The Potteries Examiner : — 1873-02-22 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

CEREDIONY.—A string of private carriages, with nobody inside them, following a funeral. HONEST SYNlPATHY.—lntellisrent Boy "Pa, I'm sorry you've got the 'fluensa!" Papa "Why, laddie Boy : 'Canso I might catch it, you know." THE TEXPrER.—First Reveller (on being turned out of the "Caledonian Club"): "Come, and tak a gifts at my rooms." Second Reveller "Na, na, sieve hid l ma:r than eneuch !" First Reveller : Hoots! Tak' anither, num! Dye no see ye're lettin' yer judgment get the better o' ye ?" AN EAKLY SißlNO.—Jumping out of bed at o'clock in the morning. A. little girl visiting Niagara with her father, and seeing the foam at the foot of the falls, exclaimed, " Pa, how much soap it must take to make AO many suds.' " Bill," said Bob, "why is that tree called a weeping willow f"--" 'Caine one of the sneaky, plaguey things grew near our school-house, and supplied our master with switches." . .  The gentleman so often spoken of in novels, who riveted people with his gaze, has obtained employment in a boiler manufactory, with extra pay, an account of  his peculiar faculty. . PSALTEIt —ln one of the suburban schools, a school ,:i.setector gave out the word " psalter " to a class for ing. It was a poser to all till it reached the foot the class, when a early-healed little fellow spelled it correctly, but, being asked to define it, he shouted out, "Mere salt." . .  AFFECTIONATE IIuaBAND "I am going to have a towards working men. skate this evening, my dear, no I don't suppose I shall "I think you will accept, with my explanations, what be home before ten clock."—Affectionate little wife I venture to offer as a fair test of the pecuniary position "Very well, fear! if you are not at home by that time of the artizan population of our great manufacturing I shall conchae that yon have fallen in, so I shall not ' towns. wait up after then."—Judy. "jt will be admitted that the state of the poorest TRAIN us A CHILD, ac.—Master Tom : "Papa. class, that is, either paupers, or those liable to tape I Can eat a piece more tart, please."—Papa "No, my • into pauperism, 'an be ascertained by watching the child. I have already said that you have had suffi• poor law barometer. The condition of the class ahle to cient."—Master Tom " Well, papa, then why do we , give some little security for credit eon. I say. be la like often sing that favourite hyena of yours, where it says, • manner estimatol, with an approximation to certa;iity, 'Feed me till I want no more ?' " [He had the tart.] by the barometer which our county court system —Judy. vides. We all know how poor a reasonably prudent man "Au I" said old Mrs. Doosenberry, "liming in a must be before he will submit to the Ilisgmee of being great thing; I've often felt the need of it. Why,would sued for debt in a public court and I do not think you believe it, I'm new sixty years old, and I only ! there are more than the average number of rogue', or know Vie name of throe months in the year; and them's litigous people, amongst the artisan class. bast year spring. slimmer, and autumn. I larnt the names of there were 911,149 plaints in °minty courts. Of these them when I Was a leetle bit of a gal !" I and others have estimated, for public purposes conA scholastic professor, in explaining to a class of nected with the administration of the law, that 96 per ladies the theory according to which the body is cn- cent, are actions agains persons unable to pay small timely renewed every even years, said, "Thus, Miss 8., • debts. in seven years you will no longer be "Miss B."--" I "Now who are these persons ? They are mostly handi. really hope I shan't," demurely responded the girl, craftsmen. Before a County Court judge makes an modestly casting down her eyes. order for payment it is hiaduty to ascertain the oceansA clergyman, observing a poor man by lie road lion, and means of the defendant; and if, at a later breaking stales, and kneeling ' to got at his work stage of the proceedings, he is asked to commit a judgbetter, made the remark, " Ah, John, I wish I could ment debtor to prison, he is bound, by statute, to have break the stony hearts of my hearers as easily as you evidence on oath that the debtor has—or has I.l—the are breaking those stones.' —" Perhaps, master. you means to satisfy the judgment. The judge is not do not work on your knees," was the reply, easily deceived on the sidle of poverty, for it is the inBoswell once asked Johnson if there was no possible terest of the pursuing creditor to make out the best circumstance under which suicide would be justifiable. case he can for a judgment to enforce payment. My "No," was the reply. " Well, says Boswell, " sop- experience, thus derived, is that—as a rule—unskilled pose a man had been guilty of Iranis that he Was cer- labourers are too poor to obtain credit, and that they twin would be found ont."—"Why,then," says Johnson, are allowml to get into debt only for such articles as "in that case, let him go to some country where he is they cannot purchase in small quantities for a few not known, and not to the devil, where he is ! pence—or at moat a few shillings. The articles they known." do not bny retail vary according to local circumstances. An indiviaaal having been convicted upon rather At Dudley, for instance, in the mining district, where slight evidence, the judge proceeded to pass sentence as fuel is plentiful and bread may be bonght a small loaf follows :—" Prisoner at the bar, you have been found at a time, the very poor get into debt for clothing: not guilty by a jury of your own countrymen of a crime an is generally believesi for fine shawls and smart which sehjecta you to the penalty of death. You say dresses—the packman will not give credit for these en. you are ,nnocent—the truth of that assertion is only : cept to the wives of the higher class of mechanics—but known to yourself and God. It is my duty to leave you for the primary necessaries of mere raiment and bedfar execntaan. If guilty, you richly deserve the fate ding. At Worcester, where there are many well, and which awaits you; if innocent, it will be a gratification a propoaaoraooo of comfortably dressed people, the to feel Shit you were hanged without suck a crime on poor wear cast-off clothe,; but they cannot buy their your conscience. In either case you will be delivered coal in small quantities, they mast have it by the ton, from a world of care." and agree to pay by small instalments, for which they Too CrwitNEY