MISCELLANEOUS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2809, 25 March 1882, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Two women missionaries who Attempted to conduct service in one .of the suburbs of London on January 1 were grossly maltreated by a mob, and obliged to seek refuge at police head-, quarters. The recommendation of ‘the. War Office Committee that the infantry of the Volunteer Force should assimilate in the matter of uniform in the army,; of which it now forms a part, is gradually being adopted,, no less than, ,110 , corps now wearing,the :national-scarlet,”; as against 69 in green and 41 in grey, j Some of the American journals have carious synonyms for the more prospic headings of “Births, Marriages, and Deaths,’* of English -newspapers. ¥ Qne paper styles them “ Babies, Brides, and Bodies;’’ another adopts “The Cradle, the Dungeon, and the Tomb;”- but “ Hatches, Matches, and Despatches,” will carry off the palm. ; : i In the late terrible railway disaster at Pittsburg, one of the lady passengers! in the doomed car lost, her young babe! in getting out, and made several frantic efforts to regain it, At three o’clock; in the morning the child was found quietly sleeping in one of the,seats, covered with'dust. It was restored to its thankful mother- , ■- It is to be feared that the Inflexible, which cost about £BOO,OOO, and Wok nearly eight years to afloat, will prove a failure. She is terribly Unwieldy, by no means swifts and draws 2ft more water than had been calculated. The electric light, which -coat neatly £SOOO to fit all through the ship, is 'hot a success, and it is now doleful’ to learn, that the officials at Malta dockyard have been busied in preparing a flock for the reception of the monster. j In Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, flogs pro being killed, because-it is believed - that the animals have the smallpox and are spreading the disease. The Sydney “ Echo ” says that the foreign trade of Hew South Wales was never so active as at present, and never was the credit of the colony abroad so 'Rood;' ’ . 1 In a book published in Berlin, under the title of “ Schultze and Muller in London,” is the following passage..— 11 At a quarter to six we went to the great post office: The squeeze was tremendous round the • newspaper box, where the newspapers are thrust in bales; and it is, indeed, on a grand scale, since the “ Times ’’ alone has 16,000,000 subscribers. I warned Scholtzjnot to go so near the crush, blit he did not hear roe. As he was standing there came a great shock of newspaper boys running with bales' of newspapers and throwing them in at the window. A bale of newspapers hit Schultz on the bead; he loses his balance and tips forward into the Bureau ; some officials immediately seize him, stamp him in the stomach, and the unhappy Schultz is despatched in an unpaid newspacket to the provinces, At this momentthe box js shut with a snap. I rush against it and cry, ‘ Schultze 1 Schultze 1* ' Bnt it is too late. Your unhappy son-in-law was already packed in the post-cart. I ran into the bureau of the postmaster and demanded back iyour son-in-law. ‘ls yonr friend addressed?’ he aaks,— 1 No,’ I answered.— ‘ Yery well,’: said the Englishman, ‘ M. Schultze will remain for six months in the .bureau, and if no one applies, for him,, he will be burned as a dead,letter.’"

The following story, from the‘‘Eovue Anecdotiqne” is a'good illustration of the French journalist’s ingenuity —A gentleman goes ;to : consult > a solicitor as to an application he wishes to make for a legacy to which he thinks he is entitled, iand in answer to enquiries as >to his exact position iA the family, clearly indicates his positibn thus—“ Yon see, sir, lam married to a widow, who had, by her first husband, a grown-up daughter. My father fell in love with the daughter and married her. . Thus he became my son-in-law, and my step-daughter became my mother-in-law. I bad a son, who was my father’s brother-in-law, as well as his grandson, and at tbe same time my uricle,.. since he was the brother of my raotherrin-law. My father in his turn had a son born who was my brother and my grandsoq, as .well as the son. of my step-daughter. My wife was also my grandmother, as she was the mother of my mother-in-law and. I was also her grandson as well as her husband. Moreover, as the husband of a grandmother is necessarily, a grandfather, I was my own grandfather. 1 Thus, you will see, Mr Solicitor, that my rights in the matter are perfectly clear.