ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 366, 23 January 1880, Page 3

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

Captain J. F. Cox, master of the British ship Privateer, which arrived at Delaware Breakwater on September 9, from London, says :—" On August 5, 100 miles west of Brest (France), weather fine and clear ; I was walking the quarter-deck, looking to windward, when I saw something black rise out of the water about twenty feet, in shape like an immense snake, about three feet in diameter. It was about 500 yards from the ship, coming towards us, and went down with a great splash, after staying up about five seconds, but rose again three times, at intervals of ten seconds, until it had turned completely from us, and was going from us with greatf speed and making the water boil all round it. I could see its eyes and shape perfectly. It was like a great eel or snake, but as black as coal tar, and appeared to be making great exertions to get away from the ship. I have seen many kinds of fish in five different oceans, but was never favored with a sight of the great sea-snake before."

Mr Edison is reaping a rich reward in Europe as well as in this country for his wonderful and useful inventions. The Edison Telephone Company, of London, has ordered from the electrical manufactory in this city 2000 of Edison's chemical telephones for use in London, and is considering the advisability of ordering 10,000 more. In this city they are being everywhere introduced. All the large wholesale and manufacturing esstablishments have them ; lawyers talk through them to an office in the new Court-house, and are able to keep instantly posted as to what's going on ; booksellers and others order from each other through *them, and a world of trouble is saved all round.

Few Remaining.—October 21 (says an English paper) was the 74th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The surviving officers are :—Admiral of the Fleet, Sir .George Rose Sartorius, X.C.8., who is now in his 90th year, and fought as a midshipman on board the Tonnant ; Admiral Robert Patton, now in his 89th year, who was a midshipman on board the Bellerophon ; Admiral William Ward Percival Johnson, who entered the navy July 2, 1803, and was on hoard the Victory at the time of the battle ; Commander Francis Harris, a recipient of the naval pension, ■who was midshipman in the Temeraire ; Commander William Vicary, now in his 87th year, who was midshipman in the Achilles, and is in receipt of a Greenwich Hospital pension; and Lieut.-Colonel James Tynmore, also a recipient of a Greenwich Hospital pension, who was midshipman on the Africa.

The nicknames of peoele in the different States are very amusing. The inhabitants of Alabama are called Lizards ; of Arkansas, Toothpicks ; of California, Goldhunters ; of Colorado, Rovers ; of Connecticut, Wooden Nutmegs; of Delaware; Muskrats ; of Florida,' Fly-up-the-Creeks ; of Georgia, Buzzards ; of Illinois, Suckers ; of Indiana, Hoosiers ; of lowa, Hawkeyes ; of Kansas, Jayhawkers ; of Kentucky, Corn Crackers ; of Lousiana, Creoles ; of Maine, Foxes ; of Maryland, Craw Thumpers; of Michigan, Wolvennies ; of Minnesota, Gophers ; of Mississippi, Tadpoles ; of Missouri, Pukes ; of Nebraska, Bugeaters ; of Nevada, Sage Hens ; of New Hampshire, Granite Boys ; of New Jersey, Blues, or Clam-Catchers; of New York, Knickerbockers ; of North Carolina, TarBoilers, or Juckoes ; of Ohio, Buckeyes; of Oregon, Webfoot and Hardcases ;of Pennsylvaniar, Penances and Leatherheads: of Rhode Island, Gun Flints ; of South Carolina, Weasels ; of Tennessee, Whelps ; of Texas, Beef-heads ; of Vermont, Green Mountain Boys ; of Virginia, Beadles ; of Wisconsin, Badgers. With pleading eyes she looked up from the piano, and sang, " Call me your darling again." But he refused, as there were witnesses around, and there is no telling when a man will be introduced to a breach of promise suit in these days. ; " Say, Johnsing, why does you remind me of a mad dog ?" said one colored brother to another, who was recumbing under a buffalo-robe. " Gib it up," was the answer. " Kase you's got hide-rough-ober-yer 1 Yah, yah !" To dance well, a man should know as little as possible of everything else. He can balance partners better if his hair is parted in the middle. A woman thinks a man brave if he only picks up a cockroach with his fingers, but she doesn't think it requires any courage to swear off for three weeks. An ex-mayor of St Louis asked his •wife to sign a conveyance of some property which he wished to sell, and to his surprise and anger, she refused. He swore that unless she complied he would never speak to her again ; but she still remained obdurate. This occurred sixteen years ago ; and although they have been living a loving couple ,and have ever since lived in the same house, they have never, from the moment of the dispute, directly exchanged a word. When circumstances make communication between them absolutely necessary, they have hitherto respectively addressed their daughter, and she spoke for both. Their questions so put were always framed in the third person. The daughter unfortunately died at the beginning of September ; but the ex-mayor and his wife, although feeling her loss acutely, still decline to open their mouths for purposes of mutual consolation or interchange of thought ; and it seems probable that this strange'state of affairs will continue until one or both of them can speak no mOXC .—PaU Mall Gazette.

A London paragraphist says : As an' illustration of tho actual mental calibre of some of the English schoolboys, I give a paraphrase of the Prodigal Son as written out, b}- a youthful genius of our Midlands,at a certain Sunday School the other day. There is a drawing room game called " Tradition," in which the fun lies in seeing how a story comes out after passing through several hands, but I think my readers will agree with me that this lad had so great a gift of confusion of thought that he could play the game all by himself to perfection : " The Prodigal Son was once_3ent to sell some grain. On his way back some thieves met him and stripped him and took his money.from him, and then the son dare not go home to his father, but ran away, and his father went' after him to seek for him. One day a good way off he went to church, and said how he had lost a son, and. after they were all gone out of the church but the father of the son, the son came out from under the seats, and the man took him home and blessed him." #

A gentleman who has just arrived from the tropics wants a good warm place where he can spend the summer. This is hot enough to suit us, but if he is uncomfortable he might go to some country place where there is no shade and kick over a bee hive. If he does not find this hot enough, he might cut his throat.

There is an apalling outbreak of initials in the papers. Meetings of the Y.M.U.8., the A.0.U.W., 1.0. P.R., and the J.G.A., are announced without fear of consequences. We mean to stop this by explaining these dark hints. Your Most Ugly Batchelors, the Ancient Order of Ugly Women, the Immense Order of Prize Roosters, and the Jackasses Gone Astray are now unmasked, and must seek other disguises.