VARIETIES,

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1036, 20 October 1877, Page 3

VARIETIES,

Amongst the distinguished Americans who have recently mad* a descent on the metropolis is the great Victoria Woodhull, who is accompanied by her sister. The latter energetic lady has prospected the newspaper offices of Fleet street and the Strand, and threatened a number of editors with interviews To a man, those gentlemen have Hed from town. Victoria Woodhull is here on a lecturing mission. According to the researches of Herr F. Mncnch, our earth lias at one time or other been inhabited by 155,000 kiuds of animals, of which 20,000 are now extinct, while the other 135,000 are s ill with us. Among the survivors are 2000 vareties of mammalia, 1000 of birds, 1500 “creeping things,” 8000 of ti 11, 100,000 of insects, 4000 radiata, 3500 polypifera, 1400 infusoria, and Herr Muenoh himself.

A religious periodical, which indulges its readers with a column of facetiai, is responsible for the following: “At a recent dinner party an argumentative person, posted on the Eastern question, asked his innocent young neighbour: ‘Now, Mr , what do you think would be the effect of a protocol upon Turkey?’ ‘Well, really, Professor,’ replied the youth, brae ng up, looking at the plate before him, * I’ve never tried it. I think I’ll try Worcestershire sauce on mine.’ ” The Minister of Ways and Means at St. Petersburg has issued au order directing that all persons connected with the Russian railroads, who have anything whatever to d > with r ading signal-', siiall undergo an optical examination, so that their power of distinguishing colors may be determined. This measure has been deemed pmdent and necessary in consequence of a recent examination of the railway servants in Finland disclosing the astounding fact that no less than fortythree persons, including a station master and two signalmen, were found to be affected with daltonism, and unable to tell oue color from another. It is thought that a larger proportion of the Russian railway employes will be found to be affected, as, besides being exposed to the snow in the winter, they suffer much from the minute dust that blows across the sandy plains of the south in the summer.

One may get too much of many good things, but not of kissing. It is simple yet excellent. One experienced writer (we forget who) has given ns some capital advice as to the practice of kissing. “Don’t,” says he, “ kiss all over, as grasshoppers walk. Don’t kiss everybody, including many little dogs, male and female. Don’t sit down to it. Stand up. \ou need nob be anxious to get in a crowd Two persons are plenty to corner and catch a kiss. More persons spoil the sport. Stand tirm. It won’t hurt after you’re used to it. Don’t be in a hii’ry. Providence will give you strength for the ordeal. Don’t jab down on a beautiful mouth as if spearing for frogs. Don’t grab and yank the lady as if she was a struggling colt. Don't muss her hair, set unch her collar, bite her checks, squizzlo her rich ribbons, and leave her mussed and rumpled, Take good aim—the lips meet, the eyes close, the heart open«, heaven itself opens before you, and—the art of kissing is learned.” Thus far to the ini tiated. To those, whose experience is limited, or t > whom kissing is as a sealed book, we have only to say that they havo no id* a of the treat, the solid bliss in store for them ; and, for encouragement, let us add that the good time is, sure to home.

She was fond of conundrums, and when she learned that mu Her was Latin for woman she thought she had a good one. So shiask* dhe husband wha was the difference between her.-elf and a mule. And a- he had been married sev ral years, he was too thoughtful to tr üble h< r by guessing, b t kindly remarked that he had never been able to see any.

A Western contemporary thus chronicles the discontinuance of a sister editor’s labours in the newspaper field : “ Mrs Lynch who edited the Ukiah (California) ‘ Dispatch,’ is tired of newspaper wors. She s.ivs she don’t think it suits the female mind. She came to this c nelusion after turning a sharp paragraph about Mr Carothnrs, who was displeased, and cilled at the office aud walloped Mrs L. with a large club.”

The Basket at the Foundling.—A basket was hung at the gate of the hospital in London, in which the children were deposited, the persons who brought them ringing a bell to give notice to the officers in attendance. In order to forward the “ little innocents” up from the country, a branch of the carrying trade was established, and babies arrived in London in increasing numbers from the most distant parts of the country. Large prices were in some instances paid for their conveyance, a fact which more than hints at the position of the parents, and as the carriage was prepaid, there was a strong inducement on the part of the carriers to get rid of their burthens on the way. Many of the infants were drowned ; all of them were neglected, and that, in the large majority of cases, was equal to their death. It was publicly asserted in the House of Commons that one man, having the charge of five infants in baskets —they appeared to have them packed like so many sucking pigs—and happening to get drunk on his journey, lay asleep all night on a common, and in the morning three out of the five were found dead. Many other instances of negligence on the part of carriers, resulting in the death of infants entrusted to them for carriage to London, are on record. Even the clothing in which the children were dressed was often stolen on the way, and the babes were deposited in the basket just as they were born. It is reported that a foundling who lived to become a worthy banker in the north of England, but who was received into the hospital at this time, being in after life anxious to make inquiry into his origin, applied at the hospital, when all the information he could obtain from this source was that it appeared on the books of the establishment that he was put into the basket at the gate naked.—“ Old and New London.”

Cards were invented about A.o. 1390, to divert Charles VI. of France, who had fallen into melancholy. The inventor, who was fine of Charles’s courtiers, prop- sed by tbe ogures of the four suits, or as the French call them, to represent four cl is esof men in the kingdom. By the cos ms (he-rts) are meant the choir men, or ecclesiastic- ; and therefore the Spaniards, who enta nly received the use of the cards fr in the French, have copas, or chalices, instead of hearts The nobility, or prime military part of the kingdom, are icpreseuted by the ends or points of lances or pikes; and our ignorance of the meaning or resemblance of the figures induced us to cad them spades. The Spaniards have e spa das, swords, in lieu of pikes, which are of a similar import. By diamonds are designed the order of citizens merchants, or tradesmen. Clover grass, (corruptly called clubs) alludes to husbandmen and peasants. But how this suit came to be called clubs is not easily explained, unless, borrowing the game fr mr the Spaniards, who have bastos (staves or club-) instead of the trefoil, we give the Si anish signification of the French figure The four kings are. David, Alexa der Cmsar, and Charles ; the names were then, and (if they are not changed for Rei übdean names) still are, on tbe French cards. These represent the four monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Franks under Charlemagne. The Queens are Argine, Esther, Judith, and Dallas, typical of birth, piety, fortitude, and wisdom, the qualifications redding in each pe son. Argine is an anagram for “regiua,” queens by descent. By the knaves were designed the servants to knights, for knaves originally meant only servants. Others fancy the knights themselves were designed by those cards, because Hogier and Lahire, two names on the French cards, were famous knights at the time cards were said to have been nvented. Serpent Charmers.- Rousselet, in his book on India, has the following: - During our stay at Sangor we received a visit Dom two sapirallahs (serpent charmers) who trade in reptilec Among other rare species they offered us a specimen of the tonlabi, or rose serpent, the skin of which is variegated with coral tints, and another, the hea 1 and tad of which are so much alike as to be distinguished with difficulty. Not finding any cobra de capello in their collections, I mentioned the fact to them. “ What would be the use of troubling ourselves,” they said in reply, “with a serpent which we can get whenever it is needed ? Do you wish lor oue ? The very yard of your bungalow will furnish it! ” My curiosity was excited, and I defied them to find me a serpent in the short space of time they seem*d to think necessary. One of the sapivallahs immediately divested himself of his clothes, all save the lungonti, and seizing his tvmril, or charmer’s flute, he invited me to follow him. On reaching the back of the bungalow, where the ground was covered with briars and stones, he placed the instrument to his mouth, and produced from it some piercing sounds intermiugled with softer modulations, while, with his body bent forward, he narrowly scanned the vegetation. After a moment he pointed out a spot to me, and on looking towards it I saw a supent’s head issuing from beneath a stone. With the rapidity of a flash of lightning the charmer 'ropmd the instrument, and seizing tbe reptile with marvellous skill flung it, into the air, and caught it by the tail as it was falling to the ground. On examining it it turned out to be only a harmless adder. The sapivallah continued his search with impassioned gestures, bordering on the comic, and in less than a second the tumril dropped, tinreptile was flung into the air and descended, when the Indien with triumphant coolness presented to me the tail of a frightful cobra, one three feet in length. Ihe hideou.reptvle struggled, but with a rapid move ment the charmer seized him by the back of the head, and, opening his jaws, showed me the terrible fangs which distil death This proved that there Was no trickery, for the s rpents which the charmers always carry about with them arc fanglese. Ho then took a pair of small pincers and carefully drew < ut every fang, thus rendering the reptile poVerleßs to harm.

It was a Frenchman who, contentedly laying his head u; on a large atone jar for a p How, replied to one who enquiie 1 if it was notr-ther hard, “Not at all, fori have stuffed it with hay.”

D-n’t you think you have a prejudice against the prisoner?’ a lawyer of wirness. “Very likely,” was thereby, ‘ have caught turn stealing two or times ”

0u r in Montgomery county, n rego>, there is a lady law v er. She is, or was, married And the other day a clie t went to her offioe a id found the door looked, with the fokowing no ice pinncl on the ou'side: “Gone to my husband’s funeral. Back in thirty minut s,”

It was a German orator who, warming with his subject, exclaimed, “ t here is no man, woman, or child in the house, who hag arrived at the age of fifty years, but what have felt the truth thundering through their minds for centuries.”