MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1631, 25 November 1885, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A yonng man named Fninci* Marshall has been committed for .rial l»y the Fitzroy magistrates c;i a charge of conspiiing with some man unknown to effect an illegal nvirriage with h>u**nn

i Reilly. The deception practise \ ww of an unusually impudent kind The prisoner aud auother uiau called on a Mrs Bartt Napier street, who had a room to let, and arranged to get possession of the room for two hours in order to have a marriage ceremony performed in it. In answer to Mrs Burtt's questions, Marshall said he bad l>een living with a Miss Reilly for two or three years, and she had two children ghe now refused to live with him any longer nnless he married her. He did not care to marry her iv the hotel where they were Hying, as the people wonld then know they had not been i married ; nor did he want lo get married at a common reg'siry office, bnt the registrar was to perform the marriage. Marshall and the man whom he called a " registrar ' came next day, altered the furniture in the room to give it the appearance of an utlkv, and posted freshly-printed bills in the window and on the walls ; these bills had on them the words, printed in hold characters, " Registrar of births, mai-riagos, and deaths '' Mirsh.-ill left and came tiack with Miss Rf illy, and the so-called "registrar"' produced several partially printed forms &nch as are nsed in a registrar's office. These he tilled up. and the documents were signed hy Marshal I, Miss Reilly, Mrs ami Miss Butt, and a cabman uumed F'a!:u:jait. No prayers were read W) the " registrar ;f bat the Utter

.commenced to read theLo^d s Prayer, when Mai shall stopped bun, saying that he wag reading from a Protestant hook, while they w.*fc Roman Catholics, Marshall told the •• registrar' that he had not brought a wedding ring, only a "keener" ring, hut the man said a ring, was unnecessary, as it was merely a matter of form ; tWe keeper ring was then placed by Marshall on the lady's finger, and the '• registrar " said, ', Now you are married." W'jen Marshall was arrested by Dectective Considine, fr>, admitted the offence, saying he lmd picked no a man in Bourke street who agreed to act as registrar. He also said lie went through the ceremony merely to satisfy the woman's scruples; he was fond of her, but could nor legally marry her as he had a wife in Sydnry.

The following story in connection with a prominent personage in the House is told hy a contributor to an Auckland paper :— Everybody who has read Boswell's Life of Johnson knows with what paternal solicitude the great lexicographer looW upon the inebriated wife of Fleet-street. Is it not recorded that he carried a drnnken women on his back along that famous thoroughfare? But our great men out here are not a whit less SamarN tanian. There was that notorious | so3ne in the House last session, when j Sir George Grey was seen coaxing a member who had imbibed not too wisely but too much to go into the right lobby. A less disagreeable incident, in which a high dignitary of the House played a pleasing part, occurred in Freeman's Bay the other evening. A tipsy laborer was being wheedled home by his little girl, bat ever and anon he became fractious, and seemed bent on what is commonly known as "kicking up a row" His little child was in sore distress ; she was in great terror lest he should be " took up." At last, through the gathering gloom, she espied what she supposed to be a policeman. "Oh, do, father, come home," she exclaimed, " there's a policeman coming and hn'U take you away." But the approaching figure spoke out in cherry tones, " No, my little girl, I'm not a policeman, so you needn't be afraid, and I'll see your father home ;" and taking the tipsy man by the arm, he walked with him to the laborer's cottage, to the unspeakable delight of the anxious youngster. "Be jabers," remarked an admiring spec a tor of this little incident, " Snr Maurice is a broth ov a bhoy, and no mistake at all, at all ; " which discriminating observation was warmly endorsed by thf* other lookers on.

Some of the Paris papers had an ao count of the acquittal of "Lady Pandly " for attempting to kill " the Lord Don Van Rossa." They aro also telling their reader? how to make the American drink known as "cheery gobbler."

A smile was raised among the " grave and reverend seig:ieurs " of the Upper Houw of S-wMi Australia (says the Advertiser) on Tuesday afteruoou when the Hon. H. Scott in speaking of the Vermin Bill, astounded and amused hon. members by the results of a calculation as to the rapidity with which rabbits breed. He said it was well known that rabbits breed seven times a year, bearing about five young ones each time, and they commence breeding when five or six months old, the term of gestation reingfrom thirty to thirty-one days. From these facts he raised the following; calculations as to the progeny of one doe : — First year. one doe breeding seven times, five each time— thirty five, of which seventeen would he does, with an average breeding of 3J times five young each — 292, making a total of 823 for the first year. Second year: Of the 323 assume 164 females, each producing 828 — 54,112, or a total in the first two years of 54,440. Third year; Of the 54,440 assume 27,220 females, each bearing 328—8,928.160. Fourth year: Of the 8,928,160 assume 4,464,080 females, each bearing 328 — 1,484,218, 240. Mr Scott also took the number killed in 1883-4 5 as 2,343,108, and assuming 1,171,583, to he females, each producing 328, made a total of 384,369,384 rabbits which would have been born had not death overtaken the unfortunate paieuts.

Mrs Langtry was subjected recently to the greatest slight that could be inflicted upon a woman in her position, a deliberate cut from the Princess of Wales, who is not the plastic doll in the Prince's hands that some people imagine. This episode occurred at Coombe House, where Lady Archibald Campbell and her pastoral players were giving their last performance of " The Faithfulle Shepherde.sse." The Prince of Wales entered into conversation with Mrs Langtry, who dropped the usual qnaint courtesy with which royalty is received; the Princess of Wales had turned her back, and was talking to someone else. A hundred eyes watched the group. It has often been said, and not unjustly, that the Prince of Wales is remarkable for tact, but even the most distinguished social warriors sometimes lose their heads where a pvetty woman's interests are concerned, and at this moment if any, Mrs Langtry needed the consolation of royal favor. The Prince plucked the Princess by the sleeve, after saying to Mrs Langtry in quite a loud voice, " Oh, the Princess would like to tell you " — The Princess turned around, surveyed Mrs Langtry quite as though she did not see her, gave so slight a bow that the inclination of the head was almost imperceptible, and then turned her back and resumed her conversation with her friends. The Prince looked exquisitively foolish. Mrs Laujrtry's confusion was painful to behold, and the social axe had fallen.! But this now scandal may h^lp th« Lilly's th.-ati ical interests which have of late begun D languish.

The Siberian plague, the most dreaded of all diseases, has made its appearance in three different villages within the immediate district of Odessa. Among Russians cholera has comparatively slight terrois to those aroused by the presence of the plague, which is alike loathsome, fatal, aud terriMy contagious. The abnormally hot summer, such as has not been experienced during the last six years in the south of Russia, is propagating in an alarming degree many epide-

mica.

Referring to the death of W. H. Trickett, the great oarsman, at the age of 39, a writer in the Melbourne Heiald says : — " It affords a sad text for a melancholy but necessory sermon. A cold so slight as to give him no reason to complain developed into bronchopneumonia, and he died suddenly during his sleep, because the muscles of the heart had been ko w^akned by the overstraining of the body for boat races that they wore nuaMe to resist the violence of the disease which attacked htm.

Honey-moon is so called from the ancinfc custom amount tiw Teutons or natives of the northern nations of Europe, for newly married pK>i>le fo drink metheglin, mnad, or hydromol, a kind of wine made from honey — for thirty days aftHr marriage. Hence tlie term " honey moon" or " honey month." Attila the. Hun, is said to have indulged so freely in hydrouiel at his wedding that he died.

The New York Tribune says that 2200 stores and shops in that city are now closed on Saturday afternoons, and that as a result at leant 50,000 persons enjoy a weekly half-holiday.

From Spires come 3 the almost incredible story that nine pupils of the High School had conspired to murder an under master whom they disliked. Everything was arranged, and two daggers aud a loaded revolver were in readiness for the execution, when one young conspirator repented and con fessed. All the pupils concerned were exuelled.

There is great trouble for the Chinese brewing in America. An agitation for their expulsion from the States has been set on foot How bitter is the feeling against the Mongolians may be judged from an affair which happened recently at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, on the lines of Union Pacific Railway. The Chinese settlement was attacked by the wliite (vvlcuinen?, aud 600 Celestials driven to the hills. Six were shot in cold blood and eleven burned to death. The cause of this massacre — for it was nothing else — was that the Chinese would not ' strike.' Ten years ago the -miners (all white) earned from Bdol to lOdo! a-wwk per man, and went out for higher pay, whereupon the railway Company turned over the mine to contractors who employed Chinese and Europeans labor on piece- work. The entire press of Anr»r?(*R condemn the outrage as * foul blot on the civilisation of America.

The German Government is said to he preparing for the approval of the Reichstag Bills for the construction of several new canals within the Empire. One of these Bills is for a ship canal from the Baltic Sen to the German Ocean, with strong fortsat each mouth, and at the commanding points along the route.

Several agricultural societies in Berlin and in the province of Bradenburg have opened a prize competition (£ls and a silver medal) for an improved milk-can for railroad transpor tation. The conditions are numerous and of so exacting a nature as to denote the pnMic interest in and the necessity existing for such improvement.