GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 21, 23 February 1878, Page 3

GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

The African lakes which have been discovered by Sir Samuel Baker, and later by Africanus Stanley, are down on Ptolemy's map of the world, printed in Rome in 1508.

There are 100,000 marriageable '■ouplcs now in Victoria, but they cannot see their way tu tie the knot, owing lo hard times.

An inebriate was brought before the Brisbane bench last week for the seventysecond time, lie promised to sin no

Phillip R. Hines left New Bedford, Mass., 42 years ago, on a whaling voyage, and the first letter he has written home since his departure was received about a week ago. He is living in New Zealand. His relatives had long given him up as dead.—" Weekly Alta California," Nov. a*.

The remains of the young Russian Grand l>uke, Prince Sergius, of Leuchlenberg, killed in the •abominable struggle now raring in the East, have been splendidly interred at St. Petersburg!!, in presence of the Empress and all the .members of the Imperial family not at the seat of war. Field-Marshal Von Wrangel, of Germany, has also departed ■this life, ami had a line public funeral at Berlino. He lacked but seven years of completing a century of existence. The Emperor was greatly attached to the old soldier, who Dad taken part in all the wars of Germany since 17iJ0, when he entered the Dragoons as a cadet. After the Franco-German war, the Emperor raised his son, the Crown Prince, and his nephew, Prince Frederic Charles, to that dignity, and himself informed the old veteran of these nominatious, in these words : —" Papa Wrangel' I have given vou two colleagues, my son and my nephew. I hope you will not disapprove of theso nominations." " Papa Wrangel" was the namo universally given to the aged Marshal, who was a great favorite with the public, and Qgtooially with the children, who always gathered round him, or his hone, whenever ho went out, crying, " Good day, Papa Wrangel," and picking np the coppers which he was in the habit of throwing' among them. The " Burraugong Chronicle " reports that on Monday a man named Laurence Connell prosecuted another, who gave the name of Thomas Canty, for stealing a horso the prosecutor swore to Ik> his. Canty was convicted, and sentenced to a lengthened imprisonment in Darlinghurst gaol. Hardly had the sentence been passed, when senior-constable Parker cpiietly tapped Council on tho shouldor, ami intimated in sufficiently intelligible langmige that his time had come to succeed Canty in tho dock. Connell was in fact there and then arrested on a charge of having stolen the very horse for the larceny of which he had prosecuted Canty. On Tuesday he was committed, and on Wednesday he was to bo brought before Judge Forbes. A passenger asked, " On what side of the station is my train ?" The attendant answenftj " If you take tho left, you will )h> right: if you taku tho right, you will bo left."

" The honeymoon is all well enough," Bald a prudent belli; " but what I yuarn lor iii the liui vtut moon,"

The British House of Commons consuls of C.">B members, 403 of who are returned by English and Welsh, GO by Scotch, and 10."> by Irish constituencies. Though it has varied in the past, the membership has remained at the mystical number 058 since the union with Ireland

at the close of the last century, in spite of the numerous changes which have been made in the distribution of the electoral franchise by the reform bills within the last fifty vears.

While the people of the United States are said to be meditating the imposition of a tax on bachelors above a certain age. the Viennese are patronising the institution of matrimony in a different way. In order to increase, and above all, to hasten the entrance of the unmarried people of that capital into the ranks of married life, a " Marriage Otfiee" has been opened there. All the unmarried women of Vienna are invited, if they wish to find husbands, to inscribe their names, address, age, fortune, and other particulars in the books of the " Marriage Office," after which they have to show themselves each day for two hours in the " showrooms "of the es* ilishmcnt, where they are visited by t unmarried men who are looking out 1 wives. There are two " showrooms." one for the blondes and the other for the brunettes. Each room contains a piano. Each Ocelebs, on presenting himself, is questioned as to his preferences, and is shown into the one or other showroom, according as he expresses admiration for the fair or the dark. He is then left to inspect the collection, and to make acquaintance with the candidates who attract him the most; he converses with them, tries to ascertain as many particulars as possible concerning their habits, tastes, ideas, and so forth, and may invite them to play or sing ii t'::-;. arc musicians. If this interview develops a liking lor any one of the dams'.!- pn sent, the gentleman is next introduced to the lady's family, and thenceforth the affair goes on as usual between the parties concerned, leading to a marriage or to nothing, as the case may be. Should the Spaniards carry out their idea of adding next year a department of " Handsome women " to their otjier exhibits, and .should the Americans decide on setting up a rival display, a thriving matrimonial business might doubtless be carried on in connection with those displays. The Americans, however, might fairly consider such an arrangement as uncalled for in their case, as the fair and wealthy daughters of the Stars and Stripes have already established almost a monoply of the European marriage market

A son of J. \V. Lowe, Esq-, of Sidmouth Valley, Bays the Bathurst " Independent " had his attention drawn to the unusual girth of a snake, which, from the excessive meal it hail made, was unable to move about with anything like ordinary ease. Mr Lowe's curiosity having been aroused, he determined to investigate the cause of the protuberance in his snakeship, and, with that end in view, dispatched the reptile. His astonishment may be imagined whim, on closer inspection, he observed the tail of another snake protruding from the month of the one he had just killed. Seizing the tail of snake No. 2, Mr Lowe succeeded in drawing it from snake No 1, and found that it was only five inches less in length than the snake that had so far succeeded in swallowing it. The above account we received from Mr. Lowe himself, is a sufficient guarantee of its correctness.

A remarkable case of cancer, ending fatally, is reported from the Queanbeyau

district Some few years ago, a young man in bending the pin or fastening of a broach with his teeth, slightly scratched his lower lip. The. result was a small but obstinate sore which refused to be healed, hut about which he did not seem to be greatly concerned. The sore eventually spread, and medical advice was sought, the doctors differing as to tho disease being cancer. A few months ago, however, it was pronounced to be cancer, and the sore was excised with so much advantage that the patient seemed for a while to have got rid of it altogether. It reappeared, however, was again operated upon, and finally eating its why into the glands of the throat caused the sufferer's death. We have had ■■ splendid wedding.

uniting a son and :i daughter of two of the wealthiest and most fashionable of the Jewish residents of this capital The Btroeta leading to the synagogue in the Ruo de la Victoire, where the Grand Bdbbie, Zadoo Kahn, performed the marriage service, the musical parts of which were sung by Grisi and Caron, of the Opera, were crowded with people. After tho marriage, there was a grand reception at the residence of tho Countess Ester de Camondo, grandmother of the bride, one of the most sumptuous and magnificent of the princely dwellings of the new Faubourg Malesherbcs, full of the most splendid works of art, of. flowers, and luxurious objects of every ] kind. The bride's boimet was displayed j 00 a table by [t»«lf, an enormous mass of I roses and White lilac, that must have cost, at this tea on of the year, a small fortune. Tho splendid hotel, with its interminable suit of magnificent drawing-rooms, its suporb entrance-hall, and its noble conservatories, crammed with uniforms, elegant toilettes, and " swallow-tails" divcrscd with ribands ami toilettes, produced an effect equally imposing and picturesque. An elegant refaction was prepared in the great dining-room of tho hotel, and received fresh rcfnys of guests j i.illil nightfall.

Tli.' health of Dr. Barker, Bishop of Sydney ia much improved. His Lordship has married, ill Lngland a young lady aged 33. The bishop is now 03 years of and his marriage has considerably disgusted the Christian community. The Rev. J. S. Whitmee's Comparative Grammar of the Polynesia Languages (says the " Academy "J, is in fair state of progress, and the materials for his Comparative Dictionary also gradually accumulating. Contributions have just heen received from Tahiti and the Hervey Islands, and a French gentleman has promised a vocabulry of 00000 words in the Gambler Island dialect, 2000 words in the Rapa dialect, and about the same number of words in two dialects of the Marquesas Islands. The importance of this promised contribution can hardly be over estimated as the dialects mentioned all belong to remote regions in the Malnyo-Polynesian area, and .Mr Whitmce had scarcely hoped to obtain any information regarding the first two of them. He believes that the existanec of two dialects in the Marquesas Islands indicates a mixed race, as he has not hitherto found two dialects in a single cluster of islands, except in connection with other signs of a mixture of races, This is the case in Uvea (Loyalty Islands}, where the Malayo-Polynesians and Negrito-Polynesians are both represented, some islands of the New Hebrdes, and at Ratumah. lie has long experienced a difficulty in explaining the existanec of custom not purely Polynesian, such as cannibalism in the Marquesas; but all becomes clear if we can suppose thai these islands were originally inhabited by a Negrito population.

The appearance of a bishop in a police courl is, fortunately, not a common occurrence. If the dignitaries of the church are called upon to answer any charge it i.-, usually, Vjeforc some more exalted assembly of the power of the State. Chains, imprisonment, torture, Mid death have been the fate of many eminent ecclesiastics at the hands of the ' State, and succeeding ages have recognised • tliuni as the confessors and martyrs of : their particular forms of faith. It is ! surely a sign of a low state of the Church j when the Bishop of Brisbane is forced i into the Police Court and fined £lO. No | one can extract any romance out of that. iNo sympathy can be aroused for the i persecutions of the Church when the | amount is so small. Even the Holy I Father himself, if still alive, could scarcely I make a story of the afflictions of the ' church out of such a paltry fine. The strangest thing is that not only is a high dignitary of the Church condemned, but the highiest servant of her .Majesty in Queensland is implicated in the matter Bishop Quinn married the Hon. John Douglas some months ago, and neglected to register the fact. Now, without regard to the high position of the parties concerned the Registrar-General cruelly comes down on the Bishop and makes him pay XIO. Surely State and Church are alike in danger in Queensland when so little respect is paid to " those set over us." Let us hope, however, that the payment of the £lO will effectually bind 1 the knot which was so carelessly tied between the Premier and his bride.—" Town and Country Journal." A newly arrived " lady " of some fivc-and-twenty summers or more answered 'an advertisement for a voting girl to assist in housework.. The usual interroga- ' tions passed between her and the mistress of the home as to character, &C and as that had not been lost in the forecastle, and appeared in every respect satisfactory, the mistress proceeded with her catechism as to acquirements. In , anwer to every question as to whether the applicant could cook or wash, a respectful " no" was given. " But I suppose you can cook a potato?" asked the mistress. Bridget was lather taken a-baek, by so pointed a proposition, but a friend who had come with her explained that she was anxious to learn." " And what wages do you want ?" " Tin shilluns." " Ten shillings, and teach you yimr duties '. " exclaimed the advertiser. '■ Yes, mum, I think I'm worth tin shilluns, and when I have been teached a little 1 shall be worth sixteen shilluns." " Ah, well," said the mistress, "you are much too old for my requirements." —" Mnemon " in the " .Sydney Mail." Every person, who takes notice of the habits "i' !h" different birds in the Australian bush, must be aware —or at

nil events lias heard (observes the I"Braidwood Dispatch") of the deter-1 ; mined antipathy shown by the " soldier " to the snake. A notable instunco of this occurred within a couple of miles of town on Thursday, on which day a gentleman : proceeding along the (ioulburn road, on horseback, had his attention attracted by ; the noisy commotion of a number of ! soldier birds in Cunningham's paddock. | Wishing to ascertain the eauso of the | clamor, ho dismounted, and going into : the paddock, soon saw " what was up." ! Between twenty and thirty of the gallant little birds were darting down and , pocking at a large brown snake, which ] was up "on end " parrying the attack of | its tormentors. Two of the "soldiers" I lay dead upon the field of battle, while the remainder kept screaming and pcgg- , ing away at the venomous. reptile, but i: without doing it any harm further than ! raising its bile. Uur informant watched i these proceedings with much interest for several minutes, when, thinking it was time to eomo to the rescue, ho procured a stick, ami soon settled the pretensions of the snake, but not before ho had himself i run considerable risk through " thu j serpent" making a back spring at him. 11 The rpptile measured 0 feet tf inches in length.

TO TIIK HON. SIR A. H. U. &c., &c. Hail to the Chief from the far-fumod North, Hail to the Chief from beyond the Forth, Heathery mountain and palm*tree grove, Come and together your welcome prove. Tuno me a lay of dear England fair, Sing; too of Scotland and dear ones there, And thou too dear Erin contribute too, With sweet stirring notes a tribute true. Come too ye Southern Isles with song, Such as to your own high Chiefs belong, And thus together a welcome bring, With the sweetest notes that ye can sing. Twine me a wreath of flowers most sweet, Where the “ Rose ” and downy “ Thistle ” meet, With a bonnie sprig of “ Shamrock ” green, And fragrant leaves of the Isles between. Thus with wreath and song we welcome thee. Thou Scottish Chief from over the sea ; Who faith message coiu’bt from Britain’s Queen, ’Tis meet that we welcome thoe I ween. Blest bo thy coming to Samoa dear, Blest to thyself, and blest to all here, May hearts divided now nil unite, Aye to be bravo, for God and the Eight. Health and success thy attendants be, God’s favor out encompass thee, When life’s work over, gone down life’s sun, May’s! Thou receive the welcome, “Well done.” A. N. Pv. Samoa, February 21, 1878.