Cleanings.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 737, 11 May 1894, Page 2

Cleanings.

Circumstantial Evidence.

Joseph Hatton, in his book of gossip entitled ‘ In Jest and Earnest,’ tells an interesting' story of a strange incident at the British Museum. A prince who was visiting at Windsor Castle went one day to the museum, to see a famous coin, the only one of its kind known to be in existence. The keeper took him into a private room, and with much solemnity drew forth the precious relic. The prince examined it with the liveliest interest, and a suppressed excitement which indicated that he, too, was a collector of coins.

The keeper turned away for an instant, and heard something fall. ‘ I have dropped it!’ exclaimed the prince.

The keeper joined him in his search, but nowhere could the coin be found. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes passed. The prince looked at his watch. ‘ I am very sorry,’ said he, ‘ but I have an appointment, I must go.’ The keeper walked to the door, locked it, pat the key in his pocket, and said, looking the prince straight in the eye :

‘ Not until you restore the coin I saw last in your hand. You cannot leave this room until you give it back !’ ‘ What ! One would think, from your manner, that ’ ‘ Not at all,’ interrupted the keeper. ‘ Come, let us find it.’ The prince bit his lip, turned pale, and resumed the search. At the end of an hour, he declared his determination to leave the place. ‘lf you insist,’ said the keeper, ‘it will be my. painful duty to call an officer, and have you searched.’ The prince leaned against the walls, overwhelmed. ‘ Do you mean that ?’ he gasped. ‘ I do.’ ‘ Then we must continue the search.’ Every nook and cranny was reexamined. After a while the prince sat down, the picture of despair, when suddenly he saw the coin packed away against the skirting of the room, and lying as if glued to the wood. ‘Oh ! oh !’ cried the keeper, ‘ here it is !' ‘ Thank God !’ exclaimed the prince. * My dear sir,’ said the keeper,’ ‘ can you forgive me ?’ 1 Yes, certainly,’ was the reply. ‘ I was never more frightened, I assure you. I never realised until now how circumstantial evidence might hang a man for a crime of which he might be perfectly innocent. Stand a little away from me, please, and I will show vou why I was so anxious to be gone. You say that coin in your hand is the only one in existence ?’

The prince put his hand in his pocket, and drew out its fellow.

* I came into possession of this a year ago. Ever since, I have had a burning desire to see the British Museum coins, and that I had come to compare mine with yours ? would you have believed me ?’ ‘ I am bound to say, sir, I should not.’ ‘ What should you have done ?’ ‘ I should have been guided by the police.’ ‘Of course, and I could not. have blamed you. Good evening. I have missed my engagement, but I am no longer afraid to look you in the face.’

A Woman’s Crime.

The Cawnpore massacre in the Indian Mutiny was fatal to 118 European women and no fewer than 92 children. A native officer, who is quoted in * Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny,’ by William Forbes Mitchell, says that Nana Sahib intended to spare the women and children. ‘ But. he adds, they bad an enemy in the person of a female fiend, who had formerly been a slave girl, and there were many persons obout the Nana who wished to see him so irretrievably implicated in rebellion that there would be no possibility of

drawing back. So this woman was powerfully supported in her evil counsel, and obtained permission to have the English ladies killed. ... I went and procured the wretches who did it. . . . The murder of the

European women and children at Cawnpore was a woman’s crime, for there is no fiend equal to a female fiend.’

Me and the Gat.

Richard X is an incorrigible youngster of 10 who has shown a tendency to lay the blame of bis misdeeds on other shoulders. His favourite scapegoat was the familv feline. A jar of sweets could not be opened, or a bit of gingerbread purloined, or a vase broken to atoms, without a lame excuse of Dick’s, ‘ I guess it was the cat,’ calling forth his mother’s reproaches : Richard, you must not lay the blame on the cat of all the wickedness you are guilty of in this house.’ Not long after one of these upbraidings, in Sunday school, his teacher asked Richard the question, apropos of the devil’s power on earth. * Who is responsible for the wickedness of this world ?’ It was with a mixture of a contrite spirit and the old habit that little Dick answered : ’ Weil, I suppose that I’m partly to blame. But—but I think our cat has her paw in it.’

Postal Cards of the World.

It seems almost incredible that there should be 8,000 varieties of postal cards, but that is the extent claimed for the Watson collection. These, however, include various issues of the same nation and denomination, and also cards issued for special occasions.

Postal cards have been in circulation a little less than 24 years. The idea originated with Dr Emanuel Hermann, a professor of national economy at the Imperial Academy of Wiener, in Neustadt, Lower Austria. His ideas, under the head of ‘ New Means of Correspondence by Post,’ were published, atjd attracted the attention of the Government officials. The Director General of Posts took up the idea, and succeeded in having an issue of postal cards put in circulation in 1869. The original name given to them was the ‘ correspondenz karte,’ and this has been retained ever since. This new move on the part of Austria quickly excited other countries to adopt a similar method of correspondence, and before the close of 1870 nearly all the European countries were using cards.’

Wedding Cakes.

‘ I’m going to get married ’ said he as he placed a hand as large as a Dutch cheese upon the counter, ‘and I want a wedding cake.’ ‘ It is customary, now-a-days,’ said the pretty bakery girl, ‘to have the materials of the cake harmoise with the calling of the bridegroom. For a musician, now, we have an oat cake ; for a man who has no calling and lives upon his friends, the sponge cake ; for a newspaper paragrapher, spice cake, and so on. What is your calling please ?’ ‘ I’m a pugilist.’ ‘ Then you want a pound cake.’ ☆ ☆☆☆☆☆ Ckrta inly the best medicine Known is Sandbr and Sons’ Eucalypti Extract. Test its eminently powerful effects in coughs,colds, influenza ; the relief is instantaneous. In serious cases, and accidents of all kinds, be they wounds, burns, scaldings, bruises, sprains, it is the safest remedy—no swelling—no inflammation. Like surprising effects produced in croup, diphtheria, bronchitis, inflammation of the lungs, swellings, &c.; diarrhoea, dy sen try, diseases of the kidneys and urinary organs. In use at hospitals and medical clinics all over the globe, patronised by His Majesty the King of Italy ; crowned with medal anddiplomt Interatnauonal Exhibition, Amsterdam Trust in this approved article aud reject all others