ROUND THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2219, 13 February 1886, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

The close connection between drink and crime has been 'strikingly illustrated bv Lord Napier, of Magdala, who caused a return to be prepared of tho offences of about 18,0000 soldiers, the result showing that the total abstainers in the number had no crime, the partial abstainers practically none, the whole body of crime being among those who drink freely. "Itris impossible for. me," wrote the Bishop of London about strong drink, "to escape from the memory of tho fact that I have found myself very much better able to speak, write, and work, and do whatever I may have to do, ever sinco I abstained entirely from all intoxicating liquors,—Exchange. One sunny Sabbath morning the Rev,

Samuel Hamilton found himself preaching to an attentive congregation in a Kentucky town, It so happened that a tipsy man strayed like a black sheep into the fold; but no one objected and things ran smoothly enough. Presently a small dog entered at the open door and trotted down the aisle until it reached the front of the pulpit, when it set up. a furious barking at the minister. The tipsy man, wibh the utmost giavity, aroso and walked steadily down the aißle to where the bog was barking Seizing the animal by the neck, he held him up before tho congregation for a moment, and then skaldng him furiously, he broke out.with "Treea.preacher,.will you, you ill-bred pup." ' This was too much for Mr Hamilton. He could not restrain his laughter, and ho took his seat not being able to dismiss his congregation. ,An Australian correspondent writes : " Now I come to a case of diamond cut diamond, which ' Warwick 1 and the rest of our sporting friends, 1 trust, will relish, There was a certain man, and he owned a certain horse, and tho said horse was entered, and stood well in, fur a big stake in a. certain' city not more than nine hundred and ninety-nine miles from Sydpoy. At the last moment the jockey backed out of tho contract, and the horseowner was scratching himself baldheaded in his wild endeavors to meet the exigency of the case, when he suddenly fell up against another pigskin straddler, who had had business engagements with him before. A bargain was concluded, the horse got well away and looked right in it, when his rider was suddenly noticed to be riding him in a style that suggested ho had, as Mr Macbeth would say, been grubbing on that insane root which takes the reason prisoner. Finally, the horso_ came in a splendid last, and on returning to the paddock the jockey handed him over to his owner with the stinging remark, "Now, Mr Noverpart, you and me are quits, and I hopo you 11 not forget this lesson," Some of the bystanders hinted that the uponded owner of the flyer had engaged the lad at meetings before, and although the boy had ridden five races for him he could never get a copper for his services, This should be a solemn warning to—a solemn warning to-on second thoughts 1 think 1 had better leave my readers to fill in the blank

for themselves." The chief commissioner of police in Melbourne has received from tho assistant commisioner of police in England a letter enclosing a copy of a circular which was recently issued to the English Press, and which it is suggested should be brought under tho notice of tho Australian preßs. The circular ia aa follows: —" Police h<w oometotho

knowledge of the commissioner of police of the metropolis that a fraud is about to be attempted by a gang of notorious convicts and others, operating from Switzerland. The moAw operandi is as follows: Circulars will be forwarded to persons in this country, pointing out tho advantage of buying a watch for £2, which can be pledged in Great Britain for £2 10s. A fac strife of a pawn ticket is printed on th,o oircular, giving the name of a well-known firm of pawnbrokers in London, purporting that a watch sold for £2 was actually pledged with them for £2los. As a sample, and to induce further investments, a good watch will probably be sent in the first instance, and worthless articles will follow. Invitations will be given to purchase couponsforforeignqovernmentlotteries which would result, if ever drawn, in benefit ingthe conspirators only, or in % distribution of .worthless prizes. Persons receiving these circulars warned not to part with any money until they are satisfied that the artiole offered them is genuine. If any person should allow himself to be defrauded, he will have little or no remedy," •It is thought that- some, of these circulars may find their way fo the colonies, as they are being addressed to English speaking people in various parts of Europe and Australia.

The Chicago Timeß editorially says. ;- "Thewife of a citizen, on a morning a cpuple o£ woekn ago, soon after risihft,. ana while still dressing, askedhwhusband'.Do you know any. bfldy. named' Edsall, or Esdale ?' A negative reply was given, and then a 'Why dc\ yo'n ask?'- She answered 'Becs.u,sje, 1 dreamt that a man. of that n.as\e was found drowned.' .At morning items ojE a.aw*, was. %: Announcement of the disappearance.of a youn? man named Esdale. whose remains sorao days later •were found in the lake. This'is a bona fide ooourrrnce, just ai related. Neither tfce Inubaad Hi wife M in)r tk

name, and the first time they eversaw it was in theannouncements the.mysterious disuppearance.of the person whtflro

. The tr ivela oF many of the fine feather* in our milliners' shop windows would make a story well worth hearing' Kent ' formonths in the grass huts ft.™ huntera, bought by the duaty Niger river merchants with strings of cow&.shells stored in the mud-walled warehouses of Timbuctoo,; packed, away hrbales' upon the backs of camelß and a line of more or - lees widely separated wells, soMetimcs stolen by tho Saharan robber bands that lie in wait for these travelling merchants they pass through many strange vicissitudes before they reach the fair women to whose decoration all these remote andi, savage agencies have labored to contributed' They nearly reach tho sea before' a white man can become their owner., i in Fez, the commercial metropolis co, the presence of the white' infidel of the north inspires only feelings of bitter hatred, and the Govorniheiit of Morocco refused to let white travellers go south of the Atl.os Mountains,.on the ground that it cannot protect them from the violenc* of the wild tribes within its. own territories, ' *' ? ; ,' : .

The recent prognostications of the blacks that heavy floods were imminent (says the South Australian Registerjjmvo already been verified, and soon theTfess and vegetation upon which stock trffve • will be springing up lilce magic. It is a fact worthy of the attentiim.of Sir John Lubbock and other celebrated, ontomblogists that the natives have arrived at their conclusion regarding the weather through observing the ants, which this year are said to have removed their habitations from the ground to the trees, with •. the idea of getting out of harm's way. M Whether these insects havo means un-'r known to human beings of forecasting the weather, or whether, 'their migration to higher latitudes is merely a coincidence, is a point upon which we cannot pronounce authoratively, but it is a fact that the blacks have implicit faith in tho prescience of the tiny creatures. ■ '- 1 Among the details of the recent insurrection in Rouinelia the following curioui incident figures :—Thero is an; ancient Bulgarian custom which provides that the dethroning of a ruler shall be done by * woman. Accordingly the insurgents on September 19 marched into Phillippopolia headed by a girl of sixteen, who rode ■ before them, armed with sabre and revolver. They went to tho Governor's, the girl walked into tho residence and awakened Gavril Pasha, telling him thAhe was arrested by the Provisional Government. Moanwhilo, in the courtyard, Major Pillon addressed the troops and. proclaimed tho union with Bulgaria. Th* deposed Governor was conducted to hi» carriage escorted by the girl, who had a drawn sword in her hand. She took her seat boside him, and under military guard, she saw him carried safely beyond the frontier.. . £ The manager of the Oointneroial of Tumberumba, New South Wales, who, it will be remembered, was arrested for firing into a crowd on New Year's Eva roysterers and wounding one H. A. Wolfe, has made the following statement in explanation of the affair:~" I was engaged m the bank till half-past 11 thatnMtyit being the day for balancing the half-year'* operations. I then retired to my. bedroom. I was soon afterwards- aroused by my wife, who appeared to terrified at a noiso and disturbance in the street. She asked me to go with her and see what was the matter. Wo went on to the verandah and saw a crowd of persom making a dreadful noise and lettijw off fireworks. Wo then went irito'thflawing room/and heard the crowd approaching the hank, one person saying 'Oom« up to th<S, bank: there's lots of moner . there. They came upand began yelling hooting, and beating empty tins, alia singing. ' There's bound to b'e a row/ \ said to my wife, 'I have a great mind! to got a, revolver and frighten thera off by firing over their heads.' I then got a revolver, which I kept loaded for the protection of the bank, ancfy opened the hall door, my wife being-at my sido. I saw near the fence about 50 men, who on seeing me, began to groan and yell, I called out to them to go away, but instead of doing so they yelled and groaned more. I then raised my revolver to fire into the air, and fired four shots quickly. While I was doio» so, my wife who was greatly oxoiteot and terrified, pulled my arm down k whereby tho firing may have become depressed, and caused the deplorable result, I then shut the door and returned to bed,' No one can deplore the dreadful result more than I do."

Why is an hour divided into sixty minutes, and each minute'again, into sixty seconds? Why not divide our time as wo do our money, by tens, counting tea,or fifty, or ono hundred minutes to anHir? Thi3 question was asked by ah inieiljpnt boy a few days since, and the answer givou him may both interest and instruct othe&

young people. Tho answer of this is, saysthe "Freeman's Journal,"wo have-, sixty divisions on thn dials of our clocks

and watches, because the old Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who lived m

tee second century before Christ, the Babylonian system of reckoning time/* that systom being sexigesimal.. The Babylonians were acquainted with tho decimal system, but for common and practical purposes, the counted by so'tsi and mi, the sotsos representing sixty, and the. saros sixty, titaes sixty, or thirty-six hundred,. From Hipparohuß, that mode* of reckoning found its way into the works' of Ptolemy, about 150 A.D M and th'enca was carried down tho stream of civilise tion, and found tho way to. Jho dial plato of our clocks and watohe*. :•-..";■