MAGISTERIAL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2345, 8 October 1881, Page 3

MAGISTERIAL.

CHRISTCHURCH. Feiday, Ootobee 7. [Before G. L. Melfisb, Esq., R.M., and R. Westenra, J.P.] Civil Cases.—Rosewarne v Judge, claim £l6 for feeding pigs. Mr Holmes for defendant. Plaintiff applied to be nonsuited, as be wished to take the case into a higher Court, Nonsuited accordingly, and to pay costs, with solicitor’s fee.—Goring v Simeon, lie Bd, a claim for wages; judgment for plaintiff with costs. —Bowman v Parish, £2O ss, for threshing grass seed, and Parish v Bowman, £6B, for damage sustained from bad work performed in threshing frass seed, were cross actions. Mr [olmes appeared for Bowman, and Mr McConnel for Parish. The case occupied the Court the greater part of the day. A large number of witnesses were examined, but their evidence contained nothing * hatever of interest. Finally, judgment was given in Bowman v Parish for £lB, with costs of Court and solicitor’s fee £2 2s, with expenses of witnesses. In the cross action judgment was given £or defendant, with costs. Several other actions were adjourned. Judgments went for plaintiffs by default, with costs, in Allan v Snow, £2 8s; Jones v Mason, £3; Lloyd and Co; v Delaney, £2 Is 6d ; Spackman v Hood, £3 14s; Hopper v Parker, £3 Is 6d, and Martin v Mnnyard, 10j. Satubday, Octobeb 8. [Before G. L. Mellisb, Esq., R.M.] Dettneestjesb.—For a first offence a reapeotable looking woman, who appeared in the dock with a child in her arms, was fined 10s or the usual alternative. Labobny.—The case againt Frederick Lane, charged with stealing nineteen copper boilers, the property of Solomon Nashelski, was called on, but the police informed the Bench that the prisoner was so badly suffering from delirium tremens as to be unable to appear. He was remanded till Ootober 13th. LYTTELTON. Satubday, Octobeb 8. [Before J. T. Rouse and H. Allwright, Bsqs., J.P, ’s.] Assault. Thomas Lester was charged with riotous conduct in the Canterbury Hotel. Frederick Newton was also charged with similar conduct. Mr H. N. Nalder appeared for the defendant, Lester, who was arrested on a charge of violently assaulting T. Smeaton, a billiard table keeper at the Canterbury Hotel. T. Smeaton, called, testified that on Friday afternoon Newton and Lester came in to play, and the witness said Newton was too drunk to play, and he would not allow him to play. While endeavoring to get Newton out of the room Lester assaulted witness by striking him several times in the face. In crossexamination, the witness said be had observed to Lester that he supposed he was 41 on the make.” Lester had stated that Newton was able to play any man in the place for £2O, and the witness considered that Lester was travelling about with Newton with a view to getting someone to play him for £2O. Evidence was called to the effect that Lester insisted on Newton playing him, but the billiard marker objected. Also previously to their going into the billiard room Newton had thrown a glass of water at the barman, who then endeavored to put him out, and was prevented by Lester. Sergeant Morice said that he went into the hotel, and found Newton drunk. He advised Lester, who was sober, to take him away. Subsequently Newton was looked up for being drunk. One of the defendants Lester, called, said that they had txo glasses ot brandy in the Canterbury and Newton, who was previously a little under the influence of drink, went with him into the billiard room when the marker tried to put them out. and the assault ensued. The Bench said in case of Lester the charge of riotous conduct was not sustained, but a violent assault was committed by him ; that the billiard marker was simply endeavoring to keep the room respectable. Newton was fined 20s and 10s for riotous conduct and for being drunk. Lester was fined 60s. The defendant Newton was further fined 10s for damaging Government property. Bebaoh of Publiohousb Act,—Andrew McDonald, licensee of the Canterbury Hotel, was charged with supplying liquor to Frederick Newton while under a state of intoxication. Mr H. N. Nalder, for the licensee, took objection that upon the notice being given to the defendant the information should be laid thereupon by the officer prosecuting, whereas in this case the summons and the notice were served together, and that therefore the Act had not been complied with, which, plainly interpreted, said that notice should be given to the licensee twenty-four hours after a complaint is made, and 44 thereupon an information should bo laid.” Sergt. Morice said that the mere fact that the information was laid before the notice of the complaint was served should not make any difference. The Bench thought Mr Nalder’a point fatal, and dismissed the case.

A MAN FOR. THE OCCASION. Yesterday forenoon a Woodward avenue car was rolling along with fourteen passengers holding down the hard seats, when a woman suddenly called out that her pocket had been picked. The only person who did not seem stunned by the announcement was a lathy individual with a blind eye and legs which shoved clear across the aisle and under the opposite seat. He rose up like clockwork, pulled the door and said—- ‘ I’ve been right here before, and there’s only one way to do this business. Every man must empty his pockets. I’ll lead off. Here’s a wallet with nothing in it, a comb, three buttons, a knife and a bottle of cough medicine. The finger of suspicion pints at all of us. Anybody who refuses to shell,out will bo looked upon as ihe guilty party. Now, then.” Two or three men began hauling knives and keys out of their packets, but just then the tall man discovered the lost portemonnale on the floor. ‘Suspicion has ceased to pint,’ he said as he held it up and opened the door. ‘ Ladies and gentlemen, let me congratulate you on your honesty, and also warn you against trusting to appearances. 1 was dead sure that the fat man over there was the pickpocket, but yon see how ’ ‘ Sir, you are a villain 1’ roared the passenger. ‘ Yes, I thought he had it in his boot-leg, but his looks ’ ‘And I’ll knock your head off, sir! Some one hold this dozen of eggs for me V * But his looks belie him. He might take chickens, but he would never . Ah ! 1 get off here ; good-bye all; nice weather for picnics I’

A petrified forest has been found in Calaveras Valley, California. King Kalakaua hopes to induce a thousand Portuguese to emigrate to Hawaii. The Gorman coal mines have commenced conveying coal to the pit’s mouth by electric railways. Jonas Hey wood murdered a man at Me* nongahela, Pa,, and fled. His disguise was so perfect that he could not bo recognised from the printed description of him sent to the police through the country ; but two words in that document, “Ho stutters,” were fata! to his chance of permanent escape. Detectives kept their ears open for a stutterer, arrested several innocent ones, and fina.ly caught Heywood.

ART, LITERATURE. AND DRAMATIC. [From English and other files,j There are some giants and other extraordinary people at a New York show, and the “ Spirit of the Times,” published in that city, says that, besides the interest which children feel in the shew “ there is a great deal of quiet enjoyment for grown people in the jealousy of the Giants, the exhibition of the Seven long-haired Sisters, and the conversation of the Pat Lady. The giant Gcscbea sits downstairs in the draught, and is evidently bursting his military buttons with envy of the giant Chang, who has much more comfortable quarters on the third floor. We gently fan the gigantic flame : ' How tall is that Chinese giant upstairs, captain ? ’ Ah, bah ! He ees 'fraid to bo measured. He ees coward at ees heart.’ 1 Much taller than you, do you think V 4 1 do not. zink ’bout heem. He is no goot. He ees a pig wiz a tail.’ ‘No, captain ; he is not a pig, he is a Changhai. Think that over, please. It contains a a mastodon joke’—and we go upstairs to Chang, who is intelligent, well-educated, and will talk to you in seven different languages, if you like. He has a £4 watch, given him by Queen Victoria and he explains to a lady that he has been married three fines, and liked his last wife the best. Strange ; bat true. Another lady asks Chang if he is in love with the Fat Woman, ‘ No.’ replies the giant, gravely ; ‘ size of that kind is the result of disease.’ Chang himself is rather thin, 4 1 think,' he says, modestly, ‘ that I am the tallest mau in the world. You see my limbs are so long’—and he here reaches out his arm and writes his name up near the ceiling. 4 Are you a great eater ?' asks another lady. 4 No,’ replies Chang. ‘I do not eat as much as my little agent here.’ So the interrogations continue ; but Chang is always amiable, dignified, and correct. We stop to inquire of the Fat Woman what has become of the rival who weighed about four hundred pounds and used to sit near her. ‘What! that little thing?’ she responds contemptuously. ‘ I don’t know where she’s gone. I didn’t miss her.’ ” A Japanese audience, it is said, when they wish to express disapproval of a bad play, do not hiss or hsot or make hideous or inconvenient noise ; they merely rise and turn their backs to the stage, upon which the curtain immediately descends. How would this custom suit the authors and managers on this side of the world who object to the “ free expression of opinion ? ” We imagine a good many of them would feel a good deal “ taken aback.” Mr H. Schutz Wilson, in 44 Our Play-Box,” gives an extremely severe criticism, or rather an extremely sweeping condemnation, of the Meiningen Company, in whose performance he sees no redeeming point. In “Oar Musical-Box,” among other interesting matter, Mr Beatty-Kingston telle the following capital anecdote of Dingelstedt:—l remember, years ago, in Vienna, he was once chatting upon theatrical matters with one of the Burg actresses, as justly celebrated for the plurality of her lovers as for her dramatic talent. In the course of conversation she happened to say : —“ Accidents of that sort often happen in onr sphere.” “ Hemisphere, yon mean,” interrupted Dingelstedt. “Very well, hemisphere, if yon please,” she rejoined good naturedly, and went on with her sentence. Presently she again let fall the word 14 sphere,” and was again smilingly corrected by the Baron, who remarked : 11 1 am sure yon mean hemisphere." 11 Let it 1 1 hemisphere, with all my heart," replied the lady, anxious to please the omnipotent Imperial Director of the Court Theatre. In her very next observation, however—oblivious of his correction—she recurred to her old familiar phrase ; 41 The sphere in which we theatrical people live , . You should say hemisphere, my dear creature,” interpolated Dingelstedt, for the third time. 41 And pray why hemisphere ? ” exclaimed Fraulein B , losing patience. “ Because," the Director gravely replied, 41 hemisphere is what yon really mean. It is a Greek word, and its exact translation is demi-monde! ” At the Theatre Polies Bergeres are exhibited two phenomena, who exhibit in their persons the two extremes of the hnman height. The one is a giant measuring 7 feet 6 inches, the other a dwarf that her companion could easily hide in his pocket, for she only measures 18 inches. The giant is a young man who figured at the passage of the Danube in 1877, among the Cossacks of the Russian Guard, and gained the cross of St. George. He went through the whole Turkish campaign without a scratch, and, strange to say, it was during this time that he became snch an extraordinary height. He reminds one of the giant Mery, who caught the birds in their flight. The dwarf is a pure wonder. She is the seventh and last child of Belgian parents, whose fortune she has made. She weighs 41b. ;her head is a little larger than a French billiard ball; her hand might ha compared to the claw of a chicken. She aits at ease on the thumb of the giant ; her shoes are as large as an ordinary thimble, and, as Queen Mab, mice would surely suffice to draw her. She is three and a half years old, and possesses all the vivacity of children of this age. Her limbs are well proportioned, and she manifests all the tastes of a human being. To see the one near the other—these two beings, so disproportionate—one would have believed that some witch had detached them with the tap of her wand from some illustration of 14 Gulliver’s Travels."

THE MOODS OF THACKERAY, DICKENS, AND OTHERS.

[London “ Globe.”] With the best advantages, with perfect seclusion, and every facility for the concentration and marshalling of thought, authors are notoriously subject to strange freaks of humour, which render them intellectually prostrate and utterly unable to command their known and tried powers. The muse of poetry is the flakiest of jades, as everybody knows, but the muse (if there be one) of prose is scarcely a whit more staunch or trustworthy. Perhaps Thackeray is the best modern example of the vagaries of mood in writers. For weeks together he could not put pen to paper to do anything like justice to himself, and for this misfortune ifr Anthony Trollope rather unfairly attacks him on the score of industry. “ Unsteadfast, idle, changeable of purpose,” are epithets which the leaser throws at the greater novelist, merely because, as he says, Thackeray “could not bring himself to do an allotted task day after day." “ Idle” seems a vulgar accusation to hurl at a man of Thackeray’s genius and achievements. The writing of books like “ Pendennis” and the “ Newcomss” can scarcely be looked upon as “ day-work” in the sense in which a blacksmith’s labour would be considered. If such a man was idle, so was Dickons, who frequently had to give up his work in despair, in spite of the strongest determinatisn to master a hostile mood. “ I am utterly lost in misery,” he writes, at a time when his strength was the most vigorous, “ and can do nothing. I have been reading ‘Oliver,’ ‘Pickwick,’ and ‘ Nicklc-by’to get my thoughts together for the new effect, but all in vain.” Over and over again h*3 exclaims, in his brief notes to Kir Forster, that “ the fit is not on him,” and be must go for a ride or a walk. From Italy ho writes one autumn, just as he was about to start upon a Christmas book : “ I have got my paper and inkstand and figures now and caa think—l have begun to do so every morning —with a business-like a.r of the Christmas book.” Again, later: “I am sadly strange, and cannot settle. You will have iota of hasty notes from rr.t while I am at work ; but you know your man.” Dickens was always nervously exact in the arrangement of his writing-room, and in one of his letters from a strange place he relates how be had to “ alter the disposition of the furniture” before he could write a line. Even Milton is said to have admitted that his faculties were much stronger at some

times than at others, and Drydan used to diet himself for a task in poetry, eating raw meat to inspire vivid dreams. It is unfortunately true that he resorted io even less excusable stimulants, though a long list of other immortals w£:e wont to overcome the shyness of their genius by similar means. Byron wiote some oi his looser poems under the influence of gin Coleridge, Dc Qtincey, and rha dwell prodded the muse with opium ; Sheridan, having a good deal of the Chat Us Surface in him, did pood work with the aid of brandy; Ben don-on was assisted “ canary," and dEschyais is said to have been invariably intoxicated when he wrote. The great achievements which gome authors have produced at a single sitting show that moods have played an important part in literature,