ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 329, 12 September 1879, Page 2

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

Delattre, the French emulator of his late English colleague in crime, Peace, has just added to his celebrity for cunning and hardihood in escaping from the hands of justice by a fourth attempt, which, by the merest chance, was this time frustrated, It may be remembered that on a recent occasion, whilst detained in a room at the police station, he cleverly tried to escape by making for the door of the room, which he opened and locked when upon the other side before the gendarmes within had sufficiently recovered from their astonishment to oppose his exit. On a previous occasion he leaped from a train at full speed, and, in spite of bruises, jumped upon a horse in a field adjacent, managing to elude his pursuers during many days. Thiatime, being incarcerated for theft in the prison of Mazas, he still found means to attempt to liberate himself. For the purpose of drinking, he had at his disposal a tin goblet or can. Dexterously ([fabricating with a portion of this a little saw, he cut through .with wonderful patience one of the iron bars of his window. With the piece of iron thus obtained, he set to work to bore a hole through the wallof his cell, and, notwithstanding the discouraging nature of his task, he Actually succeeded in making a hole in the solid wall big enough to admit of his passing his head through it. To prevent the turnkeys from discovering his occupation, he placed his bed against the wall at which he worked, hiding the debris of plaster aud stone within his mattress. It was the abnormal weight of this which eventually led to the finding out of his enterprise just on the very day when he had completed his preparations for escape. So terrible was the prisoner's anger when he saw his long labor crowned with nonsuccess that it required the aid of three stout warders to prevent him from doing himself bodily harm. He has now been placed in another cell, with a turnkey for constant companion and watcher day and night.

We, Manchester Evening Mail, have been informed that at a recent meeting of the Hackney Coach Committee in connection with the Manchester City Council, the driver of No. — coach was summoned for " specking " about the city, his stand being opposite the the Town Hall, Albert square. His defence was a novel and ingenious one. On being asked what he had to say for himself, he said : Mesther Oheearman, all I've got to say is this . — My horse is musical, and he can't «tand them kyriliions (Town Hall carillons). My guvnor bought him off a circus company, and he used to draw the band about. That's the way he got his musical eddication. He's all right with till it comes to the hour, then he shivers, when he hears the clock strike 9 or 11 or 3, Lor' bless you he knows as well as a Christain them kyriliions comes on nest, and he bolts. Lot's of jobs I've lost through it. Same if he hears a German band. He'll bolt up any blooming street before he'll pass one, because they isn't musical. That's all I've got to say." The Chairman thought the case was one which deserved a little clemency, and expressed an opinion that a representation ought to be made to another committee. If an unmusical nuisance existed in connection with the Town Hall, it was their duty to summon the Mayor before the Nuisance Committee for permitting it. The case was dismissed. Judge : " Prisoner, why will you drink ? Now look at me! lam sixty, and I never tasted liquor." Prison sr; "You've lost lots of fun, then, judge, sure as you're born."

A Delaware woman, a hard worker all her life, being about to die, called hea husband and children about her, and told them were she had buried 200dols. of her earnings in the cellar. They dug it up before the funeral. A wholesale manufacturer of tobacco was fined £50 in Birmingham recently for selling a smoking mixture consisting of tobacco, camomile leaves, and liquorice; three retailers of the mixture were also fined.