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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 20, 23 January 1878, Page 2

lty^"'"" "' ' ■■■^U'--!-U. l .ii I L.IL,UJ.'-LLi-'.«'.U'..J.!ll'-ii'.U'!!«' An intelligent telegraph operator says that a house was lately burned in St. John, N. 8., which was " occupied by three families, three barns, and two Bheds." It ought to hare burned ; crowding a house in that way ii a sin. Mosquitoes— lt is said that the lowa mosquito will laugh a hollow, mocking laugh when the man who makes a vicious slap at it with a sock skins his knuckles against the bed-post. A curious instance has recently occurred in France in a great criminal owing his life to the bad spelling of the foreman of the jury. Haas, a desperate convict, who killed a gaoler at Poissy, was found guilty 5 but the foreman, in handing in the verdict, according to the law, "Yes, by a majority"— in Freuch, " ma jorite"— spelt the latter word "margorite." The Court of Cassation held that the misspelling wbs a fatal objectiou,aud granted a new trial. The jury, from a feeling of compassion, more natural than logical, for a man who had endured the agonies of so long a suspeuse,oow gave Haas extenuating circumstances, and he is sentenced to penal servitude for life. An American lady coming from Canada assured the Customs officer that she had nothing but wearing apparel in her trunk, but he went to the bottom of the institution, where he found a dcwen bottles of brandy stowed away. "Madam," demanded he, sternly, " do you call these wearing apparel?" " Yes," the lady demurely replied, " they are my husband' 3 « night caps.' "