ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1934, 16 March 1875, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Claimant's Wife.—The Tichborne claimant's wife, Having refused to pay a poor-rate demanded of. her as Mrs Orton, was summoned before the magistrates by the Symington overaeers as a defaulter. The '^magistrates granted a distress warrant, desiring it to be held over for a few days. Defendant states she is not Mrs Orton, but Lady Tichborne, any lawful claim upon whom she is willing to pay, A Disgusting Wageb.—A disgusting wager is reported to have been made at leigh, near Warrington. A man wagered that he would bite ar toad's head, eat an ounce of twist tobacco, and three large raw potatoes. The amount of the bet was the price of the tobacco and two gallons of beer, and the man won.. The scene was witnessed by a large number oft persons in a public-Eouse. The man is a farm servant. A Sensible Dog.—The other night the Paris police on the' Eve Nationale came on their rounds to a man who had been thrown down by a dog, which, bit bun when he tried to rise. Having got the dog off^with some trouble, they found that the man had under his blouse a piece of bacon weighing some 201b., and_an assortment of sausages, which he admitted having stolen from a provision shop. He had kept the dog quiet by throwing him pieces of meat, W as soon as he got out the dog followed him and knocked him down. He was taken to the station, while the dog, well satisfied with his own work, went home wagging his tail.. The Bishop of Carlisle on Flogging Wife Beat ess.-—The Bishop of Carlisle, speaking at a temperance meeting, questioned the, efficacy of Acts of Parliament to deal with the question of intemperance. He said Acts of Parliament were not so strong as people supposed. The prosecution for cruelty to hyenas failed because hyenas were not domesticated animals. The law for the- protection of woman was so ineffectual that a man could kick a woman almost to death provided she were his wife. He should, however, be well pleased to see men who kicked their wives treated with an application of that other domestic animal—the cat- „ " -r *• A Jfdical Rebuke.—Mr Justice Denman startled Assize-Court blackguardism at Warwick by an outburst of judical indignation. Suppressed tittering reaching his ears from the gallery whilst a witness was reluctantly repeating indelicate language, his. lordship exclaimed in a tone of astonishment and anger, '• Good God, is this a Christian country ?" Having threatened to have one man arrested who had been laughing at every indelicate expression, his lordship added — " Let us have decency in Courts of justice. One does not come to be amused by filth which one is obliged to extract in cases that disgrace the country." Infection feom Domestic Pets.—Mr William Lattimer, in a pamphlet on the necessity of isolation in infectious diseases, relates a singular case in which the seeds of contagion had been conveyed to different children by means of a prt retriever. The dog in question had been reared in a house where scarlatina prevailed, and was subsequently given to a friend, ard shortly after one of the children, in the dog's new home was attacked with malignant scarlatina,- and died. Disinfectants were used plentifully, and every precaution taken to prevent a recurrence of the malady, but in two months' time a second child took the same disease in its worst form, and died. As the dog had been the constant companion and playfellow of these children, it* woolly coat became so charged with contagious matter as to render it a source of disease and death.