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Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 29, 9 April 1907, Page 8

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Mr. Edward Wortley Momauu, a the famous Lady Mary, endeavoured to be very sarcastic in his last will and testament After some insignificant bequest "To my noble and worthy relation the earl of—'he adds : " I do not give his lordship any further part of my property, because the best part of that he has contrived to take already. Item—To Sir Francis 1 give one word ot mine, because he never had the good fortune to keep his own. Item—To Lord M. I give nothing, because I know he will bestow that on the poor. Item—To Sit Robert W. I leave my political opinions, never doubting he can well turn them into cash who has always found such an excellent market for his own."—AH the Year Bound. SHAM GIFTS. There is a curious custom at the courts of Indian rajahs. Let us suppose that a British official or a physician calls upon the Rajah of Ulwan. He is shown into the reception or throne-room, where sits the rajah, surrounded by the great state officers. After the exchange of the usual salutations, one of the officials brings in a tray, on which are displayed jewels and golden ornaments, studded with valuable stones, perhaps worth £50,000 or more. The trayful of valuables is supposed to be a present from tjje rajah to his visitor, and It is offered first to the gentleman, who, inclining his head, touches the edge of the tray with the tips of his fingers, and it is (hen passed over to the lady, who invariably accompanies the British officer, if he is married, on such occasions. She follows the example of her husband, and the tray and its contents are then returned to the jewel-room. In lieu of the unaccepted jewels a long necklace of tinsel, of little value, is placed round the neck of each, where it remains during their stay within the palace. There is a very strict law against any British official accepting a gift from a native prince. Even when a doctor may have performed some serious operation upon a rajah, who, being grateftd, wishes to give—exclusive of a money fee varying from £2OO to /i,ooo, according to the operation performed—a present of a shawl, golden cup, or some similar valuable, the doctor must obtain special permission from the Viceroy before he dares accept the present. If any official accepts a gift of any value without such permission he may have to resign. In the old days, when the East India Company governed India, an officer’s pickings and the presents, often extorted from the rajahs, were worth much more to him than his salary. RATHER A TALL STORY, The sun, following an old-established custom, was slowly sinking in the west, when a Texan ranger might have been seen wending his weary way across the flowing grass and rolling prairie of south-western Texas. I say might have been seen—nay, he was seen; for seven dark, weird figures are noiselessly following in his track, and creeping|slowly closer to their unsuspecting victim, Fly to thy home, thou cow-driver I or thy fate will overtake thee I Is not Bumblefooted Lightning, and six of his wampumed war-boys, thirsting for thy blood ? Will he never turn and see his dastard foes? Yes, for Providence has decreed a warning. Bumble footed Lightning sneezes! In vain he tries to turn the sneeze into a coyotte’s howl. The sharp ear of one who never yet has missed an invitation to “ have one more," no matter how softly worded, has heard. He turns; he sees his danger; and, with the swiftness of a summer breeze, he urges on his dilapidated broncho, closely followed by the yelling redskins. Away! away! For In his revolver are but six bullets, and behind him seven Indians. Nearer and nearer they draw. He turns and fires. An aboriginal’s life-blood stains his mother-earth. Again and again, until but two bloodthirsty foes are left. But, alas ! the gallant ranchman has but one bullet left, and there, scarce ten yards behind him, ride the ramping redskins, side by side, with but a few yards dividing them. There is bat one chance, and he takes it. From his belt he draws his trusty bowie-knife, and holds it in his extended left hand ; then, placing the muzzle of his pistol against the keen edge, he aims between the pursuing Indians and fires. Well has he calculated—well has he aimed! The knife divides the bullet into two equal parts, and each Indian falls with half a bullet in his heart! And yet when this guileless rancher tells his simple story he is not always believed, SCRAPS FOR THE CURIOUS. In a Peshawur cemetery, in India, is the following amusing epitaph Sacred to the memory of Rev .Missionary, aged—, murdered by his chowkidar. ' Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ ” One of the many curiosities now exhibited in the British Museum is a Chinese banknote, issued during the reign of the Emperor Hung Wu, a d 1365-99. This is the earliest specimen of a banknote known to exist in any country. It is 300 years earlier than the establishment of the first European bank which issued notes, Out of 143 locomotives on the Grazi and Tsaritsin Railway, South-East Russia, 32 have now been compounded. These compound locomotives, which consist of three classes, all burning petroleum fuel, have made a _ total mileage of over one million miles since their conversion, and show a mean economy of liquid fuel of 18J percent It is generally understood that one of the most distressing symptoms of the influenza is the mental depression which it produces. This is confirmed by one of its latest victims, Mr. Leng, M. P. According to the member for Dundee, '* You feel as if you were to be condemned, untried and unheard, for all the crimes in all the criminal codes that were ever written,” and this after you have endured all the physical agonies that can be described or imagined. . ■v.,; ■ With moderate care and good usage a horse’s life may be prolonged to twenty-five thirty-five, or forty years. An English gentleman had three horses which died ir his possession at the ages of thirty-five, thirty-Geven, and thirty-nine years respectively, The oldest was in a carriage the very day he died, strong and vigorous, but was carriedl off by a spasmodic colic to which he was subject. A horse in use at a riding school in Woolwich lived to be forty years old, and a barge horse of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company is declared to have been in his sixty-second year when he died.

Hobson's Choice. means this or none.” And the saying arose from a curious practice of a certain Tobias Hobson. He was thecarrier and innkeeper a; Cambridge, who erected the handsome conduit there, and settled "seven lays" ot pasture ground towards its maintenance He kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling ; but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which stood nearest to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice.