MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 4098, 15 April 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAIL NEWS.

PRINCESS BEATRICE. We learn from the ‘ Hour ’ that the forthcoming marriage of the Princess Beatrice, which has been the subject of so many rumors, was referred to by Sir Henry Peek, Bart., M.P., at the annual meeting of the Sutton Conservative Association. Sir Henry stated that he was informed, and he believed it was no secret, that her Royal Highness is engaged to be married to Prince Louis of Battenberg, R.N., who is now in India with the Prince of Wales. * VERY AWKWARD. By a recent decision made by one of the Californian Courts, a man who lives with a woman and introduces her as his wife, stands in exactly the same relation to her as though he had married her according to the ceremonies prescribed by the churches, or the laws of the land. In the cnse to which we allude the woman sued for the u widow’s dower,” the man having died and left a large property—and the Court awarded her the widow’s share.

THE EMMA MINE SCANDAL. The Emma Mine scandal is again occupying public attention in England and steps are about to be taken to compel the promoters of it to disgorge the sum, very little less than a million sterling, of which they robbed the shareholders. Two telegrams which we published last week intimated that the resignation of General Schencke of his appointment as the representative of the American Government at the Court of St. James’s had been reported and contradicted. In the face of the evidence which be gave before a committee of the directors it is not easy to understand how he can still continue to exercise diplomatic functions in London. It appears that Mr Park, the vendor of the mine, who had previously been concerned in putting a bubble mining company on the New York market, and in issuing first mortgage bonds on an American railroad which had no existence except on paper, applied to General Schencke for the use of his name. The astute projector is described by the General as having lent him LI 0,000 with which to purchase 500 L2O shares, while also guaranteeing him 18 per cent, interest on that amount ; and the diplomatist became one of the trustees of the company. One million sterling was soon subscribed for the purchase of an utterly worthless tract of land, reported to be argentiferous, in Utah, of which General Schencke admits that he had no knowledge beyond the merest heresay ; and Mr Albert Grant is generally stated to have netted LIOO,OOO as his share in the profits of the transaction. When the bubble burst, the assets of the company were found to be little over L 3,000, and the shares, which were at one time quoted at L3O each, became unsaleable at any price.

A SELL FOR THE PEASANT. An amusing incident is related by a German correspondent as having occurred during the recent Imperial hunt at Hubertustock. The hounds had just been called off, and the guests were dispersing, when the Emperor William, feeling slightly unwell, proposed to return to the Castle on foot. The King of Saxony and the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh accompanied him; but, when the august party were about half-way to their destination, the Emperor became fatigued, and a peasant driving a cart in the direction of Hubertustock happening to pass by, they asked him to give them a lift, which he willingly did. On the way, however, the good man’s curiosity being excited by the appearance of his passengers, he said, turning to one of them, “And who may you bel” “I am the Grand Duke of Macklenburg.” “Oh, indeed!” returned the peasant with a wink. “ Then who may you be ?” he inquired of the next. “I am the King of Saxony.” “ Better and better !” cried the carter. “And you ?” accDating the third member of the party. “ I am the Emperor of Germany.” “ Well, then,” said the countryman, in high good humor, “ I will tell you w ho lam; 1 am the Shah of Persia, and can hoax people as well as you can.” But when he drove up to the castle of Hubertustock, the honest fellow found that, of all the potentates in the cart, he was the only one whose claim could not be substantiated

HATS AND BONNETS. A physician of a London hospital writes to the ‘ British Medical Journal ’:—There is no recognised reason why of late years neuralgia of the face and scalp should have increased so much in the female sex as compared with our own. There is no doubt that it is one of the most common of female maladies—one of the most painful and difficult of treatment. It is also a cause of much mental depression, and leads more often to habits of intemperance than any other. This growing prevalence of neuralgia may to some extent be referred to the effects of cold upon the terminal branches of the nerves distributed to the skin ; and the reason why men are less subject to it than women may, to a great extent, I think, be explained by the much greater protection afforded by the mode in which the former cover their heads when they are in the open air. It may be observed that the surface of the head which is actually covered in man is at least three times that which fashion allows to a woman ; indeed, the points of contrast between the hat or bonnet and the head in the latter are so irregular as practically to destroy any protection which might otherwise be 1 afforded. If I were to report a case of

facial neuralgia cured on the principle of protecting the lateral and frontal surface of the face, as well as the superior part of the scalp, it might excite a certain amount of ridicule. I can assure you, however, that ray patient considers that her case ought to be reported, for she says that, if we cannot do much for neuralgia with our prescriptions, we ought to oppose fashion when we find it prejudicial to health and productive of suffering. SOMETHING LIKE A COSTUME. The following description of a dress worn by a young lady at a recent ball in Texas, is taken from the ‘ East Texas Bulletin : ’ —The dress represented the first flag of the Confederacy. On her arm she bore the flag adopted by the Confederate National Congress. On the lower skirt were stars for the States, with the name and seal of each State in the centre; photographs of Confederate generals were on the upper skirt, together with pictures of the Alabama and Sumpter : on her shoulders were streamers of the successful battles; manacles and chains were on her arms; a coronet of the seceded States was on her head, and rising above them was a black veil, representing the gloom thrown over them. This was fastened with the dagger of oppression.

WHAT MAY HAPPEN TO A MAN IN ENGLAND.

A mechanic, Mr George Beavis, living at 6, Queen’s Place, Rut her field street, Islington, appears, if his own account sent to the 1 Kentish Mercury ’ be accurate, to have been almost as badly treated by the administrators of English “justice” as if he had been an innocent person committed for trial by the blunder of a county Bench. His little girl, who ought to have attended school, was kept away for the ringworm. Her sisters had the whooping cough. The children of the lodgers had the measles. So after the child got well from the ringworm, she was kept at home another month, for fear she should spread the whooping cough and the measles, which were still in the house. Summoned toClerkenwell Police Court for her non-attendance, Beavis was told that he was pleading a petty excuse, and fined 2s, with Is costs. He had only brought a shilling in his pocket, and asked leave to give this shilling to a messenger who should be sent to his house for the requisite money. He was not only refused, but sent straight off to Coldbath Prison; had his hair cut, was locked up in a dark cell all night, dressed the next morning in the prison dress, and only released when his wife found him out and paid the tine. That is simply monstrous. It turns a fine into a disgraceful and severe punishment. A system of justice which, in its eagerness to prevent the escape of guilt, inflicts gratuitous punishment on the guiltless, more than neutralises a great deal of the benefit of its own work. A Court of Injustice might take some pleasure in rewarding crime, but its chief aim would be to scourge the just.

A HEROINE. It is pleasant to find a Swedish paper full of a story of the heroism displayed by English villagers in rescuing the crew of the Swedish steamer Gustave from drowning. The story is told in the ‘ Dagens Nyheter,’ of Stockholm. It seems that on the 15th January, in a fog, the Gustave went ashore at Cresswell, a little Northumbrian village five miles to the north of the town of -Newbiggin. The crew were all in imminent danger of drowning. The lifeboat was manned by thirteen out of the fifteen male inhabitants of Cresswell, and only two old fishermen and the women were left ashoi’e, and these waded deep into the sea to get the lifeboat afloat. But the lifeboat could not get at the wreck without a rocket apparatus, and a girl, Bella, went off to Newbiggin to get it, wading through the bays to shorten the distance, and she had walked in this way ten miles, when she came back from her errand. She was so benumbed by her wet clothing—she had had her wet clothes on six hours—that she had the next morning, after all the crew were saved, a sharp attack of cramps. The Swedish writer, commenting on this girl’s achievement, says : people were was unknown to her; to what country they belonged was all the same to her \ it was a question of human life that might be saved by her means. I opened the family Bible, the sole ornament of that unassuming room, and there read the name of ‘ Isabella Brown, born 1853.’ . . . Fortunate the country which possesses men and women like those who, on that icy January night, flew to the rescue of the Swedish steamer Gustave and its ci’ew.” And, fortunate, too, the country whose people feel and realise so gratefully the courage and devotion by which they have been saved.

MISCELLANEOUS. Petticoat lane is to be reformed. The ‘Jewish World’ hears that considerable improvements ai’e about to be made in that thoroughfare. Artisans’ dwellings are to be exacted, and in consequence of this several of the inhabitants will shortly receive notice to quit.

Malon, who was one of the most active members of the Paris Commune, has been expelled from Milan by the Italian Government, and conducted to the Swiss frontier.

Ma, if I should die «nd go to Heaven, shou.d I wear my moirt? antiqu-t dress?” iNo, my love, we can scarcely supp >se we wear the attire of this world in the next.” Ihen, Ma, how would the angels know that I belonged to the best society ? ”