ROUND THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2170, 14 December 1885, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

The divorce case between M. Nicholas (Signor Nicolini) and his wife has been legally announced, and in ten months' time he can be married to Mme, Patti, if she desires,

The new ethnological museum at Berlin will receive the greater part of the natural history collections made by the late Dr. Nachtigal in the course of his tour of annexation on the west coast of Africa.

The British cutter Genesta apparently intends returning to New York next year, having stowed her racing sails and spars at the American dock.

An English who had 200 in wheat, figures that it cost liimf 5 an acre, 'and that he received £4 an acre for it—a loss of £2OO.

One of the large English war vesai the Resistance, is to be coated with inc rubber to a considerable thickness to how that material will repel projectiles The Severn tunnel in England, f miles and a half long, was opened September sth, The distance was mi by live carriages in eighteen minutes, A London woman earns a living filling up wormiioles in old books, e; leaf being separately and patiently d< with, the material being ohewed "pulped" and pressed into the hoi The charge is sixponce a hole. At an examination of the eyesight German schoolboys in prominent scho it was discovered that three-fourths of boys in the class have defective sight. arguments against the German text increasing in strength.

The attendants at the cholera hospital in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain are all Sisters of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, All the regular attendants fled, All these devoted women are ladies by birth, chiefly from Navarre, Catalonia, and Valencia,

Duke Karl Theodore of Bavaria, brother of the Empress of Austria, who has achieved quite a reputation as an oculist, is said to have performed a very skilful operation on a German from Richmond, J.P. Grasberger, who expressly went to Europe to consult the Duke. The most intimate friends of the exPremier do not hesitate to say that they believe that although he may succeed, under favorable circumstances, in delivering a few short speeches this autumn, Mr Gladstone's career as an orator is practically closed. "I understand you have received a call to preach at Pittsburg," lemarked a gentleman to a minister. " 1 did receive such a call," the minister replied, "but my trial sermon failed to please the congregation, a fact of which I was politely informed on the following morning." " Indeed! What subject did you choose?" " Cleanliness is next to godliness. " A good horse story comes from the frontier station of Vroenhoven, Belgium. As a horse and cart, apparently with a load of hay, were about to pass the Custom House, the animal suddenly stopped, and either could or would not budge an inch. The customs officers came up to lend a hand, whereupon the driver took to his heels, It turned out the hay concealed about 750 kilos of Dutch tobacco. Conscientiousness must be added to the other good qualities of the horse.—London Life. Robinson Crusoe will be soon commemorated by a fine bronze statue at his prototype's birth-place, the fishing village of Largo,"in File, This village was the early home of Alexander Selkirk, who returned there from Juan Fernandez, bringing the relics of his solitary stay on that desolate island. His house, " Crusoe's Cottage," is now Bhown in the square near the sea, and some time ago still contained Selkirk's gun and sea-chest, The Crusoe statue is to be placed in a niche of the cottage. An interestingstoiy, involvingaromance of the turf and the highest aristocracy, has just been brought to light. A wellknown sporting Duchess became infatuated with the most successful jockey in the world, and proposed to marry him. He was a widower, and she had long been a widow. Her preference was never emphasized until the last meeting atNewmarket, Fred Archer rode Gray Hermit, and ran a dead heat with Modena. When he failed to win, Archer found his feewas £SOO instead of the customery £lO, Just after this her ladyship broached the delicate question of the matrimonial partnership. Then Archer reflected. Her ladyship is over sixty years old, and Archer is only thirty. He wrote a respectful answer to her ladyship's offer of an alliance, but the letter was characteristically horsey. The veteran actor John Coleman, in some reminiscences of the past stage managers in the 'Dramaticßeview,' mentions that some years ago an eccentric M.P. made a bet that he would take his guitar, disguise himself as a Spanish troubadour, and, while scrupulously maintaining his incognito, gather a large sum of money. This gentleman won his wager easily. Encouraged by his example (writes Mr Coleman), a number of audacious young bloods followed suit—in fact, the country was inundated with Wandering Minstrels, of whom Wigan was one of the foremost. Sometime before I met hjm I encountered in Edinburgh and Liverpool a little vocalist named C—, who ..boasted that he was one of the original minstrels, and that he had had " fine high times of it" while cruising round the country. Some of the boys "pooh-poohed" the Btory of his peaceful triumphs, : whereupon he made a bet at a dinner with S—-, the tragedian, and Harry L—, the " heavy man," that on one of the off nights he would go over with them to Birkenhead and gather £5 in the course of the evening. At nightfall, six o'clock, they went over by the ferryboat, and ordered dinner at the principal hotel for jiine o'clock. C— then donned his singing garb (a kind of Robin Hood dress), and turned out with his guitar, followed by the other fellows who mounted guard over him so as to prevent collusion, Whenever and ■ wherever he struck up, with'a slightly foreign accent, " Our Ellon iB the fairest flower," or "Annie Laurie," or the " Light Guitar," down came sixpences and shillings galore. Once,' indeed, in a retired square, a buxom domestic of the cookie order shied some coppers at his feet, _ whereupon he remarked with asperity -"Ze terms of my vager not allow me to touch coppere; leave him for zt> beggar man. Coppare Is not for an hidalgo d'Espagne." 1 This dignified address brought down a shower of silver. It also brought his probation to an end. In less than two hours he had netted omething like £6, and so the jfoung

rascals went back, and " ate of the fat and drank of the sweet" at the expense of the fair maids'of Birkenhead, for, of course, although the other fellows had lost the wager, 0 — would not hear of their "owning up." . I heard a very good story the other day about the unlucky number (13). A waiter said to a customer who was having some lunch in a second-rate French restaurant, " I hope Monsieur is not superstitious." The customer said No, he wasn't, and asked the waiter what he meant, " Why," lie replied, , " you are the thirteenth person who has used that napkin; only don't tell the ! patron' I said so."

A packman, having paid some fruitless . visits to one of his customers, called a few V days ago for an instalment on his debt. ' but the customer, expecting him, told her ■ son, a lad of five years, to say she was "in the toon," Accordingly, when the packman called and asked "Where is your mother to-day ?" the boy promptly replied "In the toon." " What toon 1" atfked the pedlar. The boy, having ho further instructions from his' mother, went to the next room and Bhouted: " Mither, what toon are yo at? Ho wants token." ' The laughing plant grows in China, and is so called because its seedSPproduce effects like those secured by laughing gas. The flowers art of a bright'yellow, and the seed pods are soft and woolly, while the seeds resemble small black beanß, and only two or three grow in a pod.,, The natives—Chinese—dry aiid ( pulverise them, and the powder, if taken small j doses', maies the soberest person behave like a circus clown or madman, for ho will dance, sing, and laugh most boisterously, and cut the most fantastic capers, and be in an uproariously ridiculous condition for about «n hour, When the excitement ceases;the exhausted exhibitor^these antics falls asleep, and when htf awakes he has not the slightest remembrance of his frisky doings, According to the testimony of a railway inspector at Warrington, railway travelling should be sedulously avoided. after v f feasting indiscreetly, His long experience \ shows that the oscillation often produces the most disastrous consequences,"l have known instances," he deposed, "in which a man has' appeared perfectly sober when the train started, but after it " had travelled about ten miles the oscillation had proved too much for him, and he dropped to the' bottom of the carriage, helplessly drunk." Truly, a terrible Nemesis to attend that '" one glass more . old boy," At starting,'! faulfa :tfhite tie, not a single hair falling oyer" the forohead, eye's clear and bright, speech articulate, and gait befitting the heir of all thle ages. Twenty minutes afterwards a heap of invertebrate humanity in the corner of a railway carriage.—' Globe,' " <■'