The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-11-21 00:00:00

WHAT THE WORLD SAYS.

" -
THE Empress Eugenio, having temporarily &aerial
i
her old asylum, s now enjoying the magnificent autumn
weather of Florence, which has been incessant sunshine
since her arrival. She has taken the villa Oppenheini, •
house on the new drive called the Calls, close by Arcetre and
the hill whence Galileo "watched the secrets of the stars."
The Empress chiefly uses the great ballroom to sit in; and
wish." has Just ordered a quantity of fresh carpets for all the
rooms, it is to be hoped that the love at first sight with
which Florence inspired her may prove an enduring
passion. The young Prince is already popular at "the
Club," and his winning manners everywhere gain him
frientla

I do not think I should much care for, and I am
quite sure I am not at all fitted for, the life of a book-
maker. Still, I should like to be Mr. Steel lust for a few
days. They tell me he laid money against every horse
for the Liverpool Cup save one—the winner, whom he
lacked to win him just a thousand or two. Also that he
won something over L-10,000 on the Ceistrewitch, and
about the same on the Cambridgeshire. I do not know
how true all this may be, but it emmis goods. Think of
what • lot • man might do who WU belielX,l to be possessed
of £150,0110.

I was glad to owe that Mr. Chance rebuked the
practice of sending tracts to prisoners. It is quite bad
enough to be committed on a charge of wilful murder,
without having one's cell littered with the "Tradesman
of Tottenham-court•rowl," and "You will be burnt for
ever." In the case alluded to, it did not, perhaps, re
much matter: for the prisoner, having been asked what
he bad to say, merely reque.ded that his money might be
returned to him, as be wanted to have something hot to
drink. But the practice is nevertheless offensive.

Lady Sebright has been induced to postpone her
appearance on the public stm:e for at least • couple of
months, in order to give more titer and sitruly to the
character of Lady Teazle.
Another plaza ,4 historical interesat gone I The
Victoria Theatre became as music-hall on Monday last,
under the management of Dlr. Tommy-makevoom-fer-
s our-uncle Fair. It was nevor the haunt of society, and
I to not know that it ever produced a great author or
actor. But fond memories attach themselves to the
Vic, NI there the ever-famous dramatic criticism was
delivered by a sweet, in the gallery—" Vu don't expex
grammar, and vu don t execs hacting, but yet might line
yer flats r
Clothed in white amite, mystic, wonderful, and
with face Meore-and-Burrfoased to • swarthy hue, sat on
the first elephant in the Lord Mayor's Show the special
correspondent of a leading London daily newspaper.
Such a method of seeing the Show was a stroke of genius,
and deserves to be recorded. It is not certain what the
other specials sail when they discovered the artifice of
their rival, but! think it is more than probable that they
gave themselves up to swearing with all that ability
and fervour which equally mark your journalist and your
bargee.

-
" Weigh ho, Bhizes In were the simple yet kindly words
of welcome which the Fleet-street crowd accordod to the
new Lord Mayor. And then the crowd, after its wont,
got very drunk, and duly prepared to meet its Mayor at
ten o'clock the following morning.

IS it true that the edition ,d Joan had to he stopped
on account of some amcomplimentary remarks that one of
Miss Broughton's impulsive young ladies made with re-
gard to the quality of Messrs. Gilbey's ,dtamnagne If
this be the case. I wish to know what is the law.

If the spirits who write upon slates would tell us
something more novel and useful than their own names or
those of ourselves or relations, we might think them
worthy of their hire. Long before they began to rap or
scratch, communications about this or the other world
were brought by persons who called thenuelves clairvoy-
ants, and who appear to have survived spirit competition
in the United States, where " manifestations" were first
vouchsafed. One of them is now practising his art in
California, and he protegees to In things compared with
which Dr. Slatle's greatest marvelssink into insiguidesuce. ,
For the moderate fee of £lO, this clairvoyant, whose name
l
is Donald 11. Percy, will " ocate" a bonanza in any con- '
venient situation. A bonanz iim a deposit of the precious
metals, which usually yields its happy possessor the re-
snectable income of about a £lO4l a day. As the San
Francisco Nears Letter sensibly remarks, on these 1110,13Tath
terms "no family need le without their bonanza" It
must be added that clairvoyants are not always infallible.
A female one, who has made for herself a handsome
' living in New York by telling secrets and disclosing 'the
abiding-place of absent friends" for one dollar paid in ad-
vance, recently lest her daughter; whereupon she went
begging and weeping to the police-office, with the request
, that a search should be made for the missing girl.
The Bishop of Sodor and Man, the lion. and Right
Rev. Horatio Powys, is about to resign his SOC, on account
of ill health. His lonlship has decided on this course, it
is to be imagined, in consequence of the continuous
grumbling of the Hangmen for the last two years at the
Bishop's dislike to their country. Dr. Powys, it is said,
has not visited hie diocese for some twenty-two months or
more so the Manxman have certainly prised ;Nei% excuse
for dissatisfaction.

Another death from a bicycle. reported as "an
accident,' has occurred near Monmouth, through the
hones of a waggon taking fright upon the sodden impart-
thm of one of these olangerous and ungainly machines
How long is this deadly nuisance to be tolerated 1 Must
a banker, or brewer, or liimister, or bishop, be bisected by
•liirycle before those faineant., facetiously termed the
"linthorities," ran be awakened to their duty to interfere?
Why even the random firing (Heaven save the mark of
official bullets by Volunteers at night is less dangerous to
public safety than these gigantic velocipedes. With
any harmless amusement, no matter how inconiprehen•
sible, we have no right to interfere; and I admit that a
bicycle, from the motion oblig! of the rider's legs, may
afford rational enjoyment to a ticket-of-leave man by
, a„sreeably reminding him of the treadmill of his ingenuous
youth. flit just as individuals unhappily bereft of
reason are confined to asylums for the public welfare, so,
I maintain, the amateurs of this dangerous pastime
should be relegated to plans of resort specially set apart
for the exhibition of their vagaries, and not allowed. by
day or night, to infest those public thoroughfares
dedicated to the legitimate accommodation of man and
horse.

That paragon of journalistic taste, &wadi ntain-
tains its pristine vigour. " A bloixitltristy preiudimul old
lunatic" is the nervous English in which George m
id lauded in the last number.

The example of Mr. Spurgeon in requesting his
congregation occasionally to give up their sottoi in order
that strangers may find a taare has been imitated on the
other side of the Atlaotk by the Rev. Henry Ward
Ikarher. A few Sundays ago this distinguished preacher
invited his congregation to 401 c away froni the evening
service ; which they did, and free passes were given to the
general public, eho largely availed themselves of the
privilege. Mr. Spurgeon thinks of haring this ser vies for
strers quarterly • a proposal which, I understand, is
reouded with much distarouril reverend brethren in
he vicinity of the Tabernacle, w lien, the other Sunday
night the doors of the Tabernacle were thrown oven to
strangers, the chapels within a radiui of two miles of the
Elephant and Castle were half deserted, and there was a
corresponding diminution in the offertorieA, which is, of
course, a substantial inievsnc,.

We have rc...ently had an ink.reeting discussion on
the way they manage thinga generally in America, the
cougroveriry haunt opened IT a French disk° and con-
tinned by the now. Here i ali tido paragraph cut out
of an American newspawr jut to hand, which appease to
have 11"Illd bearing on the .abject
o During a diecussion on political matters between
Justio3 Walker and Constable Illesenberg in a $140012 on
Saturday evening hot and angry words ensued, which
eero quickty followed by blow. After a short struggle
the combatants were separated by friends."
With a country where a justice and a constable meet in
a liquor-saloon on a Saturday night to discuss
come to blows, and after a short struggle are separated by
their friends, and when the little incident is recorded in
all type, and without comment by the newspapers, it
does not do to be too particular.