MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 386, 26 August 1884, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

IA. Bachelor' Society. A Bachelors' Society with matrimonial tendencies and provisions, has been formed in Haarlem, Ne.w Jersey. ULily young men are eligible. They pay a mon ; hly due of 5 d:>ls., and agree to remain single one year. At the end of that time anyone, by giving' three months notice, may receive on his wedding day 2000 dols., contributed out of the fund, or by assessment when it will not ; suffice. It .is a social organisation, and the members say that the 2000 dols, besides setting the young couple up in housekeeping, is given as some compensation for the loss of liberty. : Drink in Germany. Notwithstanding the temperance movement, there is still a wide field for temperance reformers in Germany. Judging from the increasing number of puolichouses in the capital, it would appear rather that the movement, which is reported to be progressing satisfactorily, is in the opposite direction. In 1860 there were 3637 dealers in alcoholic drinks in Berlin, in 1870 their numbers had increased to 5395, and in 1877 there were 7869. Of the deaths which occurred in Germany during the past year 10,000 were attributed to delirium tremens ; 46 per cent of the prisoners are drunkards. Among the murders committed in Germany 46 per cent were committed by persons under the influence of drink. Alcohol is as great a curse to the German as to the Briton. Possibly the fusel oil in his spirit renders it even, more mischievous than our whiskey and gin. j

41, .A Lovesick ' Young Man. .^ | afo'ttsville, Perm,, • for safe keeping" 1 ,ljsfell in lov* with a young lady named Eva Bolthara. Everything went on smoothly for a while, when Eva's affection began to grow cold. This so enraged Smith that he resolved either to have the idol of his affection or do something desperate. Arming himself with a pistol, a knife, and a rope, he went to the residence of the young lady. He fastened one end of the jrope around his neck and the other end \o a hat peg, and then, \ with the pistol to his head and the fknife to his throat, he asked if she would marry him. The words were hard.y uttered before a brother of the young lady appeared and seized Smith, disarmed him, and brought him before a justice, whence he was committed to prison. The young man says he , only wanted to frighten E\ a into giving her consent to marry him. A New Disease. Attention has lately been drawn in one of our medical contemporaries to a disease met with in Siberia known to the Russians by the name of "Miryachit." The person affected seems compelled to imitate anything he hears or sees, and an interesting account is given of a steward who was reduced to a perfect state of misery by his inability to avoid imitating everything he heard and saw. One day the captain of tbe steamer, running up to him, suddenly clapping his hands at the same time, accidentally slipped and fell hard on the deck. Without having been touched, the steward immediately dapped his hands and shouted ; then, in helpless imitation, he too tell as hard and almost precisely in the same manner and position as the captain. This disease has been met with in Java, where it is known as " Lata." In the case of a female servant who had the eaine irresistible tendency to imitate, one day at dessert her mistress, wishing to exhibit this peculiarity, aud oatch^ ing the woman's eye, suddenly reached across the table, and seizing a large JTrench plum, made pretence to swallow it whole. The wonaan made a rush at the dish and put a plum in her mouth, and, after severe choking and semiasphyxia, succeeded in swallowing it, but her mistress never tried the experiment again. — ' London Medical Record.'