MISCELLANEOUS.

Kumara Times, Issue 184, 7 May 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A promising young man who is leam* ing sheep-firming in a neighbottrintf province was introduced to the woof sheet last season tot the first time. Hid fond parent Was anxious to know hoW he got on with his first lesson in the art of shearing. <« We|l,?i replied the embryo squatter, " some : fellows go about it too carefully, and they never make good shearers. There's nothing like going at it with a will they all think that I shall maljie & first-rate hand in a very short time.''" "How 1 did your first sheep look when yoU had done with it?" asked the father. "It did not seem Very well," replied the son; "in fact, they thought it better to kill that sheep." "Not a bad story is told of a private seance a la Davenport, which was given at one of the hotels in Oaniaru during the recent race meeting. An amateur professor of the rope-tying trick boasted that he could do the cabinet business, and the challenge was immediately taken up. Mr Wm. M'Kay, of horseracing fame, performed the knot-tying, and the would-be Davenport was left in a dark room securely fastened to a chair. The audience waited patiently' in an adjoining chamber for fully fifteen minutes, but no signal came. At lasfe a suppressed and sepulchral groan issued from the darkened chamber, and it was determined to see how the juggler was getting on. The lights were turned up, and the poor fellow was revealed face downwards on the floor, with the seat on his back, and his arms over tfee back of his head, and the rope twisted found his neck. A few minutes more and it is believed he Would have been strangled. As it happened relief came none too early, for he was nearly black in the face, and sundry cordials had to be employed to restore him to anything like his previous csndition of jollity. The youßgaan is said to be still under the hallu cination that he is a second Davenport. Torpedoes have been laid between Soukoura-Kaleh and Forfc St. Nicholas, in the Black Sea. Balaklava is also reported dangerous.

A letter from Jeddah,,dated Feb. 6, Bays." " We heard by last mail that the Conference Was at an end, and t suppose the Turks and the Kussfans will be at war next spring. The latter will find that they have their work cut out/ for them, as all the Tartars and Russian Mahomedans will rise."

It has been said that the last glance cast upon his reflection in the mirror by a young man about to appear before his lady love, when escortm°- her to the opera for the first time, exceeds in mtentness of gaze anything else in the world. But it has been discovered that this intensity and Concentration of interest has been outdone by the said young lady after returning home, whea v t 8 t! 7 in S to discover the flea, that has so annoyed her during the evening.