A WIZARD AT LARGE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 424, 9 January 1875, Page 3

A WIZARD AT LARGE.

The other day aTpleasant looking gentlemen, of somewhat foreign appearance and accent of speech, entered a tobacconist's shop in one of the market towns of South Durham, and requested that he might be supplied with a good cigar. The article having been furnished him, he proceeded to apply it to his nose with the air of a connoisseur, and then to protest that its flavour was most peculiar, not-fe say offensive. The worthy tradesman declared that the cigar was an excellent one : his visitor as stoutly maintained that it was not, and that he was so coivined of the fact that he was at once determined to try what the cigar was really made of. — Taking a penknife from his pocket, therefore he began to cut the " weed" in two, and ho had no sooner commenced to do so than a quantity of feathers dropped from the cigar. The tobacconist looked astonished ; his customer looked triumphant and went on cutting. The more he cut the faster the feathers flew, until the- whole cigar had been whittled away, and the shop looked more like an upholsterer's than a tobacconist's. Having given thia ocular and practical proof that he had not remarked the peculiar flavor of the cigar without reason, the foreign gentleman took his departure, leaving the shopkeeper utterly bewildered, and the possessor of a quantity of feathers enough to stuff any ordinary cushion. From the tobacconist's the strange visitor proceeded to the market-place, where he stationed himself opposite the stall of a farmer's wife, who was vending egg 3. Having enquired the selling price, he made the modest purchase of a single one, which he instantly proceeded to break, as though

with the intention of swallowing it in its natural state. But he had only removed a very small portion of the shgll when he calledthe attention of the famer's wife to some peculiar substance within it. The shell was still further removed, and a food golden sovereign was found snugly nsconced within the egg. On the principal that as he had bought the latter and paid for it, and that he was consequently entitled to nil it contained, the gentleman, notwithstanding the rueful looks of the vendor, proceeded to pocket the sovereign, and to ask for another- egg. This was supplied, and opened exactly with the same result, and the fortunate buyer at once made . an offer for the purchase-* of all the eggs it the basket. The wqjthy woman, however, was not going to part with this ElDoradoonany such easy terms, and seizing her basket, whe rushed from the market, taking her unsold property with her. It is said, th.it she proceeded home, and began breaking the eggs, one after another, in the eager search after gold. Whether she was successful or not has not yet been reliably reported. Of course these things were talked about, and it was not long before the discovery was made that Sei^nor Bocco^ the renowned wizard, was staying in "the town, and that he had been amusing himself by the performance of a few of those feats that have so frequetly astonished and delighted audiences in all parts of the kingdom. — "Sunderland Times." «*.

What Shall We Eat ? — Many persons eat far too much fleSh, and would be the better for a njore copious admixture of vegetables. Othejs have too much vegetables, and especially farinaceous food, and not enough flesh, regard being had in either case to the work which the individual has to do, and to the power of digestion. Too exclusive a flesh diet is the vice of many rich people, who even allow their children at school to indulge in game pies and other articles of the highest class, such as unfit boya for plain fare, and deprive them of the help which a higher diet might afford them hereafter infthe case of illness. Too much animal food is unduly stimulant, renders children restlessjind quarrelsome, young men sensual and Philistine, and elderly men gouty and dyspeptic. Too exclusively or farinaceous a diet, especially if tried too suddenly by persons unused to it, has for its first effect to constipate the bowels, which become loaded with masses., of undigested potatoe, bread, or rice. We believe it may be laid down as an axiom, that, other things being equal, the more thevroain is worked, the greater need is there for animal food. . Town poople must have more meat, as a rule, than country folks ; the children nf professional men more than the children of agricultural labourers. Still, rich townspeople on the whole should see less flesh, and poor ones more. — " Xvledical Times and Gazette." J. C. Hammerton, aged forty years, a book-keeper, living at Bow, on the 10th September last saw his dog — a half-bred Skye-terrier —bite one of his children, upon which he seized the animal and threw it into the street. The dog then flew at him, and bit him on the right wrist and thumb. On Wednesday symptoms of hydrophobia manife&ttd tliemselves, and on tlie following Jay he died. In Brittany the parsnip is becoming the favourite root for stock feeding, and its culture is extending. In the Channel Islands this root forms a iarq;e portion of the fodder of the Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney cows, and much of their value as rich milkers is undoubtedly due to tha use of this root for a long series of years. Tt is well known to physiologists Koiv great an effect upon the condition of a breed of animals is caused by a long period of careful breeding, and this is a conspicuous instance of it. This root in many parts of France is substituted for oats as feed for horses, 16 pounds a day being given with the best effect. For pigs it is also largely used, nine pounds of cooked roots being fed four times a day. One great advantage of this root is its ■ hardiness^ the supply for spring may be left in the ground all winter, and is in the condition to harvest at any time when needed. Pliny relates that in Lybia, corn yielded 150 for one. A wheat plant sent to the Emperor Augustus bore 400 stalks. One bearing nearly as raauy was shown to Nefio. 1 Shaw, the traveller, reports havsig seen at Algiers a stalk of wheat bearing 89 ears, and of another having 120. Experience teaches us that one seed planted alone, will produce 100 times as much as those planted thickly together. They then starve each others The above is quoted from a work published in 1741. and singularly enough ufter 130 years of teaching, we are engaged at the present time in listening to the modern experience of men who demonstrate that one quarter of wheat xipon an acre of ground ia able to produce doubls the crop realised from the ordinary^sowing of two or three bushels. An awfully sudden death occurred to a fine young lad this morning under most painful circumstances. About a month ago, Mr Robert Wright, farmer, near the Dowling Forest RacQgjjgirse, died rather suddenly from inflammation^ caused, it was thought, from taking a heavy drink of cold water when heated. Mrs Wright administered to his estate, and had a brother, 11 r Fisher, and a brother-in-law, Mr W alls, who acted as trustees. She received information yesterday afternoon that the presence of the trustees was required in Ballarat to-day, and sent her eldest son Robert— a fine lad of 15, in whom she had centred all her hopes of being able to 'struggle through the world a widow- -last night to notify the trustees to attend in town to-day. He stayed with one of them'TQl night, and returned home this morning, and after breakfasting ho went up to the field, where a few men were at work mowing a road round the crop for the mowing machine to get in. It was lightning and thundering heavily at the time, and young Wright took up a rake to help the men to get the swathe together quickly before the rain fell heavily. He had hardly lifted the rake to use it, when a vivid Hash of lightning, which was followed by a terrific crash of thunder, felled him to the grouud a lifeless corpse. Mr. Fisher, his .uncle, had come over to the farm, and was about going up to where Wright was when he heard the men cry to him to come quickly ; he seeing that some one was down, he ran up but on lifting «Vright he found he was quite dead, and directed the men to carry the body to the house. The crown of the felt hat the poor lad had worn was knocked out, and a fourth of the front part of the rim was cut off as with a knife and lay in shreds on the ground. 'Ihc hair on the youth's head was all singed or burnt, and both eara were blackened. These were the only traces of the electric fluid that Mr. Fisher could distinguish. Wright's mother was almost frantic on hearing of this second bereavement. The police were communicated with at once, and an inquest will probably be held tomorrow morning. It was also stated that two fine horses were killed on another farm .not far from Mrs . Wright's by another -discharge of electricity. — "Australasian." j