ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 571, 28 March 1873, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

o An inmate of the workhouse at Berwick on Tweed was lately awarded one hundred and thirty-three pounds as compensation for his interest in a certain fishery on the river. He left the workhouse to receive the money, spent five pounds at a hosier’s, paid thirteen pounds for his maintenance by the parish, and then made a tour of the public-houses. At night he was found “ drunk and incapable,” and all his money gone. A man named Reuben Ford hasbeensent for trial at Uttoxeter, on a curious charge. He had forged a number of telegrams, and represented himself as a telegraphjemployee he obtained money in payment for them and for answers, which of courseware never sent,, ns he delivered’were fictitious. Two Manchester boys, aged fourteen and fifteen respectively, have adopted the names and profession of Dick Turpin and Claude Duval, and have committed a series of robberies in the churches and chapels. They are now in prison awaiting trial. The Leicester magistrates have fined a lad two guineas, with the alternative of two months’ imprisonment, for kissing a young woman against her will. At 'Westminster police court an inquiry has been made as to the whereabouts of a person named Ambrose, who fifteen years ago was sent to a reformatory, and subsequently shipped to Australia, It was stated that ho is now the heir to a large fortune. The last treasure trove at the Cape of Good Hope is a diamond of 321 carats, which was immediately sold by the finder for 8,500/. In these days of colliers’ strikes, it is consoling to know that a new fuel has beer discovered. The material of which it is composed is said to abound in Italy, is especially suited for machine consumption, and will cost Is BJ. per cvvt. The Queen’s Printers have incurred the displeasure of the Christian Knowledge Society by the issue of some editions of the Prayer Book in which the Baptismal Service and certain offices do not appear. The Japannese Government has spent one million pounds on specimens of native art for the Vienna Evhibition. The total number of emigrants who sailed frora| Liverpool last year amounted to 193,720, being an increase over 1871 of 29,500. It isnot easy to draw op an exact qualification of the degrees of credulity which characteiise the different classes of society, and it would be unfair to the agricultural mind to pretend that none but a British farmer could have been imposed upon like one John Richardson, who has been sueing a certain quack doctor for obtaining money under false pretences. It is to be remarked at the same time, that Richardson belongs to the hard headed race o f Yorkshiremon, who arc supposed to be far above the simpler races of the south and the west in the sharpness with which they detect imposture of all kinds. The moral of the whole story is to the effect that it must he quite as necessary to enforce education upon the masters as upon the men in the villages of the Yorkshire wolds. It was not much less than a year ago that the negotiation began between the quack and the patient, when the latter applied to the former for a bottle of “ Indian Elixir.” In reply, the quack bade him blow through a tube into seme liquid, which forthwith became of the colour of milk, proving it was alleged, that his lungs were in a very bad state, to say nothing of various diseases minutely described. Upon this the farmer contracted with Ilia adviser to be doctored at the rate of two guineas a month, the medicines to be supplied at cost price. Cost price was to include “ carriage from India.” One medicine was described as a “balsam, ”of which the chief Indian manufacturer had just died at the age of 170 years. Happily, a stock was said to be procurable, and was transferred to the sick agriculturist under the names of “ holy trees ” and “ bread of life ” Also he was persuaded to buy a box of ointment, “ of the same kind as that with which Mary anneinted the feet of Christ.” The “ balsam ”on examination, proved to be citrate of magnesia, and the ointment to he butter. When the poor man at length had paid some seventy cr eighty pounds, his suspicions were aroused and in the end the rogue was committed for trial. Of course it is easy for us to laugh at his ignorance and folly ; but after all, -are there not tens of thousands in all classes of society, who arc quite his equals in readiness to accept every imposture, which claims to rest upon clerical, or professional, or scientific authority.— Graphic.