ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 789, 1 June 1877, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

—o A shoal of porpoises visited the Thames a short time since, several ascending the river as high as Waterloo bridge. Two years ago three porpoises were shot near Waterloo bridge. There can be little doubt that much meat supposed to be American by consumers, being so ticketed by butchers, never traversed a wider 1 ocean than tbe Irish channel. Vet the name lias had the effect of bringing down prices of home-bred cattle in most of the markets. Prince Louis Napoleoii was twenty-one years old on Friday, the. 16lh day of ,\L >-ch last. A lad at Liverpool, aged nineteen, has been sentenced to six mouths’ hard labor for bigamy. Two men concerned in the Wolverhampton horse-painting case prosecuted by the Jockey Club have both been convicted. One was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, and the other to six months. Lord Marcus BeresLml has heeij fined in the sum of LlOO.and costs for an assault upon a solicitor named Tidy, who had written a letter impugning his Lordship’s veracity. At Sldpto*'-on-Stour, a servant girl, aged fifteen,, is in custody for attempted murder and arson, she having tea times set. fire to the house, and on three different occasions set fire to Hie bed in which her master's children were sleeping. Several of Mr Sankey's hymns have been translated into Chinese aud set to native music, an 1 are now being used at the church of the London Mission in Tienstin. The smallest pony in the world is now in the possession of the young Maharajah of Puttiala. According to the description in a Lahore journal, the tiny animal comes from Nepaul, and though it stands only eight inches high, is the perfect miniature of a well-bred horse. A singular story comes from Dartmoor anent the convict George Bidwell, the American forger. It appears ihat he has been an inmate of the prison infirmary for nearly two years, an 1 that lately the new governor, doubting the genuineness ’of his malady, ordered him In get up and dress. As he positively refused he was carried down to a cold cell and left there unclothed. Within an hour he jumped up and put on Ids clothes. Wlieu he. w;as stripped a curious discovery was made. Beneath bis armpits were found a tame mouse and a rat, which he said lie had naught, aud hail petted and fed with crumbs for many months. “ Lunatic fringp ’’.is the name, given in New York to the fashjou, of cropping the hair, and letting the ends hang down over the forehead. The same “ adornment ” was recently termed by an agricultural contemporary “ Skye terrier fringe.” The re-vaccination epidemic in England has greatly excited the amusement of the San Francisco News Letter, which details the sufferings of Hie Queen’s Household, vaccinated by “ Royal command.” “At the next Levee,” says our contemporary, 142 gentlemen had their arms in slings, 17 ladies in-waiting were in bed, and all the Royal footmen were piteously exclaiming, ‘ Oh, mind my arm!' 'Jhc scene was an affecting one, and will long be remembered in the pleasant halls of Windsor.” Natural flowers for dress trimmings are now the rage in Patis, and the latest fashion is a thick wreath of real rose buds, violets, lilac hyacinths, or ramclina, to he worn across the front of the dress like a Marshal’s sash—a tasteful hut very expensive innovation. The Warrington magistrates have come to the curious resolution of imposing a double fine on all who get drunk on Monday. Whether the Warrington tipplers will in future get drunk on some other day of the week and thus necessitate a transference of the double penalty remains to ho seen.

A short time ago tho gaol of Newgate had a narrow escape of destruction by lire, and now the Clerkonwoll House of Correction bus been partially burnt down. Tho fire broke out in the mill-house and bakery, and seems to have resulted from tho overheating of a stove. It raged for several hours, but was ultimately mastered, and though there were about 1800 prisoners in the building, none were injured or allowed to escape. Two of tho firemen were badly hurt during the performance of their duties. One Sophia Martha Todd, a person about thirty-five years of age, who is said to bo of respectable parentage and good education, is now in custody at Liverpool on suspicion of havmg caused tho death of a child which she seems to have “ adopted ” iu consideration of a premium of LlO paid to her by its parents, and which according to her statement died in her arms on the very night it came into her possession. This incident occurred about tlie middle of the year 1875, and Mrs Todd disposed of the body by packing it up in a box which she left behind he>- on quitting her lodging in Liverpool. The box was only recently opened, and the child was exposed wrapped in some clothes an-l “ perfectly mummified.” The police are said to have ascertained that she was in the habit of advertising for children “to adopt,” a premium being always asked for, and that no fewer than six other children which have been entrusted to her care have (as she asserts) “ died natural deaths-”