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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 209, 2 September 1881, Page 3

The sympathisers with Wbitelaw, of Wellington Lunatic Asylum notoriety, could only collect £32 ia aid of the object'of their admiration. The promoters, according to the "Wanganui Herald, have come to the conclusion that that sum will be juat about sufficient to pay the expense of: sending Whitelaw back to his native land, a country, which for his own credit and that of New Zealand, he should never have left. The Vienna papers announce the death of one of the beat known men of the Austrian capital— Baron Johann C. Sothen, who was shot by his gamekeeper on June !9, at his villa near the city. He began life in a very humble position, selling cigars and collecting for lotteries. He rapidly accumulated "wealth, became a banker, entered into various boßinesß undertakings, and is said to have been worth millions at the time of his death. Ha was fifty-eight years of age. A recent Sydney telegram says :—Smallpox is spreading in the city, despite the efforts of the authorities and of medical men. Seven fresh cases were reported on Sunday, when a child aged two years died, and much alarm prevails, but the authorities are doing their utmost to meet the emergency. Every house infected is immediately quarantined, and the patient removed to the station as soon as possible. A Mrs Harris, at Waterloo, who is suffering, refuses to go into the quarantine station, because her son died there recently ; meantime a daughter caught the disease in the house. The strangest raffle we have heard of for a long time come 3 from the north of Auckland. A resident of Kawakawa, named Jaggers, raffled himself for twenty members at 4s a-piece ; and the highest thrower got the benefit of his services for a fortnight. I witnessed rather an amusing scene yesterday between a good housewife and a Chinese vegetable hawker in the Tinakori road. "John," with the "childlike and bland " simplicity so peculiar to his rcce, was explaining ;o the lady that, by the simple process of boiling, his vegetables-even suppo3iDg they contained any germs of smiiiipox—would become thereby perfectly from even a suspicion of variola, which would evaporate in the s'.eam This explanation rather increased the ire of the dame, who calling to her assistance! a strong buxo w domestic, '*' went for " the almcnd eyed tiller of the soi'. The women, arming themselves ■with a pot-stick and a rclling pin proceeded rigorously to •' wacksinate " that unlucky Celestial, who, before the operation was completed, appeared to be thoroughly ' inknockulated," and, jadging from she reverse of brisk manner ia which he hobbled off, he is still in quarantine— "Asmcdeus," in the iV'eic Zeiluid Muil. Any act of self-denial on the part of a lawyer, even though unintentional, is worthy of being recorded. The other day, remarks the Bruce Herald, an individual Bought the assistance of a somewhat ancient member of the legal profession, residing in a wellknown town on the Otago goldfielda. His business was connected with his pecuniary circumstances, which had become very mucb involved. Havirg obtained the advice he esked what was to pay, and the lawyer modestly estimated hi 3 services at half a guinea. He then favored his client with a Jittle bit of advice. Said he, "if you were as anxious not to pay your debts aB jcu have been to pay them you would be a great deal better off." The man mused for a moment, and said, " Well I never looked at the thing in that light before. I think there is some" thing in it, and will begin at once to act upon your advice. I owe you half a guinea. Good morning," He then disappeared. Lady Beaconsfield had a career almost as eventful as that of her second husband. She was the daughter of a retired army captain, and in her youth was employed in a millinery establishment in Exeter. A wish has been expressed that the Boers would seed a team to see what they could do in competition at Wimbledon. Levy, the cornet player, who, judging by certain affidavits, has clearly committed bigamy, was arrested in New York on 7th June. He was married in London in 18G3 to his first wife, named Emily, by whom he had two children. He lived with her till 1873, when a deed of separation was drawn up, by which the wife uas to have custody of the children and was to receive an allowance of £14 per month. Tcis was paid until Levy visited Australia, after which Mrs. Levy only received money from her husband occasionally. In 1877 Levy was married in New York to Marianne. Conway, by whom he has issue. After his arrest Levy was bailed out, and subsequently stated that if his first wife persisted in the legal proceedings against him, he would leave America and.fgo somewhere out of her reach, but if let alone he would pay the maintenance money as regularly as possible. A very cool proposal this, especially when, as stated on oath, Levy earns about £1200 per year by ius tooting. The Hon Lewis Wingfield, a vivacious contributor to several London periodicals, has been masquerading as a lunatic, it is said, in several English madhouses with the view of exposing the evils of snch places in his forthcoming story, " Toe Haven of Unrest." The late Mr Christopher Pond, of the well-known London firm of Spiers and Pond, ■was for many years a resident in Melbourne, where he was well-known in conjunction with his partner. Mr Spiers, as the founder of the oft de Pjtis. He was continually embarking in large enterprises, among which was one which, unfortunately, was Dever carried into effect. The firm offered the late Charles Dickens the sum of £10 000 over and above all his trave ling expenses and maintenance, for a twelvemonths' reading tour through the Australian colonies " Thtgrntleman through whom the offer was made pressed upon the novelist the a<lvanta"es whioh would accrue to his overwrought svs' tern from the perfect rest of a six or eu'ht weeks' voyage, and pointed out what a rich and unworked field for the observation and study of character Australia would present to him ; but Dickens shrank from the under taking, while thanking Messrs Spiers and Pond for their offer, dwelt upon the large Bum he wa3_ making by his readings in England, and incidentally mentioned that by announcing one at any time in St. George's Hall, Liverpool, he could be sure of netting £300. Sir Spier 3 subsequently waited upon the novelist in London and renewed the offer, but with the same unsatisfactory result. I