MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 913, 13 January 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

There is no courtship in France. The parents do for their children there what sons and daughters do for themselves in England. Before marriage, a girl in France is a slave to parental authority; after marriage she indulges in a wild self-indulgence, and for a wife there not to have a sweetheart, and one openly known to be such, is the exception, not the rule. For details of this state of things, read a recent number of " Dark Blue." Some of the Communists were children of not more than six or eight, most of whom were forced to fight for bread. Some, however, were really bad — mauvais enfants. The Judges could scarcely retrain from smiling on hearing their trials. They will be sent to reformatories. Rossel is half English by birth, and during his trial he showed great calmness. More than once his father went up to him and kissed him on both cheeks. His Judge went to the trial with a foregone conclusion to find Bossel guilty. The Russian army are all big men. They drink large quantities of oil. Before a march, if a Russian soldier smells of spirits, lie is ordered to step out of the ranks, and is forced back. Russian, like all heavy troops, are best on the defensive. The Russian military engineers are, and always have been, eminently skilful. The Czar favors Prussia, but the Russian people favor France. The Russian Greek Church is somewhat similar to the Roman Catholic Church, but in Bussia the priest says '' Mass " witb bis back to the altar. The temporal head is the Czar, the spiritual head is the chief Patriarch, there are Masses in Russia as in the Catholic religion, but the Russian priests can be married men. The Russian peasant is a very ignorant man. Ho is a great believer in " the Saints." He will not even smoke at home, for fear the fumes would sully the pictures of the Saints. Any person —man or woman—can be without a moment's warning or accusation sent for life to be exiles in the mines of Siberia, which at present contain thousands of noble ladies and gentlemen, as well as merchants and peasants, all treated in the same way as indistinguishable convicts. Without leave from the Czar no citizen can leave the country. We know something about Spanish, German, Italian, French and Swiss women, but very littleis known of Russian women. Mr 1), D. Home, [the Spiritualist, is married to a lady, a daughter of a Russian diplomatist. Russia is a great patron of singers and actors. Ira Aldridge, coloured tragedian, and a good actor, could always get the most exalted patronage in Russia, although he acted in English, whereas in Eugland ho could only occasional audiences. Singers have netted enormous fortunes in Russia.—American Paper. A Dilemma. -While a country parson was preaching, the chief of his parishioners, bitting near the pulpit wai fast asleep; whereupon he said,

" Now, beloved friends, I am in a great strait; for if I speak too softly, those at the farther end of the church cannot hear me, and if I talk too loudly, 1 shall wake the chief man in the parish." "Good gracious, Matilda, but it's cold! My teeth are actually chattering!" " Well, don't let 'em chatter too much, or they may tell where you bought them."