MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1129, 13 September 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A correspondent recently came..across George Francis -Train in NewYork, and says . — " He has sat bareheaded in the parkSJaily for five yeara and more now. His skin is very datok from the exposure to the wind and sun, his hair is more white than ever, and I fancy that" his Wonderful eyes ar,e^jjprosOßg a little and dim, He was surrounded with the usual number of children as I. came up, and. he had more jumping ropes, playthings, and candy for them' than ever. Without looking at me he drew a, card from his pocket, and with a L Jblue pencil traced thereon, in a rorind free hand, the following, ' Only talk with children. Not spoken for one year to adults.' I wrote on the card my name, and added, 'lam a child. 1 He [ recognised the name and wrote again,- --' Any paper could make a fortune if. they could have enough truth to make truth speak \ But being unnerved, the individual fails to make mo speak. I have lost all interest in type. Before mid-summer 10,000 people will be here daily, and no- one knows why. Press dare not mention it. 'Tis an astounding evolution. 1 Another American, Paul Morphy, who won great fame in the chess world in this country about the same time that I rain was constructing his tramway in the Bayswator-road, is, and has been for years, love-mad. He. wanders about the streets of New Orleans saluting with respect every woman It.. 1 meets. '. A valuable liiscuvery is reported tq

have been made with regard to the properties of putateka timber. Hitherto this wood has been looked upon as almost worthless, from its soft spongy character, and yet great difficulty has been found by settlers in getting rid of it, since it persistently refused t burn. A few clays ago, a settler ii. the Pahautanui district, Mr. F. Bradt-y. was pulling down a shed made of pine wood, mixed with pukatea boards,, which was tumbling to pieces, owing to the rotting of the former. The shed had been put up 28 years ago, and while the pine wood was eaten up by its paraste worms, tho pukatea boards, though stained by the weather, ■were in a perfect state of preservation and were almost as hard as totara, having entirely lost the sponginess which characterised their infant clays. The pukatea, in fact, had developed qualities which it had not been surNpected of possessing before, but which ought to transform it from a worthless . inqumbrance to a very valuable tinibei*. As the country is particularly well .provided with this wood, there being hundreds of acres in Manawatu alone, tho. value of the discovery, if borne out by subsequent experience, can hardly be over-estimated. Still another biggest billiard break on record. According to the Manchester 'Sporting Chronicle 'of 17th July, on the previous Tuesday evening Mr T. !■ hort, of the Company Hotel, Liverpool made the unprecedented break of 2676, consisting of 862 red hazards, all but 42 of which were made by the screw back stroke, his own ball not being moved more than a few inches.