Home and foreign News

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1548, 6 February 1874, Page 105

Home and foreign News

The Flood in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Standard gives the following account of the late inundations at the Russian Capital I—St. Petersburg lies very low ; it is, in fact, built upon a marsh, and is always in danger of inundation when the current of the Neva is opposed by a south-westerly wind. In former times these floods did a great deal of damage, and when the water had risen to a certain height signals were made to warn the inhabitants of the danger; flags by day and lanterns by night ■were placed on the Admiralty tower, and guns were constantly fired from the fortress. This practice is still continued, but as the soil has become gradually raised, serious inundations have of late years been rare, and since the frightful flood of 1824, when the waters of the Neva reached a height of 18 feet above their usual Hevel, there has been nothing equal to the rise of Tuesday last, the 14th inst. The weather had been unusually warm during the day; at sunset it became evident that a storm was approaching, and towards seven o'clock it blew a perfect hurricane. The water rose rapidly, and the lower parts of the town were completely flooded. By two o'clock a.m. the water was almost 10 feet above its usual height, so that it flooded into many streets which had not been submerged since the great inundation. Some of the thoroughfares were literally converted into rivers. The trees in the public gardens were broken or uprooted, ships in the river were torn from ifeeir anchors and thrown against the floating bridges, all of which were more or less damaged. Telegraphic communication was suspended, as many of the posts ■were thrown down, and the wires torn away by the wind. At the extremity of the Vassili Ostroff several coasting ships were floated into the streets, the wooden pavement was destroyed, fences were carried away, chimney-pots thrown down, and roofs torn off. The poor people were panic-stricken, and many were obliged to abandon the little property they possessed, being only too glad to save their lives. Some were taken off in boats. _ A poor izvostchik was seen to mount his horse and gallop away to a place of safety, leaving his drosky and harness to their fate. The zoological gardens were completely tinder water, and the proprietors had the greatest difficulty in saving the animals. The elephant in particular gave a great deal of trouble; but he was at last led in ■safety to the nearest police-station, where he remained for the night. The effects of the storm were felt for many miles round St Petersburg. At Tsarskoe Selo, Pavlovsk, and Peterhoff people were kept awake all night for fear of the roofs of their houses being blown off. At Cronstadt considerable damage was done to the shipping, and at Sestroretsk a wharf was destroyed by "the violence of the waves, and two watchmen were drowned. To add to the horrors of this eventful night, there were no less than four fires, and the head policemaster was quite at his wits' end as one disaster after another was reported to him. goon after two o'clock the wind veered round to the north, and the current being BO longer impeded, the water fell as rapidly as it had risen. On the following morning a locomotive engine was seen plying along the Nevsky, offering to pump the water out ot the cellars, and during the remainder of the week the attention of a great part of the population was devoted to removing the traces of the inundation. The loss of property has been Immense, bat it is believed that at St. Petersburg no lives have been lost. The Literary Labor Market. The following extract from the last nramber of the Printers' Register would seem to show that except in cases where there is first-class talent, literature is about the worst pursuit in which an educated man in England can embark : Literature, it is to be feared, is now as much as ever a precarious pursuit. Brussels journals announce the death of M. Rastoul de Mangeout, author of a history of the reign of Leonard the First, and also of a biography of the first Queen i)i the Belgians, which in. the year 1850 he wrote in two days. At the age of sevepf y he ended his days in profound misery, haying in hifi possession only one franc i(tenpence), his sole fortune. At our own doors we have such, another painful case, only that the victjm'of misfortune is still Jiving. After forty years of hard Jijterary jjabor Mr Thomas Miller, a self-educated author, and once famed as " The Basketweaving Poet," has in the decline of life been brought to the extremity of want. u A long illnesss," a charitable lady writes to one of the dailies, u reduced him to jfche very brink of starvation, and had it not been for the timely, but accidental visit of a friend, he would probably have added another to the long list of deaths brought on by want of food." Only comparatively less harrowing is the case revealed through the medium of the PaUy taws by M a poor, author and traveller, who, • srelatiogthebitter hardshipshe and his wife we .enduring., described the vyite at the

time to have gone out to pledge two flatI irons as the only articles they could spare c to raise means for getting some bread to sustain life. According to him, there are scores of persons, educated and talented in a similar condition. Of what avail is it, he asks, that men possess high and good testimonials ? Work can hardly be got by regular labourers, let alone the educated poor. " As I write this," he says, " I am eating dry bread, the last we have ; and though, if I can hold out, this painful position will be temporary, still the brain is hardly strong enough for the literary work I have to complete." All the more piliable does his condition appear in contrast with his own statement that he is well known, having spoken and written with as much public approbation as most men. Subscriptions on behalf of the poor author have been received by the Daily News. Meanwhile his sad circumstances have suggested a warning to the increasing class, who making their way to London, fancy they have only to get an introduction to an Editor or Publisher and their fortune is .assured. If this is true at all, it can be true only of highclass talent. Perhaps the actual facts will best be illustrated in the words of a literary journal's correspondent. " I have never known a time in London," he writes, " when really good journalistic talent was so much in demand as it now is. The men who can do really good work are anxiously sought for, and they generally dictate their otvn terms. I know of a gentleman who is perhaps not brilliant, but whose work is always good and seasonable, who is now com' pelled to work for sixteen hours a-day to keep his engagements, and who came to me with tears in his eyes the other day, to complain that he had been compelled to decline an additional offer to write at a rate that a few years ago he would have considered extravagant. At the same time the town "is full of poor journalists, who are starving to death. There is plenty of room upstairs, but the apartments below are fearfully crowded." An 111-omened Spot. An unfenced mill lodge at Bury has been the death scene of no fewer than 50 persons. The last victim was a boy who was drowned while bathing in the lodge, and it was at the inquest on his body, that the above fact was stated on official authority. Improving a Holiday. Dr. Temple, Bishop of Exeter, has discovered a novel as well as a useful mode of spending his summer holidays. Proceeding to the isolated parish of St. Breward, in the north of Cornwall, he liberated the vicar, Dr. Marcyn, for a month, and took upon himself the whole of the duties of the parish, performing the usual services in the church and in the chapel of ease, two miles distant. " Free Land." Asked by a correspondent to explain the meaning of the term "Free land," MiBright has replied that it means the abolition of the law of primogeniture and the limitation of the system of entails and settlements ; it means that it shall be as easy to buy or sell land here as it is in Australia or the Uuited States; and that no unnecessary work shall be made for the lawyer. A thorough reform in this matter would, in the opinion of Mr Bight, give " an endless renown " to the minister who made it, " and would bless to an incalculable extent all classes connected with and dependent on honest industry." Isle of Man Coal. For many years past various have been the attempts throughout the Isle of Man to discover coal, but unfortunately most of them if not all, have proved failures. It has now been proved that it exists in great abundance in a field adjoining the shore near Kirk Michael village. Capt. J. Woodcock has already, obtained a licence for the ground, and has a number of hands employed. Some persons, however, suppose that a vessel ladeu with coal had been wrecked in this locality, and that it is a portion of the cargo which had been removed to this particular spot which Mr Woodcock had the good fortune to discover in his excavations. A Chapter of Accidents. The other night, at Williamthorpe, near Chesterfield, Mr Godber, a farmer, ( returned from shooting, and placed his double gun, loaded, with hammers down, on the dresser. A servant girl brushing a coat struck one of the hammers, and the charge was exploded, shattering an old Bible. The recoil threw the gun off the dresser, the fall discharged the second barrel, and the charge lodged partly in the left leg of the girl, and partly in the leg of her master, who was standing some distance further off. The girl's leg was so much shattered that it was found necessary to amputate it, and Mr. Godber was seriously hurt. A cljijd standing by was so frightened that it fell into the fire and was severely burnt, The Late Rev. Dr. Candlish. The London correspondent of the Auckland Evening Star writes:—On the evening of the 19th October the Rev. Dr. Candlish died in his 68th year. He was a great leader in the Free Church of Scotland, and may be said to have almost directed its line of policy throughout. He was principal of the Free Church College, Edinburgh, since 1862, and preached every Sunday up to within a short period of his death. He was Moderator of the Free Qhurch General Assembly in 1861. His rnother was the Miss Smit|i immortalized by Burns as one of the Hsix proper young belles "of Mauchline. His funeral was attended by thousands of people, and the crowd filled the streets for a mile. Progress of Extravagance. A London letter says extrayagance In dress increases from year to year in the British metropolis. The West End people are making money so fast that not only must they attire themselves extravagantly, but clotlie thejr servants also in costly attire. It is now no uncomnion thiug to see strapping flunkies wearing tippets of very expensive fur when they are out driving. Servant girls must now have their dresses made at a fashionable mjlUner's, and one having £,§ given to her for mourning, botignt tweritvrsis yards of a material fpr a single dress, and had it made.up by a. French modiste, 1

The Galway Moving' Bog. The progress of the moving bog in Galway has been partially arrested by clearing the bed of the Corrabel Eiver, down which large masses of the bog stuff are floating, and removing a bridge which obstructed its passage; but it is feared that the re cent heavy rains will carry it down in such quantity as to submerge the town of Dunmore, within half a mile of which it is now stayed. The cavity formed in the bog by the discharge is a mile in length by half a mile broad. Singular Municipal Proceedings. The Cornish borough of Helston must bear the palm for the extent to which political partisanship is allowed to control municipal proceenings. For some years the Liberals have had a majority in the council, but at the late elections the Conservative gains caused the numbers to be exactly equalized. A fierce fight for the mayoralty was anticipated, but by accident one Liberal councillor fell ill, and on Monday was unable to attend. The glorious opportunity was seized, and utilized to the full extent. A Conservative mayor having been elected, the town officials were dismissed from their posts, Conservatives being substituted. The town sergeant flung his official coat and cocked hat on the table, and quitted the room in high dudgeon. Even the police who had been elected by the Liberals were dismissed, although the minority vainly pleaded for one man that he had lately left the post-office service to become policeman. The borough gaoler was spared dismissal, although suspected of Liberal tendencies ; but he volunteered to share his brethren's fate, and a good Conservative was elected in his place. A threatened appeal to the Home Office was treated with derision. Gigantic Fungus. AVe have had sent to us by Mr. Alfred Smee, writes ' W. G. S.' in the Gardeners' Chronicle, a huge fungus, found growing parasitically upon the pitch-pine joists of the Bank of England, in Threadneedle street. The entire growth was so large that when packed in a box for transit, it was as much as two strong men could carry. The largest piece was no less than 6ft. 3in. in circumference, 7in. thick, and weighed 321 b., growing upon a piece of joist weighing about 6|lb. When we first saw the box our thoughts wandered from' Bulliard' to ' bullion,' and we were in hopes of a ' Batsch' of Agaricus ' aureus;' but the fungus turned out to be Polyporus annosus, Fr., a plant peculiar to the conifera?, and perhaps not uncommon in similar situations beneath floors. &c, and wo have already recorded it from the coal mines of Wales. The mycellium had completely destroyed the wood of the pitch pine joists, and in the decayed parts we found an abundant crop of young cockroaches, spiders, and mites. The fungus will be shown at the forthcoming Fungus Exhibition of the Boyal Horticultural Society on October 1. Sir Garnet Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ashantee Expedition, .entered the army 21 J- years ago as ensign. Mr Holman Hunt's Picture, "The Shadow of Death," has been bought for £IO,OOO. The Will of Alfred Atkinson Pollock, of Hampshire and Lincoln's-inn-fields, solicitor, who was drowned while bathing, on the 10th October, at the Isle of AVight, has been proved, and the personal estate sworn under £400,000. The testator bequeaths all his personal and real estate to his wife absolutely.