MISCELLANEOUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 936, 26 March 1880, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

We judge that some winked person has been kicking the editor of the Cincinnati Gazette. Anyhow, he says the editor of the Commercial has a cloven foot, and he knows it! The following is told of a young gentleman who was passing an examination in physics. He was asked, ‘What planets wore known to the ancients ?’ • Well, sir, 1 he answered, ‘there were Venus and Jupiter, and’—after a pause-‘I think the Earth, but I’m not quite certain.’ A country correspondent sends us the following soul-harrowing conundrum : Why do pigs thrive better on sour milk than they do on sweet ? And the answer is —Because they get more of it. An interesting archaeological discovery is reported from Palestine. An Arab, who was quarrying stone the other day at a place about four miles and a half from Gaza, unearthed a marble figure, supposed to be a colossal god of the Philistines. The dimensions of the figure are—3' feet from the top of its head to the end of its beard ; 54mches from shoulder to shoulder j total height 15 feet. There is na inscription. The pedestal is a huge block carved in one piece with the figure. The statue was found in a recumbent position, buried in the sand upon the top of a hill, near the sea. It had apparently been removed from its original site, which is unknown. An Italian paper thus tabulates the attempted regicides of 1 STS and 1ST!): There have hem two a' racks on the Kmp.rn- William, one against King Horn on

ono against King Alfonso, and two against the Czar. Sovereigns, it remarks, will soon their years of rule by these outrages, the Czar having experienced four and the Emperor William five. Napoleon 111. had seven. A Paris correspondent writes—The reputation for eccentricity which Englishmen always enjoy in the opinion of their neighbours does not seem likely to die out. A day or two ago a son of Albion laidj a wager of £20)0 that he would remain on the top of the Arcade Tnomphe for four hours with nothing on but a suit of thin canvas. Any one who has felt the cold that has reigned in Paris during the last week will appreciate the difficulty of tho task which the hardy Englishman accomplished, winning the bet. The thermometer showed 15 degrees of cold during this gentleman’s sojourn on high. France was obliged; last year, owing to the bad harvest, to import articles of consumption to tho value of 1,800,000,000 francs, and but for free trade the amount of suffering in the country would have been incalculable.