MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1091, 24 May 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr G. A. Sala, in the Illustrated News, writes that a gentleman who drove a livery stable barouche in Great Salt Lake City gave him his reason for his belief that Mormonistn would soon be a thing for the past He was originally from Camberwell, but had caught the Mormon craze, and emigrated to Utah. " I fancy," says Mr Sala "that he had grown somewhat weary of Mormonisrn, the decline and fall of which he predicted. ♦ This is how it'll be sir.' he remarked. ' The gals will do it. They,re a leavin' the old Mormon ways. Wiolet powder will do it Crynoline will do it The gals have taken to flourishing their fac^s, and they camels up.' He explained, in answer to my pressing inbuiries, that a " camel ' was what in England used, to be called, I think, a 'dress improver.' The Manaia correspondent of the Wanganui Chronicle says — '• Although new settlers on the Waimate plains, many of them are old colonists, who have migrated here from other parts, and it is a significant fact that the old New Zealand settlers are the ones who chiefly dread the return of Sir George Grey to power. Old settlers remember, not only the weak and vacillating native policy of the Grey-Sheehan administration, but rememberjand look back to the time twenty years ago when Sir George Grey was sent to this colony as Governor, with full control in native matters and conduct of the war. The new ocean steamship invented by Captain Moreland, of the Cunard steamer Batavia, is being built near New York by the American Quick Transit Steamship Company, of Boston. She is composed of wood, has a turtleback deck, except a pilothouse, ventilators, and the smoke pipe. The length is 151 £ft,' the breadth of beam is 22ft, the depth of the hold 16|ft, the draught forward is S J, and aft 10|, The capacity is 512 tons. She will have three screws ; the main one of four blades, and of such pitch as to be | capable of a speed of thirty knots an hour. The others, will be fitted in in the stern, behind the plates will be used to steer with. The engines, boiler and machinery are entirely new design, and capable of devejgjing enormous power. The steamer will be named the Meteor. The inventors say they will revolutionise ocean steamship construction. A jovial publican went into a shaving saloon at Charters Towers, and barber being out shaved himself. He was just taking a final look in the glass when a swell Chinaman entered, and clapping him on the back with the graceful ease that can only be attained by a Mongolian of large affluence, said " You shavee me, quick, welly smooth," and flopped down with the air of a man who had ordered an eclipse or an earthquake, and knew it would come. Boniface had never shaved a man in his life, but before you could say ' Great Thady ; he had the soap slopped on to the upturned face, and rubbed in nearly to the bone. Then he selected a razor — it happened to be the one kept by the barber for his patrons to cut their corns — and laying this high-class instrument on the strop with a pressure of about a ton to the square inch, he commenced operations One scrape made John think he'd been scalped on the jaw, but the second beaded red spots on his cheeks like splashed jam. . . . The suffering Chinee, with a yell of agony, rose from his chair spluttering soap and blasphemy When it was a'l over, John went home and sharpened a carving-knife. "Stella," the Paris correspondent of the Sydney Herald, contributes the following among other items of gossip : — "Who says that popularity is an empty sound 1 Victor Hugo, a short time ago, after making some calls, took a cab and went home. On offering his fare to the driver, the latter refused it, saying that the honor of driving Victor Hugo was sufficient, and after delivering this statement, gave his horse a flick with his whip and drove away. By chance, a few days afterthe old poet took a cab, and found that he had lighted on the same cabman, so, on getting out, he insisted on the latter accepting a piece of twenty francs. But Jehu was equal to the ocjasion; he carried the money straight to office of Vitor Hugo paper — ' Le Rappel' — and gave it to a subscription started by that sheet, 'Devil of a cabbie !' cried Victor Hugo, on learning about the money. ' What can Ido to gratify him 1 Suppose I invite him to dinner V And he did so, to the immense delight of his humble admirer, who, since he has dined, at the poet's table, lias become the admiration and envy of all his fellows in this city."

At an episcopal dinner party, the other day, a layman was giving an account of a visit to the House of Commons, and speaking of an old member said — " But, poor old fellow, 1 couldnt't understand a word he said. j He might have been speaking Hebrew, or Greek, or Arabic : he is toothless." One of the bishops here interrupted | with, "Ah 1 then, I suppose, he spoke I gum-arabic." A pianoforte teacher in Philadelphia has for years been studying the anatomy of the hand with a view to discover why it is so much more difficult to raise the third finger above the keys of the piano than either of the others. He decided that a sinew attached to that finger, which is not in either of the others, is the cause. This, if true, would have been discovered by medical men long ago ; the sinews are]J identical in each finger, only perhaps differently developed. The professor, however, has induced one of his pupils to be operated upon for its removal. It is stated that forty deaths have occured near Sanjibulahh lately from an epidemic closely resembling the plague. It is not unlikely that paterfamilias, being asked by his wife if he has heard of the plague of Sanjbulagh,. will agree with the gentleman, who in answer to his wife's question " Have you heard of the plague of London f* said, " No, nor do I want to ; it is quite enough to have one in the house V One often comes across curious storias how common men used their wives in the old days, and the Frenchman's idea of the Englishman was; fulfilled in the following instance : In a country town West in 1826 a man,, having publicly sold his wife- for 30s.' in the open market-place, was compelled by the market authoiities to pay a fee of Is. The magistrate, hearing of this called upon the collector to explain his conduct in imposing such a toll. He instantly showed the bench this clause in the market by-laws — Any article not enumerated in the by-laws pays Is. The Philadelphia News prints the following note to a correspondent : — " Edith — We received your note mentioning the sad case of a young, honest, capable girl who was slowly starving in a miserable garret down in the slums,, making shirts at 50 cents a dozen. We gave the address to a philanthropic lady who called, found everything as described, and immediately offered the half-famished creature a comfortable home in a suburban villa, promised her good, nourishing food, and plenty of it, all the reading matter she* might want in the evening, every other Sunday herself, and 2dol 50c a week for spending money. All that she asked in return was that she should do the housework of a small family.. Did she fall down and bless the lady with tears of gratitude in her eyes t " Oh, 1 could not think of going to the country." The Referee says the crime of concealing arms which is so common in Ireland, has just been brought home to a lady of fashion — a female Home Euler of Dublin. I don't think there are many fashionable ladies in London who can be charged with concealing arms. They hardly conceal anything in society now. "Revelations" would be by no means inappropriate heading to a chapter of full evening dress in. " Sassiety.