MAIL ITEMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 220, 25 October 1878, Page 2

MAIL ITEMS.

Tbey seem to have had a " carnival of crime " latelyiu Italy. The little Neapolitan town of Caserta lately scored five homicides in one day. A young man in London lately obtained a verdict for ten shillings against a man -who sat down on his hat. This furnishes a valuable precedent. Ma3kelyne and Cook, the famous London magicians, have just added a new mechanical wonder to their collection. This is "Labial," a puppet which plays the-ophi-cleide. The lip-action of the living player has been imitated with marvellous fidelity, and " Labial " performs concerted music with two other mechanical players. A terrible calamity has befallen the town of Miskolez, in Hungary. On Friday week ifc was devastated by a severe thunderstorm, which destroyed 100 lives and laia 1000 houses in ruins. Mr Plimsoll has announced his intention of retiring from the representation of Derby at the end of the present Parliament. A man at Plymouth, England, lately died in a fit caused by the excitement into which he worked himself because fche servant girl didn't answer the bell promptly. A young woman in London has beeu sentenced to prison for six months for trying to commit suicide and failing. Whether the attempt or the failure constituted the offence is not nofc quite clear. Whilst a youug man named Alfred Barnes was on his way to Woolwich for tha purpose of identifying two relatives who perished in the wreck of the Princess Alice, he fell into the machinery of tbe steamboat. He was terribly mutilated, and was taken out dead. \ The soup for Turkish refugees in the Rho- / dope mountains is made of hot water, bones picked from the gutters, and water melon rind. As a large water melon in that locality costs about half a cent, some idea may be formed of the destitution of these unfortunate wretches. Afc the Bristol Police Court, James Box, a warehouseman, has been fined £497 for harbouring nearly 500lbs. of manufactured tobacco upon which no duty had been paid. A woman at Bradford, England, was lately on trial for poisoning her child,' less than two years old, to get an insurance on its life and the • whole of an income in which it would have an interest while it lived. . A French baker afc Proving, wbo was arrested for fraudulent bankruptcy, gofc oat of fche difficulty by hanging himself to the bars of hia cell with a handkerchief and a necktie. Fraudulent bankrupts in some countries sre reduced to such a necessity. The Turks lost about 150,000 men killed and wounded during the recent war, and, according to fche Invalide Susse, something over 10,000,000 cartridges were fired by the Russians, which would made the proportion of hits one. in every sixty-six shots fired. Oue of the most flourishing branches of industry in Prussia is the fabrication of arms. The great manufactories are busy, especially for Russian orders, for mitrailleuses of a new kind, after a Swedish model, which is said to surpass all that has been known till now in respect of quickness and the mass of balls fired at the same time. These mitrailleuses, which carry very far, are said to be destined to make torpedo boats innocuous. Even science must respect the rights of personal property in some small degree. One of the nurses in the Royal Infirmary at Glasgow undertook to provide a piece of wholesome flesh to be grafted on the" body of a patient, who was very poorly supplied in that particular. This was Christian-like and thoughtful, bufc the nurse proceed to cufc the flesh from a small boy in the Infirmary, who vehemently but vainly protested against the appropriation. He sued his despoiler in the Courts, and obtained a verdict for 60 dollars. New York, September 29— The United States steamer Enterprise, Commander Selfridge, arrived off Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday afternoon after a voyage of five months exploring the Amazon and its principal tributaries— more particularly Madeira River Captaiu Self ridge says the exploration was a perfect success. The Madeira was found navigable for 500 miles. He adds :— " We found the volume of the Amazon to be seven million cubic feefc a second, and, if the Mississippi were flowing into it, ifc would not raise its surface perceptibly."