CLIPTOMANIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 92, 7 March 1885, Page 4

CLIPTOMANIA.

In his last match of 12,000 up with F I Bennett, Roberts again managed to beat his own record break of 327 at the spot-barred game by running up 360. The break, however, was not begun and completed on the same day, Roberts making 160 one evening and 200 more the next afternoon, a fact which, to my mind, detracts very consider ably trom the merit of the performance. It is reported from America by one of the great city merchants in his business circular that " cats are scarce," owing to a million and a-half being annually required to contribute the kind of fur which is patronised by the middle classes in the States. This is an indirect hint to Britons to make war on the feline tribe, and export the result as a good business spec. — "Modern Society." A little learning is proverbially dangerous, but a small modicum of legal lore would be useful, nevertheless, to people in Clerkenwell. If they could only be convinced that they cannot be incontinently sent to prison for non-payment of a debt, the person in that district who has been endeavouring to make small debtors pay up by threats of imprisonment on official-look-ing paper, would tind his occupation unremunerative. That would probably have more effect upon his proceedings than the magisterial dictum that he is a very great rascal. All the materials for a horrid trageJy are supplied by the details of an accident which occurred recently to a Dundee workman. Ho was engaged in putting up a large safe, and getting inside, incontinently shut the door, which has a self-acting lock. Fortunately for him, the key was at Birmingham, and was sent off in response to a telegram, so that he was not more than 30 hours inside. But could anything more hideous have happened than the chance that he should have had the key in his own pocket and the door have had no aperture ? Writers of the realistic dramas might make good use of the situation. A Dutch deputy receives £166 a year and travelling expenses, a Belgian £16 16s a montJi during the session, a Norwegian travelling expenses and thirteen shillings and fourpence a day, a Portuguese ten shillings a day. French senators and deputies have IMSO a year. In the New World it may be important for ambitious emigrants to remember that members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate are paid for any sessions extending beyond thirty days a thousand dollars, beside ten cents a mile for travelling expenses. Brazil gives its senators £3Goforthesession, and its deputies, in addition to travelling expenses, £240. Mexico pays members of each house two thousand dollais a year. The Argentine Confederation is still more munificent, and allows £700. Even this handsome income is oxceeded in the United States, where election, whether to the Senate or to the House of Representatives, means £1,000 a year, and travelling expenses as well. Italy confers on senators and deputies free travelling by rail or steamer, though no salary. In other countries possessed of Parliamentary institutions a seat does not at present yield any direct pecuniary advantage. Recently, at the Mansion House, an office boy was charged with stealing two-and-sixpence in postage stamps. The boy's mother cried bitterly, and said that her son had been induced to gamble on the Stock Exchange. She was only a poor washerwoman, but would gladly refund the money if the magistrate would allow till next settling day, when she hoped to take a bit over a bull account which she had open. Her husband, a mechanic, here stepped forward and asked the magistrate's advice. He was constantly receiving touting circulars from sworn brokers, or whatever they call themselves, offering to make his fortune on the Stock Exchange. Some of these he feared had fallen into the hands of his wife and son, and led them astray. The magistrate said he was very sorry ; he had seen these circulars, offering to take the smallest sums, and he thought backing horses a more legitimate form of gambling, but backing horses was illegal. The mechanic assured the Court that two of his pals, a dustman and a night watchman, had been induced to join a syndicate by a Messrs Have 'Em on Toast, Clean 'Em Out ] and Co. The boy was eventually sentenced to seven days' imprisonment, and the father promised on his release to do all he could to keep him from the Stock Exchange. A writer in " Knowlodge," who has written several articles bearing on ths colouring and adulteration of wine, relatethe following story as illustrating the f allie bility of price as a guarantee of pure wine : — Visiting a friend in the trade, he offered me a glass of wine that he drank himself when at home, and supplied to his own family, He asked my opinion of it. I told him that I though it was genuine grape juice, resem bling that which I had been accustomed to drink at country inns in the Cote dOr (Burgundy) and in Italy. He told me that he imported it directly from a district near to that I first named, and could supply it at 12s per dozen with a fair profit. Atterwards, when calling at his place of business in the West End, he told me that one of his best customers had just been tasting the various dinner wines then remaining on the table, some of them expensive, and that he had chosen the same as I had, but what was my friend to do? Had he quoted 1 2s per dozen, he would have lost one of his best customers, and sacrificed his reputation as a high-class wine merchant ,• therefore he quoted 545, and both buyer and seller were ] perfectly satisfied. The wine merchant) made a large profit, and the customer obtained what he demanded— a good wine at a "respectable price." He could not insult his friends by putting cheap 12s trash on his table. Here arises an ethical question. Was the wine merchant justified in making this charge under the circumstances; or, otherwise stated, who was to blame for the crookedness of the transaction ? A German professor who had visited England on several occasions once made an attempt to estimate the amount of money annually wasted in over-eating, and in the consumption of kinds of food not necessary for the support of the system. The conclusion he arrived at was certainly the reverse of flattering to our power of self-denial where the enjoyments of the table are concerned. Even the poorest classes, he pointed out, expend far more money than is absolutely necessary for their sustenance, in a great measure owing to their ignorance of the nutritive properties of lentils, beans, and peas. There was a good deal of truth in what the professor said, and he might have added that excessive eating cuts short the existence of many people in this country as well as the oft-denounced craving for an undue amount of alcoholic stimulants. There are persons who think that they are underfed if they do not take animal food at leaßt three meals daily. Nor do they always regulate the amount consumed in accordance with the frequency with which such fare is placed before them. From time to time cases of gluttony are made known in coroners' courts, and it sometimes happens that even simple food is eaten with so little moderation that fatal consequences ensue. Richard Garddage, upon whose remains an inquest has just been held, ate so many sprats to his tea the other evening, though ,ho had assuredly fared remarkably well at

two previous meals, that he shortly after became very ill, and died ere a doctor could reach him. The medical evidence was decisive as to the cause of his death, and the jury gave a verdict to the effect that the man had died through excessive eating. There was a small party given the other evening when a certain " high personage " was present. After dinner, -when all the guests were assembled in the drawing-room, an old woman, dressed in a French costume with very short skirts, suddenly made her appearance, and one of the company being requested to play some lively opera-boufie she proceeded to dance the cancan. She danced with much spirit and vivacity, not altogether, perhaps, as a modest old woman should, and, as usual, the "high personage" was in shouts of laughter. At last she sat down amid a round of applause, and then a quadrille was formed, the old woman requesting the " high personage " to be her partner Although not the proper thing, he could not well refuse. After the quadrille she as suddenly disappeared, and people were wondering who she was, when the door was thrown open and in walked Lord . It needed but a glance to see that he it was who had been masquerading as the ancient French damsel, and great was the merriment thereat. On the whole, when one reflects, it was not a very elevating night. Lord is a man of seventy-five, and, notwithstanding his age, is one of the " high personage's " most' constant companions. There are some persons who accuse him of being a great toady, and if one might judge by the exploit just mentioned, the charge is not very untrue. Fancy a man of his age, and a prominent member of society, consenting to such an exhibition of want of dignity on his part, merely for the pake of amusing the " high personage." The lady at whose house this sort of ridiculous tomfoolery occurs every year for the delectation of " Tummy " is a woman of over sixty years of age, and has always been very fast, and not over goodlooking,