MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 325, 28 May 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following advertisement appears in the.' Tumut Times ! : —"I hereby desire to relinquish the sobriquet of German Brown. lam a Norwegian; and if people will not mll me by my real name, let ■, them call me Norvvegian Brown." Mr. B. L. Farjeqn cleared, as the re--stilt of the first three weeks' sale of his Christmas : Story, " No Man's Land," pub - lished simultaneously in London and New 3Tork, £IOOO.. There isi a rumoi.%: growing in strength every day, says the * Court Journal,' that at the end of the season the Duke of Connaught (Prince Arthur) will take to himself a wife, one of the fairest of all the fair daughters of Erin. •'•■'

The ' Queensland Times' says:—" We have often wondered how it is that a proper word has not been invented to-express the nameof a message sent by the subma•-' rine wii-eV .Without pedantry, we may affirm that the w,ord : ' cablegram Vis simply ; execrable, both in sound and linguistic propriety. ; Why not'use the euphonious word ' calogfam,' ,\y.hich is from the Greek calos, ' a cable ?';. -It is much more ety - mologically correct than ' cablegram.* " In the new-Scots' church, Collins street, Melbourne, the.service.is quite modern." It has a fine organ.which is played whilethe congregation is assembling, and use is made of-'the Presbyterian psalm and hymn book. The organ is played again after the sermon, while the collection is being made,' and/also at,the end of the service,whilethe congregation is leaving the church. .-■ On the .12th April a veteran officer; Mr. John Pollen,-eighty-four years of age, was thrown from his horse and killed near Dubbq. .(New .South. Wales), and the .'Dispatch'. hasJearned that the deceased gentleman was,at the memorable ball;iir Brussels, when "trie distant booming of artillery filled the "room with consternation, and summoned the British officers, suddenly from the brilliant scene of happy revelry to a scene of glory certainly, where they had also "to enter upon a work, of fearful carnage. Mr. Pollen long survived the dangers ofHhe battlefield, though he came not out unscathed, for he bears to the:grave the.scar of a sabrc-wound across, the forehead, and \ye : believe another of a bullet-wound iivth'e breast; but died at last almost unknown, unheeded, and alone, in the Australian "bush.

v The New South."Wales';Assembly has virtually accepted a_ resolution in favor of the abolition of the gold duty,-,-reports, the correspondent of the ' Australasian.' Mr. Nelson, who' introduced it, asked the! House to affirm 1 that the duty was an unjust and a class tax. The Treasurer demurred to those words, but stated that the Government intended; to, introduce a bill to: abolish the duty, on ' which assurance the hon. member withdrew his resolution. As the late Government had also intended to: abolish: the "duty, Tit is expected that the bill will pass without difficulty, although the c Herald' protests against the measure as an abandonment of a legitimate portion of the land revenue.

A new feature intemperance has sprung up (says the Dunedin correspondent of the 'New Zealand Times'). Mir. J. P. Armstrong, •;\l.cl>©. (and very likely, by-and-by A1.11.R), has offered a prize for competition among the boys of the various district schools in and" around Dunedin. This prize is to be won by the best reciter of a piece of prose strongly portraying the " curse of drink," and its evils on the community. If my boy wins that prize I shall look upon him as past all hope, and shall'< at once enter him for .the-.Church, or the bar—of a public house—-probably the latter. Seriously, I think Mr. Armstrongis going too; far when he drags his teetotal principles through our public schools in this way. The same writer says.— "Apropos of the levee, it is said that one of our great medical luminaries, who was. for some years attached to an hospital in one of the West India islands, which partook of a military character, appeared at the levee in a most gorgeous uniform, .with sword and military cocked hat. After having duly ducked his head and passed before his Excellency, the latter inquired of one of our local magnates' who the gentleman was, and what was the nature of the uniform he wore. ' Oh/ was the re—.ply, ' that's the celebrated Dr. B——, formerly attached to the hospital corps at T , and at present medical attendant to the' Fire Brigade.' 'Ah,' retorted the Governor, ' I thought he looked like a fireman ; but why the sword ?' And echo answers, Why ?"•—ln a letter to the editor of the 'Guardian* Mr. Armstrong explains —" I observe by an extract from the ' New Zealand Times', and copied into your issue of this morning, that I am made to offer a small prize to boys of the various district schools in and around Dunedin. I beg to state that is quite a mistake, I hav~ ing offered this prize to the children in the Mount Ida which I have the honor of representing in the Provincial Council, and where I have lately been opening Good Templar lodges with great success. I may add, Mr. Editor, that I shall have I much pleasure in offering the same inducement to the youths of Dunedin, when their elders see fit to send me to the Assembly, as the correspondent of the ' New Zealand Times' very properly suggests.— I am, &c, John P. Armstrong. [We never before thoroughly understood what the poet meant when he said that * Mod-

I est merit loves to blush unseen.'—Ed O.G."—-Mr. Bakewell, also, writes to the ' Guardian *as follows SiE,—;ln one of your locals to-day appears a short, extract from the ' New Zealand Times ' dn the important subject of my dress when I attended the leVee held here by his Excellency the Governor. There are about as many blunders in the paragraph as there are lines. The uniform I wore was not that of the Fire Brigade, but of the 3rd Stafford Rifle Volunteer Corps, in which I have had the honor to hold a commission for nearly ten years. It was not by arr» means', 'gorgeous," being only the uniform of an assistant surgeon, with the Crimean and Turkish medals added. Such as it is, I have worn it at two levees held by H.R.H. the Prince.of Wales oh behalf of her Majesty, and regularly-at the levees of the Governors of Trinidad, under whoa - *. I served, and I was perfectly en regie in wearing it here.—l am, &c, R. H. Bakewell, M P., Assistant Surgeon 3rd Stafford R.V.C. :;

An elopement (says the ' Ballarat Courier ') came under the notice of the loiterers at the Western station the : other 'day. A train arrived... from up -country, but .of whieh stepped a youth and a maiden, evidentlyiin high glee -over their prospects, and.iatihaving defeated the watchful guardianship of the young lady's - natural pro-r----tecto- however, had a footing been secured on theplatform before the father, stern and wild, 1 and the; mother, imploring, appeared ■oh the scenei The for - mer rather roughly seized hold of.his daughter, .and insisted oii\ her returning home with him."; To do this she point blank refused, whereupon the father bent her over his knee, and told the mother to take off her boots. : Bootless; the young lady was allowed to stand on the platform, without her father's grip; but, while; the father -and mother were discussing what was to be done next, the young fellow was suddenly winked at by'a* sympathising cabman, and suddenly the girl.darted off in the direction of the cab, jumpeeHii with her lover, and, in spite of the load eric sot: "Stop, stop !'" from the father, away went the party, "skedaddling" downtydiaidstreet as fast as the horses could gallop.; ■ A boot-shop' :<:\vas-- first visited, arid a pair of understandings secured for'the .young lady; and, after this prelirriihary difficulty had been disposed' of, the ; t\vo we're driven by a- circuitous route back to'" the station;. quietly got their, tickets for "Melbourne';' and, while the father and mother were hunting about Ballarat for the runaways, the latter slipped into the train, and'were off to Melbourne as fastas the engine "could drivr themV Here ends the tale; for what became ot the'father and mother—-whether, they returned home, feeling-thaVfurther opposition was useless, or whether they followed lip 1 their quarry' to Melbourne—are. items which we could not procure. Suffice it f to say, that the, father and mother had, unperceived, travelled, as far as~,l3allarat in the same train with their daugh~ ter, and that no person who witnessed the: occurrence expressed "the least Vympathy with the ■ ' . ' -.'■.;-' ■■ -