DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 528, 26 February 1876, Page 3

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Oregon has a new town called Pay Up. It is said to be a good town for settlement. An observing man remarks that the bald-headed men comb their heads with towels.

" No, ma'in," said a grocer to an applicant for credit, " I wouldn't even trust my feelings." ' Bless you,' said John Henry, with tears in his eyes, ' she takes her own hair off so easy that perhaps she doesn't know how it hurts to have mine pulled out.' See here, Mr Hauser, of Chicago, crawled into a sewer in Dubuque while drunk, and was smothered in the mud. Would you call this whiskyside, sewercide, or murder ? A woman in New York says that when her husband is a little drunk he kicks her, and that when he is very drunk she kicks him; and she adds that she does most of the kicking. Two rival belles of New York met at a fancy ball last winter. * How well you look under candlelight !' exclaimed one. 'And how charming you are in the dark !' said the other.

Longfellow's new poem, " The Masque of Pandora," was issued to the public on the 22nd November. The story embodied in it is that told by the Greek writers, though in one instance there is ra'her an important departure from the myth in its original form.

A second edition, revised, of " The Rights ani Duties of Nations in Time of War," by Sir Travers Twiss, will shortly be published by Messrs Longmans and Co. There will, says the Academy, be a new introduction to this edition, containing a judicial review of results of the wars of the last ten years, and of the modifications introduced during that period in the exercise of belligerent rights. News has reached Cairo from Abyssinia that a detachment of Egyptian troops under the command of a colonel has been surprised by Abyssinians. The Egyptian troops fought desperately, but they were almost annihilated, leaving seventeen officers and 1200 men dead on the field. Arakel Bey, Colonel Arendrup, and Count Zichy are among the killed. A fresh expedition has been ordered from Egypt. The information just published from the Colonial Office with reference to the disturbances in the Malay Peninsula is certainly (says a London contemporary) most important, and at first eight, it must be admitted, a little startling. From this it would appear that, previous to the outbreak which occurred on the murder of Mr Birch, the relations of the British Government towards Perak had assumed an entirely new form, and that the policy of Sir Andrew Clarke had received an unexpected development in the hands of Sir W. Jervoii. By a proclamation dated the 15th of October, and signed by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, it was announced that " her Majesty's Government, in compliance with the request of the Sultan and the chiefs of Perak, have determine:! to administer the Government of Perak in the name of the Sultan ; and that to this end the governor is about to appoint officers who will be styled Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of the Queen, to carry on the Government of the State, and that a Malay Council of Rajahs of Perak of the highest rank will be appointed to aid the said Commissioners in matters touching the affairs of the government of Perak." It cannot be denied that this has very much the appearance of assuming "the responsibilities of annexation" in Perak ; but it is not yet certain that this is the true state of the case,, and until we get further particulars it is premature to discuss the question whether the annexation or quasi-annexation of territory is or is not a step too important to be settled by a colonial governor on his own responsibility. An ordinance approved by the Emperor at Berlin carries out the first step in the future military incorporation of AlsaceLorraine—now garrisoned, be it remembered, wholly by detachments from other parts of Germany—into the general system of the German Empire. There are districts regularly assigned the future landwehr formations and landwehr recruiting depots of the province. The Lorraine regiment (of two bat--talions) is to be raised at Thionville and Saarburg ; the reserve battalion of the same*, with its recruiting staff, at Metz; the AlsaceLorraine landwehr regiment of Saargemund and Haguenau, with quarters not fixed yet for the reserve ; the Lower Alsace regiment at Molsheim and Schlettstadt, with its reserve battalion at Strasburg; the Upper Alsace regiment at Colmar and Altkirck - T and, finally, the reserve battalion of this at Mnlhouse. These three reserve battalions are numbered to correspond with the three regiments now missing in the German Army List, Nos 97, 98, and 99 ; and when the line regiments to be in future raised from the districts represented are formed, they will be attached to the Wurtemberg Army Corps to raise it to the normal German strength. The Rev Dr Badger has forwarded to the Pall Mall Gazette the following telegram, dated November 17th, which he has received from the Sultan of Zanzibar :—" Tell English people Egyptians, with four ships and 400 soldiers and guns, have without notice seized and occupied north of Zanzibar dominions, taken down my flag at Brawa and Kismayo, seized the forts and disarmed my troops." "Brawa (Dr Badger writes} is an important town containing a population of about three thousand souls, many of whom make trading journeys to the Galla tribes, and as far north as Harar, whieh has also recently been annexed by Egypt. Brawa is a thriving place, growing a considerable quantity of cotton ; it possesses also an extensive manufacture of pottery. The town ia not far removed from the Wabi or Haines's river, which is supposed to be navigable for some distance into the interior. Kismayo, the other locality named in the telegram as having been seized, is situated about 280 miles to the south of Brawa, and is another important place close to Port Durnford and the river Jub or Juba, which also extends into the Galla country, from whence large quantities of elephant tußks, hippopotamus and other hides are brought for export beyond sea. Port Durnford is undoubtedly one of the most eligible maritime stations on the northern shores of the east coast of Africa." A telegram from Cairo says that no news has been received there confirming the statements made in the Sultan's telegram; but a despatch from Aden, dated November 30th, says :—" Intelligence received here from Zanzibar announces that an Egyptian force has occupied the Juba and Kismayo districts in the territory of the Sultan of Zanzibar. The Egyptians disarmed the Sultan's troops and hoisted the Turkish flag."