MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 209, 11 September 1873, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

FfcUTH Paying »T Ladiks.— The •'young women of aSneland have lately taken to aa amusement which masculine tyranny has long claimed for its own. Tbu la flute playing, which Is again becoming popular. Ladies carry their flutes to evening parties, and play in the most matter-of-fact way. We are inclined to think that this is a better instrument »yen than the violin for the exhibition of jpretty arms and £raceful emotions. And now that it is keyed it is easily witlun the reach of the weakest and shortest of feminine fingers. Size of the Human H fad.— We find in the Revue SdentifiQM a very interesting lecture delivered by Dr Broca •t a!lat« sitting of the Anthropological booioty of Pans. The learned physiologist stated that in 1861 he had had his attention called to the subject of the influence of education on the development of the human head, and that, being •urgeon «t Bicetre at the timo, he had measured the heads of the servants and the medical students at that establishment. About 1836, Parchappe had effected the measurement of the headi of ten workmen, and as many men of distinguished learning, and found those of the latter to be much more voluminous than the others, and especially distinguishable by a great development of the frontal region. These results were the more remarVable because of the author's known antipathy to Gall's syttem of phrenology; but Dr Broca thought them insufficient, inasmuch as they did not exactly flhow whether the difference was owing to education or J merely natural intellectual superiority. His measures being especially taken with this view, hia ultimate conclusion is that the cultivation of the mind exercises a special influence on the development of the brain, and that (his action tends to imcreasejthe volume of the frontal lobes which are considered to be the seat of the higher intellectual faculties. This view corroborated by a very curious result he obtains from a comparison of Parchappe's measure of his learned men with those of the uulearned ; in the case of the former the frontal development was considerable, while in the case of the latter it was the posterior part of the brain that had grovvn more than the anterior. A Substitute foe Chuhch Belw.— At a tune when efforts are being made m different parts of the country to raise peals of bells, a suggestion on the subject in the Choir is opportune. T>r Ferdinand Bahles, of Malvern House, South Hackney, writes suggesting the me of steel bars as a substitute for cast bells. They are, he s»ys, introduced in the United states and Germany with great success, and would form a new branch of industry should the manufacture of them be taken up in this country. There is not only a large area for them m England, but a great demand may be eipeoted from the flourishing colonies of Canada, Australia, Hew Zealand, and India, as soon as they are known in those regies. The following outlines will explain their particular merits, eonabined with cheapness of production : — Steel bars produce a very pure, distinct, and particularly melodiout sound, with many other great advantages over church bells of moderate size. The power of a clear and sonorous sound can be obtained equally well, if not superior, to that cast from bell-metal or steel. Their weight will be light in comparison to the present {ponderous productions. They will «iot burdea the steeple so much, and, consequently, will give more scope for architectural design, and have the merit of far -sounding. Their winding and hanging up will not be so difficult, dangerous, and expensive. They are not liable to ■craok, as is often the occurrence with bells, and are therefore adapted for use in any climate. By a simple and mechanical (Contrivance they are more easily set in motion. The cost, compared with manufactured cast bells, is so trivial that small churches and chapels, and especially mission stations •broad, will be enabled to secure a peal. Three or four steel bars, forming a peal whose weight would not exceed lOOlbs., ■could be manufactured for £11 or £12, whereas only three .cast bells of the same power would at least amount to about £50 or £60.

Mr Caldwell, governor of the Dunedin gaol, in his lostannunl report said : — " To use the picturesque language of Lord Erakine in hit noblest oration, the restless foot of English adventure is unceasingly encroaching on so many deserts, and the tried Tirtue of the English character is concerting them into flourishing abodes of civilised life." What scenes and transactions are taking place in some of the "abodes of civilised life," were exhibited latt month in the Melbourne Police Court, when a middle-aged vroman named Elizabeth Curtis (who had with her at the bar of the court three young children) was charged with keeping a house frequented by persons having no lawful means of support. Mr Inspector Sadlier said the house was kept by the accused as a place of resort for women, who have decoyed young girls by means of enticements, and even by making them drunk, brought them here to be seduced by Chinamen ! It vra* shown in evidence that on the 15th instant, at *bout nine o'clock at night, the accused met a girl of about fourteen years of age, named Mary Carrick, when the latter was listening to some music outside an hotel, and asked her to have a drink. Afterwards the girl was enticed to go with Curtis to her house, winch is situated at the back of the hotel. More rum was given to the unwary girl when she got in the houw About this time senior-constable Mooney and constable OMara, who had been watching Curtis' s movements, entered the house and found the girl in * stupified condition, lying alone in a room with a Chinaman. The girl stated that she did not renumber anything after she had partaken of the rum which Curtis gave her, »nd she believed the drink which had been given her was drugged. A witness named Mrs Bailey stated that she had frequently seen young girls, mere children, going in and out of Curtis's at all hours of the day and night. Mr Sturt expressed his sense of disgust at the conduct of the woman, And stated that her offence was one of the worst a woman could be guilty of in any community. She was sent to gaol for twelve months with bard labour. Housekeepers will believe almost anything about servants ; but the following story, though true, will tax the credulity of many. A lady made a half engagement with a servant ; •he was to send a definite answer in a day or two. After making enquiries, and having in that time ascertained that the girl was likely to suit, she wrote a note directed, say f Mils Bridget Ryan, care of Mrs O'Flannagan,' requesting her to commenoe duties at such an hour on such a day. The time came, but Bridget didn't. The lady, fearing her letter I had miscarried, went herself to the direction, and inquired for Mrs O'Flannagan. ' The same, ma'am, at your servioe. 1 ' I came to inquire about a girl of the name of Bridget , Ryan.' 'Is it Bridget Ryan you mane ? Sure the orathur's gone to a place.' ' But she said the'd come to me if I wrote to her, and I did.' ' You wrote. The Lord forgive you this night, but you hurt Bridget cruel.' ' Why, what on earth do you mean ? What did I say to the girl to hurt her ? ' 1 Oh, its best to let bygones be bygones.' ' But I'd like to know ; I thought my note was very polite and respectful.' ' Well, if you must know, ma'am, poor Bridget was so out up at your writing to her on half a sheet of paper, that she cried herself to sleep that blessed nigbt, and tuk a place next morning at a shilling a week less than you offered. Poor girls have their feelings ma'am, as much as them that calls themselves their betters. 'This story, says the Sketcher, is litoally true in everything but the names of the offended maflPi and her friend. In a lecture on ventilation, lately delivered before the Franklin Institute, Mr L. W. Leeds, after detailing the abominations he encounterod in his examination of the ventilating arrangements of the Treasury building, Washington, gives the following practical directions concerning provisions for ventilation and warming in the construction of buildings :—": — " First, never have long underground ducts. Second, never allow a sewer, soil-pipe, foul-air flue to come near the fresh-air supply flue, for fear of some connection being made between them by carelessness or accident. Third, never beat a building exclusively by currents of warm air. Fourth , always put the heating-flues on the outside walls instead of on the inside walls. Fifth, endeavor strenuously to avoid the fresh-air chamber becoming * common receptacle for all the rubbish of a filth cellar." The four members of the Middlesex Bioyclo Club arrived at Golspie, Sutherlandshire, on Sunday evening at seven o'clock, and reached Helrosdale the same night. On Monday nigbt they completed their journey. They arrived at Wick at 6 o'clock, and after dinner started for John o'Groat's, which is 17 miles north. The distance oovered is little short of 800 milei, so that, having started on the 2nd instant, the average speed has been nearly 60 milei a day. A very Daniel of a judge swells in Memphis. He came to judgment the other day in a case about a goose. This graceful fowl fell into the river, and it was rescued by a man and brother, who claimed salvage from its owner, an Italian. The Utter would not pay it, and produced a persuasive pistol, whereupon the colored man marched off with the gooae and got a warrant for assault. Then did the goose's owner swear out an answering warrant for the goose. The judge, perplexed, fined both of them, and Kept the goose himself. Orpheus C. Keirr thus tries his hand, " A la Mode Octosyllable ;"- Since the Modecs, concealed in tbeir lava, defy Our troops' metallurgic conchology, Let science, said Jones, with a wink in his eye, Extract them by Modocimology. That is clever, said Brown, and I would not be thought To care what mode doctors barbarians ; But fear, ere they are either extracted or caught, They'll all be Modoctogenarians.