PASSING EVENTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 129, 28 July 1870, Page 5

PASSING EVENTS.

After a calm comes a storm. The last fortnight, has. been one of more than ordinary stir in the quiet city of Lawrence. " Travelling mountebanks," as they have been termed, have been swarming the district. The si?e of head and quality of brains have been eagerly discussed, and mesmeric seances have been largely patronised. Dr. Carr has won for himself an immortal name. He is looked upon as a man of great ability, and his power with the spirits is undisputed. Then we have had the Collins Variety Troupe performing some of their wonderful feats. I confess I am rather partial to these travelling mountebanks. I like to see ability in all shapes and forms — in fact, I don't know how the drudgery of life could be endured without something sensational taking place now and again. In addition to these two forms of amusement, we have "had an individual said to be an "old soldier," and " on Her Majesty's service," making a raid upon the sly-grog sellers of the district. The withered-looking veteran, whose information has brought some eight or ten persons to the bar of justice, I am informed is a philanthropist of the highest type. I should gladly subscribe a mit to have his bumps read by Dr. Carr, and if that eminent phrenologist did not brand him as a misanthrope, I would at once relinquish the strong faith I have always had in bumpology. Who is this man? What is he? Why should his word be taken before the word of people who are known in the district? Has he not resorted to the lowest and meanest subterfuges that could possibly enter a mind of the very lowest type to gain his point ? That much, I think, has been fully proved. It does seem a very strange course to adopt to enforce the law by encouraging any mean skunk to set the higher laws of morality at defiance. The first of Mr. Keen's night nundinations was a complete success. His sale was attended by a large crowd of purchasers, and from what I noticed, the prices obtained for books and miscellane-. ous articles, was good.