MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 3, 29 February 1868, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Theee expeditions to the North Pole are now preparing— one in England, one in Prussia, and one in France.

Messes. Bass pay to the Inland Revenue, in the shape of taxes and duties, about £500 per day.

The King of the Sandwich Islands is believed to have the Chinese leprosy, and cannot live long. Eliht; Btjbeit, the " learned blacksmith," is gone back to New Britain, Ct., his native place, to live. A Cleeoyman writes to the London " Times " .that, having advertised for a governess, he had 250 applications for the situation. During her career on the turf, Achievement has won sixteen races out of twenty- one, up to and including the Doucastev Cup, and her nett winniugs amount to £22,442.

The capacity for durability of Rhine wines is astonishing. I tasted some last year in the cask, made in the year 1616, and which was even then perfectly sound.— E. L. Beckwith.

The Tables Tubned.— A curious illustration of the social revolution which has taken place in the Southern States is afforded in the address of a negro candidate in Georgia, who promises that if elected (and he'is said to stand a good chance) he will do all he can to <v ameliorate the condition of ihe whites."

Some workmen engaged in digging a drain in the court-yavd of the Lyc c c Napoleon, Paris, recently discovered thirty-six coins of the reign of Julius Caesar, besides some articles of jewellery of the Roman occupation of Paris.

It is declared that when Dr. Ribadaneira was embalming the body of Maximilian, nearly a hundred women of Queretaro— where he was very popular— eagerly applied for permission to dip their handkerchiefs in the blood, to keep as mementoes.

When Van Amburgh's show was in Burlington, United States, lately, and parading ;j:r£ugh the sft-eetsjjhe old elophant Pippoo JjJ refuel "T future^n »he Main-street bridge— no por^an-.on co; '<i aAvcfs <"i":> ''» cross. The animi, 1 Jell throvgii thia bn<i some ten years ago while attempting to cro^s it, and he is supposed to have remembered it.

The latest way in which a livelihood is gained in New York city is by the little girls who go about the streets picking up peach stones. Bushels of them are thus collected, after which they are sold for various purposes —medicinal, for confectioners, and for the use of nurserymen.

A large Family.— A German newspaper saVB : __« Two year 3 ago, Mr. Christian Sagemayer became father of his fifty-eighth child. His first wife gave birth to twenty-three, of which six were twins and eleven, single-born children; his second wife to nineteen; and the third and yet living wife is mother of sixteen children. Of these fifty -eight children twenty-eight are living, all being daughters; and the man has never been sick, and enjoys good health, as do his children." A New Hampshire farmer says that he knows by his own experience that the manure from fifty hens, if carefully saved, properly composted, and judiciously applied, is more valuable than fifty dollars' worth, of any of the manures that can be bought in the market.

Dipsomania— A Romance of Fashionable Lice. — A celebrated physician, of the time of our grandfathers, made his first step on the professional ladder to fortune and fame thus : While waiting for patients, and losing pataience, he sought consolation in good fellowship, which in those times implied hard drinking. One fine, evening, when deep in his second or third bottle of port, he was suddenly called on by a gentleman in a very fine livery to visit a great lady who had been taken suddenly ill. The eminent Sir was not to be found, and the nearest doctor must be fetched instantly. Poor Q — that was our friend— did not know what to do. Here was a chance ; but what a stato he was in to avail himself of it ! But Q. was a man of courage, not one to let an opportunity slip through his fingers; so he plunged his face into cold water, braced up his nerves, and followed his conductor, not too steadily.

Away they went, through thick and thin, To a tall house near Lincoln's-inn. There the wondering Q. was led up a spacious staircase (see that particular chapter in all the sensational novels),' and at last to the beautiful patient. Poor Q. was not sobered by all the fine things he had seen, but was made rather worse. He fumbled and blundered in trying to find the pulse of the invalid ; he wavered and stammered ; and at last overcome by" despair and tipsiness, exclaimed, clasping "hi* burning brow, "Drunk, by the Lord ! " The witty and beautiful Lady turned gently round on her silken couch, and seized his trembling hand in her glowing fingers. "Right, dear doctor," murmured the lovely sufferer in broken accents,- "alas it_ is too true ! Your manly heart will never, I "feel assured, permit you to betray a confidence reposed in you by a feeble woman in the hour of distress ; so pray do not mention it." The doctor did not, and 1 so made his Jbrtune.

From~"wmKGt^ Women as Compositors. — signally failed in pViwLjhe experiment has can manage to scramble fipTn^-f rj>] ie g\^ s copy pretty tolerably ; but when they~conife to coriect at the stone they do not like it at <»u,-a;nrL jsan«*>blfts of-* ll ***** -are_ thfi_ coyg 0 . quence. Then, again, stopping after hot^ to get a proof is quite out of the question^ Sundry signals and whistles are often heard from their anxious swains in waiting, who cast up small pebbles to the windows? and then the girls are artful enough to throw theS 1 bonnets and cloaks down to their sweetheart| in the street from the top windo^\^ leisurely pans down the stairs in "trJj^^M costume, as if merely going frdtiJ^^^M to another, they quickly s^gg^^^^H terious manner. ~.ln^^|j^^^^^^^^^H oral humbug, thej^^^^^^^^^^^^^l but another proof Ji^^^^^^^^^^^^| woman's mission, o r |^^^^^^^^^^^^^H place may be, it is n i^^^^^^^^^^^^^| injnre her father, brother,^^^^^^^^^^H ever interested advocates^^^^^^^^^^^H trary. ," WK^^^^^^M