Miscellaneous Items.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1462, 23 September 1885, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items.

The Conservatives have arranged to contest every seat m England and Scotland .at the nex election, with the exception of 50. Of the 50 nearly the whole are m Scotland and Wales. ' There is every probability that Mr Gladstone will leave the leading of the next political campaign to othurs. He., has expressed himself as heartily tired of the pomp and vanity of political life. He has been wounded by friends from whom he had reason, on account of " value received," to expect different behaviour— just, at least, one' spark of gratitude. A volcano nas Durst forth near Bishops Creek, Nevada. The death was very recently announced, at St John's Wood, of Theodora Elizabeth Lynch, known m the literary world as Mrs Henry Lynch. She was the widow of a barristsr practising m Jamaica, who was nominated one of the judgbs ofthat island, but his suddi-n death' from yellow foyer prevented his taking his seat upon the bench. After her husband's death Mrs Heury Lynch returned to England and wrote stvernl works of fictiou and volumes of poetry. The property-master of a theatre is usually very ingenious, very industrious, and not too highly paid. When a live elephant was once brought upon the stage m a piece m Drury-lane Theatre the property master left the house m disgust. "If I couldn't make a better elephant than that " lie said, " I should be jolly well ashamed of myself." Cyclists auxious for a novelty m •' wheels" will like to ht>ar of a curious " unicycle " being made on the other side of the Atlantic. The machine is twelve feet m diameter, and is expected to work at the rate of nearly a mile a minute. As nobody ever counted a million of anything, it is worth while to stop a little to understand what it is, by the help of a few illustrations. A million days are two thousand and seven hundred and thirty years, so there have not been many more than two million days sine« the sreation of Adam, and rather more than a million sinco the time of Solomon. A railway train going thirty miles an hour, and never stopping, would take nearly four years to go a million miles. If you had a million shillings to count one by one, and did it as fast as you could for. ten hours a day, it would take a fortnight ; and the million shillings would weigh nearly five tons, or be a heavy load for a raihvfty truck. A million is a thousand thousands. At about noon on Sunday (says the N. Z. Times) the attention of two boys named Dignau and Hatch was attracted to an object which was floating m the water near the breastwork, opposite the Provincial Buildings, and which proved to be the body of a man. The lads at once informed the police, and the body, which was exceedingly decomposed, was hauled out of the water. It was recognised as that of Vincent Uroll, late firemnnon board the Government steamer Hinemoa, who has l»een missing since the 6th instant. On the 11th instant his disippearanco was reported to the police, nnd it was then feared that some harm had betall«n him. There w ere no in.-rks of violence on the remains which were removed to the Morgue, where an inquest will be held before -Dr Johnston. . Deceased was a nntive of America, and was about 45 years of age. Says Friday's Evening Press : — A curious mischance hffel a guest at one of the city hotels the othor night. He had retired to ben leaving his clothes on a chair. Ou rising m the morning he found that his coat, waistcoat and shirt had been burned, a large hole appearing m each. The snat of the chair was also badly burned. The origin of the fire is lost m mystery. The sufferer says he had no matches m his pockets, and unless it can bo attributed to spontaneous combustion, or a despicable practical joke, no cause can be assigned to it. There is a story told of a man who was r^solvpd on suicM*. He rook poison, then bring himself over a oliff where, if he was not killed by fallinff if the scaffold gave way, he would die of drowning. Then to mak« thinsys sure he tried to shoot h?mßftl f. Unfortunately (!) the bullet cut the ron«, the water broko his fall, and on trying to drown himself the salt water acted as an antidote to th« poison, and the tide going out, left him stranded nnd al?v«, unpoisoned. nnnhot, unh'ing, undrowned,and unkilled by the fall. Last Friday's Wairnrnoa Daily had the f. Uowinar:— Whle Mr T. Thompson, landlord of the Empire Hotel, was walking 1 along Queen-street at an early hour this morning, he was Riirpris«d to see a women and two small children cowering m the doorway of a shop. As they had the appearance of having been out all night, and the weather whs very cold, he asked for an explanation, and was then told by (he woman that she \vnt» French, that she had recently left Napier, com« up by train from Wellington lust nisrht, and th«n found that, being without money and friends, «hi» could obtain neither food nor shelter at the places where ahft mad» inquiries, and she therefore staved out. Mr Thompson gave h»r nnd the children food nnd shelter. They am apparently fit subjects for the Benevolent pociety.