DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 557, 31 March 1876, Page 3

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

M. de Lessepa was recently presented with an address by the English-speaking passengers on board the steamer in which he went to Egypt. It congratulates him on the success which had attended his great undertaking, and also on the step just taken by the British Government in becoming part proprietor of the Suez Canal. M. de Lesseps, in his reply, said that he had always looked upon the canal as a work which, while doing special honor to France, would advance the interests of civilisation, and put an end to the political rivalry of B’rance and England in Egypt. His wishes had now been realised. Mystery is a very delightful element in a three-volume novel ; but in the matter of food—particularly animal food —one’s appetite does not insist upon it. It is pleasant to know that the method now employed with apparent success to bring fresh meat from New York to Liverpool is not. as heretofore supposed, a “ trade secret ” The process is protected by letters parent on both sides of the ocean, and the proprietors have shown a desire to have the public generally acquainted with it. A traveller who crossed the Atlantic last winter in the steamer on which the first experiment was made writes to us as follows:—“A New York business man, interested in the company, and entrusted with the management of this first venture, was one of the passengers. He not only made no 1 trade secret ’ of the enterprise ha was engaged in, but took those of his fellow passengers who seemed interested in the subject (myself among them) to the part of the steamer where the refrigerator was placed, opening the door and explaining every point, in principle and practical working, as clearly as possible. The principle is extremely simple, and it involves no chemical processes or applications of any kind. To keep fresh meat sound and sweet during the ten or twelve days needed to cross the ocean, it is necessary merely to keep it dry and cool, without freezing it. This was the entire problem before the inventor, and he has solved it by purely mechanical means. The meat being in one part of the refrigerator and the ice in another, a fan, worked day and night by a small engine, keeps a constant stream of air passing over the meat and the ice alternately. This is the whole process, and there is no ‘ secret ’ back of it. Of course the air from the ice beeps the meat cool, but not as low as the freezing point. If, in passing through the meat chamber, the air takes up the slightest moisture this is necessarily condensed into water as soon as it reaches the ice again, and it flows away in runaways at the bottom of the ice-chamber when collected in sufficient quantity.” Another instance of many-sided enterprises which has of late distinguished the management of the Times, is the publication of a reprint of the annual news summaries which have appeared in the leading journal for twenty-five years past. The reprint forms a duodecimo volume of 598 pages, yet it is issued at the low price of a shilling. A note at the end of the book states that its contents were “setup” in ten days, of eight hours each, by four lads working at two composing machines, being at the rate of 215') lines per day. It was then printed from stereotype plates in perfected sheets of 128 pages each on the Walter press, at the rate of 12,000 per hour. These facts seem to prognosticate a great future for type-setting machines, which have hitherto been fought shy of by newspaper proprietors as a class, through the Graphic has been printed by a machine of the kind for several years. The Scotsman which may be considered at once the limes and Telegraph of Scotland, has published some figures setting forth its undoubted claim to be regarded as the leading Scottish journal. From these figures it appears that the daily circulation of the Scotsman is now over 45,000, and that it is steadily increasing from month to month. The proprietors allege, and doubtless with correctness, that its circulation now much exceeds that of any other daily paper either in England or Scotland, out of London. The advertisements are advancing in equal proportion. In 1866 they numbered 165,577 ; in 1875 they had risen to 629,566. The increase has been steady and uninterrupted from year to year ; the increase in 1875 over 1871, for example, being 18.880. Considering the size and character of Edinburgh, these figures are remarkable. The extract from the Berlin Vossiche Zeitung in Tuesday’s Times shows, no doubt very great ignorance of English life. The assertions that on Boxing Day two-thirds of the great British nation were drunk, and that drunken women of all classes were to be seen lying in the streets, are obviously the work of some ingenious “ London correspondent,” who evolved the picture from an inner consciousness which had been nourished on police reports and temperance literature. There is not much to be gained, however, by blaming these exercises of the imagination. It may be more useful to consider whether Englishmen do not often supply an occasion, if not an excuse, for such exaggerations by the unmeasured statements which they themselves often make on this subject. To judge from the loose though well-meant declamation which often passes for statistics on this subject, pretty nearly the entire working population are drunk one or two days in every week. Whether this assertion be true or false, those who make it cannot possibly have the means of knowing that it is true. They mistake the rhetoric of temperance preachers for fact, or they accept the generalities indulged in by employers who feel a natural irritation at seeing their work hindered by the occasional absence of two or three good workmen for a measured numerical estimate. That druukennoss is disastrously common in this epuntry there can be

no question ; that it is said to be more common than it really is is at least not wholly unlikely. Without a nearer approach to accuracy than has yet been made, it is impossible to come to any useful conclusions as to the extent and nature of the malady, or as to the methods by which it can best be combated, If those who originate or circulate statements about drunkenness would make it a rule to ask themselves, and to mention to others, what is the precise evidence on which these statements rest, they would be doing a real service to the cause of sobriety. A correspondent at St Petersburg says, writing on the 10th instant ; —“ A decree recently issued by the Minister of Finance, directing the officers of the revenue not to claim the public-house license duty in communes where the number of public-houses has been reduced in order to diminish the incentives to drunkenness, is much criticised here. It is stated that the object cf this decree is to encourage the sale of spirits in unlicensed houses, so as to prevent any diminution of the revenue owing to the repressive measures taken by the communes in question. The receipts arising from the brandy Excise duty forms nearly a third of the whole revenue of the Empire, the former being upwards of 186,000,000 roubles and the latter 532,000,000 roubles. If the example of the few communes which have striven to restrict drunkenness were generally followed, a deficit might be caused in the budget, which the Minister would find it very difficult to cover, for the whole of the expenses of the War Department and of the Ministry of Education are provided for out of the brandy tax. On the other hand, drunkenness is unquestionably the chief cause of the physical and moral degradation which prevails to so alarming an extent among the lower classes in Russia ; and many Russian statesmen are of opinion that any effectual measure for checking this national vice would not be too dearly purchased even at a large pecuniary sacrifice. The decree in question has been so strongly condemned by several influential persons at court that the Emperor has decided to refer it to the Council of State, and it will probably be withdrawn. There seems to be no intention as yet, however, to take any steps for remodelling the whole system of taxation, which alone can make the Minister of Finance less dependent on flie brandy tax for securing an equilibrium between receipts and expenditure in his budget.’ The people of Vienna are in excitement about a box of dynamite lying somewhere in tho Danube, which, it is feared, may reveal its presence by suddenly blowing up a bridge or a river steamboat. The danger is rendered the more trying to contemplate as the box in question was dropped into the river by a police agent, acting at the suggestion of the Ministry of Commerce, or rather of some clerks in that department, who, terrified by the recent explosion at Bremerhaven, recently bethought them of overhauling the intentions lodged at the office by patentees to see if there were any that contained explosive materials. They, in effect, found three boxes marked “ Dynamite, April 11th, 1874.” How the boxes came to have been lying unopened at the office for nearly two years is a mystery which perhaps will not Seem astonishing to inventors who have had dealings with Government departments. At any rate, the clerks had no sooner discovered the terrible parcels than they sent them to the police bureau, advising that a detective should be commissioned to drop them at night, and as privately as possible, into the river. This valuable counsel was followed. Unfortunately the agent charged with the delicate duty of putting the whole Austrian capital in danger of destruction was perceived by a brother detective, who, not being in the secret, ran and fished up two out of the three boxes and restored them to the custody of his chiefs. The third box still remains under water. An impression prevails among the people of Vienna that the course taken by the Ministry of Commerce and the police in respect of this dynamite ought not to established as a precedent ; and it may be hoped that ic will not be imitated by the authorities of Scotland yard when they may find themselves encumbered with materials unpleasant to keep and difficult to dispose of. The Americans, of course, are “ bound ” to win the Derby some day, as well as to beat our universities, our amateurs, and our professionals on the river. Whether or not that is to be the fate of the anonymous colt by Baywood, out of Earring, nominated by an American, Mr Sanford, for this year’s Derby, remains to be seen; but there can be no harm in wishing Mr Sanford better luck than that which attended the efforts of his compatriot, Mr Ten Broeck. It is not so very long since Mr Ten Broeck’s orange, black belt and orange cap, showed so frequently upon our race-courses that no field appeared complete without the familiar colours. Of his horses, whether “bred in America” or not, it were a long business to recall the many names ; but their success was not altogether encouraging. It must not be supposed, however, that horses “bredjin America” have never made their mark in this country; the name of Prioress, Starke, and Optimist occur at once to prove they have done so. In 1857 Prioress was the heroine of a dead heat With two other animals, El Hakim and Queen Bess, for the Cesarewitch, which she won in the deciding heat; and in 1858 she won the Great Yorkshire Handicap at Doncaster. In 1859 Starke won the Goodwood Stakes, and in 1861 the Goodwood Cup and the Brighton Stakes, In 1861 Optimist won the Ascot Stakes. And was not Umpire an American horse ? Memory seems to answer in the affirmative, and to add that, after having won the Nursery Stakes at Goodwood in 1859, he started, if not absolutely first favorite, close up in the betting with The Wizard and Thormanby, for the Derby of 1860. Nobody, it may be presumed, will regret to see an American adding his contribution to the international character of the Derby : the more the merrier; and the appearance among the entries of a horse “bred in Australia ” would be a pleasant enhancement of the interest which has already made the Derby a household word throughout the world.

The rumoured purchase of the stock of the Bast Indian Railway by the Government of India has been much welcomed by some of the Indian newspapers. The Calcutta Englishman , assuming that there are grounds for the reported intention of Government to issue the “ statutory notice” to the company which must be given if the stock is to be bought up at the expiration of the term originally assigned, argues that Indian railway statistics show a very strong case against accepting the existing system of private administration under Government guarantees as permanent, “ Of the 95,000,000 sterling," says the Calcutta journal, " raised by the t guaranteed companies, 82,800,000 b; >

interest at the rate of 5 per cent ; while the remaining 12,500,000 bear interest at from 4 to 4-!|- per cent. The rate at which the Indian Government can borrow for its State lines, on which it has already expended 8,500,000, is 4 per cent. Every argument which can be drawn from the fact that Government will now have to buy up the railway stock at such a premium as to leave little margin for gain to it, will apply with cumulative force at any subsequent period.” A terrible accident occurred on the 14th instant to Mr George Benseraann, the third sou: of Mr Benscmann, a well known settler in the Upper Moutere. The Beusemanu Brothers (says the Nelson Mall) had recently added to their sawmill a p’aning-machine, and the unfortunate man was engaged in oiling some part of the machinery, when he suddenly found that his shirt-sleeves had become entangled, and his hand, before he ceuld release himself was drawn in between the rollers. Before the machinery could be stopped his hand was cut in pieces, the fingers afterwards being found lying on the floor, and the arm was frightfully mangled and crushed up to the elbow. Dr Johansen was sent for at once from Motueka, and arrived on the spot as speedily as' possible, and at once amputated the arm half way between the elbow and the shoulder, the patient having in the meantime been greatly weakened by loss of blood. We are glad to hear that the latest accounts state that he is progressing favorably. He is a man of about thirty years of age, and has a wife and three children. The difficulty with the natives about carrying the railway line over certain land at Rangitikei is at an end. The Advoeate states “It affords us great satisfaction to be enabled to announce that the opposition offered by the natives to the prosecution of the railway works at Kakaiiki, referred to in our last issue of the 13th instant, has been satisfactorily disposed of. Mr Commissioner Booth, with Mr Ward and Jackson, met the natives at Kakariki on Monday last. At first they were inclined to continue the attitude of obstructionists which they had assumed, but Mr Booth so firmly maintained his position, and put the case so clearly and intelligibly before them that they saw they had not a leg to stand upon, and in the end agreed to accept the ultimatum which the Commissioner proposed on the part of the Government. This is almost identical with the offer made to them some months ago when they met in Marton, but which was then indignantly rejected. A trifling advance, in consideration of some of the land required being cultivations or clearings effected by the natives, was conceded by Mr Booth. “There are few more mysterious travellers,” the Pall Mall Gazette remarks, “ than tunes and diseases. A new tune comes out in London, and six weeks later it may be heard whistled by boys in some obscure and distant village, to which it has found its way in some manner best known to itself. It is the same with diseases, which creep over the country silently, swiftly, and surely, although their means of transit baffle the skill of the most intelligent members of the medical profession to divine. A new theory has now been started, that the foot and mouth disease, which is so prevalent among cattle, is conveyed from one district to another, notwithstanding all the precautions taken against its spread, by birds. A wood pigeon has, according to the Elgin Courant, been lately shot near. Elgin, which has been declared by veterinary surgeons and competent medical authorities to have been evidently affected by foot and mouth disease at the time of its death. The body of the unfortunate bird has, it is stated, been sent to the veterinary department of the Privy Council office, and may throw new light on the subject. Another disagreeable notion has also arisen that soap is an active agent in'the propagation of disease. The New York physicians have arrived at the conclusion that a terrible amount of illness is occasioned by the impurities contained in soap, especially in scented soap,”