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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 77, 1 April 1871, Page 2

A remarkable instance of the power of the Press in elicitiug sympathy for a • , foreign and distressed people is now being 1 exhibited. Some few months since a i correspondent of the Daily Keios detailed the harassing sights he witnessed among the villages desolated by the tread of war on the north of France. A few days after the proprietors initiated a fund for the aid jof the helpless people. They headed the subscription list themselves with odb hundred guineas. Some two hundred or more pounds were contributed on the first appearance of the appeal, which has been continued day after day until, without personal solicitation of nay kind, nearly fifteen thousand pounds have now been subscribed. Tho proprietors deduct nothing for administration of the fund ; they, themselves maintain gentlemen to do that. Truly the "Daily News relief fuud " is the noblest monument that could be erected to the beniguant influence of that great journal. Mr. Robert Scott, at the Royal Institution in his last lecture on " Meteorology,' said that when the clouds lie low on the hills it is a sign of rain, for the air near the ground must then be largely saturated with moisture. Very bright, clear weather, making very distant lulls plainly visible, is also a sign of rain, for when the air is dry it contains more dust and haze. As the vapor condenses, it first attaches itself to the fine particles of dust, and byrendering them heavier causes lhem to sink to the ground. A fine starlight night in otherwise rainy weather is a sign that it will probably begin to rain again next morning.

A CnrjsTTAK and Hts Riches. — In a late number of the Christian World it is stale] : — "Tim directors of i!io Lomlou Missionary .Soclnfy haw v(vy recently received frt.-;:i tokens of ili« continued regard and conlitlonce of some of their most liberal supporters. Mr Henry Hopkins, of ITobart Town, who sent a donation of £500 last April, has just written saying that he is now 84 years of age, and having occasion to alter his will, as he had purposed leaving the society a legacy, he resolved to be his own executor, and so forwarded the sura of £3000 at once as a donation to (he society — adding: 'If our rich men were to think what their riches were given for, they would feel it a pleasure to assist you, ti!! in the course of time you would have more than was needed. About sixty years ago I wrote in my cash-book that I would devote one-tenth of my income to the spread of the Gospel and the welfare of the poor. I had not much then, but since then I have been able to £*ive away large sums every year for several years : therefore God has prospered me, and I write this that some young men may be led to do the same.' " A Rebellious "Dummy." — The f Thames Advertiser has the following ntnusing incident: — "It was a common practice in Auckland to transfer scrip in companies to ' dummies ' to avoid calls, and with an understanding that the property should be re-transferred if ever it should be of value enough to make that operation worth while. As this was generally clone by large holders, and the wealthiest men in the company, the effect was frequently to burst up the companies which had to be wound up with great loss to the creditors. A good many companies, however, mauaged to keep alive, and in some of those now the scrip is of considerable value, in consequence of better prospects. In the instance we have been informed of, the gentleman went the other day to his 'dummy' and requested that the scrip be ( re-transferred, as now, instead of carrying with it a heavy liability, it was worth several hundred pounds. To his astonishment and disgust, however, the^ 'dummy' refused, saying that he had taken the risk and responsibility, and would take the profit.. I talked much wiifljhe drivers of cabs and cars in Ireland, anWfia^dy4fe^i^^(y bright and communt^a^ve. I remember a funny story that a driver told me about a rich lady who owned a grand estate near Cork, and who had chronic rheumatism that no doctors, foreign chemists, or mineral springs could cure. In despair, the poor old soul came home to die and used to be trundled about her lawn and meadow in a hand chair by her mauservactj till one day, whilst meditating on her gradual descent to the tomb, iv her chair in the meadow, her roan -servant with staring eyes of horror, exclaimed : — " O, mistress ! the great bull has broken loose, and is nr.kin^ directly towards us !" and ho immediately proved his personal discretion more than his valour, by taking to his heels, with the full conviction, probably, that his healthy legs were of more value fhau his lady's damaged timbers. But what could she do but die ? Not so. She saw that she could at the worst only die under the beast's horns, and she might as well try to die game. So up she started, and^away she ran, and was over the fence nearly as soon as her unheroic man-in -waiting. She left the bull and I the rheumatism in the meadow behind. I I do not vouch for this story, but I did " laugh right smartly over it at the time ; and the fun, I find, is not wholly gone out/ of it yet, as my diaphragm, assures me while I write. — Rev. Dr. Osgood. A Needless Inquiry. — When you take a " stitch in time " do you hem-brace an opportunity ? — We think sew. For remainder of news see fourth page.

Ghostly Photography. — The city of St. Lawrence, Massachusetts, has been thrown into a. state of great excitement, and not without just cause. It seem* from the account given in the New York Herald that an elderly lady lately died in a house on Broadway in that place. On the 20th September, the day after the funeral, a lady who happened to be visiting one of the tea ants of the same house, accidently turned her eyes upwards, and distinctly saw the figure of the deceased lady at the attic window. In great consternation she communicated the circumstance to the other occupants of the building, and, in a short time, the entire neighborhood was made acquainted with the interesting fact, and with their own eyes witnessed the phenomenon. Various means were tried to expunge the photograph of the ghost from the glass, but all in vain ; and, at last, owing to the crowds that assembled, it was found necessary to remove the sash. Dr. William D. Lamb, an eminent physician, subsequently obtained permission to remove the sash to his office id Essex-strept, where it has been examined by " intelligent and scientific men," some of whom are of opinion that the departed must have been photographed upon the window-pane by the action of lightning, when sitting in the room before her death. It is a most uncomfortable story, and it is to be hoped that the intelligent and scieutifie men will not leave the window sash alone until they have thoroughly sifted the mystery. Poverty in England. — We complain of hard times in New Zealand, but wo may be thankful that no such scenes a 9 that depicted by a writer in the Builder, and which we pive below, are to be met with here. He gives the following as one example of an English home in one of the dismal Wapping courts where the outstretched hands can nearly touch the hovels on either side : — "A father in the last stage of consumption — two daughters, nearly marriageable, with hardly sufficiem rotting clothing • to cover their shame.' The rasrs that hang arouinl their attenuated frames nutter in strips against iln-ir naked legs. They have no stool or chair upon which they can sit. Their father occupies the only stool in the room. They have no employment by which they cau earn eveu a pittance. They are at home starving on a half-chance meal a day, anil hiding their rasgeduess from the world. The walls are bare, there is one bed iv the room, and a bundle of dirty rugs are upon it. The dying father will" shortly follow the dead mother, and when the parish coffiu encloses his wasted form, and a pauper's grave closes above him, what shall be his daughters' lot?" This is but n type of many other homes in the district: dirt, misery, and disease, alone nourish in that wretched neighborhood. " Fever aud small-pox iaze," as the inhabitants say, "next door, and next door, and over the way, and next door to that, and further down." The living, dying, and dead are all huddled together. The houses have no ventilation, the back yards are receptacles for all sorts of filth and rubbis ; b, the old barrels or vessels that contain the supply of water are thickly coated on the sides with slime, and there is an undisturbed deposit of mud at the bottom. There is no mortuary house — the dead lie in the dogholes where they breathed thoir ]ast, and add to the contagion which spreads through the neighborhood." A merchant who lately advertised for a clerk who could " bear confinement," has been answered by one who has laiu seven years in gaol ! Hesitation in His Writixg. — An oLI woman received a letter, and suppo&ing it to be from one of her absent sons, she called on a person near to read it to her. He accordingly began, and read "Charleston, June 23, 1859. Dear mother ;" then making a stop to find out what followed, as the writing was rather bad, the old lady exclaimed — " Oh, 'tis my poor Jerry ; he always stuttered."