SCISSORS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4189, 24 December 1884, Page 4

SCISSORS.

According to some term an papers, Germany is interested in Egyptian bonds to tho amount of £15,000,000. Edinburgh can now claim to be nearly the healthiest city in tho kingdom. Its death rate, by ofiicial return, is given at fifteen in the thousand. Twenty-five per cent greater than New Zealand. An eccentric character has bequeathed to the French Academy of Fine Arts a sum of money to be devoted to an annual prize of 2,000fr., which wiil fall to the painter who has taken tho lowest position in the competition for the Prix do Rome. There is talk in Paris of ro-establishing" tho gambling tables, and to tax them for the benefit of the pauper class. On the other hand, it is reported that the central authority is conducting tho war upon the secret gaming-houses with great energy. The Lancet recently intimated that " late dinners, champagne and cigars lead to an early tomb," and now we road at the Medical Congress of Copenhagen 1,200 doctors "put away" -1,000 bottles of Bollinger, and other wines, at one banquet. Hero is precept warring with practice with a vengeance. One noticeable feature about Jewish cemeteries in the South of Europe is said to he the scarcity of newly-made graves after nn epidemic of cholera of yellow fever, statistics show that fewer of tho race die than any other race from these of kindred diseases, entirely duo to the simplicity of their diet. An interesting example of utilisation of "waste products has been made in a shop "window in New York, in the shape of a nunibcr of hanks of thread of different textures and colours, some being as soft as tbo finest silk, other as rough as hemp. These hanks are the result of an attempt, which seems likely to be successful, to utilise the various wild grasses and stalks for textile purposes. This is how announcements arc made from tho pulpit of Ornithic Church, in Scotland: "Dearly Beloved Brethren—Previous to singing the second hymn will j'ou take notice that on and after Monday next the coach from Ballater to Balmoral will start five minutes earlier ! J Also that Sanely Macphcrson has lost v colley dog, which answers to the name of ' Wallace ' ; anyone bringing the same to tho head groom at the Castle will be rewarded. Also, that all copies of the sporting papers containing an account of the late great fight between Jack Massey and Coddy Middings aro to be returned to the Royal Free Library at once, we will now sing tho second hymn." A Scotchman who had at an early period of his career come to London, and as is proverbially the case with folks of his nationality, had remained in the metroplis, was at tho bedside of his dying wife, who had originally come from tho Highlands, and had always retained a strange all'ection for the land of her birth. " Promise mo, Angus,'she said, "that yell bury me in the Hielands; I could never rest quiet down hero." "Wool," replied the prudent Angus, who did not relish the expense of removing the body to Scotland, "wool, I'll just see. If I find that ye canna rest quiet hero I'll have ye removed to the Hielands." —Topical Times. The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, of New Zealand, who gave a lecture on that country at the Metropolitan Tabernacle recently, seem.' to have the same happy knack of combining worldliuess with godliness as his father, and there was capital "business" betweei: them. Mr. Spurgeon, junioi*, playfully remarked that the New Zealanders were "by no means tho outlandish people some imagined, for they had all tho best products of civilisation, including sowing machine.' steam tramways, and Spurgeon sermons.' : Mr. Spurgeon, senior, returned the compliment by congratulating the good people of Auckland on having a pastor so like himself —a man above all things, who was " nol ovorburdened with refinement which is f thing- not cultivated here," with which remark the hat was sent round for subscriptions towards a new tabernacle at Auckland, of which, needless to say, Mr. Spurgeon junior is to be the pastor. Mr Garrard said he would vote deae against Sir John's outrageous proposal. There were too many women in the lane already, and what we really want is more men. Only the other day he was told the tale of a clergyman who was called out oi bed at, 1 a.m. by a countrywoman of Mr Buchanan's, who implored him to marry her at once for fear lest she should lose hoi lover. " But, my good woman," said the clergyman, as he poked his red nightcapdecorated head out of the bedroom window. " I have married you to three husband* already. Don't you think this is coming il rather frequent? I want a rest, even if yoi don't. Where's the Hnymnrkct warrioi that I married you to on Friday last ?' : " Well, t' tell y' tha trooth, sir," replied the weeping" dame, "he's dead. He didn't Icnow- the yun -\\-us loaded, but it w.-is ; anc that made tho seventh husband I've lost clurin' th' Inst twa years. I'm sure there. nao anither woman in tho wurriltl that's Boon tormented wi' scch a set o' gowky, dyin' men as I've been." In some of the sensational novels of the old school the heroine, who is of course nn heiress, is forced under the point of the pistol by the villains to sign her name tc some document, which in the easiest maune* possible, makes over all her property to them. A statement somewhat to the same effect was made by a member of the money-lend-ingfraternityin the Melbourne County Court recently. He had a person upon a judgment summons, to know why he did not pay some money owing to him. Tho debtor produced a receipt for payment of tho debt. The money-lcndtr, however, affirmed that one day he went to tho debtor's house to get his just debt. While in one of the rooms there two men came in, and while a woman held a large iron bar over his head tho men forced him to sign some document which he knew now was tho receipt produced. The solicitor who appeared for the debtor asked His Honor to swallow the story cum i/rruic srriif. The house, he said, was on the opposite sido of the road to a police station, and police were passing the door of the house continually. The creditor had not either given any information to the police about tho affair. His Honor appeared cynical about the statement, but maelc an order for some part of the money owing, as the debtor had not clearly proved she had paid the debt oil' in full. Tho Home News writes :—" The centenary of Lord birth, Oct. 20, 188-1, is an event which might well have "been reincmbercel by Englishmen of all parties. This statesman, who died Prime Minister less than twenty years ago, is well within tho rocollcedion of those who have not yet reached middle life. He entered Parliament as far back as ISO 7, and was iv 1800 as Secretury-at-"War, vigorously carrying" ou hostilities against the First Napoleon. Nineteen years in tho Government of Lord

Liverpool, one of the straitest of Tories, he became successively Foreign Minister, Home Secretary, and twice First Lord of the Treasury in Liberal Administrations. Dying in ISOS, he had been in Parliament nearly a tenth part of its entire existenco since it was first summoned by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. His genial presence and his kindly old age made him universally popular amongst the masses of his countrymen, and from the way in which he upheld the honor of England in all parts of the globe his name will ever be held in reverence wherever the British flag is flung out upon the breeze and the shores of our dependencies are washed by the waters of distant oceans.