MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 9 July 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A most extraordinary case of suicide ia reported from Chicago* Two maiden .ladies, named Elizabeth and Anna ' Trowbi idge, aged forty«three and forty respectively, after ranch consultation as to the mode of death they slionld choose decided upon hanging themselves, which they did in the most deliberate manner. A ycunger sister named Nora, who resi« ded with them was present at these con« snltations, and after taking leave of her. 'they told her to go upstairs and wait for an hour. They then mounted on two chairs, adjusted tlie nooses of two ropes ■ around their necks, and kicked the chairs away, and ; died by strangulation. Their minds are said" to have become unsettled through disappointed vanity and ambition. They are described as ladies o f considerable personal attractions, moving in a good position in society, whose whole object in life had been to make wealthy marriages, and outshine their ■ neighbors. Disappointed' in this, they became monomaniacs.

whereupon he at once betook himself tbitlier, and avenged his follower-,' death by stabbing with his own hand twelve of the villagers, one after tbe other, as he met them in the streets Having completed these cold-blooded murders, he returned unmolested to his mountain fastnesses, where he stilt bids defiance to all constituted authorities. The Supreme Court o f Indiana has decided that the legal n;>me of a person consists of onf Christian name and one surname, and that inaccuracy in a middle name does not invalidate a deed or other legal document. The introduction of magnets into the great grain mills of the West, in the United States has, it is stated, fulfilled the highest expectations of those who complained of w're in wheat. Not only have the magnets captured all the stray pieces of iron bands, and only oVj a cHon urged against the wirebinding harvester, but they have re*vealed the singular fact that of tbe scraps of iron and steel whicb find their way to the mills mixed with* wheat, fully one half are something hesides pieces of wire, and a large portion of tfeese are of such a nature as to be even more dangerous to mil£ machinery. Tha magnets gather ; everything of the kind with unerring certainty, thus rendering perf. ctly safe the use of ie'fb ! 'nding and wire-kinds. Same literary men- seem to be fortunate just now. The other day '. V'r Huxley f>-und a cheque for £4000 in his morninu letters — the bequest of a Bolton admirer. Charles Gibbon, ,the novelist of'AnMHobin Grray "), recently received a legacy of £1000 from a Scotch lady who had read his books, and wished thus to shov her appreciation of them Mr Wrigley, the famous paper-maker, baa j-ist beq*°athed £9000 to tbe wife and 1 family of Junes P;»yn, the novelist,, whose " Lost Sir Massingberd" is quit? a modern classic in fiction. Mr C. Reade has. been remembered in the. wilfe of mere than one admirer, We neyer hear of any editors, coming in for these windfalls.. The Otago Times says:— "As a result of tl c- Civil Service Commissioners 1 recommendations, considerable reductions, it is undersood, are con« templated in tbe numb t of officers hi the Police Department ; and the Otago district^ it is whispered will be one of those to suffer most in this respect, it is stated that a couple of thousand a year may be saved in this way in< Otago alone." An enormous Maori war canoe (sa 5« Star) has arrived in Sbortland fromWhangamata, on the East Coast. The Whaka is a present from tbe native* of the Whangamata settlement to. ffop^pa Paronne, a native minister at Parawai, and was brought round tbe coast, a distance of over 100 miles by nearly sixty Maoris from= the Thames*, 'The canoe is highly carved and decor* ated, and is valued by the natives at about £300