Excerpta.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 693, 27 March 1894, Page 7

Excerpta.

The man who has over confidence in himself, is often too dull of hearing t distinguish between a cheer and a jeer.

‘ What is the the longest English word T was asked by a Times correspondent the other day, and several answers have been sent in. One writer savs * straightforwardness ’ and ‘ incontrovertibility another * characteristicalness,’ which has 20 letters; another, 1 disproportionableness,’ which has 21 letters, and would take the prise if its genuineness were only vouched for. The with most syllables is stated to be <latitudinarianism.

In Mr Moncure D. Conway’s history of South-place Chapel there is this delicious anecdote of the late W. J. Fox. At the close of the memorable Anti - Corn .Law Bazaar at Covent Garden, the cleared for a promenade, whereupon some bright spirit suggested dancing as a triumphal finish. All approved save a few Quakers, whose quiet labours for the cause gave their hostile opinion very great weight. The enthusiasts were in despair. Just then Mr Fox was seen to come in, and at once be was appealed to as an oracle whose word would decide the question ‘ I am,’ said he, after due deliberation, ‘ for free trade in hops.’ The dance was i merry one.

The excavation of the ruins of Carthage, to j'udge from an interesting description -which is being given in Ccsmos, promises to yield valuable results. The explorers of the mound o' St- Louis have coins upon a“ wall ■bedded in earth, rhe 'lumbers of whieb grtm vaguely into thousands. A sinking o£ the soil has not left many intact, but the most interesting portions, the stamp or inscription which showed the name of the maker, and the date of the wine, can generally be recovered in perfect preservation. The jars are of an earlier date than those found at Pompeii, being all pre Christian, of the years 43 lb B. c. The finding of a bottle of ‘ Vinum Mesopotamium ’ clears up some small doubts which the Pompeian remains had raised. This was a Sicilian wine from a small place between Syracuse and Agrigentum. The most curious find, however, recorded so far, is that of large fragments of a whale’s skeleton among the ruins of what is supposed to be the Capitol. The mystery is cleared up in a letter of St. Augustine to his friend Deogratias, written in 408 A.D., wherein he makes mention of a < bellua marina,’ ‘ now on exhibition ’ at Carthage, to prove that Jonah could have found comfortable accommodation for his three days’ sojourn in the belly of a whale.