The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-12-06
HOME AND FOREIGN GOSSIP.

A BosToN merchant has been driven in
sane by the extravaganza of his wife, who
gave wine suppers costing $4,000 per
week.
THE re-introduction of ruffs, now so
popular in this country, and especially IN
Boston, is due. it is said, to wen on the
neck of an English lady of quality.
Few professions are more profitable
than Journalism. A Savannah reporter
hadn't drawn his first weeks salary before
his grandmother died and left him SIS, 900.
AMONG! the wonders at the American In
stitute Fair. at New York, are a lightning
corset-maker, a sheep-shearer that gives
sheep clean shave i'll six minutes, and
refrigerator that has kept meat sweet for
several weeks.
The Washington authorities have or
dered every street lamp in the immediate
vicinity of fire-plug to be glazed with
red glass, so that they may be readily dis
tinguishea by the Fire Departmental case
of fire.
THE wedding-cake Of couple recently
married weighed forty pounds, and was IN
the form of a three-Story brown-stone
front, and like the real couple, too sweet
to last
THERE'S great excitement in Hancock
W
Mormon missionary elders to make con-
Eerts. Already they have baptized twenty
persons, and are rapidly extending their
field of operations.
NEAR Arcadia, ILL.,, lives Mr.. Bynam, an
Englishnlan about So years of age, who
was soldier in the regiment that garri-
soned the island of St. Helena during the
imprisonment of Napoleon Bonaparte. He
stood personal guard over the great con-
queror many times.
PEKIN claims the punishment of the
oldest journal in the world. 1t is printed
on a large sheet of yellow silk, and appears
in the same form, with the same charac
tiers, and on the same kind of stuff as it did
thousand years ago. The only thing
changed Is the writers.
OzoNIzED WATER is becoming largely
in request ass beverage in Europe. Some
chemists in Berlin are said to have ell
gagged in the manufacture of this almost
homeopathic dilution for medicinal pur-
poses, its action being supposed to pro-
duce the same effect when imbibed by in
-valids in their sick-rooms, as that pro-
duced by proximity TO sea-air, or inhaling
sea-air.
The daughter of Sioux chief has APP
peared upon the operate stage in San
Francisco. The critics state that Parepa-
Rosa does not equal her in volume OF
sound nor music of voice, and yet Parepa
Rosa has had the instruction of European
masters, while Miss Rat Trap has had no
such advantages, and has no Italian name.
MosT American travellers throw away
much of: their reading matter at their jour
ney's end. But in England at each station
can be found box fastened up, very SINH
lar to our letter boxes, but sometimes
larger, into which the traveller puts his
papers. books, etc. Those are in turn col
lected by men who carry them to hospi-
tails, homes for old men and women, and
similar institutions, where they are gladly
received.
ENcoHEs take novel form in Dublin
Three or four hundred citizens recently
followed popular singer to the Shelburne
Hotel, where she was staying, and de-
manded that she should repeat, on the bal
cony, the airs which had so captivated
them during the performance at the operao
house. The artist refused to do so; where-I
upon the peop.e smashed the hotel window
with paYing-stones and caused $500 worth
of damages.
THE United States Circuit Court, sitting
at indianapolis, decided recently that it
was no bar to the recovery of damages oc-f
casioned by railway accidents, that the
person claiming them was riding free on
pass issued by the company. A verdict
was rendered against the indianapolis and.
st. Louis Railway and in favor of Henry
Horsh, the plaintiff in case of this char-t
acter, for $4,000.
ONE of the most curious of the numel
rous sects which have sprung into exis-;
tence in Russia during the last few years
was that, composed exclusively of females;
and named after its founder and teacher.
Father Seraphinus. the Seraphinovski,;
which originated in the town of Parchov.l
Their creed was implicit belief in their
reverend leader; their practice consisted
in cutting off the hair. Women were con-
verted in crowds, and soon there would.
have been little or no long hair left in.
Parchov, when the police were moved to-
inquire into the subject. They discovered.
that Father Seraphinus had brother who:
dealt in; coifflres, and that monk and bars
Der united to drive very pretty trade in;
the tresses sacrificed by the devotees. The
Seraphic doctor now lies in prison. with
leisure to mediate on the disadvantages of
combining religion and business.
The announcement of another famine in
Bengal may be appreciated, when we re.
mind our readers that Bengal has a poDu-
lation larger than the United States upon a
territory nearly as large as Texas. The
failure Of the semi-annual rice crop is the
presentoccasion of suffering, and has itself
been calsed by very dry season. Riceis
the staff of life of the Bengalese, and they.
consume nearly all the production, no main
boarding more than enough to support hid
family six months. When, therefore, thd|
crop falls off even third or fourth, the
laboring population finds its dietary pitt;
lessly reduced in equal proportion, and
they die by thousands. The starving In
dian is . peculiarly pathetic object. Hav4
ing exhausted all means of preserving life.
he sits down by the roadside by thousands.
and dies in silence. Taught by its fatal
representation in 1866, when million of
inhabitants died of hunger. the Indar !
Government viii propably take active |
measures to relieve the distressed districts.
If all the Bengal presidency is threateneds
the most active measures are likely to fall
short vi