MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 6, 31 March 1864, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Homely Hints tor Maehied Gaudenehs. — If you fail in raising the -wind abroad, that is no reason why you should kick up a breeze at home. No soil favoi'B the cultivation of spare time as well as the domestic hearth. Boware of hiding the family bread-basket in the public-house till. Keep your passion-flowers outside the walls of your homestead. If cultivated within doors, they are apt to scatter seeds of dissension around the family. The largest locomotive in the United States, if not in the world, has just been built for the Philadelphia and Heading Railway Company. It has twelve driving wheels, and weighs more than 100 000 pounds. Mr Commissioner Evans, who was the Senior Commissioner at the Court of Bankruptcy at the time of his retirement, about two years ago, died on Wednesday, at his residence, near Hampstead. Mr Evans was brother of the late George Evans, Esq., of Portrane, formerly M.P. for the county of Dublin. His pension of £1330 a-year (twothirds of the salary) ceases with his death. He died possessed of a large fortune, and childless. He that slanders me, says Cowper, paints me blacker fhan I am; and he that flatters me, whiter. They both daub me ; and when I look into the glass of conscience I see myself disguised by both. I had as lief my tailor should sew ginger-nuts on my coat instead of buttons, as that any man should call my Bristol stone a diamond. The tailor's trick would not at all embellish my suit, nor the flatterer's make me at all richer. M. Bardoux, a manufacturer of Poitiers, is said to have made a discovery which will effect a revolution in the manufacture of paper. He has succeeded in manufacturing paper from various descriptions of timber, such as oak, walnut, pine, and chestnut, and from vegetables, and without the addition of rags. Samples of various descriptions of paper are exhibited at the office of the " Journal dcs Inventeurs." M Bardoux asserts that Ins invention will cause a reduction of from 60 to 80 per cent, in the price of paper. According to a return just issued by the postal authorities in Switzerland, there e\ißts in that country 345 journals, of which 185 are exclusively political, 22 literary and scientific, 20 religious (15 Protestant and 5 Roman Catholic^, and one rationalist ; the remainder are miscellaneous. Of these 345 publications, 231 are prjnted in tho German language, 103 in French, 8 in Italian, and 3in patois. The canton of Berne alone has 45 journals. Nitrate of eilver filtered into the wound, is stated to be an effective preventative of the disease of hydrophobia, if applied " between the time of the bite and the activity of the wound, previous to its being ripe for dissemination into the system. The best mode of application of the nitre is by introducing it solidly into the wound. Tt melts in an equal quantity of water If already healed, the cicatrice should be rubbed and causticated away entirely." " Among the novelties of the age," says a New York paper, "is a seedless apple. A tree has beon found in Dutchess country bearing this fruit. There are no blossoms; the bud forma, and without any show of petals the fruit sets and grows entirely destitute of seeds. In outward appearance the apples resemble Rhode Island Greenings." A correspondent, writing from Paris, says • — " I hope it may never fall to tho lot of any of your readers to be mistaken for an ambassador, as happened to a friend of mine recently. He arrived at an hotel which, to injure no vested interests, I will call L'llotel Enorme, and, being half aßlcep, asked for a bedroom. It was G a.m., and he went to bed and to sleep. When he awoke he found himself lying in state in a crimson Batin bed, the i-oom lighted up by many bougies, and quite a vista of looking-glass reflected and re-reflected his astonished face. He roso, and j found baths prepared in a dressing room, fitted up like a lady's boudoir, and, finally, breakfast arranged on a small table in the midst of a vast saloon, bright with mirrors and splendid with gold and crimson. Alarmed, he rang the bell. 'Waiter, where am I?' 'Hotel Enorme, votre excellence ! an premier.' ' And the price ? ' askod my friend, ' Ohj fl. bagatelle, as son excellence will see by the tariff.' He looked and found it was 200f. 'Why put me here?' 'I thought monsieur was an ambassador. We always put fchem-au premier.' ' Ambassador ! why ? ' ' Bectfu** JBGasiaui 1 vrcrft a black «mh' "

The Origin op Foolscap. — When Charles I. found his revenues short, he granted several privileges, amounting to monopolies, and among these was the mannfaeture of paper, the exclusive right of winch was Bold to certain parties, who grew rich, and enriched the Government at the expense of those who were obliged to use paper. At this time all English papers hore in watermarks the Royal arms. The Parliament, under Cromwell, made jests of this law in every conceivable manner ; and, among other indignities to the memory of Charleß, it was ordered that the Uoval arms be lomoved from the paper, nud the fool's cap and bells be substituted. These were also removed when the Kump Parliament was prorogued ; but paper of the size of the Parliament's journals still bears th« name of "foolscap." — Once a Week. One of the latest moves in bill-advertising in London has been to get a number of board-men to march in Indian file, each bearing on his breast one huge letter of the name of the entertainment advertised. Traffic and obdurate policemen often cause a perplexing transposition of tlie human letters.