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Southland Times, Issue 703, 31 July 1867, Page 3

Geological Cubiosity. — A correspondent writing from Meigle, says : — " A person here,, on breaking a large piece of coal the other day, was not a Uttle astonished to find, strongly imbedded in the centre, a piece of iron, looking very much Uke that of a pot. The article is apparently composed of cast iron, and it would appear to have had a handle at one time. This strange object is about twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, and nearly entire, except that it has suffered somewhat from corrosion. The surface is much honeycombed, and smaU particles of the coal adhere to it so tenaciously that it would require the stroke of a hammer to break them off. Geologists would probably be able to explain how it became imbedded inthe coal. — "Dundee Advertiser." An Amebioan Obituaby. — Jem Bangs we are sorry to stait as decesed. He departed this life last munday. He went 4th without any struggle, and sich is hfe. Tv day we are as pepper grass — mighty smart, tv morrer, we are kut down Uke a kowkumber of the ground. Jem kept a nise store, witch is whife wates on. Is virchew wos so numerous tv beold. Many of things we baut at is growsery, and we are happy to stait tv the,, admiring wuld that he never cheeted speshuUy in the wate of makrel, witch wos nise and smelt swete, and is survivin whife is the sarae wa. We niver new him to put sand in his shuger, though he ad a big sand bar in frunt of is hous ; nor watter in is Ukkers, tho the Hohio rivir runs past is dore. Peice tv is remanes. .He leves 1 whife, 9 children, 1 kow, 4 horses, a growser's store and other quodritupids to moorn is los. But in the langwidge off tho poit, is los his thare netural gane. — " American paper." The hat was passed round in a certain New York congregation, for the purpose of taking up a coUection. After it had made the circuit of the church it was handed to the minister, who, by the way, had " exchanged pulpits" with the regular preacher, and he found not a penny in it. He inverted his hat orer the pulpit cushion and shook it, that its emptiness might be known ; then looking towards the ceiling, he exclaimed with great fewour, " I thank God that I. got my hat back from this congregation." Cleaning Stbeets with a "P-neumatic Machine. — An ingenious thought has struck MY Agudio, of Paris, who proposes to cleanse the streets with a pneumatic machine. He has invented a mud-cart, consisting of a close iron box from which the air is pumped by a smaU engine on the top. Some machinery behind, as the cart moves on, sweeps or rakes the mud together, which ia, of course, sucked up by a tube dipping into it, and brought from the upper part of the cart box. The celebrated speech of Sir Boyle Roche — "Mr Speaker, I smell a rat ; I see him floating in in the air ; but, mark me ! I shall yet nip him in the bud !" — was evidently the model upon which a writer in a late Kansas paper remarks upon the result of a recent election. He says that " the faU of corruption has been dispelled, and the wheels of the State Government wfll no longer be trammeUed by sharks that have beset the pubUc prosperity like locusts." Must have been an Irishman.- — " I never shot a bird in my hfe." said some one to his friond who replied. "I never shot anything in the shape of a bird, but a squirrel, which I kflled with a stone, when it feU into the river, and was drowned." A lABMEB in the township of WaUace, alarmed by the appearance of something at his window the other night, which he thought was a" "Eenian," about whom excited reports were prevalent, got up out of bed, shot at it, and found he had kflled his best cow. | A subgioali demonstration is not necessary to ; demonstrate the fact that the Urt? feu »wy ;WtfflciftiUmfct,