AFTER TEA NOTES.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 412, 25 November 1884, Page 2

AFTER TEA NOTES.

The reader will, jag doubt, find it difficult to hcUoYO that tho ailments of cats should ho considered of sufficient importance to form the subject of an official report. Yet such, we are told by a Loudon paper, has actually occurred. It seems the Government of Bombay have issued an official report setting forth that a mysterious epidemic, the ■ chief symptom of which, is yomiting, and '> which resu.lfc.B. jn an alarming mortality, i exhibits itself iwvn timo to time amongst oats m India, The number of these ' animals said to have died at Ahmednagar y botweon tho Ist and 25th of July, 1881 ; ' was 750 ; and Poona, iii 1883, lost from ( the same cause 125. Lovers of the l "domestic tiger " will be consoled by the : * knowledge that the cats of India U.ftYP 1 j watching over them a Grover-nment j so sympathetic a.n.c\ aoUeitous for their j yrelta-; , . " , ; '■ • : i^iftongst tho numerous charges at i present being brought against Irish landlordism is one, Professor Wallace ' tells us, by Sir John Lubbock, whoac-. ; cuses it of a serious act of vandalism.; [ the destruction during the, p,yosers c^n,- ' tury of no less than. iQi'ty ftf ifi\ c Irish \ round to WOi's. Th,£ gr-eed. "wl^ichj $or the sa^e of afew i}a.s try patches. q£ g,rqund,dos- : iroyed so many " of these ancient and : most interesting mUos must indeed have < been insatiable. i It is astonishing tho number of ' claimants there always are to the author- \ ship of anything that turns out a success. : Even the Progressives, wl\q^a V^ l^- X \ always piotiu-ed \q> as being' occy t piad >vitl^ large and enuoojling { thouglit^, ?\r.o now claiming to lp } c le^dw j ob fashion." '.'.lhe Prog^ressiyesi aye 4 " s writes one o,f tl^eir p?ga?t^ i leaders o| fa^hiAn, The Balmoral and i '.pain o^ Shanter were wprn by those J who detested the ' stove-pipe ' long before these varieties of head-gear became < the rage, .even with the f.aw #<"?• r 4 v be. i ' divided skirt ' aM o(;hev a|teinpts at* ( drosa were long antedated by ( iflLva Blopmey, I^r. Mary Walke^ «^d £ owners of the Hygienic School, l^aw, j ]Vfiss Rosamond' - JJalo Ovven and L,ady 5 Archibald Qamphell, heralding angels ] uf tUP «go that is to be, 'ire inventors of s costumes that tire most noticeable at tiie 3

Healtheries. Twenty years ago, a female doctor, associated with Dr Trail, of New York, the celebrated, writer on Hydropathy and Vegetarianism, shocked thousands by cutting her hair short, to save the time of a busy life, in dressing. Now her style is the adopted one of fashion, and women no longer need be taxed in providing other people's hair to wear as an ornament." Whether it is or not phrenologically impossible for me to appreciate high class music I don't know. Certain it is, however, I never could tolerate the diabolical groanings which so laboriously emerge from the bagpipe. Consequently, a fewdays ago.l read with a feeling something akin, to, alarm that in a Chinese, orcjjegfcr^,,^ at present performing in New York, there is a; trumpet which produces ",& noise/ like the bagpipe, only much louder." IE . a harp gifted with feelingriTaxT rulelf" drawn across its strings a fusty poker it would, I fancy, experience a shock less severe than tliat whbh must be endured by the ladies and gentlemen who in, coil- a fidinj; innocence go to hear the^Cliinese^ band. ' ■ •/'-/'. : A number of London and suburban .papers have lately been opening, their columns to stories of apparition^ and various supernatural visitations. The secret btthis innovation; is disclosed .By '*■ ' Society,' -which states that of late * spiritualism has derired ; a : large body of .recruits owing to "the support accorded it by lloyalty." ' Society ' also saysithat Spuitualism has become fashionable, and it thinks it will probably take its place as " the thing " during the next London . season. A little while back the 'Court Journal' gave an account of the appearance of "the White Lady," written by a gentleman who saw her, and who at thotime of her unwelcome visit was a guest at :the castle. of " one of Germany's } highest nobles." It is not every day wo hear of three ghosts appearing at the same time. The * Cornubian," however, has furnished it readers with, a description of three apparitions — one of them a clergyman — that appeared to a workman employed at the Safety Fuse Works, Ucdruth. A few days later thej writer of the; above story supplemented it as follows :— " I iniirht have added that that case do.es not stand alone. I have heard of certain residents vrlio have seen., spectres in their sleeping* and ofcheWodtris '- at night, the vision -.intone case resembling a monk, who whilst walking along the room was apparently reading a book ; and of another instance in which the bed with its occupants; wa&: 'several r times lifted more than tw,o feet; and theiju suddenly dropped. Also I have heard of persons who whilst going to or engaged; ia , their work, in the srnajlTiqurs, baye seen - f uncanny objects, t\ie effect 'updn^one' oi ! the beholders proving fatal. However it would 1 be almost useless to gixe/jtltejfcret;^ for the reason that they -would be Siscredited." English lovers of ghost lore have reason tp be thankful. that =the pub-. lication of such stories is being demanded by London's fashionable" circles. -: • : • ' • ""•'.- - : ■•■ ;■•-. ? G.K. ••-