men. Several names are already mentioned as selected to accompany Sir Leopold McClintock. Captain A. H. Markham, who went to Baffin s Bay last year, will probably occupy an important post in the expedition, the route of which will of course be Smith's Sound. Owing to bad drainage at Nelson, typhoid fever has broken out. So far only eight cases ; have been detected, one of which has proved fatal. The seat for Rangitikei, vacated by the Hon. Wm. Fox, will no doubt be hotly contested. The three candidates are busily canvassing. The Calcutta correspondent of the London I Times tells a suggestive story of Mr. Boerrisan, the Danish missionary there :—": — " He 1 called upon a tradesman to ' beg 5 for the misj sion, and the tradesman said, 'Preach to Europeans and try to convert them before you ! meddle with the heathen.' 'Very good," Mr, i Boerrisan replied, * I will do so, and perhaps I could not do better than begin here if you have no objection.' Thereupon he began to preach. 1 The matter ended by the tradesman giving the ! subscription.

Chief Superintendent McCall, of the Glasgow police, stated to the Social Science Association, in a papci which he lead at its recent meeting, that in the course of a year over 30,000 persons apprehended for drunkenness weic dismissed without tiial. Duke-street Gaol has been found too small to accommodate the drunktmK At the M^istiatcs' Court, Chiistchuieh> yesterday, Goodyei, the cabman, who was given into custody by the Mayor some days ago, for assisting to bicak down a fence erected by the City Council aiound the cabstand, was fined ios. The cabmen were taken aback at this, having acted under legal advice. In lemoving the fence, the general question at issue between the City Council and the cabmen is still undecided. The cabstands are still closed, and the cabs have to keep continually on the move in the street. Referring to the sensational garbage which has emanated from the Melbourne press relative to the murderer Sullivan, the Otago Guardian says :— " Truly it is well to be notorious More notice couUl hardly have been taken of a commander returned from a heroic campaign with the spoils of twenty armies. It used to be said that a certain style of novel, in which the doings of such cc ebratcd characters as Richard Turpin and John Sheppard, Esquires, were set foith with picturesque effect, had played an extensive part in the recruiting of the bushranging fiaternity. If this is true, then such wilting as the Age sekms to delight in will set the youth of the country in a flame of admiration for Mr. Sullivan Perhaps there will, at no distant period, be a crop of Sullivans, not too repulsive in aspect, anxious to march boldly into the clock, lay their "paletot" on the rail, and settle themselves for a good look at the Court. The reporteis of the day will be only too anxious to do them the same justice that their piototype has now obtained. This niche in the Temple of Fame is very easily leached. Speaking seriously, what was the occasion for all this minuteness? Simply, as we have said, that there is a desiie abroad to worship celebrity, be it famous or infamous— a desire to which even a journal like the Age is not superior. Reporting on] drunkenness in Canada the police magistrate of St. John says that ninetenths of the cases brought before him are chargeable to rum, and that " pretty much all the evils are attributable directly or indirectly to the use of intoxicating drinks." The oldest white native of the colony of New South Wales died a few weeks ago. His age was 75. His name was Wm, Cook, and was a son of a soldier belonging to a regiment stationed in Sydney in the very early days of the Colony. From a description of Nana Sahib, published in the London Times, il states that he is a man of apparently forty yeais of age. He wears a. long black beard and lopg hair, in neither of which is there a tinge of gray. It has been stated that his hair and beard are dyed, but this has not yet been proved. He is about sft. 9'm. in height, and of spare nguie ; his face is marked with smallpox. According to Kaye, the Nana should be now about fifty years old, but the prisoner does not look more than forty in the opinion of most persons who have seen him. Hence doubts are expressed as to his being the Nana, even in the face of the strong evidence against him. A Georgia journalist has been studying the tax-books of that State, and has found in them some interesting facts about the amount of property owned by Georgia negroes. The assessed total is 6, 1 58, 739 dollars. It is not a small thing that the penniless slaves of 1863 should now, as freemen, hold 7,000,000 dollars of taxable property. That sum represents much patient saving. In eleven counties coloured men own an aggregate of over 1,000,000 dollars worth. In three of these counties they own over 200,000 dollars worth. The richest • negro in the State pays taxes on only 10,805 dollars. Only fifteen, all told, pay on more than 5,000 dollars, eight of whom are negiesses. It is to be noted that this property, by whomsover acquired, has* not been gained by speculation or political knavery. Refeiring to an article which recently appeared in the Timant Herald the Otago Guardian says—" The artist begins with a sneering review of Sir George Arney's caieci, who, it ismoie than hinted, is unfit for the judicial bench, but would have made ' an unexceptionable Bishop.' This, by the way, is less than complimentary to the Church. Sir George is accused of having, by his mistaken leniency, largely contributed to the * bad pre-eminence in crime enjoyed by Auckland,'— a circumstance of which we were not previously aware. He is further charged with the exhibition of 'mawkish sentiment,' and with 'snivelling when condemning a murderer to death. The sacrifice of justice to his ' extreme unwillingness to believe that lich men, or man in a superior rank of society, could do anything bad,' is also imputed to the Chief Justice ; who is nevertheless depicted as 'graceful, well-bred, and amiable ; the sauvest, best-mannered man in New Zealand, without one exception ; a careful conscientious judge, too.' We leave our readers to reconcile, if they can, these incon sistencies of description.'' Mr. Arthur Robottom has discoveied beyond the Sierra Nevada, fn the enclosed basin of North America, about 140 miles in a northeastern direction from Bakersfield, a bed of a. dry lake filled over an area of -fifteen miles long by six wide with saline crystals to a depth of six or eight feet. The most lemaikable fact about this saline depot is that in Us middle there is a tiact of five miles long and two wide, of common salt, while on the outside there is a deposit of borate of soda three feet thick, and undei this a lower stiatum composed of sulphate of soda and lineal mixed together from one root to three feet thick. It is lather hard (says the Manchester Ti/uei) on the Fieemasons to have theii secietbiotherhood, which is generally supposed to be founded on principles of charity and sociality, mixed up with such horrors as those which aie said to have befallen an English member of the craft for violating some of the seciels of the lower grades. This person, we aie told, w as punished in accordance with the teims of the Masonic oath by being branded with hot hons, and then murdered, his body being hung up in the Grand Lodge of London dining the admission of a new brother. This is the story quoted by Archbishop Manning's secretaiy on the authority of Primate Deschamps, of Belgium, and the object of telling it of coiuse is to show cause why the Roman Church should maintain her hostility to a society which could practise such a barbarity. The mention of the story does not remain long unnoticed, for in Thursday's Times "Past Giand Wai den " comes forwaul to as^uie us that the Giand Lodge records of England contain no refeience lo such a deed, and, as the year in which it is said to have been committed is mentioned — 1736 — he is enabled to give the names of those who must have been piesent at the time, most of them noblemen, and not any of them likely to take "pait in the veiy disgiaceful pioceedings to which the recusant brother is said to have been suqjected." If theie is any provision made for bianding and scaring and killing at all, " Past Giand Waiden" gives us to understand that this portion of the ceremony is always " judiciously omitted." Freemasonry, we may be sure, if it ever did seek to possess men's minds by such silly ten 01s, must know well enough their value at the present day; nor will the society suffer much by having bogus stories such as the above circulated about its doings.