MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 701, 21 April 1852, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Railways and Sight-Seers.—Something more titan £400,000 has been received for the admission of curious visitors to the great sight of London town during the past five months—but the sum expended in bringing them to the doors of the said sight was probably five or six times as much. Half-a-crown for entrance and a sovereign for conveyance there and back again seems to have been about the average proportion of expenditure. Large masses of men (including women and children) were set moving, and large masses of money put in circulation ; and of both, the lion’s share was swallowed up by the agents and appliances cf locomotion. Railways and steamboats for travellers from a distance, and cabs or omnibuses for the metropolitan streets, divided among them an ample harvest. In the two latter alcne, the average outlay on the “ shilling days” upon the Knightsbridge road was estimated at £2,500 per diem. Making a fair allowance for those days when more aristocratic vehicles predominated, we may safely assume that half-a-million sterling was laid out in the twenty weeks upon the omnibuses and hackney-carriages of the metropolis. But the gatherings of the various lines cf railway were still more copious. The returns of the aggregate traffic upon the various railways of the United Kingdom for the interval between January 1 and the closing of the Exhibition on the 11th instant, show a-receipt larger by no less than £1,581,604 than that of the corresponding period of 1850. Nearly the whole of this vast expansion has occurred upon lines forming links in the chain of communication with the metropolis, and may be almost, or altogether attributed to the attractionsoffered to the world in Hyde Park throughout the past months. —Atlas.

The Proposed Atlantic Submarine Telegraph.—Oarable contemporary, the Athenaeum has some remarks on this project, similar to those that appeared in the last number of the Weekly News. In the opinionof the Athenaeum, there is nothing really impracticable in the undertaking, and our contemporary has been assured that the same persons who first suggested and commenced the Dover and Calais enterprise, have expressed to our eminent engineers and capitalists their conviction of the feasibility of establishing a single line of communication between this country and America, for a less sum. than was paid for making a single mile of the expensive portion of the Great Western Railway. A Mr. Reynolds, of New York, proposes to construct the communication at a cost of 3,000,000 dollars. He sets forth, that the distance between Cape Canso, above Halifax, on the American coast, and the nearest point iu Ireland, near Galway, is about 1,600 miles along the banks of Newfoundland, which are known to extend within 160 miles of the coast of Ireland, at an average depth of 800 feet. Aline of this length, consisting of four wires perfectly insulated in a good gutta percha covering, of the size proposed, would last hundreds of years, as the insulating substance is indestructible in water, and has a strength almost equal to iron. Such a line would weigh about 200,000 tons, and would require about 15,000 tons of anchors.— English Paper. Photography in Natural Colours.—la some experiments made by Sir John Herschel, a coloured impression of the prismatic spectrum was obtained on a paper stained with a vegetable juice. Mr. Robert Hunt published some accounts of their natural order obtained in some sensitive photographic surfaces. These were, however, exceedingly faint indica'ions; and M. Biot and many others regarded the prospect of producing photographs iu colours as a vision of enthusiasts, —not likely from the dissimilar action of the solar rays ever to become a reality. M. Edmond Becquerel has published a process by which on plates of metal many of the more intense colours have been produced ; but it apnears to have been reserved for the nephew of the earliest student in photography, Niepce, to make the discovery of producing on the same plate by one impression of the solar rays all the colours of the chromatic scale. Of this process, called by the discoverer, M. Niepce de St. Victor, “Heliochromy”—sun colouring—we have, through the kindness of Mr. Malone, bad an opportunity of seeing the earliest specimens imported into this country. They are three copies of coloured engravings, —a lemaie dancer and two male figures in fancy costumes ; and every colour of the original pictures is most faithful y impressed on the prepared silver tablet. The preparation of the plates still remains a secret with the inventor :— and he informs Mr. Malone—to whom these pictures were given by him—that it is in many respects different from that published by him in his paper 'On the Relation which exists between the Colour of certain coloured Flames and Heliographic Images coloured by Light.’ Suffice it to say, that the plate when prepared presents evidently a dark brown, or nearly a black, surface —and the image is eaten out in colours. We have endeavoured by close examination to ascertain something of the laws producing this most remarkable effect ; but it is not easy at present to perceive the relations between the colorific action of light and the associated chemical influence. The female figure has a red silk dress, with purple trimming and white lare. The flesh tints, the red, the purple, and the wrrite are well preserved in the copy. One of the figures is remarkable for the delicacy of its delineation ; — here blue, red, white an 1 pink are perfectly impressed. The third picture is injured in some parts ; —but it is, from the number of colours which it contains, tile most remarkable of all. Red, blue, yellow, gtcen, and while are distinctly

Dlar Jt e d, and the intensity of the yellow is very Elri ting. Such are the facts as they have been examined by us : —and thebe results are superior to those which were given to the world when photography was first announced. We may expect shortly to see these Heliochromes presenting favourite scenes and chosen friends to us iu all the beauty of native colour.— Athenaum. Funny Market and Witty Intelligence. There was an arrival to-day of conundrums and other dry goods, specimens of which were handed about rather freely ; few are above the average. The following are the best quotations : *' fio s are sold at sixpence a pound by the ‘ drum,’ how should they be sold by the trumpet ? “If £8 per ton is the price of lead in sheets, what would it be worth in quires ?” The market was well supplied with small yarn, some of which was about equal to the following: . An individual says that the following translation struck him (it would have served him right hadit knocked him down) during a three hours journey from Kensington to the City -Nemo omnibus horis sapit, No one knows the time of an omnibus.” There has been a perfect glut of the lower quality of stuffs, which are offered at any price, but the dealers would have nothing to do with them. The following will suffice to show the kind of article that some unprincipled persons, trading on such capital as mav be found in the alphabet, are desirous of foisting on the community, “ How,” asks one of these unpiinciplcd adventurers in a recent circular, “can you express in four units that food is necessary for man ?—l, 0. 2- 8.” One—ought—enL,s the reply he hazards. We are not sure that an indictment for trying to get funnv under false pretences would not lie against the person thus committing himself; or, at all events, for passing a counterfeit joke, as the following goes to show a second case of uttering :—“Why is a conspiracy like a chicken walking ?—Because it s a fowl proceeding I” There can be no doubt that persons capable of hatching a thing of this sort deserve to be completely beaten up with eggs in the nearest pillory. There had been no packet from the Isle of Dogs when we we went to press : and a funny dog we had expected from that quarter has accordingly not arrived. The following has just been growled out to us by a funny dog of our own, who with his MS., has been committed at once to the kennel: —“ Why is a bald man like nn invalid ?—Because he wonts fresh (h)air 1” After this it will be.dangerous to keep the rcadci any longer in the oppressive atmosphere of the Funny Market, and we accordingly release him from his painful position.— Punch.

A person who had got some little smattering of zoological lore, said to a novice, that crocodiles were often seen in tears. " Oh, that’s nohing,” rejoined the novice, “ I've often myself s een whale's blubber."

A Fortunate Adventurer.—A Frenchman, who, under the name of L'amar Bey, had arrived at the dignities in the East, has just died at Tripoli. His original name was Souchon, and he was a drummer-boy in the army of Egypt in 1798. After the battle of Heliopolis, he and some others fell into an ambuscade in the desert, and were made prisoners. Djezzar ordered the whole of them to be put to death, but the officer charged to carry the order into execution, being touched with the extreme youth of Souchon” spared his life, and sold him as a slave to the Pacha of Tripoli. This latter incorporated him in his troops, and soon discovered in him so great a capacity, that by degrees he raised him to the highest ranks, and at last made him Governor of Andjelah, in his dominions. His administration was marked by great energy and firmness, which in the end led to the establishment of order and prosperity. He died lately at the age of 68, during a visit he was paying to the Pacha of Tripoli.— Galignani.

Fatal Panic at a Public Meeting.—A fearful accident occurred on the 9th at Mayence; on that evening the Pius Verein (a Catholic religious society) held its third sitting in the hall of the Frankfurter-Hof. The Cardinal Bishop of Cologne, the Bishop of Mayence, and many of the clergy of the city and the neighbourhood, were present. The hall was densley crowded, the gallery being chiefly occupied by ladies. The sudden rise of an unusual mass of flame from a gas burner caused an alarm of fire, though the escape was instantly checked by turning the valve. A desperate rush was made to the entrance and the staircase, especially from the galleries. The foremost were thrown down and trampled on, and a heap of bodies were formed in the narrow staircase; it was not till other doors could be opened that any assistance could be rendered. Six women were found crushed to death or suffocated ; a number of others were conveyed to the hospital. The intelligence of the catastrophe spreading through the city drew an immense crowd to the spot, and it was not till the street was cleared by the military that the dead and wounded could be removed.— Atlas.

Cold Water.—The condtions of life in England and, we may add, in America—are much changed within this century ; much changed since the beloved Andrew Combe gave us familiar books, to show us something of the laws of health, and teach us among olher truths, the nature and business of the human skin. It is within the period of steamboat travelling that American ladies were wont to emerge from their berths in the morning, ready dressed, and to dip the corner of a towel in water, wipe their eyes and mouth, and consider themselves finished for the day. It is within the memory of middle-aged English women, that when at school,—at an expensive and em’nent school,—the pupils bad one foot-bath for the whole number, and only on Saturday nights. It is within the memory of middle-aged men, that they were struck with astonishment and amusement on first hearing of such a thing as washing all over every day. And perhaps, it is too much within the observation of us all, (as Mr. Tremenbeere tells us of the pitmen in collieries), that, for years together, the clean shirt goes on every Sunday, over an unwashed skin. It is not long since a clergyman finding an old woman of his flock very ill, met with a shocking answer to the advice he gave. “ I will send the doctor to you,” said he ; “and I can tell you what to do mean time. Put your feet in warm water, and go to bed.” “Put my feet in water !” exclaimed the patient; “ why, not a drop of water has touched my feet for thirty years.” Moreover, she vowed that not a drop of water should ever touch her (tpl ; and, thinking Wellington, April

■ it proper to render a reason to the clergyman, i • she told him that she had had a daughter who : | bad once been persuaded to wash her feet, and • that that daughter had died before she was twentyl five. It is not longer ago than some months, • that a decent woman, too ill after her confinei raent to dress her infant, interfered to prevent its arms being washed, saying that if a child’s arms felt the water before it was six months old, ' it would become a thief; and, she added pathe- ’ tically, “I wouldn’t like that!” Till lately, j the gentle knew as little as the simple now do, ; what they suffered from neglect of the skin, nor j how it was that they suffered as they did. They did not know how, when the pores of the skin are loaded., and its action checked, an undue bur- , den is thrown on the interior organs. When, in this state of chronic fever, the interior organs flagged in their work, and the sufferer was oppressed by sensations of sinking and languor, he was apt to resort to stimulants, which, affording relief for the moment, aggravated the mischief. And when, at last, the weakest organ gave way, ■ and some attack of illness occurred, the treatment was for the immediate symptoms alone, and the fnlse system of management went on, till occasion was ripe for another fit of sickness. All the while the portion of the brain appropriate to the performance of the bodily functions was suffering. By day, there was oppression, languor, and dull pain somewhere; by night, disturbed sleep, and bad dreams ; and always, night and day, and from month to month, liability to low spirits, and all the moral mischiefs which attend unhappiness. Wordsworth used to say, to the last, that times were changed for the better, in homes and society, since be was young. In bis early days, everybody was understood to have a temper; and the admission in the abstract did not much help the endurance of such peculiarities by neighbours, in daily life. But now, it was considered the rule that people should be amiable, and it has become a sin to be otherwise. No doubt, the bodily state of bad washers, —that is, of the vast majority—subject, as they were, to low spirits —must have had an incalculable amount of influence on the domestic temper; however gay may be the traditions that have come down to us of the mirth of society in the last and preceding centuries. If we would see the difference now, let us look around for (not the bad washers, for that is disagreeable, and the good ones will answer every purpose) the most healthy and cheerful households we know. Is there a house where the doctor seldom enters, but as a guest, where the lads are brisk in shop or warehouse, and the lasses merry at home? It is pretty certain that early hours are found there, and plenty of cold water. The fever patient finds inexpressible relief from the sponging with vinegar and water, and the same kind of relief is given by ablution, under the lesser fever of toil. The anxious merchant or statesman is haunted into his bed by images of terror, or wearied with galling cares ; his morning draught and his morning bath restore all things to their true aspect and their right proportion. The author—the most sensitive of human beings—has gone to Grafenberg, or Beurhydding, or Malvern, burdened with care and dread, trembling at the arrival of the mail, recoiling from the sight of reviews and newspapers, and, in a week or two, has omitted to speculate on the fate of his own book. So one of the fraternity bears witness to his friends in private, and if one of the genus irritabile is thus made serene by cold water, what wonder is there in any effect that it may have had on the tempers of men in general. Household Words.

Perilous Position of a Yachting Party. lachters seldom encounter such perils as fell to the lot of the Owen Glendower, the property of Mr. Moore, of Moor Hill, Wa'erford, Mrs. Moore, a “ youthful bride,” has written a full narrative of the shipwreck. At the time of the storm, there were ten men on board, besides Mr. and Mrs. Moore, a page, and two ladies who had been visiting the lakes of Killarney, with the party. In the middle of the night of the 24th ult., while the gale was raging, and the ladies were trembling in their births with fear, a tremendous crash was heard, accompanied with groans from the men. We were informed that the masts, sails, &c., had been swept away, and to put on our dresses immediately, for she would go down in ten minutes. The ladies speedily reached the deck, in their night-dresses ; five men were disabled by the falling of the masts, and two others were lying on their hands and knees, holding up beds and blankets against the leak ; the remainder were engaged in bailing out the water with the buckets. The labour of

those who had been uninjured was so arduous, and with no hope of being saved, it is not astonishing, under these circumstances, that they sat down dejected and totally dispirited. I feel thankful to the God of all mercies that he gave me strength and nerve, hour after hour, to cheer and exhort them. Mr. Moore's presence, and encouraging words, produced some confidence in their hearts, and by working ourselves we excited them to further exertions. The pump, too, was found of more avail than the buckets in keeping her dry, although it was extremely dangerous to work it, the bulwarks having been carried away. At length the man at the pump espied a vessel, which proved to be the John, of Odessa, taking two hundred passengers and crew out to America, commanded by Captain Hein, a Prussian. Twelve limes did this ship at imminent risk to herself, sail round the wreck, striving in vain to reach it, while the unfortunate persons on the wreck feared that each time would be the last, from the great distance, six miles, she bad to tack before she could return to the yacht:—“ Once more we resumed our exertions below at the pumps, also clearing out a quantity of her iron ballast. We again, and as it were for the last time, tried to cheeer and encourage the men by working ourselves and entreating them to lake, for our sakes, some claret and cider, which was all we had remaining ; a drop of chilly water was all I had to quench my thirst. Meantime the John of Odessa lay to, and the sea became comparatiuely smooth, which Captain Hein observing, nobly lowered his boat and volunteered to come to our rescue ; this the mate, Thomas Larkins (Irishman) opposed, saying the captain’s life was too valuable to the passengers to be hazarded, and that he would go in his stead. The cook was the next to volunteer, Thomas Jones, a Welshman, and the three others— William Hamilton Gibson, an American, Benjaman Archer, an Irishman ; Carl Sparknowlsty, a Russian; George Vintz, aßussiau, accompanied by

the first mate (Thomas Larkins), on this perilous occasion.” A magnificent donation was pressed upon the captain and mate, and an address has since been presented to them by the passengers in the yacht, and the cabin passengers on board the ship.— Atlas. Lavengro.—ln the following scenes Mr. Borrow introduces his reader to an old woman who kept a fruit-stall in one of the alcoves of dd London-bridge ; he bad observed her seated there when he walked upon that bridge on the first day of his arrival in town. Having watched the rush of waler through the narrow arches for some time, he was about to climb upon the balustrade to look over into the river at a greater advantage, when he felt himself seized by the body, and, turning his head, saw the old fruit-woman :—

“ Nay, dear! don’t —don’t!” said she. “Don’t fling yourself over —perhaps you may have belter luck next time.

“ I was not going to fling myself over,” said I, dropping from the balustrade; “how came you to think of such a thing?” “ Why, seeing you clamber up so fiercely, I thought you might have had ill luck, and that you wished to make away with yourself.” “11l luck,” said I, going into the stone bower, and sitting down ; “what do you mean? 11l luck in what?”

“ Why, no great barm, dear! cly-faking, perhaps.” “Are you coming over me with dialects?” said I; “speaking unto me in fashions I wot nothing of?”

“Nay, dear! don’t look so strange with those eyes of your'n, nor talk so strangely; I don’t understand you.” “ Nor I you; what do you mean by clyfaking?” “ Lor, dear! no harm; only taking a handkerchief now and then.”

“Do you take me for a thief?” “Nay, dear! don’t make use of bad language; we never calls them thieves here, but prigs and fakers : to tell you the truth, dear, seeing you spring at that railing put me in mind of my own dear son, who is now in Bot’ny; when he had bad luck be always used to talk of flinging himself over the bridge, and sure enough, when the traps were after him, he did fling himself into the river, but that was off the bank; nevertheless, the traps pulled him out, and he is now suffering his sentence : so you see you may speak out, if you have done anything in the harmless line, for I am my son's own mother, I assure you.” “So you think there is no harm in stealing?” “No harm in the world, dear! Do you think tny own child would have been transported for it if there had been any harm in it? and, what’s more, would the blessed woman in the book here have written her life as she has done, and given it to the world, if there had been any harm in faking? She, too, was what they call a thief and a cut-purse; ay, and was transported for it, like my dear son ; and do you think she would have told the world so if there had been any harm in the thing? Oh, it was a comfort to me that the blessed woman was transported, and came back—for come back she did, and rich too—for it is an assurance to me that my dear eon, who was transported too, will come back like her.”

The Private Life of a Racehorse. — We arrive at a neat farmhouse, with more outbuildings than are usually seen appended to so modest a homestead. A sturdy, well-dressed, wellmannered, purpose-like, sensible-looking man, presents himself. He has a Yorkshire accent. A few words pass between him and the clerk of the course, in which we hear the latter asseverate with much emphasis that we are, in a sporting sense, quite artless—we rather think “green,” was the exact expression—that we never bet a shilling, and are quite incapable, if even willing, to take advantage of any information, or of any inspection vouchsafed to us. Mr. Filbert (the trainer) hesitates no longer. He moves his hat with honest politeness; bids us follow him, and lays his finger on the latch of a stable. 1 he trainer opens the door with one hand ; and, with a gentleman-like wave of the other, would give us the precedence. We hesitate. We would rather not go in first. We acknowledge an enthusiastic admiration for the racehorse; but at the very mention of a racehorse, the stumpy animal whose portrait headed our earliest lesson of equine history, in the before quoted “Universal Spelling Book,” vanishes from our view, and the animal described in the book of Job prances into our mind’s eye: “ The glory of his nostril is terrible. He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted. He swalloweth the ground with the fierceness of his rage.” To enjoy, therefore, a fine racer —not as one does a work of art—we like the point of sight to be the point of distance. The safest point, in case of accident (say, for instance, a sudden striking-out of the binder hoofs), we hold to be the vanishing point—a point by no means attainable on the inside of that contracted kind of stable known as a “ loose box.” The trainer evidently mistakes our fears for modesty. We boldly step forward to the outer edge of the threshold, but uncomfortably close to the hind-quarters of Pollybus, a “ favorite ” for the Derby. When we perceive that he bos neither bit nor curb; nor bridle, nor halter ; that he is being “ rubbed down ” by a small boy, after having taken his gallops ; that there is nothing on earth—except the small boy—to prevent his kicking, or plunging, or biting, or butting his visitors to death ; we breathe rather thickly, When the trainer exclaims, “ Shut the door, Sam 1” and the little groom does his master’s bidding, and boxes us up, we desire to be breathing the fresh air of the Downs again. “ Bless you, sir !’’ says our good-tempered informant, when he sees us shrink away from Pollybus, changing sides at a signal from his cleaner ; “ these horses (we look round, and for the first time perceive, with a tremor, the heels of another high mettled racer protruding from an adjoining stall) “ these horses are as quiet as you are; and I.say it without offence—just as well behaved. It is quite laughable to hear the notions of people who are not used to them. They are the gentlest and most tractable creeturs in creation. Then, as to shape and symmetry, is there anything like them?” We acknowledge that Pretty Perth—the mare in the adjoining box—could hardly be surpassed for beauty.

“Ah, can you wonder at noblemen and gentlemen laying out their twenty and thirty thousand a year on them ?” “So much?"

“ Why my gov’nor's slud cost us five-and-twetity thousand a year, one year with another. —There’s an eye, sir !” The large, prominent, but mild optics of Pretty Perth are at this moment turned full upon us. Nothing, certainly, can be gentler than the expression that beams from them. She is “ taking," as Mr. Filbert is pleased to say, “ measure of us." She does not stare vulgarly, or peer upon us a halfbred indifference ; but, having duly and deliberately satisfied her mind respecting our external appearance, allows her attention to be leisurely diverted to some oats with which the boy had just supplied the manger. “ Il’s all a mistake," continues Mr. Filbert, commenting on certain vulgar errors respecting race-horses; “ tborough-breds are not nearly so rampagious as mongrels and half-breds. The two horses iu this, stall are gentlefolks, with as good blood in their veins as the best nobleman in the laud. They would be just as back’ard in doing anything unworthy of a lady or gentleman, as any lord or lady in St. James’s —such as kicking, or rearing, or shying, or biting. The pedigree of every horse that starts in any great race, is to be traced as regularly up to James the First’s Arabian, or to Cromwell’s White Turk, or to the Darley or Godolphin barbs, as your great English families are to the Conqueror. The worst thing they will do, is running away now and then with their jockeys. And what is that ? Why, only the animal's animal spirit running away with him. They are not,” adds Mr, Filbert, with a merry twinkle in his eye, the “ only young bloods that are fond of going too fast.” — Dicken's Household Words.