MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 291, 16 December 1901, Page 1

MAIL NEWS.

London, Nov. 2. William Waldorf Astor is to be invited to accept the Mayoralty of Maidenhead for the Coronation year. The retiring Mayor is W. H. Grenfell, M.P., whose place at Taplow Court adjoins Mr Astor’s aud has been the scene of more fashionable honeymoons than any house in England. Mr Astor is not now on the burgess roll of the town of Maidenhead, but it

is proposed to get over this difficulty by making him a freeman of the borough. He would receive no salary as Mayor aud the duties are purely ornamental and nominal.

London, Nov. 2

A new obstacle to the appointed coronation festivities is profoundly disturbing court circles. Small-pox is spreading in London. Tho cases are not numerous at present, but they aro distributed over every London district and are virulent, with an abnormally high mortality. It is recognized in court circles that if tho disease is not stamped out before spring the festivities, as far as the attendance of visitors is concerned, are destined to be a failure in auy event, and that the London tradesmen and hotel-keepers will be pretty well ruined after their previous losses due to the war and Queen Victoria’s doatn. The state of King Edward’s health continues to bring out conflicting opinions from the highest authorities among the medical journals, yet the public inclines to believe the report that he has cancer until an unequivocal official denial shall be published. The absence of such a denial strengthens the suspicion that something is wrong. As a result of this state of uncertainty, all business dependent upon the coronation is arrested. Orders are being cancelled for all kinds of goods, the letting of houses is at a standstill, and thore is a general disinclination to invest in anything in anticipation of an event which may not take place. St. Petersburg, Oct. 18.

The famous Russian priest, John of Cronstadt, is reported to have performed a miracle. A woman unable to move her limbs was carried to him. He fastened his eyes on her and bade her make tho sign of the cross. After much effort she did so. He then ordered her to rise. This she did, but evidently i n great pain. After a few minutes the pain departed, it is averred, and at Father John’s request she walked round him supported by her friends, and on being told to go to pray aud make the sign of the cross, she moved away without assistance.

According to the Russian newspapers—which give the name of the woman and the place where tho alleged miracle occurred—thousands of persons witnessed this, and all the woman’s relatives and friends have sworn that to their certain knowledge the woman has been a helpless cripple for years London, Nov. 2.

A great sensation was caused recently by the disappearance of the Duke of St. Albans, who is not quite right in his head, from a sanatorium near London. But his adventures were short lived, for he walked into a local ale-house, was instantly recognized and taken back.

Berlin, Oct. 18,

The cases of lese inajeste, which were greatly diminished during the summer, again begin to assume serious proportions. It is remarkable that the offense increases whenever there is industrial depression, as now. Two of the strangest recent cases are those of a newspaper which condemned the Kaiser’s reception of Prince Chun and of a man who would not rise from his seat when a “hoch ” was called for the Kaiser at a meeting he attended. The editor got six months, the other man three. A Konigsberg man named Knipel accused of the crime committed suicide. Arbois, France, Nov. 2.—Arbois, where Louis Pasteur spent his youth, and whence he set out for Paris to begin his medical career, has just erected a monument to his memory. The whole town was decorated witli Hags, lanterns, and branches of pine, and the inhabitants were most enthusiastic in their testimonies of affection and respect to the memory of the great physician.

Mine. Pasteur, the widow of the honored dead, was present at the official ceremony, likewise Jean Baptiste Pasteur, who responded by a speech of

thanks to the address delivered in Pasteur's memory.

BUDAPKST, Hungary, Nov. 2.—A brilliant career was suddenly ended this week with the death, at the age of thirty-one years, of Joseph Virag, an inventor of marvellously rapid telegraphy. Virag and Poliak, two engineers, applied an optical telephone which they had constructed, to telegraphy, and succeeded in telegraphing from 70,000 lo 80,000 words an hour. The first trial was so successful that. Mr Baker, the manager of an American cable company, said it would make him happy for life if ho could carry off the little apparatus that had performed such wonders. He said it was his duty to examine all new inventions connected with telegraphy, and that never had he seen an inven-

tion approaching in cleverness to this. The inventors were- not satisfied, however, and continued improving the apparatus until they succeeded in obtaining beautifully clear writing on the receiver. This was so valuable that for its sake they reduced the speed to •10,000 words an hour. They also had a very successful trial between Chicago and New ’i ork in all weathers. The invention is now complete, ar.d was about to be adopted, it is said, by all the telegraph companies in the world. , , But just at the moment when full success was about to reward the inventors one of them was seized with a virulent fever, and died after an illness of three days. BKKLIN. Nov. 2.—A lieutenant of Hussars named Soyka, and a merchant named Lowenfeld, fought a duel in which the officer was killed on the third shot. Lowenfeld’s beautiful wife with whom Sovka had arranged to elope, bought a revolver, and is waiting for a chance to shoot tier husband. Slie sent him a challenge as soon as she heard of Snyka's death, but Lowenfeld refused to fight his wife.