THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 25, 28 January 1913, Page 2

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Robert Woodrow Archibald, for 2d years a Judge of the Pennsylvau.an Bench, the Federal District Bench, and the American Commerce Com. A, has been found guilty by the Semm.' of high crimes and misdemeanors. He has been stripped of his office, and disqualified for ever from holding positions of public honour, or of trust Archibald’s conviction represents the last phase of a enuhabio impeachment trial that has been in the Senate since the summer. Judge Archibald was adjudg-J g.dty of baring allowed bis decisions to be influenced by the large corporations, and the verdict is, therefore, regarded as a great blow to the grafters.

The body of the Rev. James Patterson, Presbyterian minister, who bad been in Ballarat for the good of his health, was found lying in the yard of his house in Ballarat North on January 7. Beside the body was a singlebarrel breech-loading gun. Mr. Patterson had been in Ballarat for some months, and had been suffering from a serious nervous breakdown. Recently he was improving, and took services for three weeks in the Skipton district, but the strain of that work proved too much for him, and ho suffered a relapse. It is understood that he borrowed the gun, but gave no indication of his intention to resort to violent means. Mr. Patterson was a married man, and had been previously in South Australia.

There are 25,000 picture theatres in the United States, showing a tout live films a dav. Allowing on an average 1000 feet of film to each picture, as much as 125 million feet of film are used every day. About 250 million dollars are invested. Extravagant prices are often paid by companies for special films. Recently the Vatican was offered 400,000 dollars for the privilege of taking a picture of the Pope receiving visitors. Mme. Sarah Bernhardt received £6OOO for appearing before the camera as Camille, and Mme. Rejane received £4 a rehearsal and £4O a performance. An aeroplane drama has been known to cost as much as £1 a foot, while £SOOO for a single production is considered nothing out of the ordinary.

The first women’s jury in Idaho interrupted a case at Twinfalls (Ij.S.A.) last month by going homo to cook the dinners for their families, ignoring the Judge’s declaration that it was impossible for the jury to leave the custody of the Court. The women answered his refusal to adjourn the case by putting on their hats and filing out of the jury box. The Judge found nothing to say in regard to this gross contempt of Court. The jury duly returned and quietly resumed their places without a protest from the bench. A case against a woman charged with threatening to shoot a Mexican - they decided in two -minutes. “Guilty,” said the forewoman, “but wo recommend the defendant, who is a neighbour of- mine, to the mercy ol the Court.”

The Southland ‘Daily News’ gives an example of a Socialist witn the courage of his convictions. Brighton recently obtained an area ot land containing coal. The magnificent property, which fell into his hands as the result of a Ministerial blunder- -m Ministerial generosity—lie intends to use to show his disapproval of the legislative action which threatened to make him rich, despite his loyalty to the ideal of a common brotherhood. Mr. Brighton’s first purchase of 173 acres, valued roughly at between £IO,OOO and £15,000, has been sold by him to a syndicate for £SOO, and Lis two other holdings have been disposed of in like manner. The property he has sold for £SOO contains a seam of coal with a 17ft. face, and so far as our contemporary learns, this extends for some considerable distance, revealing at present enough coal to bring the lucky syndicate at least a small fortune.

Argentina has now about 20,000 miles of railways. The world from time to time hears of Governments buying up company-owned railways, but in Buenos Ayres the Argentine railway companies have offered to buy the State lines known as the Central and Northern and North Argentine, and to convert both from narrow to broad gauge Jsft. 6in.), They would at the same time broaden a number of other lines, in all 618 S miles. This work they undertake to carry out within ten years at a cost of from £25,000,000 to £30,000,000. It is estimated that 15,000,000 sleepers would be required, which would be, as usual, of native hardwood as far as possible. The programme is said to include a vast scheme for the colonisation of the lands through which their lines run The assent of the Argentine Congress would, of course, have to be obtained. Steam heated -towns, where houses and shops are warmed by the mere turning of a tap, as wo now turn on gas and water, promise to bo one of the great developments of the future. Xew as the idea may be in England, it is an old story to Wilkes-Barre, a populous industrial centre in Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre has had a large part of its area, steam heated for over a quarter of a century. It is stated that at the present time about 250 buildings draw their heat from a common source. The customers in steam are charged for their supplies in one or two ways. It is possible to pay according to the cubic feet warmed or by the. more ingenious record of steam condensed. The pipes are laid 6ft. below the street level, and the steam is supplied at the low pressure of 51b. per square inch, which safeguards consumers from the risk of bursting pipes.

Moose Jaw is a strange name for a city, and it may interest some to know how such a name was given. Some fifty years ago so the story goes, a pioneer with his team of oxen and prairie schooner, while passing along the hanks of the river, was obliged to camp at this point on account of an accident to his cart, as a spoke had fallen out during the day, and the wheel was falling apart. He looked around for something to insert for a temporary brace for the wheel, while his wife busied herself with the evening meal. The pioneer’s child, while romping round, found the jawbone of a moose which she held up to her father, and who was by this time almost exasperated trying to find something with which to mend his schooner, and was delighted to find that the jawbone exactly fitted the place of the missing spoke. The Indians thereafter named the part of the river “The Place where the White Man found the Moose Jaw.” This accounts for the town’s unforgettable name.