WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 173, 21 July 1876, Page 15

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

A late English contemporary says: — A curious illustration of a fox's cunning was afforded a day or two since, when the Worcestershire hounds, after a good run from Bachelor's Bridge through Leith and Cotheridge, crossing the river Teme, drove their fox across the lawn at Crown Eastcourt, and thence by the side of Laughern Brook to Boughton Park. Here some boys., standing on a bank overlooking the brook, saw the fox approach, and, on arriving at the bridge which carries the road from Worcester to Bransford, he jumped on a long wall and ran along the top of it to the brook, where he dropped off it into the water, took down the stream and having gone a Bhort - distance, hid himself in a bush which overhung the stream. Of course, when the hounds had hunted up to the wall, they were at fault, and a cast was unsuccessful. The huntsman was nonplussed, and the field looked disappointed, when the lad, who was quietly watching them walked up to one of the field, and, with a " Please, sir, there the fox is," pointing to the bush where sly Beynard was esconced, partly in and partly out of the

water. He was very quickly routed out. and, being spent, was as readily worried ; but, had it not been for the presence of the observant youth, he would have been more than a match for his pursuers. We hardly know whether the boy, who was so hard on the fox, deserved to save his own tail. In Germany, at the Heidelberg Castle, there are two enormous wine butts. The largest holds a sufficient quantity to fill 300,000 bottles with wine. On the top of this immense cask, which is over twenty feet high, a platfdrm has been erected for a place of dancing, and is approached by stairs of thirty steps. When this great reservoir is filled with wine, all of those who have labored in the different vineyards are invited to a f e"te that is always given in honor of the occasion, and the invited guests make merry by eating, drinking, and dancing over the choice spirits that are under their feet. It may, to some, be a wonder where so much wine comes from,!and it is only necessary to speak of some of the large grapevines, and wonder will cease. At Hampton Court, in England, there is a grapevine that was planted in the year 1768, and after three enlargements of the vine house, it now covers a space of 2,200 square feet. These wonders of Europe are overshadowed and outdone by a single Yankee vine at Montecito, in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, Cal., which is supposed to be nearly 150 years old and is four and a half feet in circumference, and rises about eight feet from the root, where it branches out in every direction. It covers over of 3,500 square feet of ground, and is reported to have produced six tons of grapes in one season, and that 1,500 gallons of wine have been its product in a Bingle year. — C N. T. Tablet.' The ruling vice in Japan is undoubtedly drunkenness. It pervades all classes, though it is confined by force of public opinion to the male sex. On a festival of the third month women are indeed allowed great license, and in their harems, from which on that day even their lords are excluded, they may indulge to any extent in the forbidden cup, but a woman of the lower class who may be found drunk at any other time would be exposed to a severe beating from her husband ; were she of the higher class, she might die by the sword of her spouse. The only fermented liquor is, It is said, the saki, distilled from rice, and differing from the Chinese tin or shamshunn that, while it is weaker, it often contains much of the poisonous oil of distilation. It is taken warm, and the better kind is not disagreeable to the taste. Few Japanese are fit for business in the evening, and in the afternoon many of the streets of Teddo are rendered unsafe by drunken retainers. Brussels has the largest ice-house in the world. The roof covers an area of 18,000 feet ; the walls are double, and filled with moss and sawdust. There are nine separate ice chambers, each of 30,000 cubic feet capacity. There are galleries for storing meat in hot weather capable of holding 2,000 quarters. A million tons of ice have been stored in the building at one time. The Foundling Hospital in Paris, where there are 600 children, and a staff of 200 Sisters of Charity and servants to care for them, was one night visited by an officer of the insurgents, wh< announced that his men were about to set fire to the house imme diately, and to shoot all the inhabitants. The superioress entreated him to grant one hour that she might effect the escape of all those under her care. She added, "What! would you burn all these poor children? they are your own; they are the children of the people." But the officer was unmoved. " Tou do not know what you say,'* he replied, "an hour is an age in our position," for even at that moment the Versaillais were rapidly advancing on the Beds. Then the Superioress spoke a few words of religion and faith ; the man listened, and seeming suddenly touched, he cried out, "Yes; I believe in God, and for His sake I will save you and lose myself." Saying this he retired with his soldiers, and returned to the baricades; but when the other insurgents learned that he had consented to spare the Hospital, they threw themselves on him with fury, and massacred him on the spot, so that he lost his life, doubtless to find it in heaven. " Lord George Gordon rigorously underwent all the rites imposed upon proselytes before he was admitted within the fold of Judaism. He was received into the convent of Abraham, in the city of Birmingham, under the agency of Rabbi Jacob, of Birmingham This singular proselyte was very regular in his Jewish observances in prison. Every morning he was seen with phylacteries between his eyes and opposite to his heart. Every Saturday he held public service in his room, with the aid of ten i Polish Jews. His Saturday's bread was baked * more Judaico ;' he ate Jewish meat ; he drank Jewish wine. On his prison wall were inscribed the Ten Commandments ; by their side hung a bag containing his Talith and his phylacteries. ... A contemporary periodical says that his last moments were embittered by the knowledge that he could not be buried among the Jews. Lord George Gordon, we must add, does not lie in a Jewish ' House of Life/ as a Jewish cemetery is called; he was interred in St. James's burial-ground, in the Hampstead-road." — Picciotto. An ancient graveyard of vast proportions has been found in Coffee county. It is similar to those found in White county and other places in Middle Tennessee, but is vastly more extensive, and shows that the race of pigmies who once inhabited this country were very numerous. The same peculiarities of position observed in the White county graves are found in these. The writer of the letter describing the burying-place says : " Some considerable exciten ent and curiosity took place a few days since near Hillsboro, Coffee county, on James Brown's farm. A man was ploughing in a field which has been cultivated many years, and ploughed up a man's skull and other bones. After making further examination, they found that there was about sue acres in the graveyard. They were buried in a sitting or standing position. The bones show -that they were a dwarf tribe of people, about three feet high. It is estimated that there were about 75,000 to 100,000 buried th«re,'^ — 'Nashville American,'