LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1460, 21 October 1878, Page 3

LOAFER IN THE STREET.

[FBOII THE PBK33.]

I wont round the Museum a fow days since for the first time since the alterations. I find things fixed in really first-class style. I went in company with a well-known sportsman. As we passed amongst the stuffed deer, ho remarked that the Irish elk had good bocks, and was very like Mats, about the quarters. A similarity between the conformation of the koodoo "and Daniel O'Rourke also struck him. The collection 'of antediluvian animals is very interesting. They require a deal of time to examino thoroughly. I judge so from the fact that two young people of different sexes were engaged in looking at the Megatherium when we entered. They were looking at the Megatheriumwhen we left. The gentleman, I presume in case of danger was holding the lady by the hand. In consequence of an anxiety to look at the gigantic sloth from the same point of view their faces were very close to each other. I expect it will take these two a goodish bit to get round the Museum properly. Among other antediluvians is the G-lyptodon, a round, joyous-looking old shell back. He would hold about three barrels of beer, and a careful farmer could keep about one to every 500 acres. From the appearance of this specimen, I should surmise tho species became extinct through busting, like dried toadstools. The Dinotherium Giganteum is a graceful looking creature that would weigh, when alive, about eighty-five tons. He originally inhabited the Rhine Valley. There were no tourists in those days. Close to this placid-looking old slab is a specimen of the genus man. He is wedged up in concretionary limestone. He probably was never sat on by an inquest of his countrymen. This is sad, and a warning to people that go messing about in concretionary limestone. The "Footsteps of Extinct Animals" in hightoned mud are adjacent to the un-inquested one. Tho following remarks by the poet Longfellow seem to apply to them :

Lives of great beasts all remind us We can make our lives sublimo, And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.

There was a young woman passed when we were there who, I should judge, would require a whole coast line to do justice to her track. Her foot was like the map of Africa, full size, with the Cape of Good Hope well bashed out. In the upstairs rooms the various collections are neatly laid out. The coins are very interesting. I have ever loved coin, more especially gold. It is more of a curiosity with mo than it is in the Museum. Tho Romans seem to have had a very poor idea of making coin. I once had a friend, an amateur in this line, who could, to judge from appearances, give most of the Romans a long start. Ho was a bit extravagant, however, and is now assisting at some important public works at Portland, England. The worst clipped coins are those of the reign of Antoninus Pius, which induces the belief that however good a man Tony may have been, he was not sound on the copper question. Round the walls are ranged collections of South Sea Island clubs and spears. These are called Ethnologies. Ethnology don't strike one as a study to go into, except quite in theory. There is a mummy in this room of an Egyptian lady who lived 380 B.C. I have my doubts about this party. She don't look like a lady, and what proof is there that she didn't live 381 years B.C. Little inaccuracies like this destroy one's interest in mummies. Another fresh addition is a portraitof Captain Cook. At least if it be not a fresh addition I never saw this depiction of the gay explorer before. He occupies, as he ought, a prominent position opposite the 380 B.C. Lady. He is painted well. He is examining a plan surreptitiously obtained from the Land Office, with a vi«w to spotting sections. The divided anxiety between being able to spot payable land, and up to the fate of his pigs which occupy a station in the apartment beneath him, has been beautifully jerked by the artist. The Statuaries are as usual. They are a bit decollete some of them, but Dr. Haa&t don't intend to clothe them up until the present fashions change. The greater part of them are really classic, and remind the casual visitor here history repeats itself. There's a man in Timaru who by nearly dying has earned unto himself an undying reputation. Ho belongs to the same profession as Michael Angelo, Rnbcns, Poussin, Turner, Milluis and others. Ho uses more paint but don't as a rule reckon to get such good wages. Ho was doing some outside decoration the other day. He found his ladder was a bit short. In case of accidents he made fast one end of a rope to the ridge pole and the other round his neck. By and bye the escalier (I like using those words now and then, it gives a paper tone) slode from under him and he was doing a hang. He came very near being arrested for attempting suicide, but having stated as soon as he could recover consciousness that he was from the county Clare, no further proceeding were taken against him. He thinks from his brief experience that capital punishment should be abolished.

It is now some time since I have had the privilege of perusing the "Lyell Argus." Thus it is that I welcome a recent numher in which that journal is so crowded that the Law Reports have to be held over, and the energetic editor has dug out a local industry which he describes as thus — "NEW CARRIAGE

"We have had the pleasure of inspecting a new carriage, the invention of somo enterprising miners at Scotty'a Creek. It ia remarkably light and airy and runs on one wheel, is only to be uaed on state occasions such as A Christening. It is on hire at the Commercial Hotel. (Fair money.)" Lyell and its " Argus" is going ahead. On a certain occasion when the silversmiths of Epbesus discovered that their trade was likely to be set at naught, they made some little noise on the subject. It is at present similar with the fish and oyster tradists in Auckland. They have petitioned the Government in regard of their trade. They think that the Fisheries Preservation Act will utterly destroy the rock oyster trade in Auckland it' the minimum size of the oyster be five inches in circumference. _ (N. B.—l never eee anv rocks five inches in circumference nor never expect to.) The petitioners also point out that the aboriginal natives are allowed to fish for their own use at nil times, a privilege denied to the white fi a hi»ts. This seems a little exceptional. The noble Maori eo rarely gets a point the best of the white man.

Talking of the sweet Maori, Dr Walker in his sanitary report on the natives of the Taupo district says that the majority of deaths in Ids district occur through want of proper food. He says that the sick Maori eraees for pakeha food, and in such cases craves for cooking utensils as well and that while they have plenty of horses they have no cat tie. Thus they want cows' milk. It ia to be hoped before the session is over, a sum of money will be placed to the credit of the Native Minister for the purpose of providing pates da /vie 'jran, patent stoves, and class short horns for our Maori brcth'irx, I should not mind inyseU' iaxed a bit extra so long 'aa I could feel quite snre the Maoris up at Taupo were quite happy and contented.

Tho Gas Company, it appears, allows a discount on amount consumed. In this connection a gentleman called in at the office the other day, and remarked that his gas bill was higher than usual ; in consequence his discount wus also larger. He leaned over the office counter and thoughtfully asked, " How much gas do you reckon I should have to burn so that tho amount of discount would ennble mo to get my gas free?" In the reci'ii! debate on the Land Tax Bill, the Colonial Secretary, in speaking of the Native exemptions, is reported to have said that " he knew tin y could not be justified in principle, but in practice they were necessary." This is a really beautiful political principle, but there are few men bold enough to own up to it. Colonel Whitmore must bo a very candid man.

FIGHT WITH SOCIALISTS AT ODESSA,

Another scene of bloodshed (says an English paper), has taken place in Russia. This time tho place is Odessa, but tho circumstances are identical with those which marked the close of the Vera-Zassulitch prosecution. Large crowds had gathered round the Criminal Court to hear the result of a Socialist trial. Great interest was manifested in the affair on account of the semi-heroic circumstances attending the capture of the offenders. Seven in number —five men and two females —the Socialists last January kept at bay nearly a whole winter's night in the Sadovoi street the police force of Odessa, and it was not until nearly 200 men had been collected on the spot that the daring defenders were eeiz'd. The object of their obstinate defenco was simple. The seven conspirators were in the rooms of Kovalevsky printing pamphlets for their secret society, branches of which existed all over the town, and when they found themselves caught by the police they tried to keep them out until they had burnt their papers. Tho entrance to their lodging they rapidly loopholed, and from door and window kept up such a furious fusillade upon all who approached the rooms that a company of soldiers were sent for and made to fire volleys at the windows on the opposite side of the way. Even this failed to daunt the defenders, and it was not until another company of soldiers, with fixed bayonets, swarmed into the house and hacked down the door that resistance ceased. In tho struggle two Socialists and ten soldiers were wounded. The same evening arrests were mado in every part of the town. Three weeks ago the trial commenced at Odessa. From the outset public interest was greatly excited, and an extra number of soldiers were put on to guard the Court. At the close of the proceedings, when it was announced that one of the Socialists had been sentenced to be shot, four to be imprisoned for a term of years in the dreary mines of Siberia, and the two girls to be exiled to Tobolsk for life, the confederates of the conspirators showed their disapproval by firing from revolvers at the Court. The guards returned the fire ; the Socialists replied again, and a fight ensued, in which the mob was eventually dispersed, but not before four soldiers had been injured and two spectators killed. Coming so soon after the Zassulitch case, the assassination of the Chief of the Secret Police at Kieff, and the discovery of arms secreted by the revolutionists at Karkoff, this outbreak at Odessa is another warning which the Czar will do well to take to heart.