MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 176, 25 March 1873, Page 7

MISCELLANEA.

A Pittsburg paper wants a real prii. tors’ nionumeu' or ctcd to Horace Greeley, to no cist from worn-out typo, which newspaper offices a l l over the country can conribut/. A sagacious Germ in writer,' complaining of the difficulties in the pronunciation of the English language, ci es the word “ Buz,” which, he siys, is pronounced “ Dickons.” When the gas mains were laid in Geelong some ten or twelve years since, a mile or two of paper pipes were put down as an experiment. Recently, when laying on a servicepipe for Gale’s balloon, some of them were unearthed, and found to be in as good a condition as when first laid down, while the iron ipes near the same place were nearly corr< d al throng 1 . A recent calculation relative to the principal European languages, shows that English is spoken by 90 mi.lions of persons, inhabiting Great Britain and Ireland, North America, the Bermudas, Jamaica. Cape of Good Hope, Australia, Van Diemen's Land, Newfoundland, and the East Indies ; German by 55 millions, in their own country, Switzerland, Austria, Hungavv, Russia, North and South Atnoric i, La PI; t,, Australa 1 ia, and the East Indies ; Spanish by 55 millions, in Cuba, Mexico, the republics of South America, Manilla, etc. ; and French by 45 millions, in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Cayenne. and North America.

Great clisiross prevai's in many parts of Ireland for want of coal. Near Tralee one lire is often made to serve the wants of a dozen families, and some persons have been two days without cooked food. A correspondent from Dingle writes thus :—This will b i a terrible year for Ireland I am afraid, it has been such a wet season. Tiie people have had no chance of saving their turf, and coals are now £‘3 per ton here. There is very little hay in the country, and what oats and j straw there is is almost useless. You v. o ild | he astonished to see the amount of grass in | the country that is not cut, and the amount I that is, but cannot besiv d. I expict luv i will be £3 per ton : its usual pr'cc here is £3 1 10s to £3. | We will tell a rather barefaced stny of how a chambermaid is said to have got t velva | commercial travellers into eleven bed-roon s, | and yet to have given each a separate room. Here we have the eleven rooms i"V2j 3 nr sM rjTTs] Trr io] u I “Now,” says she, “if you two gent’emen Avill stop i:i No. ] bedroo n, and wait there a few minutes, i’ll find a spare room for one of you, as soon as I have shown the others to their rooms.” Well, now, having thus bestowed iwi gentlemen in No. 1, she puts the third in No. 2, the fourth in No. 3, the fifth | in No. 4, the sixth in No. 5, the seventh in No. 6, the eighth in No. 7, the ninth in No. 8, the tenth in No. 9, the eleventh in No. It). She then cam? back to No. 1, where you will remember she left the twelfth gentleman along with the first, and said ; “I have now accommodated all the rest, and still have a room to sp ire, so, if you will please step into No. 11, you will find it empty.” Of course, there is a “hole in the saucepan” somewhere, but we leave the reader to determine exactly where the fallacy is. The statement that a train had been stopped by a host of locusts will seem to most persons tubs one if an extra or ’iuari'y exaggerated nature, and yet the B nflhjo Advertiser is assured that such was the fact on the line between Castlemaine and S indhurst on the 22nd ut. As the 7.4’> train did not atrivetotime, the stationmasler coumuinmated with Castlemaine by teleg aph, and was informed that it had started at the usu d tune. Having waited for some time, lie ordered a special engine to be got ready to proceed down the lino, but before it could s-.vt the train ; reived, being half an hour behind time. Tie guard reported that when near Harem rt the train was suddenly brought to a sVn Ist ill, .and on inspection it was found that an obstruction had been caused by an i nmens? ac.unmlatiou of locusts on the lino, covodng t ho ground to a depth of four inches. As the insects were crushed under the fore-wheels of the locomotive, the line became so slippery that the driving-wheels would not grip. The rails wore sanded to no purpose, and at last small pebbles were used, and even then four trucks had to be left behind.

Hero is a bit of goo'! ncus’blo advice from •Tosh Filings, done into English, entitled “Pay as you go'b— ‘This little maxim has been at the service o‘" the world for ag<. s, supported by n > particular pretensions'to rhetoric. but brimful of practical philosophy and plebeian souse adapted to the latitude and longitude of every human creature. It contains within its four monosyllables an analysis of wealth : it is fortune’s stepping-stone, and a letber-of-cre.lit none can distrust wherever it g >es. It is the right-bmvor of economy, and inaid-of-hoiiour to pleasure ; it fills the day-hour with quit t, and drives the bailiff from the night-dream. Pay as you go, and you will know how fash you are going, how far you have gone, and when it is time to stop : tradesmen will bow when they meet yon, and debt with its hungry widf-tread will starve on your track. Pay as you go tempers luxury and chastens want —adds dignity to the poor man and grace to the r.ch man—wrongs none and is justice to all. Hero is an antidote to much that is sought for by the philosopher s stone : here is a motto for manhood : here is a leaven for any sized lump, lining man, pay as you go; and when you get old you will not depart from it. Other virtues will certainly-cluster around you, and when Nature hands in her last bill, you will bn all the bettor prepared to pay as you go."