Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 184, 5 August 1871, Page 2

FtFTY Thousand Ladies in G-ermany have taken the pledge of total abstinence from chignons. Teetotal Periodicals. -The American National Temperance Advocate says that there are thirty newspapers and periodicals in the States devoted to the cause of temperance, not one of which is a source ot profit to its publishers. It is stated in a Melbourne paper that the profits arising from miniug speculations in Victoria are considerably larger than from any other enterprise. The capital invested ip mining companies is estimated at £3,000,000, while the amount invested in all other companies is nearly £17,000,000, yet the dividends from mining companies are larger than from all other joint stock companies in the colony. An Assault of an extraordinary character is related in the Melbourne papers as having been perpetrated at the Collingwood branch of the Commercial Bunk. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon a man went into the bank and after having some few words with the manager about a cheque, flung a piece of lead weighiug 2lbs at him, breaking oue of the manager's ribs. The man then took out another piece of lead, tied up at the end of a handkerchief, and ran round the counter to continue his murderous assault, when assistance arriving, he Tan away but was captured and given into custody. It is doubted whether the man is insane or was wanting to rob the bank. Poisoned Bread. — Out of twenty samples examined only three were positively genuine, while sixteen were contaminated with au actual poison ; and this is what is everywhere culled the staff of life. It is true that no man could eat at one meal a dose of bread which would really poison him out of hand, but we would like to see the courageous person who would deliberately consume half-a--grain of sulphate of copper every day of his life; and yet this is what thousands seem to do without being aware of it. — Food Journal. No better evidence that our legislators are impervious to ridicule can be found than in the fact that Lord Charles Russell has just granted permission to a distinguished artist, celebrated for his caricatures, to frequent the lobby of the House of Commous. We all know that the object sought is to " lake off" those honorable members who may have identified themselves in a prominent way with any of the great questions of the day, and it speaks volumes^in favor of good sense that the House should so courteously consent to be presented to the world in an amusing and laughter-provoking form. Perhaps in no country iv the world save England would such license have been permitted, and the distinguished artist in question will no doubt know how fitly to appreciate such unquestionable testimony to the claims of art and artists. A highly respectable family, resident in Melbourne, is thus described by a recent Argus : — "The father, it was stated, was of intemperate habits, and was now in the hospital, as well as the eldest-daughter, who, before becoming ill, had been the principal guardian of the children for some time past, in consequence of the incapacity of the parents. Another daughter was on the town, and a third was what Constable Dalton termed a " larrikness." A brother was running wild about the streets, and the four children before the court (there being eight altogether)were living in a miserable state of poverty in a wretched tenement off Lonsdale-street . The mother ascribed the condition of the children to her incarceration in gaol, but the Bench said they thought she was to blame for that herself, and sentenced her to threo months' imprisonment, while they ordered the children to the Industrial School— the boy for five years, and the three, girls for seven years each."