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Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 110, 24 January 1880, Page 2

Badly off. — A feliratou.** paragraphist observes that ** a Continental Oo?kcr has been recently calculating the daily income of the reigning sovereigns of Europe, and it' he is correct, tho modern theory that certain private persons ar.c richer than inonarcbs falls to tbe. ground. Even a little Icing like J be King of the Belgians has £323 per diem, or £120^0.00 a year. The King of Italy has thrice, as much. The Emperor of Germany has £1,030 a day, tlie Emperor of Austria £2,000, the Sultan of 'Turkey £3,G00, and the Czar of Russia no Je3s than£s,ooo per diem, or £1,825,000 per year which is a very tolerable income. And yet it is whispered tbat one or two of these people are not happy." This, however, is only what reflecting people would expect of such human trash as the majority of modern Kings and Kaisers are. Royal Toasts. — Many stories are. told of the caprice.s and oddities of William IV. He was fond of giving dinners at which tbe guests were bidden, in accordance, with a fancy' of his ' own, ou account of their belonging to a particular profession or calling. One day he had an equal number of military and naval officers, with the. officials belonging to their respective^ departments. The land forces were ranged on one side, {if the table, and the sailors on the otber. His Majesty gave several toasts, with impropriate speeches by way of prefaced That of tbe evening waß the. health of the i two services, whose valour and devotion he j loudly extolled. They should never forget that it was thoir peculiar. good fortune to ; to serre a country when men of all ranks, from the highest to tho. lowest, were eligible to command. " Here on my right," said tbe king, with especial emphasis, "is my I noble friend, descended from a line of an- ' cesl ry as ancient as my owhj aud hore on • my left is my gallant friend, a Rear-Ad-miral, sprung from the very drega of the people." On another day the banquet was given to prelates and clerical dignitaries of various degree**. Tbe toasts were appropriately .ecclesiastical. That of the church was prefacca by ita temporal head with an , account of hia own change of opinions. " When I was a young man, as well aB I can remember, I believed m nothing but pleasure and folly — nothing afc all. But when I went to sea, got into a gale and paw the

wonders of the mighty deep, then I believed, and I have been a sincere Christian ever since." The Vabtopo PorES. — Eighty of the Popes are honored saints, 31 martyrs, and 4# confessors. St Agatho was the only Pope who lived to be a centenarian, as lie ia also the only one, after St Peter, who may be honored with the title of miracle worker. St Agatho diod at the age of 107 j years, GS2, having reigned three years and six months and fifteen c.lavs. Ore gory IX. died at tbe age of 98 years ; Cele«tine 111. and Gregory XII. at the age of 02 ; John XXII. at the age of 90 ; Clement X. and Piii? IX. at the age of 86. Tbe Popes have been drawn from all classes of society. Nineteen were sons or near relations of princes; an equal number came from illus. trious families. Many were nobles m rank or of great wealth. Others sprang from obscurity. Sixtus VI. was the son of a fisherman. Alexander Y. was the son of of poor, unknown, parents, and passed his first years m begging from <\oox to door. Adrian IV., The only English pope, was abandoned by his father, and had to subsist on charity, until, going to France, he entered a cpnyent as a servant, where by bis intelligence and his virtues, he was afterwards deemed worthy to be received info religion. Sixfi's V. had for his father a poor labourer, for mother a servant, and for a sister a laijndress. St. Celestine Y. was a son of a simple firmer. Benedict XII. was tlie child of a baker. Urban IV. had a carpenter for a father, as also bad Gregory VII. Five of the popes studied medicine beFoTe faking holy orders. Bene,dict XI. was the child of a notary. Julius 111. was the descendant of a famous jurisconsult. Pelagius I. was the son of the vicar of the prefect of his province. Paul Y. had for his father a patrician of Sienna ; and Kmrene IV., Gregory XII. and Alexander VII. belonged patrician families of Venice. Whal ever their origin, however, they no sooner acceded to the chair of St. Peter than they displayed great wisdom, great cl|arity, great dignity, aud great piety. A SESSATTqN^T, SnciDE. — Moscqw Society, says the London XDii.ly Telegraph, would appear to b t e just now considerably exercised by the suicide of one of its brightest ornaments the young and lovely Countess Vera KoshelefF, who a short time ago suddenly disappeared from he.-* place m the Russian Capital, only two days after her solemn betrothal to Count Ileimann, which had been celebrated with festive rejoicing upon and unusually magnificqnt scale. No one could imagine whither she had gone Until ber steward received a letter written at. her chateau m the Crimea, wherein she informed him that " she -^as going to bathe m the river running through her estate, and should not return alive from her bath." She also described the exaef. spot near which he. body woi*ld be found m the water. Se-irch wa? of course made with all possible promptitude, aijd it resulted m the discovery qf the beai*tif'ul yovjng countess's corp-e sewn up m a large straw sack, and sunk m thp river. The seams were f.iund to be iii the inside of the crpk, proving that Vera Koscheleff had deliberately sewn herself up m the sai'k on the river bank and then cast, herself mi o the stream. In another letter addressed t n or t e of her v\ncles, recidvei sometime after her de.ifb, she gave as he.r reisons for enclosing her»cff m a sack previously to drowning herself ber extreme fear of crayfish and water-beetles. Few strange, and inure f.-int.-t.s'ie suicides have beon recorded een m h'u'sian annals of self -destruction, which are exceptionally rich m grisly stories of this particular description. An Essay on Woman. — After man came woman. And.'she has been after him t.vc x v since. She. i* a person oF noble, extraction being made of a' man's rib,. I don't know why Adam winfed to f->>l away bis ribs -in 'bit way, but I suppue he was not account able fjr whc r t he. did. Woman is superior being m Massachussets. There are abui-t. OJ.OJO more of her. sex than miles m the Statu. This accounts for. the terrified, hunted down expression of tbe single men who emjgivite. from the East. Worn m was not created perfect, she lias her f uilts — such as false hair, and false completion, and so on, but she is a great, deal better than ber neighbours, and she knows it. Eve was a woman. She must have been a mnlel wife for it cost Adam nothing to keep her m clothing. Still I don't, tlnnk I hey wore, a hit happy. )"rjhe couldn't go to sewip.g circles, ana air her information about every body she knew, nor excite the envy of other ladies hy wearing her new winter bonnet to church. Neither could she hang over the back fence and gossip with her neu* neighbour. AU these privileges are iL'mel her. Poor Eve ! She's de.ul now. And the fashion she inaugurated is dead too. IF it hadn't been for that confounded " snai^ " perhaps the 1 idic* of the present flay would dr.-iss as economically as Kve did. Worn mis endowed w^tli a |tr.cmendouß fund of knowledge. She has the capacity of learning everything she was inten led to know, and a few items beside. The happiest period of a woman's life is when she is making her wedding garments. Tlie saddest is when her, husband comes home late at night, and yells to her from the front door ( o throw a handful of keyholes of different sixes. There is som.e curiosity m feminine nature. • For instance, I once knew a lady who could piss another m the street without looking around to ace whal oho had on. Poor thing! she was blind. — Josh Hillings. A Comedy or Eit Rons. — "The friends of two gentlemen, neither of whom has heretofore borne tbe. name of Dromio," the Sydney D.i it g Telegraph relates, " have for some days past been amused by stories af mistaken identity, \vhich were, of such a highly puzzling character that it was not till yesterday that the matter was fully understood. A gentleman recently returned from England, who hqs been seen at the Exhibition and other public places a good deal lately, had be.en 'wpbraided by ladies and quietly remonstrated with by gentlemen, for his intolerable insolence, m failing to respond to their, bows wlier^ they met ' the other day.' Sometimes, when notes had been compared, the unhappy individual found it difficult \o convince his indignant acquaintances that he, never wss at such and such a place, at or about the time named. At last he found Sa.mar.itan, who told luiit, how be had met his twin brother, both m stature, and attire, and that this individual had the same tale df distress to narrate. The principals were burning to be introduced, and yesterday tho opportunity came at the Garden Palace. Each had a gui< J t view of the other, and became more astonished than ever. They wqre brought together, and those present who were | acquainted with the surroundings could not obstain from laughter. To say that they were as like as two poas taken from one pod would hardly convey an idea of the extraordinary likeness. Both were about the. same physique ; their suite might have been cut by the same tailor, from the same material, and tbey might have patronised the same batter. Added to these singular agreements was a similarity of gait, and the m which each carried his walking (stick. Perhaps the most p.izzling pirfc of all was the uniformity of complexion, expression of the features, and shape of whiskers. The now friends had hardly been acquainted many miuute-* before they were able to unravel further secrets connected with their past troubles,