MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 241, 12 September 1872, Page 8

MISCELLANEOUS.

It is not pleasant to be fleeced and then laughed at. The San Francisco people do the one and the New York people do the other. Arcadians both. The western rogues induce the English people to speculate in swindling mines, and the eastern rogues laugh at the ease with which we are taken in. It is, after a fashion, like General Choke and Mr. Scadder negotiating the sale of the flourishing city of Eden. The General's respectability ensures the sale, and Mr. Scadder grins at the purchasers when they walk away with the title deeds in their pockets. The " New York Daily Bulletin " tells us that we "must have a wonderful faculty for falling into snares," and " in New York the man would be deemed insane who should attempt to float such things " as the mining company bubbles which have ruined so many English speculators. It is pointed out that our investors never regard it as suspicious that a market should be sought on this side, " where there are scant means of testing of flaming prospectuses and the reports of ' wellknown engineers ' or the opinions of ' eminent professors " This is the very point on which English investors in these swindles are most credulous. They would seem to suppose that the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end of it cannot be seen in America, and that there is a short cut to the right end from London. Fools and their money are easily parted, we suppose, all over the world, but there would seem to be this about the American fool, that he can fight shy of speculations which dazzle and ruin his brother in England. — '* Sportsman." Gentlemen who are addicted to beating their wives ought to consider themselves much indebted to Mr David Cliffe, of Huddersfield, who has shown them — to his own advantage too — some of the higher developements of which the art is capable. It is true that the ordinary methods in which it is practised are extremely popular among the majority of proficients ; and it will be long indeed before they care for anything more than jumping upon their wives' stomachs, throwing them out of i the window, beating out their brains with the poker, and so forth. But there are higher natures which will not be satisfied without progress in this as in all other departments of art, and to them Mr. Cliffe's refinements will be peculiarly acceptable. Mr. Cliffe, who has also a taste for music, at once gratified it and pursued his favorite amusement by playing over his wife the " Dead March "in '♦ Saul " at the time of Her confinement; whenj in accordance 5 "with. his. first, principles, h& naturally^ refused to lend h^er any assistance, H£

varied these performances by throwing cans of cold water over her, and <by periodically, starving her. To " keep his hand, in " in the intervals, he experimented on his children, one of -whom he injured by throwing over a wall r while another he balanced on ;his fists, and then dashed to the ground. For these several efforts of genius he is ■to be imprisoned for eighteen months, and all lovers of the art must regret that he will be prevented for so long a period, from carrying on his studies. — " Sportsman."

A private letter from Adelaide states on good authority that it is the intention of the " Claimant " to contest the county of Hants at the next election.

The following is a specimen of tho trash which is being circulated in England in the shape of " information to immigrants." It is an extract from a pamphlet published by the Rev. P. Barclay, M. A., lately of Napier : " New Zealand is a good land — a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat and barley, &-]^ vines and fig trees, and pomegrana^^fl a land of oil, olive, and honey ; a laSc^ wherein thou mayest eat bread without scarceness ; thou shalt not lack anything in it ; a land where stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."

A touching incident is reported from Chattanooga. An utter stranger called upon a respectable farmer last week, and asked him if his house had not been robbed during the war: The farmer replied that it had. " I." said the stranger, " was one of the marauding party that did it. I took a little silver locket." " That locket," said the farmer bursting into tears, ' had been worn by my dear, dead child." " Here it is," replied the stranger, visibly affected ; " I am rich — let me make restitution ; here are 20dols for your little son." He gave the farmer a 50dol bill, and received 30dols in change. He then wrung the farmer's hand warmly and left. The farmer has since dried his tears and loaded his shot-gun. The fifty-dollar bill was a bad one. — American Paper.

Great consternation has been excited in the musical circles in England, especially in that of the Roman Catholic Church, by the promulgation of a circular order from Archbishop Manning to the clergy of the diocese, prohibiting the employment of female vocalists in their church choirs after September next. The order is said to be peremptory.

A Bill is before the General Assembly to regulate the rate of interest to be chargeable where there has been no previous contract ; and to amend " The Interest ou Money Act, 1861." The principal clause reads thus :—": — " There shall be no limit to the amount of interest which any person may lawfully contract to pay ; and in all cases where interest for the loan of money may be lawfully recovered, but where tiie rate of such interest has not been previously agreed upon, it shall not be lawful for the party entitled to interest to recover above the rate of 6 per cent. t In its dealings with the press $J£ French Republic could hardly be more*" rigorous than the powers that be in Turkey. • The editor of the " Levant Herald " has just communicated to his patrons here the gratifying fact that his journal has been suspended for three months for a mild expression of the opinion that the Vizer's report on the administration of the year was not quite so good as it might have been. This the third time the gag has been applied in the course of fifteen years. He had suggested as delicately as might be that the situation, financially and every way, was " not quite so rose colored as Mahmoud Pasha would have the Sultan and the public believe." This his Highness called " malevolent," and considered it so dreadful an iniquity that he ordered the suspension referred to. Nor is this case an exceptional one, for the incident is the seventh of the kind that has befallen the local press since the accession to power of Mahmoud Pasha some fifteen months ago, or at the rate of one every two months. This is pretty well to begin with, and if the Pasha goes on he will in a year or two have goi; journalism " stamped out " pretty effectually. But there are circumstances connected with the incident that make it exceptionally grevious. When he was first promoted, the Pasha asked the editor of the " Herald " to make him known in England as an earnest reformer of the many abuses of the previous regime, and having been gratified, he has now kicked down the ladder by which his object has been reached. Put not your faith in ministers is a maxim not found in Holy writ, but one that may commend itself to Turkish literary men. — "Sportsman."

Solloway's Pills, a Safe and Effetual cure for Dropsy. — This insidious disease arises from various causes, and frequently from some obstruction to the free circulation of the blood, generally exhibiting itself by a swelling of the feet and ankles, ascending gradually until it effects the whole of the body. Those who are thus afflicted should immediately take Holloway's Pills. This invaluable medicine purifies the blood and invigorates the system, so that many of the worst cases of dropsy have been oared by 'iKeir : means. Female? at tke turn of life^ should 1 have recourse to. ; these, excellent : i tMt jV^t Mir tijffiC c*^t . 7'*T Ti--1 ■