GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 30, 27 April 1878, Page 2

GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

The character of " Capital " was assumed by tho wife of a prominent New York banker at a recent fancy- ball. Her skirt was covered with £IOO United States Treasury notes, and her bodice and sleeves were £2OO bonds. She is said to havo been worth £OO,OOO as she stood.

Marie Piastre was recently charged at Bristol with attempting to throw herself from tho Clifton Suspension-bridge. It was proposed to remove her. to a temporary home, when a young man, who asserted that he was an enginedriver on the Great Western Railway, said ho had taken an interest in the young lady's case. Like her, he had no father or mother. Ho bore a good character, and had come to offer her his band for her protection through life. Her father, said to be a tradesman of Weston-super-Mare, appeared, and the prisoner oiling to him and implored him to forgive her. Ho said she wa3 tho eldest of 10 children, and he was greatly distressed at her having left her home. The engine-driver asked for a private interview with the father, but tJbo girl still clung to her parent, begging him piteously to take her back. As tho doctor reported her to be still in a highly excited state, it was thought desirable to again remand her for another week. Ultimately, however, she altered her mind, and assented to go to the temporary home offered her in Bristol but whether she has accepted the engine-driver is not known.

The " Pots lamer Zeitung" supplies us with an nmaziug instance of female intrepidity, ingenuity, anil p<»rhap», it may l>e added, female impertinence. Not long ajjo an engine-driver on the Potsdam Railway, at a short distance from Steghtz, suddenly perceived threo well-dressed ladies standiug on the line, and making urgent gos;hulations in the r j,i„. ;,, „„,i„,. tn p „ mtu> l it to come to a halt. Two ot them were actually standing upon the rails. He at once made use of the whilst, but to his horror the ladies stood firmly in the Bamo fearful position, and kept up their vigorous pantomime. He saw that if ho dashed onward he must infallibly slaughter thjm, and was obliged to bring his'train to a standstill. As soon as the halt was effected the young ladies camo up, nodding and smiling, rushed to one of the carriages, out of which an old gentleman stepped down, whom they greeted as " Papa." It appears that papa's villa lay a mile and a half on the near side of Steghtz, and that his ingenious daughter* had resorted to the daring scheme in order to spare him the time and trouble of a long walk or the expense of a carriage. The guard's indignation was stronger than his gallantry, and ho not only compelled papa to remount, but made the three young ladies follow him, and carried them on to StegU, whore they had to givo an account of their conduct, and were mulcted of many months' in money.

A writer in the " Lancet " says : " Apropos of hydrophobia, will you pormit mo to rotate a fact—one which certainly 'adonis a tale,' and, I think. ' points a moral !' A few years ago, a, lady of the highest distinction was bitten between the first and second knucklcß of one of hor fingers—l forgot which, except that it was the loft handby a favorite fox-terrier. Bhc had just dressed for dinner, and for tho moment thought nothing of it. At dinner a dread caino aver her. There were guests, however. At tho first convenient moment she withdrew. The poker was heated to a white heat, and, upon her maid refusing to bo the operator, she herself (the maid steadying the ' knob '), with the point, thoroughly seared the' bite. She sent for me the nest morning. 'Did not like to disturb me so late ; besides ' time ' was everything.' I aaid to her, ' You are indeed brave. I never hoard of such a case but once, and that was in fiction. The little dog is quito healthy, and that mark you will carry to your grave.' ' Yos, but lam safe now, am I not '. and (her husband, who was away yntching) will be satisfied.' I little dreamed then, that in a year or two her beautiful, noble, useful life would bo ended, and ended in a way little lefi sad than the death which she so bravely secured herself against. I send you, in confidence, the name of the lady, and, believing ns I do that immediate and thorough cutting or burning out of th« bite is the only sure preventive of hydrophobia, I think it likely that a case 'in renl life' may tenn to on-ourag > other* to adopt—even if there i* a doubt —measures which are no less tleeejJ.ary than they air unfortunately alarming."

" I siipposo, Sallia, now thut city chap hiw poni' bade, ynu will lovo m.Sallic. -" Whut I After icc-croam MWOMgI ' Ko, slr-oo I"

Au accident of a very extraordinary character has occurred at the terminus u f the Dublin and Meatli Railway at Athboy. A special train of empty carriages rushed past the station lull speed, broke the terminal buffers on the opposite side of the turn-table to pieces, dashed through a high stone wall, aud, crossing the road, went clean through a cottage on the opposite side, the grvater part of the house and furnituru being shivered to atoms. The house was occupied by a driver of the ileath lino, and both he and his wife were asleep in bed. They were unhurt, having their bedroom wall thrown in a heap at their bedside, and awakening to seo close by them one of the most powerful of the company's engines.

Captain J. O. Lunginers, of the Danish vessel Luttcrfeld, communicates to a Copenhagen paper an interesting account of a novel experience which occurred on December 10, 1870, while on a voyage to Valparaiso. The vessel was at this time in the neighborhood of Terra del Fuego, about 140 miles from Magellan's Straits, when early in the morning it narrowly escaped collision with an island where no trace of land appeared on the charts. The vessel hove to until daylight, when the captain proceeded with a boat's crew to the new island, which had gradually diminished in size since the first observation. Around the conical rocky mass the water was hissing, and although no smoke appeared, it was found to be too highly heated to permit of landing. The (sinking continued slowly, until at 8 o'clock the island was completely submerged, and an hour latter the vessel passed over tho spot where it had disappeared. This volcanic island is probably due to the same causes which have produced tho recent severe earthquakes on the west coast of South America.

In the Lenox Library, recently presented to New York, the value of the collection of Bibles alone is estimated at half a million of dollars. There is a superb copy of tho Mazarin Bible. There is an excellent copy of the Coverdale Bible, behoved to be the most nearly perfect in existence after the famous one at Castle Ashby. There is a fac-simile of the fragment of Tyndale's Bible now in the British Museum. There is one of the five or six extant copies of John Eliot's Indian Bible, printed at Cambridge (Massachusettes), in ISO 1-03, a book which it is believed only one man now living can read, tho language into which it was translated by tho good missionary having utterly perished. The collections of rare editions of Shakespeare is even greater than supposed. There are no fewer than six copies of the first folio, and there are several copies of the second, third, and fourth. The first that belonged to Milton, one containing his autograph, the other a sonnet in his fine handwriting; a copy of the " BayState Psalm Book," almost the first book printed in America; a book printed in Mexico in 1845, nearly a century before the first press was set up in any part of what is now tho United States —theso are some of the other treasures of this splendid library. Among the manuscripts are the entire autograph copy of Washington's Farewell Address, for which Mr. Lenox paid two thousand dollars, and a complete unpublished play, dated and signed " Lope de Vega, 1625."

A curious memento of Lord Nelson was recently offered for sale at Christie and Manson's, and purchased by Mr. .Tamos Griffin, bookseller, Portsmouth. When the Admiral received his fatal shot at Trafalgar, 8+ guineas, mostly of the spade ace pattern, were found in his purse, and t icso, with other effects of the hero, were sent to Mr. Alexander Davidson, Nelson's intimate friend and navy agen'. Davidson had the guineas soldered together, and formed into a pyramidal roof, with the obverse and reverse faces alternately uppejrawt, tho whole being supported at the angles on the shoulders of four full-length weeping female figures in dull metal gilt, a polished gate ball intervening between the supports and the corners of tho roof. In the centre of the canopy thus formed is a metal gilt miniature sarcophagus, which stands upon a plinth, formed of four stops, and is surmounted by a Viscount's coronet resting uroi a cushion. The handles of the sarci p lagus are composed of tho stem and pr< w of an Admiral's barge. The trophy, which is capped by a trident, bears on its front the following inscription : —" These guineas were in Lord Vicount Nelson's purso at the time ho received the fatal wound oft* Trafalgar, October 21, 1805." The back and sides are inscribed thus: —

" Battle off St. Vincent, February 14, 1797;" " Battle of the Nile, August 1, 1798 ; " and " Battle of Copenhagen, April 2, 1801." The trophy beoame tho property of the last Mr. William Joy, of Oheain, in whoso possession it remained forty years, and by whose exocutors it was put up to auction. It it satisfactory to kuow that the reliis now with in sight of the old Victory, Nelson's flag ship, and at tho centre of the naval service.

During lost year the City Coroner had 2b'9 deaths reported to him for inquiry, but in 99 ho dispensed with inquests. Tho actual number of inquests was 170 for 1877 as against 177 in 1876, 1(39 in 1875, and 150 in 1874. Tho number of inquests held each montfc lost year was as follows:—In January, 10 ; February, 15; March, 12; April, 11; May, 17; June, 9; July, 10; August, 15; September, 14; October, 20, November, 18 ; and December 19. There were 6 verdicts of murder recorded. I mal'-s and 4 /cmulvi; in four of tho cases the victims

were newlr-bora infants. There w. r 16 cases of suicide, 11 males and S females; of this number 5 were by pistol-shot wounds, 4 by poisoning, 3 by strangulation, 3 by knife and razor wounds, and 1 by drowning in a well. By a recent statute, verdicts of felo-de-se are abolished, consequently juries have only to ascertain whether the injuries were self-inflicted or not. There were two cases of accidental poisoning—one a woman, by muriatic aciu ; and the other a man by strychnine. The cases of drowningwereunusuallylarge.there being no less than 43 eases—4l males aud 2 females. The deaths from injuries accidentally received numbered S3, of which 29 were males and C females. Of these 6 died from injuries received from vehicles, 3 run over, 3 falling downstairs, 2 falling from scaffolds, 3 falling from clifls, 3 falling on board vessels, 1 from a window, 1 from a wall, and 12 not specified. Of heart disease there were 5 cases, 4 ninles and 1 female. From natural causes there were 32 cases, 20 males and 12 females. Five opon verdicts were returned—a man found hanging, a man found dead in a quarry, a man found with injuries as if from "a fall in Botanic Gardens, a man with injuries to his head, and an infant found in some back premises at Riddington. The other cases recorded are as follows : —Sanguineous apoplexy, 3 males anil 2 females; disease of the kidneys, 1 male; alcoholism, 1 male ; stillborn, 1 female ; cancer, 1 female; sunstroke, 1 male; disease of the lungs, 1 male; inhaling chloroform at the Infirmary, 1 male"; peritonitis, 1 femalo ; overlaying, 2 female infants; burns, 1 male and 2 females ; suffocation, males, 2, female, 1 ; and eonjestion of the brain, 2 males and one female. During the year, 73 post mortem examinations were held. Out of 47 lires during the year, only three inquests were held, the coroner always declining to hold inquiries unless he was informed of suspicious circumstances connected with them. On the fire at 243 Victoria-street, a verdict of arson was returned, and on the fires at 207, Parramatta-street, and on board the Ly-ee-moon, open verdicts were recorded. Only one case occurred during the year in which a jury was discharged without a verdict, after deliberaf n » for 17 hours. Of the 170 deaths requiiin ;inquest , 129 were males and 41 females —" Town and Country Journal," Januaiy 10. Wo learn from a souice upon which we can rely, says the " .Melbourne Argus," that the Khedive of Egypt has accepted tenders for the erection of barracks at Port Said, which will cist £183,000, and that they are intended for the reception of 33,000 troops, which are to be brought from Bombay. This would seem to indicate the existence of peculiar close relations between the British Uovernment and the Egyptian potentate, as well as a determination on t e part of the former to take every precaution for keeping open and pro e :ting the highway to India. It may be also important that other eventualities are contemplated in the event of Russia disregar ling her pledge to respect British interests when dictating the terms of peace to Turkey. Mr. Bailey, one of the proprietors of the great circus aud menagerie, (says the " Evening News") has recently had constructed for him some waggons by Mr. John Robertson, coach-builder, of Pittstreet, Sydney, and that the price for each vehicle was £3O less than he would have had to pay for the same description of article in New York. The waggons are faithfully built and neatly finished, and Mr. Bailey says that in the character of constructions thoy cannot be surpassed in America. They are substantial, yet light, and the owner is greatly pleased with them. He says it will pay him better to have such vehicles const.u'ted here and pay freight to America and duty than get them built by lh'; manufacturers of his own country. His testimony is the more valnablo because, in the first place, he is an American, and also because ho has had con i lerablo experience in the purchase of v hi It's of various descriptions. Cn> fait of this kind explodes a thousand specious protectionist theories.

A report has recently been presented to the State Board of Health in Massachusetts by Dr. Nicholas, regarding the health of people who work with sowing machines. From observations by the medical men engaged it is inferred that a healthy person of average strength who does not make a business of sowing with the machine, may work from three to four hnuri daily without much fatiguo or perceiptble injury to health. Among workpeople, on the other baud, ono frequently meets with disorders of digestion, due to sedentary life and bad ventilation, also pains in tho muscles of the trunk and the lower limbs, becauso these latter aro always in motion. There occur also congestions of the vontral organs, weakness, and in some raro cases nouralgias of tho legs and spinal irritations. It is recommended to the proprietors of works in which tho sowing machine is used, to have (1) a good ventilation ; (2) a shorter time for work, with periods of rest; (It) another motor force than that of the feet, e.g., a steamengine. Cooking by means of Solar Hays has been tried successfully at Bombay, and an apparatus has been contrivod to cook ohops and steaks in the open air as well nnd exjieditiously ns over an ordinary • /C. Tne apparatus consists of a cr.ppcr veiisel, tinned inside and painted block outside, with a glass cover envelopi.ig the vessel with an inch of hot uir, and axed on to tho bottom of a conical reflector lined with common silvered sheet gloss. If properly covered over it will retain tho heat lor full three hours uud u half.

Measures arc ajnot for Wlliplwixnting the researches of th I Challenger cxpedition by 11 series .it di ep-sea dredging* in the Indian Seas. Then Ml weie pur[wsely omitted from the »eopr of the Challenger's investigations, as it was then hoped that the establishment of a marine curveying agency would enable the Indian Uoverninent to carry on deepsea dredging* and sounding pari passu with coast surveying. But although the Duke of Argyll warmly approved of the project, it has hitherto been impossible to do anything, owing to the want of a good steamer and all necessary equipment. A i e.v steamer is now beiug built in Indiu, and an officer of the Coast Survey Department, Lieutenant Jarrad, K.N'., had been commissioned to see after the fittings and dredging appliances in England. Full information has been obtained from the old stall' of the Challenger, and it is hoped that operations may lie started next cold season (1878-79). In that ease it is probable that the first steps will be to run one or more lines of soundings across the Bay of Bengal in such directions as may seem best, taking advantage of the vessel's destination for local surveying service. A correspondent, writing from Port Darwin, says : —We hnve had no less than !!00 new arrivals in one week, comprising, in about equal proportions, Europeans and Coolies. The Charlton, steamer, brought 92 C<iolies direct from Hong Kong, and the (Jener.il Pell brings 100 from the south. This is quite enough till the wet season is over, as there may be some difficulty in making provisions for them. There will bo very little gold to send by the mail steamer, probably not more than 1000 ozs. as the batteries have only started after a long and severe drought. The returns from the reefs are poor, and no new discoveries have been made lately. There is a new rush setting in to the Drifield, forty miles south from Pine Creek, where some shallow alluvial has been found, but there has not been sufficient work done on the ground to decide its character. Marcus Baker an I party are the prospectors, and are washing fair gold, but the others are slid to be doing little. Provisions still keep high, and cartage to the Union is £3O a ton. Mr. Travcrs has taken up 10,000 square miles of country for squatting purposes, but there is no word lif > tock starting. Considering that he is 1 ound to have two head of cattle to c\ery square mile we ought soon to ha\e plenty of beef.

A private detective in Glasgow has been f-ngaged in endeavoring to discover the whereabouts of Dr. Richard A. Robertson, a doctor of first-class standing in Titusville, Pennsylvania, United States. It appears that last year Dr. Robertson, while in New York, became acquainted with a man who contrived to make him believe that be (Dr. Robertson) -n is entitled to £9704, which had been left by a relative belonging to Ireland, and who was supposed to have been killed in the American Civil War. According to request Dr. and Mrs. Robertson came to Glasgow, where the doctor met a gentleman, from whom be got a number of fie itious papers ingeniously prepared with legal formality. Ono is a document purp irtiug to have been issued by the Co jrt of Probate, Hamilton. It also in.'tucts that payment of the money, f 0704, shall be made on December 20, 1877, to Dr. Robertson, whose claim is acknowledged. Dr. Robertson also got a pijor supposed to be a draft on the jCatioual Bank of Scotland, for the amount stated, which was payablo in nine month l ', *'or on December 20 last. On returning to hj a hotel he told his wife the result of the interview, and also mentioned that he had paid his " man of business " from !)s. to 4s. per £on the £fl7()4. This was in addition to moneys which had # alrcady been paid, making in all a sum of £SOO or £OOO handed ovc.- to the supposed solicitors. Soon after Dr. and Mrs. Robertson returned to America, intending, however, to revisit Scotland on December 20, and draw the money. In June last the doctor left his home in Now York with the object of spending the national July 4 celebration with some friends. Instead of this he left New York by the Guion line steamer Wyoming for Liverpool, having previously written to Hi wife saying that he had got a letter from Scotland which had reference to tho money, and which requested his immediate presence there It is supposed that he went to Scotland ; but, except for the tidings communicated in a few letters from places in England, nothing further has been heard of him. No ono appeared at the National Bank on December 20, ml it has boon ascertained that ro m mey had been placed there to the ere lit of Dr. Robertson. A few weoks ago Mrs. Robertson came to this country, and she has endeavored to trace her husband, but as yet without any result. When Dr. Robertson left home ho was in possession of a considerable sum of money and a large quantity of jewellery. Tho Weitminator corner recently investigated the cause of death of a young 1 dy named Hughes, aged 28, who had b -en engaged as companion to a lady in Cromwell Road, Kensington. Tho evidence of the servants were taken, from which it appeared that screams we e heard from the boudoir above, and on to ! valet hastening up ho found Hughes stretched upon the Door in a pool of blood. She was sensible, aid explained to him that in cutting a cake the knifo glanced to a vital part in tho Imml and in'lifted severe injuries. She died in the hospital from tho injuries. A verdict of death through misadventure was returned.

A li»t oi the oewtpapea, local and intercolonial that bavo expressed opinions 09 the revolutions _\ pruceedilUH of the Government his Urn published in kUlbourne, An analysis of the numbers shows that there i» .i \ust majority of the press against Mi. Berry. Of Victorian journals, the Government is condemned by fifty-four ami supported by only twenty, while the intercolonial papers are almost unanimous in denouncing the Berry coup, the numbers being twentyeight to thnv. As an instance of the prosperity of some of the ('hiin.se traders in this city, it may be mentioned that several have lately brought down from China their wives and families. In Castlereaghstreet there is a very happy family, and the daughters, two in number, and aged about 10 and 18 yearn, are a good sample of tho Chinese beauty. They are certainly very modest, and of comely appearance, and otherwise indicate good breeding. Their dress does not include the "pull back," to show the form divine, but is loose and flowing. The hair, which is very long and black, and perhaps a little wiry (this aside), is drawn tightly back from the forehead, tied neatly with ribbon behind, and allowed ,to fall gracefully over the shoulders. A rose at the side completes the adornment They appear very shy, even among the white persons of their own sex, in the neighborhood. Their features are very regular, and soft in outline as a painting ; not the least attractive feature is their liquid, almond eyes, which have a most kindly expression. In justice to the Chinese, it ought to be stated that those in Castlereaghstreet, who are married U> European womon, have no disreputable homes, no broken-hearted wives, no ragged children. Their homes are clean, with plants and flowers to the very door, and their children are amongst the cleanest, the best dressed, and best fed in the neighborhood.—" Evening News." The " Molong Gazette " states that a I little dog belonging to Mr. Connolly, of Dougboy, near Burrawang Cross Beads | Creek, the other day on being on the scent of the trail of a snake which appeared near tho house followed the trail to the creek in a circuitous route for nearly a mile to an unoccupied hut in a hole under which the reptile had taken refuge ; the dog, most diminutive of its race, set to work to unearth its quarry, but, finding labor in this direction vain, commenced in right the opposite quarter and burrowed with such success as to come on the object of its search, but in seizing the snako the dog was himself seized by the lip, then by the eye, and, lastly, by the jaw; yet it succeeded in not only unearthing but killing its prey, but at sundown fell a victim to its wounds. This was the fifth snake the dog had killed during the season. A discharged soldier of 1871 attempted to commit suicide in an ante-chamber of the King's palace at Berlin. He had not been wounded, aid was, theiofore, no entitled to a pension, but hj d lost his health in the service, and <"e oi mined to appeal directly and in jer o i to the Emperor for relief. Nothing but n free pass to his home could be granted him ; but while this was preparing he suddenly shot himself in the breai-t. His wound was not serious, and he was removed to the hospital.