WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 115, 9 July 1875, Page 16

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

4-4.. AMBBICAN JjDVßßTisisra. — The neatest style of cheap advertising vrhß produced recently at Terre Haute. A child of nine began to cry terrible at the corner of a street till the crowd grew larger and larger. Nothing would he say till it became larger still, when at last he cried out loudly, so that all might hear, that they might take him home to "19 Avenue road, at Smith, the bootmaker's, who had recently received a fresh importation of kid shoes from Paris, at from tea to fifteen dollars a pair. Doctor's Canbs. — It was formerly the practice among physicians to carry a cane having a hollow head, the top of which was gold, pierced with holes like a pepper box. The top contained a email quantity of aromatic powder, or of snuff, and on entering a house or room where a disease supposed to be infectious prevailed, the doctor would strike bis cane on the floor to agitate the powder, and then apply to his nose. Hence all the old prints of physicians represent them with canes to their noses. A Rkmaekablk Experiment. — A remarkable result has been obtained at the works of Brown and Co., Sheffield. A revolving disc, made for a rail saw, with all its teeth cut off, was mounted on a spindle and driven at nearly 3000 revolutions a minute ; this was —the disc being three feet in diameter — a circumferential velocity of over five miles per minute. Steel rails forced against the disc were moat rapidly cut through, appearing to melt before the rerolving disc, giving off an abundance of sparks, while after cutting five rails it was itself not sensibly warm. Tins Spbaker of the House of Commons and Royalty. — An anecdote about the present speaker of the House of Commons tells how Mr. Brand stands upon his dignity. Mr. Disraeli was engaged to dine with the Speaker at his official dinner. Shortly after his engagement he received a command to dine at Marlborough House the same evening. He consequently decided to make his excuses to the Speaker, but Mr. Brand intimated that he could not release the Premier on that plea as he could only recognise it in the case of an invitation from the sovereign. Mr. Disraeli at once bowed to this decision, and intimated to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales that his allegiance to the first commoner of England prevented him from obeying the command in question. A Cat an Heiress. — One of the most exquisite musicians in her time was Madamoiselle Dupuy, of the French Opera. Her playing on the hurp was the wonder of Paris. She was convinced, however, that she owed her artistic excellence to her favourite cat ! and of this strange intimacy between a charming woman and her qaudruped favourite, Moncriff, her biographer, gives the following interesting particulars : — Of course, the lovely musician's practice at home was assiduous and constant. But, as soon as she sat down and began to prelude upon the instrument, she noticed that her cat assumed an attitude of intense attention. At the point of the instrument's arriving at any passage of peculiar beauty, the excited grimalkin went into intense feline ecstasy; and so well measured was this sensibility, according to the excellence of the playing, and the pathos of the composition, that Madamoiselle Dupuy was able to judge of the quality of the music by the manifest emotions of her cat ! She became a devout pussy ite, in fact, believing that the cat was an exact prophet, foretelling precisely how music would affect an audience, and she was grateful accordingly to the friend to whom she owed mainly her artistic success. In her last illness, at the approach of death, Madamoiselle Dupuy sent for a notary to make her will. She had. accumulated a fortune by her profession, and the first clause of her testament was the giving of her town house and her country house to her cat ! She added to this annuity sufficient for the comfortable support of the four-legged wiewsician during its natural lif e ; and to make sure that this, her last "will and testament, should be respected, she gave several legacies to friends, on the express condition that they should see to the fulfillment of her wishes. It was also a condition that they should severally take turns during the week in going to see and keep company with the orphan puss ! Moncriff adds that the relatives of Madamoiselle disputed the validity of the will, and a lawsuit was the consequence — Grimalkin v. Dupuys. But the cat gained the cause, and lived out her days, with genteel alteration, between her elegant town house and her charming coimtry residence.

A Fresh-water Spring in the Sea. — Lieut E. D. Hitchcock, United States Navy, Assistant Coast Survey, commanding the coast survey steamer Endeaver, under date 11th March, reports to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey as follows relative to what is apparently a fresh-water spring in the sea : "We have found just above Matanzas Inlet, about two and half miles off shore, in latitude 29° 46' 8" north, longitude 81° 12' 15" west, what is apparently a fresh- water spring. The water at the aurface is violently disturbed for a space of about thirty feet in diameter The first day we crossed this place the water was coming up with such violence as to throw the ship from her course, and the second - time, although it was smooth, the vessel could be kept on her course but a short time. The soundings in the centre of the spring gave twenty-three fathoms, and a specimen of the bottom of very clear, broken, small shells, The soundings from the centre to the limit' of the disturbed water decreased to nine fathoms. The water at the surfacejis brackish." The Superintendent has has directed a minute examination of the spring and its immediate locality to be made,