MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 4033, 29 January 1876, Page 6 (Supplement)

MAIL NEWS.

Chapman, the pauper in the Hull workhouse, who was advertised for as having gone to Australia thirty years ago, has been pronounced to be the real Simon Pure, and therefore entitled to a fortune of L 30,000. He had been five years in the and the guardians purpose making him disgorge sufficient of his newly-acquired wealth to repay them the cost of his maintenance for twelve months.

. spirit hands are the latest novelty nr Spiritualism.A dish of melted wax is put . under a table, and curtained in from The medium and others sit with their hands on the table. After a while the curtains are removed, and a mould of wax is found, as though a hand had been pressed into soft wax. Plaster is then poured into the mould, thus making a cast. Believers expect that spirit faces may thus be modified.

The Crystal Palace Company’s School of Practical Engineering is having a Colonial isction added to it, designed particularly for the introduction of gentlemen who intend to proceed to the colonies or abroad as explorers or settlers. ■ The object is to afford tbmn as much practical knowledge of scienmechanical works and expedients as B a?* them to utilise the means with j they ave deal, especially where dependent upon their own resources.

, The-masters of a Board school at Tipton have adopted a novel, and at the same time brutal plan of enforcing payment of school fees. three children, the London papers report, have been severely flogged by the masters of the school which they attended for having neglected to take their school pence with them. It seems also that at one school there is a regular flogging hour, at which non-paying children are whipped. The School Board are not, however, horrified at the occurrence, but only express their dissatisfaction at “undue, flogging.” .Mr Forster, M.P., spoke at Edinburgh on education, in November last, when receiving giftbf the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, and told an excellent story of the use education had been to Scotchmen. A Scotchman recently applied to a Bradford manufacturer for the place of porter. * ‘ Are you sure,” says the manufacturer, “ that you mean porter ?” “ Porter to begin with,” says the Scotchman. “ Yes,” says the manufacturer, “ porter to begin with, but partner to end with. I have had three Scotchmtn porters to begin with, and all three are my partners now.” Although there is a lull in the war between Germany and the Church, hostilities have by no meaiis terminated. The Assistant Bishop of Guesen, Monsignor Czybichowski, whs some tune since transported beyond the boundaries-of the province of Hosen, recently returned, and was immediately arrested and put in prison. His Sentence is for nine months, which he will now serve out. The Government has seized the furniture and otherhousehold property of the Archbishop of Cologne. Dr Melchers, the Archbishop, was absent at the time.

. -Mr.W. E. Forster has returned from America with his faith in popular govemmait strengthened and confirmed, but with' altered views on the subject of minority representation, upon which he is now disposed to !ook With favor. He warmly eulogises' the Labor Bills of the Home Secretary, has everv confidence in the foreign policy of Lord Derby, and has nothing but praise for the colonial policy of Lord Carnarvon. This is a marked contrast to the spirit in which political warfare is conducted in these colonies, where 4he Opposition makes it a point of duty to assail with the most rancorous and ferocious hostility not merely the conduct, but the assumed, motives of the Ministry for the time being. The .retirement of Prince Bismarck into private me has been again announced, this tune with more show ,of reason, and with less confident denial. Things have not been happening exactly as he wished, and changes are likely to be made of which he cannot approve. The Liberals are about to make ??• ? introduce the English system of Ministerial responsibility to the country* a reform the carrying of which maybe inevitable, but to the operation of which both PiTnce and Emperor would be reluctant to yield. The suppression of the Amim pamphlet was a confession of weakness, and upon the whole the public enthusiasm in favor of the great Chancellor is suffering abatement. °

At tbe mumcipal elections held throughout English boroughs in November, there was an extraordinary number of Liberal vietones, a circumstance which is hailed as a forerunner of corresponding changes in the political arenaßecent appointments by the Ministry have evoked against them charge# of corruption. Among other adhwents, the Conservative eefitor of the Mmburgh Courant ’ was rewarded with a bdlet., This, however, is not one of the bad cases. The Liberal programme for the next sessioil has been pointed out by an opponent. It; embraces fra land, free schools; and a free , church. - Mr Bright, who is called upon almost every week' to give his opinion on somejpassmg event, has oracularly declared that England a forcing policy should be “ not spintedjibut just.” The, case of the ex-Quetn of Spain and her fouruisseurs has been dismissed, the Court finding that the Queen had never undertaken to pay anything except her contract with her major domo, who was the real debtor. The Queen appeared in court, and was sworn. She was very quiet and gracious to the officials, very simply dressed, and took the strange proceeding with entire self-possession, only showing a little surprise when the magistrate informed her that she remove her glove before taking the ° Duly that nothing surprises anyone now-awlays, and that historical contrasts have lost all their piquancy in their frequency, one might wax eloquent over the image of a Queen of Spain summoned into court as a defendant in a civil process, and obliged to clear herself by an oath from a Sof defrauding her tradespeople! ' Ferdinand and Isabella, of Charles f'k® Fifth, and Philip, were you anywhere “ about on the occasion, revisiting the glimpses of, the sun which shone on so tremendous au anomaly ? And if you were what did you think of it? The Queen, who is a dignified lady, for all that she is fat and not xqnv took it all with the good humour which, to do her justice, seldom fails Isabella the Second.

A DETECTIVE ARRESTED,

“The romance with which novelties have invested the profession of a detective,” writes , the ‘ Pali Mali Gazette ’ of October 22, “ has taa great •extent been neutralised by the hardly suppressed smiles of the public at the frequent" failure of these functionaries to get further on the path of inquiry than ‘acjne,’ Occasionally, however, it -must be admitted that their efforts are crowned with the most brilliant success, and that they achieve results little short of miraculous. An instance of marvellous astuteness on the part of a detective is reported from Plymouth, Jt .seems that a police officer Crons. Liverpool >va«s despatched, to Jamaica to bnng kome a defaulting cashier, who absconded to that island some mouths ago. On Friday, October J5, the detective landed at Plymouth with hfe prisoner, whom he had safely brought home —the o#ly drawback to the success of his .mission being that the prisoner is now at large, and, the detective is’himself in custody. The eontretemps happened in this vise, , Qn arrival fat Plymouth, the detec-

keandhia charge [proceeded to an hotel, [ where the latter, taking advantage, it is ! stated, of his custodian having fallen asleep ■ in the smoking room of the establishment, : ‘ stepped out, ’ and has not seen fit to return, 1 The Liverpool authorities, being much ■ annoyed at the disappearance of the de- i faulting cashier, have arrested the detec-, tive.

A DRUNKEN’ WOMAN’S FREAK,

American papers state that a drunken woman performed an extraordinary surgical operation upon her husband in Cleveland, Ohio, recently. Both were under the influence of liquor at the time, and had been on a spree all day, which finally resulied in a terrible fight. The woman received a bad beating, and, infuriated beyond reason, planned and executed a most diabolical revenge. She first induced her husband to go to bed, and then, procuring some chloroform, saturated a handkerchief and held it to his nodrils till he was entirely unconscious. She next procured an old carpenter’s saw, and soon had cut one of the man’s leg’s off a little above the ankle joint. Some neighbors, who came in, tied up the bleeding member, the man remaining unconscious all the time. He was taken to a hospital, and is hot expected to live. The woman has been arrested.

AN UNREHEARSED SENSATION. The audience at the theatre of Zanesville, Ohio, lately witnessed an unexpected rendering of the opera of “Faust” by the members of an Italian lyric company visitmg the place. Everything went on as usual until t ie scene in which Faust fights a dual with Valentine, and the latter is slain by a thrust from the inferior rapier of Mephistopheles. On this occasion, however, Valentine no sooner emerged from his sister’s house than he engaged, not Faust, but Mephistopheles, in a single combat. Both actors fought with such remarkable spirit and dexterity that the audience applauded frantically, till suddenly, Mepliistophles, contrary to all stage tradition, received a terrible thrust from Valentine, and, so far from retaliating with demoniacal sang-froid, by a stroke of his magic sword, fell back into the arms of Faust. The affair was, in fact, a preconcerted duel, and the baritone had killed the basso before a host of unconscious seconds. The two singers were rivals in the good graces of the prima donna, and to add to the distressing nature of the incident, the Mephistopheles, whose name was Giulio, was the preferred suitor of the Signora Arabella, whose lamentations added to the scene of confusion on which the curtain fell.

insulting a town COUNCIL. ■ A frighrful example has lately been made at Forfar, in Scotland, of the town’s “drummer and bellman ” for allowing himself to be made an instrument of ribaldry directed at the municipal dignitaries. It seems that this reckless functionary lately paraded the streets making a public announcement in the following terms Wanted candidates for the nearly'deamct Town Council. Apply to B. E. R. C., at the Carlton.” These letters being interpreted mean the Burgh Election Reform Committee, and the Carlton, a room in a public-house much frequented by that august body. This was more than the Town Council could stand, and accordingly the “ drummer and bellman’ was dismissed from his post, and now is but a private member of society in Forfar, wandering gloomily about the streets, with his occupation gone.” In the meantime the unfortunate affair Ijas created much dissension in the once peaceful town. It is Urged by the drummer and bellman’s supporters that his dismissal is unwarrantable, and at a nomination meeting held last week the person at whose instance the announcement was made declared that the whole affair was “a lark,” and that if the Magistrates and Town Council had not disgraced themselves all the drummers and. hellmeu in Scotland could not have injured them. This statement was received with tremendous applause, and the latest accounts from the town are of a most disheartening if not alarming nature.