MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1072, 10 April 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦ In an Erie (Perm.) school, a little boy, being locked up in an unused room as punishment for some slight fault, was attacked by sewer rats, overpowered, and nearly killed before assistance arrived, summoned by his erics. The terror and pain made him a maniac, and it is feared that he never will recover. The Duke of Sutherland, like most men, and especially Englishmen, has his eccentricities. One of the.'., is th-it of engine driving, On the North

of Scotland lines in and around his own dominions he long ago made acquaintance with the engine-drivers, and was permitted by them not only to stand upon the locomotive, but to drive it. On another occasion, during the royal tour in Hindostan, the train was just starting from Madura for Trichinopoly, when Lond Suffield and some other noblemen on the Prince's staff missed the Duke. "Where is Sutherland f they cried in vain. At last, as the Prince of Wales had important public duties to perform at Trichinopoly, the train was permitted to start without the missing duke who, however everybody believed would, turn up somewhere safely. At Trichinopoly station a tall, begrimed individual, with a big sun helmet on his head, stepped down off the locomotive, and to the astonishment of the royal party and the Anglo-Indian* official deputation that had been appointed to receive the prince, walked right into the midst sans ceremony. A close inspection ofthe black intruder revealed the long-lost duke, who had been amusing himself by helping the regular engine-driver to drive the royal train. His Grace is also fond of attending fires and playing the amateur fireman, Old London firemen know him well, and always give him a seat upon their engines when he wants it. Professor Smith was lecturing in Ossipec on "Natural Philosophy," and in the course of his experiments he introduced one of Oarrington's most powerful magnets with which he atracted a block of iron from a distance of two feet, Can any of you conceive of a greater attractive power 1" the lecturer then demanded. "I ken," answered a voice from the audience. "Not a natural, terrestrial object, I opine?" "Yaas, sir." The professor challenged the man who had Spoken to name the thing. . Then up rose old Seth Wilmet He was a genius in his way, and original at that. Said he, •• I ken giveyou oneyou ken judge for yourself. " When I war a young man there were a little piece o' natural magnet done up in kaUiker and dimity, as war called Betsy Jane. She could draw me fourteen miles every Sunday. Snakes alive? it war just as natural as slidin, down hill. Thar want no re- , sistin ' her. That 'ere magneto' yourn is pooty good, but ' taint a circumstance to the One that drawed me." A recent visitor to Napier writes as follo#s to the Wairarapa Daily: — " Ihe stink as we passed through the street was simply sickening. It appears there is a good deal of sickness about, over 400 cases of typhoid fever and the whole town struck one as plague-stricken, half the shops had a shutter or blind drawn, flags half mast high, and every token of disease, Carbolic acid choked you in the street, and chloride of lime was sprinkle J thick over floors of both shops and hotels, making a delightful odour. I was only too pleased to get out again next morning." ==