MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 195, 22 November 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The largest bridge in the world is the Tensas and Mobile bridge on the Mobile Montgomery Railroad. Its; length, is fifteen miles, crossing both the Mobile and Tensas River, and it includes ten draws, one for each navigable channel into which the rivers are divided. The bridge itself is constructed of wood, but its pillars or supports are iron cylinders which rest on a solid surface of wooden piles driven down evenly with the bottom of the stream and the mud and the intervening morasses. It has been three years in course of construction, costs 1,500,000 dollars, shortens the distance from Montgomery to Mobile by about twelve miles' travel and three hours' time and secures a continuous route of railroad between Montgomery arid New Orleans. Intelligence has reached Nelson,that the manager of the Alpine claim, which is adjoining that of the Little Wonder, at the Lyell, has discovered stone which " is expected to turn out twelve ounces of gold to the ton." According to Humboldt tke goldimp ->rted from America since the discovery of Hispaniola to the revolution of Mexico amounts to seven and a half milliards, which is a little less than the last war cost France. A Bull.—A hearty laugh was caused in the Assembly, Victoria, by a gemiine bull made by Mr. Walker in the course of his speech on the education question. Speaking of the duty of the clergy to give religious instruction to the children/ but not in the schools, he remarked that it was quite competent for them to have "Sunday-schools every day in the week, if they desired it." The hon. member himself joined in the merriment he had caused.-—'Post.'

In one of his letters to the ' New York Herald,' Mr. Stanley states that on the journey from IJjij'i to Unyanyeinbe, " the Doctor tramped it on foot like a man of iron;" At TTnyanyembo, the Englishman Shaw, whom he had turned back as useless, had about a month after his return succumbed to the climate of the interior, and had died. " Thus, during less than twelve months, William Lawrence Earquhar, of Leifch, Scotland, and John William Shaw, of London, England, the two white men I had engaged to assist me, had died ; also eight baggage carriers and eight soldiers of the expedition had died." He states that Dr. Livingstone supposes that the Manyema, from their fine physique, handsome features, and light color, and from the advances they have made in manufacture, are descendants of the ancient Egyptians, or of some of the lost tribes of Israel; and tells., of copper mines at Katauga which have been worked for ages, of docile and friendly peoples who up to this time have lived buried in the lap of barbarism. Two of Messrs Brogden's navvies, having shipped as seamen on board the ship Countess of Kintore, were arrested for a debt of £2O each, for cash advanced in London. Judgment was given for the plaintiffs, and the men will be imprisoned till they resume work. A curious trial has been concluded in the city of Xenia, Ohio. The pursuer was a Mrs. Beed, and the defendant James Townley; a dnig dealer by profession, but a liquor dealer by practice. Mrs. Heed's

husband, if appears, was rather fond of Townley's "medicine," ancL.frequently got so drunk as to be unable to attend his duties. Mrs. B. raised an action against Towuley "for causing the intoxication of her husband, and thereby incapacitatng him from supporting his family, laying the damages at 5000 dollars." Most of the clergymen of the city, many ladies, and many of the leading citizens were spectators during the trial. The jury brought in a verdict for the • plaintiff of 1850 dollars.

Poetbkage.—The following amusing anecdote is now going the rounds of the clubs and messes. It is said to have happened quite recently. An officer was ordered on duty from one station to another. In his travelling claim appeared the item, Porter, 6d." Tliis was struck out by the War Office. The officer wrote back stating that the porter named had conveyed his.baggage from one station to another, and that he would otherwise have had to make use of a cab, which would have cost Is 6d. "In answer to this he received an official reply stating that uuder these circumstances his claim would be allowed, but that he should use the term • porterage' instead of porter. He, unable we presume, to resist the temptation which seized him, answered to the effect that, although he could not discover a precedent for tlie word porterage, he would nevertheless do as he was told, and wished to know whether should use the term ' cab(b)age' when he meant 'cab.' The result, we hear was a severe reprimand from the War Office. The officer, however had his joke at their expense.

A Political Man.ceuvke.—A San Francisco journal relates that the bloated British capitalist is often set up as a scare with which to influence Congressional legislation. This unpopular individual, however, seldom consents to appear 021 the scene in propria persona. The exception to tlie rule appears to have occurred recently. A good story.comes to us from Washington, where a portly representative of John Bull made his appearance dressed in the blackest of broadcloth the neatest of kid gloves, and the glossiest of stove-pipe hats. The ' New York Herald' and other papers, announced that he was a well-known British ship-owner engaged in watching the action of the Senate upon the Australian steam line subsidy bill. If that did not pass, they said it was well known to be his intention to put on English steamers between San Francisco and: Australia. He was trailed as a red herring under the nose of Senators for several weeks—did his work well and recived two hundred dollars per month for doing it. The Eev J. J. Lewis in a lecture he lately delivered told a Rheinish love story with a moral, and made some interesting human admissions ; he related, moreover many capital wayside incidents. The lecturer and his friends evidently enjoyed their continental tour and gathered a rich store of information. Mr. Lewis amused his audience with an anecdote at the expense of the prophet Balaam. The tourists were in. a cathedral city, were the law of supply and demand in Romish relics is still in force, and were shewn Balaam's sword." " Hold," said one of the travellers to the monkish exhibitor, "Balaam did not possess a sword, he only wished for one." " And this is the sword he wished for, and would have had," replied the wit.—' Auckland Evening Star/ A Wellington contemporary says : — ■ Among those members who have gone away dissatisfied perhaps the most to he pitied is Mr. T. L. Shepherd. He had been flattered and made much of by the Vogel party, till he claimed for himself the position of leader, and was led to expect a seat in the Cabinet as Minister of Mines. Both sides of the House befooled him on the subject —the one for amuse-' ment, and the other to secure his vote. So ceitain was he of the office, that latterly he had been talking to various* goldfield members about how the particular district of each should be favored above the other, and generally giving an idea of policy of the G-overhment in the department over which he would have control; After being so certain of his little game it must have been desperately galling to be left out in the cold, and he showed that he felt it to be so. Rumour says that he has written to Mr. Yogel to announce that he considers himself once more an independent member. Mis?, Wreaks, postmistress of Sheffield has retired, after forty years' service, on a pension. The vacant appointment is worth £6OO per annum. Advocate , in his early days, had the name-plate of his door stolen during the night; his landlady iuformed him next morning " that they didna want for impudence, for they have stolen your brass." The latest Californian murder is thus recoi'ded in a San Francisco paper : "Two Chinamen collided with knives on Eagle's Creek a few days ago. One of them has quit mining. His friends ' sunk a shaft' and put him into it."

Two yout3£ American, gentlemen, always ro be ssen in the gutter, subscribed together, for; a cigar. One put two cents, the other three ;cents. The cigar purchased, the three-cent giver smoked it. " Come, now, give us a pull," said No. 2 " I furnished a share of the money." "I know that," said the smoker ;."but them I'm president, and you being only a stockholder —you can expectorate ! " - Thackeray, it is said, never began writing upon less than a quire ofletter paper. Half of this he would cover over with comic drawings ; a fourth he would tear up into minute pieces ; and on one or two strips of the remainder he would do his work, walking about the room at : intervals, with his hands in his pockets, and with a perturbed and woe-begone ex~. pression of countenance.