MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 437, 6 March 1875, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Princes Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Virtorin.Ts^o he married to Adolf, heir apparent to the Grand Duke onM^cklenbuivStivliti:. The fisher of the vour.g man rule* over no less than 1.000 square miles of territory half of which he owns. He i* a very rich old potentate.! and will he able to give the young people a good outterl Adolf is twpnt\-m'z, and »iis mother is a daughter of tb« !a f e duke of Camb>id*e, Victoria's uncle. ° When men of business leave their offices during office hours it is usual (writes the • Maryborough Stan lard,' V ctoria) f>r them to put a notice on the door, stating whera they have £» n e to, mch as ' Gone to the bank, btck in ten minutes ;' * Gone on a tour of inspection,' or something of that kind. The Town Clerk acted in this waj recently" but unfortunately worded hi* notice as follows, • Gone to prisoners' (a'luding to those who were working for the Council). Some one struck out the • ers,' raakng it ap« pear that (ha Town Clerk had gone to gaol ; and shortly afterwards another -person, who it may ba supposed it not very friendly to that official, added, 'And mar he nerer come bnck Beam.' The Saturday Review, speaking of the proposed transfermation of Li >ho square, Lmdon, says :— l *lt is ju S t a hundred years since the fortunes of Mrs Theresa Cornleyg bfL'an to decline, and wifh the-n tHe g'ories . of Soho square. Who remembers her now ? Yet she was once a central figure in the fashionable world. Her house now a pickle shop — was crowded with prince?, nobles, and fine ladies. Her ball room— now a Romanist chapel -was the head-quarters of extravagance and gorgeous apnarel. It was at one of her masquerades that the beautiful daughter of a peer wore the costume of an Indian princess, three black girla bearing her train, a canopy held orer her head bv two negro boys, and her dress covered with Jewell worth £100,000. It w»s at another that Adam, in flesh coloured tights, and an apron of fig-leaves, was to be seen in company with the Duchess of Bolton as Diana; Dc*ath in a whit© ihroud. bearing his own epitaph ; Lidy August* Stuart, as a vestal; the Duke of Gloucester in an old English hnMt, with a star on his cloak ; and the Duke of Devonshire—, who was very fine, but in no particular character, ' — all these and others passed through her rooms - yet before many years hal gone bv. she was selling asses milk at Enightsbridge, and in 1797 she diei in the fleet prison, forming schemes ti the very last to retrieve her broken fortune*. Attempts were unsuccessfully made to keep up the festivities of Carlisle Housr, but Almnck's drew away the great, and the square gradually declined in th» world, from fashion to philosophy, from artists to tradesmen, from shops to hospitals, until at length its lowest depths seems to have been reached, and the i eautifiVr of Leicester squure has been summoned to the ass's'an'v* of Soho." The Detroit Free Press «ays:— "There wai something mjlieious in ti>e smil*- of a Michigan avenue saloonkeeper «3 ho dragged 50fr of p nsfock hose out on the walk-, turned on a full head of water, and remarked to a protfd of eight or ten boys that tbey could wash the walk. He went in and shut the door, and every boy in the crowd jumped for the nozzle. An old gent going by had his plug h-it knocked into the street, and when he turned! to remon«tr>ite the stream hit him on the eye, down behind the co.llar, and on the back, and he gtlloped into a grocery and wildly inquired for a three- barrelled shot gun and a hand grenade. Each boy declared that be wa« going to hold that nozzle, and each one tried to. The stream hifc. tfce windows, then the walk, then a hitching post, andwoflp than once it slid down a b>j't back ot* into his boot leg. A woman came cut of a store ju»fc in time to get a dash under the chin, and she fell orer a box and shouted murder in clarion tones. A girl came along with a baby-cart, and as she was chewing away at a quid of gum and gaping across the street the water struck the b»by in his little stomach and poured down over his toes like a babbling brook to the sea. Tne struggle among the boys lifted the stream to the window again, and the girl and baby got away. A small boy ran across tha street to see what the matter was, and he went back howl, ing, his hair dripping and his eirs filled full. A barber went out to say to the boys that he'd bare 'em locked up, and the water raked up and down him, filled up hij pocket and wilted his shirt bosom, and he jumped back into bis door and said he'd like to be Chief of the Police of Detroit for about six seconds, he wonld. Some of tha boys dropped ont, discouraged at the thought of what the ' old man ' would say when they got borne, but fire or six held out until they had wet up a sack of coffee, a barrel of sugar, •« plunked" a imall girl on the back, and wet down a drug clerk ; and then the saloon keeper came out and took tl>e nozzle and exclaimed, " Poya ! poys ! if you don'r 6 fcjp ft^is peesness I'll call frr der perleece on this peatl" The Chinese element of the population, which musters pretty strong m.Melbourne, commenced the celebration of their Now Yea? Holidays on Friday last This is looked upon as the chief festival of the Chinese year, and th© saturnalia lasts afcout six weeks. During this time every celestial takes the number of holidays to which he thinks the labours of the year entitle him. After joining in t'i© ciMtomerj, devotions to " Joss," he gives the remainder of the time to the unalloyed enj .unent of those d* lights whiuh are favoured by the "celes'i.R" The grand ceremony of the festival took pl»oe on Friday at the principal "J:ss. house on Env raid hill, th,. occasion attracting a numerous awmblage of Chinamen. The ceremonies observed at tha celebration, however interesting to a devotee, prove we»risome to a Europ. an. The most peculiar and attractive u tl.e driving out or "laying" of evil suiriu by the burning of uu.iurourt fires and the production of all kinds of inharmonious sound . The principal room, or as-embly-he'l in the Joss-house presenfa quite h spei'tn.-lo of Cvent:il mafnin\vMV. Its hun i>' al rtillars. Ci.mse Inn^erns, uu.i hiimin,* H-'t.un.s ,1.., O st i.a'ne ..yn.. of (<,<- mmiiu.r sc, iva in tl.c Acil.i-i. N>;hN, n.,,| rtmili iop.VAvi-.it, to bi..;*i in. t*Mvst<v< m Ka*'erM i-u-t.nn?, Ji\,r tj w p,,^. ti-feo d«iv4 iherfr. ua* L^eu.a, uousUut QwUHour,»« q! Qli«:» xiiitojc*. ik^m,

«F propitiating their gr.at deity or of learning tlie"? destiny for the next twe^wnoiAU^—UUla^Bjjrkf 9 reet _! ast ' wtere the celestials congregate in large numberSrie^™^ 1*"1 *" Friday night to have broken out in a kind of Guy Fa*kes jeel» brat-ion, the air being: heavy with the scent" of burned powder, -whilst the ear* of wayfarer* were deafened wi^h the sound of crackers. —Argu* % Feb 10. t)n the subject of "Church Congress Tailoring the JPall Mall Gazette writ**: Header* vi a recent article on •* Ritualism are aware that this is the clothing which men give to the performance of religious duties, and that a*> regar b clerical costume it is no small guarantee for conduct to pu»sue their inves. igations furl her mu-t ppfcavf lound ample materials a» Bn-liton during the «ittmg the Church Congr.ss, when the clergymen who thronged be I^Tihon and afterwards filled ike streets anayetl in K,BnnentB of every siyle. exhibitpd at the same time the btmi.dlees variety cf whisker for winch Englu-b churchmen ore bo justly celebrated. In some instances there wore closely-shorn cheeks, cropped hair, and a bild spot about tlie poll not altogether natural ; here there was a trinngular whisker whose base is formed by a line drawn from cur to mouth ; there was the fashiunable\drooping f*von, and then the military moustache, the ptaked J v « I tf erwl » a " d the Sowing beard, all of every colo :F\ ana.. shade. As to cratats, there were ancient ties with voluminous fojds, «nd perhsps a fnlled shirt, there were " elibkers 4 Of the ujuhl cut and there were a.l-roundera, implying, "it is *upi.oM?d, extreme theological views The waistcVflte were mostly of the M. B- pattern, but there were some of a lay fjpe, probably covering the breasts of B>o»d Cl.ur.hmen. Coats varied, irom the abbreviated shooting jacke-, savouring of the stable, and giving rite to suspicions that the wearer mij-ht own racehorses, to the Noah's Aik pattern, which touched the ground, .but it was in the hat that all interest wicmtrcd. Here prob*blj was the true marriage of the outward with the inward ; here w>is the flag under which the craft sailed, lhe bishopa, of course, carried their fho\el hats as bishops oi.ly can. But there wire respectable chimneypots, flabby wid.awak.g, btiti wideawakes with broad brims, and others ■wnh a little button at the top. and oap lines round it. It ie to be hoped that somebody will explain the meaning o! these varied styles. /