MISCELLANEOUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 708, 12 November 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

—o— A "maiden “speech —Yea. Material for kites.—Fly papers, The caves of woman suffrage.—Scarcity of husbands. Why is tho capital of Turkey like a whimsical patient? Because it’s constaut to no pill. There are now in Milan, as it is said, 300 American girls studying singing with a view to operatic stage. Cheek kills fewer men in America than in any country in the world. What is it which has a mouth and never speaks, and a bod and never sleeps ? A river. He who troubles?himself more than he needs grieves also more than is necessary ; for the same weakness which makes him anticipate his misery makes £him enlarge it too.

The secret of Health. —First, keep cool ; second, eat regularly and slowly; third, maintain regular bodily habits ; fourth, take early and very light suppers—or, better still, none at all; (ifth, keep a clean skin ; sixth, get plenty of sleep at night; seventh; keep cheerful and respectable company';, eighth, keepoutotdebt; ninth, don’t set your mind on things you don’t need ; tenth, mind your own business ; eleventh, don’t set up to be a “ sharp ” of any kind ; twelfth, subdue curiosity. According to the Iron Age, a wedge or plate of iron has been found imbedded in the masonry of the great Pyramid, the indications being that it must have been wrought in the age of Cheops, placed by some authorities as far back as 5400 years ago. This makes tho use of iron 2500 years more ancient than it is supposed to be, and affords opportunity for explaining the cutting of the sharp and well-declined hierogliphics on porphyry, granite, and other hard stones employed in the construction of Egyptian pyramids, temples, and tombs.

Mr Maoready, in the lately published Reminiscences, says Lord Gwyder recommended me a defence against cold, to which, through my long life, I have been constantly indebted, under east winds or in cold weather, I never fail, even now to protect myself. This is simply two or three sheets of paper across the chest, buttoned under the waistcoat, forming a cuirass impenetrable by Boreas, Emms, or any of the malignant gales that drive cough, and too often consumption, into the lungs of the unwary. This simple breastplate will, on the coldest day, without extra upper clothing, diffuse under exercise warmth through the whole frame, and has proved to me one of the most valuable receipts.” An interesting chapter respecting the natives of New Hebrides appears in Commander Markham’s “cruise of the Rosario " He specially refers to the poisoning of arrows, and the invariable results wbiob follow these wounds—that is, death from tetanus. All the arrows used in war are poisoned, and are not feathered. “ I was unable,” says Commander Markham, “to discover the precise nature of the poison with which their arrows are tipped, whether it is animal or vegetable. But I was told that on the death of a native the arrows were stuck into the kidney fat of the corpse until decomposition takes place. Men wounded by these poisoned arrows invariably die from tetanus, and the only way I could account for the wonderful recovery of one of onr men who was wounded at Nakapa. was, that the arrows were immediately, plucked out before the poison had time to disseminate itself, and copious hemorrhage followed. I learn that the Santa Cruz natives poison their weapons in a similar way.” The Graphic’s Loudon correspondent describes bow London “snobs” ride with the fox hounds, tho truth of which he vouches for : —■“ We have in London a very curious institution called * splashing houses.’ If a snob wishes to make it appear that he lias been riding with the fox hounds of a certain ‘ meet,’ he goes to one of the house and pays three shillings at the door.' A man meets him in the hall and says, ‘ What hounds, sir? Kent, Surrey, Essex?’ and on being informed, he leads tbo gallant hunter to a stable where there is a wooden horse standing in a puddle of Kentish or other mud. The man turns a wheel ; the wooden horse kicks up his heels, and in five minutes the snob is covered with as much mud as he would have gathered had he been riding across country for five hours. Then the splashed one, whip in hand, walks up Pall Mall and Picarlilly, and tells those of his friends whom he meets what a glorious hunt he has enjoyed. This also is quite true. ”

It is terrible this spelling mania (confesses an American contemparary), You are stoppedjupon the street and invited to spell ‘ peddler,’ ‘pedlar,’ ‘pedler,’ or some other word. 1 our wife wakes yon up in the middle of the night to spell 1 sarcophagus your children hasten to ask you to spell ‘ corymb,’ and devote all their spare time to the dictionary ; your eldest boy comes home late at night in weeping mood, and exclaims his sorrow thus—‘l went to see Mary’ his sweetheart this evening; she met mo at the floor with Spell erysipelas, Tom !’ I spelt it with two i’s and no y, and she said, ‘ Sir, our engagement is at an end ; I cannot love a bad speller "any more.’ Her father, on being appealed to, says, ‘Give Tom one more trial. ‘Spell consanguineous, sir.’ I spelled it with four n’a and two i’s, and ho bade mo leave the house and never hope to bo his son-in-law.’ The Earl of Shaftesbury told an amusing story at a meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Ho said that in his part of the country (Dorsetshire) the people had a strong predilection for giving Hebrew panics to their children at baptism. Somelimes, however, they went a little too far. Tn the churchyard of his own parish there was a tombstone which he alwnvs showed to Ins friends vl. > weic interested in such matters, on which wns engrave' l , < Methuselahl Coney, aged twelve month*.’.