MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 263, 21 March 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

k _j - t ' 4 Practical Joke - on 1 Bbigitam You.vg The - latest" joke at Brigham Young's expense is perpetrated l>y a Pennsylvania paper,-which says :—Some chap thought he would play a joke on Brigham Young, so he gained .access to the list. .of.his „wives, and added -twen.ty seven,,names thereto —Mary Jane Young * Josephine A.nn Young, Sarah Melinda Young, and so forth-. The--next time - _ lirigh.un Young called the roll, .the twenty seven didn't answer to theiCnamesiJso he concluded that they had died since last roll-call, and, putting a- few - morei-aches of crape on his hat, he looked as sad as possible, but has not yet detected the joke." - -• ' Some people are never contented. ' Af- - ter having all their limbs broken,' their 1 . heads smashed/ and their brains knocked out, they will actually go to law and try to get fuither damages. " * 'I he tender of Mr. James Bruce, of Waimate, for the erection of the Waitaki Bridge, has been accepted The amount has not transpired, but we-hear it is about £30,000. The General Government provides all the ironwork,- and the contractor the timber,- -flooring, handr'rails, -• and all labor. The, contract is to be finished in 18 months, and there ispro- . vision that a bonus r; of £IOO per' Week shall be given to the contractor in recognition of time saved.—' Star.'-- 1 A Riverton -bachelor was - last week offered £2OO by a special lriendr if he would get married \vithin .two weeks frointhe date of the offer. The bachelor being not at all averse to the ptOpqsal, requested' that £IOO should be paid a preliminaiy—in the event of his not -being married within the specified, period, the money to be leturnel Here is a for the young ladies of the Western trict ■ Thirteen" days of the specified time have yet to run.—''North Otago Times'; The ' Hruce Herald' says v thut ; several, of the oldest and most successful of the Blue Spur gold miners have lately purchased large interests in claims upon the Maerewhernia,'.gcfldfield; after personally inspecting the locality of operations. £BOO „ is said to have been paid hy them lor an interest in one claim, and£s()o for (oneeighth share -in another, which speaks. well for the probable fortune yet in store, t for'this promising goldfield—barring Borton and M'Master's lawsuit. . The 1 Tablet' "savs it would - take.- to fancy that Mr. .Reeves' education secured his return. No doubt these views gained hi?."."the" supports of Denominationalists ; but', we;think are as yet too few in Duriedin to be able . to return a" man of their choice. M'n Reeves, most'probably, .owes his seat in the " - Provincial Council tohiswell—known princi- . „ pies on the land question. When- Mr. Reid was in power there was no .settle*. ment, and" the excuse wasHhe state* of - the law To remedy - what he conceived to be def'vts. he introduced a new 7 land bill, which in its main features, is- _ now law. But the bettlem-nt- seems -to be as far off as ever. For this, however, - Mr. Keid can hardly be blamed, the administiation of the -laws" carried by "his party has been confided to different hands. But even >lr„ Keid was not an advocate.!' for any very extensive settk ment.v. an \ his parry wanted the land, for • their -- children, at least he said so in the House of Representatives. AriffasUo-Mrr Macandrew and the party now, in it appeals to us that they are not real'y desir- _ " ous to dispose of the land to small" proprie"-":' tors. So far from their .being any ,propf of a sincere desire on their part-to prombtef. the settlement of such, there i£ abundant evidence of the contiaiy Tt.e people can ' see this-and are indignant. - " A man has been brought up at the City Court, Melbourne, cliafged with endeavori ing to impose upon the charily of several 1 members of the order, by means of begging 1 letters. The person alluded to had several aliases, and appeared to have grown* 1 " elderly and hoary headed," in the course 2 of dissimulation". His wife seem? to have. " been tarred with the same brushran'd "to have entertained a mosf determined predi? .'■ lection for subsisting jupon the good nature 3 or sympathy of the public/with which - object in view, she had on several previous „ ? occasions represented herself as being in * distressed circumstances, pregnant,- &c:,s <&' C. During, the past 9 years this wors thy couple would seem to have reaped . a.' f plentiful harvest. The prisoner by way * J of defence, stated that he was a- Mason* e and denied the allegation of being an _im- <■' poster. J1 e was sent to gaol for six months. 1 The strangest fact of this strange episode - s is that none of the witnesses,' who were all freemasons, could positively der.y that j the man was a brother of the order. ; - A story is related by the ' Wagga Ad—,f vertiser' as follows:—"Some few daysf a boy aged JO, the son of Mr. Hiath, e watchmaker of that town, fell down a well j at the back of his father's premises. Notfc withstanding the shock of a fall over 30"feet',* >t* the boy .retained sufficient presence"* of- -- mind to support himself in the wat.er- un--_ jjj til a rope was lowered to him. and finally placing his feet in> no<)he at the end of* the rope, he held on while he was < d to the surface. This is one. of- the most; estraordinary instances of presence of mind a in a child that has ever* come under our n - notice. But a still more remarkable ie exemplification of the possession oi '-"'the id same faculty remains yet to be mentioned in connection with the affair. ; A consider>able concourse of women and children "we're j Je attracted to the spot. Miv Lowe;-agent of J 0-: .the^Mutual;Life ■ Association, was there m 'i* alsOj and;coolly.Q seizing -his opportunity, ■ he delivered "aiii :extempore lecture on : • blessing of olife,'insu'rance ,i!liistrating argument by " the TacciSent which called them together. Consider the . ings,' he is'reported to have" said, 'of ls agonised parenti3'whoirushes-->to the and, as the inanimate body- of his chil^^H : fcroughts- to the surface, reflects n-; was not •insured !' .THeCiscsne was ipg in the highest degreer atid .VIT iat-. ;must be [congratulated .upon the . - : of special a ualificatiuiis for his-'vorat^^^H