HISTORICAL ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 13 May 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

HISTORICAL ITEMS.

Magellan Straits were first entered in 1520. California was ceded to the United States May 21,1848, Napoleon Bonaparte was made King of Italy March 31,1805. The sacking of Rome by. the, Gauls under Brennis took place in 389 B, C, , President McMahon of France rejected the offer of a ten years' term in 1873. Stamps for taxation were invented in Holland in the Seventeenth century. The act which abolished slavery in the State of New York ten years after date was passed 'in'lßl7; D'Arnay says table linen was very rare in England, in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries, ...

George llL's Queen, Charlotte, died in 1818; the King himself died blind and mad in 1820, ~",,.

, The United StaWs Cdrigress met at Wash, ingtori for the first time in 1800, on Novtmber i?th. ' r The disease cabled small-pox first made its appearance in"s4+:l 'measles"in 1563; and whooping cough in 1650, Charles Carroll of Carrolltown, long the last survivor of those'who signed' the United States Declaration of Independence, died in 1832, aged 95 years,' The wretched Philip Egaljte met his wellmerited fate in 1793! Having recommended his own relatives : to the guillotine in order to gain the favour of the republican mob, he was at last sacrificed by the same hands that had put his kinsmen to death and executed on November 16th, ■ It is stated that authentic documents have been'recently brought to light at Mentz which indubitably establish the fact that Joan of Arc was not burnt either by-the English or her own countrymen, but that she lived to be a respected matron, haying.iri 1436 been married to a Sieur de Hermoise, or Armoise of Lor-1 raine, and apparently " lived happilay ever 'afterward," '•■••■■■. ...

THE'NEW IOVE AND THE OLD. There, speak in whispers; fold mo to thy heart, Doar Jovo, for I havo roamed a weary way ; Bid ray vaguo terrors with thy kiss depart I Oh, I have been among the dead to-day, And, liken pilgrim to.some martyr's shrine, _ "Awed with the memories that crowd.my brainy Fearing my voice, I woo the charm of thine; Tell me thou livest, lovest, yet again. Not among graves, but letters, old and dim, Yellow and precious, have I touched the past, Reverent ami prayerful as wo chant the hymn Among, the aisles where: saints their shadows

cast; • '" Reading doar names on faded leaves that horo., Were worn with foldings tremulous and fond, These'drowned in'plashing of a tender tear, i Or with death's tremble pointing" tho beyond." And, lovo, thpre came a flutter of white wings, A stir of snowy robes from out the deep Of utter silence, as I read the things ■ I smiled to trace' before I learned to weep; And hands, whose'clasp was magic long ago,' 1 • Came soft before me. till I yearned to'pross Mad kisses on their whiteness; thon the woe,, The sting of death, tho chill of nothingness! * One was afar, where golden sands made dim ; The shining'step's of the poor triokster Timo j And one was lost. Ah 1 bitter griof for him Whowrecked his manhood in thodepthsof crime! Another,' beautiful as morning's boam Flushing the Orient, lay meekly down Among the daisies, dreaming love's glad droam; . And one sweet saint now wears a Btarry crowni And thus there stole delicious odors still From out those relics of tho charmed past, Sighs from the lips omnipotent to will And win.rich.tribute to the vory last; But death, of change, had been among my flowers, And all their bloom had faded, so that I Yield my sad thoughts to the compelling powers • Of the bright soul I worship till I die. Nay, never doubt me, for, by love's divino And tearful past, I know ray future thino,