BREVITES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2538, 10 May 1881, Page 3

BREVITES.

Professor Grimmer predicts that - during the next seven years there will - be a universal mortality. Asia is to he depopulated, Europe become almost a desert, and America lose 15,000,000 inhabitants. Great tempest and inundations are promised. No prophet could possibly be grimmer than this one. A shrewd little fellow was intrusted to the care of his uncle, who fed the ; .boy very poorly. One day he happened to see a greyhound, whereupon he asked the boy if he knew what made the dog so poor,* and the reply was : I expect he lives with his uncle.” . ,A writer in “Vanity Fair” tells a . good story of an Irishman —“ He told me he was about half landlord and half tenant, and he said he meant to go in for the popular cry, ‘No rint!’ * But how about the land you have let ?’ said I. ‘ The rint I pay is a few pounds more than the rint'l get, so I’d be in about the same position, and think of the popularity of it.’” A railway constructed on the ice was running, in March last, between Cronstadt and Orauenbaum, in Russia. It was opened with much rejoicing on Sunday, and the regular traffic has commenced, The frost came suddenly this year, and the navigation was closed much sooner . than .was expected ; hence the cbnstruc- . tion of this railway, to carry off the immense accumulation of goods at ; Cronstadt,