ROUND THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2132, 29 October 1885, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

The following amusing extract is from an American paper The dcajte. of the Englishman to marry his dec«Pl wife's sister is one of the most marked phenomena of the timo3. The Deceased Wife's Sister Bill may be Biiid to bo his steady occupation. In all his breathing spells from emergencies he turns to that. Wlum he is not being massacred by the South Africans, or slaying Soudanese, or fighting Afghans, or pacifying the Irish, or being blown up in his Tower, he is attending to the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. He comes back to it out of all victories and defeats with unwavering pertinacity and courage. It appears to be the passion of his life to marry his deceased wife's sister. We who live in a land where nobody opposes such an alliance, cannot conceive the it seems to have to Englishmen, Ami seeing how universal and strong this desire is in England, we cannot but inquire why the Englishman does not marry the wife's sister in the first place 1 Why does he go on marrying the wrong one, and then wait for death and the law to help him? The Pacific Mills, situated at Lawrence, Massachusetts, are reported to be the largest textile manufacturing corporation in the world, Tho capital stock is 2,500,d015. The number of the mills and buildings is twenty three, covering forty-three acres of space; them 1 are in use in these: mills four hjw steam engines, of 3500 horse power,'forty-two small steam engines, fifty steam boilers, and eleven turbine wheels of 5000-borse power.' The annual consumption of coal is 25,000 tons, the annual consumption of gas, ip 9000 burners, coats 35,000dols; the annual consumption of cotton is 15,000 bales; the annual consumption of wool is 4,000,0001b, being the product of 750,000 sheep. The annual capacity of the Pacific Mills is, in cottons, printed and dyed, 65,000,000 yards; worsted goods, 35,000,000 yards, or of 100,000,000 yards, equal to two and a quarter times the distance round the world. To make this cloth, nearly 200,000,000 miles of yarn aie requised. To accomplish this work 3600 females and 1000 males, or a total of 5500 persons are employed. The pay roll for the year ending May, 1884, amounted to l,7t)0,000dols. ;

An editor recently addressed to several clergymen a query as to the desirable length of sermons. The replies, which were duly published, cannot be said to Battle this vexed question. The Episcopalian, who among others was asked "Do you believe in long or short sermons ?" replied: " Shortdgmona, by all means.- Less praying, more worship.- ' Mine houso shall be called a house of prayer,' never a house of preaching." The Presbyterian replied: " That the average sermon of the average minister had better be thirty minute long than forty. Sermons should be made to the yard stick, for all themes cannot be handled with the same brevity," The Methodist believed in lonef and short sermons. The Baptist, in a lengthy reply, confessed that fttvears ho had made this same subject aflutter of special study and observation, Ho thua sums up the results of his experience " As a rule, the less a man has to say the longer he takes to do it. lam fully persuaded that, save in very exceptional instances, whatever else a sermon is about, it ought to be about half an hour. I know men, otherwise gifted, who are failures in the ministry, because they hit the nail on the head at the first time, and then kept hammering till they split tha board." These replies, if they establish anything, show that sermons should ba weighed rather than measured, A remarkable case of lfjjßbvity is reported from the village of Sheepshed, in Leicestershire, where a married coupleRichard and Elizabeth Wortley—have lately celebrated their diamond wedding. The registry of the marriage in' tho parish church is dated July, 1815, or when the news of the battle of Waterloo was still ringing through the country.; Twenty years ago the golden wedding of this venerable couple was celebrated, and they have now completed the extraordinary term of seventy years of lnarri^ife,