VARIETIES.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1051, 9 November 1877, Page 3

VARIETIES.

On returning home recently, a gentleman was surprised to receive the congratulations of his family on his happy escape from drowning. He thought somebody had been playing a Joke on them, and laughed heartily until he found that his best suit of clothes had been given to the man who brought the news, and who said he was sent for some dry clothes. “ I say, mister, did you see a dog come by here that looked as if he were a year, or a year and a half, or two years old ?” said a Yankee to a countryman at the roadside. “Yes,” said the countryman, thinking himself quizzed. “He passed about an hour or an hour and a half, or two hours ago ; and is now a mile, or a mile and a half, or two miles ahead ; and he has a tail about an inch, or an inch and a half, or two inches long.” “That’ll do,” said the Yankee; “ you’re into me a foot, or a foot and a half, or two feet.” A Russian General about to begin a bombardment, but being short of trained artillerymen, has the happy thought of addressing himself to the leading building contractors of the city besieged. “Gentlemen," says he, “ I wish you to build and operate a battery for me. You will readily understand that every house knocked down, you will doubtless have a contract to re-build when this crueloff warovitch is overaky.” They address themselves to their task with energy, and employs architects as gunners. The fierceness and accuracy of the fire poured upon that devoted town is without parallel in the annals of war. Elopement.—A scandal from Somersetshire. The daughter of a county magistrate, holding a high position, has run away with one of her father’s labourers. She went on a mission of mercy to the labourer’s cottage, and when his wife died, consoled him by eloping with him. The young lady has since been captured. Heiresses in the West of England seem fond of these freaks. A short time ago a Clifton lady, with £SOOO a year, was so struck by the devotion of a young crossing-sweeper to his mother that she proposed to him, and placed him in the hands of a tutor for a couple of months, and when he had been intellectually veneered and polished, married him at Wells Cathedral. The experiment was not a success. The lady is now suing for a divorce.—“ Mayfair.”

Fast Time Through a Flume.— A correspondent of the Philadelphia “ Herald” sends an account of the perilous journey down the mountains of two Nevada miners, who made a trip in a mining-flume. The flume is owned by Messrs, Mackey and Fair, and is located in the mountains, near Carson v.'ity. It is about fifteen miles in length, leading from a lofty elevation down to the plain, and crossing in its course deep ravines, skirting terrible precipices and chasms, and presenting many sharp curves It is fed with water from Lade Tahoe, and emptie# into a creek near Carson City. This flume, said to be the longest in the world, is used to carry down timber which is cut on the mountains. There are several places in its course where the incline is slight, and visitors aae occasionally treated to a short trip over these inclines in a boat constructed for that purpose. The two men who took the trip were workmen, who some months ago conceived the notion of shooting down the entire length of the flume. To carry out this foolhardy adventure, they constructed a strong boat, sharp at the bow and square at the stern, and fitting the flume closely enough to keep it steady. The men describe the trip as something terrific. The heavy boat got a fearful headway, and the men had no means of stopping it. In shooting round the curves they thought it would jump the flume and precipitate them int • the chasm that yawned beneath. Down the steeper inclinesjj the boat sped with more than express-train velocity. The fifteen miles were passed in less than eleven minutes! From the foot of the mountain to where the flume empties the incline is gentle, and here the boat gradually lost its terrific headway, and at length glided smoothly into the creek. Unharmed, but scared almost out of their senses, the men stepped ashore, and one of them was heard to remark that he would not make that trip again for all the silver and gold in Nevada. The Quaker’s Hat. —The first occasion when the Quaker’s hat came publicly into trouble was at the Lanuceston Assizes in the year 1656, before no less a personogo than Chief Justice Glynn, in connection with which a writer in the “ Saturday Review” quotes the following, party in Fox’s own words :—“ When we were brought into the court we stood a pretty while with our hats on, and all was quiet; and I was moved to say, * Peace be among you. ’ * Why do you not put off your hats ?’ said the judge to us. We said nothing. ‘Put off your hats,’ said the judge again. Still we said nothing. Then said the judge, ‘ The court commands you to put off your hats. We next asked to be shown, ‘ either written or printed, any law of England that did command such a thing.’ Then the judge grew very angry, and said, ‘ I do not carry my law books on my back.’ * But,’ said Fox, * tell me where it is printed in any statute book, that I may read it.’ The Chief Justice cried out, ‘ Prevaricator !’ and ordered the Quakers to be taken away. When they were brought before him again, the Chief Justice asked whether hats are mentioned at all in the Bible? ‘Yes,’ said the Quaker, ‘in the third of Daniel, where thou mayst read that the three children were cast into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzer’s command, with their coat, their hose, and their hats on.’ Here was a proof that even a Heathen king allowed men to wear hats in his presence. ‘ This plain instance stopped him,’ says Fox; ao he cried again, ‘take them away, gaoler.' Accordingly, we were taken arvay and thrust among thieves, where we were kept a great while.” Fox’s last declaration on the subject of the hat, says the “ Leisure Hour, ” was made at Harlingen'u 1677. “The very Turks,” he says, “mock at the Christians in their proverb, saying, ‘The Christians spend much of their time in putting off their hats and showing their bare necks to one another.’ ”