Miscellaneous Items.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1604, 9 January 1886, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items.

Mr- William - Thomas Stead,, editor of theFcUl Sfall Gazette, whose name is m everybody* mouth, is the * son pi' the -kite-Rev W. Stead, a. Baptist minist er, of!'.,* R«wden- on -Tyne. .Mr Stead was chiefly Educated by his father, but when he was twelve he was sent to Silcbatesin the dayspf Dr Bewglass. He tlhus writes about .the. effect of his early training upon the educational work ',:—■", Prc-minent among the means , by which ray father used to quicken our wits and famaliarise us with dialectio was the Sunday morning' breakfast- E-ich of us hud to commit to memory one verse of Scripture; At'" breakfast the youngest begart by repeating his verse- Every member of the family had to give his 01 jher interpretation of the text. The elder ones contrived to raiae almost all the' issues of religion aa'd morality in* these dicussions at the breakfast stable. Since those days 3 have had some little experience of discussions with all softs and conditions of men. , I have had to discuss face to face with the foremost men of our day. But never, m my recent experience have J^everhad such Consciousness of intense mental active. THe experience'ilhat; came nearest to i\ did not qual it— waslhat of the fierce halfan hour' in. v^fiich. my late editdr (Mr Morley and 1 übhcL ta discuss the affairs of the universe before W6;sett.ed down to work". '. Thj particulars of. a most to aching ease, of fortitude and filial viture— unhappily unavailing, as far as this world's .affairs go — have just been communicated to us from Canterbury. A -girl of 17 has died ofconsumpfiou, in 4 the Hospital, a fortnight after admission,' and it has been ascertained that she, had dependent onher an aged father, a helpless invalid. For a loug time past this poor, good creainre had named ten shillings a week as an assistant to a photographer, nnd she had /^supported her lather and herself on that income. She ! paid -ja&'r shillings a for the rentu of a cottage, a>id the pair actually lived on the balance^ six; shillings a week, pr less thnn .sixpence * day^ach. They paid their rent punctually, kep ttheiuselves perfectly tree from debt, and never solic r ited or received relief. At last, the, gii'l became tbo ill to work and had to go to the Hospital, where sh.e diqd foa i;teen . days^ after wcrhsd Swrely she «hall receive her rewdrtf ff"m Him who regards the poor an., l'»«'ly,' who gives light to them thad sit m darkn^s-* and .'.the shadow of death. * Wellington Press, '" A Ijondon - paper says .'—"According to a leading New York paper, the cohgrHgation of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, are about to dispense with the services of Henry Ward Beecher. In this gifted preacher and orator they have discovered .some gravo mental a&d' -'m'orat defects. Ho is becoming exceeding eccentric, grows "queerer" as he g^eta older, and his flock 'are m consent' apprhension of new and dangerous freaks oh hw pare. Whenever he does drop on anew freank he obstinately sticks to it. His chief defects seeni* to lie m his 'mugwumpism 1 and m n certain 'crustacean course which he has pursued. He is also, like Dick Swiveller, always financiitlly behind^ and his capacity for jjecuiiog into debt increases with his tfWp* and the amount of his income . •'trhe^wgregatioh, however, are to be 4nerG(fts to Mr Boecher, who is now •apprftaciii^g ; his. seventy-second Mrtbday,, and havino; regard to the old man> f eelinga, ai c not to dismiss turn aitt^ptly,'but t ji'tt the phrns«eology of ti*e New York fjflfi^p^ jbo 'elimin»te him *y be^rees; 1 ■' '