"CHANGING HER SKIN."

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1371, 7 March 1884, Page 2

"CHANGING HER SKIN."

♦ There lives at the present time in the town of Springfield, America^ a young girl who, if what is related concerning her by the local papers be true, would be a valuable addition to the show of any Barnum fortunate enough to acquire her. She is a mulatto, or ought to be ; but it seems that the color of her skin is constantly varying from dark brown to snowy white, then changing back again to its natural color. This extraordinary young person is the daughter of a workman in easy circumstances, and it is seriously said that there is no imposture practised. The transition is accomplished by the appeai'ance of successive white sports on the skin, which gradually cover the whole surface. A reporter of an American paper, who has visited the girl, describes her appearance during the unaccountable, transformation as most striking, one of her feet being at times as dark as it is natural for a coloured girl's to be, whilst the other is as white as a lily. So with the hands and the face — the effect m the latter produced by the difierent hue of skin being most singular. Sometimes the whole face is white, excepting the eyelids, which retain their original color ; but quite as often the face is entirely brown, the eyelids alone being white, which, when the lids are closed gives the girl a most " unearthly startling appearance." The phenomenon has been examined by all the | medical men in the vicinity, butthemys- j tery, if mystery it is, and not imposture, baffles them.

The London doctors are threatening to commence a coinpaign against all oduiied goods, as several cases ot sickness have recently been reported as having been caused by eatiug food which had been put up in cans. The salary of the Lord M tyor of London is £10,000. Tins amount is frequently far exceeded in the expenditure for the year by the occupant of tlie office. Tue cost of tLe Mayoral dinner alone (half of which is bom by the Mayor, aud the other half by the two senior aldermen) ia£sooo. Statistics of illiteracy in the German army show a steady falling off of illiteracy among recruits since the year 1870, when the percentage was 2*37. In 1877 it was 2-12. in 1878 1*73, in 1870 1-aO, in 1880 1-57, in 1881 l-09, iii 18S2 1-5-1, and ia IS-S3 132. Ii is said that largo importers of American cotton in Genoa have found matchboxes and haudfulls of rnatche3 artfully dispersed here aud there inside the bales, with the evident intention of setting the cotton on fire through the action of that development of heat which is often caused by the cotton being insufficiently dried before it is packed. It is stated that in one large district of New South Wales the lessees of runs are paying at the rate of Is 9d per scalp for each rabbit destroyed. In the infested districts at least 1000 men are employed, each ai 25s per week wages, with rations. Over 40 inspectors are supervising the work of destruction. Tiiat Colony is expending at the rate of £30,000 per annum. The State vote in Victoria for a similar purpose is £10,000, and that sum is supposed to cover departmental expenses as well as tae outlay on Crown lands. So thickly infested with rabbits are some districts of Victoria that recently Mr Chirnside, the owner of the Werribee Park Estate r \v)iieh is distant from Melbourne about 20 miles, offered £1000 per anumn to any person who would keep them down. Tins was equal to an offer of 2^d per acre. The New York Tribune, writing before the news about Mr Tennyson's peerage was confirmed, refused to believe it, said — " There is no fame to accrue to Mr Tennyson from a title. Wherever the English language spoken — in Greater as well as in Great Britain — he is known and admired. Could the peerage bring him one iota more of the world's homage? On the contrary, the world ■ would recognise in his acceptance of atitle the exposure of a painful defect in his character. It would say : ' This man did not rise to the heiglit of his own inspiration. He could not rest content with the only fame worth having. He must betray his kinship with a lower humanity by hungering after its gauds and baubles. This is to sink, not to rise.' And the judgment of the world would be sound." j Mr Whitefoord, the Resident I Magistrate at Kaiapoi, has made a ; somewhat curious suggestion (says a contemporary) as to an amendment of . the liquor law. In dealing with a case where a person against whom a prohibition order had been issued was proved to have been drunk and disorderly, hesaid that the existing law would do very little good until the Legislature should make it criminal on the part of a prohibited person to get drunk. He further intimated that be bad made an official representation on the subject to the Minister of Justice, who had promised to consider it. Mr Whitefoord's proposal is that any person getting drunk after a prohibition ordwr has been issued should be proceeded* against criminally for disobedience of the prohibition order of the Court, and should be liable to one month s imprisonment for the first offence, two months' for the second, and three months' for the third. Friday's "New Zealand Times" says : — Real British fish, and fresh at j that, and British fowl, on sale in our ! good city of Wellington, is also the i enterprise, of the well-known n'sh- ' monger, Mr Liavdet, that led to the introduction of such dainties. This, ■of course, is another outcome of the direct steam service and its refrigerai ting chambers. And even as New 1 Zealand heef and mutton can bo i delivered fresh, and sweet, and wellflavoured in England, so can the British Isles return the compliment by sending us its fine-flavored fish and | fowl. Mr Liardet's importation comj p -ised salmon and sole, and cod and j whiting, whilst the fowls included turkeys and ducks, and fowls and geese. They came to hat*d hard frozen and in good condition, we understand, baing l«ft of the consigni monk hist night. There have been free . opinions as to the flavor of the fish. Salmon, of course, holds its own in supreme majesty, but ofthe others, we heairl.it remarked, and are of much the same way of thinking, that •' our aiu" flounders, garfish and frost fish are not a whit behind British cod and whiting, and run soles very close indeed for first pi am As for British fowl, New Zealand is right up level in comparison. There is nothing in the way of poultry j tiiat our dearly beloved adopted land cannot now produce as well as Great Britain, and even better ; whilst her artificially-fed beef and mutton must yield the palm to the flesh of sheep and oxen reared on the sweet wholesome pastures of the South." These exchanges of edible products will do ! much to clear away a lot of extiavaJ gaut ideas of the super-excellence of ! everything Great Britainish. We are very well provided for here — exceeding well provided for, if we only knew it. The Limerick Board of Guardians have resolved to take advantage of the Labourer's (Ireland) Act by erecting 1000 cottages, with half an acre of land attached to each, for the accommodation of agricultural labourers in the Limerbk Union district.

Parisian workman's wages have risen , enormously of late years. Stonecutters ' 10s per day, ntonelayers 7s 61, labourers 4s 2d, wood-carvers and upholsterers $s 8d to 10s. The English authority are onan more instituting active measures to suppress betting. At Leicester re- i cently a publican named B^ugh was fined. £3 3s, for permitting betting. The detectives got ladders at th« roar of the premises, and watched the betting operations. The Pall Mall Gazette says:— "A curious career was cut short by a decision of the Paris Correctional Court a few days ai»o. Ever since 1866 a certain Zouavf, named Jacob, Las been busy with the profession of Spiritualism, aud his form of supernatural power took, it must be confessed, a more useful tutu than that of reading numbers iv other men's minds. The Zouave's spirits were spirits q{ healing ; and just as there are men in England who really believe that Mr Irving Bishop lia* read the -number of bank ' notus by supernatural 1 powers, so Ui«ie have l>«*er> people of j »ll classes in Fiiiui-e who toriieve ! themselvua ti) have sou a M. Jacob j ha&\ th« niHimod itnd tlie halt wish 1 the. mere glance ol' iii-s eye. The other day, however, * the method of simple inspection,' seems to have failed, and the result of more violent measures was that Jacob broke his patient's arm. The patient was un'gratefnl enough to prosecute, and Jacob has been condemned to pay lOOir damages, or to undergo six days imprisonment ' for the illegal practice -of medicine.' It will be an interesting st'uxjy in human credulity fco see whether th<-se proceedings at all interfere with his • practice when he comes outof prison." The " Otago Daily Times" says : That Major Atkinson is a Socialist has l'»een evident to most people ever since liis celeb vated politico-philosophical pei a inhalation through the Middle. Island last April ; bud lie has never expressed himself so plainly as in his Local Option speech iast week. What Socialism really means is the right of the majority fco prevent the minority from doing whatever the majority dislike. The Woods and Forest Department of South Australia is to be congratulated on the report it is able to give of its last year's operations. During the year the department has successfully grown no less than 170,000 trees iji the old reserves. It has an abundance of young trees iv stock for planting out, comprising 225,000 and G50,30'<) indigenous trees, » «riul during the coming seuson efforts are to be made to plant out 450,000 trees of all kinds. In addittiou to the planting operations of the department, it distributes young trees largely to farmers, landowners, district councils, and corporations. The. following is a translation from an ancient doucunient written by Publius Lentulus, President iv Juclea, to the Roman Senate, concerning the Redeemer, the original of which is preserved in the Vatican at Rome: — '•There both appeared in these onr days, and is at present living amongst us in Judea, a man of singular virtue, whom they call Jesus Christ. Of the Jews he is accepted, and believed to be a great prophet of truth ; but his own disciples adore him as being descended from the immortal gods. He raiseth the dead to life, -and healeth all manner of human maladies and diseases by word or touch. In structure he is tall and of perfect form ; his countenance and ail, sweet and reverent, such as beholders may both love and fear; his hair is of a colour that would be difficult to describe. — something -resembling the colour of the ripe chestnut— from the crown of his head to his £ars, whence downward it is more of tint or of golden hu«, and falls waving aud curling into vingle.ts itself in goWtan profusion, on the shoulders. In the centre, from the forehead to the crown of his he-ad, his hair is parted by a seam or partition, and falls over each ear after the manner of the Nazarenes. His forehead is lofty and pale, and his face ( without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a slight tinge of comely complexion. His nose and mouth are formed with the most admirable symmetry. His beard is thick, and of the colour of his hair; not of any great length, and dividing in the centre at the chin, takes nearly the form of a fork. H"is look innocent and mature. His eyes blue, brilliant, and serenely beautiful. In reproving, he is awful, majestic ; in admonishing, ■courteous, sweet, friendly, and persuasive- and speaking or acting he is grave, temperate, modest, and wise. It cannot be remembered that any have ever seen hint laugh, but many have seen him weep. In a word, he is of exceeding great beauty and his divine perfections, surpasseth the children of men.