VARIETIES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 112, 2 January 1872, Page 6

VARIETIES.

A Californian cattle raiser hag been trying the experiment of training prairie wolves as sheep-dogs, but finds the sheep get killed before J the education of the wolves is complete. Walter Seott, a cousin of Sir Walter, and bearing a striking resemblance to the author of Waverley, is now residing at Fall Iliver, Massachusetts. Philospohers say that shutting the eyes makes the sense of hearing more acute. A wag suggests that this accounts for the many that are seen cb3ed at church every Sunday. A very precocious child has appeare 1, it is said, at Jamestown, Penn. Though barely three years old, he is four feet high, has a head, arms, and legs as large as an ordinary sized man's, strong voice, and remarkable mental powers. His delighted father, one George S. Kingston, chinks of exhibiting his phenomenal son. It chanced, one gloomy day in the oiinth of December, that a good-humoiu - od Irishman applied to a merchant tt> discount a bill of ex change for rather a long but not an unusual date ; and the having casually remarked that the bill had a great many days to ■ run. " That's true," replied the Irishman ; but '■ consider how shirt tha Jays are at this time of ! the year." A Fireproof Man.—At Maryland, a negro has been found who can endure the experiments hereunder : —A red-hot shovel he placed to the i, soles of his feet ; he held the same hot shovel to his tongue ; he swallowed a large handful of red- ' hot shot ; he swallowed liquid lead, and vomited 1 it up in a solid state ; he handled red-hot coals ; > and after drinking and eating and handling fire, both in a liquid and solid state, his mouth, gums, tongue, lips, and feet and hands were perfectly free from scalds or burns of any kind, . This freedom from the effects of heat he has enjoye.l from boyhood, and he prefers what would 5 be scalding liquids to anyone else to cold water. ■. Hindostanee English.—An officer of the Bengal civil service sends to a paper the following specimens of English as written by native offi- ' cials :—"An ex-schoolmaster, petitioning for a clerkship, promises that ' I and my family will ' cease to pray to the humble Almighty to " shower his blessings on you and yours forever.' a | Another, begging for an increase of salary on aci count of the rise in prices, says, ' My pain and !. I sufferings are impeachable, and lie only in the ! comprehension of gentleman of your honourable ; disposition, ready to open your bowels of compassion, to sympathise with the afflicted, and, o j by extending your gracious hand, to shouldei 3 them from the civil darts of this dear city.' A tj : third makes the following excuse for absence : r : ' Please excuse attending office to-day, as mj . e grandmother despatched her life, and want to gc to tiring-place, to see body' fired, and ashes pui [in hole.' A clerk, complaining of 'fever anc ! grapes,' requests 'most very humbly a day'i I leave,' as he is ' unfortunately ill by the blessing : ' ! ofGod.' ' : Why Me Was Glad.— He stood on his head oi ' the wild seashore, and joy was the cause of th I act; fur he felt as he'd never felt before, —in )■ sanely glad, in fact. And why ? In that vesse that left the bay, his mother-in-law had sailei , to a tropical country far awav, where tigers am 2 snakes prevailed ; and more than one of his ere ditors, too, —bhose objects of constant dread,— 3 had taken berths in the ship Curlew, whose sail were so blithely spread. Oh ! now he migh - look for a quiet life, which he never had know , las yet : (tis true that he still possessed a wife | and was not quite out of debt). But he watche the vessel, this singular chap, o'er the waves, a J I she upped and downed, and he felt exactly as a I " the ediiice was crowned." Till over the bin 10 | horizon's edge she disappeared from view ; the x & up he leaped on a chalky lelge, and danced lik as j a kangaroo \ Awl many a joyous lay he pealu he J o'er the sunset sea, till down with a " fizz" sau er j the orb of day, and then he went home to tea.