Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-07-20
An Augusta, Georgia, negro

speech which was reported, In
common with other speeches, i'll
one of the papers of the place,
called upon the editor, in a par
ticularly angry mood, to learn
why he was called negro
while the speaker tha3 followed
him was specified as oolored.
The editor explained that it
was done to avoid tautology.
At the word tautology the ne
gro's countenanca ssumed a
bland expression, and his anger
vanished. He didn't know the
meaning of the word, but it's
euphony and it's mystery ito
him) were sufficient. He
thought it a huge compliment.
At a banquet given in honor
of an Australian magnate, his
health was proposed, but he
declined to make a speech in
return. Gentlemen he said,
what you say is doubtless true,
and certainly agreeable; but I
never made but one speech in
my life before any large num-
Der of people, and short as it
was, the result was SO unfortu-
nate that I made up my mind
never to make another On
further inquiry, it was found
that the speech in question was
made at the Old Bailey. 1t
consisted Of Not guilty, my
lord,' and the result had been
transportation o. life.
An Englishman in Naples
made bet with some young
Italians that he could set run
ming all the lame and paralyzed
beggars crouching in a certain
corner Of that city. Matters
having been arranged, the En-
glishman retired, and after a
while came rushing wildly
round the nearest corner, fol-
lowed by a rabble, all shouting,
fThe tiger is loose the tiger is
! comingl' and dashing madly
past the beggars, they, in their
terror, forgot their professional
trickery, and leaping to their
feet, fled with the crowd.
Arctic Discovefy.-Geo. Col
man, the younger, was dining
at Lord Mulgrave's, when, just
before joining the ladies, he
was lettering about the picture
of Lord Mulgrave's brother
locked up in the ice, in the Arc
tic expedition in which Nelson
sailed as MILDLY. Lord Null
grave, holding the lamp said,
what is that my brother has
got hold of ? Is it a boat-hook?'
No, my lord said Colman, in
his half-throttled, witty way,
its the North Pole.
Everything that astronomers
can't understand is ascribed to
the influence of the moon. -
When we have two moons, as
an astute Germen predicts will
soon be the case, it is to be
hoped that the action of one
may be counteraeted by the
other, and the stargazers will
then have peace. An exchange
says "A very extraordinary
fact is that observed by Mr..
Stene, of the Greenwich Obser-
vatory, who tells us that there
is strong ground for believing
that the moon has sufficient in
fuence on the earth to cause a
change in the latitude Of Green
wich. He attributes this
strange result to one of two
causes. The first is the yiel-
ding of the earth's crust under
the moons action, thus produ-
cling a veritable distortion of
the globe. The second is the
effect Of the moon upon the
atmosphere, whereby the heav-
emily bodies are more or less
elevated Gin appearance) by re-
fraction, and thus the latitude
is caused to change in appear
ance, though not in reality.
On Wednesday afternoon,
while the sons of DIR. Sharp
(marshal Of the District were
bathing in the Patuxent river,
near Laurel, Maryland, in COM
pany with their young cousins,
Masters Grant and Dent, who
uoro vic;+;po tho 1ootor'c 60 m