MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1079, 26 April 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

♦ The empress of Austria is a woman of simple habits, but she nevertheless spends a great deal of money. It is said that her last hunting trip to England cost £40,000, She smokes a great many cigarettes,, practices gymnastics regularly, and. rises at five o'clock in the morning. The average life of an English gold soverejgiL i*jb^ifc eighteen I«u»~ lEat is, the coinfoses three-quarters «£ a grain in weight in about that length, of time. It then ceases to be a legal tender. A whole Russian garrison was attacked with a disease very much resembling cholera. On the matter being enquired into, the epidemic was traced to the food with which the unfortunate soldiers were supplied by their colonel. The bread was so bad that a dog which ate some of it, in half-an hour showed symptoms of having been poisoned. Recently several gentlemen were speaking of capital punishment, when J. M. M'Neely, one of the most prosperous farmers in Pulaski County, remarked : " Gentlemen, so far as the punishment is concerned, hanging does not amonnt to anything. I was hung once till I was insensible, and the feeling could scarcely be called pain." The bystanders throught he was joking. "lam in earnest," he continued. "In 1865, just at the close of the war, robbers came to my house in search of money. As a precaution against such, visitors I had given two watches {and 600dols to a trusty colored woman to keep for me until times improved. I was lying in my bed, crippled. Several men entered the room, and without saying anything, put a rope around my neck and began to pulL I told them that if they were going to hang me to wait until I could get my crutch so that I could walk to the hanging place. They took me out on the gallery, and throwing a rope over a crossbeam, asked me for my money, I told them I had none. They drew me upFor a moment I experienced a slight choking sensation, and then I became insensible. When I became conscious after being taken down, I was sitting on the steps. The sensations when regaining consciousness were very much like those experienced during a nightmare. A legacy, inherited under serious conditions has just been handed over to the Evangelical Church at BadenBaden, according to the American Register." A rich spinster died some years ago, bequeathing her fortnne to the Church, with the provision that the money should not be given up until the death of her favorite cockatoo, which she had bequeathed to her maid. Until thenthe interest was to be utilised by the bird's keeper ; so the cockatoo was duly registered, and kept under official supervision. Last Christmas Eve it suddenly died, having survived its mistress over twenty years. A Londou contemporary states that

a well-known theatre manager recently made Mrs Langtry an offer of £300 aweek, a carriage and pair, a coachman and footman, for a tour. Mrs Langtry politely declined, saying she had determined to organise ft company and tour on her own account The New York Herald notes the amount of Hebrew blood there is in the great actors of history. There are the Rothschilds, who are so rich ' that Cwesus of olden times seems, to be on the edge of poverty in the comparison. Then we have Disraeli, the Premier of the haughtiest empire on the planet Among scholars and geniuses we have Neander, the historian of the church; Wehl, the first Arabic scholar of the times ; Spinoza, perhaps the greatest of modern philosophers, and Maimonides, a greater than Thomas Aqninas, and Rossini and Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn. Among singers are Pasta and Grisi, and among actresses Bistori and Bernhardt, all of whom had more or less of Hebrew blood in their veins. Thomas Clarke, a married man, aged 37 years, with a large famiiy, died recently a shocking death/ at Barnsdely Beckett, Hospital and Dispensary. The deceased was playing at the Yorkshire game known as "puff and dart" in a public-house. Instead of blowing down the tube the deceased sucked up, and the dart, composed of a large needle with some worsted at one end, passed down his throat* An incision was made in deceased's windpipe, and a powerful magnet inserted but without effect It is thought the dart passed into the bronchial tube of the left lung. Refering to a recent extraordinary case of imposture, a correspondent of the South African, is reminded of the following some what similar occurrence : —A Dr Barry, some year* ago, obtained a large practice in Capetown, -was consulted by the heads of Government and military authorities, dined at Government House and at themes*, for many years was a * dab' at whilst, and was regarded as a good fellow in the social circles of tije Cape. He was married, but as far as I recollect his wife died early after he. had got into ' practice at the Cape, He was of a most singular appearance, and his voice -was frequently remarked upon as an odd one for a gentleman, When he died in Capetown, it was discovered that this 'doctor' was a woman. Beyond, however, that the she-doctor played the part there was nothing she did that was not real. She< was a very skilful M.D., or at last was voted. so to be, and made