NEWS BY MAIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 412, 10 May 1902, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL.

Paris, March 29. Gustave Gamier, a composer, won his wager that ho could play tho piano ceaselessly for more than twenty-four hours without repeating the sarno piece. He played twenty-seven hours and four minutes without notes, entirely from memory, playing one hundred und sixteen pieces, ranging from a concert hall waltz to a Beethoven symphony. Twice lie was fed by an assistant, but without interrupting the playing. Tho performance ended when Gamier, who had been raving more and more for two hours, fell insensible. The skin was worn from his finger tips, and after he stopped his arms began to swell.

At the present moment Gamier is still out of his mind, and the doctors say his condition is precarious. “ From London to Paris in five hours ” may be realised within two years, thanks to a syndicate of Americans whose representatives are now here consulting daily with tho authorities of tho French Northern Railway. The World correspondent, though requested to withhold names for the present, is assured that a practical plan has been devised.

The Northern Railway, whose superb Calais branch boasts of having the fastest trains in the world, has been trying for years to stir up two English London-to Dover lines to shorten the time of tho trip. The English argument always has been : “ We hold the shortest route anyhow ; why go to the expense of this 1 quickening of the servico.” The American syndicate mentioned has secured the support of powerful English politicians, and at the next session of tho British Parliament a bill will be introduced authorising a new electric line from London to Dover. The promoters of this enterprise promise to cover the distance in forty-five minutes.

The estimated cost of the new road is £5,000,000, on which amount the enormous traffic expected will pay 20 per cent., it is calculated, from the first. Vienna, March 29. To save officers in the Austro-Hungurian Army from rash marriages, the law demands that £I,OOO, the property of either the bride or the bridegroom, shall be deposited with the Government, the- interest being the guarantee that the officer and his family shall live in a style suitable to his rank, for which his pay is deemed insufficient.

The result is young officers do not marry, but keep house with girls who consent to such an arrangement. In a little town in Southern Hungary a young officer and his sweetheart started life in this mariner. After a child waa born the officer was transferred to Budapest. The girl and her baby followed him, and they tried to live in expensive Budapest on the officer’s pay, but soon contracted debts and suffered actual want.

The baby died and the your/g mother fell ill while she nursed it. The young officer, who was devoted to her, sold or pawned all he could to give her food and medicine. When she died he had no money to pay the funeral expenses. He sold the poor clothes she left and paid the undertaker.

Then the girl’s mother sued him for theft. A military court tried him, found him guilty and deprived him of his rank, so that if he wishes to remain in the army he must serve in the line.

London, March 22. The House of Lords inquiry into the betting evil among the wage-earning classes has ended. Witnesses to all ranks in life were unanimous in testifying to the terrible magnitude and blighting influence of this curse. But no practical scheme to check it has been evolved.

Labor Leader Robert Knight gave impressive evidence, declaring that the effect of betting on the character is such that he would neither employ nor trust any one addicted to the habit; that not 5 per cent of betting workingmen ever saw a horserace, while the betting among youths has become a species of insanity. Women also bet, but not in England to the same extent as in France.

Suppression of betting intelligence in the newspapers, making betting a criminal offence with severe penalties, and licensing betting men are among the remedial suggestions, but there is no hope that either or all would eradicate the evil. Paris, March 22. The Paris police have notified the Sultan of Turkey that a'plot has been discovered here among the Young Turks to release ex-Sultan Murad V. from the palace in which he is kept closely confined. The plotters intended to reinstate Murad, who is represented to be a man of great intelligence and liberal progressive opinions. The French detectives unearthed the plot several weeks ago, but the authorities hesitated about considering it to be their international duty to warn the actual potentate.

Berlin, March 22. In the valleys south of Stuttgart known as the Swabian country, owing to tk," frenzied preaching of the Second Adventists, many farmers and peasants have declared their intention of leaving Wurtemberg and starting off to await the second coming of Christ. Some have sold their houses, farms and stock, others have given away all their possessions. The advance guard left Wurtemberg about ten days a<m for the Caucasus, where the second coming is expected.

There is a division of opinion among the leaders as to the exact spot where the second advent will take place, buit all are united in believing it is somewhere ip South Russia, and they want to be on the spot at the time, as they believe the end of the world will follow immediately, About one hundred years ago, during the Napoleonic wars there was a similar movement, with a similar destination, in South Germany, and thousands of ignorant peasants emigrated to South Raseia, where their descendants still live