EXTRACTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 271, 10 April 1873, Page 3

EXTRACTS.

An amusing incident occurred a few days ago at a country County Court in Victoria. A lawyer was cross-examining a witness. His object was to throw discredit upon the statement of the unfortunate who was being vivisected, that he had ridden a distance of some thirty miles in order to find a lawyer. " Why you passed through on your road! Are there no solicitors there ?" " I believe there are," was the reply. "Then why did you not consult Mr. Brown ?' " Because they do say he is a fool." " Well, then, there was myself, why did you never come near me ?" "Because, sir, they do say you are a rogue." Even the brass of Mr. Snap was not proof against the retort. A friend says: — "Going to Cape May the other day I saw a young man leaning over the railing of the upper deck, and with considerable violence giving to the winds and the sea the contents of his stomach. Just at this juncture one of the boat officials, walking briskly by, asked, in a patronising manner, " Sick sir?" "You don't suppose I'm doing this for fun, do you?" said the poor fellow, indignantly, as soon as he could recover his breath." An Australian exchange says: — The word gentleman is applied in such a thoroughly inappropriate manner in courts as to be extremely funny. "Me and this gentleman " is a common phrase for a prisoner to use of a mate in the dock, and witnesses of all classes frequently speak of the prisoner as " that gentleman." On Tuesday, at the City Court, there was a more than usually ludicrous instance of using the word as a misnomer, when a boy who gave his evidence clearly and intelligibly, said, " I saw that gentleman (the prisoner) and this here detective together." In the whole history of criminal jurisprudence there has never probably been anything equal to the gigantic trial ' which has concluded at Moscow, in Russia, on the 21st of November, and in which were arraigned five hundred prisoners, upwards of two hundred of whom were convicted and sentenced to cruel penalties. Among the accused were persons of every station in life — grey-haired men and youths, men and women ; among the latter some highly accomplished and prepossessing in appearance. All the prisoners were char- J ged with one of the gravsst offences in the criminal code of Russia — that of counterfeiting. That code says j " The | person that counterfeits the coin or currency of the Imperial Government shall suffer death." Notwithstanding this rigorous provision Russia has been

flooded for many years past with well executed counterfeits of the Government treasury notes. At length, in July, a curious accident gave the Government the long looked for clue. Three thousand men and women were arrested, but after a preliminary examination twenty-five hundred of them were discharged, and about five hundred were held for trial. Among the latter were six Frenchmen, of St. Petersburg, who had been caught printing the counterfeit notes, and a comparatively large number of women. On the 20th of October the trial was opened in the large hall of the Kremlin, which holds nearly five thousand persons. Two hundred and three of them were found guilty, among them about fifty women. -Sentence of death was passed upon the six French printers, and the other convicted parties were confined to hard labor in the gold mines of the Ural mountains for life, or for ten years. The doomed men and women burst into piercing shrieks and howls, and well they might, for in the case of the former the sentence included barbarous flogging and branding on the forehead with red hot iron; while the women, some of whom were of refined descent, shuddered at the idea or having to do the most menial work for life or ten years at the station house, where the keepers of the male prisoners reside. In their despair some of the unfortunates threw themselves upon the ground, and their piercing cries, mingled with the clanking of their chains, produced a truly horrible effect. The excitement and frenzy of the condemned grew from minute to minute more intense, and the Judges, in order to restore quietude, had to call in the soldiers, who, with their kantschubs, beat the prisoners right and left and then dragged them back to the vaults of the Kremlin. The "Pall Mall Budget" says: It is only as nations advance in years and civilisation that their laws become barbarous and slow in their operation. There is something very refreshing in the account given by a San Francisco paper of the method in which the law is administered in Treka, California. The first Alcalde in Treka in 1871 was known as "Cat-eye Foster.' This gentleman it is stated, "left Noderket and soon ran away, and George C. Vail reigned in his stead. No law book was ever used in court; he decided each case on its own merits, writing out the full history, and his docket is a curiosity." In one case brought before him a boy had driven a team from Oregon, and worked all winter for a man who declined to pay. He sold out in the spring, and was leaving suddenly, when, on complaint of the boy, Vail and two coustables stopped him on the road. It was proved that he had received 3000 dols. on his sale, but he declared himself unable to pay, though not denying the boy's claim. Jndge Vail decided in these words, " Constables, stand this man on his head, shake him well, and see if you can't hear something drop." No sooner said than done. A vigorous shaking brought to light a wallet containing 2000 dols. in gold dust ; the boy received his claim of 300d015., the judge and constables took an ounce apiece for their trouble, and the defendant went his way a lighter man. Justice like this is worth three ounces. Heaven help the man who imagines he can dodge enemies by trying to please eveiybody. If such an individual ever succeeded, we should be glad of it — not that one should be going through the world trying to find beams to knock and thump his head against, disputing every man's opinion, fighting and elbowing, and crowding all who differ from him. That, again, is another extreme. Other people have their opinions ; don't fall into the error of supposing that they will respect you more for turning your coat every day to match the color of theirs. Wear your own colors in spite of winds and weather, storms and sunshine. It costs the vacillating and irresolute ten times the trouble to wind and shuffle and twisfc than it does honest, manly independence to stand its ground. An interesting discovery has, it is stated, been made lately by an Italian. He has it upon a method by which nerves may be tuned like harp-strings, and brought into harmony with each other. His theory is that nervous systems, like musical instruments, are all liable to change of tone, and this change is of little importance if all the nerves change together, as by attention to diet and temperature, the evil may be corrected en masse; but when, owingto accident or uneven wear, the general harmony of the nerves is destroyed, a disconnected action is the result, and a special mode of treatment is required, of which he professes to possess the key. He calls himself a "nerve-tune," and contracts to keep nerves in order by the month or year. There seems to be no reason why people should not take lessons in " nerve-tuning," and, like violin performers, acquire themselves the tunning art. Some nerves, like fiddles, want tunning each time they are used ; and if every man and women could screw up his or her nerve fibres as they become relaxed, the world would be saved a vast amount of trouble, for it cannot be denied that the principal sufferets from nervous disorders are not those who immediately labor under them, but their friends and acquaintances.