Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 173, 13 July 1876, Page 4

"iEjles" tells the following story in the Australasian : — ln the good old days — somewhere in the fifties — there was a large party in tbe house belonging to tbe Duerdin family in Flindersstreet, at tbat time let on lease. Whilst tbe youug people danced and flirted, four old gentlemen played a steady rubber in a corner of the dancing-room. One was the late Dr. Sewell ; Sir George Stephen was, I think, another, and there were two other ancients. After concluding a double rubber, the four adjourned for some refreshment, leaving the cards on the table duly BhufHed for the next deal. A bystander, moved by a spirit of mischief, during their absence rapidly arranged the packs so that the suits exactly alternated, and then drew off to observe the effect. (Their sequence a cut won't alter.) It was Dr. Sewell's. deal, and when he took, up his earJs, no one looking at that impassive face would have guessed he held an unusual hand. The player on his left broke silence thus. " Gentlemen, I have played whist for 50 years, and never before did I hold such a hand as I have now taken up." " Well," Baid his partner, *T am quite as old a player as you, and 1 can endorse what you say, with respect to my own hand." "As you are so communicative," said the fourth player, " I may inform you that I hold 13 carda of odo suit!" Then the Dr. solemnly placed his 13 trumps ou the table, and declined to score the game — the circumstance being, he said, unprecedented — but, said he, " I won't lose roy deal I and I will, with your permission, take the other pack," When these lour steady-going old gentlemen a second time picked up each 13 cards of a suit, their faces were a caution to see, and the youngest and most impulsive dashed down his cards, exclaiming, "The deuce is in the cards, I won't play any more 1" Nature, of the 20th April, has the following curious paragraph : — " Many persons are under the impression that while cats with blue eyes are deaf \ it can by no meanß, however, be deemed to be so commonly the case as to be an evidence of much consequence in building a theory upon, A New Zealand correspondent sends ua on authority some curious facts bearing upon the point. .« At Taranaki,' he says, ' I saw a white cat with blue eyes which was not at all deaf, and a good many of its kittens were white and had light blue eyes. As many ol these had perfect hearing as were fcfflicted with deafnes3. Tfiis cat had a growu-up kitten, perfectly black, which had sometimes also white young ones with blue eyes ; it showed, as did the old cat, a eiogular partiality for them. On one occasion it happened that tho old white cat and ber black daughter had litters at the same time ; amongst them there was only one white kitten with blue eyes the bluck cat's. The two fought fiercely for the possession of the coveted beauty, and the old cat frequently took it away and placel it amongst her own. One morning ihe unfortunate object of the quarrel wa3 found divided, by the recommendation of some feline SolomoD, and each cat was quite content in the possession of half.' " v En Passant.— Rather remarkable, ain't it Sir? But 'aye you never noticed as mostly all places on this line begins with a H ?— Aw, beg your pardon ?— Look at em 1 'Ampstead, Ighgate, 'Ackney, 'Ornerton, 'Endon, Arrow, 'Olloway, and 'Orsney.— Punch