TOOTHACHE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 8, 9 January 1879, Page 2

TOOTHACHE.

To have it out or not — that is the question; Whether 'li 3 better for the jaws to suffer The pangs and torments o£ an aching tcoth, Or to take steel against a host of troubles And, by extracting, end them? To pull— to tugNo more; and by a tug to say we end The toothache, and a thousand natural ills The jaw is heir to— 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To pnll— to tugTo tug! perchance to break— ay, there's the rub; For in that wrench what agonies may come, When we have half-dislodged the stubborn foe, Must give us pause; there's the respect That makes an aching tooth of so long a life; For who would bear the whips and stings of pain, The old wife's nostrum, dentist's contumely, The pangs ot hope deferred, kind sleep delayed, When he himself might his quietus make For one poor shilling? Who would fardels bear. To groan and siuk beneath a load of pain, But that the dread of something lodged within The linen twisted forceps, from whose pangs No jaw at ease returns, puzzles the will And makes it rather bear the ills it has Than fly to others that it knows not of? Thus dentists do make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of fear; And many an one, whose courage seeeks the door With this regard, his footsteps turns away, Scared at the name of dentist.

Miss Florence Nightingale is now sixty years bid* and lives in London, almost a prisoner to her room, so ill is she. Once a yfear she takes her widowed mother to Derbyshire. She wrote lately iji A letter to a friend :— " Overworked as I am, my health is necessarily bad. Thank God, who still gives me work to do for Him." A discovery, which may possibly turn out to be one of great importance, has just been made in America. It is that good sugar can be made from the stalks of Indian corn. The matter is considered of such general interest that the Government of the United States has taken the matter up, and the Agricultural Department is carrying out experiments to determine whether the manufacture on a large scale would be commercially profitable. Fearing that Socialism may take root among the Poles, it is said that the Russian Government intends to adopt a more conciliatory attitude towards them. It is also said to be endeavouring to better the position of the 3,00,000 Jews in Russia, by offering them plots of land on very advantageous conditions, and that overtures have been made on this subject to the Alliance Israelite in Paris. There has lately been a great drought on the East Coast. A Gisborne paper say 3: — " Another week has passed away, and still no rain to moisten the parched land, and give nourishment to grass and herbage. Much of the grass seed has been harvested by the aid of Maori labor, but it is very light, and large quantities have been lost by falling from over ripeness. There is scarcely a bucket or tank of stored water in town. Most of the wells are dry, or the little water remaining in a few or them is quite unfit for use. The following extraordinary series of wrecks are recorded to have occurred on the Australian Coast in 1829 :— The Mermaid, Colonial Government cutter, left Sydney for Uaffles Bay, but on entering Torres Straits she got on shore aud was lost. All on board were saved upon a rock. Iv three days after the Swiftsure, Captain Johnson, which sailed for Tasmania, hove iv sight and took on board the captain and crew of the Mermaid, but in three days she got on shore and was wrecked. Two days afterwards the Governor Keady, also from Hobarton, Tasmania, (Apri! 2), passiug within sight, took the shipwrecked people belonging to the Mermaid and Swiftsure on board, but was itself wrecked on May 18, and all the people saved by taking refuge in the long boats. The ship Comet, also from Tasmania, soon after took the whole of the collected crews of the lost ships Mermaid, Swfitsure, and Governor Keady on board, but was herself wrecked, but all hands saved. At last the ship Jupiter, from Tasmania, came in sight, aud taking all on board steered for Port Raffles, at the entrance of which harbor she got on shore, and there received so much damage that she may be said to have been wrecked. At the Auckland Police Court recently the Rev Hugh Alexander was brought up on seven different charges of stealing Bibles and prayer books from different Auckland churches. The prisoner pleaded not guilty to the charges. Mr J. B. llussell, who appeared on behalf of the prisoner's friends, said it was suspected that the prisoner was not sound in his mind. He had advised him to plead guilty. Sub-Inspector Pardy said the prisoner had shown no signs of insanity. He had stolen most valuable books from churches, systematically erased the names, sold the books, and spent the money in drink. The Sub-Inspector said he .'did not see why the prisoner should be let off because he was respectably connected, while a poor man without such influence got punished. Mr Russell said he was not going to ask the Court to mete out punishment according to the '.colour and the value of a man's coat. He would ask for a remand that testimony might be brought forward in relation to the priaoner'3 sanity. He was remanded. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher went to a hotel in the city of New Jersey for a night's stay. lie ordered supper, and after taking a fews sips of coffee called the coloured waiter and said, " Can you give me your services this evening ?" " Yes, sah," said the waiter briskly. " The matter is one of importance," said Mr Beecher solemnly. " Perhaps I had better speak to the landlord himself about it." " Oh, no, sah," said the sable attendant, fearful of losing the thumping fee that the preacher's earnestness foreshadowed; "I can give, sar, all the time you need." " Well, theo," said Mr Beecher, with added solemnity, " I want you to sit up to-Dight with this coffee. It is so weak it is goiDg to die before mo.-cinq." There was a moment of pathetic silence, and the waiter withdrew. The Oamaru Mail has been informed of a somewhat strange incident in connection with the Waimate fire. In one of the houses destroyed was a tin of kerosene, which, though exposed to great heat, was not consumed, although everything else around it was destroyed, including some tubs containing water. The top of the tin was unsoldered by the heat of the fire, and the kerosene must actually have boiled, but not a drop of it was burned. It was afterwards tried and found to be still good, though it had been robbed of some of its gaseous properties. Krautz, the executioner of Hoedel. is the lion of the day in Berlin. He is a neat little man of 35. He wore a full evening dress when he beheaded Hoedel, and on his breast were medals gained in the wars of 1866 and 1870. He would accept no compensation for his work, considering himself paid by the honour it afforded. Magistrates and court officials warmly shook his hand after the e'eed, and he was invited to many festivals.