CLIPPINGS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 161, 1 February 1878, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

From " Atlas " in The World,

During a recent charitable performance &> a theatre in Portsmouth, one of the performers, a gallant major belonging , to the garrison, having been considerably chaffed by one of the Gallery, finally lost all patience, stopped suddenly in his part, and challenged his tormentor to come down and try the part himself, and see if be could do it better. During the same entertainment another gallant major, who volunteered to amuse the audience between the parts with some conjuring tricks, asked for a Lady's watch. A valuable gold one, said to lie worthy fifty guineas, was handed to him. The trick was to pound up a counterfeit in a mortar, and hand the real on back uninjured. Being a novice, however, the gallant major, it is said, pounded the real one up, and banded the counterfeit back. Fancy the lady's feelings. The performance was scarcely a success.

Prince's Hotel at Brighton has been full to overflowing ever since Lord Beaconsfield set the fashion of goingthere, so that people say of him, he has not only created Dukes, but he has made Prince's.

That times are hard for the painters just now every one knows who is behind the scenes. The great lights get their prices perhaps, but the small fry find it hard enough to sell, and the dealers are overstocked. ' Well, 8., how's art ?' some one asked a well-known pictiire-framer. ' Art! Goramighty bless you, dead and buried years ago,' was the reply.

A new fact in natural liistory is, if I mistake not, brought to light in the opening chapter of Cherry Ripe. At page 7 I read. 'He had fed one of the big white swans that came sailing proudly down the mimic lake, with a little lovely cygnet perched high upon its wings—to his dying day he never forgot that little creature, or how its whiteness showed like snow against its mother,-that was fair enough when it stood alone, God knows.' Despite the unnecessary strength and seriousness of this asseveration, I am tempted to believe that if Miss Helen Mathers' friend had ever seen such a thing as a white cygnet he would have written a letter to the Field on the subject.

The chances of flu's mortal life are many and strange. In one of the English counties a certain wealthy squire owning large estates who professed the Roman Catholic faith married a Protestant lady, very much to the dissatisfaction of his friends and co-religionists. But his property was strictly entailed in the male

line, and after some years four daughters only were born of the npinn. Suddenly tt> p squire died, and lrN w<,-Mi vent a\\u\ from his own belongings ?„ th<- next h.-ii male. The widow »m~ me .■••n to l-e allowed the custody of her ,!an u !.!ers, who were of her own faith, and -h.- was perhaps a little hardly used by her luislm. d's relatives and friends. Suddenly an.l unexpectedly the whole wfn.itmn was c-iianged by the birth of a posthumous son. There have been so many cases of shooting fingers off amongst the army at Plevna, that Osman Pasha will only allow thos3 so wounded to be excused duty one fortnight, the innocent having to suffer for the guilty, as in more than one action the skirmishers fighting behind boulders are wounded only in the head and hands, the only parts exposed. As a rule, the wounded in hospital express the greatest anxiety to rejoin their battalions, and the gallant conduct of the majority of the Turkish infantry is unquestionable. Somebody should look after the editing of the Times advertisement-sheet. Formerly it was rigidly supervised, but now scarcely a day passes without its containing the announcements of notorious horse-copers, whose frauds have been exposed in the police-courts; and on Monday week the following impropriety appears in its columns : ' A young lady wanted, to give private lessons on the pianofore at her own residence for an hour daily. Neighbourhood of Kensington preferred. Address, enclosing carte de visite, to X. Y. Z.,' Club, street.'

A gallant ex-captain caused much dismay and confusion in a select circle of racing gentlemen this last week in town by a curious error into which lie fell, that Boyne Water ran through Manchestpr. He has been quartered, I know, a good deal in Ireland, so this may account for it.

I hear that the Duke of Norfolk's wedding-day cost him little short of £20.000. —a couple of months' income.

Punch tells an anecdote of a young man introduced to a partner, whose name he did not catch, and to whom he said, 'Aroyou going to the piggery?' referring to a ball which was going to be given by some Hog-ges. ' I am one of the litter,' was the smart repty, the young lady being herself a Miss Hogge. This story is, I believe, true, but certainly not new, for I heard it myself some twenty years ago and more, in the days of the late Sir James Weiss and Lady Hogg. Perhaps Lady Marjoribanks, of Guisachan and Brook House, Park-lane, might lay some claim to the copyright of the repartee.