ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 860, 11 October 1878, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

o - A country schoolmaster was lately fined LlO damages for having injured a girl’s thumb by striking it accidentally with a cane with which he was rapping a desk as a signal for order among the scholars. *t Edinburgh a man, while in a somnambulistic condition, killed his child by dashing it against the walls of his room. Tbe jury returned a verdict that he was not responsible for his actions, and he was discharged. the Judge advising him to take precautions for the future. An ‘‘Old Paper ” Society exists in the Netherlands, the members of which devote to the Pope the proceeds of the waste paper sold annually by the 1.200,000 Roman Gatholics. Last year the sum amounted to one thousand pounds. The la*est pedestrian feat is that of an adventurous diver, who undertook a subfluvial walk across the Thames from (xrefciiwioh to the Isle of Dogs. He accomplished his task in a quarter of an hour, and recrossed in the same fashion in twelve minutes. A successful trial of a flying machine has been made in America. It went up to the height of 250 feet, the operator exhibiting his power to change its altitude and diree” tion at will. Theatrical business in Pompeii, which has been at a standstill since the eruption of Vesuvius, a.d. 79, appears,the ‘Theatre’ tells us, to be looking up, judging from the following announcement of Signor Lnigni : the theatre of this city will be reopena 1. I solicit the continuance of the favor bestowed on my predecessor, Marcus Quintus. Martins, and beg to assure the public that I shall make every effort to equal the rare qualities displayed during his management. ” , , D Somnambulism is getting both fashionable and dangerous. The other night, at Headley, in Hampshire, a young woman got up in ber sleep, and with a carving-knife cut off the heads of twenty fowls, killed five rabbits, and etabbe I a favorite donkey. She is to he examined by au eminent Lon- i don Physician, The nopulation of Cyprus has boon van- 1 ously stated at from one to two hundred thousand ; but the wide difference between these figures will surprise no one who reflects that the only basis of calculation are the returns of tbe Turkish tax-gatherers. A man aged 148 years has recently died at the little village of Kirkbraoht, Germany. An electrical braoe’et, connected with a battery and an alarm clock, is the latest method of awakening heavy sleepers across the Atlantic. The Hotel at Fontainebleau, where the Shah of Persia is said to have rebelled against the *• little bill,” is now every morning inscribed by some would be wag with the sentence. Au Shnh Ecorclti— the “ Skinned Shnh ” —doubtless a suggestion to mine host to chan e his sign in commemoration of the Persian sovereign’s visit. The sale of Ex-Queen Isabella’s jewels has been concluded this week in Paris, the proceeds amount to L 137.480. A novel hive has been adopted by some Yorkshire bees, according to the Live Stock Journal, Two hives of bees were being taken along a street in Leeds last week, when a swarm flew out, and took possession of a street-lamp, from which all attempts to dislodge them has hitherto failed. Chinese in the United States have some reason to complain that the boasted Republican equality is in manv cases preached and not practised. Thus a Chinaman who had lived for twenty-eight years in New York has been refused naturalisation as an American citizen on the plea that the earlier naturalisation laws alluded only to white persona, and the later laws only made exception in favor of persons of African descent. So the Chinaman, being a Mongolian, or of the yellow race, is neither wbit“ nor Mack enough to vote. Certainly not a “ happy medium.” The end of the world is confidently expected by the Indian Wahabees on the. 11th of next Julv. A certain nriest in the Mosque at Medina has recently been visited by the Prophet Mahomet, who laments the degeneracy of his followers, and attributes the late droughts and famine to the neglect of his precep's, and to the apathy and corruption of the judges who govern his ncople. Since his admission to Paradise, the Prophet adds, only seven Musslemans have attained to eternal bliss Accordingly, so unsatisfactory is the present state of things that Allah has decided that the sun shall iisc in the west instead of the east on July 11th, and on that day all who call themselves true believers shall be struck with blindness, and dissolution shall immediately follow. The warning is detailed in a proclamation posted in nearly every mosque in Northern Indin, and the priest favored with the Pronhet’s visit declares “ if there be a word of falsehood in what I have stated let my face be blackened for ever.”