MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1331, 4 November 1870, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Thixkisg Back. — The Chicago Post, alluding to the manner in which the late proclamation by Gov. Holden, of North Carolina, is treated by the Democratic press, expresses the belief that had one of these prints been published 6000 years ago on the banks of the Euphrates, it would have had a column concerning the first murder, headed, " Great Outrage on Cain ! His crops Destroyed by Abel's Sheep ! ! Cain Defends Himself !" BIBTH-DAT PBESEWTS TO A SAX FfiANcisco Editob. — Yesterday was the Town Crier's ninety-eighth birthday, and from morning till night packages of presents ! arrived with bewildering rapidity. Deducting all that got no farther than the office of the proprietor of this paper, the T. C. must have had about seven bushels of gifts forced unwillingly upon him by his ! reckless admirers. The following is a i partial list of the more noticeable ones : — 1 Magnificent gold chronometer, from J. C. | Tucker <fc Co. ; pair of Brazilian pebble spectacles — C. Muller ; Arabic Bible— Rev. Dr Scott ; fine English bull-pup — Dr Scudder [N.B.—This dog was instructed to bite, which he did ; he bit the dust] ; appointment in tho Treasury at Washington — female department — Dr Jno. T. M'Lean ; chain of Skye terrier sausages (poisoned) — A. J. Shrader ; set arl-and-ruby studs, which can proly be pawned for about thirty dollars — Unknown Simpleton; neat card with a border of naked angels, bearing the legend "go and sin no more " — Young Men's Christian Association; rattle-snake in a box opening with a spring — W. Frank Stewart, San Jose; other box, containing clothing infected with small-pox — R. Beverly Cole ; suspicious bundle about the size of a young colt, not opened but evidently alive — Former Sweetheart. There are some other things not deemed worthy of mention, such as a hogshead of champagne, five hundred tickets of Mercantile Library Gift Concert, a gold brick weighing ninety pounds, a house and lot on the Portrero with field battery for its defence, a deed of the Grand Hotel property, and trifles of that kind. The Town Crier bows his acknowldgeraents. In 1862 and 1863 it was urged, in the Prussian Lower Chamber, as an objection to the creation of a navy, that Prussia could not furnish the requisite number of seamen. Since that time, however, great changes have taken place; the acquisition of the new provinces has more than doubled the available number of sailors, while iron-clads require smaller crews, in proportion, than other vessels : and as ships do not fight now-a-days under sail, it is no longer necessary to have men to attend exclusively to the rigging. According to official returns the North German Confederation can at present dispose of the following number of sailors : in Old Prussia, 12,005 ; in the new Provinces, 17,420 ; in Mecklenburg, 3462 ; in Oldenburg, 2440 ; in Lubeck, 600; in Hamburg, 7243; in Bremen, 5150 ; or altogether, 48,320 men.

' Show of Babmaids in London.— The next absurdity, according to the Flaneur of the " Court Journal," is to be a show of barmaids. The writer says :— " Town is promised a new sensation of a highly interesting and exciting character, one which savours not of aristocratic life and its consequent boudoir scandals and drawing-room jealousies, but which, though relating to the fair sex, will take those who become interested in it to a different phase of life altogether. We are to have a barmaid show, and the originator of the scheme is said to be the enterprising lessee of a well-known music-hall, whose name has been mentioned in connection wit the baby shows which have latterly caused so much excitement among the lovers of the sensational. How the exhibition is to be managed I am not in a position to Btate ; but as lam unable to Bbut my eyes to the fact that whenever I enter a refreshment room or restaurant I invariably find a crowd of young gentlemen at the counter who appear to take an unconscionably long time to consume the glass of " bitter " which is dispensed to them by the fascinating Hebe of the establishment, 1 anticipatethatacollection of such beauties in one place wili attract an immense multitude of these ardent youths. If prizes are to be awarded, what war there will be between the leading coiffeurs and milliners, and how deeply will the fair competitors get into debt with those individuals ! And then, again, how onerous will be the duties of the judges who are called upon to award them! They will be compelled to lay themselves open to the wiles and blandishments of so many charming competitors in such quick succession that their heads will be so troubled and perplexed as to render them utterly incompetent to decide _ the knotty points at issue. Besides, it is difficult to conjecture how they will ever agree, for one may admire a happy guileless face, another fresh coloring and pearly teeth, a third a charming voice and winning manner, a fourth a delicate hand and pretty ankle, and so on ad infinitum. Of course Messrs Spiers and Pond will, to use a racing metaphor, "furnish a great favorite," and Messrs Bertram and Roberts will supply a bevy of young ladies who will " take a deal of beating." The arrangements of the whole affair must be very carefully considered ifitistoboa success, and I would most strongly suggest to the originators of the scheme the necessity of v. substantial barrier between the competitors and the general public.