MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1006, 20 September 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

In Cleveland, Ohio, the young unmarried ladies have a steel affixed to the waist of the dress, and concealed by a masqued pannier. When a young gentleman accidentally places his arm around the wearer's waist, he hears a

" click " and finds his arm caught. A big brother with a lamp enters, and the victim sorrowfully starts for the jeweller to examine his wedding rings. Clerical editors of newspapers in America do not appear to distinguish themselves by refinement of style or amenity of language, if we may judge from the following extract from a leading article in the ' Indianopolis Evening Journal ' (U.S.), of which the Eev. G, C. Harding avows himself to be the editor :—" The red-headed and ribald wretch who edits the ' Sunday Slinger' has lately been straining his giant intellect in the production of that very delicate and finely-flavored species of wit which consists in the intervention of spurious middle names for the subjects of his satire. We appreciate this sort of humor, but we do not like to indulge in if. It is too exhaustive. But we can do it. For instance, the name of the saturnine and sorrel-topped gladiator of the 'Slinger 'is Enos 13. Reed. We don't know what the ' B.' represents in the grand combination, but we will assume it to mean Booby, Beat, Baboon, Bilk, Bloak, Boanerges, Bunghole, Bots, Butter, Bingo, Bosc, Bass, Bumpkin, Baggs, Barber, Bat, Baby, Backsheesh, Blackmail, Bandanna, Bandicoot, Bard, Bawbee, Beans, Beast, Beauty, Boots, Bedaub, Bespatter, Blinker, Blowhard, Bogey, Boar, Boozy, Brass, Bray, Beer, Bricktop, Buchu, Bugle, Bufioon, or Buzzard, and we have wit enough in a single paragraph to last the ' Slinger ' a twelvemonth. It isn't so very exhausting after all."

There is an hotel in San Francisco under the sole management of the fair sex. From the proprietress to the hall girl, from the bar tender to the boot-black, all connected with the es'ablishment are women. The portresses are muscular Germans, who handle the most mammoth " Saratogas" deftly and easily, while the clerk is a handsome brunette who parts her short black ringlet 3 on one side, and makes bright repartees to the jokes of the drummers and salesmen who largely frequent the house. The bar tender can make a cocktail quicker and better than any other in the State, and drinks herself every time she is asked to, which, on an average is about 50 times a day. A simple mode of avoiding the spread of small-pox has been discovered in Alabama. '1 hey let the patient die safely by himself, hire a negro to bury him, and shoot, the negro as soon as the interment is finished.

New Caledonia seeme likely to acquire a very unpleasant reputation. '1 he treatment of the political prisoners is described as perfectly horrible. The Governor, M. Gauntier dc la Eicherie, formerly of Cayenne, has drawn up special regulations, which are represented as being frightfully severe. There was no necessity for Sir George Vernon to have dreaded that any of them would have escaped to the mainland of Australia. They never do. A naval official, examined upon that question some time ago at Paris, replied, " The convicts never succeeded in getting away. The last men who tried it were not retaken, but their remains were fortunately found some time after."—' Leader.'

A lady took her son, of some five years, to church. After the minister had been preaching about half-an-hour the little fellow grew sleepy and began to nod. The mother roused him into attention several times by pinching, but, as it seemed a hopeless case, she concluded to let him sleep undisturbed. After the little fellow had had his nap out, he awoke, and saw the minister still holding forth. He looked up in his mother's face, aud innocently asked, •■ Mother, is this Sunday night, oris it next Sunday night?"

According to the ' Carnarvon Herald,' Mr Stanley, the discoverer of Dr. Livingstone, the special representative of the 'New York Herald,' is a youu;_f Wilshman, who was born thirty-two years in the town of Denbigh, liis mother is alive and well at the present time, and keep 3 the public house known as the ' Cross Foxes,' St. Asaph. ' Stanley' is not the real name of the eminent explorer, but John Thomas. He adopted the name of Stanley before embarking on his daring expedition, and doubtless he had some special reasons for doing so. This youth was brought up in poverty, and under the frown of unfavorable worldly circumstances, like the majority of the children of enterprise and genius. He emigrated to America, where he became one of the reporters of the * New York Herald.' Mr Gordon Bennett discovered lb t ho wrs an extraordinary man, and appointed him as representative for his journal with the Abyssinian Expedition. He performed his work with so much satisfaction that ho was selected to conduct the present romantic search.