CLIPTOIMANIA. [Selected by the Aukland "Star's" London Correspondent.]

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 68, 20 September 1884, Page 5

CLIPTOIMANIA. [Selected by the Aukland "Star's" London Correspondent.]

, The profits of the " Standard " last year i exceeded £100,000. This is a handsome income, but it is far less than the revenue I 1I 1 annually derived from the "Dairy Telegraph," which verges on a quartet of a million ! As an instance of the heavy losses sustained by backers at Ascot, a correspondent tells me that the Blues, who are quartered at Windeor, and their friends who were staying with them in barracks, lost over £40,000 up to Wednesday, and that their total losses on the week amounted to over £50,000.— "Truth." The following advertisement appears in a provincial paper : "To Mineral Borers. — Offers wanted to put down six bores in the town of Cork, li eland." It would be interesting to know the names of the halfdozen " bores " whom this advertiser is apparently anxious to suppress. , Mr F. Fargus, the author of "Called Back," who is about to leave Bristol to reside in London, was entertained by the Mayor last Thursday at a farewell dinner, at which about sixty of the leading inhabitants of Bristol and Clifton were present. Mr Fargus has accepted a number of engagements— too many, I should say— for he has on hand a serial story for " Macmillan's," a story- for "Harper's," and another for the " Graphic." The girl undergraduates at Cambridge had their innings the other day in the Moral Sciences Tripos, when the only first-class was a Newnham student ; but they were rather " out of It " in the longer and more important class-lists which were read in the Senate House on Saturday. In the Classical Tripos the ladies had no first class ; and in the Mathematical they had no wranglers, and their best " man " was only equal to the forty-fourth on the list.—" Truth." They had a new sensation in Paris the other day. A working man fell over into the bear pit at the Paris Zoo, and a bear began to gnaw the horny-handed one's head. The spectators were just settling down to a quiet ten minutes' real sport when a man came along with a rope, and rescued the banquet from the disappointed bear. What a singular thing it is that there are always nasty officious fellows in the world ready at a moment's notice to spoil sport. For real journalistic enterprise we must, strange to say, go across the Channel — even to Paris. In the French capital there is published early every morning a paper, printed in English, called the "Morning News," which finds a kind of echo in "Le Matin," both belonging to the same proprietary. The " Morning News " has an office in London, is, in fact, edited there, and, by the aid of a special telegraphic wire, which it rents at an outlay of £2,000 a year, it is enabled to publish in Paris at 7 a.m. the cream of the news contained in all the London daily papers of that same morning ! There is an idea of establishing in London a paper like the " Paris Morning jNews." Conducted on the same lines, it could not fail to be a gigantic success, for it is precisely the kind of paper we want. The venerable "Chambers's Journal" contains a chatty article on "Umpires at Cricket." A parish clerk at Sheffield was a notable umpire. One hot Sunday he fell asleep in church, and at the conclusion of the sermon, when he should have said "Amen," he astounded the divine and de lighted the rustics in the congregation by announcing in a loud voice the magic word, "Over!" ~ It was a smart stroke on the part of the Brooklyn police authorities the other day to station constables at various points on all thoroughfares and stop each milk-van as it drove past. One by one the detenus were brought before the Health Inspector at the Central Police Station, where their milkcans were opened and the contents analysed, Out of fifty only one was found below the standard. Alas ! the London milk trade could not stand such a test so creditably. What next?— A journal called "Orange Blossom " is announced. The feature, as the title denotes, will be accounts of weddings, and it is promised that each number shall contain photographic poitraits of prominent brides. I also hear of a new venture under the auspices of Mr Bowles, to be entitled the " Statesman." July is not the best month in the year for starting a paper. One of the American papers reports that a Mr Janett (a misprint, it is supposed, for Mr Jarrett) has made such flattering offers to Miss Florence St. John and M. Marius for an American tour that the artists are likelj to accept. Miss St. John's engagement with Mr Henderson was, it is believed, for one year certain. That she would make an enormous success in America, nobody who knows anything at all about American ! amusement-giving has the smallest doubt. We have all heard of condensed tea, which can be carried about in little cakes. But condensed, or rather solidified, drinks of a more potent nature than tea are indeed a novelty. An ingenious chemist is said to have discovered a method by which any wine, spirit, or malt liquor can be solidified into a cake like chocolate, and so conveniently carried about in the pockets. What will become of refreshment bar 3 if every one who pleases can carry half-a-dozen solidified brandies and soda in his waistcoat pocket? Notwithstanding the New York panic, and the hundred and one financial crashes brought about by it, a satirical story is going the rounds of the American press. A | sparrow thief has been appropriating the public money in Philadelphia. The bird built a nest in the roof of the Mint, and became so tame as to fly about freely in the smelting-room and other parts of the building, where the floating particles of gold-dust collected in his feathers. The sparrow shook off the dust into his nest, which was found to be so full of gold that it is to be broken up and assayed. Two hundred and five poems were written on Barnum's white elephant, in competition for the prize of $500. The Rev. Robert Collyer was one of the adjudicators. Eighteen of the efforts were considered worthy of serious consideration and were re-read, and the final verdict was embodied in a note to Mr Barnum, in which the judges declared that three had merit, but that none, in their opinion, was worthy of the $500 prize offered by the great showman. They therefore declined to designate any particular poem as the best. Mr Barnum conferred with the authors of the poems, and divided the prize among them. They were Joaquin Miller, who describes himself as "poet of New York"; Elbridge S. Brooks, journalist, of Brooklyn; and Mrs H. S. Dwinelle, ot New York. A Paris physician got into a great scrape lately by declaring that a young lady of seven, and belonging to a family of respectability, drank. Another doctor was promptly summoned, and said the same thing. The parents were in despair and incredulity. They said that their daughter actually disliked wine. " Watch her carefully,' said Dr. No. 2 ; and a few days later mamma caught the victim of the mysterious malady at the eau de-Cologne bottle.