CONSOLIDATED MUSIC.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 442, 18 March 1875, Page 2

CONSOLIDATED MUSIC.

Two or three painful incidents are reported in the American papers to have occurred lately. The other evening in Williamsville, lowa, some samples of tnr pavement had been laid down in a few of the side streets. Sixteen young Tien, " armed with every N known musical instrument," proceeded that night %o <. serenade a young lady, in front of whose house a- sample of tar pavement had, unknown to tjiem, been thus laid. Seating themselves on tlie ride-walk, with their feet in the roadway,, they played, and sang with much feeling and good taste for some little time. On attempting at the conclusion of the performance to rise,, they found themselves, however, in an embarrassing and uncomfortable position. They were, in fact, glued to the pavement, and could only regain their feet at a terrible sacrifice of their clothing. After a lengthened discussion as to what was best to be done under the circumstances; it was decided that they mast free them^efves at any cost. They accordingly screwed their courage up to tearing point, and with " a mighty wrench " rose from the pavement, leaving behind them almost as much of their-gar-ments as they carried away. Another case of a somewlj&t similar cliaracter i& reported from New Jersey. A gentleman having tried the experiment last suiamier of roofing his house with the material out of vtfhich concrete pavements are made, was much annoyed by the animated discussions carried on by the cats of the neighbourhood on the top of his dwelling. Finding the noise unbearable, he ascended the garret one night and looked out of the trap-door. To his horror he found no fewer than 196 cats stuck fast knee-deep in the concrete, which had s been softened by the heat. Some of them had*;been there four days. The moment they caught sigfrfc of the owner of the house the whole 196 doubled their spines, ruffled their hair, shook their tails, and gave one wild, unearthly yell, which so frightened him that he fell down the stepladder on^e head of his wife, who was standing below with a candle in her hand. Both husband and w^fe .were seriously bat not dangerously injured.—^?/ Mall Gazelle.

The "John Bull" says that the Bishops of Norwich, Carlisle, and Peterborough have just oorr r dained Dissenting- Ministers. The Rev. Henry! Griffin Parrish, who was educated as a Wesleyan Methodist in 'Lincolnshire, and afterwards at the Lancashire Independent College, and ordained iix 1870 by the Bishop of Peterborough, has been ap-, pointed to the vacant vicarage of the importan» parish of Leake, near Boston. # „ The <"Tasmanian Tribune " speaking ofG<}*efjK>tr Weld's levee says that tl|ere was great variety in the foam amd fashion of t^e cards that were used y but the most striking^nstunce of an impromptu in that direction Mas the. half of a bottle label on wliich the name of the ivprthy citizen who presentee) it was printed.

The hardships'and sufferings' undergone by railway travellers during the receipt . extraordinary driftstorm yin. the North of Englamd and Scotland, formed an experience of quite an exceptional kind. Jin some exposed districts, such as those through which the Waverly line proceeds southwards from Edinburgh, the wind blew a perfect hurricane, sweeping the orisp snow from the ground before it in blinding white clouds, and heaping^p wreaths to the depth of twelve feet. Strong meW are said to have been thrown to the ground, and t» attempt to ftice the wind was to be overpowered with a sertse of suffocation. In the neighborhood of Tynehead several trains got blocked up in the" snow, and could neither make headway nor back out again. There were about 600 passengers, all of whom suffered much from the cold. The searching character of the drift, it is stated in one report, was something extraordinary. Although the doors and windows of the carnages were seemingly quite close the snow came sifting through, and muny held up their umbrellas to keep themselves dry. The sufferings sf the women and children were extreme, and a envious effect of the cold and exhaustion, combined perhaps with that of anxiety, was that many women and even men, got sick and exhibited all the symtoms of mal-de-mer. At last by the exhausting labors of m gang of surfacemen, the Carole express and a Hawick train were backed to Hevw(t Station where the cold and hungry passengers beseiged a little shop in the viaage^speedily buying up everything that was eatable. Children required to be put to bed and have warm drinks given to them in order to restore some vitality to their chilled little frames. In the Highlands numbers of trains were similarly snowed up, and there also the passengers felt the pinches of hunger as well as of cold. Hundreds of men, besides snowploughs, were' needed to clear the lines, and allow traffic to .be resumed. The casualties have been numerous, and it is feared that the long-forced detention in the cold, when the strong wind penetrated throuhg every crevice of the railway carriages may prove injurious in the case of many of the more jdelicate passengers. When such was the extraordinary state of matters the thaw, with rain accompaniment, did not come half-an-hour too soon.