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MISCELLANEOUS.
A boy 12 yeare of age has died at Millicent
through being bitten by a ennbe.
Samuels, the aborigine, has again beaten
Butchens, the English sprinter, in a foot
race of 150 yards at Sydney.
Since the passage of tbe law in 1876 ex
pelling the Socialists from Germany 172
have been sect out of the country.
Six hundred thousand persons visited the
Great Eastern at Liverpool during the six
months in which the was exhibited as a
show ship.
While some gentlemeu were out shoot
ing lately (says a Scotch paper) in the
vicinity of Linlithgow, a partridge was
dropped in a turnip field within 30 yards of
tbe guns, and within a couple of feet of a
fine dog fox. Reynard, with his natural
impudence, immediately put his head across
a turnip which was lying between him and
his prey, seized tbe bird, and made off with
it before the guns could be brought to bear
upon him. .
Minneapolis is turning out more than
25,000 barrels of flour per day, or enough
to supply the three largest standing armies
in Europe with bread. Although the chief
centre of the milling industry, it has plenty
of rivals. Of all the manufactures in the
United States, flour mills head the list in
the value of their products ; and yet they
do not distribute aa much money in wages
as many other industries, the raw materials
costing three-fourths the value of the pro
ducts.
According to the Petit Journal, the mili
tary authorities in Paris are in possession
of authentic intelligence with respect to
certain preparations which Italian military
engineers are making on tbe frontier. Mines
are alleged to have been prepared in the
passes of Sestrieres,Oulce, Gezanne, Traver
settes, and Pascana, in which charges of
dynamite may be laid ; and elsewhere 1,800
workmen have been requisitioned, and are
engaged in the preparation of defensive
works under the direction of officers of the
Alpine battalions.
One of the smartest things in advertising
that has lately been heard of has been
achieved by a furniture dealer at Provi
dence, Rhode Island, who offered a bed
room suite to any couple who would come
and be married in his shop window. The
only difficulty he seems to have had was in
making a selection out of the scores of
couples who applied for the honor. The
event finally came off with the utmost
satisfaction to all parties, thousands of
people witnessing the ceremony from the
street and the interior of the shop.
From Warrnambool we {Border Watch)
learn that tbe locusts are doing much
damage in that district. At the country
dairies the cows are giving but tittle milk,
owing to tbe locusts having devoured the
feed. This will seriously interfere with butter
and cheese-making. Tbe potato crop is much
lighter than anticipated. It is estimated
that the average yield will not exceed four
tons to the acre. In some paddocks the
crops will not be worth digging. The
locusts are making havoc in the potato pad
docks.
Three years ago Messrs. John Dunn &
Co.'e agent at Terowie distributed five
pounds weight of wheat to Mr. H. W.
Stegall, a farmer in this neighborhood
(writes the Terowie paper), for the purpose
of testing its quality. The wheat was of
the bearded variety, and introduced to this
colony from California by Mr. John Dunn.
Mr. Stagall reaped four bushels from that
sown, and this season put what he reaped
into the t round again, when he got a re
turn of nine bags. Mr. Stagall has made
application for more of this wheat to intro
duce in the Erskine Hundred.
At Colville, on the works of Messrs.
Stapleford & Co., engineers, two men,
named Wilkins and Carew, were iron
straightening in one of the shops. Carew
held the iron while Wilkins dealt it heavy
blows with a sledge hammer. Whilst thus
engaged the head of the hammer suddenly
flew off and hit Oarew with great force in
the mouth. The unfortunate man imme
diately fell, and it was feared that the blow
had killed him. He was, however, alive,
with the head of the hammer stack fast in his
mouth, and Borne difficulty was experienced
in removing it. When it was done his face
presented a shocking spectacle; his teeth
had disappeared, and his lips and lower part
of his face were a confused mass.
. A strange hone disease is prevalent in
the vicinity of Mexico, Mo., and many
noble animals have died. A post~mortem
examination revealed large bunches of small
white hard worms collected in the stomach
and intestines. Exactly such worms are
found in the tassels of the corn, and the
theory is that eating the corn fodder is
killing the horses. There is some talk of
husking out the corn and burning the fod
der. In this connection it is remembered
that a month or so before the standing corn,
and especially the tassel, was spotted with
grasshoppers, and it is thought that they
deposited the egg which produced the
fatal worm.
I am informed (says Vanity Fair ) on ex-
cellent authority, that Prince Edward of
Wales, the eldest son of H.R.H. the Prince
of Wales, is in fact really engaged to the
Princess Alexandra Theresa Maria, tbe
daughter of the Duke of Anhalt-Dessau.
The engagement will, however, as I am
further informed, not be officially concluded
or announced until next Easter, in order to
avoid drawing away pablic attention from,
and thereby interfering with, the arrange-
ments connected with the celebration of
tbe Queen's Jubilee. It is, moreover, de-
clared that, upon the announcement of tbe
engagement, Lord Randolph Churchill will
propose to Parliament that a provision shall
be made for tbe young Prince.
At a meeting of the Farmers' Club in
London Mr. Clare Sewell Read read a
paper on the Present Condition of Tenant
Farmers. Tbe condition of tenant farmers
might, be said, be described in two words —
disaster and ruin — and if tenant farmers in
tbe next 10 years lost as much as they had
in tbe last 10 years there would hardly be a
tenant farmer left in England. The two
prominent causes of distress were bad bar
vests and foreign competition. Farmers
were now so poor, and the land ao im
loveriehed, that when good seasons did
come farmers would hardly be able to bring
forth the fruits of tbe earth. In tbe dis
cussion which followed these views were
endorsed.
William J. Halkett, a New York lawyer,
who died recently in that city, left a will
containing the following curiously-worded
clause : — ' I am informed that there is n
society composed of young men connected
with the public Press, and as in early life
I was connected with tbe newspapers, I
have a keen recollection of the toils and
troubles ihnt bubbled then, and ever will
bubble, for the toilers of the world in their
pottage cauldron, and, as I desire to thicken
with a little savory herb their thin broth, in
tbe shape of a legacy, I do hereby bequeath
to the JNew York Press Club, of the City of
New York, £250, payable at the death of
Mrs. Halkett.'
A rather amusing question connected
with English steel pens has arisen in Paris.
A few weeks ego a patriotic deputy asked
the Minister for War if it were true that
tbe regulations prescribed tbe use of Eng
lish steel pens in the military schools.
General Boulanger made inquiries, and
found that this was tbe case at tbe Mon
treal schools. The regulations, however,
had reference to the benighted period when
steel pens were first pitted against the
rather old-fashioned and spluttering goose
quills. The Anglophobist deputy was as
sured that this tremendous oversight on the
part of the apostles of red tape and routine
would be remedied at once, and that only
pens of French manufacture would be em
ployed for the future.
Those dairymen who do not believe in
the power of milk to rapidly absorb and
become contaminated by surrounding
noxious smells will do well to try the
following simple test, the results of which
will, doubtless, immediately convince the
most sceptical. Take a wide bowl or soup
plate to the cow stable when you go to
milk ; pour into it a pint of fresh milk, set
it on tbe floor or at the height of a miik
stool, so as to expose it fully to the air of
the stable, behind and close to the cows.
If the day is close and heavy and the milk
ia cold, and the stable not cleaned out and
aired, the result will be surprising. Take
it to the bouse or anywhere away from tbe
stable and try to drink it. — Scientific Ameri
can.
English tobacco in 1886 has been grown on
an aggregate area of a little under five acres,
of which two acres and a quarter have been
in Kent, the county of Lord Harris and
Mr. Faunce de Laune, two very prominent
experimentalists in English tobacco growing.
The other counties where this crop has been
tried are Devonshire, Bedford, Essex,
Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk,
Surrey, and Worcester. The experiments
have been generally successful up to tbe
present ; but the drying is atill in process,
and on this depends the real success or
failure of the whole enterprise. The in
ferior quality of Dutch and Belgian tobacco
seems opposed to tbe hopes of English
growers.
A great dairy novelty, and one that is
likely to revolutionise home dairying is
being introduced by the Dairy Supply Com
pany, of Museum street, Bloomsbury, Lon
don. This is a Laval separator to work by
handpower. It contains all the principles
of the well-known steam-power separator,
but it can be worked by hand, and is
capable of separating 35 gallons of milk per
hour. By means of the large machine,
factories and large dairy depots are able to
obtain cream and butter fresh from tbe
cow, and if this should be possible on small
farms the whole of our butter-making
systems will be altered in a very short time.
Another novelty is a steam turbine, by
which power can be applied direct to the
larger cream separators without the inter
vention of an engine. This, also, will aid
in simplifying the use of improved
machinery to a very great extent.
' Atticus' in tbe Leader tells the follow
ing story : — One of Melbourne's most re
spected members of the cloth recently was
very ill, so ill, in fact, that the medical men
'gave him up' several times. However,
Mother Nature was kind to him, and be re
covered hie usual state of health. When
convalescent he called on one of bis congre
gation, and the tatter's daughter opened the
door of tbe house to admit him. She was
so surprised at seeing his reverence that she,
quoting the poet laureate unintentionally
with good effect, exclaimed, ' Well, Mr.
? , you here! Why, you are really
1 back from the jaws of death j back from
the mouth of hell.' ' The minister, con
siderably surprised, replied, ' Well, I hope
not back from the mouth of hell,' which
made matters even worse.
The Marburg correspondent of the Queens
land Tones says : — There has, for some time
past, existed much ill feeling among tbe
members of the German Baptist Church at
Marburg. I believe it is with special re
ference to a choice of preacher or leader.
This ill feeling reached a climax on Sunday
last, when the leaders of the rival parties
both entered the pulpit, and amid much un
seemly clamor endeavored to officiate. The
discord of opposition — hymns — seems to
have added the necessary fuel to the flame,
for a free fight ensued, and, I understand,
the leader of the minority was ignominiously
burled from the pulpit. Many persons were
roughly bandied, and the riot — for such it
was — attained eucb proportions that it wns
found necessary to call in tbe assistance of a
J.P. and two constables. The people were
quickly turned out of the church, aud the
door was locked upon them.
The largest birds' eggs in existence are
found on the island of Madagascar, belong
ing to an extinct species known among the
naturalists as the Epinornis. The dis
covery of these eggs was made by a sea
captain who stopped at the port in the
southern part of Madagascar to trade with
the natives. During his stay there the
curious dishes which the natives used to
carry food and water in attracted his atten
tion, and upon investigation he found they
were eggshells cut in halves, and, upon
being questioned, the natives informed him
that they obtained them from the great
sandbanks some distance away in the
interior. An offer to purchase some soon
resulted in the discovery of others, and also
in finding the bones of tbe bird which laid
them. The latter established the fact that
the Epinornis was a giant among birds,
some of the species attaining the stature of
12 or 13 feet.
A terrible case of suicide is reported from
Clarke's Hill, Bungaree (Victoria). The
deceased was a well-known resident named
Daniel Kinane, aged 40 years. It eeems
that Kinane, who bad been drinking heavily
of late, lodged with his sister, the licensee
of the Forest Hotel, and on Saturday morn
ing about 7 o'clock be entered an apart
ment in the public-house, from whence pre
sently a moaning was heard. Mrs. Murnane
endeavored to open the door, but it was
locked. Tbe woman then called assistance,
and upon tbe door being forced open Kinane
was found tying disembowelled id a pool of
blood, and by his side was a large carving
knife. Kinsne wns able to speak a few
words, but died at 11 o'clock. Deceased
was married, but lived apart from his wife.
Mr. Mulligan, deputy-coroner, held a magis
terial inquiry on Saturday afternoon, at
which it was stated by one of the witnesses
that Kinane, before expiring, admitted that
he had inflicted the wound with the inten
tion of suicide. — Leader.
It is said that history repeats it-elf, and
some of our own politicians might profit by
reading and thoroughly digesting the fol
lowing little story taken from an American
contemporary : — A House full of new men
always means an avalanche of Bills. The
old hands have better sense. I fell in with
Senator Greer, of Butler, on his way down
to the session of four yeare ago, and asked
him if he had any new bills in his pocket.
' Two,' he said, after a little hesitation.
' What is the subject-matter of them ?'
' They are repealing Bills,' he responded ;
and tben, with one of his confidential
laoghs, he explained : ' You see, when I
first went into tbe Senate I offered a great
many Bills, and got quite a number of them
passed. It has kept me busy repealing them
ever since. It I get these two Bills passed
it will wipe the last law of my making off
the statute book, and I will quit square
with the State.'
From lengthened observations, Mr. W.
F. Clarke, a Canadian, has come to tbe con
clusion that the moet important function of
the bee's sting is not stinging, but its use
by that wonderful creature as a tool. Mr.
Clarke says be is convinced that the most
important office of the bee's sting is that
which is performed in doing the artistic
cell work, capping the comb, and infusing
the formic acid by means of which honey
receives its keeping qualities. The sting is
really a skilfully contrived little trowel,
with which the bee finishes off and caps
the cells when they are filled brimful of
honey. This explains why honey extracted
before it is capped over does not keep well.
The formic acid has not been infected into
it. This is done in the very act of putting
the last touches on the cell work. As the
little pliant trowel is worked to and fro
with such dexterity, the darts, of which
there are two, pierce the plastic cell surface,
and leave tbe nectar beneath its tiny drops of
the fluid which makes it keep well. This is
the ' art preservative' of honey. Herein we
see, says Mr. Clarke, that tbe sting and the
poison bag, with which so many of us
would like to dispense, are essential to the
storage of the luscious product, and that
without them the beautiful comb honey
would be a thing unknown. This is cer
tainly a most wonderful provision of nature.
— Iron.
The Melbourne Leader reports the follow
untimely end of a pickpocket : — The City
Coroner beld an inquest on Tuesday on the
body of Patrick Fox, described by the
police as a pickpocket, who was run over
and killed on tbe railway line in Flinders
street on Sunday morning, immediately
after committing a theft. Henry Stewart, a
shunter, said a few minutes after midnight
a train of empty cattle trucks was proceed
ing at a slow pace oa the line between
Flinders street and Spencer street stations.
He was on the last truck. As the train
arrived opposite William street he saw a
man in pursuit of the deceased. The man
was running fast, and was shouting out,
' Stop thiet ; he has robbed me.' Deceased,
after passing in front of the train, turned
suddenly, and ran in between the trucks,
attempting to cross tbe rails. Witness,
seeing his danger, stopped the train, which
was moving very slowly, and jumped off.
He found deceased lying under the wheel
of one of tbe trucks, which had passed over
his leg and his arm. He was taken to the
hospital. Tbe man who was chasing him
then went away, and was no more seen.
The hospital surgeon, who examined de
ceased, described his injuries. He was in a
state of collapse. His right arm was
crushed above the elbow. His ieft leg was
also fractured at the knee joint. He died
at 10 minutes to 10 a.m. from the injuries
he had received. Evidence of his criminal
antecedents was given by Constable David
son, who had known him three years, Tbe
jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
A writer in a Melbourne paper remarks :
— The proposal for sending home a body of
1,000 Victorian cadets to do honor to her
Majesty's jubilee is not by any means dead.
A meeting of cadet officers and bead
masters of cadet schools has been summoned
by circular for next week to discuss tbe
question and consider ways and means. I
can hardly imagine a nicer holiday than
this would he — for the cadet officers. I
presume that there would be an officer for
every 20 boys or thereabouts. This would
make a total of SO olticers — all State school
teachers in receipt of Government salaries.
They would be boarded and lodged for
some months free, taken everywhere, and
shown everything, have a jolly time of it,
and be able to save their pay almost to the
last penny. If the thing is done the lady
teachers should certainly be in it. There
should be a corps of daughters of the
regiment — all female teachers on full pay —
to darn the Blockings, sew on the buttons,
and wash the shirts of the boys. This
would make the trip all the pleasanter for
the cadet officers, and secure them from
being over worked. Two or three in
spectors should also accompany the expedi
tion with an accountant, paymaster, and a
staff of clerks from the education office. A
clergyman of every religious denomination
— several doctors — but that will do.
A flat-headed numskull in one of
Dickens's novels solemnly remarks that ' it's
better to hang the wrong feller than no
feller at all,' and this principle has been
acted on most perseveringly in New South
Wales. In August, 1821, a new gallows
was fixed up in Sydney, and 19 men were
tried for something or other — no one knows
exactly what — and hanged the next day
lest they should have time to repent. In
October, 1822, 34 men were swung off in
batches of five daily, and between these
two dates some two or three went off every
week, but no one kept auy record of them.
Six men were united in one common choke
in December, 1834 ; and eight more were
suspended together like ripening fruit in
December, 1838. In 1841 Justice again
wagged its substitute for a head over a
wholesale slaughter, and six corpses were
fixed up in one ghastly row, and in 18S7
another six also slept with their fathers in
midair. Altogether, in tbe course of 60
years, a vast array of victims were sent to
herd with tbe bank thieves and saints of
long ago, by the action of whisky-selling
juries and whisky-pimpled judges; bill
though tbe official hired murderer was al
most worn to a bone by the wear of con
stant work, society improved but little after
all. The community to-day contains as
much meanness, injustice, and ruffianism as
it did in the good old days when they used '
to bang 34 men at a time ; perhaps it wants j
more hanging to elevate it.StUletin, I
$