CLIPTOMANIA. [FROM THE AUCKLAND " STAR'S " LONDON CORRESPONDENT.]

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 81, 20 December 1884, Page 4

CLIPTOMANIA. [FROM THE AUCKLAND " STAR'S " LONDON CORRESPONDENT.]

The Town ' Council of Vienna have ordered an inquiry into the reason why the bakers buy wheat cheap and sell bread dear. They might at the, same inquire why ducks swim, why two and two make four s and why the human nature of a baker does not differ from that of any other Christian. -"Globe." The Postmaster-General has given the contract for one hundred and fifty thousand i post-cards to a German firm. Only lately it was announced that we had made extensive purchases of gunpowder from that country. The next occasion of our sending over the water will be, we suppose, for soldiers when our own army has disappeared. The "Fanfulla" says that the verses by Andrea Maffei on the visit of the King of Italy to the cholera-stricken city of Naples have been translated into English by Mrs Elizabetta Proby. The lines are as follow: " King Humbert by the hand hath taken Death, Who, stupefied to view Courage so great and true, His deadly dart flings down, thinking that he Who thus braves Death must more than mortal Thackeray was wonderfully felicitous in his invention of namgs and titles. He is the godfather of two newspapers — " Vanity | Fair* and the « Pall Mall Gazette"; and it may not be generally remembered that he ante-dated the creation of a Royal Dukedom by a score of years or more. It will be recollected by some that Major Pendennis gave it as a proof of the social standing of Lady Mirabel that he had been received by Lady Rockminster and the Duchess of Connaught ! The scene at the Army and Navy Stores in Victoria- street is really a curious one. Every day from eleven till six the street is crammed with carriages waiting for fair women who are engaged iri stocking themselves with all kinds of things, from houseflannel to diamond necklaces. The interior of the building is a perfect hive of busy buyers and sellers. Many people pass a whole day at the Stores, and I have heard whispers of engagements to marry having actually been negotiated within the walls of this monster shop. — " County Gentleman." Mr W. G. Grace has made up his mind not to retire from the cricket field altogether next season, but to confine his play to appearances on behalf of his county. It is interesting to know that he has a son, W. G. Grace, jun., who, though only a boy, already shows signs of becoming a good cricketer. It is satisfactory to learn, too, that Dr. Grace's practice is growing rapidly, though one's satisfaction is damped by the thought that it is this success as a professional which will be the cause of Mr W. G. Grace's rarer triumphs in future as an amateur. In view of the number of sharks that have made their appearance on the Atlantic coast this season, attention has been turned to their adaptation for culinary purposes. The Ichthyophagus Society, at their dinner in New York this month, are to partake of shark, and possibly their example may be followed by persons desirous of emulating such an epicurean example. As the Chinese are notoriously fond of sharks' fins, which are rich in gelatinous matter that gives body to their favourite soup, there may be some chance of turning the present superfluity of sharks to account, though the true Celestial epicure is content only with the fins of the great white shark, the ferocious man-eater, who is happily unknown in American waters. , It is seldom that the dreary station of Aden furnishes any topic of interest, even of scandal, but it has just done something to redeem its dull fame. The commanding officer of the English regiment stationed there called one of his subaltern officers, whilst on parade, " a young blackguard." This was not polite, nor was it according to discipline. But what followed was less so. After the parade was over the subaltern entered the commanding officer's tent and knocked him down. It is supposed that a court-martial must follow, but the regiment being under orders for active service, there are difficulties in the way of that tedious method of trial. — "Society." In a preface by Zola to the new edition of his first work, " The Mysteries of Marseilles," he tells the world how he began his career as a novelist. He writes that his tentative efforts at literature had failed ; he was often without even daily bread, when the manager of a small Marseilles paper proposed to supply him with incidents drawn from police reports if he would weave them into a consecutive story. Zola essayed to fabricate a feuilleton out of the material given him ? and succeeded. He received £8 per month for his work, portions of which appeared in each day's paper, andhe deemed thesalaryan unhopedfor piece of luck. The principle of setting thieves to catch other thieves is being carried to the point of sublimity— perhaps one step further— in the United States Presidential election. In Cincinnati, for instance, the police and the city marshals are deputed to maintain order, the foremen being controlled by the Democrats and the latter by the Republicans. The police promptly go about arresting the marshals, who, as soon as they are released on bail, arrest their arrester?, who are released in turn, and thus the peace of the city is secured — with the exception of a "good deal of pistol-firing," in which both police and marshals take part — "Globe." "Female spies are as numerous as flies here now," writes a New York correspondent. "There is scarcely a store where dry goods are sold but employs a corps of female detectives. As a rule, women scent a clue more readily than men ; and when a woman detective catches her victim she is invariably more pitiless than a male officer would be. A woman who becomes a detective must necessarily relinquish all feminine individuality, as the experience they must unavoidably undergo in such capacities gives them a coarseness of manner not calculated to inspire respect such as modest ladies are wont to receive. The female detectives employed in the Custom House are expert physiognomists— that is, they can invariably read the smuggler's guilt on his or her face. »_« Echo." Victor Hugo has just returned to Paris with his grandchildren from Switzerland, where he has, as usual of late years, been parsing a couple of months. He has been greatly benefited by the change of air, and the hale old poet is in excellent health and spirits. It was stated this time twelve months that the first task he intended to apply himself to after t his holiday was the condensation of his play " Cromwell"—published in 1827, but never acted— so as to fit it for stage representation ; but nothing more has been heard of it since. It is hardly likely to be brought out this winter. With three of Shakspere's plays in active preparation at three of the principal theatres, there is scarcely room for another novelty in the grand genre.-—" St. James's Gazette." Not a bad idea for Auckland. A London paper is publishing portraits of "prowlers" who invest the streets, insulting women, and making themselves otherwise objectionable.