CHOICE EXTRACTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 241, 30 January 1877, Page 2

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

MAKING ONE'S MARK

The mark which persons who are unable to write are required to make, instead of their signature, is in the form of cross; and this practice havin-'formerly b -en followed by Icings and i.ohles, is constantly referrc dtoas an instancy.of the deplorable ignorance of ancu-nfc tinv-s. The si-nature is not, l:owev<r, invariably a proof of such ignorance. Anciently th • use of the mark was not confined to illiten t; persons ; for among the Saxons, fie mark o' the cross, as an attestation of the good fait-i of the persons signing, was required to be attached to the signature of t'.iose who could not write. In those times, if a man could write, or even read, his knowledge was considered proof presumptive that he was in holy orders. The clericus, or clerk, was synonymous with penman ; and the laity, or the people who were not clerks, did not feel any urgent necessity for the use of letters. The ancient use of the cross was therefore universal, alike by those who could and those who could not write ; it was, indeed, the symbol of an oath, from its sacred associations, as well as the mark generally adopted. Hence the origin ef the expression, "Go 1 save the mark," as a form of ejaculation approaching the character of an oath.

THE PRINCE OF WALES' PLUME. Mr. J. Wheeler writes to the Times: — " Just now, when His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has recently made an alteration in his plume, it may be interesting to your readers to be told that the Royal plume of three feathers is of Mogul origin, and probably of very remote antiquity. Tiie Mogul Emperors of Hindostan wore a plume of three black heron's feathers when they took the field—a fact of some poli x ical significance now that Her Majesty has become Empress of India. Sir Thomas Roe, who went on an embassy to the Court of the Emperor Jehangir, in the reign of James 1., describes the plume worn by the Great Mogul when leaving Ajmeer for an expedition into the Deccan. A celebrated traveller describes a similar plume worn by the Ottoman Porte. It was doubtless borrowed from the Moguls, who were the ruling tribe among the Tartars, and probably the descendants of the Royal Scythians described by Herodotus. The plume had a military meaning ; it was the symbol of command. On taking the field, the Ottoman Porte gave one of the plumes to the Grand Vizier, who was then acknowledged as Commander-in-Chief. The identity of the Prince of Wales plume with that worn by the Great Mogul is also of ethnological interest. in the fourth volume of my ' History of India,' I

have ventilated the theory that the? Moguls are the descendants of the Vedic Aryans. I may add that the Mogul people of Burmah still cherish the traditions and Worship of the Vedic deities, and preserve the sacred language of Pali, which is distinctly Aryan." ♦ THE BEVERAGES OF GREAT MEN. It may be of interest to hero-worship-pers to learn the favorite beverages by which divers great men are said to have stimulated their faculties. Frederick the Great, like a good many other persons, had a particular affection for Tokay. Napoleon preferred Chambertin, but liked black coffee even better. Peter the Great thought Madeira the best of wines, J but regarded brandy a3 superior to all I other drinks. Marshal Richelieu held Medoc in the highest honor, and Rubens had the strange taste to esteem Marsala the finest of wines. John Bart, whom the French persist in imagining to have been a great admiral, drank confusion to the English in bumpers of Beaune. Rabelais thought that "the divine bottle" never looked more admirable than when filled with Chablis. Marshal Saxe had a decided predilection for champagne; while the severity of Cromwell's countenance is said to have occasionally relaxed at the sight of a pipe of Malmsey. The Emperor Charles V. would plan his campaigns and devise more stringent laws for the repression of heresy over a flagon of good Alicante wine. His rival Francis I. consoled himself for the loss of everything but honor with a cup of Xeres, or, as we should say, a glass of sherry. Henry IV., whether as a Catholic or a Protestant, was faithful to the vintage of Suresnes. In more recent times the genius of a Goethe wa3 often fired with a bottle of Johannisberg. Humboldt studied and wrote unpleasant things about his friends under the gentle influence of Sauterne. Talleyrand often owed an hour of good nature to Chateau-Mar-gaux. ■■ ■ ♦ LITTLE MEN. Not long before his death, Canon Kingsley drew attention to the surprising number of small young mtn to be seen in an English crowd. According to him, it was a sign of the deterioration of the race. But there are iwo ways of looking at; everything, and, for the comfort and satisfaction of small people, we won hi point out that it mig' t almost be tak.-n as »" r indication of intelh c»u:d progivss. Many —we niL'ht almost say most—of t'e great mtn of history have been men of short stature, from the days of that ancient philosopher wl o, as the story goes, was ao diminutive that he had to carry lead in his pockets to prevent his being blown away. Canute the Great, for example, was a singularly small man ; Napoleon, too, was little ; Nelson had no height to boast of; and the great Conde was short enough. Hildebrand—Gregory the Seventh—the mightiest of all the Popes, was also quite a diminutive person. Then, amongst men of letters, poets, and philosophers, Montaigne, the essayist, was little ;so was Pope—" a little crooked thing that asks questions ;" so was Dry. den ; so was Dr. Watts, who insisted, as we all know, on the mind being the stature of the man ; and so was Scorron, who, alluding at once to his ill-health and his little size, called himsalf an " abridgement of human miseries." Will anyone, after such names as these—and the list might be indefinitely extended—look down on little men with disdain ? A STRANGE HIDING-PLACE. Some excitement was created lately in the neighbourhood of Bedford, by the exhumation of the body of the Rev. John F. Dawson, of Woodlands, who was buried in 1870, in the churchyard of the village of Clapham. It appears that Mr. Dawson, who inherited the estate of Woodlands from his father, who had bought it, was twice married, and" though he had a son by his first marriage, he bequeathed the estate to his son by his second wife. It is believed, however, by his eldest son that the estate was entailed by the will of his grandfather, which could not be found ; and as information reached him that the documents had been buried with his father, application was made for the exhumation of the body to the Home Secretary, and the requisite sanct : on having been obtained the exhumation was carried out, and the coffin was opened in the presence of the legal and medical gentlemen concerned. A diligent search between the inner shell and the outer oak coffin proved in vain ; but on lifting the body,* which was in a wonderful state of preservation, a bundle of what appeared to be letters, tie! round with red tape, was discovered. These documents were taken away, with the necessary legal formalities, and the body wai then re-inferred.

A BROAD HIKT. American editors are proverbial for tfctir politeness, and aa we presume it Would h* considered a breach of etiqnette to inform a visitor that his room waa preferable te» hi* society, one of t':» craft has ingeniously got over the difficulty, *"«* invented a " mechanical broad bint," which intimates tn the persons acted npon it is somewhat about time to retire. He write* :.— " We have tried the Bogardas kickr*, we have kept a kicking mole in our room, we've nsed boll dogs, and kept ■hot guns, and still people who have nothing else to do will come when we are bnsy,and insist on having us stop work, and Katun to them "blow their horns" for an hour or two on a stretch. We have invented a chair which is a success. It is made of iron screwed to the floor of oar desk, and the seat is m arranged with steel springs that it 'lets go' every ten minutes- after it is wound up. One wind* fajjf will let her go three or four times ; as it has th« power of a three-year old male, no matter who sits on it, wh«n it goes off *t 'lifts' «m, and flies back to its harmless position, ft went through its first operation yesterday. A little chap, with side whiskers, from Cincinnati, catne in to talk to as. He t >ok his Stat in 'our chair,' and commenced tilling ns about onr 'flings' at the swillhouse below his native city. We wrote away, while we knew 'things was working.' His ten minntrs was up. Flip! the machine acted, and he was firing right through space, say fifteen yards of it, into a treacle mash tub kept kindly at that distance to gently receive our visitors. Ifc came out, ran down the street, hot all the little boys were aftev him, and insisted upon 'licking:' him, which we in oar mi Illness, and in another sense, had refrained from doinj."

ItUS3fA2r AGGRESSION. We clip following as interesting historical occurrences, which scent now übe repeating themselves, from an Englis , paper :~-L>o!cing at the present attitni of the two Fowwrs, it i* curious t«> remum lif-r f.'n-won|:« ;i Idrtssed by the Austrian Tvi-n: , ••, a; 11.),*'),I I .),*'), to> his deailitest enemy. Fn;il.'n<:ii f.!u Uceat :.—" ILt imperial M.i|''sr.y im i ;i."/ia* p> rm t the prus-ncj o. iliii.-4tauaf.il' tUnnbe. Russia's design? iuv dan,Mr <h ■• r.c y\>;tr Majesty as well a t<> tf u;, ;n ! 'i> >.dy e.ljctttd rom dy i

' if' k'r '.sula ;:< i i Austria unite iuahsotut

l-tur, ll'usm (, living gjciu-t'it .Irufcria t* Bnudiii : ii:i .u-iu' Co tlj; 16 fin 1 ti 'i' at Au h-rli■/.) wju ' n!;. 'no 4: S vv'ui h>v tie fir-

tun-, to s.i|>o > t the insurrection *> '.'i'lnf-i; V tn<-v\r.A. TliJ tuoutfc of the prin cioni events oil Che present stmjgta w«,r antedated as folio'.vs—'' 1. in 1304* Russia, still preserving a sho.v of neutrality, supplied the S«rbs with gnus an mattsnet't and s.snt great numbers oi olft curs to organise their raw levies. 21 It 1806 she doetarud (in the vary words s * has lately used) that ' fie rejection of hm efforts at m-.diation left her no alternative but active interference,' and crossed thtt Prutli in force. 3. In 1803 an armistict was agreed to by the contending Powers, but violated by Russia a few months later. At the same time the Servian leadet PtttrowicK was proclaimed King, and decorated by the Czar with the order of St. Alexander Nevskt. In March, 180J, Generals Kamenskoi and KutiKotf, rein forcud luring the armistice, commenced an invasion of Turkey, which was clucked only by Napoleon's advance upon Moscow in tBILV r