MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 276, 12 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A ecfctoo* AeetD'twr. In San Francisco recently, Mrs. Annie Kearns, & widow, aged 3- years, with tvuo children, was reported to have attempted suicide by cutting her throat. Another rumour had it that some person haft attempted to murder her. In company with Officer M'Dermott, Casey repaired to the house, and! the officers willed in Doctors Rogers and Webb, who found incised wounds of the woman's throat, and applied such surgery as the case required. When interrogated as to how it happened, •he soldi that two masked men attacked her, but her story was imperfect and unsatisfactory. A careful inspection of the premises by the policemen satisfied them that the woman's injuries resulted from an accident, She had probably been on a chair, in the act of nailing tip a curtain, when the chair toppled, and she fell on the table, striking the lamp, breaking it attdi a leaf of the table, and plunging the room into total darkness. The noise attracted the attention of the lodgers. The woman's injuries are severe. A WAfcJttJJ© to V»t,t??fraE:&S. A fatal occurrence at Mane heater offers & grave warning to Volunteers and others wht» are in possession of firearms, and who occasionally discharge a loaded weapon in the air. The story Is recorded in a letter to the T'vmttSy. in which are narrated the main points of the evidence touching the sudden death of an errand boy who, while walking in a street in Manchester, suddenly dropped down dead. The surgeon who* examined the body found the cause Clf death! to be a bullet which had entered -the- skull exactly at the top. It had been fired in the air from a rifle, and ha* ing reached a certain height, when its force Wtt» spent, it of course, according to the laws of gravitation, began to> descend, and in that descent gathered an accumulative force, equal, it is said, to the force with which it was originally projected from the ritfa. The writer points this out by saying that a ball discharged into the air **at a convenient angle, and ti» a maximum height of COO yards, wilt, when it again descends to* the level of the riKe's tottosele, have a downward velocity exactly equal to- the upwards velocity <>f a ball of the same weight shot perpendicularly up with force enough to enable it to reach a height of 500 yards." RATHER MXXED. It ia to be regretted in these dull times, when ready money h so scarce (says the Jlrttce Mendd) r that people are to be found throwing it away needlessly in the Restdent Magistrate's Court, as was done in a ease, or cases rather, heard in Milton recently. B owed Aan amount, B owed C » similar amount, B sued A, got judgment,, issued! a distress warrant. I>, who owed C & like amount, went to him and said, "1 would pay you, but i cannot get my money from A." '* Oh, is A due you money t" said! C, " that will just suit me; I ow» A so' much; go and fetch him here, and we can arrange the matter." A was brought, and it was amicably agreed that A'* debt to' B should standi agair B's debt to> C.. Judge, therefore, of the surprise of C when next day he was waited upon by our obliging Clerk of Court with ft summons for the amount of A*s account. The ease wasi duly called in Court, and the agreement come to between A, B, and C being only a verbal one, Judgment was given against C, who had in the interim secured B's powers ti> distrain upon A for the amount of hj» claim. C had therefore only tu pay the amount into Court in satisfaction of A's judgment, and quietly present his authority from B to 1 distrain ttw amount, which he would then repocket, and Mr. Farrells weekly returns of eosts received would be swelled by several pounds, contributed about equally by the three litigants, not tu> speak of the professional costs also incurred.