MISCELLANEOUS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 110, 19 April 1884, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Capital punishment is to be abolished In Finland. New York Legislature is seeking to suppresi stock gambling. Montreal claims to have made about £200,000 by her ice carnival. Russia has 20,000 elementary schools, instructing one million pupils. It is against the law to send money or valuables through the mails in Mexico. The French Government has decided to expel from France all suspected dynamiters. In America the annual value of the apple crop has risen in ten years from £1,000,000 to £10,000,000. The Nicaragua canal project, according to a despatch dated the 28tli January, has been virtually abandoned. In London they call the false prophet Hel Moddy. There is something in a name, at least when a Cocney pronounces it. Mr. John Bennett offers a prize of £2OO to be competed for by the best Australian sculler, who may be pitted against Hanlan. The Commander-in-chief of the Canadian Militia has been recalled to England, owing to his harsh treatment of colonial officers. At Berlin has just died Lieutenant Heusinger, one of the three surviving members of the Brunswick regiment that fought at Waterloo. The number of suicides and attempted suicides in Berlin during January last was fortytwo, compared with thirty-two in the previous month. The expenses of the “greatest show on earth” —Mr. Barnum’s, of course—during the last season reached the large sum of over £250,000 for 176 exhibition days. On the other hand, the receipts for six days at Philadelphia were £20,000, for ten days in Chicago over £30,000 was taken, and for single day performances the receipts averaged some £3,400. Saving his capital : “ You’re a goose angrily exclaimed an Austin man to his wife, who continually chided him about his excessive extravagance. “ You do nothing but cackle, cackle cackle, all the time.” “ Yes, dear,” she sweetly replied ; “ but you must not forget that the cackling of geese once saved the capital of Rome, and if cackling can save your capital I’m going to keep it up.” From New York comes the details of a pugilistic “ entertainment ” of a somewhat novel character. One Harry Hill, a “ wellknown sporting man,” was the “ showman,” and his show consisted of a set of female boxers. The Miss Bella Moore and Miss Clara Smith, two dusky “ heavy weights.” At the first lead off, we read, one of these ladies seized her “opponent’s back hair,” upon which “ Miss Smith hit Miss Moore plump on the nose.” Then they tried to j cratch ; but b ?ing gloved, their kindly intention failed. When “blood was drawn ” the amazons were separated. Then appeared two feather-weights—Miss Anna Brown and Fanny Wilson, both of whom, in the costume of pages of Louis XlV.’s time, “ meant fight from the start,” Miss Wilson soon had the best of this encounter. In the first round she showered the blows on her friend till the latter was fain to cry out; but for all that Miss Brown “ was game, and toed the mark ” during round after round. At last the referee was forced to declare her worsted, and the contest ended. The matches were conducted “ under the Blackberry rules,” all the combatants being coloured ladies : and their exposition of the noble art of self-defence was witnessed by a largo attendance of fashionable “ young bucks,” to whom this ennobling exhibition appears to have given much satisfaction and refined enjoyment.— Herald.