VARIETIES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2303, 4 August 1880, Page 3

VARIETIES.

A poodle dog in Paris, confined in a revolving cage, drives four sewing machines. A West Indian traveller find that when Americans are well pleased they get up a ball. Othello should have killed lago or smothered his feelings instead of smothering his wife. Cheating at cropuet continues unabated. Men make the laws, women make the customs. The smaller the husband the bigger the bundle his wife makes him carry. Pradlaugh swears he will not take an oath. He believes oaths make liars, and he wants to affirm, so help him Pradlaugh. An old lady of wealth, named Eashleigh, died lately at Exmouth Devonshire, aged 92. In her will, which she ■wrote herself,. % she expressed her profound horror of lawyers. Of course, the M'ill was contested, but its validity was maintained, despite some informality in the way in which the testatrix drew it up. When the Empress of Eussia was placed in the coffin she was arrayed in the Imperial robes, with long mantle, crown and all her decorations, including that of the Eed Cross of Geneva, which she prized above all; her feet were incased in white satin shoes-—the whole costume being more fitted for a festival than for a journey to the land from whence no traveller returns.

China has an army of 600,000 men with which to fight the Russians in case of war. Most of these 600,000 are armed with heavy old sabres, pikes, and even bows and arrows. The palace guard at Peking, of 17,000 men, arc partially armed with muskets six feet long which one soldier must hold while another shoots. The Chinese fleet consists of 12 largo steamers, 3 frigates, and 15 gunboats.