GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 68, 18 January 1879, Page 3

GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

We have received from a correspondent in Calcutta a photograph of ;a child which has all the appearance of hiving been bom with a caudal appendage. The correspondent, in sending the photograph, writes:" I onclose .1 photograh, interesting, no doubt, to the disoiplss of Darwin, of a child born with a tail a few months ago, in the tea districts of Dnrjouling. Its parents are healthy c >-<iios, and this is the lirst of their familyso that future births niay be lookedforward to, if not with certainty of result, al least with interests as ts de-tail The child lias sensibility ill tho tail, though as yet no power over it,; but this is not considerd very remarkable, seeing, that monkeys fresh from the virgin forest have not for some time after their birth the ability to wag theirs. There is no gammon in this for i am acquainted with a gentleman who has both seen and handled the child, and he pronounces it to be a healthy boy, well developed in all its parts, and with tiie exception which creates the oddity having no other malformation about it." The photograh, as we have said, bears marks ot being genuine, and the correspondent is trustworthy, and not at ail likely to bo the victim of or to penetrate a hoax.—Dundee Advertiser.

The notorious Dr. Kenuealy (a Wellington paper states) got his first two briefs from our worthy Resident JMagistrate. Mr. Mausford vras at that time practising :ts a solicitor in Wellington, not, of course, our Welligton, bin a town in Shropshire. Mr. Kennealy was hard up, an,l Mi-. Hansford seeing that there was something in him, gavo liiui a start. Ho over afterwards was able to obtain plenty of briefs, and rapidly rose to ominenoo at the bar.

"To edit a newspaper," says Rev. Mr. Talmage, " requires that one be a statosuiun, an essayist, a geographer, in fact an encyclopedia. Yes, and wlieu you have done so with distinguished success for the better part of a lifetime, the statesman, essayist, geographer, and encyclopedia of a rival sheet will seat himself at his desk, with a heavenly smile and an even pulse, and tranquilly aver that you Ore a brass-bound and double-riveted centennial idiot, and a roaiing-rib-uosod johndonkey of the windy wild !

The Japanese Mail states that the census of the inhabitants which has just been taken shows the population to be slightly in excess of that of the Tinted Kingdom, the figures being for Japan 3'4,338,000 against 31,029,291) in Britain in 1871.

Commander Lord Charles Bresford, R.N, who recently resigned his appointment as second in command of Her Majesty's ship Thunderer, is about to return to active service, and to accompany Commodore Wilson to tho Australian station.

The Dutoh papers speak of a contemplated marriage of tho King of Holland to to Princess Paulina VValdcck, tho eldest, daughter of the reigning Prince of wo - deck-Pyrmuuiit, and ef Helena, daughter of tho lato Duke of Nassau. .She is 2i yean of ago. The Suez canal is 96* miles in length. It is not broad enough in tome places to let two vessels pass, and many sidings have bean made for this purpoae, Vessels measuring MO fixt in length and diawing ij feet 0 inches have passed through.

Miss Florence Nightingale is 00 years old, ami lives in Ixmdon almost a prisoner from ill-health.

Madame Anna Bishop will settle in Kngland, her native country, devoting hei time to teaching, Mrs. Anna Wittenmyer, president o' the Woman's Temperance Union, is at work in Canada, organizing women's temperance societies. A man at Bradford, Eugland, has been held in bonds to keep the peace, for sending out a bellman to cry the proclamation that his wife Amelia, was for j sale.

Ireland is growing in princely favour. The Empress of Austria, the Brince Imperial of France the Duke and Duchess of Oonnaught, and the Princess Louise, of Prussia, will spend the hunting season there.

At the birth of a child in Cyprus, a vessel of wine is buried, to bo nerved up afterwards at its marriage ; a certain superstition attaches to this wine, for, whatever may be the fate of the child, it is never emjiloycd ill commerce, I

It 'may not be generally known thai bacon can be kept during a very hot summer hy putting it in a strong paper bag, the outside of which is brushed with lime.