ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 368, 30 January 1880, Page 3

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

The Thames Star vouches for the accuracy of the following story :—Some months ago the community of a North New Zealand town was thrown into a state of painful excitement at tin", suicide of a highly ror-pectod young man who had Jived for some years in their midst. Some time after the sad affair a friend 0 f hjs—our informant —was shown by the deceased*? widow three letters addressed to the unfortunate young man. They were from friends in different parts of the world, and, strange to say, all three had been written on the same day, and at the snme hour, or the exact time when poor took away his own life. The senders of the letters had not been regular correspondents of , and the fact of their all sitting down to write to him at the hour of his death is an exceedingly strange and unprecedented j coincidence. A Justice of the Peace in Illinois, Wore whom a citizen had prosecuted his daughter's lover for ejecting him from his parlor on the i-midny evening previous, solemnly decided as follows .— " It 'pears that this young feller was courtin' the plaintiff's gal, in plaintiff's parlor, and that the plaintiff intruded and was put out by the defendant. Courtin* is a public necessity, and must not be interrupted. Therefore, the law of Illinois will hold that a parent has ju ] o gal right in a room where courtin' is a-iont, >° t]l(! dufendant is {]is ' chartrod and the plaintiff must pay costs." A liulc j-.M'l :>sl-:ed her niofher : " Have aiigci'- wings ?" The unsuspecting niammii full of memories of picture? ,md traditions, answered: " (>rtnjniv ill")' have." Straightway young j m mi_iiive sprung her trap. "Then why did tLev want a ladder t<> got dow-i to ducob .' :> Miimma ansv.evd f ! "! ; ; Voting IprjuU'liveV U dime was at hand. y, ... ~..,,.- ' . . .-.,-■ , -.-. • .-. ; ~ y .\.;vn ■;('.-■■. -ih deviation wsik Isc-

A civil service marriage is thus recorded by the Reno Gazette, United States : — Judge Richardson doesn't pretend to be a parson, and therefore isn't so w'-l! up in the marriage ceremony as the slimy supporters of a decaying hierarchy are. The young couple stood up hefoiv him the other evening, and the Judge inquired in a cross-questioning tone of fl.e groom : " Are you a citizen of the United States?" The groom took hold of the wristband of his trousers and tugged, saving : —" I voted for Tilden," Judge." '" Why, James !" faintly exclaimed the blushing creature by his side. " It's a fact, Emmer," protested James, rather indignantly, and glaring at the Judge. His Honor coughed, and demanded severely : " Do you. sir, as a citizen of Nevada, and a lawful voter of Reno, solemnly declare that you will forsake all other evils and cleave to this one ?" " I've money to bet on it," responded the groom, growing pale, hut placing his arm round the waist of the shrinking bride. " Then," cried the Judge, bringing his fist down on the desk, " God has joined you together, and damn the man that puts you asunder. The fee is just what you like to give, young fellow." It was pretty liberal, and the Court set them up, and kissed the new wife several times besides. This is the time at which the small boy knocks a picket off the fence to utilise as a baseball bat. Two hours later, a goat meanders through the aperture and regales himself on tulips and mignonette and currant bushes. One hour after that, Angelina goes out with the watering-pot. These three events combined cause more domestic circus in ten minutes than.can be adequately described in an hour. A young man played with the tail of a mule. From a bed of anguish he asked his father, between the applications of arnica, if when he recovered he would be as handsome as he was before the accident, his personal comeliness being a matter of pride. " No," replied the old gentleman, " you will not be as pretty as you were, but you will have a great deal more sense." A letter written by the Rev. F. G. Raton off Efante, Ist November, and published in the Soutlkm Cross (Melbourne) of a recent date, gives the following account of a strange fish :— When the anchor -was almost lifted, and the vessel ready,to start from Eromanga, an incident happened which cast a dark shadow over us for a time. A very strange looking fish had been seen around the vessel at some distance below the water. Every effort to catch one had failed, -when a teacher speared one of them, and brought it to the captain in water, when it appeared as if surrounded by feathers owing to its very long fins. It had also from its forehead two processes! like, horns, an inch and a half or so long, and soft after it was dead. Its tail and long fins were beautifully colored .like a turtle-shell. All round the top of its fins were a row of sharp spines like darning needle points. The captain had given his orders, and the men were just about to set the vessel in motion when lie thought he would take a look at.the strange fish. As he attempted to lift it out of the water, it stuck one of its sharp spines into the top of his finger, which in a moment caused excruciating pain. I saw him spring from it in agony, but knew not the cause. Learning what had taken place I at once bandaged his wrist with my pockefhandkerchief as tightly as it could be tied, and a little higher up with a tape, as firmly compressed as possible. As I got to him his fingers were being paralysed and crumped, and a moment or two after his he;id fell heavily on my arm, and consciousness appeared almost gone. We gave him a large dose of brandy and opium, and sucked the puncture, round which a dark ring was rapidly spreading ; and as he lay on the deck sinking, in the absence of a lancet, Mr Robertson got a penknife, and I cut tlirough the wound, but no blood came. I then cut deeper, right across the dark ring, yet no blood came, till by strong and persevering sucking of the wound it came, and flowed so freely I was afraid I had cut an artery, but as the bleeding continued consciousness returned, and he gradually recovered. 1 dressed the wound with ammonia and cold water, and kept the bandage on and wet till till next day, when we relaxed it, and in a few days lie was all right again. He takes the fish to Sydney preserved in spirits.