MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3600, 5 September 1874, Page 2

MAIL NEWS.

, Tweed has not been so low as now since 1026, in which year the corn was so short in the stalk that it had to be pulled by the hand, The volume of water is so'diminished that it all goes into the mill-lade at Walkerburn, and one may walk across the proper channel of the river dry-shod. Sheep and cattle are severely from the heat, and the extreme dryf ness of the pasture and damage to hill sheep at Peeblesshire will be serious if rain does not fall soon. Claremorris, County Mayo, has been the scene of a tragic occurence. A. young man named London attempted to commit suicide by stabbing himself. His mother, who witnessed the act, immediately dropped lifeless. The son ' has been lodged in jail, charged with attempting suicide and accelerating th 6 death of his mother. ' The London Board of Works has directed that a checque for L 479,000 be drawn in favor of the Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy for the pur* Chase money of Northumberland Hdttfc and the adjacent property.

A Norfolk paper says that a correspondent took off a sheet of ice oneeighth of an inch thick at seven o'clock on June 21, and that the potatoes in his district were on that morning •widely injured and partially destroyed. The Emperor of China has ordered a collection to be made of Chinese poetry from the earliest times downwards. This collection will be published in 200 volumes. It is also stated that the Emperor has in his possession a library numbering above 400,000 volumes.

William Adair, a Cherokee Indian, has been admitted to practice law at the bar of the United States Supreme Court. This is the first lawyer of the Red race.

The London journals have adopted an excellent device to discourage workmen and laborers from going to America, namely, that of publishing articles under the startling head of “ Suicides of Emigants.”

A blacksmith in Glasgow has succeeded in changing the gait of a racing horse to that of a trotter by simply fastening an extra pair of shoes, heavier than usual, to his forefeet, whenever he wants the horse to trot, ani taking them off at, all other times. The sudden change of weight on his forefeet forces the horse to change his gait. The ‘Times * has now a special telegraph wire to Paris, worked from nine in the evening till three in the morning, and gathering up the latest Continental news. For the use of this wire they will have to pay L 3,000 a year.

The fibrous tissues of hide swells under the action of acid, and is converted into a gelatinous mass. But, if the hide be impregnated with tannin , this action does not take place. In fact, it is slow or rapid according as the tanning process has been more or less complete. A slice of the leather to be tested, one-tenth of an inch in thickness, is put in strong vinegar, in a glass phial or test-tube. Leather of inferior quality soon swells, but well tanned leather will remain unaltered, except as regards a slight change of color, for oyer a month. Bad leather becomes dark | the fibres swell and Separate, later they are transformed Into a jellyjlike mass, in which all traces of fibre are obliterated j finally, fon the edges of the cut, two dark opaque lines will be seen, formed by the well tanned outside portions. It is by observing the rapipity and the completeness of the changes that the value of the leather is determined.

Mr and Mrs Liskeard, a young English pair on their wedding tour in Switzerland, set out with a party of friends to make an ascent of Mont Blanc. When they hand reached the summit of the corridor the ladies felt the cold so severely that the guides advised on returning. All were fastened together with ropes, and the bride set out leaning upon tfie arm of a guifie. hardly had they taken 100 pahes when Mrs Liskeard and fier companion suddenly disappeared down a crevasse covered with a slight layer of frozen snow. Unhappily the rope by which they were connected with the others broke, and they were seen no more. The husband at once procured extra assistance from the Grands-Cha-lets, but the bodies could not be recovered, and are probably some thou, sand feet down in the mountain. The death of the two unfortunate persons must have been Instantaneous^

The North Herefordshire pack of foxhounds has been broken up j the entire pack and stud have fallen under ♦he hammer of Mr Tattersall, Eleven horses and thirty-four couples of hounds were sold. On this theme an English contemporary makes a sad complaint with reference to the decline of foi-hunting. This, he says, is very disheartning news :—“ What with the spread of railways, \yhich are HR the uoyerts right and left, the growing unpopularity of Reynard frith the farmers, and ihe worst of all, the luxurious habits of the age, fox* hunting, of all field sports the most manly and herioe, seems likely enough to disappear from England in the course of another generation. While such emasculate pastimes as battueshooting, pigeon-shooting, and croquet are becoming more popular every day, that gallant and adventurous recreation in which Englishmen have from time immemorial pre-eminently excelled is lapsing into disuse. We have fallen upon degenerate and opr sey p», would have Up particular cause to be proud of us, The following is an extract from a letter to the ‘Natal Times’“ Twenty pf ps volunteered yesterday to go up and into a about eight miles from here, We fouud only one native, whom we shot, took a lot of goats (87), and any amount of assegais and other Weapons. We also searched about the -country, and killed a few niggers, taking fourteen prisoners. One fellow in a cave loaded his rifle with stones and slightly wounded Wheelwright and Lieut. Clarke, of the Artillery.’ We, however, got him out, and MoOdie shot cim through the brains. Fifteen of ours have just volunteered to go to a cave supposed to contain niggers. We are gradually wiping out the three poor fellows who were shot. And all opr men are determined tb have some raore. ” . A farmer in Slagelae, Denmark* has ploughed up xu his field a beautifully pressed gold cup, pf Bryantirie workmanshift. According to. Berlipgsko, thw remnant of the days when the spoiled' Bftoklegarth will be Wcured for Oldnordisk Museum in Copenhagen,