MISCELLANEOUS

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7074, 21 February 1893, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

The Melbourne gaol warders who were mentioned in Deeming’s will have not yet received the jewellery, etc., left them by the deceased gentleman. A dozen Ofainaman who have a small farm at 6taynby, send as much as five tons of cabbage alone in one day per rail to Sydney, The Mongol has monopolised market garden* ing K.H.W. A serious disturbance has been caused in the rural districts of Hungary by the determination of the Government to insist upon civil registration of marriages. A whale recently captured in the Arctic Ocean had a harpoon embedded in its side which belonged to a whaling vessel which had been out of service nearly half a century. A shocking accident occurred during the performance of a charade representing a Nihilist plot, at San Francisco on New Year’s Eve. The entertainment was being given at the residence of Mrs McOoy, whose son, Mr Albert McOoy, appeared in the idle of a Bussian officer Miss Grace King who took the part of a Nihilist girl, and had to assasinate the officer, had been suffering from a sprained ankle. She had used a crutch, which, however, she had laid aside previous to the charade At the moment she was making a dagger thrust her ankle failed, and she fell against McCoy, the weapon piercing bis heart. The unfortunate young man died in a few moments Miss King was arrested, bub released on bail tendered by McCoy’s brothers.

Mr Gladstone recently opened a workman’s i institute near Chester, and one of the officia's f

told him that a Mr ,oF Liverpool, boastid , of having fought with Mr Gladstone when b>th were schoolboys. “I remember him,” was the reply, “ but did he tell you why we fought? No! Well, then,l’ll tell you. He induced me to steal some strawberries from a field, and when I had done so he wanted to take the largest for his share I did not see it, so wo fought, and he was thrashed, and I stuck to all the strawberries. When you see Mr jjjve him roy kind regards, and tell him I doubt if either of us could repeat the operation to-day ; and by the way, that field of strawberries is a patch of handsome sbopn and houses in the middle of Liverpool now.’* The wealth of Paris is so boundless that the rubbish and refuse of the city is worth millions. There are more than 50,000 persons who earn a living by picking up what others throw away. 'T wenty thousand women and children exist by sifting and sorting the gatherings of the pickers, who collect every day in (he year about 1,200 tons of merchandise, which they sell to the wholesale ragdealers for some 70,000 franco. At night you sec men with baskets strapped on their backs, a lantern in one hand, and in the other a stick with an iron hook on the end. They walk along rapidly, their eyes fixed on the ground, over which the lantern flings a sheet of light, and whatever they find in the way of paper, rags, bones, grease, metal, &0., they stow away in their baskets. Doctor Lauder Bruton has made a discovery which ought to entitle him to the gratitude of all who live by intellectual labour. It is nothing less than the secret of how to have ideas at will. One night, after a long day’s work, this eminent physician was called upon to write an article immediately. Ho sat down with pen, ink, and paper before him, ‘ but not a single word could he write Lying back, he then soliloquised ’• “ The b ain is the same as it was yesterday, and it worked then ; why will it not work to day ? Then it occurred to him that tho day before he was nob quite eo tired, and that probably the circulation was a little brisker than to-day. He next considered the various experiments on the connection ! between cerebral circulation and mental activity, and concluded that if the blood would not come down to the brain tho best thing would bo to bring the brain down to the blood. It was at this moment that ho was seizsd with the happy thought of laying his head “ flit upo'n the table. At once hie ideas began to flow and his pen to run across the paper." By and bye Dr Brunton thought, “ I am getting on so well I may sit up now.” Bub it would not do. ” The moment,” he continued, " that I raised my head my mind became au utter blank, so I put my head down again flat upon the table, and finished my article in that position.”