MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 9

MISCELLANEOUS.

A special New York despatch says— Reliable information lias been received here that there exists a widespread organization of ex-Confederate officers, soldiers, and politicians, including, also, many persons who served in the Federal army, whose purpose is to bring about the annexation of Mexico, peacefully if they can, forcibly if they must. This organisation expects to secure the annexation of Mexico within five years. Joseph E. Johnson, the famous Confederate General, is chief of the organisation ; Rosecranz is in sympathy with the movement, and John A. Logan is also named as one of the prominent members. It is believed that Juarez himself is not unfriendly to the objects sought. The demand for annexation is to begin in Mexico. Newspapers advocating the cause will soon be started there, and the coming winter will see the fruits of a movement long contemplated but now only about to bo sprung upon the two Republics. An elephant belonging to a menagerie indulged in some very eccentric performances at Danielsonville, Conn. Just after the close of the afternoon performance, he became enraged, and, says the “ Republican,” “ pushed through a tent, encountering a wagon ; this he overturned, driving his tusks through it, and scattering the pieces. Other wagons he smashed, crushing the wheels and twisting the tongues off as though they had been little twigs. Three large and valuable baggage wagons were thus tom to pieces in a few minutes. One of these he drove through the side

of Robert Oughton’s barn, crushing in the wood as though it had been an egg shell. He then £ went for’ a large mule, drove both tusks through the animal, piercing him to the earth. The poor mule was killed—instantly, of course. He then shoved him along the ground, occasionally varying the performance by tossing the body into the air. Piles of lumber near by next claimed his attention ; the boards and timber went spinning through the air. and now lie scattered in every direction. Meanwhile his keeper and the employees commenced to shoot at him with revolvers and shot guns, careful not to strike him in any vital part. The shot made no impression upon him, the balls would produce a slight scringing, something like that produced upon a school-hoy when his ears are snapped. He took to the street, and the manager had hopes of getting him out of I he city, where he would be quiet. He did proceed quietly for a little distance in company with the female elephant, which all of the time remained quiet and perfectly tractable, but finally broke again into an orchard. Here they placed chains about his legs, and fastened him partially to a large apple tree, the trunk of which was more than a foot through. The brute was here in a terrible state of excitement; he stripped off the branches with his trunk and tusks as one would strip leaves from a twig. One of the tusks was broken off ] close to his head. Ropes and chains ; were thrown around him and the tree, and an effort made to cast him. This did not succeed. It was exceedingly dangerous to come near him all of this time, as he swung his proboscis rather promiscuously. At last lie placed his head against the tree and tore it up by the roots. At length he was conquered into submission by means of pitchforks and hot irons. The animal is 52 years old, weighs five tons, and is valued at 50,000 dols, but is getting ss ugly that, he will probably have to be killed.’’ The following curious letter has been addressed to an Indian paper:—“ Respectable Six*, —I beg to inform you that one woman of the Mahratta persuasion lose her nose by severance with a sharp cutting instrument at the hands of her husband. Having suffered the condign punishment in accordance with usu-M custom she had no nose left, hut she the woman is now having a new nose cut out of her head, and fixed on the old situation by means of stiekiug plaster, by the Medical Civil Surgeons. If this new custom will eventuate then what use to cut off noses, and old custom of the peoples is frustrated. Not in the Penal Code to cut out new noses, and conti'ary to the feelings of loyal sub jects, therefore Mi’ Editor, we must have a public meeting to petition sacred Government, and will be thankful for particulars as how to make our appeal. —I remain your humble and obliged servant, Bappoojee Row Medlay.” An inquest was held at Crewe on Friday night respecting the death of John Sparks, a young man 22 years of age, employed at the Wheelock Iron Works, and whose body was found in a terrible condition on the Manchester down line, near Crewe station, early the same morning. Deceased was in the habit of walking home to his father’s house every night, and on the way he crossed the line where he met his death. The poor fellow’s diary contained an entry to the effect that for the three preceding nights in succession he had dreamed of coming to a horrible end, and be concluded with the couplet— What is to come has to come, Grod’s will be done. The verdict of the jury was “ Accidental Death.” A young celestial geologist, Stanislas Meunier by name, has lifted us out of the rut as regards our future fate, and for so doing has been complimented by the eminent savant, M. Dumas. For hundreds of years we have steadily believed that in the end this planet will be parched up like a scroll, and it is refreshing to find it proved by M. Meunier that so far from melting with excessive heat we shall probably break in pieces from intense cold, and be distributed through space in aerolites. With respect to the rumors lately current regarding the appointment of a Regency in Britain, the London correspondent of the “ Scotsman” says :—“ I am able to say with positiveness that the Ministry have not discussed anything

like a Regency, nor has the word ever been mentioned in any of the Councils of the Cabinet. But what has happened is this :—There exists some anxiety 1 among the members of the Royal Family to devise means whereby the Prince of Wales may be furnished with employment worthy of his station, and after a family consultation, in which the Duke of Cambi’idge took a part, it was arranged that the Queen should be asked whether she would consent to an arrangement which would relieve her of a great poi’tion of the labor now imposed upon her in reading and signing papers, and in discharging other merely formal duties of a Sovereign. This question, it is understood, was asked, and her Majesty graciously expressed her approval of the suggestion, although, I believe, no details of the proposed arrangement were entered into.” The “Calcutta Englishman” says: —We have lately received information which leaves, unfortunately, no doubt as to the truth of the spirit of unrest in the Punjab, to which the Lahore paper recently gave publicity, and which the Allahabad journal hastily contemned. The evidence before us shows that there is good ground for anxiety in at least three of the great centres of population in the Punjab. This time it is the Sikhs who feel aggrieved, and who threaten us. The almost simultaneous outbursts of Hindu fanaticism against the Mussulman butchers, and the assasination of the Lahore Small Cause Court judge, are only straws on the surface which show how the wind blows. We believe that the state of Lahore and Umritsur have already attracted the serious attention of the authorities, and that Jullunder, if not also Loodiana, are under anxious surveillance. While we would deprecate anything like sensational writing on this subject on the part of the English press, we would set our face against any semi-official announcements tending to conceal the true state of affairs. Our ignorance of what has been going on under our very eyes has enabled a great Mahornmedan conspiracy to spread over the eastern districts of Lower Bengal, and to keep alive a Musselman rebel camp on our frontier. For the last few years every twelve months has produced a State trial, and at this moment another batch of Mahommcdans are under sentence of the Patna Court for offences against i the State. The frontier campaigns of 1803 and 1808 taught us what vain attempts at concealment of our real position might cost the empire. The present Government is quite strong enough to face the difficulties of its position, and to put down disaffection with a strong hand. While, therefore, we do not forget the malicious readiness with which a large section of the native press exaggerate and gloat over anything like sedition, we cannot see either the wisdom or the utility of concealing the true facts of the case. Once on a time Lord Russell (whom then we used to call Lord John) called a cab in the evening to carry him from the House of Commons to Chesham Place. To the cabman he gave a coin ; but when, with proper care, he balanced his accounts at night, he found 10s short. He rightly concluded that he had given his driver a sovereign for a shilling. On the following day he asked the waterman in Palace Yard whether he remembered the cabman. The cabman was found ; Lord John reminded him of what had occurred. The cabman knew all about it, and acknowledged his rascality. Lord John suggested the immediate return of the money. “ Can’t be done, your lordship,” says the cabman, grinning. “ Can’t! why not ?” rejoins the immortal Whig. <£ Why, my lord, I thought a great nobleman like you of course ineanj, to give me the . money as compensation for the honor of ' driving you. So, as my boots was blessed old, I went and bought a pair— i and here they are,” pointing to his ; somewhat shapely legs. “ They’re 1 werry nice boots, my lord; some calls ■ ’em Wellingtons; I calls ’em Russells.” ■ At'the opening of the Court of Oyer i and Terminer, Judge. Barnard, one of ] the New York judges, in his charge to < the grand jury, made one or two re- ; markable statements in reference to < the municipal government of that city. * !£ There may have been.” he says, “some j irregularities committed in the city, or ( indiscretion, or possibly some harsher j word might be used. Men are holding £

office in the city of New York not appointed by any particular men now in office, who have been there for years and years, appointed by Republicans " ien in P OWe L or Democrats when in power, who never pretend to come near the City Hall except to get their pay on the first day of the month; and some ot them don’t even live in the city. It is safe to say, and my observation justilies me in saying it, that nearly ail the last houses and fast women in the city of New York are supported out of the City Treasury; and for the purpose of stopping that, 1 simply cal! your atten--110110I 10 . 11 * 0 so that some of these men holding sinecure offices may go to work and get an honest living, if they can; or else take, in their cases, at least, their more legitimate employment—the highway, so that we can send them to the gallows or State prisons.” The “Falkirk Herald” says:—The following story of what may be called the extraordinary adventures of a letter, has come to our knowledge ; and as we have the information from a most reliable source we can vouch for its truth in every particular :—Recently a married lady, belonging to this district, but who had been in Australia for some years past, had delivered at her house in Bushoorth, Melbourne, a newspaper irom Arbroath, addressed to her husband the latter having friends in the town. I. he paper was wrapped up in the customary way. It seemed, however, to be unusually heavy; and on opening it up the lady, much to her surprise, discovered within its folds a bulky letter, bearing the name of Wm. Lupton & Co. woollen manufacturers, Leeds. How the letter came to be there is, of course, a mystery, although it is feasible to suppose that in this country it may have been accidentally forced inside the cover during the operation known as sorting. The lady promptly . had the letter despatched to its proper owners in England, from whom the next m ai 1 b i’o u gh t a co m m u n i cati on exp ressing their thanks to her, and stating that it contained drafts to the amount of £3OO, which they had suspected to have been stolen by one or other of the Post-Office officials. The case altogether is a strange one, and shows how adverse appearances, l he result of some unfoi’tunate chance, may cast their shadows over the fame of the innocent.