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Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 77, 31 July 1869, Page 5

Ait Imperial Experiment with Opctjm. — A story is going the round, of the Indian and China papers that the young Emperor of China, being curious to judge for himself of the effect of opium, tried a pipe, and of course suffered severely. The QueenMother made enquiries, and having found out that one of the chief eunuchs had supplied his Majesty with the opium, had him beheaded, as an example to the rest of the household ; and a fresh proclamation against the use of the drug was sent through, the empire. | The Stort of a Set 01? Teeth. — A Vienna correspondent writes : — Let me close this letter with a little anecdote over which all Vienna has been shaking its sides. A few months ago, one of our first dentists supplied Madame de B , a lady well known in the fashionable circles of the haute finance, with a splendid set "of false teeth, worth about forty pounds, and waited with exceeding patience for payment. Finding that thelady "made no sign," he applied after' three months had , elapsed, from the date of delivery, by letter for the discharge of his claim. No answer. A fortnight later he wrote again, in somewhat stronger language, but received as little notice of his second as of his first application. Determined to have his money, and to be even with Madame de B for her discourtesy, he last week inserted in a small suburban paper the following advertisement : — " A magnificent set of self-adjusting enamelled teeth to be sold dirt cheap. They are daily on view in the mouth of Madame de *B — (full name), Stadt. So and So-street, No. ." Then he cut out the slip, and enclosed it to the fair defaulter in an envelope. Two hours after his bill was paid, and Madame de B hoped, as the paper in which the advertisement appeared was an insignificant one, that she had heard the last of her bargain ; but alas ! to-day the leading journals of Vienna have got hold of the story ; and, if I were the toothless lionne whose name is in everybody's mouth, I think I would leave the Kaiserstadt for a season. JSTo teeth have made such a sensation since Cadmus' famous crop. We learn from a contemporary that a new, and ao far the most feasible scheme of telegraphic communication between Anstialia and England, has been proposed by Mr W. B. Fowler, late chief inspector of the lines and stations in South Australia, He proposes to carry a line across from Adelaide to Port Lincoln (167 miles), thence by land to King George's Sound (1047 miles), Perth (205 miles), Northwest Cape or Nicol Bay (634 miles and thence to Java by submarine cable (800 miles), The total cost is estimated at £325, 350, and the calculatione of revenue made by Mr Todd, the'Snperinteneent of the South Australian Telegraph show a profit of 20 per cent., without subsidy. The sea between Nicol Bay and Java is free from coral Mr, Fowler is at present in Melbourne with the intention of organising a company to carry on the project. Cut and Dried. — Railway sandwiches. " Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable. A mean man never knows he is mean ; he only thinks himself himself cautious, just like a near-Bighted person seems to be looking far away. A big blast was recently made in California. Twelve hundred kegs of. powder were used, and a, mountain was blown up.