JOTTINGS BY THE MAIL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 835, 6 January 1883, Page 2

JOTTINGS BY THE MAIL.

A fire has destroyed the greater part of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The loss is 300,000 dols. The German Government has bought the greater portion of the Duke of Hamilton’s valuable collection of old manuscripts for the Bibliotheca at Berlin. Mr Boucicault has a new Irish drama just finished, entitled “ Boyne Water,” which he intends to bring out in New York before Christmas ; and if in succeeds there he will introduce it to London in the spring. A loaded coal-car on an inclined plane leading from the colliery near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, recently broke loose and rushed down hi 1. Three men were killed and two fatally injured. The car demolished the buildings at the foot of the plane. German explorers have discovered some pre-Christian sculptures of -a moat interesting character in the Euphrates Valley, near the Ante-Taurus Mountains.

It is reported from Tripoli that the Bedouins there are offering for sale large quantities of firearms and other property. It is believed that these are proceeds of the looting at Alexandria. The Ijug Witzel, while racing with another tug near Racine, Wisconsin, exploded. The owner and two engineers were killed, and the vessel was demolished.

Dairvon Kun, the leader of the Corean insurrection, has been condemned to perpetual exile to the province of Chih-li by the Chinese Government.

The French police are making efforts to discover the perpetrators of a very clever robbery, by which registered lotte's to the value of about L 24.000 were rocen.ly abstracted from the van of the express mail between Paris and Bordeaux. Immigration to the United States is decreasing; 158,021 immigrants arrived in the country last quarter, against 171,805 in the same time last year. It is expected that the entire community of Quakers will object to pay the income tax which is about to be levied: as a war tax. In years gone by the Quakers always refused to pay war taxes, and the collectors had frequently to distrain upon their property to recover the money. Whether they will have to do so when the new lax comes to be collected reran ins to be seen.

Active preparations have been already commenced for the removal of the statue of the Iron Duke opposite to Apsley House. The lino of the new road has been marked out. The roadw yis likely to be completed before the height of the next season.

The French newspapers announce that counterfeit Bank of England notes for large amounts have been successfully disposed of by two Englishmen in Paris. They succeeded in defrauding one groat banking establishment alone of L 16,000, and the total nominal value of the worthless notes which they got rid of is, so far as is ascertained up to the present time, no less than two millions of francs, or LBO.OOO. ' Here is a bluejacket yarn from Alex-

andrift. "An officer of the commissariat, entered one of the'stores to take a survey of its contents, when he was run against and almost knocked down by what he took at first to be a small i haystack, but Which, upon investigation proved to be a British jailor in scant undress struggling under two or three trusses of hay, which he had been sent for to convey to his ship. “ Who are you ? and what are you doing, here V’ was the officer’s challenge to his rough assailant. “ Well, I don’t know what I am just now,” replied Jack ; “I was A man-o’-war’s man once, but now I’m doing duty as a commissariat mule.”

The Sultan has just appointed three commissions of reform—one to investigate financial affairs, another for judicial procedure, and a third for public works. The financial commission, which includes two German functionaries, is an especially

strong one.

Mr John Fawcett, one of the oldest Freemasons in England, died on October 28. As Senior Provincial Grand Master he performed the ceremony of installing the Prince of Wales. He was a of Northumberland and Durham, and a large landed proprietor in both colonies.

Sarah Bernhardt has been engaged for five months for South Amedca. She’will not leave her husband behind ; a fabulous sum is spoken of ; sometimes three figures appear in the contract. L 660 a night for fifty nights is not bad pay. < • : A telegram from New York says that the vessel which was recently lost off the Straits of‘Juan de Fuca, and whioh'was at first supposed to be the Wamba, now proves to have been the barque Melville, bound from Shanghai for Victoria. All on board perished. The excess of imports of merchandise into the United States over the exports amounted during the month of September to 681,961 dols. During the sameperiod the imports ef gold and rsilvftc exceeded the exports by 230,626 dols. A request has been made by the Perfect of Police in Paris that 300 men may be added to the force, or that the sergehts de ville now employed on cab-ranks, etc., be replaced by other man, and be thus placed at his disposal. , Galignani says that M. Cameocasso has probably asked as much as he expects to get, but a .mere increase of 300 agents will far from answer to the requirements of the public safety. There i's quite a crush every day from ten to eleven at the Box-office of the Lyceum Theatre to see them take |tho money. A barricade is erected nearly across the hall up to the office of the money-taker, and there is always a cluster of from sixty to a hundred people filing up to the financial gentleman and taking tickets for “ Much Ado About Nothing " for ever so many nights, or, perhaps, months ahead. Certain it is that Mr Irving will need no pantomime this Christmas to attract customers to his theatre till the season is over.

It is announced from Copenhagen that Edtnund Lobedanz, the popular Danish poet, has committed suicide. His body was found hanging from a tree in the Zoological Gardens of Copenhagen, The motive: for this deed is unknown. jM. Lobedanz, besides hia own .poems published a number of translations" into German,of Danish and Norwegian authors, Mr Pinero’s new comedy, “Girls and Boys,” was produced at Toole’s Theatre on October 30, and achieved a success tiue rather to the popularity and effective' acting of Mr Toole than to the merits of the .play itself, which is-not of a very attractive nature. The audience, nevertheless, received it very good-naturedly, and at the. termination there was some slight applause, to which the author came forward and bowed his thanks. : : It is rumored that the distinction of Grand Cross of the Bath is to be conferred on Mr Childers, the Secretary of War, and on Lord Northbrook, First Lord of, the Admiralty. It is now rumored in military circles that the medical officers of the army desire that the rule should be cancelled which prevents nursing sisters of the Army Medical Department from receiving medals for campaigns. It is urged that while the Queen and the Royal Princesses set the example of wearing decorations, why should not the devoted nurses receive and wear the badges they have fairly earned 1 ' : > ’ The Prince of Wales has consented to lay the memorial stone Of the Indian Institute at Oxford early in next year, but the date is not yet fixed. The subscrip-tions-now amount to more than L22j000. The building will contain several lecturerooms, a fire-proof library with five oriel windows looking down Broad street, a small typical Indian museum, and every appliance for promoting systematic and combined action in the prosecution of Indian studies.

Certain high persons having been speculating on the prospect of an opposition by the Northern Empires to England’s project of re-organisation in Egypt, the German Consul at Cairo has been authorised to give a categorical contradiction to such surmises. Prince Bismarck, relying on the assurances of England’s disinterested policy, is confident that she is only interested in the lasting pacification of the country.

The World, in speaking of the welcome given to the troops on their return from Egypt, says that doubtless the men are well pleased with the reception accorded to them on their return from Egypt, but the wounded men were not likely to 'go in to raptures over the arrangements made for their transference : to Netley Hospi, tal. In the first place, as if to give full swing to a system of blundering, the men were landed at Portsmouth, where they were lodged for the night in the most makeshift manner, taken by rail next morning as far as Biahopstoke, where they were obliged to change and wait some time in order to be bumped and jolted in another train going to Netley. There was no occasion whatever for taking the wounded men to Portsmouth, as they could have been easily put ashore at the landing-place in front of the hospital itself.

A serious accident has befallen the young Prince of Hohenzollern by his horse falling with him at the Royal boar hunt at Grunewa’d.

On Nov. 6 the mail train containing passengers from London, when starting from Calais, met with a collision at VVimillie station. A goods train from Boulogne, which had been shunted on to the main up-line instead of on a siding, was getting on to another line of rails, when the mail dashed into the two rear trucks of the goods train, carrying one along over 100 yards, ploughing up the line between the rails in its course, it was ultimately shopped by the axle and wheels of the truck getting jammed between those of the locomotive. Before the collision, a man bearing the danger signal met the mail, and the driver applied the vacuum brake, lessening the shock, or else the consequences might have proved more disastrous. The train was going at high speed down an incline. Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

Commenting on what it describes as “the partnership between concubinage and comedy ” which disgraces a section of the London stage, the Birmingham Mail calls upon the public to set its face resolutely “against performers whose characters are smirched.” The Mail says:— It is idle to blink the truth that in certain London theatres immorality is rampant ; actresses form improper connections which they have not the discretion even to keep in the background; diamonds glitter on their necks and on their wrists, which a’l the world knows to be the wages of an unchaste life ; the whole atmosphere, reeks of dishonor, profligacy, and extravagance. This is prejudicial not only to art but to public morality. There is perhaps no more melancholy sign of the times than

Ithat, women whose lives are -flagrantly immoral should be suffered to-flaunt, with all the ostentation which. a public stage affords, the material evidences of their splendid infamy, and that audiences should be found to applaud cheir appearance without regard to their character. In the Probate and Divorce Division of the High Court of Justice oh Nov. 8, the suit of Ponsonby v. Ponsonby came before Sir J. Hannen. It was a petition presented by the wife, Elizabeth Ponsonby, for the dissolution of her marriage with Lieut. Ponsonby, an officer on the Retired List of the Royal Navy,-on the ground of cruelty and adultery by Mr Middleton. The learned counsel in opening the case said the parties werre married in the year 1873, in. Devonshire, and for some time they lived in that county. In October, 1873, Lieut. Ponso,nby ; was ordered away on foreign service, and he was away from home until the'-yiear 1874, but he did not return to his home until i the year;lß7s Some time after that he packed up his clothes and told his wife he was going to visit his mother’s grave, left this house, and f romthat'titne the petitioner had never,seen him. the year 1881, however, she received from him,, asking her Jo see time, but she refused. In - December of that, year, tjie. petitioner read an account in the newspapers of ah inquest that was held on the body of a girl napu-d Eliza Gumming, formerly a barihaid at the Criterion, who had committed suicide in consequence, as it. was stated at the time) of her being deserted by a Lieut Ponsonby. The petitioner feeling certain that the.person in question was her husband, at once took steps for the dissolution of her marriage, and after Lieut, Ponsonby had given evidence at the adjourned inquest he was served with the oitaukm in the present case. He believed, that since that inquiry respondent had lived abroad, and Mrs Ponsonby now asked the Court for a dissolution of her ' marriage. A number of witnesses were examined, and ultimately his lordship made a decree nisi for the dissolution of,the marriage. |