MAIL ITEMS.

Evening Star, Issue 4045, 12 February 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAIL ITEMS.

An official paper shows that in 1874 183,130 persons in England and Wales were proceeded against for drunkenness and being drunk and disorderly. An amusing slip of the pen occurred recently in the 'Athenaeum,' which introduced to its readers an ecclesiastic whom it named "Mr Cardinal Manning." " Blankets " of brown paper of a superior quality, perforated in such a maimer as to permit a free passage to the exhalations of the body without diminishing the warmth, are advertised in London at 4d, sd, or 6d each.

A proposal having been made to introduce an organ into th 6 Linlithgow Parish Church, a meeting of the congregation was held to hear objections to it. It appears that there were 759 in favor of the organ, 42 opposed to it, and 82 neutral.

An unwelcome piece of information is tele-

graphed by the New York correspondent of the ' Daily News' :—lt is expected that the Beecher investigation will be revived. Mrs Moulton has demanded a council of the Congregational Churches, in consequence of her name being erased from the rolls of the Plymouth Church.

At the Cardiff Police Court, a question was raised before the stipendiary as to whether peppermint was an intoxicating liquor. A landlord had supplied two drunken women with some, and he was summoned for selling intoxicating liquors to drunken persons. Mrßeavan, the supervisor of the district, stated that peppermint usually contained 30 per cent, of alcohol in a rectified state. The magistrates held that the defendant was liable, and fined him 40s and costs, and endorsed his license.

A married woman named Boyon has been condemned to death at the Lot Assizes, in France, for murdering her seven children and a grand-daughter by pushing needles into their bodies. She had ten children, seven of whom died under twelve months old, but it was not till the death of her grand-daughter that an investigation was made. Her apparent motive for this last crime was that the child might die before its father, who was apparently near death, and that she might thus secure part of his property. When asked how she came to think of sticking needles into the children's body, she stated that at the public-house she kept there was a conversation on infanticide, and it was said babies did not suffer when murdered in this way. A MODEL ESTABLISHMENT. An interesting festival has just been held at Creuzot, the vast iron works of M. Schneider, so long the admiration of onlookers for his tact and wit as President of the Legislative body under the Empire after the death of the Duke de Moray. Le Creuzot is a sort of model establishment, the workpeople having a share in the profits over and above their wages ; and M. Schneider, seconded by his son, having built excellent houses for them, provided with gardens and various conveniences, schools, reading-rooms, theatre, a savings-bank, sick clubs, and many other excellent institutions. The ''solemnity" in question was the inauguration of a new " quarter " of the great industrial domain, with 300 workmen's houses, schools, &c. There was a substantial lunch' followed by a few speeches; the whole domain was gaily decked out with flags and wreaths, and the day's excitements concluded with dancing in the large and handsome hall that serves as a lecture and concert room, &c. Strikes are absolutely unknown at Creuzot. During the latter years of the Empire, attempts were repeatedly made, by the emissaries of the party which invented the Commune of 1871, to sow dissatisfaction and class jealousy among the people of this establishment, which is really an industrial town. But none of those emissaries succeeded in their mission of mischief, and the prosperity of the place, as well as its size, is constantly on the increase.

A NOVEL STEAM CARRIAGE. The gay world of the Bois de Boulogne has just witnessed the spectacle of an elegant " break," going at the same rate of speed as that of a team of first-rate horses, winding in and out among the stream of carriages about the lakes, stopping suddenly, or turning round with admirable ease, without horses ! The novel vehicle is a steam-car-nage, just invented and constructed at Le Mans (Sarthe) by a rich manufacturer of that town, M. Ernest Bollee, for his own private use. It crossed the lines of the tramways several times, passed innumerable omnibuses, carriages, and other vehicles, went in and out among saddle horses, showing itself to be as manageable as a carriage drawn by horses, or rather, very much more manageable than an ordinary vehicle drawn in the ordinary way. The result of an official examination has enabled M. Caillaux (one of the first practical engineers of France) to say that the new carriage has effectually and entirely solved the problem of the application of steam to> private vehicles and on ordinary roads. With this most ingenious invention the use of steam is attended by no inconvenience; the new apparatus makes no noise, no smell, smoke, or vapor. The vehicle can travel at the rate of ten English miles per hour, with an expenditure of about three francs of coal. HORRIBLE CRUELTY. Two priests in a monastery not far from Berbir, which is a Turkish fortress opposite Alt Gradiska, in Austria, were convicted by the Turks in participating in the Herzegovmian insurrection. A force was sent to the. monastery, and one of the priests was captured. The other succeeded in escaping to the mountains. The priest who was taken had his hands and feet cut off while he was alive, and after being allowed to suffer the horrible tortures consequent on mutilation for some time, he was impaled on a sharp stake and left as a warning to all others. A troop was sent to the hillside forest in pursuit of the second priest, but he was not found until a day or two after, when hunger forced him to stray into a neighboring village. There he was recognised, denounced by some Bosnian Mussulmans, and at once arrested. A guard was sent for, and the unfortunate priest was brought into Berbir half dead from wounds, and with a huge iron collar •around his neck. He was thrown into a filthy dungeon, and was not even given food. He seemed likely to starve before his tormentors should decide to kill him. At this juncture the Austrian Consul heard of it, and his blood boiled as he saw the ignorant and degraded Turks day by day abusing men who are in everything their betters. When the fate of the first priest and the danger of the second was related to him he went stiuightway to the local functionary and said something very like bhis : '' You miserable old cur, is it possible bhat you can treat human beings, and above all. Ministers of God, as you have treated bhis poor priest ? Are you not aware that in intelligent European, who despises you, is looking on ?" The Consul, whatever he said, used very strong language, and demanded that the collar be at once taken i-om the priest's neck, ami that he be given lucent food and some kind of protection igainst the howling mob that surrounded ;be jail. Perhaps there was a tinge of Sclavonic blood in this Austrian Consul's veins, iud there was beneath his earnest pleading or the priest the fervor of a dangerous nenaoe, which even the dull Turk could disern. At any rate, the Consular suggestion vas heeded, and the life of the priest up to late has been spared, although he is still in Jrieon.—' BelgradejCor. N.Y. Herald.''