MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 425, 6 February 1875, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

"John Paul" on Mad Dogs. — John Paul, who has had diversified experience with dogs, writes from his home to the Tribune. He mentions that he was once bitten on the ear by a canine, since which time he appears to have suffered much, not from the bite, but from Mrs Paul, He Bays : "She begged that I would send for a doctor at once, and have my ear cut off, declaring Unit if I did not she should not have a moment's peace. Arbitrarily, perhaps brutally, I declined to gratify her. In consequence I have not yet had the blis3 of knowing what it is to bound gaily through life with a leather ear. It may be that the experience is yet. destined to be mine, however, for since this mad dog excitement reached its , present height Mrs Paul frequently asks me if I feel no symptoms. I cannot scratch the back of m> head without her placing hjxckefc of vrater before me to see if I show signs of boilit)£."N^k Count Medina Pomar, in"Bis newly published work, "The Honeymoon," tells the following story :— "lt was at the hotel of Dumbarton. I h^d iust got, up, and rung the bell for some hot water for sfe&rin^ ; a^wfciter answered my call. ' I want some hot Mater, if you please,' I said, ' And what for do you want the hot "water ? ' ' For shaving,' said I. 'Ye canna have hot water on the Lord's Day for sick a thing as ■having,' said the waiter, horror struck at the idea. I insisted again, but with the same effect. ' Na, na, said he, 'ye canna have it.' Necessity is the mother of inrention, 'tis said, and this arouled mine ; I thought that if I could arrange the order in such a way thtt it would not affect his religious scruples, he would bring it directly : I therefore proposed that I should like some toddy, and told him to bring the materials for making it r consisting of whisky, sugar, and boiling water. These ho brought without the least demur. I gave him the whisky, which he drank, and I used the water. So conscience was^atisfied. The China Mail givoe an account of the horrible tfcrtures now practiced upon the subjects of the Peking puppet During the p^st month, a young woman was sentenced to undergo the lint; chih, or death by cutting to piec^a^sChe agony is prolonged through such operations as flaying the face, cutting of breasta, excising the musclea, Dipping the fingers and toes, and finally disembowelling the wretched victim who even then has been known to manifest signs of life. The " every-day punishments " are eaid to be compressing the ankle and squeezing the fingers, until crushed, between boards, twisting the ears, kneeling on chairs, striking the lips until jellied, putting the hands in stocks behind the back, or tying the hands to a bar under the knees, and chaining the neck to a stone. Oases are officially recorded of nailing prisoners' hands between boards, using beds of iron, scalding with boiling water, in- ' serting red-hot spikes, cutting the tendon Aciulles*and burying the body up to the neck in lime, while theNpruSner is forced to swallow large draughts of water. Finally lighter punishment is to kneel on a rnixtura^of pounded glass, sand, and salt, till the knees are exuoriated7\^ The evidence given before a recent inquest at^A3uincb ester deserves attention, as proving the great danger attending the use of certain drugs that have come into fashion during late years. A man named Alfred Holme, being troubled with some sort of nervous headache, was recommended by a friend to try hydrate of chloral as a rensedy. Following thiß foolish advice, he sent for a 602 bottle of the compound on Monday, and within twenty-four hours he was found dead. According to the medical evidence, the man's death was syncope cordis, produced by the action of the hydrate on a weak heart. The doctor who gave this testimony also stated that hydrate of chloral is very little understood even by medical men, be himself being ignorant as to whether its effects are cumulative. This allegation of general want of knowledge regarding tbe power of the corroborated by the chemist who sold the dos^ta-\lfc dead man. Yet, although it wipfchis opinion that the hydratS^>f chloral ought not to be given except under medical advice, he appears to have made little inquiry when making up the pre« sci iption brought to him by Holme's daugHter, a little girl about eight years of age. As the bottle contained 6oz, while the label directed a table-spoonful to be taken every two hours, the unfortunate man was virtually instructed that he might with snfety drink within every four-and -twenty hours what was certain to kill any one with a weak heart. The said results following the use .of the medicine in this case will, it is to be, hoped, render hydrate of chloral and similar strong physic less fashionable. Unless perfectly acquainted with their constitutions, people who fly to these remedies for relief may.inadvertently be running the risk of death. V v The Grumber's Gully Gazette is like another country papers — whatever the editor chooses to make it. Local news is scarce. An inch of telegrlnfrß, a. Boroueh Council riot, and one or two Police Court cases; " will not make a paper j and the leading articles on the alluvial diggings, Mr Tagrag's speech on the liudget, Mr Bobtail's proposition, foe levelling the Gripp's Land Ranges to fill the Sandridge lar goon, or w> at not ; once written " cuttings" become tl ings of necessity, and Daw, the editor, "cuts" remarkably well. Daw is a capital amateur actor, and smart journalist. His leaders can be good if he likes to put his A^art^iito the work, and every now and then a quaint original «Btch or a pathetic story gives Grumbler's Gully a fillip. Daw writes about four columns a day, and is paid about two hundred and fifty pounds a-year. His friends say he ought to be in Melbourne, but he is afraid to give up a 'certainty, so he stays on at the Gully, editing his paper, «nd narrowing bis mind, and 3 earning for some intellectual intercourse with his fellow creatures. To those who have not lired in 0 mining township, the ntter dulluess of Daw's life is incomprehensible. There is a complete lack of everything like cultivated mental companionship, and tbe three or four intellects who are above the dead level do their best to reduce their exuberant acutenesa by excess of whibky, &o. The club) the reading room, the parliament, the audience, that testifies approval and appreciation, are all found iv one place — the public-house bar. To obtain 4. criticism or a suggestion, ona iB compelled to drink a nobWMf^of brandy, The life of au up-country editor is the life of Sisyphus — tli€ higher up the hill he rolls his stone, with the more violence does it tumble back upon him. "Yon want an editor?" said a hopeful chum to a 'ucky job printer who owned the Blanket Flat Mercury ; " I have the best testimonials, and have written largely for the English Press." The mon oi advertisements scanned the profered paper. Clever ! 1 sober ! industrious ! My clear sirj* to* won't do for me I want a man as is blazing drunk m,H liis -time, and whe ran just knock off a good thing when I tell him." But whe edits the paper then ?" asked the applicant. " Who ?" returned tho pioprittor. flourishing the vsisßors over hie head im'ndignant astonishment, " why Kddfee ! AU you havo to do in to correct the spelling, and pit in tbe personalities."— AU the Year Hound.

A oaee of considerable interest to railway passengers was decided ia the Birmingham County Court. Mr Arthur Chamberlain, brother of the Mayor of Birmingham, and a member of the Local Town Council, sued the Great Western R ilway Company to recover damages for breach of contract under the following circumstances '—On the 2lBt July last, Mr Cham' erlain took a through ticket from the Great Western Station at Birmingham to Muchynlletb, on the Cambrian Railway, near which place his countiy residence is situated. The train which left Birmingham ar, 4.87 was timed to reach Macbynllth, via Shrewsbury and YVelshpool, at 10 20 on the same evening. But, owing to Borne delay at Shrewsbury, where a, number of good* i trucks were, for some unexplained reason, attached tj the passenger train, it missed the corresponding train for Machynlleth. As there was no other train by which he could proceed the same evening, Mr Chamberlain was compelled to pass the night in Welshpool and could not reacii bis destination until late on the following day. In addition to the hotel bill* Mr Chamberlain was put to the expense of & fresh tioket from Welshpool to Mach) nlleth, and for these and other accidental expenses, amounting aljtogetheuto £1 14s, he sued the railway company, For the defence it was contended that the company were not liable as the delay had not arisen on the Great Western line, which ends at Shrewsbury, but on the line of a company working in connection with it, and the defendants expressly repudiuted liability in their printed regulations for irregularities occurring on other Jines. There was a second action of the same character pending betwetm toe p'mutilF and defendants, and it was agreed that the decision in this case should govern both. After carefully summing up the facts, the Judge, Mr Cole Q C, yesterday "decide I thut a breach of contract had been committed against which the conditions in the time tables, even if valid, atloided no protection. It was not a question simpU of delay. The company had failed to convey the plaintiff to his destination at all, as he had to take a fresh ticket ou the following day to rtach Machynlleth. The verdict would therefore be for the plaintiff for the necessary expenses incurred, amounting to £1 4a 6d. Ai>plication was made on behalf of the company for liberty to appeal, but the Judge declined to grant it, observing that if be did so, even if Mr Chamberlain were again successful, be would incur extra costs far exceeding the damages in this case. I was once sitting in a cool underground saloon at leipsir, while without people were ready to die with the heat, when a new guest entered and took a seat opposite to me. The sweat rolled in great drops down bis face, and he was kept busy with bis handkerchief till at last heVound relief in the exclamation : " Fearfully hot 1 " I watched him attentively as he called for a cool drinkj^fjorl enacted every moment that he would fall from his chaif-inl^it of apoplexy. The man must have noticed tha^^wastobflerving him, for he turned towards me suddenly, sayingr " I am a curious sort of a person, am I i.ot ? " "Why? " I Baked "Because I perspire only on the right side." And bo it was ; his right cheek and the right halt of his forehead were a* hot as fire, while the left side of his face bore not a trace of perspiration. I had never seenthe like, and in my astonishment, was about to enter into conversation with him legarding this phy-iological curiosity, when his neighbour on the left broke in with the remark, " Then we are opposites and counterpart of each other, for I perspire only on the left side." This, too, was the fact. So the pair took seats opposite to each other, and shook hands like two men who just found each his other half. "Well 1 this makes an end of natural history," exclaimed another guest, who had hitherto quietly gazed on this strange performance as though it were a play ; and everyone that heard what was said came 1o look at this novel wonder. "This makes an end of natural history !" This expression excited me to laughter, and I invo'untanly exclaimed : " No, Sir, this is jnst the beginning of natural history ; for nature has many strange caprices even as regards her symmetry. I then mentioned the cuse of a man I had known in my boyhood, who, Janus like, had two totally different faces on one side laughing, on the other crying. Naturally I dreaded this strange double face with its one side smooth, plump and comely, like a girl's c'leek, while the other side was all scarred by the small-pox. This side of the face denoted churlishnees, and while other side wore • smile, this boded mischief. In this instance diiease had been unsyminetrical.-— From Popular Science Monthly In an article on ladies' clubs, our contemporary the World says:- "We do not give our womenkind ftur play. If they are to be our companions, they something about us ; they should be able to foU^jr 'sur thoughts. We do not mean to say that a clubwoman iJV aft^all a desirable personage to introduce into modern BOCietyX A clubman is quite bad and selfish enou|n\ We don't want another specimen of the san.e class. Bat su^jV we should try to give our ladies now and then a little rational amusement. The club has become so marked a feature in the social life of modern Europe, that it is altogether unfair to exclude ladies from their share of its enjoyments, bo far a* they may be compatible with their graver duties. We do not urge that clubs should be habitually filled with ladies, but merely that they should have, say even on fixed days, the right of entry th*»re, or that a rcom should be set apart for them. It is certain that clubs do possess certain substantial and positive advantages which men cannot honestly Ifeep entirely to themselves. It would reqtire an income scarcely possessed by a hundred private gentlemen in any country in the world to provide the same luxuries, the same comforts and elegancies of life, as are to be found in a good club. In our present advanced atato of civilization luxury has become a want. It very often happen?, too, that a gir vrhose parenla were affluent marries a jjoor man ; and when the honeymoon is over she regrets, however bravely she may repress the feeling, the charm of her former life. She connot always see without a sigh the squalid poverty of her home, though she could bear it with a quiet heart for a time. If she could now and then gain strength by bathing in the waters of comfort she might perhaps amde so brightly upon poverty that it would blush into content. But the constant struggle is too much for her young strength. She ceases even to remember hope ; and the fair joyous maid, whom to see was to love, changes rapidly into the dejected shr^e*. She sees nobody — who can the sensitive young folk recrive with one candle on a second floor back ? — sbe reads no boots; she hears no music. Her little feet will never more, she thinks, beat time to a dance. What followa, and why dwell upon it? The fact is, t e pleasures of modern life are dear. They are only to be enjoyed, like railway traveMiug, by association. Excursion trains and picnics are steps ifa the right direction. Let us admit ladies to our clubs, and we shall make another. Widow Jones' husband died far away from home, and it took such a long time for the body to reach her that the relict had quite recovered from her grief, and was giving & large lunch party when the bo Jy finally A waggon drove up to the door, and a large box was handed out. Curiosity ran high among the ladies at the window, and with one accord they exclaimed, " Why, Mrs Jones, what can that be ? " Up went Mrs Jones' eye glass, and after a glance, she coolly said, " Well, it must be old Jones come home ; Charley, run down and open the door for your father." v Smith went out between the acts, aVd returned vigorously chewing a clove. • His wife aftked nim where he had been, and he said <v to see a friend." She calmly replied that she thought his friend must be dead, as she could smell his bier. » v \