WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 110, 5 June 1875, Page 14

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

The Phopebties of Tobacco. — Tobacco smoke can affect the color of flowers ; thus violet becomes green by a> few puffs from a cigar ; the petals of shepherd's purse, for instance. This change is owing to the ammonia contained in the smoke. Professor Grabba, of Italy, acting on this idea, covers a plate containing ammonia with a bell glass, introducing into a communicating tube violet, bell, and purple flowers, which become green. Variagated flowers produce remarkable results, and, if plunged into pure water after being exposed to ammonia, they will retain their new color for several hours, and then return to their original state. The violet star-wort, which has no smell, becomes red and fragrant when thus operated upon. The Japanese, by secret processes of injection, can color whiten flowei'S, and Chinese are celebrated for dwarfing plants. There is in one of public gardens of Paris an orange tree, imported from China, one hundred years old, no larger than a small rose tree, and bearing fruit no larger than a cherry. A Match fob Matches. — A Frenchman has just invented a simple apparatus which will probably sweep away ere long the match trade. It is called the electrical tinder box, and is small enough to be carried in a cigar case. On opening this box you see a platinum wire stretched across. Touching a, spring the wire reddens sufficiently to light a cigar. At will you can introduce into a tiny sconce a mesh of cotton, steeped in spirits of wine or petroleum, which, taking fire, does service as a veilleuse or nurse's amp. The hidden agency which is a very small electrical battery, is set in action by the touching of the spring. The Shamrock at the Cape. — We learn with much pleasure from the ' Cape Town Standard and Mail' that Mr. O'Brien, who was on a recent visit to Ireland, has returned with three fine healthy shamrock plants, the first we believe that ever reached that Colony alive. "Wo rejoice the more at this event, because the plants wore taken from Wexford carth — the ornamental grounds of the church of the Immaculate Conception, Eowe-street, to which Very Rev. Canon Roche, P.P., has devoted so much attention. The number of plants taken by Mr. O'Brien was six. Three of them fell victims to the trying ordeal of the passage, notwithstanding that they were amply provided with light, air, and water, in a box of most ingenious construction designed by Mr. J. J.

Harpur, Bullring, -who transplanted and arranged them. We understand that the Eight Key. Dr. Ricards "will be in Wexford on St. Patrick's Day, the object of his visit being to induce young Wexford priests to join his mission. It would seem a good augury of his success that the emblem of Ireland's faith and nationality has already taken root in the soil of the Cape. — ' Wexford People.' This Charge op the " Six Hundred." — Now came the great disaster of an otherwise glorious day — the daring and romantic charge of the Light Brigade against the most overwhelming odds that were ever met in any battle in modern times — a charge that resulted in the almost entire destruction of the splendid regiments of our light cavalry, the hussars, and lancers, &c, under the Earl of Cardigan. Nor has any such charge occurred in ancient times, unless we except the sally made from the castle of Alcoar by the Christian knights led by Buy Diaz, the Old Campeado. * * * On and on yet, like a whirlwind, swept our gallant Light Brigade — the flower of the three kingdoms, all well trained and nobly mounted, the hearty British " Hurrah ! Hurrah ! " ringing high in the air, and soon the red flashing muzzles of the guns were passed; the gunners were casting themselves beneath the wheels and limbers to escape the cut of sword and thrust of lance ; others were rushing for shelter to the squares of infantry, whose musketry rained now a ceaseless shower of lead. The guns were taken, their gunners swept away, and the next Russian cavalry attacked and a literal forest of Cossack lances and cuirassier swords was hewn at through and through, but the survivors of the charge were breathless, their horses blown, and when reining up, they found themselves without being supported, effectually. " It's all vp — threes about — retire ! " was now the order, and back again, but rearward now, exposed once more to a murderous fire, rode all the remained of the 673 men of the Light Brigade. It was reduced to a mounted strength of only 195. Of the 13th Light Dragoons, only ten men remained in the saddle, out of 112 who had paraded ; of the 17th. Lancers, there remained but thirty-four, and when the melancholy roll was gone over again, it was found that 113 had been killed, 134 wounded ; and that, including 43 horses shot as unservicable, the bigade had 475 horses killed besides having forty-two wounded. — Cassell's ' British Battles by Land and Sea,' by James Grant, for March. The Pleasures oe an Editor. — Editing a paper is a very pleasant business. If ifc contains too much political matter, people won't have it. If it contains too little, they won't have it. If the type ia small they can't read it. If we publish telegraph reports, folks pay they are nothing but lies. If we omit them, they say we have no enterprise, or suppress them for political effect. If we have in a few jokes, folks say we are nothing but a rattlo-head. If we don't admit jokes, they say we are an old fossil. If we publish original matter, they blame us for not giving them selections. If we publish selections, folks say that we are lazy for not writing more and. giving them what they have not read in any other paper. If we give a public man complimentary notices, we are censured for being partial. If we do not, all hands say we are an uncouth bear. If we insert an articl© which pleases the ladies, men become jealous. If we do not cater for their wishes, the paper is not fit to have in their houses. If we attend church, they say it is only for effect. If we do not, they denounce us as deceitful and terribly wicked. If vre remain in the office and attend 1 o business, folks say we are too proud to mingle with our fellows. If we go out, they say we never attend to business. If we do not pay our bi Is promptly, folks say we are not to be trusted. If we do pay promptly, they say we stole the money. — American paper. A Nice Mak. — A ghastly story is going the round of the clubs relative to the late fearful railway accident at Shipton. Among the passengers by the ill-fated train was a stockjobber. When the carriages where hurled over the embankment he escaped with slight injury and dragging himself from the dead and the wounded around him he stood for a moment and contemplated the awful scene. The groans of the dying, the shrieks of the wounded rang in his ears ; by a marvellous interposition of Providence he had escaped a fearful doom, he had emerged from the jaws of death, he stood as it were upon the confines of the graves. At a moment so supreme what did he do ? Did he lift us his voice and weep ? Did he return fervent thanks for his deliverance ? Did he see what he could do for his fellow creatures ? Not a bit of it he just took to his heels and ran as fast as he could to a telegraph office, and wired his c'erk to sell 25 Great Westerns. The story is authenticated on the Stock Exchange, and a fitting pendant to it appears among thA advertisements in Wednesday's ' Times.' A gentleman offers tJ\ reward for his railway rug, " last seen covering a dead body near Shipton." Humour asserts that the author of the cold-blooded advertisement and the enterprising stockjobber are one and the same person. Prom the Report of the Commission of the Irish Church Temporalities we gather some particulars as to " commutation." The total amount paid up to the end of the year 1873 was over two millions and a quarter. The distribution was as follows : — To the Archbishops, Bishops, and incumbents, ,£5,815,262; to the permanent curates, jei,730,781; to the Vicars-General, .£68,419; making a total to the Irish Church clergy of ,£7,614,463. Next came to compensations which were paid to lay officials, such as the officers of the Ecclesiastical Commission, the Diocesan schoolmasters, the clerks, the sextons, and others. To the Presbyterians, up to the end of 1873, was paid a sum of ,£662,454; while the amount paid on account of ftlaynooth was .£372,331. The comnrutation and bonus, in respect of the Regiuni Donum, was .£615,346. While other payments, amounting to nearly a million, were made as compensations to the.Chancellor and prebendaries of Christ Church, Dublin, and to certain Vicars-General, curates, registrars, lay patrons, and various widows' funds. To the Church Representative body, in lieu of private endowments, the sum of half-a-million was paid. The two Archbishops, all the Bishops, nearly 1,400 out of the 1,500 incumbents, and nearly 900 out of the 920 curates, had commuted at the end of 1873.