EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 34, 8 January 1884, Page 3

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

(Home -Vetra.) A report has reached New York from San Domingo that, on September 18; a man attemped to assassinate tire President of the Bapublio at Noyba. The President, howshot his assailant dead. A east of Luther's face, taken otter death, In the night between the 20th and 21st of February, 1548, when his corpse, while on the way from Eisieben to Witthnberg, lay in the city church of Halle, is in the possession Of that oity. - To Show the progress of foreign navies, it is stated that the Tsnkusta, a Japanese gunboat, mounting . 25-ton guns, recently touched at Malta, and, if report says true, she could soon have reduced Valeria to ruins, and that too at a range of over four miles, at which distance she would herself be safe from any injury, so far as the guns now mounted at Malta are concerned. Sir E. Wood denies that he has advised the eiltirs withdrawal of the British army of BSenbetioh, M currently reported. He is of opinion that the Egyptian army and police are not to be trusted lor a long time without * English troops in the country. He advises a reduction of the forces, but not evacuation. Baker Pasha is of the same opinion. During the war of 1870 a number of French deer took refuge In the Belgian Ardennes, especially in the neighbourhood of St, Hubert, and have since multiplied enormously. Baron Hpogvorcs, a large landed proprietor in the Ardennes, moreover, turned loose. Some years ago, a number of Canadian deer, and their numbers are now so great that it is found necessary to kill them in large numbers. The new Metropolitan Opera House at New York, the largest opera-house in the world, has just been opened. The dimensions of * the auditorium are 95ft. deep, 89ft, wide, and 82ft. high; and the stage is 106 ft, wide, and 90ft. deep, The Italian Minister of Public Instruction has commissioned the well-known sculptor, Signor Monteverdi, to prepare, as quickly as possible, a design for the monument th Victor Emmanuel, to be placed in the middle of the Pantheon. The Berlin Museum has purchased for 180,000 fr. Bembrant’s painting of “ Potiphar accusing Joseph before Pharaoh." The work was formerly in possession of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and is one of the most famous of Bembrant’s pictures. A telegram from Smyrna reports that the wall surrounding the town, the aqueduct, and the Hadji Hussein Mosque have been damaged by an earthquake. The minaret and dome of the Hadji All Mosque at Capan-Vourla Have also been injured, At the last-named town 169 persons have been seriously and and rixty-one slightly hurt, Seventy-nine wounded people are in the hospitals. A shock of earthquake has also been felt at Tashkend, accompanied by loud subterranean rumblings. Beware of tea I Ladies, banish “ the cup that cheers from your households, for the teapot engenders greater calamity than the gin-bottle. So says the Dean at Bangor. Drink oatmeal and milk, and then you will Be strong, hearty, and good-tempered men and women j whereas, if you drink tea three times a day, says the Dean, •• there will be created a generation of nervous, discontented people, who are ever complaining of the existing order of the universe, scolding their neighbours, and sighing after the impossible. Be suspects that overmuch tea-drinking, by destroying the calmness of the nerves, was acting as a dangerous revolutionary force among us." A betting transaction of a somewhat un. usual character has interested sporting circles in Stroud during the past few days. A wellknown bookmaker in the district offered to bet five shillings on a certain jockey winning a race last week, and undertook to double the stake each race. The jock had fourteen mounts on the first two days and lost every one of them I The bold bookmaker by that time thought it was quite time to cry peccavt, for in thievery simple wayhelost—£4o9slss I Had the game been continued for seven more ' races, and the jock still been unlucky, the latter would have run up a debt amounting to more than a million. Many of the Catholic laity are chafing under the disabilities under which they are now placed. They cannot send their sons to Oxford or to Cambridge, at all events, without incurring ecclesiastical displeasure, and just now they are asking very strongly the reason why. The echoes of these complaints have reached the Papal Court , and as Cardinal Manning is still unrelenting, he goes to Borne t 6 place his views of the subject before his superiors. There is a general impression that he will not prevail, and that the establishment of a Boman Catholic College at Oxford is a matter of months rather than years. At Bourgmadame, near the Spanish frontier, a meeting has been held for the purpose of giving expression to the feeling of friend, ship entertained by France for Spain. The mayor of Puyoerda, together with many Other Spanish notabilities, and the mayors of several other French communes on the frontier ware present. On General Sherman’s retirement from his command next month General Sheridan will become Commander-in-chief of the United States Army; General Hancock will succeed General Sheridan in the command of the Division of| Missouri, in Chicago; and General Pope is to succeed General Hancock at New York.

The Americans have been trying the effects of oil on troubled waters with no very gratify, ing success. An official report on the experiments declares ** that when a vessel is lying in the open ocean, exposed to a dangerous sea, and drives directly before the wind, the pouring of oil upon the water is an effective means of safety, but when she is lying under • ranging sail,’ the oil is useless.” The Americans do not think ** that any of the ap- . invented for distributing the oil in latter case can be successfully used, and it follows that the instances will not be numerous in which the discovery will prove of practical value. It is only in deep wafer that the oil has a calming effect.” This is disappointing; but in course of time science may enable us to abolish a heavy sea and prevent sea-sickness by a liberal use of oil. M. Tissandier, of Paris, a well-known and enthusiastic balloonist, recently made a trip from near Versailles to Chatou in a specially constructed baloon, furnished with a screw governor driven by an electric motor. The current was supplied by bichromate cells. The motor was one made by the firm of Siemens, and was connected with the screw, consisting of two lutestring wings or sails of about 28m. diameter, by means of gearing. It is stated that during his trip, whieh lasted about three hours, M. Tissandier made several successful trials of his screw governor, although a strong wind was blowing. A grand new palace of justice has just been opened with great ceremony in Brussels. It is a grand building—too large, say critics, for the country. Its cost, tuteea millions of francs,iis said to be a third of the annual income of Belgium. Deputations of barristers from nearly all the European countries were present, and were welcomed by the King, who afterwards received them in the royal palace. They manage these things abroad in quite a different style to the English. On the evening of Oct. 5, Prince George of Wales and the officers of the Canada were present at a grand ball given in their honor by the inhabitants of Montreal. The hospitality of the people of that cify has been unbounded-. Both officers and crew during their stay received invitations to all the principal places of interest and public amusement, and the men of the ship had free use of the city tram-cars. The Canada, on visiting days, was crowded with visitors, who numbered from four to five thousand daily ; and on one occasion, when an Ethiopian entertainment

was given on board, followed by an invita, tion dance, the crowd, both on board and surrounding the ship on shore, was enormous The decorations of the ship were most elaborate, and an exhibition of the electrio light added to the brilliancy of the scene, At Casa Grande, in the territory of Arizona, theic have oeen found of very extensive ruins, indicatiDg the existence in former times of a large city at this point; so large, in fact, that is believed to have been the abode of 200,000 or 300,000 persons. A recent writer states that the Casa Grande, the largest house in this ancient city, was discovered by Coronado in 1540, when he was in search of the seven cities of Cibola, “ the Cities of the Bull/' It was then four stories in height, with walls six feet thick. The Pina Indians were then living in the vicinity, but they had no knowledge or tradition m regard to its origin or history. A New York agent for the unemployed has furnished some statistics to the New York journals respecting the present condition of labour in that city. At the beginning of September there were 5,000 book-keepers in New York seeking places, mostly between twenty-five and thirty years of age. There are Already 23.000 book-keepers In the city, including a grekt number of men who could work at a hundred different thingy, but who persisted in keeping books or renaming idle, Scarcely any earn 20dols, a week, and not many 20d015., the average being from ISdols. to 18dola.; and hundreds of good bookkeepers could be furnished at from 15dols. to 12 dole, per week. There were a great many applicants, chiefly Germans, and a great many places in the bar-keeping line. The Germans have supplanted the Irish in thia business, and during the lare “ dynamite season ” it was hard to find a berth of any kind for an Irishman. Book-canvassing is a profitable business, and women are best at this, one earing 25d015. a day when she fairly goes to work, Messrs. Appleton stated that one of their canvassers made from 20,000d015. to 25,000d015. a year Serviceable boys are difficult to procure. Out of fifty applicants, not more than twenty will be worth trying, and five out of the twenty worth keeping, the odds being ten to one against the boy. Boys will get odols. per week, but they are lazy, careless, and want to do something else; or their parents say they are ovetwotked, The number of persons uuemployed in New York and Brooklyn is extraordinary, and a gentleman who recently advertised for a clerk at lOdols. a week received 700 replies,