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Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2319, 21 May 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Philadelphia paper asked; "la there a wife in the city to-day who makes her husband'* shirt's ?" The following answer was received .by return mail: ''I do, but lie won't wear 'em."—Burlington Free Press. A Court reception by the Empress of Russia is thus described by a recent visitor and journalist:—" It is said that a foreigner must approach the Empress through three thousand officials ! The Winter Pdace, with its walls blitzing with a thousands wax candles, its gortreous hangings, malachite pillars and works of art, its tropical flowers and ferns, its floors inlaid with ebony and rosewood and ivory, is a wonderful and mysterious place. There, surrounded by a sea of -plendour, stands the Empress. Her necklace reaches from her throat to her waist, and on her head is the crown made for Elizabeth ; all the gems of the East arc on her breast, with the proudest of Imperial orders. Surrounded by Grand Duchesses and by Grand Dukes, each of whom blazes jewels, stands this young woman called to a destiny which is so peerless and so perilou e ." MicxrcAN* newspapers report an incident which lately occurred in one of the city theatres as typical of one of the chaiacteristics of the Mexican people. The occasion was the presentation of The Adukerous Wife," by Perez Escviehe. The drama produced an immense sensation, and after tho fall of the curtain the audience called for tho author. In his absence, Senor Valazquez, who had dramatised the play, stepped forward, and was received with an ovation. After the applause had subsided however, it. was noticed that the dramatist was a shabby individual, whose seedy clothes were patched in many places. The fact that a genius should be in rags heightened the ■idmiration of the house, and an enthusiastic scene followed, which we are told, terminated in a " perfect shower of silver coin and bank notes thrown on the from all parts of the house',"' Little Velazquez, stunned by the outburst, turned with his riches to his wife- and child, who were present in aside box!, and r,he touching scene on the stage was so affecting that, in the graphic description of the narrator, there was not & dry eye in the house—everyone wept. The intrepid bicylist, MrThos. Stevens, who has just completed a tour of the world on wheels, met with not a few ■ dveutures, one of the least agreeable of • hicli occurred at the little walled village of Houssenbegkhan, in Asia Minor.. He was conducted into a large apartment of the caravanserai, which he found already occupied by three other wayfarers, who from their outward appearance might well be taken for cut-throats of the very worst description. All about them lay a vast assortment of arms aud warlike accoutrements of various kinds—swords,daggers, and pistols—compared with which Mr Steveus' modest little revolver looked very insignificant indeed. Presuming upon his apparent inability to defend himself, tho travellers soon began to manifest a desire to annoy him in every maimer possible, assuming to believe t hat he was Russian, though he had already uiiKuuievd himself as " Inglis. Ihe most reckless of the three finally stole up aud began playing a tattoo on Mr Steven' helmet with two pieces of wood, evidently to show as much contempt as possible for a subject of the Tzar. Stevens speedily convinced him of his mistake, however, by taking one of tfie sticks away and giving him such a .dressing down wuh it that he howled wildly and called upon Allah to protect him. Then the other travellers sole only avowed themselves the " brothers" of the adventurous traveller, and signified a wish to live or die with him, and even the man who had been thrashed, as soon as the smart of his chastisement died away, also desired to be included among the number of Stevens' newly-fouud fraternal relsv tivas*