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Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 116, 12 February 1881, Page 2

A. Dangerous Oigak. —ai a hall at S(?liwarzenoerg, Saxony, a young man entered, having what appeared to be a c\^\r m his mouth* He went vo the chandelier as if to light it, and a terrible explosion ensued. Tho lights were extinguished, the walls partly gave way, daiu-er3 of both sexes were covered with blood, and vhe young man was blown to pieces. He had resolved on committing suicide, and had adopted a dynainitecai'U'idge for that purpose. A Dear Kiss. — A curious kissing case is about to come up before the courts of Hungary. At a recent election at Gross -Kcuiitzit, a young lady of great beauty worked actively fovtlie election of a deputy named Jokia. He was successful; but his •opponent is endeavoring to havo the election annulled on the grounds of bribery and corruption, instancing among other thinga, tlie fact of the lady baring giyen a kiss for a vote. The kiss was given m tho presence of witnesses, and, unfortunately for the giver, the recipient declared he valued it more than 1,000 florins. This will bring it within the law, and it is considered that the lady will be heavily 4ned, if not imprisoned. Paradise fob the Matrimoniaily Impatient. -When once a young lady and gentleman m America make up their minds to. be married, and proceed to set about it, the -mere ceremony, (writes a sporting contemporary), does not take very long when a civil contract only is required. A very few questions from the justice, aud the utterance of some scant sentences, complete the operation ; but for brevity, neatness, and despatch, it is probable that the formula used by an Indiana magistrate is unsurpassed. When the blushing bride is presented to him by the delighted bridegroom, the justice glances from one bo the other, and then speaks — " Have 'er ?" " Yes ;" " Have 'im ?" "Yes;" "Married. — Five dollars." That is all ; the thing is done, and two more, for better or worse, are mudo one. T^e Russian Army. — In some of the more distinguished corps of the Russian army uniformity of appearance is insisted upou m, a degree whicli has probably never been equalled m any European force, except perhaps m th,e Prussian service iri the most rigorous days of Frederick William I. Descriomg the review, held a.t Krasnojo-SeJo, a short time back, m the presence of the Emperor of Russia., a German military cor- j respondent states thnt m each regiment of ' the cavalry of the guard, all the horses are <$ tb,o earn* color. In the Gatjino

of cuirassiers, for instance, the horses are all chestnuts, m the cuirassier regiment of the guard, they are all black, and so on". In the regiment of Horse G-uards, the men are even distributed into squadrons, according to the color of their hair, and also, as far as possible, according to the shape of their noses. In the first aud second squadrons, for example, nil the men hare light huir ; m the third, all hare black; and m the fourth, all have brown hair; while a man with a Roman nose would never be found m the same squadron as a man with a. turn«d-up nose. A Brave St»awtsh Mtnkr. — A corres-. pondent personally acquainted with the facts, informs the Times of an act of distinguish c.l gallantry recently performed m one of i he principal mines m the mining district of Linares, m Spain. Three miners were engaged m sinking a shaft, and after charging the boreholes with dynamite two of them climbed to the gallery above, the third, as it was customary, remaining behind to light the fuses attached to the charge.*. Having done so, he signalled his comrade?, and was m the act of being hoisted up with a winitlnss and rope, when on nrarinjj the mouth of the shaft, he, by some accident, lost his hold, and fell a distance of 50ft to the bottom of the shaft, where he lay stunned nnd disabled, m close proximity to the burning fuses. A ch.iin ladder fortunately communicated with the bottom of the shaft, and on observing the fill one of Mie miners at the windlass, placing his drawn knife between his teeth, went down without a moment's hesitation to the rescue of his injured comrade, and severed the fuses as they were on the point, of ignit" the ehnrjes, thin saving him from an awful and instantaneous death. Another Fasting Tmposter — The celebrnted Doctor Tanner bus found imitator* m Russia. Tn one of the convents near Moscow, a nun has announced tint. it is v 'thing foi" her to fust 30 d.'ivs, ni\6. invites the f'K-u'.ty to observe the fact A very amusing case came before one of the Judges of Peace lately. Tw.o vounij men, Iran and Basil, Netted 150 roubles that they would fast three *eeks; T!io one who gave up first was to pay the other thit sum. Being both convinced that, each would fcrv to cheat Ihe other, it was arranged they should occupy the same room, and not lose sight of each other an instant. On the third night Iran, awakened by the pangs of hunger, fancied he heard a n>ise as if of munching. He suddenly struck a light, and beheld B.isil with half a pound of sausage m one hand and a hunch of bread m the other, m the very act. of devouring. Ivan's first movement- was to snatch at the food, but lie contained himself, got a witness, aad next day gave m his complaint to the Judge of Peace, who condemned Basil to pay the 150 roubles, and to two weeks' imprisonment for cheating. Indian Crbbttlttt. — A blind man, m Raawulpindce district (says the Civil and Military G-azzette), gave out that anyone who would like to hive any amount of money doubled, without any cost or trouble i might offer that amount to him, and he would receive twics as much on a certain day m the month, when the blessing of God would pour upon him, and any number of rupees that there would be with him on that day, would be douMed. The credulous natives swarmed liked bee 3to the blind man, some with n hundred rupees, some with a thousand, each according to his means. In this way thousands of rupees were placed at the disposal of the Inspector Hafix, n> he was called. When the day of promised blessing arrived, the Hafiz began to show signs of despair, and gradually the duped believers of the Haßz began to iiave recourse to judical process. Some 200 plaints have been filed, while there is no clue to the rnonev. The Hafiz is under arrest, and it rema : ns to be seen what will be tlie outcome of it. A Triumph of Photography. — The Royal Engineer photographers hare recently performed a clever feat. It was determined lately by the military authorities to endeavour to " stalk " a balloon m the air, with a view to discover how far an enemy's fire would be dangerous to the aeronaut. With this view one of the war baloons was sent up near Dungeness some weeks ago, of course with no occupant m the car, and a military photographer was instructed to depict the resnlt of the experiment m his camera. The latter wa9 so fur successful that he at any rate managed to get an impression of the bursting shell and collapsing balloon upon his plate. The balloon was permitted to rise to a height of 800 ft, and the photographer was stationed with the cannon — or, rather, howitzer— at a range of no less timn 2000 yds. A shell was burst ao cleverly m front of the balloon that it sank, as .previously wounded almost, ss Caesar, with twenty-five wounds m its body. The photograuh shows the wounded balloon still m mid-air, and the burst shell about 200 yds on its left. A Cukiotts Oath. — A comedy was recently enacted m England thai! may amuse even our New Zealand lawyers, accustomed as they are to see a Chinaman sworn on a match. or a saucer. It seems, according to the Law Journal, that one William Rudd was examined by an election commission. He, professing the Mahomedan religion, declined to be sworn m the ordinary way, but " was allowed to go through the ceremony of placing one hand on two volumes of a translation of the Koran tied together with a string, and with a key m. one of tiiuin, and the other hand on his forehead, and afterwards bending down until the backs of- his hands met." While Rudd was performing these gymnastics, the President of the Commission gravely addressed him as follows :. — " God will not. punish you for- an inconsiderate word m yoar oaths; but he will punish you for what ye solemnly swear with deliberation ; and the expiation of such an oath shnll be the finding of 10 poor men with such moderate food as ye feed your own families withal, or to clothe them, or to free the neck of a true believer from captivity ; but he who shall not find wherewith to perform on© of these three things shall fast three days." This adjuration., as one may gue.i§, w.as written out previously by Rudd, or liis spiritual adviser*.,, and we sincerely trust that if he. perjured himself he has not forgotten fco fust three days. j A Peincklt Picjcpookbt. — A characteristic case (says the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald) recently came before the St. Petersburg Court. Prince Engalitcheff, a young man of 3.5, was accused of the most uprincelike action of picking his friend Beloff s pocket ! Meeting Beloff m tho streot, the prince asked him to lend him some mo(.ey for some mean purpose. Beloff refused", saying : " How are you n,ot ashamed, and yoiv a prince ?" J.ust then another- acquaintance of Beloff's— Nikitin— sauntered up, and the conversation became general. All at once the prince, hurried off, and Nikitin, after some hesitation, told Beloff that he ha,d seen him put his hand into his (Beloff's) pocket, and take ou.t something Beloff then remarked that his • pocket book, containing several hundreds of roubles, and some valuable papers, were, gone. The ala,rm was instantly given, and Prince Ehv. galitcheff was hotly pursued through the streets. Being taken, no pocket-book was found upon him, because, he threw it under a gateway, where i% waafo.und by a. cabman,. Som« of th« money was missing, but all thf

papers were right. In prison the Prince confessed he had taken tho pocket-book, but, counselled by his advocate, . persisted m denying his guilt at the trial. Of course there was not the slightest doubt possible/ but with their usual tact and sagacity: judges and jnrr acquitted the prince. If a; common mortal bad done the same he would certainly hare paid the penalty, but a Prince' Engalitcheff ! However, the scandal this, affair has caused is perhaps considered punishment enough. The BNGLisff _Wat.~ Perhaps few stories of battle so thoroughly illustrate what we' are pleased to consider the true English «pirit and way of doing things,.. as the little incident at a veconniiissance before the battle of Ulundi; of which- Lord William Beresford was the hero. The English were almost led into a terrible trap, and- discovered the dnnper only just m time. They turned to retreat, and the Zulus poured m a volley which brought down the gallant horse of a mounted infantry-man ; his rider fell head foremost. The correspondent of the London Standard was whore there was most to be seen. " I thought both man and horse were killed at first," he says ; but the former soon struggled to his feet, with his face covered m blood, and dazed with his fall. Lord- William Beresford, seeing what had happened, pulled up, quietly trotted b vck and told the man to mount behind him. With a cool courage scarcely second to Lord William's, the man refused. Noble fellow that, he was, preferring the certain sacrifice of his own life to the probability of destroying his preserver's. The reply was admirably terse and telling. The savages swarmed closer and closer, bullets rattled around them 5 the two'-who lingered behind were almost ■ within rea oofh f of ' t&e assegais, and Lord William returned — " Get up, or I'll punch your head !" The man obeyea, and preserver and preserved esoaped. j Odds ahd Ends froU Ambbica. — The nnnunl export trade- of : the United States amounts to a value of about £131,200,000. Towards this large amount raw cotton, wheat, tobacco, live stork, provisions, and dairy produce contribute the largest ; but the export trade of America includes many curious items which go to show the resources of the country and the energy of American produco'rs m finding markets for their goods! 'Regular exports of plum«pudding, for instance, are. made, and the business of makingsarid 'canning, or preserving. /m tins, both plum-puddings and mincemeat for export to Europe is carried on at Dover (Delaware), Philadelphia, and other places. Americanconfectionery is also regularly sent to South America and the West Indies. Toys are i also a considerable item m the export lists of the States,.. France and Germany being the prinoipal customers; though' large quantities are bought up by English houses. A Boston company turning put eight thousand cans, or twenty-four thousand pounds of baked beans and codfish balls daily, finds a large outlet for both articles m England. France, and South America.. Steamship agents it New York say that "potatoes for Ireland are the commonest things m the world," and oatmeal ia frequently shipped to Glasgow.