THE WELLINGTON WORKING MEN'S CLUB.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 152, 25 June 1878, Page 4

THE WELLINGTON WORKING MEN'S CLUB.

(New Zeohnder,) The Bucci*s9 which has attended (he Working M»n*B Club during the short period which has pl&paed since its in--:&«garsti©i',; h » matter nnon which not ottly.ihe working men, hut the citizens generally nre to be congratulated. We Bay the oitizens, because such an institutioo haa -iadireoMy a beneficial influence upon the whole community. Started upon a airall and unpretending scale, the influence of the club has extended far and wide, until the premises at present used by the members have become inadequate to their requirex ttients. In order to keep pace with. the growing importance of the club, arrangements were entered into some time ago for the erection of commodious premises io Mansers-Btreet. These are now almost completed, snd will shortly «be out of the hands of the'workr men.. The uew club adjoins the Imperial Opera House; and externally presents a commanding and handsome appearance. The building is a three- .= Btoreyed one, but the ground-floor is exclusively occupied by Messrs, Eddie , and Jack tale and porter bottlers. The K two, upper floors will be used by the club, and these have been arranged in excellent taste. The middle storey is reached by ;a wide stairway leading from -the main entrance at the basein on L There is a wide landing at the head of the stairs, and to the left of '■ this -thereUs a room running the whole length of the building. Its dimensions are— length 50 feet, width 20 feet. This is the billiard room, aud will be supplied with one billiard table of the * best make. The room is lofty and tastefully decorated, ft is' lighted by five . large .windows by day, and two. four burner gaseliers by night. At the west ; end of the room is an opening to the 'bar, which stands at the foot of the ; ;hajj. ; .,. The room, will be comfortably furnished when the building is completed, On the right of the landing is another room similar in construction to the billiard room, but a trifle smaller. This is to be set 'apart as a sort of --- general room for- card playing or anyjthing else it may be required for, It ia lighted by three windows and con., tains a fireplace. The swells are nicely :) papered,' aad when: famished it. wilhbH a very 'comfortable* i ! room. There &ru ■ .five: "- rooms on' the top storey. One is a committee-room about 25ft x 20ft. ; a second, which .is 30ft. x 20fi., is,jroraHbrury. anj the remaining three cottpYißi Wsiiiinjr-roorn, teiroo'm and f bitcheo for- the steward. The library and committce-rooma face -Jhe street; and tight is. admitted t6 each by three windows. The library will contain all the popular periodicals of the day, and a number of books for tho '" use of .■members. ~ There are, "besides these, rooms lavatories, cupboards, and sundry offices necessary to such an instiThe furniture is not yet made ' 'but we understand that it will be both substantial and comfortable. All the ■floors will be carpeted, and the halls laid down in oil matting. . Gas and ; water islaid on all over the building. The opening of the new dab will, nsjs 7j pretty generally known, be celebrated on the first of next month hy an industrial exhibition, for which preparations are now being made under " the direction of Mr R. W. Carey, the energetic manager, The exhibition will be open probably for three weeks, after which the members of the Club r will take formal possession of their new i premises. J ''

A new and anther ingenious weapon ' y. has • recently been patented W " Davis'e Combination Sword'i" which is the ; oFditaVy regulation cavalry sword, with ' a Bix^cHanibered revplyer. attached ; jihe[rejp/ v . The iateel scabbard is cut in -sections with stop binges which fold up : in the fofm of a rifle stock, and fasten ilito theisword-hilt by a simple slab and catch, the whole fordoing a ! short re- , peating carbine, or, the scabbard, a y sword and revolver in on© '^weepfoo/ which mighVbe advantageously adopted by mouoted police and Colonial corps. There might, however, be drawbacks to its employment by cavalry en masse j for the simple reason that the weapon, unless baudled with great ' 3 care, might s prove mere deadly to friend than foe. "' , '~ ' ■-■ .Not long since Caays_, an English jpaper) we.wereexamiuingtbe '* curiosities" in the fine old Archaeological ' Museum a(; Rouen, and in one of the deekcases, amidst old locks and keys, portions of aacieni armour and wormeaten documents, we stumbled upon n large silver csße, hinged and open. ' "Within was a mass of brown feathery * BUb'stance; not unlike a burst and crushed cricket ball. It would scarcely have caught passing notice, but bur guide-book informed us that it was "the heart of Rionard the First, re- ;' moved from the choir of the adjacent , cathedral I 1 * Could Cceur de Lion ever have imagined such a fate ! As little -could the Great Napoleon have pro.jptiiesied' that his stomach would be exhibited in a bottle as a pathological Bpecimen in the^cßJjLseum of tha Royal College of Surgeons in Lincbln'a Inn Fields, in the year 1877, as the « lionhearted" king have dreamt that his * heart- would hel to-day exhibited in a public museum. Some interesting details, which, it is ?r stated, may be relied upon as correct, v ar© given by the Cologne Gazette of i the ain&unts collected For the sick and 2 f wouiided during the late war. The :r : largesfrcollectiqn was made in Russia, where" : 7,opo,PQQ roubles, \ : jat more than / : '{^9C[^(^i.|r'fiß^jDl^Dtfinty; gubscribed to the fijade.^of fchi Bed Orosa Society*

For the Red Crescent there was collected altogether, in Europe, in India, and in. the United States, -1,500,000 f. Of this sum two-thirds were subscribed ia India, the total amount contributed by Europe being barely 400,000 f. 3n France, 112,000 f were collected; in Hungary, lOO.OOOf.; in Germany, 80,000r". ; while Austria contributed only surgical appliances aud comforts for the sick. The Stafford House Committee had lent, at the date when the letter was written, £20,000; the Red Cross Society, £12,000 ; while smaller I sums had been spent by the Turkish Compassionate Fund, by Lady J*trangford's Committee, and by the Society of Friends. Altogether, the amount [ subscribed for (he succour of the sick and wounded of the two belligerents fell far short of that collected during the Franco-German war of 1870-1, when the subscriptions amounted in France to 36 000,000 f., and in Germany to 36,000,000 thalers— or about £5,400,000. Although the largest amount of money was collected in Russia, the management of the Russian hospitals and ambulances left much to be desired, the diet supplied to the patients especially being insufficient. Some interesting WhiteheaiJ torpedo experiments have been made from the Minotaur with the object of testing a novel means for impending the flight of thess weapons. The 'result was a success, and a development of the system will probably supply a means of greater protection against this greatly dreaded bitting-below-the-belt mode of warfare. It is impossible to disguise the fact that there is great uneasiness pervading the whole navy as to future fighting. .Our most powerful ironclad is at the mercy of a dozen swift torpedo boats manned by men of strong mind and steady eye. The only apparent way pf fighting these boats is to outnumber them by boats' of superior , ai £ c . a .° d spead, and thus a wide field is open, to the English shipbullders'.aud ; engipe.ere. The order for the new torpedo vessels for the Royal Navyhas been distributed among shipbuilders principally upon the Thames. One, which is on the stocks at Poplar, has a length of 58ft. by 10ft. lOin. beam and a depfh of 6H. 6ia. She is built entirely of stee! on very fioe lines, and hes curved deck and will be fitted with a pair of high -pressure compound engines of no less (than 400 - horse po war indicated. Being divided into a number of watertight' compartments in will be difficult, to sink one of these boats, arid the electrician, sieersman, and/stoker, who' "will be the only persons on boani, wilt be under cover, a small cowl ou deck supplying fresh air both to them and the furnaces. A great, deal of sensation w.'as created in Wodonga recently" («ays the Border Post), when -it was reported that a farmer named Magee, living at Felltimber Creek, near Wodonga, together with his wife and child, had been smothered to death by ohafcbal fumes. The particulars of ihe distressing nnd fatal affair ara brifly n 9 follows:— Mr * Robert Magee was a farmer living at Felllimber Creek, about- three miles from Wodonga. He had a wife and a family of some half-dozen children, and had lately, erected a brick room, in which he and his wife, together with the youngest fchild, a mere infant, used to sleep. There was no fireplace in the room, neither was it ventilated; and yet, in spite of the warnings of neighbors, the deceased was in the habit of burning charcoal— we presume in some grate or receptacle— during cold .nights. Last Sunday evening Mr .and Mrs Magee and. the' baby retired to rest at the usual hour, and as the night w»b cold, left some oharcoal burning in the room. The other children, whose ftgea range from seven to twelve years, alept in a detached apartment. Iq jha morning, the eldest of these, a little girl twelve years of a»e, opened W parents' door about 8 o'clock',' and ijnL mediately-calied but to her 'sister that i heo father was dead in bed. A neighbor named Mr Dibley was then informed of the occurrence, and on arriving at the bedroom he at once saw that 'Mr atfd Mrs ! Mag cc were quite dead. : They i were lying composedly in bed, as though, asleep.. The bedclothes were in order, and there appeared to be no signs of i "having lake^i place. The child wa3 lying across its mother's arm, and was alive, but thj» poor little thing expired about an hour afterward* Theuffai'r was reported to the police at once. An inquest was subsequently fael<», when a verdiot wap tdven.to the effect that death bad ben occasioned through the inhalation of charcoal vapor, . *