WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 38, 20 September 1890, Page 9

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

• Prisoner, you have been convicted several times before * Yes, your Honor, but only in the provinces.'

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good com panv and reflection finish him. Mistress: • Giulietta, how is it you have broken nothing to-day? Maid : ‘ You see, ma’am, this is your birthday, so I thought as how 1 ought to give you a treat.' A lie will die of neglect sooner than in any other way. The only reason why some lies grow so large is because so many people pet and feed them. Sheet iron is rolled so thin at the Pittsburg Iron Mills that 12,000 sheets are required to make a single inch in thickness. Light shines as readily through one of these sheets as it does through ordinary tissue paper. Dr. Luys says that seeing through a closed door is possible to a hypnotized person. The optic nerve acquires such power that a man has t>een known to read a paper with his eyes bandaged, and to distinguish the colour of glass balls through a wooden screen. ‘ How does it happen that there are so many old maids among the school teachers?' a teacher was asked. ‘Because school teachers are as a rule women of sense, and none of them will give up a £lO position for a £2 man.’ was the replyA compound to aid and hasten digestion, and prevent and cure dyspepsia, has been patented in Canada. This cure consists of a mixture of bi carbonate of soda, extract of taraxacum, tincture of gentian and water, in specific quantities, ami makes an excellent medicine. OCR BETTER HALVES. There’s a purpier halt"to the purple grape, and a sweeter half to the peach ; There’s a warmer half to the human heart, which kindly deeds may reach : There’s a brighter half to the dreary world, where the skies are ever blue ; And a better half to every man whose wife is good anil true. Too Much for ANY Man.—Old Ismail, father of the present Khedive, had in his different palaces 300 wives, but so wretched was his life, with so many women to please and stand between, that he offered £5O and a gold watch to any man who would take one of them off his hands. But no one was found courageous enough to do it. Mile Records.—The fastest miles a single num has travelled by various modes of locomotion is to date respectively recorded as follows Swimming, 26.52 minutes ; walking,* 6.23 ; snowshoes, 5.393 ; rowing, 5.01 : running, ; tricycle, 2.294-5 ; bicycle, 2.29 4-5 ; skating, 2.12 3-5 ; trotting horse, 2.083 * running horse, 1.393 ; railroad train, 503 seconds ; balloon pneumatic tube ami electricity records yet to be made. Working for Idleness.—The idea which some people entertain of earning idleness—that is, of working far too hard in one narrow’ groove for a series of years that they may have the delight of working no moie for the rest of their lives—is absolutely confuted by all experience. It has been tried repeatedly with the same result. The sudden change from too close and monotonous work to none at all is invariably disastrous, and many lives have been rendered unhappy and shortened in consequence. A Delightful Relic of Barbarism. —There are many ways of obtaining a husband, but perhaps that adopted by the maidens of certain Russian tribes is as peculiar as any. When a spinster among Ukraine Cossacks lias a fancy for a certain youth in the tribe, she is encouraged by tribal custom to declare her passion. If her love is reciprocated, all right; if it is not, the maiden sits down in the youth's caoin and proclaims an intention of remaining until he realizes the error of his wavs. The young man is in bad straits, as the damsel's family would resent any incivility on his part. His only recourse is to take up his blanket and his w’hisky and find a new’ abiding-place. The spinster may then know that he really does not care to wed. She Kept her Word too La i e. -A singular person has just died at Buda, in Hungary. E ran lien Lina had not for thirty years gone outside her house. She was the daughter of well-to-do parents, and thirty years ago was a pretty girl and about to be married. Her lover, it seems, one day desired her, on a certain feast day, not to go into the streets. She promised she would not, but did not keep her promise and went into town. The next day her lover came to see her, and straightway released her from her engagement, saying that a lady who could not make so small a sacrifice was not suitable to be his wife. Miss Lina thereafter made a vow’ that never again, during her lifetime, would she leave her house, and she kept her word. Manufacture of oil Paintings.—oil paintings are manufactured in Philadelphia by the yard. The proprietor of the factory is a German, with four sons, and a dealer who orders pictures from them tells how it is done : ‘ I run out of pastorals, say, and order a couple of dozen. The manufacturers stretch a big sheet of canvas the whole length of their factory and begin work. The boss artist makes a draft in charcoal, ami one after another his assistants go over it. The first man puts in the sky, the second tlie grass and trees, the third tlie figures, the fourth houses and barns here and there, and the old gentleman goes over the whole work putting in lit th* touches that make the perfect w hole. It is astonishing how fast they work, and when the canvas is dry they cut it up into sections, tack each “ bit'* on a stretcher, and bring the lot to me.’

Duel between Brothers. Two brothers named Snodgrass, sons of a Methodist deacon, fought a duel at Mount Vernon, Kentucky. So bitter was the enmity between them that their revolvers were re-charged after the liist emptying, and eight shots in all were exchanged. < hie of the brot hers foil dead with the last shot, the other firing his remaining three bullets, although seriously wounded in the groin by the fifth bullet of his antagonist. The cause of the duel was the intense jealousy which existed between the brothers in regard to the daughter of an alehouse keeper named Eischer, who coquetted with each of them in turn. The brothers came to blows about her, and they agreed to fight the duel. Both brothers w rote letters of loving farewell to the young woman, to be delivered by the survivor. Preparations were made for the dead man’s funeral, and fifty girl friends of the alehouse keeper’s daughter marched in procession behind the hearse.