A NOVEL PRAYER-MEETING.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 246, 15 May 1868, Page 3

A NOVEL PRAYER-MEETING.

The Glasgow Herald tells the following extraordinary story of a thieves prayer-meeting. A Sunday School teacher wsa going to church when he was accosted by a lad, who asked him if he was a teacher. He replied in the affirmative, whereupon the lad said that there was a number of young folks residing in the place in which he lived, and he was anxious to hold prayer-meeting, so that, as he remarked, they might be led into the right path. He concluded by soliciting the teacher to accompany him to the place of meeting; and the lad appearing so earnest the young man was iuduced to go along with him. They entered the house in which there wa,s another lad, and subsequently three youths entered the apartment. Two girls also made their appearance, and remained for sometime. One of the lads produced a bible, and read the 3rd chap, of St John, after which he commented on several of the verses. The chapter was read in a fluent manner, and the reader's own remarks were, the teacher thought, far from being unsuitable. The youth then offered up a prayer, during the delivery of wh ch some of his hearers seemed inclined to make merry. The teacher then began to think that, to use his own words, he was in the " wrong shop," and accordingly he made a movement towards the door. After the prayer, which the young fellow got through in a sort of scrambling way, he stated to the teacher that he and his friends were getting up a subscription in aid of a poor widow who was in very destitute circumstances, and solicited his mite. The teacher turned out all the coppers he happened to have in his possession, and was preparing to leave the apartment, when he was suddenly seized by his praying friends, who forcibly took possession of his coat, waistcoat, and Watch. The teacher, seeing that resistance would be in vain, submitted himself to this enforced contribution, after which he was allowed to depart in peace. On getting clear of the den he was fortunate enough to meet two police officers to whom he told his story, and these officers were successful in apprehending two of the praying gang —on the person of one of whom a knife belonging to the teacher was found. Two of the other boys were subsequently apprehended and identified. The two girls who had entered the apartment, but who were not present when the robbery was committed, were also taken into custody. The prisoners are all well known to the police.

The Queen and the Old Coachman. One Saturday arternoon a smart Bpring spring shower came on, and as I was going by the window I saw a young lady and gentleman run pretty fast for shelter into my outhouse ; so I goes to the front door, and hollers out, "I say! you had better come in here." So upon that in they came, and I was going to show them into the parlor, when the young lady says, " Oh, I'd rather go into the kitchen, for I see you've a fire, and my shoes are rather wet?" Well, I let her do as she liked; jand as the fire was not an over good, one, the young gentleman he begins to make it up, by putting on some turf that lay handy, and by way of saying something good-natured-like, you know, he says. "This is nice turf you've got." "Well sir," says I, " I don't think it very good ; they've cut it too deep, quite down into the earth." So, then he looks about him for something else to notice; and seeing those cups and saucers on the mantleshelf. " You've got some old china," says he. " No sir," says I, " that's not china—it's delft; and before you were born, sir, people thought a good deal of eating off delft, which being the best ware

they could get, they valued as we value china now." So then the young lady says. " You've a curious clock." " Yes " says I, " that really is a curiosity, for it was Pope's, and I bought it at a sale of his effects at Twickenham." So both of them looked attt with a kind of interest, you' knra»; and the young lady says, " Is it just as it was when Pope had it ?" " Oh no !" says I, " I've had it cleaned and done up." " Ah !. that's a pity." says she, "for otherwise I would have bought it of you." Well, I thought this funny ; but just then the young gentleman wh© had gone to the front door, calls out, «It has left off raining now," " Tou can't justly tell whether it has or not, sir," says I, " at the door because the wind sets against the back of the house. :Ifyou'lgoto the back door, you'll be able to see." So he goes to the back door, and directjy he opened it, out darted his two dogs —a big one and a little one—and commenced rolling themselves on my peppermint bed. " Hallo, sir," says I; " do you know I sell my peppermint?" So he laughed and whistled them off, and says to the young lady, " It really has left off raining." Then they thanked me for giving them shelter and went away ; and I was standing at the door looking after them, when my old woman comes to me all of a fuss, and says—- " Those strangers have left their dogs behind, to dirty my floors." " Hallo, sir," I shouts after him ; " you've left your dogs?" He looked about and whistled, and they followed him. I saw them cut across the common to a little gate in the park paling, and stood thinking to myself, "Whoever can they be, that have got the master key of that gate ? Why, ten to one, it's' the Queen and Prince Albert! To think of that never having struck me ! Tes, yes, I dare say it was, for he's tall and she's short, and they do go about with a greyhound and a terrier; but I didn't know they were expected here just now. However, I'll just go up to the house with a basket of eggs, and then I shall know." So I went up with my basket of eggs, and, sure enough, the servants told me Her Majesty and the Prince had comedownunexpectedly and had gone out to walk directly after luncheon, and had been caught in the rain.— The Quiver. Encounter with Bushrangers at G-tmpie.—Prom a telegram in the Brisbane Courier, we learn that, from further accounts to hand, it appears that Mr E. H. D. White fought desperately. Three men entered the room where he was sitting. He seized the one nearest him by the hand, in which hft held his revolver, and made a target of him to prevenn his mates firing, at the same time battering the fellow's skull and dragging him out of doors. When outside, the man called out so lustily that two of his mates came up and presented their pistols at White's head. He then threw away his Tranter, saying, " Take my arms." The men stooped to pick it up, and White immediately drew a second revolver and fired, at four feet distance, at one of the men, who dropped. The other bushranger then presented a gun at White, fired and missed. White returned the shot and got behind a tree, as his cartrdges had run out, and in the darkness managed to escape. Awkward Fix.—On Monday night, January 27, a man performing at the Agricultural Hall nearly broke his neck. His business in life is walking on a glass ceiling, with his head downwards. His ceiling is fixed in a wooden framework suspended some eighty feet from the grouud, and he wears india-rubber shoes with concave soles. On this occasion he had nearly finished his promenade, when he brought one foot by accident on the wooden framework instead of on the glass. His body immediately began to sway from side to side, for it was suspended only by the other foot on the ceiling. His color changed from red to white; he struggled to recover himself, but in vain; and he at length fell from his ceiling, and would have been killed but for a net stretched half way from the ground. When he stood ©nee more in his natural position he made his bow, but showed no inclination to resume the performance.—Home News, Feb. 26. Inter-oceanic Canals: EearAdmiral C. H. Davis, Superintendent of the Naval Observatory at Washington, has drawn up for the United States Government a " Eeport on Inter-oceanic Canals and Railroads between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans," which in a brief form discusses the merits of the several schemes, twenty-seven in number. It is illustrated by fourteen large and splendid maps, plans and lines of level, which adds to its utility as a work of reference ; and it indicates the advantages of a ship canal, with a few convincing facts and figures. The saving of distance between New York and Calcutta would be 9,000 miles; New

i York and Shanghai 11,G00 miles; New York and San Francisco, 14,000 miles; New York and Melbourne, nearly 3,000 miles ; and to other places in proportion, all as compared with the distance round Cape Horn. By way of the Cape of G-ood Hope, the saving in some instances is greater. The tonnage that would pass through the canal yearly is estimated at more than 3,000,000, of which more than two-thirds would belong to the United States and to England. The annual value of the cargoes would be about four hundred and sixty-eight millions dollars, and the saving in time, wear and tear of vessels, wages and Insurance would amount to 49,000,000, dols. On th* route between the gulf of San Miguel and Caledonian Bay, there would-be from 26 to 27 miles of excavation, of which about two miles only would be through hard rock Comparing this with the tunnel through Mount Cenis, Admiral Davis remarks that the piercing of the Alps should spur on the United States to engage in the work of cutting a canal " which has for its object the union, not of two adjacent countries, but of remote conthe promotion, not of interior traffijc in one or two districts, but of commerce and intercourse between all the peoples of the habitable globe." G-reat Fire at Valparaiso.— The Mercurio del Vapor, of the 2nd of January, 1868, states that on the 25th of December last, a fire broke out at Valparaiso in front of the Custom House stores, and did great damage before its progress could be arrested. Several houses and Bhops "were destroyed The damage "Is estimated at 100,000 dollars. A furious wind was blowing at the time that the fire occurred, and contributed to baffle the efforts of the firemen.