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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 535, 27 July 1869, Page 3

A Discriminating Parrot. —Another friend of mine possesses a parrot who always discriminates between the sexes and condition of life of its master's visitors. If a gentleman comes well-dressed, he is invariably saluted with " What a get up—what a swell you are !" If an old lady, " Oh, what a fright—what a pair of nut-crackers !" "ayoung lady, he begins to kiss and fondle, and says, in a most Boothing tone, "Is she not nice?—is she not Dice?" But when a clergyman appears, he instantly, in the gravest and most solemn tones, such as forbid at Jhe moment any feeling of levity, addresses him with the words " Let us P r &y;letuß pray," with a pause bethe sentences.— Leisure Hour. Ax Irishman, in describing America' ■id," lam told that you might roll England thru' it an' it wouldn't make * dint in tiie ground: there's fresh *ater oceans inside that you might grown Ould Ireland in; and as for Scotland, ye might stick it in a corner, ye'd niver be able to find it out •**pt it might be by the smell o' w «skey."

THE "DRY EARTH SYSTEM." The Earth-Closet system is, we notice, coming into veiy general use in Auckland ; the last instance in which it is to bo applied, being at the New Grammar School. It is a mistake which appears to have been very generally fallen into to suppose that dry clay only can be used as a deodoriser. Pine dry soil, cr the ashes from the fire-grate are us effectual as anything which could be used lor the purpose. We notice by a quotation in Home paper received by l.st mail that the Medical Tithes says:—The " dry earth system" has achieved a new triumph in America. It was introduced by Dr Hew&on into the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and met with such favor that it is to be forthwith substituted lor waterclosets in that institution. Hut more than this, the dry sifted earth has been used as an application to offensive wounds with magical efiect. There was a case of compound fracture so offensive that it defied the effects : f ventilation and the usual disinfectants. The wound was covered with dry earth, the odour was absorbed,and with the abatement of this came a speedy improvement in the character of the wound. Encouraged by this result, Dr Hewson has applied it with marked success in the treatment of every other disease attended with profuse and offensive suppuration—ulcers of the leg, contused and sloughing wounds, gunshot wounds, severe burns, cancer. In all these ifc is said to have succeeded beyond expectation, and it is now proposed to apply it to smallpox, the most oil'ensive and virulent of ail maladies.

AN ANTIDOTE FOR TOBACCO. The following is from the New York Tribune : —As to curing men of their addiction to tobacco, it seems to us very much like urging the resumption of specie payment —the difficulty is not at all want of power, but want of will. This is an obstacle very bard to overcome. The Rev. George Trask bucks against it as follows: —"To such as are utterly stupified by the drug, and such as revel in saliva and smoke glorying in their shame —we make no appeal; but to such as 'groan, being in bondage,' longing to be free, we say, ' Here is our antidote, friend ; try it. Wo ask nothing for it.' 1. Make the most of your will. Drop tobacco, and resolve never to use it again in any form. 2. Go to an apothecary, and buy ten cents worth of gentian root, coarsely ground. 3. Take as much of it after each meal, or oftener, as amounts to a common quid of 'fine cut' or 'cavendish.' 4. Chew it well, and swallow all the saliva. 5. Continue this a few weeks and you will come oil'conqueror; then thank God, and thank us. lioasons —I. Gentian is a tonic, bitter in taste, antl will do much to neutralise and allay your taste for tobacco. 2. Gentian is a nervine. It will brace up your relaxed and flabby nerves, and save you from the ' awful goneness' under which victims agonise. 3. Gentian, for a short time, is an innocent substitute for the quid or pipe. It employs the mouth, beguiles attention, and gives a helping hand to a drowning man. Despise not our antidote. Moneymaking men give us to understand that, should wo fill millions of little boxes with gentian, mark them 'Trash's Infallible Tobacco Cure,' price one dollar, we should soon fill our empty coffers and become a millionaire. We shall do no such thing. We shall continue to spread tracts over the nation, showing that tobacco tends to ruin the body and the soul, and ruin the nations ; and beg enslaved men to try our antidote —Eesolution, Gentian, and the Grace of God. Thousands will try it, and be free."

Take a common glass pickle bottle, wide mouthed, fill it within three inches of the top with water; take a common Florence oil flask, remove the straw covering, and cleansing the flask thoroughly, plunge the neck of the flask as far as it will go, and the barometer is complete. In line weather the water will rise in the neck of the flask even higher than the mouth of pickle bottle, and in wet, windy weather it will fall to within an inch of the flask. Before a heavy gale of wind, the water has been seen to leave the flask altogether eight hours before the gale came to its height. The invention was made by a German, and communicated to a London journal. Our Wellington correspondent says: —A fire occurred on Lambton Quay at six o'clock on Tuesday morning, which destroyed an empty house and two on either side of it. The stocks were removed in safety, though of course partly damaged by the necessarily hasty removal, but the buildings are quite gone. The fire originated in the empty house, and at an inquest held yesterday the verdict returned was that it was the work of an incendiary unknown. There is, however, a pretty general belief as to who the wretch is, and the police have great hopes of obtaining sufficient' evidence to warrant his arrest and trial. Fortunately the morning was very quiet ; there was absolutely no wind. Had the incendiary carried out his diabolical work on any other morning during the past month I would have had to tell you of a fire as great and disastrous as that which scourged Greymouth a few days ago. The e.s. Onieo, after mating a rapid round of the East Coast ports, reached Nelson on Sunday, and -would likely reach Greymouth last night, or this morning. The portion of her Melbourne mails intended for Westport, if landed at C'hristchurch, and not at Nelson, will probably be forwarded hither by the steamer Wallabi.