General News.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4409, 20 February 1883, Page 4

General News.

-„,-r r-» ... ... t Birds-nesting is. an occupation which has from time immemorial been looked upon with favor by boys of every day and generation/ and 1 an incentive-has been given to this pastime by the local bodies offering rewards for those horrible little thieves, spa'rVbwar, and their eggsV f Soms days ago the son of au horticulturist residing on the East Belt was in search of nests amongst*the trees in'his 'father's 1 garden. Haying-spotted several' he' hauled: them •'down and: found'vthac the birds had utilised candle cotton iv: their' construction, and he took over 100 pieces of this material pf ; abQut a foot in .length out of the nests. -_ .This being mentioned to a well known Rangiora nursery gardener, who, uses the cotton to tie up his yourigplants witb, he had'a look through his garden and found "that he had lost more than 300, pieces of this material.~Anything it seems 'is^building material that comes to these little detestable birds' bHls,~Exchang£.^ '\;". ": "/'\' .'[ '■'•' ' Horne 1 papers t state that Her Majesty was somewhat' nervous both before and immediately ; after (-the, Rqyiew of the Egyptian expeditionary force. No sooner' had the troops passed, before her than the escort closed in around-her carriage. In these days.~4>f>rdynamijte;' the • head that wears a crown may well be uneasy; but the Queen is sincerely respected; and except by the act of some madman, I do not think that any< lady in these realms has less toffearr r from attempts to her personal - injury. Her reception was exceedingly cordial. " , X , . It ia, c uriders't6odV,tha,t;yMr Authony Trollopehas died "a'-poor'man—poor, that is, in comparison.to the nunjber of his novels* .'A. literary journal,, imappraising. his probable gains, put them down at a total of £100,000, coupled with a note that bo other novelist hadi ever- made* so" much as tha.t.3 But the writer; besides exaggerating Mr Trollope's gains, apparently has forgotten the well known earnings of Sir Walter Scott, earnings whose aggre« gate has:servdd ii a text"for 1 ttie guidance of the literary aspirant. Mr William . Black is,understood to be making more than Anthony Trollope realised during^he best yeaitfbf'his career. Wilkie Collins probably realised as much as Trollope. ItissaicLthat Ouida's gains would break, the hearts of the lovers of literature. Again' George Eliot's -piofits- were very large. " Daniel Deronda " alone realised him £10,000, and Miss Braddon is understood to be nearing, if ahehaanotalroady topped, the Parnassus of the novelist who writes withan^'eyfe' t6 j^fofitable sales 'and* a 1 big fortune in the end.!' J:" ' J ' John Wilkes in a letter records one of the happiest sayings he ever heard, proceeding from no°higher a person 4 than an ordinary,s«rvant-m»id.., TheJSop.H. S». Con Way, ' Groom' of the Bed-chamber, looking at a. furnished boußfl tdbe.lot, saw a pretty servant girl, whom he jocularly asked if she was to be let too X as,,well aa the house. '"-Wo," sir," said she, "I am to be let alone." ,= » , ; An old negro says, " Sass is powerful good in, e?«ything > but" children. Dey needs some other kinds of dressing.