The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2361, 27 August 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following paragraphs are extracted from the London society papers and other journals.] I vestcre to think that one of the most gracious acts to be performed by Her Most Gracious Majesty in this Jubilee year of her reign would be the restoration to the British Army of Valentine Biker. Where such a measure of clemency meted out, there would not, I imagine, he heard the sound of one dissentient voice throughout the whole of the service ; and even the bitterest anil most straight-laced of professing theologians might allow that a broken life, a blasted career, and twelve years of exile, were sufficient punishment for an act committed in a moment of frenzy, by a soldier of unsullied bravery and, in certain respects, unequalled talents. In order to show one of the blessings that has been vouchsafed to this country during the last fifty years, the Queen has received from a royal subject at Dover a photograph of himself. He is a Mr Lungley, the landlord of the Star Inn, Dover, and he prides himself on being Her Majesty’s heaviest subject. He is about forty years of age, and weighs just forty stone. A cricketing Etonian sends me the following motto, to be worked in lamps or gas at Jubilee illuminations: “ V.R., 50—not out.”

Zebehr Pasha, who is still kept as a prisoner at Gibraltar, has just registered the birth of a daughter there. The child was named “ Victoria.”

At Marlborough last week Lord Ailcsbury announced that the agricultural depression has diminished the income of his family estates by £15,000 a year. From the Ist January. 18SS, Messrs Spiers and Pond will have charge of the refreshment department of the SouthWestern Kailway, from Waterloo to Exeter.

The illness of Mr Archibald Forbes, who is humorously described by the Mausoleum as - ‘the veteran war correspondent”—Mr Forbes is well on the right side of the half-century—has taken a favourable turn, and it is hoped that after a prescribed period of rest and change of air the *• veterau” will be himself again.

The Marquess of Worcester is taking over the command of the Gloucestershire Yeomanry Cavalry, in succession to Lord Fitzhardinge, who has retired, after many year’s connection with the regiment of which he has been at the head since the present Duke of Beaufort gave up the command. Mr Gladstone’s recent political utterances have, 1 understand, caused much anxiety amongst many of his most Radical supporters, and his mental condition is considered by no means satisfactory. If he does not immediately obtain rest from the political worry he has brought upon himself, serious consequences are anticipated.

I hear that a German chemist has invented an amesthetic bullet, which is designed to diminish the horrors of war. The bullet is hollow, and is charged with a drug which produces immediately insensibility when introduced into the human system. Next, I suppose, we may expect an invention to render inhumanity humane and pleasant. We may be nearer the millennium than we think for, notwithstanding the bloated armaments of European States. The solemn service was progressing in Winchester Cathedral, and the Dean sat enthroned, when a telegram was handed to him. He opened it, and cast his eyes up to heaven in dire perplexity. It ran thus, “Ormonde has won.” Who was Ormonde ? and what had he won ? Vainly Canons and sncb-likc minor lights were consulted. If they knew they pretended not to. It was subsequently discovered that the telegram had been sent to Mr Dean, a trainer at Winchester, but as it was addressed “ Dean, Winchester,” it was handed to the Dean.

Hosts of English people will have heard with regret of the death of Hermann the conjurer. Ho was decidedly the best professor of white magic who has ever performed in this country. When he was in New York some years ago, prior to commencing a professional tour through the States, he was discovered by a number of passers-by, who did not know his appearance, patiently Ashing in a putter in Broadway with a piece of string attached to a walking stick. This extraordinary conduct immediately attracted a crowd, who began to ridicule the apparently hopeless attempt at sport, when to their utter astonishment the angler landed a large fish, and quietly walked off with it.

That was a most amusing bit of repartee which passed between the Duchess of Montrose and Alec Taylor in the small paddock adjoining the Royal Enclosure, after Gay Hermit had won the the Royal Hunt Cup. Shaking his hand with great cordiality, “ Mr Manton” joyfully remarked, “You are a good trainer, Taylor To which the latter replied, in his dry John Bull tone, “ Yes, when I win 1” How different from the little scene which succeeded the defeat of several stable favourites at Newmarket on a former occasion, which was equally enjoyed by the bystanders, when Mr Taylor sauk the rank of his distinguished patroness into plan “Ma’am !’’

At a certain debating society an English doctor recently argued that the Irish were naturally a depraved and dishonest race, and in support of bis position he adduced his own experience. He remarked that he had at Manchester eight hundred Irish patients on his books, and out of this number only thirty paid him his fees. An Irishman rose when the doctor sat down, and said : “ Sor, there is never an effect without a cause—there is never a phenomenon which does not admit of an explanation. How, sor, can we explain the extraordinary phenomenon in the natural depravity of the Irish nature. I, sor, have another explanation to offer, and it is this: That the thirty patients who paid him were the only ones that recovered.”