MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 394, 21 November 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Some person in New York who has trouble with his servants, advertises for a girl. He says : — Wanted, a girl to dwell in my family, assist my wife in doing the work, and give dhections generally. "Wages not much object if she will only leave me enough of my income to pay for the crockery that she breaks. If she should not be satisfied with having five evenings in a week, an effort shall be made to give her eighfc ; she may decide what she will have to eat, and whether it shall be overdone or underdone, or done at all, and do, in fact, as she pleases, except wear my wife's gloves or shoes (unless her hands and feet aro within four sizes of small). We always expect to give our servants a Christmas and New Year's gift worth from $1 to $100, just a& we prefer. Feather bed or mattresses, as preferred ! A sick sister or old woman -will be no objection, as we have a spare chamber, and if necessary will hire a nurse to take care of her. — P.S. A piano and music supplied free of charge. The \ise of the parlor for company. No account taken of sugar that enters or leaves the house. Of our English wild flowers Shakespeare mentions about 15, alluding to some only once or twice. Of exotic flowers, or such as w ere cultivated in the scanty gardens of his period, more than 30) years a<ro, lie mentions nine or ten. Of trees and shrubs, erotics included, there arc notices of about 25. Of fruits, whether ripened in England or imported from toieign countries, I find the names — lometimes often recurrent — of about 30 Vegetables are spoken of in about equal proportion. Products of the nature of bpices and medicines nre mentioned to the extont of about a score ; and the some is about the number of what nre contemptuously called " weeds-" The total is tlni3 about 150, or very considerably higher— l think considerably more than double that of the total to be found in Mil/on — and considerably exceeding that of the plants mentioned by tho next who is most copious in allusion to plants, the ancient Roman poet in whose Georijics and JEneid tho refeiencos are so frequent and diversified. Shakespeare, we must remember, did not sot out with the view of talking of treos and plants. His designs were very different, and tho allusions are only casual and iueidental, u circumstance which renders tho total of 150 tiuly lcmarkablc. In reference to this total we must relncmber, again, that three centuries ago botany hud 6uaicely found its feet, and that few of our English wild flowers had been discriminated. Shakcspcaro had no 'floras' to consult; it. is doubtful if ho could have found a botanical teacher. T!ie only hooks upon plants then in existence wero tho wntings in Greek, of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and, m Lit in, of Pliny and Colmnells, with such • lierbals ' and 'histories' :i6 hud been produced in his own uge ; those for example, of Fuchsius and William Bullej n. Shakespeare's hbraiy was JJatuie ; his \ocabul.try was Jittle more than iho vernacular; and glorious 13 the use ho has made of those. It seems to me that wo ought to be thankful thai ho lived in an age when science was not yet fledged ; when theie were neither Eschschollzias nor Odontoglossums. Having only pimple plants to deal with, ho has shown in how all comes ncht to a master, that the (Jowshp is every bit as good an illustration, and comes charged with as inueh beauty, as the prourlM Lrelia, or am other floral austourat that letches ten guineas a root — GardenJosh Billings Fa\s : " Herrings inhabit the sea generally ; but those which inhabit tho grocery, nlwus taste to mo'as though they had been fatted on halt. Tney want a deal of freshening beloiv tlip\'re eitiu, aiifl also afterward. If I ken hate p'entv of lien ing for bi-euUdit, I generally make tho other two mcalk out of water.

UndtT the head " Eleotorul Gastronomy," the following anoedoto goes the round of the Roman papers :—": — " At Naples, as at Rome, the municipality provides dinner and refreshments for the gentlemen presiding at the Seggi, or voting plnces, for the administrative declines. The Seggi of one section protested collectively against the meagre fare supplied them, in a letter to the Piccolo, giving the following bill of fare, with many expressions of contempt : — 'Petits plats — six little slices salnme and six half anchovies, wah very few capers ; half a dish of cold maccaroni, too much boil A and without condiment; a transparent slice of meat of some unknown boast ; a microscopic fry of liver, rice, and paste ; a sponge cake of aucieut date. For fruit — six apricots, en almonds, six plums, six pears, and 17 cherries, to be divided among six persons. Three bottles of wine and seven centimes of bread for t ach individual. No iced water, and only 25 cigars.'" (Followed by six signatures.) Continental Cassandras who delight in predicting the decadenco of England will not find much to support their theories in the tables recently published by Parliamentary order, showing the progress of British merchant shipping. If continuous development of the commercial marine- be a sign of national prosperity, the English people have every cause to congratulate themselves on f-iets proving them the chief carriers of the commerce of the world- Going baok aslar as 1838, the uggregate tonnage of the French, mercantile navy amounted at that date to 2,890,601 tons against 1,956,591 tons belonging to the United States, or an excess of übout one-third, and about four time3 as large as the tonnage of France, which was 679.563 tons. Gradually, however, these proportions changed, until at the breaking out of the American Civil War, in 1861, England owned 5,895,369 tons, the United Statei 5,482,027 tons, and Franco 953.996. From that period the mercantile navy of the United Kingdom rapidly developed, until m 1872, the last date included in the return, thu aggregate of British tonnage was 7,213,829 against 4,381,957 belonging to the United States, or an excess of about two-thirds, and nearly seven times as large as the tonnage of France, winch was only 1,077,611. From this it follows that the commercial navy of Great Britain has increased more quickly than those belonging to the two other chief maritime Powers and that the principnl pait of this increase has taken place latterly. For 20 years after the battle of Waterloo there was not any appieciable development of the British mercantile marine, the tonnage in 1815 being 2,681,276 against 2,783,761 in 1835, being a differenco of only about 100,000 tons, or at the rate of 5000 tons per annum After the expiration of another 20 years, the aggregate had risen in 1855 to 5,250,553, being an increase of 2,566,792 tons, or at the rate of nearly 130,000 tons per annum. During the subsequent 17 years included in the tables, the increaso of tonnage has been 1,963.276, averaging 115,000 tons per annum. As might be expected , the greatest development took place in tho years immediately succeeding the outbreak of the American Civil War, when a considerable portion of the ocean-carrying trade performed by the United States fell into the hands of England. Between 1861 and 1665, when the war terminated, the aggregate tonnage of Great Britain rose from 5,895,369 to 7322,604 the highest point ever reached, being an increase of 1,427,235 in four years, or at the rate of 355,000 tons per annum. During the same period American tonnage, exclusively registered for ocean traffic, fell off from 2,642,628 to 1,602,583, or a decrease of more than a million tons being at the rate of 250,000 tper annum. Since 1865 there has been an insignificant falling off in the tonnage belonging to both, nations, while that of France has slightly increased. More detailed particulars are given in another table, setting forth " the tonnage of shipping entered and cleared in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Holland, Norway, Prussia, and Sweden, distinguishing between national and foreign ships, from ISSO to 1872, both in cargo and ballast." In> the first-named year England employed 651 per cent, of mi digenous tonnage, and 349 per cent, of foreign, but in 1872 the proportion of foreign rose to 676 while the latter fell to 32"4. The contrary occurred in the case of the United States. In 1850 they cleared 598 national tonnage against 40 2 foreign, but in 1872 the former had decreased to 34 3 per cent, and the latter increased to 65 7 per cent. A similar transfer of the carrying trade to foreign bottoms is seen in the oase of France. Her proportion of national tonnage cleared has fallen from 41 to 34 2 per cent, while foreign hat increased from 59 to 65 8 per cent. Holland follows suit, indigenous tonnage having contracted from 41"S to 25'S per cent, and foreign increase from 58 2 to 74 2 per cent. Norway, Prussia, and Sweden also each display some decrease in tho amount ot national, and increase in that of foreign tonnage cleared f rom their ports, but the difference it only slight. Taking a comprehensive view of the seven nations included iv the return, England is found to be the only country employing a greater percentage of national tonnage and smaller "of foreign than \ as the caie 22 years ago. Nor do the figures giving the total tonnage of all sorts, home and foreign, cleared by seven nations afford less satisfactory proofs of British prosperity That of England has increased from 14,505,064 m 1850, t042,501,025i or, roughly speaking, by 200 per cent. The United States has risen iroax 8,709,641 to 21,540,157 tons during the &arne period, being an increase of 150 per cent. ; France, from 4 610,719 to 14.597,788 tons, or 220 per cent. ; Holland, from 2,236435 to 5,677,038 ton\ or 150 per cent. ; Norway, from 1,396,945 to 3,231,986 tons, or 130 per cent. ; Prussia, from 2.090.33S to 8,516.574 tons, or 300 per cent. ; and Sweden from. 1,066,886 to 2,791,893, or 170 per cent. Taking the aggrogate amount of tonnage employed by these seven nations at the two epochs Great Britain cleared 42 per cent, of tha whole in 1850, and 43 per cent, in 1872. This result of 22 years' experience certainly does not appear to denote that national decadence oh which some foreign critics of Great Britain insist. However, if they are content, England can well afford to rest satisfied. — Globe. An American paper states that a wager was offered recently by one of the workmen in a 6team planing-mill in West Chester, Pennsylvania, that none of their number could remain in the drying-ioom of the mill, which has a constant temperature of about 14Odeg , for the period of one hour. One of the men accepted the bet ; the " stakes," which were only §1 a side, were placed in the hands of a shopmate, the heated apartment under the mill was entered, and the test of endurance began. The fellow won his dollar, remaining for the stipulated time ; but the lean, gaunt, emaciated figure that came from out of the furnace required raoro than a dollar's worth of provender to supply his loss oi flesh. A witt}' lady says of the people of a university tow n. " They are very pleasant, very intellectual, very delightful in a sort of wuv ; and talk to you like so many books ; but when you approach them socially, they all chrnb into their genealogical trees as though they were frightened. When the late Marquis of Lansdowne paid a visit to his estates in Ireland, he met with a Mr W , who occupied a large farm of his lordship - t and understanding that he was hastening home to the christening of one of his children, hin lordship very frankly offered himself to be his guest. The other, bowing very respectfully, replied, that he could not possibly accept of the honor intended him ; that hisfriends who were assembled on the occasion, were all honest, plain-speaking men, and, as such, could not be fit company for his lordship. A Yankee paper has discovered that hogskin and cowhidebags hold ten times as much corn as canvas bags do, and cost only about one-tenth as much to get to market. The earn should be put into bags before the skmv.aro taken off the animals.