Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Wednesday 8 May 1895, page 3


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Mr. Eowland 'Ward, the naturalist, states that a specimen of the almost extinct 'white,' grass-eating, or squarenioufched, ^rhinoceros Las just arrived in London; fiaTiig^beeri'shot by Mr. Charles Bi'Tatnd&Ftn Zululand. This ungainly

brutBTIsbtoetimes; standing six teet fiign, was^-at ofij^time common; though its range was always more circumscribed than that of the black rhinoceros, though why its congener is called *f white' mwst puzzle anyone who has ever seen the dusky bearer of that misleading name* In Gordon Cumming's day it was frequently met with, und in Sir Andrew Smith's expedition into Bechuanaland in 1835 he saw in one day upwards of 150 ' rhinos' of the Wo species and 100 giraffes, though that part of South Africa was never specially noted for the abundance of these animals. Now, this rhinoceros is almost extinct. Mr. Selous considered that the few which survive are confined to a small tract in Northern Mashonaland, though the occurrence in Zululand of the specimen now in Mr. Ward's hands somewhat enlarges its area. At the little Village of Nomps-au-Val, near Amiens, France, a curious ceremony has been seen at a funeral. The deceased was a card-playing enthusiast, piquet having been his favorite, game. By the terms of his will, a pack of 'cards had to be placed in the coffin with his body, and certain of his card-playing friends were to have a legacy of 'about £100 apiece on condition that they bore him to the grave and stopp

ed on the way to drink a glass of wine at a small tavern, where, to quote his words, 'he had spent so many agreeable evenings at cards.' The instructions of the will were strictly carried out, and a considerable crowd assembled to see the last of the piquet player. A new naphtha fount of remarkable yield has been struck near Baku. The output, which is ejected with uncontrollable force, is computed at about 15,000 tons per day. All the available reservoirs have been filled, and the oil is now being run off into the Caspian Sea. So far all attempts to batten down the outrush have been fruitless. The thick iron stakes used in these endeavors are shattered like matchwood. From Lemberg the Vienna correspondent of the 'Daily News' learns that a terrible battle has been fought at the railway station at Rawaruska. A menagerie was being conveyed by rail, and when the train stopped at the station a great noise was heard. The guards went to the waggons containing the wild beasts, and found the wooden partitions which separated three lionesses from three bears, and these again from three hyenas broken down and the animals engaged in battle. One bear was missing. The lions had eaten him, skin and all. They had bitten another bear's paw off, and a hyena lay dead on the floor. Two lions in a' neighboring compartment remained calm. No one dared interfere between the fighting beasts, until the owner arrived in a sledge and -se-parated them — not before he had been bitten by a bear however. - He claims damages from the. railway administration because the partitions gave way. One of the judges, or presidents, of the Tribunal of the Seine in Paris has acquired celebrity owing to the rapidity with which he disposes of the divorce cases brought before him. Recently he dissolved no fewer than 110 marriages, in cases where there was no defence, in the course of a single afternoon. Unfortunately, such speed, however satisfactory it may be in some ways to litigants, is not without its dangers, as has just appeared. Having an undefended action before him, the president entered judgment in the usual form, ? but in his hurry he wrote the name of the counsel engaged in the case in mistake for that of the petitioner. The next day the counsel and his wife were horrified to find that they figured in the law reports, the one as a successful petitioner for a divorce, the other as respondent.1 The matter has now been formally set right by the president, who explained the nature of the mistake in court, and corrected the inn rrTn r\Y\+ V^srtrt^/1

A good story — we think new, though not, perhaps, true — is being told concerning Signor Mascagni and an organ-grinder. The man was stationed beneath Mascagni's window grinding away the intermezzio from 'Cavalleria Rusticana' at so rapid a pace that the composer could stand it no longer. He rushed into the street, and seizing the handle of the instrument, turned it at the proper tempo, explaining to the sulky fellow that he himself wrote the music, and ought to know how it should be played. The man was still sullen, his dignity, as an organ-grinder and artist, doubtless, being wounded; but presently a broad smile passed across his face, and next morning appeared before the composer's house with a huge placard on the front of his barrel-organ, inscribed, 'Pupil of the celebrated Mascagni.' In one of the lobbies of the Reichsrath, at Vienna, the other day (says the correspondent of the 'Daily News'), a Young Czech Deputy, meeting the correspondent of an Old Czech paper, said to him, 'How dare you call my speech hotch-potch? If you do such a. thing again I will kill you,' and he raised his hand. The journalist seized him by the collar, and pressed him to the wall, saying, 'If we were not in the Parliament House I would thrash you.' Several Deputies and a Minister were witnesses of the scene. Captain Richard W. White, who has just been relieved of the command of the naval forces in the colony of Victoria, to which he was appointed in January, 1892, has been appointed to H.M.S. President as Assistant Director of. Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty. Mr. Curtis Bennett, at the West London Police Court lately, heard an amusing application for advice. A young man entered the box, and stated that he had taken a flat for three years. A tenant in the room oyer him snored- when in bed like a'

quence of the noise. * He wished to know if he should proceed against the tenant or the landlord?. Mr. Curtis Bennett: What for? To prevent a man from snoring? I have a great many applications, but never against a tenant for snoring too loud. The applicant said he did not wish to leave the place, nor could he for three years to come sleep in the kitchen to avoid being disturbed. Mr. Curtis Bennett: That is, one of the 'benefits' of flat life. There have been one or two examples ? lately, and this is another. Applicant further stated that the snoring lodger also held Ms flat for three years also. . Mr. Curtis Bennett: Go to your landlord, and see if he will release you.. The applicant: Can you give me a summons against him? Mr. Curtis Bennett: Against the man for snoring? Applicant: No; against the landlord. Mr. Curtis Bennett said he could not assist the applicant. ?'?...-?

, A strange tumult is raging on .the Continent. ' It has been agitating Vienna and setting Berlin try. the ears, and now it! has spread to England. And it all arose from ?' a mere' trifle, the kissing of an actress on the stage. 'To. one person a 'kiss is : an epoch' ' (says the- 'Gentlewoman,' who i ought /to know), 'to another merely a bore. | The first kiss of the loror is jkn episode neyer/^tb /be 'forgotten byia girl. Thousands of chapters 'iiave b£en written upon It by lady hoyelists. 'A'' refined girl thinks a Msf an Intense intimacy^ intolerably insulting, unless made beautiful by a certain train of feeling .that ?? -prompts it. ' But when we;;ipjne.^to' %he.^lqwer classes we find kissing a sort of universal ' habit, almost }ik'e; eatings -or getting up in the ?morning. fi: Decidedly there is something ingratiating about the kiss:': 'But the stage idss? ' What -}f that? ?.. \jrif one opinion it is asaerelya fulfilment joTEaf stage direction, and; the ' husband who ^objects to , it should at ,^nce remove -his wife, from the stage. Tp^treatsitj-as anything important, is at 3once:::tp ™&fce |t /objectionable.; ' . W-e cannot sympathise with the dismissed .actress, tvrh.6: \has 'caused ? such '?? a continental 'How d'you do.' ' That, then, ends the matter. '; ?-' ????- ?????-?? ' ?.'?? . ? ' .