MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 226, 10 March 1874, Page 7

MISCELLANEA.

A Sioux Indian girl has appeared on the operatic stage in San Francisco. The widow.of Tom Sayera.was lately sent to gaol for a fortnight for neglecting to send her children to school. • Some'pearls from the fisheries on tliQ.northwestern coast of Australia have been sold by auction in Loudon at high prices. News from the gold-fields in French Guiana (Cayenne) states that a negro, named Celede, picked up 140 kilos. (300lbs) weight of gold in six. weeks, but that he went mad on seeing himself made a Croesus so suddenly. A medical journal draws attention to the construction of German cigars, which are described "-'as even worse-than the cigars sold in England." In German cigars are to be found bristles, hair, wood, bits of linen, leather, shirt-buttons, 'teeth, feathers, cord, and matches. - A private telegram from Auckland informs the Star that "the' notorious Sullivan' still remains in this place in charge of Sergeant Watson. He compares himself to the Son of Man, as he cannot find a resting place of free-

j dom whereon to lay his head. He has most j urgently requested to be sent back to Dunjedin gaol, there to end the remainder of his idavs." i The Geelong Adver'uer, is responsible for the following.:—" At the Smythesdale sports jE. Ebellis vaulted ten feet seven inches. If we mistake not this is the highest vault that has been done in public in the known world ; ten feet six inches being, it is thought, given as the best ever done in England. The old champion, M: E. Gullen, of Winchelsea, is said to have cleared eleven feet in a private rtial ; ..but old age and flesh are beginning to tell on him; as he only cleared ten feet three inches. Ebellis is only eighteen years of age, and, therefore, has plenty of time to improve even on his last grand performance." The monstrous sized eels that are to be found in the rivers here are proverbial. But on the Heathcote is a malthouse, and, I presume, there they fatten to perfection. At all events, a woman living near the locality in question, and having a number of ducks, "was surprised the other day to notice one of them kicking up some extraordinary capers with its legs in the air, and its head under the water. As it was near the side the woman reached the legs of the duck and began pulling them, thinking that the head was entangled in. weeds. ■ But she tugged and tugged, but all to no purpose, until the neck suddenly gave way, the head being down the gullet of a huge eel which she just caught sight of, and which she states to have been as thick as a man's thigh. Imagine the situation !—Ohristchurch correspondent of the Daily Times. Making Bricks Without Straw.—A

writer in the Hawke's Bay Herald lias beer trying to make paragraphs without material, and—to do him justice—appears to have succeeded. Here is one of his best efforts “To inform our readers that there is a dearth of local intelligence is unnecessary ; a glance at our columns, and at those of our contemporary, sufficiently informs our readers on this head, without their attention being called |to the matter. We decline to chronicle what everybody knows, that the weather continues hot and oppressive, that there is nothin] cooling to be had, and that butcher? are driven to distraction. We are in too parboiled a condition to invent stories of a fire in the country, a murder, or an elopement; and we cannot afford to pay a cab-driver the amount asked to capsize his trap, or drive over an old Maori woman; Under the circumstances our columns are uninteresting; and the only consolation to be derived from the fact is, that we may presume everybody is happy, prosperous, and contented. News is so scarce, that if ■ any one contemplating throwing himself or herself from a first-floor window, will kindly inform us of his or her intention in time, we shall be happy to attend the scene, and we guar in tee to give as vivid a report of the shocking occurrence as our limited powers of descriptive writing will allow. . We would throw out as a hint that, if the intending self-murderer can import into the story of his reasons for such a rash act, an account, of harrowed feelings and broken heart.consequent on misplaced affection, the report will bo much-more.interesting.*’