MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1293, 5 September 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The athlete Miller, who lately vanquished Foley in the glove-fight, seems to be a first-rate all-round man, as . it is reported in the Argus that a splendid display of swordsmanship was witnessed at the Athenasum on Wednesday night, in a match between the Professor and Mons. Victor, a French swordsman. The contest was with light foils, for a stake of £100, Miller conceding his opponent 10 points in 21. At first there was very little difference between the two men, but very soon Miller, who used his foil in a cool, calculating way, and seldom missed a chance, began to assert his superiority, and scored as many as half a dozen points in succession. Victor was excitable, and, to his own evident disadvantage from the outset, tried to force matters. The match, which occupied over an hour, was finally won by Miller, who scored 21 points to Victor's 7, and proved himself a splendid swordsman. Both men showed great activity and determination, and Miller at the finish was loudly cheered. During the last six months 3085 horses have been used for food in Berlin. The warm sausages sold in the streets at nigjit are mostly of equine origin. Whetf a prominent restaurant keeper failed some years ago the most conspicuous among his creditors was a horse butcher, which throws a fjide light on the " roast beef" that used to be served up to his guests. The poor are the chief buyers, but there are not a few gourmands who look upon horseflesh as a delicacy.

The Mayflower, the ship in which the Pilgrim Fathers went to America, was the largest vessel which has eveir been built The old furniture 1 scattered over the United States, which was brought across by the Maylower, would fill the Great Eastern & dozen times over. Spelt with alt A gentleman went into an American gun store for the purpose of buying a gun. He saw a fine- sample- of the stock on the show-case, and attempted to pick it up for examination. The German storekeeper, who saw the movement, shouted; "Mine frent, ' dot's besser you look pooty veil oud. Dot gun vas loated r und vhen he goes off he kicks like ter tuyftil." Tim gentleman, thinking to have some fun with the German r replied, " A gun can't kick;, it has no legs." — "Vat," said the storekeeper, "-he don't can't gick? Yoost vait. I dells you sometings, und I gi£ you a leedle infianiations. I vas in der pishuess, und I knows sometinga, A gun don't gick mit its legs ; it gicks nwt its breeches. " Mr Miles, the indefatigable assistant of Mr Byron Moore, furnished me with a tabulated statetnent showingthe amount paid away in added money since the season 186^-5. Although* three Melbourne Cups had been won previous to this, nevertheless racings could only be considered as in its infancy, for in that year there was held a meeting in the spring (£1850) and two in the autumn (£B3O and £1032), making in all £3205. Since that it has increased year by year ; of course, the introduction of the New Year's Day meeting causing more outlay, and the total amount from £3205 has increased steadily (£5175). Thetwo years following we have a slight falling off (£5700 and £1580), special meeting £1600 ; then £5175, £5300, £5625, £5075, £5875, £6875-, £7823 ;. and in 1875-6 the prises wer* increased! £300, which brought it up to £10, 100;. then comes £10,602, £10^700, £10, 700, £10,800, £10,950, £!G\B6O, and last of all £11,700. The Spring meeting dowUes any other for expenditure, £G8,180; Champion Ract* meeting, £31,300 ; Autumn, £47,330 ; two complimentary and three steeplechase meetings, £6350 — grand total, £153,160. The question I would ask is, How long will it be until the time arrives when we have a Melbourne Cup* of the value of 2000 guineas, and a Derby worth 3000 ? Not very lonsr at the rate we are travelling — £153,190 in 19 years. The Post publishes a letter from Mr Jackson, late Chairman of the WellingHarbor Board, now in London, to the effect that a Birmingham firm has patented refrigerating machinery which will take up about half the room, use half the quantity of fuel, and have power to freeze double the quantity of meat as that of the present machinery. An employe on a ran in New South Wales, named Charles Parsons, was lately left a lai-ge fortune by the deaths of a relative in England. He went to a town some distance off to interview his solicitors, afterwards drank himself into delirium tremens, and their drowned himself in a tank. The President has started on a visit to the famous Yellowstone Phrk, iis Dakota Territory. He is accompanied! by Secretary Lincoln and General Sheridan, who assumes command of the United States army next September, on the retirement of General Sherman. "Little ihil" is very popular. He is the son of Irish parents of the very lowest rank, who immigrated to this country and settled at Somerset, in Perry county, Ohio. This was a close Irish settlement, and to conciliate the Catholic vote tho Congressman for the district nominated, the future hero — a barefooted little boy — to a cadetship in Weßt PointYoung Sheridan made good use of his; opportunities, and graduated from the Military Academy with honour in 1853. He joined the artillery and served in the frontier of Oregon, California, Nevada, and Utah until the breaking out of tbe war. His war record is perhaps more brilliant tb.au that of Grant, who was his great friend and: pushed him forward. He may be said to have created the cavalry arm during the war — that is to say, he made it one of the most effective arms of the Federal forces. General Sheridan's admirers in Chicago, which was his head-quarters as commander of tho division of the Missouri, have presented him with a residence in Washington. He has never forgotton his: humble origin, however, or the race from which he sprang. — Jacob Terry. Castlemaine, Victoria, which has been for many years a voritable " sleepy hollow," is now all ablaae with excitement, consequent uponthecliscovery of rich gold reefs. From the Ajax mine specimens have been obtained^ which are estimated to yiftld at the rate of 1000 ozs. to the ton. This may only be a patch, but great coutidence is expressed in the richness of the reef. Few persons estimate the amount of work in a watch of modern manufacture. Nearly a thousand processes are used in completing them. There are fifteen distinctly different kinds, and as many as 150 varieties of finish, number of jewels, construction of l«.lances, &c, independent of cases and their varieties. Women are largely employed in the work of watchmaking, especially in Switzerland. But since the year 1850 the whole process has undergone immense change by the substitution of inachij nery for hand work, which originated wfth Dr Dennison and Edward Hbward, of Boston, who established the first manufactory of watches at Koxbury, Mass., when it was moved in 1845, to Waltham, on the Charles Kiver. Each separate portion of tho watch is made on a machine specially coustructed for the purpose, and tUa

gauges employed are so accurate that 1-1700 part of an inch can be measured. Some of tke portions used in, "watch-making are so minute that it takes 150,080 of them to weigh a pound. One of the most remarkable instances •of journalistic success is that presented by the London Daily Telegraph, which was started in the month of January 1855 by a person named Arthur Sleigh, with a 'lew hundred pounds of borrowed money. Two brothers named Levy gave Turn credit for printing ink and for "*' machining" the paper; and, as he was unable to meet his payments to them he gave them a fiea over the prop■erty for £850. It subsequently fell into their hands, and five years afterwards the circulation had risen to 100,000 •copies daily ; while its original projector, after organising an overland Transit "Company from Canada tc British 'Columbia, and after unsuccessfully : •contesting the borotigh of Greenwich at the general election in 1857, took refuge In the Court of Bankruptcy, and soon afterwards dropped into an unhonoured :grave. The Levys — one of whom changed is name toLowson — eventually found themselves in the .possession of a,n income of j>l oo,Boo,* and the present market value of the Daily Telegraph is estimated at a million sterling. A good many Nebraska papers claim that the workings of the high license Jaw in that State vindicate the wisdom of the measare. It has certainly •crushed out innumerable low dens of iniquity, for fully one-half of the saloons in the State find themselves unable to pay ataxof 500doL or lOOOdol. a year for the privilege of selling, intoxicating liquors. As to those who ha c been able, to continue in the business, it is said that they secretly, one and all, bless the day when the present system T?aß inaugurated. • Mi Pompeieu has made, before an immense crowd, two successful ascents ~vnth. an elongated balloon (measurement 1300 cubic metres; elongation I to 8^). On both occasions the decent ■was well-executed, although the balloon was partly empty, having ascended to an alti.ude of 1200 metros. l?our persons were on board. In the second ascent M. Pompeieu obtained a movement of his aerial craft in the required direction by only moving his rudder. This circumstance is accouoted for by the balloon progressing with a less velocity than the wind, owing to its elongation. ALansingburg firm has almost completed a paper steamboat foraFLtsImg company. Its length is twenty feet. It as seating capacity for twentyfiye persons and a carrying capacity of "three tons. The sheathing is a solid t)ody of paper three-eighths of an . inch thick. A bullet frpm a distance offour Ifeet neither p3iiet;at jd nov made an abrasion' in it. , ! Lord Shafteshury, now eighty-two years of age, says the improvement, in the. , religious '.condition of the English 'w.or.fciug classes during his memory .is wonderfuL