CLIPPINGS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 147, 14 December 1877, Page 5 (Supplement)

CLIPPINGS.

From " Atlas" in The World. Ladies, fair ladies, beware of hairwashes. A medical friend informs me that it has lately been discovered that the active ingredient of all washes for subduing gray hair is lead, which, uniting gradually with the natural sulphur of the hair, forms a black sulphuret of lead, which is really the darkening agent. We all know how deleterious and even fatal is the application of lead in any chemical shape to the pores of the human body ; what, then, must be the mischief produced by its being continuously and often daily rubbed into the delicate skin of a lady's scalp! Here however, is a practical illustration, vouched, for by Mr Brownfield of Norwich. The wash had been used for twojrears, but_cnly .very moderately, and during all that time there was general malaise and loss of muscular power. About three months since, two days after an effectual application of the wash, a slight epileptic fit occurred, and six weeks afterwards a similar application was followed by palsy of the extensor muscles of the left hand, In this case probably another dose might have produced paralysis; but .-by- this_ time, suspicion was aroused, and by the steady application of antidotes the symptoms are now disappearing. The profits of selling these washes are said to be so tempting that since the of the darkening agent has oozed out, numerous hairdressers, both in town and country, are manufacturing pressing them upon their customers.

I have the following story from a shooting-party in Perthshire. There were two keepers out, one of whom was a very large bulky man, the other being comparatively small and puny. The big man got badly shot; whereon all his companion in arms was heard to say, by way of sympathy, was : • Rin, maun, rin ; keep rinning, so that we may not have to carry ye so fur !" An instance of genuine gratitude is so rare that I am happy in recording a sequel to the story which appeared in these columns three weeks ago of the landlord of a public-house at Richmond who desired to change the sign of his house from the • Britannia ' to the ■ Beaconsfield.' At the second application before the bench of magistrates, Boniface publicly thanked the Press for the increase of business consequent upon the advertisement he had gratuitously leceived, and magnanimously stated that, in return for such kindness, he would, if his request were granted, present to the Press the oldsign^bqard.. In a leading article in a recent number of the Dublin Freeman 1 s Journal appears the astounding statement, ' Happy is the country which has no animals.' I was lost in perplexity over this novel enunciation until I bethought me that perhaps ' animals' was a misprint for ' annals.' However things may go with other animals, it is pretty evident the race of Irish bulls is not extinct. A certain * Rev. Dr.' Rutherford, who is unpleasantly known to many credulous workmen in Newcastle-on-Tyne as the promoter and highly-salaried director of cooperative ironworks which came to grief, addressing a Sunday congregation last week in Bristol, declared : l If I had my way with the Prince of Wales, I should luve him work six or eight hours a day.' This announcement, says a local paper, called forth from the audience a spontaneous burst of cheering. In all probability a fair proportion of these virtuous people are much more idle than the Prince. Nevertheless there may be something usefully suggestive in the hint. The Prince Consort learned in his youth the trade of a bookbinder ; and, five-and-thirty years ago, the Duke of Beaufort, with almost his last breath, entreated his son, Lord Worcester, to bring up his young grandson, the present duke, without regard to rank ; « For,' said lie, ' we live in times when his brilliant prospects may at any moment be changed,, and who knows how soon he may be reduced to live by his own exertions ? What was foreshadowed in a paragraph appearing in this column some weeks ago—and immediately stolen by a

high-class literary contemporary—is now an accomplished fact. Mr Delane has tendered his resignation as Editor of the Times, which has been accepted, and the post has been bestowed upon Mr Chenery. Mr De)ane remains on duty to initiate his successor into the mysteries of the position until Christmas, when he finally retires. That gentleman now vacating office after thirty-seven years' hard work was a heaven-born editor is universally allowed. There are, : however, yet veterans to be found who declare that in certain qualities he -vvas surpassed by his father, whom he succeeded in the editorial chair. Mr Chenery is a gentleman of excellent ability and attainments, long versed in the traditions of Printing-house-square. It is probable that the diplomatic and social portion of the duties, with the pleasures therefrom accruing, will be somewhat strange and distasteful to him ; but these can be learned, and doubtless enjoyed, by Mr Arthur Walter. It will be an advantage probably to the journal, and certainly to its readers, if under the new regime more attention is paid to literary, artistic, and social matters, which have 'never yet received proper recognition in the Times. It is rare, indeed, to find a social subject, of however great importance, treated by the leader-writes, whose attention is wholly devoted to political topics or abstruse questions of very limited interest. These subjects are consequently seized upon by inferior journals, which serve them up with their own peculiar blather, and innoculate the non-thinking part of the community with false impressions and ridiculous conclusions. The conductors of the Times should remember that a very large portion of their subscribers takes great interestin theatricial matters, and expects to find the critical notices of new dramas in a somewhat more prominent position than that now usually assigned to them in the outside sheet, among the auctioneers' advertisements, the letters of occasional correspondents from Crete, and the,, latest hews of the working of vaccination in Spain. The art-world and its supporters would also be grateful for some attention. Something of interest to them is constantly occurring ; but out of the London season a reader of the Times would hardly know that there were exhibitions or sales of pictures, or anything happening affecting the art professional or connoisseur. Funny people these bishops J.One.of toHKe capture of the whale for exhibition, brings forward a text to enforce his views, and is immediately answered by a gentleman who quoted another text in refutation. A bishop, asked to; attend the laying of the foundation-stone of a church, writes as follows : 'I am sorry I cannot attend at your stone-laying,' but I trust the material stone-will, be the nucleus of .ooauylively stones,Jbuilt upm thespiritual temple to the glory of the great Architect for whom we work. I am,' &c. Can any one explain what this means ? It is difficult to -realise nowadays how cheaply, as regards |oss of life, generals achieved immemorial victories in past time. Agincourt was won with the loss of less than 100 men. There was only 25,000 Englishmen at Crecy, and less than half that number at Poictiers. Since then the science of slaughter has developed, and already in the TurkoRussian war, without any decisive engagement, ncarily 150,000 must have been sacrificed. The * special lady-gushers,' who write long letters to the Queen's newspaper from foreign places, are' a curious race. The following paragraph is from a lengthy communication in the current number : — * The following morning, after rushing to the Poste Restante for letters, which we devoured in the terrace which lies close in The Bretagne, we explored Dinan.' To think that after this the author should be spared to write a letter of nearly a column ! I wonder what the natives thought of the spectacle of English ladies devouring letters in the terrace ? „ What .'.next,' ?'•. -Recently a well-known West-end preacher took • occasion: .t'o'\enla'rg&from the 'pulpit' on the wickedness --of forcing children to .* make a clean plate ;' in other words, to eat more than they liked. He himself, said the preacher, had suffered' from this bad practice. The same reverend gentleman, preaching on the death of Saul, wound up his description of Saul's desolate condition by the elegant and expressive phrace, ■ Saul, in fact, was played out.'

A correspondent writes : • As we are all talking and thinking of Turkey and the Turks, lam reminded of.an anecdote related to me by' Belzoni, on Shrove Tuesday 1823, at the Hotel Beauveau (still existing; at Marseilles, on the eve of his departure for his final and fatal expedition to Timbuctoo. • As our conversation naturally turned upon the Carnival, whose exit was being celebrated by the usual masks and mummers under our windows, he told me that a few years before, at Lisbon,, where the usual saturnalia were being indulged in, a mask in the gay crowd threw an orange at the carriage of the Turkish Ambassador, which struck him on the face ; upon which the Ambassador, after a slight delay, proceeded to the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, to complain of the indignity thus publicly offered him. " O," said the Portuguese Minister, " such is the custom of the country on these occasions, and I hope your Excellency will pardon it." "Be it so," exclaimed the Turk; "but I was about to add, when you interrupted me, that I immediately drew my pistol and shot the fellow dead, for that is the custom of our country ; and I have no doubt, from the remark you have just made, that you will overlook it."'