CUPPINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1896, 30 August 1884, Page 4

CUPPINGS.

RKAt French briar-root pipes are made of the root of a kind of heath, which is used for the purpose because it is almost the only wood which does not char when subjected to fire. A correspondent signing himself "Quid" writes to the Sydney Morning Herald :- LL ~ ii Very few persons are aware of a sea fight which took place in sight of Sydney Heads, in November, 1804, between the English ship Policy, of six 12pcrinnder guvs, and the Dutch ship Tlie Swift, carrying six 18 pounders. The vessels were at close quarters for two hours, when the Dutchman hauled down her flag. 20.000 Spanish dollars were /on board the prize, which was duly con- ' demnedaud sold in Sydney." ("Rusden'b History of Australia," page 410, vol. 1.) Fab-fetched. — A young friend of ours (says au English paper) who had leecntly returned from the Australasian Colonies to wed the girl of his heart, was re proached the other clay by his beloved for his fickleness. " I know you love niu .very much," she said, " but I daiesay you said jusl the same thing to the othei girl, whom you treated so hcaitlcssly, poor thing !" " What other girl ?" gasped the astounded lover, conscious ot au unswerving fidelity to the one and only fair being he ever loved. " Why the girl in Australia, " answered the inamorata. "I ovciheaid them saying the other day that you left Adelaide to come to me." And it was some time before he could comince hei, with the aid of a large map, that ho was not a Colonial Lovelace or Antipodean Don Juan. A cvkpenter residing at Vienna received from the wife of a tailor an old chest of diawcrs to be repaired. In it lie discovered a secret drawer, in which were several rolls of bonds of the Funded State Debt and shaies of the Danube Steam Navigation Company, all with their coupons attached. The carpenter went at once to the Commissaiy of Police and deposited the bonds and shares with him. They belonged, it appeals, to a messenger in the seivice of the AustroHungarian Bank, who died suddenly in 1870, and who was the tailor's wife's father. As he died without making' a will, nothing was known of his hidden treasure, the value of which amounts to 10,000 florins. The Maid of Athens.— The following appeared in a contempoiary lately: — "Mr Jonnod having ascot tnincd that the original ' Maid of Athens' was living in poverty in London subiubs, took Byron's poem and composed a song, the procecda of which ate to be sent to Mis. Black." As no date appears to this transaction we presume it has occuncd lately. The Maid of Athens, celebrated by Byron in his poem of that name, is the daughter of Mi McGtce, who manied a Grecian lady at Athens The hcioinc's maiden name was Theiesa Macii, and she subsequently married a Scotch gentleman of the name of Mr Black. If the paragiaph we have quoted is concct, Mis black must now be very advanced in yea is Lord By ion's poem was written m 1810, and the Maid of Athens was at that peiiod, as Lord Byion informs u^, under 1,") years. If we say 14, that will give the year of her birth 176' G. Consequently the Maid of Athens, it now in the land of the living, has attained the ripe age of S6 yeais. It is sad in any case to associate poverty with the feebleness of old age, but it is specially so in the case of the beautiful heioine of 7-A years ago, celebrated in undying vcise by one of our greatest poets. She has out-lived lomance and lingeied on forgotten, neglected, and poor, in the outskirts of the great me tiopolis of the woild, while the poet who made her famous has been dust for GO years. " All is vanity," said the pieacher, and this is but another illustration. Speed or Thought. — Many people ha\e noticed the remarkable quickness of thought m di earning, how a long stoiy with many details, and extending over a great period of time, will flash thiongh the mind in a few minutes, but they seldom have any means of even appioximately measuring the quickness with which they sometimes dieani. There is now going the rounds of the pi ess a story purporting to tell the di earns of a railway engineer, which, if true, affords a means of measurement, and the story itself has every appeal ance ot being a genuine relation of evperience. The engineer had been without sleep and on duty for many hours, and at last fell asleep on his post. Then he di earned quite an elaborate stoiy of an accident lesultmg from the contusion of tiam oideis ; how lie studied over the words of the dispatch, tiying to make out their nn-eting, and then how, his tiain coming into collision ■with another, lie was tlnown into the air and thrown back into his seat in the cab with his hand on the throttle. At the instant consciousness ictiuned, and he found that lfc wa-> all a dream, and that although his tiain Avas travelling at the late of 4.") miles an hour, it had gone only 550 feet while the di cam was passing thiough lii^ mind, this distance being fixed by the position of the train with respect to signal lights on the line. This is the intciesting pait of the stoiy, foi it these measurements aic appio\imatcly coirect, the dream occupied less than four seconds of time. Mii Si'imJEON's Taj)ui\ vcli\ — Mr (Spurgeon gave a friend the following paiticulais ot how, some twenty-five yeais ago, he obtained the money with Avhich to build the Metiopolitan Tabernacle : — Plans for the election of the pioposcd structnie Avere received by a Building Committee of twenty-four, the estimate for the one accepted beine £20,000. Having only some £6000 in hand, the Committee demuiicd to going on, so Mr Spurgeon suggested that half the number should letue, and twelve accordingly did so. Shoitly after, preaching in the subiubs, he was the guest of a gentleman aa ho had heard of his project, and Avho in the course of com eisation. said : " 1 -will give you £50 towards it, and it you aic really hard up I as ill give you another £50." Mr Spurgeon told him that he Avas in Avant of £20,000, Avliereupon he replied, " Well, if you Avant it you shall haA'e it." Astonished at his generous offti, Mr Spuigeon gratefully accepted it, and the next day AAas in possession of the money, and gave bonds for its repayment. He at once called his building Committee of twelve together, and again consulted them as to Avhat Avas to be done Finding twothirds of them faint-heaited, he suggested that they should retire, which they accordingly did, leaving him Avith four. Locking the door, lie made known the gratifying fact that he had the money on loan, free of inteiest for an indefinite time. It Avas agiced that the matter should be kept a secret. The Tabernacle Avas built, the money was raised, ard, 23 years ago, when opened for regular work, the whole building Avas free of debt, having cost altogether £31,332. We bpmfvr that if everyone would use Hop Bitters freely there would be much less sickness and misery in the world, and people are fast finding: this out, whole families keeping: well <U a trifling- cost by its use. We advibe all to try it Read. A Wisp Dpacon — " Deacon Wilder, I want you to tell me how you kept yourself and family so well the past season, when all the rest of us have been sick so much, and have had the doctors running to us so often." " Brother Taylor, the answer is \-ery easy. I used Hop Bitters in time, and kept my family well, and saved large doctor's bills. Four shillings' worth of it kept us all well and able to work all the time, and I will warrant it has cost you and most of the neighbours £10 to £100 apiece to keep sick the same time. I fancy jou will take my medicine hereafter." See. Yes ! It is certainly true. Ask any of your friends who have purchased there. Garlick and Cranwell have numerous unasked for and very favourable commendations from country customers on their excellent packing- of Furniture, Crockery, and Glass, _&c. Ladies and gentlemen about to furnish should remember that Garlick and Cranwell's is IKB Cheap Furnishing Warehouse ,of Auckland. Furniture to suit all classes ; also Carpets, Floor Cloths and ali ' House Necessaries, If your new house is nearly finished, or, you ate going to get married, visit Garlick and Cranwell, Queen-street and l^prne-street, Auck-< and. Intending purchaser! can have a'cat&togucT f ent free.