MISCELLANEOUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 692, 23 July 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

—o —• A coach and {our camo driving into Uniontown at full speed, and just ns it drew up in front of the hotel one of the horses dropped dead. “ That was a vciy sudden death, ’’ remarked a by-standcr, “ Sudden !” replied tho driver ; “ that horse died nine miles from here, but I wouldn’t lot him drop until I got him into town

The secret of the success of the great blacking manufacturer, llobort Warren, was this :—A wall-chalkor called upon him and told him he would chalk “ Warren’s Blacking ” on every wall ro”nd London for fifty pounds, “[will bet you two hundred pounds to one,” said the shrewd blacking-maker, “ that it cannot be done in a month.” The bet was taken and won. “ The cheapest and best advertisement I ever had,” said Mr Warren, on telling tho anecdote.

The pedestrian feats of Captain Barclay, who walked one thousand miles in one thousand consecutive hours—considered at that time (1809) an almost miraculous feat and the later notable strides of W eston, Mr J. G. Bennet, and others, have been fully equalled by a Miss Richards, at Stapleton, England, who walked one thousand miles within one thousand hours. Miss Richards, it is said, undertook the task in order that her father should win a wager of LSO, and thus set a pleasing example of filial duty as well as physical activity. The stakes on Captain Barclay’s match were of larger dimensions, amounting to LIOO.OOO, the captain himself having no leas than LIC.OOO d<-. pending on it. Captain Barclay, and Miss Richards are, however, not the only pedestrians who have performed a similar feat. They were, indeed, both surpassed bya man named Thomas Standen, of Salehurst, near Silverhill Barracks, who, in July, 1811, for a trifling wager, finished a walk of eleven hundred miles in as many successive hours, walking one mile only in each hour. Mr Standen had not even the advantage of youth on his side, for he was sixty years of age when he took this constitutional, and proved himself an active if not an a sensible old man.

A San Francisco journal gives the following figures concerning the great Palace Hotel now in process of erection in that city“ There are 700 rooms in the house ; 370 hay-windows : the dining-room is 50 feet by 150 feet; accommodation is afforded for 1200 people ; there are five elevators for guests, servants, and baggage ; seven staircases besides ; ceilings 10 feet high ; halls 12 feet wide ; in case of fire there are four miles of hose ; 100,000 gallons of water on the roof; the main central court measures 152 feet by 84 feet; 30 miles of pipes ; 3CO employes ; the building requires 20,000,000 bricks ; of cement, 16,000 barrels ; the cost of ground, building, and, furniture will be 2,750,000d015. Opening day, August 1, 1875.” It is estimated that the nnmber'of rabbits consumed yearly in the United Kingdom is at the least 30,000,000. While acting in Aberdeen in 1820 Maoready met the girl who afterwards became his wife. “ Two young girls,” ho says, “ were walking up and down the stage apparently waiting for the business to begin. One, the manager’s daughter, was a common-looking person ; the other, plainly hut neatly dressed, was distinguishable for a peculiar expression of intelligence and sprightly gentleness.” He was much struck with the simple grace of this actress, who w r as then not quite fifteen, and gave her a great deal of good advice. The interest with which ho regarded her was, he thought “ that of an older friend," and “partook of a paternal character but it gradually assumed a different aspect, and in four years they were married. There is no more pleasing feature of the diary than the tenderness with which he invariably writes of his “ beloved Catherine,” who had the secret of keeping his love fresh and spring, like to the end. When do the teeth usurp the tongue's prerogative?— When they are chattering.