VARIETIES,

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1099, 7 January 1878, Page 3

VARIETIES,

It is proposed in Indiana to change the marriage service, so it will read, " Who dare take this woman ?" And the bridegroom shall answer, " I dare." -"St. Louis Times." A girl who can put a square patch on a pair of pantaloons may not be so accomplished as one who can work a green worsted dog on a yellow ground, but she is of more real value in the community. One big burly farmer said to another as they were returning home from the burial of a teetotaller's wife recently, " Did they gie ye ocht"—" Na, no a drap—got he ocht ? - " Na, na ; neither bite nor sup. He's gettin' unco cheap awa' wi' her, I think." A gentleman gave a party in honor of a distinguished missionary lately returned from his field of work. The ladies appeared with very " decollete" dresses, and as his host feared the style might shock his reverence, he apologised to him for it, saying that fashion demanded it. " Oh, I don't mind it at all," replied the missionary; "1 have been ten years among the savages." Chatham Island, lying ofi the coast of New Zealand, in the South Pacific Octan, is peculiarly situated, as it is one of the few inhabitable points of the globe where the day of the week changes It is just on the line of demarcation between dates. There high twelve on Sunday, or Sunday noon, ceases, and instantly Monday meridian begins. Sunday comes into a man's house on the east side, and becomes Monday by the time it passes out at the western door. A man sits down to his noon day dinner on Sunday, and it is Monday noon before he finishes it. There Saturday is Sunday, and Sunday is Monday, and Monday becomes suddenly transferred into Tuesday. An amusing story comes from the Ardennes, where, according to the tale, an agriculturist recently died, leaving a wife, a horse, and a dog. A few moments before his death he called his wife to him, and bade her sell the horse and give the proceeds of the sale to his relatives, and to sell the dog and keep the money thus gained for herself. Soon after the death the wife went to the market with the horse and dog and exhibited them, with the announcement that the price of the dog was five hundred francs and that of the horse five francs. The passers by stopped and stared, and judged the woman mad, more especially as she informed all would-be purchasers that to buy the horse it was necessary to buy the dog first. At last a curious passer-by concluded the bargain ; after which the skilful woman handed over five francs to the family of her deceased husband, and retained five hundred francs for herself, thus contriving at the same time to carry out the letter, if not the spirit, of the wishes of her husband, and to secure the largest sum of money for herself. Statistics of Great Fortunes. —The Rothschilds and the Duke of Westminster must look to it and bestir themselves (writes "Harper's Weekly"), or in the changes and exchanges to which men and money are so liable, they are in imminent danger of being outraked by the money kings of the United States. The Rothschilds, by late estimates, are supposed to be worth dols., which, at 5 per cent., would yield an income of 10,000,000 dols. a year. The Duke of Westminster is rated at 80,000,000 dols., or 4,000,000 dols. a year. We shall soon outstrip that. Mackey, Flood, O'Brien, and Fair, the great silver miners of Nevada, own mines that at present low prices are valued at 23,000,000 dols. They own also the Bank of Nevada, with a paid-up capital of 10,000,000 dols., and have 20,000,000 dols. of United Slates bonds. Besides this, they have 3,000,000 dols in real estate, and a controlling interest in several mines of great richness. The annual income on their property, so very productive, is not less than 20,000,000 dols., or double that of the Rothachildo, and the amount of profit annually carried in capital will soon make them the richest people in the world. Next to this great firm come the four principal owners of the Central Pacific Railroad and other connecting roads California—Stanford, Hunting Tom, Crocker, and Hopkins, whose wealth is over 50,000,000 dols. The income from their 3000 miles of railroad is sometbing almost fabulous. After them came Lux and Miller, 20,000,000 dols. ; D. O Mils, 10.000,000 dols. ; Michael Reese, 10,000,000 dols ; Donohue and Kelly, 10,0000.000 dols. ; Haggin and TeMs, 10,000,000 dols. ; Levi Strauss and Co., 10,000,000 dols. ; William Sharon, S,OOO 000 dols. ; and eighteen or twenty little fellows vary from 5,000,000 down to 4,000,000 dols each. Fellows worth a million or so are scarcely mentioned or thought of—doubtless very decent people and good fathers, but not factors in the moneyed world. Ihe him dred thousand dollar people are looked upon with disdain as beggary .

I Wrong for Once.—London "Figaro" is .indebted t> the "Newtonards Chronicle" j for an account of what that Hibernian print j not inappropriately calls " An Amusing BapI tismal Incident." A few Sundays ago, it ! seems, it fell to the lot of a distinguished 1 Presbyterian professor to preach in a church said to be not a hundred miles from Rani dalstown—wherever that may be. After the sermon, a child was to be baptised, and the eloquent divine, cognisant of this fact, dilated on the benefits of baptism, and having exhausted the general aspects of the rite, proceeded to make particular reference to the impending infant. Warming with his subject, the good man went on substantially to this effect:—" There is no say u.' g, my Christian brethren, to what position the little one now before us may rise. Taken in hand by some family of eminence and high social condition, it may, in due season, and when properly educated, become an officer in one of her Majesty's regiments. It may attain to the honorable position of an M. P. ; it may even win a seat in the House of Lords ; or, better than either, in my opinion, it may live to preach the Gospel from the very pulpit which I now so unworthily occupy," Then, stooping down to the baby's father, the perspiring Presbyter said, ".Name this child," and as the paternal response, '' Eliza Jane," distinctly permeated the building, the reverend gentleman grew apopletically rubicund of visage, and registered a mental vow never again to prophecy unless he knew. As for the ill-natured congregation, they tittered.