ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 347, 14 November 1879, Page 3

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

A Warning to Physicians.—At the last assizes in Spoleto a trial for murder took place under the following circumstances : A qertain Signor Marcucci, of Spoleto a, gentleman of good property and position, called in a physician of the place, one Dr Domeniciß, to attend his only son, who was seriously ill. If, said Marcucci, the young man recovered, Dr Domenicis should receive two thousand francs; if, on the other hand, the patient died, Dr Domenicis should be .killed. It cannot be for a rnpinent seriously contended that such an alternative was. accepted in good faith~tyrthe doctor. Signor Marcucci, however, proved to be a man of his word, for the lad died, and. Marcucci theieupori;i did kill-Domenicis. "~ He coolly murdered' him, with apparently no attempt to conceal the. act.:; The unfortunate physician left a widow and family behind him, but no compunction or pity availed to stay Marcucci's hand. And now what does the reader suppose was the sentence pronounced on this barbarous ruffian in an Italian court of justice ? He was condemned to five years' imprisonment and the payment of a fine of 25,000f:, to be given as damages to the doctor's widow. In a recentiworf/bne- of the naturalists of the Challenger gives an amusing instance of human or commercial nature in the unsophisticated savage. Ships take " trade gear" e.g., soft iron hatchets and worthless things—to barter with savages. The Admiralty Islanders soon learned thetrrck, and manufactured " trade gear" on their side also —sham hatchets and models of canoes, to be used solely for exchange with the Challenger* ... . • Irr an article Castle in the Spectator of Saturday, tlie writer says:— On passing the Burns' Head Jnn we are reminded of a good story, which has, we believe, never yet_ been given in print. The sign is a portrait of the poet, said to, be an excellent likeness. At any rate, Mr Slorritt, uncle of - the' present owner of Eokeby, thought so, and once when he had walked over here from Kokeby with Sir Walter Scott, he pointed it out to him, and praised it as a highly-successful bit of portraiture. "How long has it been there ?" asked Scott. " Two or three years," wasjtbe answer. " Then," said Scott, "take my word for it, it.is no like Burns. Bobbie Burns would not have stayed,,so long outside a public." A'techy husband told his wife they could not agree, and must divide the house. "Very well," said she, "you take the outside." , ■ ■ .