MAIL NEWS

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 468, 3 May 1890, Page 4

MAIL NEWS

' (VIA SAN FRANCISCO.) GENERAL SUMMARY. London, April 8. The Prince of Wales, on his way back from Berlin, was received at Paris with more than the usual impressment. It was noted, however, that the Prince is aging rapidly, He has a worn-out, wearied look, and walks like a feeble man. These evidences of physical decadence corroborate the recent reports of the Prince’s illness. On March 28th (says a Quebec cable) a man named Belanger tried to elope with Mrs Laframboise, another man’s wife. Both were residents of the town of Lancaster. While they were trying to cross over to Port Louis on the ice they broke through and were drowned in the south channel of the St. Lawrence River. The list of Bismarck’s birthday gifts is amusing. It includes two mastiffs, fortythree drinking cups, over a hundred long pipes, three hunting guns, much tobacco, dozens of canes, innumerable packages of preserves, cakes and candies, sent by farmers’ wives, barrels of eggs, sides of bacon, cushions, rugs, and an enormous salmon from Wales.

A special from Constantinople reports the death of Sultan Murad, who succeeded his uncle, Sultan Abdul Aziz, in 1876, and was deposed in favour of his brother, the present Sultan, in August of the same year. Since that time, it is alleged, he has been concealed in the palace. The illness of the Princess of Wales is causing considerable anxiety. It appears that she has never completely recovered from her attack of influenza, and is now very feeble, coughing constantly. The Princess, although only 45 last December, is beginning to show signs of age, and lately has become almost stone deaf. Two writers on “ Egalite ” were sentenced to fifteen and four months’ imprisonment respectively, and the manager to three months’ imprisonment, for threatening Constans, French Minister of the Interior. In addition, heavy fines were imposed. The Portuguese Government has invited one firm in America and several firms in other countries to make tenders for the construction of four new cruisers. No tenders from English firms have been invited The Hon. Mary Nettlevilie, sister of th eighth and last Viscount Nettlevilie, an Irish nobleman, has just died in Paris. She occupied an expensive suite of rooms in an aristocratic neighbourhood, but wa3 entirely destitute of the necessities of life. In her sumptuouß apartment the most terrible squalor prevailed, and rats and mice had taken complete possession of the room where the unfortunate woman was found dying.

The young Parisian artist Jules Renaud has killed himself in Algiers because Amelie Rives-Chanler failed to return his love while they were studying together in Paris. Her rebuff failed to dampen his ardour. He followed her to Algiers, renewed his courtship and received his final oong4 in March last. Upon this he destroyed himself, leaving a sensational letter asking for sympathy. Benaud had remarkable talent.

In the Commons on March 25th, Labouchere moved the abolition of hereditary representatives in Parliament. The people would not long tolerate the idea of several hundreds of men born with the privilege of interfering with the government and to legislate as a class. • The House had the spectacle before it of men excluded from jockey clubs and warned off racecourses, and yet able to interfere with the legislation of the nation. The motion was reected by a vote of 201 to 139. The brig Stagshaw has arrived at London from Rosario, having been 104 days on the voyage. The ship’s stores gave out, and since March Ist the captain and crew of nine men subsisted on one biscuit a day each.

Lady Campbell, the wifeof Major-General Sir John William Campbell, Bart., was committed as a drunken vagrant with her daughter to tho workhouse for a week, but has been released on Sir John promising that he would send her to their country home.

A popular movement is on foot in London with good prospects of success, to make up a ladies’ eight-oared team to race over the university course. There is a considerable purse, and the entries are open to all eirls under the age of 25, irrespective of rank.

RUMOURS THAT VICTORIA WILL AB ©SCATS. It is now stated on official authority, as well as being a matter of gossip in Parliament and at the clubs, that the Queen is seriously considering the step of abdicating the British throne, The recent reception of the Prince of Wales by the German Emperor has had a great effect on the aged Queen, who is now convinced that her son ought to have a chance to play the leading role in England during the rest of her life, which is certain to be short.

The Queen’s bodily infirmities are increasing, and she is so rapidly running to flesh that massage is necessary to assist her breathing. One strong objection of the Queen to abdicating is the contingency of being called ex-Queen. She wishes to assume the title of Queen-Regent for the rest of her life. A special Bill will be introduced into Parliament when she is willing to resign the actual throne, and the Prince of Wales will be crowned King of England and Em peror of India. At Aix the Queen passes a quiet evening with Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, playing the piano, singing and playing cribbage. Poor Battenberg finds ®his dreadfully dull. BUFFALO BILL’S SHOW. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show still continues to excite Italy. Twenty-two thousand Milanese assembled on April 3rd to witness the opening performance, and fave the company a great reception. The ucking horses, the stage coach, and the Indians kept the great audience wild with excitement. HUGMES-HALLETT AGAIN. Colonel Hughes-Hallett has decided to apply for a divorce from his wife, formerly Miss Emily Schaumberg, of Philadelphia. The proceedings will be based on Mrs Hallebt’s alleged misconduct with a solicitor. Col. Hallett shows papers and the affidavits of a detective whom he employed, and of the butler. The latter swears that in many vital points -Mrs Hallett's breach of the marriage contract entitles her husband to a legal separation or even a divorce, and a third of her income. Hallett confronted his wife with the butler’s affidavit and a terrific row took place. Mrs Hallett packed her trunks and left for the Continent.

• BISMARCK OYATED. April lab was the seventy-fifth annive r .-sary of the birthday of Bismarck. The ■railway station at Friedrichsruhe was .almost blocked .by the enormous number of presents arriving for the Prince. During •the day Bismarck received numberless con-.

gratulatory telegrams. He spent the day quietly with his family. Twelve hundred railroad men formed a torchlight procession at night and marched to Bismarck’s residence, where the ex-Chancellor was serenaden with patriotic songs.. Bismarck spoke. He evinced considerable emotion, and was obliged to wipe away the tears that stood in his eyes. A committee, embracing all shades of political opinion, issues an invitation for public subscriptions to build a national monument at Berlin in honour of Prince Bismarck. NEEDS MORE MONEY. The Duchess of Marlborough has come to New York for the purpose of inducing the trustees under the will of her first husband to sell some real estate which is yielding no revenue, and re-invest the proceeds of such sale so that her present income may be increased. The Duchess simply has a life interest in the property left by her first husband. Her income from the estate is stated to be over $125,000 a year. Out of this taxes on other real estate have to be paid, and various other expenses, so that her entire income is SIOO,OOO, or perhaps even less. If the Duchess is able to make the re-arrangement she desires and the $2,000,000 arising from the real sales are well invested, she expects that' about $75,000 a year will be added to her present income. RAILWAYS IN CHHA. _ . The imperial fiat has gone forth blocking the prospects of Chang Chip Tung’s railway from the sacred city to Hankow, the great emporium on the Yangtze, famous alike for its velvets and its teas. There has, in fact, been a regular about-face in the capital upon the railway question. Every one who knows anything about the subject is very much mistaken. Within the current year we will see a serious commencement made with railways in China. The object of all the recent Russian coquetting with Corea and the making of secret trading treaties with that wretched country was in connection with the coming railway, in the hope of obtaining a port on the Pacific which would be free from ice all the year round. Such a port Russia will get by hook or crook. It is necessary for the working of the railway and for the efficiency of her large fleet in those waters, and get it she must. With the Russian railway along her northern bolder, and lapping round her alleged vassal state, Corea, there is nothing for China but to keep pace with her dreaded northern neighbour. There is the greatest activity all along the border. TW® R©YS GUILLOTINE®. A double execution is cabled from Paris, Ribot and Jeantroux, the murderers of the concierge in the Rue Bonaparte, both paying the penalty of their crime. In the afternoon of July 15th, 1889, Mine. Kuhn was found strangled in her lodge. For nearly a fortnight the police were working blindly, but finally they were put on the track of three young men named Ribot, Jeantroux and Pillet, by an indicateur, who succeeded in inducing the precocious rascals to recount their crime to him. Ribot, the eldest of the band, was only 21 years old, while his accomplices were but 17 years of age when brought up for trial last January at the Seine Assizes. Ribot and Jeantroux were found guilty and condemned to death. Pillet escaped with a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment. NEW BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTION. The provisional Government of Brazil have decreed all the great popular measures so long demanded by the people, such as the abolition of slavery, forced from the Imperial Government in 1888, the separation of the Church from the State, the freedom of the press, the liberty of worship, the secularisation of the public cemeteries, the naturalisation of foreigners, etc. They have nominated a number of well known specialists to frame a constitution, which is to be presented to the constituent assembly. The work of registering voters (all men of 21 years of age who know how to read and write) is being pushed rapidly. The new Constitution declares that the fatherland is one and indivisible. The republic is composed of states, federal districts, provinces and territories. Its government i 9 representative, federal and republican Each State shall be governed by its own laws, and the Federal Government shall interfere only for the purpose of guaranteeing a republican form of government, to sanction the sentences of the Federal courts and in case of rebellion.

The most important recent event was the resignation in a body of the Rio Janeiro municipal intendency in consequence of a decree subjecting certain of their acts to the approval of the Government. ENTICE© FROM ENGL AN©. The Scotland Yard detectives are trying to trace five cases of the disappearance of well-to-do emigrants bound for Canada with all their available property with them. It is reported that within eight months past a [Norfolk farmer realised on his property and left England on his way to Ontario. He was last heard of in Toronto. Another case was that of a Cheshire farmer, who emigrated and went to settle on a farm in Lincoln, Ontario. Another is of a farmer’s son in Shropshire, who sailed from England with the intention of managing a farm near Hamilton, and two others besides these have vanished in the same unaccountable manner. The theory of their fate which is entertained by the police is that they have been inveigled into some place and murdered by a band of desperadoes for the sake of the money which they were carrying with them. OVER NIAGARA. William A. Welch is a victim of the Niagara gorge. Welch was an ardent sportsman, and his special delight at this season of the year has always been to hunt muskrats along the river bank about the cataract. On April 6th, the last he saw of his stepfather he was heading toward the Canadian shore to inspect some traps at Chippewa. Darkness and the storm soon set in and for two hours the wind lashed the river into foam. The thunder was terrific and the rain fell in torrents, so that nobody cared to venture out. Welch went over Niagara Falls in the hurricane. Welch’s tragic death has had the effect of unnerving the men who are accustomed to take desperate chances on the Niagara. HEARTLESS USE OF VITRIOL. Thomas Curran, a young man of 22, tottered up the steps of the New York Hospital in the early hours of April 2nd. Both eyes were closed, and the lids were burned in a shocking manner by vitriol. He had been painted with the liquid a few hours previously while in a drunken sleep. The sight of one eye is completely gone, and fears are entertained that he will lose the other. He charges the crime against a saloon-keeper who suspected Curran of giving information against him to the police. Curran went to sleep in the saloon, when the man gob a mug of vitriol and a paint brush. While one of the men held the

mug the other took a brush and painted his left eye and cheek with liquid. Having effectually destroyed the effect of one eye, they proceeded to paint the other side of the face, and had covered the right cheek when Curran awoke. At the hospital but little could be done for him. GREELEY’S ©LB HOMESTEAD BURNED. The old Greeley homestead built by Horace Greeley in 1851 was destroyed by fire on April 3rd. Since Mr Greeley’s death the house had been owned by Miss Gabrielle Greeley, his only surviving child. The fire originated in the cellar, and before noon the house was in ashes, only the charred foundation walls remaining. The servant girl’s hair and skirt caught fire when she opened the cellar door, but she escaped unhurt. Miss Greeley was out at the time attending divine service in St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, three miles from home. AN ECCENTRIC VISCOUNT. A scene occurred in the Strand on April 1. Viscount Hinton, son and heir of Earl Paulebt, who has made himself notorious by playing the part of a clown in pantommies, and who has also undergone imprisonment for robbery, was grinding an organ accompanied by his wife. An aristocratic - looking gentleman approached them, and endeavoured to persuade the erratic Viscount to desist, offering him a clerkship on the Stock Exchange. The offer was loudly declined in the presence of some 500 people. Hinton then became very excited, and swore that he would never alter his course of life until his father dies. During this exhibition Lady Hinton took around the hat to collect coppers, and the good-natured gentleman retired amid the jeers of the crowd. RILLED BY A LOVER. Henry Sanders, 19 years of age, living eight miles from Dayton (Wash.), shot and instantly killed Della Eddington, aged 17, and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the forehead. The cause of the deed was jealousy. Sanders had threatened to kill the girl if she refused his attentions, and, meeting her near her home as she was returning from school, lired the fatal shot. Their bodies were discovered a short time afterward. FRENCH INFANTRY UNIFORMS. The trial of smokeless powder at the Champigny manoeuvres and the problem that has arisen from them, namely whether the red trousers of the French infantry of the line are to be abolished or not, continue to be discussed. Many experts are of the opinion that red is the hue most easily distinguished at a short distance, but at a long distance, say a thousand metres, and especially when seen against a light background, it is less easily recognised than more sombre hues. Consequently experts do not consider it absolutely indispensable to change the colour of the French infantry trousers and forage caps, but consider that steelgrey would be better adapted to the requirements of modern warfare. Military authorities, as a result of the Champigny manoeuvres, are also considering the question of bronzing the barrels of rifles and also bayonets and replacing the shining buttons by ones of horn or bone, as it is well known that the gleaming of the bayonets, scabbards and buttons is what reveals the presence of a hidden foe sooner than anything else.

THE PANAMA CANAL. The commission of engineers sent to Panama to report the state of the canal have returned to Paris with a most disastrous story to tell to De Lesseps, who always hoped the result of the report would be of a nature to warrant a further appeal for funds, and are obliged to confess that the canal scheme is a definite and disastrous failure. Da Lessaps is very broken down about it. All that has been done with the millions spent on the concern is the extraction of about onefourth of the earth that it is necessary to romovo for the contraction of tho canal. It may Ire added that the fourth already completed would need a further and very large expenditure before the work done could be turned to useful account. The present state of the Company’s finances is such that any attempt to continue the work is totally out of the question.

PERSECUTING AN HEIRESS. A fellow named Ernest Rawdon has conceived a notable system for annoying a lady, Violent Lane Fox, an heiress to millions. He has been following her about professing love for her and proposing marriage. Rawdon has been bankrupt twice and has been imprisoned once for insulting and libelling the fair Violet. On April sbh he called at Lord Donington’s house in Grosvenor Square, where the lady is staying, and at once began making himself objectionable. While Rawdon was making life miserable for the Donington flunkeys by yelling out “ Sweet Violet, come to me,” Lord Grey de Rathven appeared and belabored Rawdon until his heavy cane was smashed in pieces and the would-be Romeo’s head was in a gridironed condition.

BOM PEBR®. For some timeextraordinary rumours have been brought to Baris from Cannes about the conduct of the exiled Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro. It appears that for some weeks his actions have been strange enough to warrant grave fears of the insanity of this much-tried monarch. It has been noticed that since the death of the Empress, he became very silent, avoiding company, sometimes for many dayß, and not leaving his room. He is constantly breaking into fits of violent passion for the most trivial causes. These outbreaks are followed by fits of terrible depression, when he is seen wandering about his apartments moaning and crying like a child. T© PREVENT WARS.

The Pan - American Conference has agreed upon a plan of arbitration for settlement of difficulties between American nations, which is that whenever any difference arises between two or more American republics it shall be referred to the Government of some other republic for settlement, without an appeal to arms. In case the parties at issue cannot agree upon a single arbitrator, each is allowed to name one, and those named aie to select an umpire. This is likely to put a stop to the wars that have prevailed so frequently between the South American nations, retarding the growth and prosperity of all,

A ROYAL SNUB. Paris is talking about the quarrel between the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Marlborough as the Prince passed throughthe City on. his way from Berlin to Cannes, The quarrel resulted from an interview which was held in the Prince’s drawingroom at the Hotel Bristol. The interview was solicited by the Duke and Icwtecj longer than is usual in a visit of courtesy or in a friendly call. It was, moreover, held strictly tete-a-tete, Qn Wednesday \fch9

Prince, after lunching with Baron Hirsch, was crossing the Rue Faubourg St. Honoro I on foot to go to the Elysee, and was within 1 ten yards of the principal entrance to the, palace when the Duke passed on the same trottoir. It was then seen, to the astonishment of everybody who knew how friendly the relations of the Prince and the Duke used to be, that when Marlborough raised his hat to salute the Prince, the latter turned away his head, without giving the slightest sign of recognition, and walked on.

THE SUICIDE CLUB. Wendell Baum, secretary of that unique organisation the Bridgeport (Conn.) Suicide Club, has fulfilled the membership agreement by killing himself. The history of this astonishing society is one of intense interest to the students of morbid psychology. Four years ago five citizens of Bridgeport, all Germans, met one day when all were low - spirited, and, half in jest, organised the Suicide Club. The agreement was that one member of the Club should ond his life that year, one the next, and so on until all were gone. This agreement has thus far been faithfully kept. When the annual meeting was held in January there were only two members to attend it, the secretary and president. It was preposed at this meeting by the secretary that the president should make away with himself during the year, and by the president that the secretary do likewise. The president of the club is now the only member left and another year will show if he keeps his oath.

EASTER WEEK IN PARIS. Parisan Easter week, in a social way, was changed from the usual order in consequence of the imprisonment of the Duke of Orleans. Previous to the Prince’s departure to Clairvaux a number of the leaders of fashion met in council to consider whether it would be advisable to taboo all balls, receptions, dinners, theatres and the likesolongasthe premier conscriptof France should remain in durance vile. The Due de Luynes informed the Prince of these plans, and the Prince made answer thus: “ I should be very sorry were my friends to do anything of the kind. I am not at all unhappy. I have done my duty and am on the soil of my country. Besides, the Paris trade has already suffered greaoly from the stagnation of recent years.”

THE CZAR’S REALM.

An indescribable reign of terror is spreading itself like a black fog over St. Petersburg. All the local prisons are so crowded with arrested students that impromptu places of detention are being provided, and half the people one meets_ on the street are out striving to secure influence to aid in the release of some son or brother who is imprisoned. Many of these are young men who belong to prominent families, and some are nobles. There seems to be no doubt that in the Government of Riazan the infuriated peasants rose in a body and beat nearly to death a tyrannical young district Governor whom the Czar had sent down to rule the place. Sinister importance attaches to this news, because it is the first time in Russian history that a rural political riot has occurred.

TOOK TWO GIRLS.

Isaac Morris, a swell young Englishman, has accomplished the feat of eloping with two pretty girls at the same time. This young man was until recently a “gentleman in waiting ” to General Alleyne at Fort Mead, Fla. He is occupying quarters in the Tombs. While in Florida he fascinated Miss Ethel Louise Moss, an English girl wintering at Jacksonville. In the same place was the lady’s English maid.. He suggested that they both elope with him to England, and they agreed. They fled at night. Ethel Louise tied a rope of twisted bed clothing to a solid piece of furniture and descended from her chamber window into the yard of the hotel, where Isaac and his other sweetheart were waiting.

MARVELS ®F HYPNOTISM. Sixty prominent physicians and dental surgeons conducted some very remarkable hypnotic experiments in Berlin in the case of a girl whose tonsils were removed by an absolutely painless operation during a state of copia. The patient obeyed the slightest suggestions of the hypnotiser. Another patient was hypnotised by a letter (in the absence of the operator) written to a surgeon named Turner and worded thus : “ Go to sleep by order of Dr. Bramwell, Obey Mr Turner’s commands." Dr. Bramwell also byponotized another patient by a note sent by the hands of his daughter, and still another by a message sent by telegraph. These statements are vouched for by the London “ Lancet.”

EIGHTEEN HEAPLESS BOPIES. A horrible story comes from Morocco. . A large box was recently brought from the interior to the port of Mazagan for shipment. When gpened a ghastly sight was revealed. In the box, packed closely together, were the bodies of sixteen young >yom.en, ope man and a negress. All the victims had been decapitated and their heads were missing. Their bodies were embalmed, and had evidently been in the condition in which they were found for a long time. The slaughter had been to all appearances the work of some pasha, who thus visited vengeance on his harem for unfaithfulness.

THE GERMAN ARMY. Marked changes are about to be made in the uniform of the German army. Conspicuous among them will be the abolition of the famous Prussian military cap and the adoption of one made on the American pattern. The stand-up collar is also doomed. These apd other innovations are to follow the introduction of smokeless powder, and are intended to add still further to the invisibility of soldiers in action. Even the picturesque red hussars and other gailydressed regiments will have to be reclothed. The Emperor’s orders, with reference to commissioned officers in the army does not increase their pay, but lowers the scale of private incomes necessary to secure commissions. Hereafter, aspirants for commissions in rifles, foot artillery, and pioneers need have private incomes of no more .than 45 marks monthly ; those who seek commissions in the field artillery 75 marks monthly, and in the cavalry 150 marks monthly.

CHURCHILL ON THE LAN© PURCHASE BILL. Lord Randolph Churchill has published in the M Morning Post" a letter two columns and a half long, in which he attacks the Land Purchase Bill with his usual pc>int and vigour. He presses upon the party the danger of a measure which proposes to bring the great mass of Irish' tenants in direct relation to the State as debtors. You are planning, he sayß, in substance, to thrust upon’ Ireland a boon which she does not want, in the face 'of warnings which i)o wise Minister would neglect. In a seqqnd letter he says : ** In

tho event of some 180,000 tenant State debtors successfully repudiating payment to the State of $8,500,000 yearly, national education in Ireland is to be arrested, local government is to be impeded and impaired to the extent of £500,000 yearly, paupers are neither to be housed nor fed, asylums are to be closed, salaries of local officials are to be unpaid and the repair of roads and bridges is to be stopped, and all other local purposes are to be interfered with.” Lord Randolph has a land scheme of his own which he will set out next week.

RENAN ON CREMATION.

The Archbishop of Paris has ordered his clergy to denounce cremation as a triumph of materialism over spiritualism. M. Renan, in commenting on the pastoral which embodies this command, speaks of it as in perfect conformity with “ the true Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body,” and he sympathises with its purpose and intent completely. He says that burial is sad enough, but that cremation is positively repugnant to the survivors of a family.

FATAL SEQUEL TO MIKE AND

SEEM.

Ella Crandall, aged 4, while playing hide and seek, secreted herself in an oldfashioned churn in her mother’s house at Wardsville, Ontario. While she was so concealed her mother came to scald out the churn, and poured a kettle of boiling water through the hole in the lid upon the child, who lived but a few moments after being lifted out. The mother has become insane.

NEW GRAND OPERA.

Negotiations are nearly completed with M. Gounod to write an original grand opera, in four acts, which will be produced in America in 1892. The maestro will himself superintend the production and conduct in person on the first night. The first, second and fourth acts are laid in Mexico at tho time of the Montezumas, and the scene of the third act is laid in the Western States,

LETTERS OF PITT.

The current number of the “ Spectator ” contains an articlo by Gladstone, in which he comments on the recently published correspondence between Pitt and the Duke of Rutland, The present Duke of Rutland intended by the publication of the books of correspondence to assist the Tories and Unionists in their political dilemma, but Gladstone has rather turned the tables on him and given light and interest to an otherwise stale and dry subject. He shows that in 1784 Pitt was undeniably a Home Ruler, and he declares that Pitt’s plan of that year was, in its main points, identical with his own Home Rule Bill of 1886. He dates the change in Pitt’s attitude towards Ireland from the ultimate rejection by the Irish Parliament of his plans for commercial and political reform.

SIX CHINESE BEHEADED. Letters received from Hongkong report another wholesale execution in that city recently. The condemned in this case numbered six, and were the last of the miners convicted of inciting a revolt at the Koutsin mine in Yunan. Before the prisoners were executed a rich banquet was served them by the mandarin, consisting of roast pork and duck, fish and rice, with abundance of Chinese wines. The condemned men were then freed from their fetters, their hands tied behind their backs, and they were led to the place of execution, surrounded by troops, who fired volleys into the air from timo to time. On their arrival the death sentence was read to the prisoners and they were then given over into the hands of the executioners.

RAISER UNPDJPULAR WITH THE FEDERAL PRINCES.

Edmund Yates cables to the New York “ Tribune ”—“ The Federal Princes of the German empire have no sort of belief in the brilliant capacity of Emperor William. They are disgusted and terrified at his recent vagaries. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg: Gotha took’advantage of his relationship to remonstrate in strong terms with the Emperor. The Duke was so indignant that he refused to stay in Berlin for a chapter of the Black Eagle, but went off to Coburg in high dudgeon. The Duke’3 sentiments are most fully shared by thp King of Saxony, the Prince Regent of Bavaria, and, above all, the Grand Duke of Baden,”

A SIEEF FOR OVER A MONTH!.

At Ebingen, in Wurtemberg, Maria Doerthing, the daughter of a farmer, has lain in a continuous slumber since March 6th, when she retired as usual, though complaining of a headache. The girl’s inspiration is regular, though weak, and her breaiih can only be detected by the use of a mirror. Her face is unnaturally pale, but retains its formerroundness, while her limbs have become wasted. She is fed three times daily on eggs and milk, no difficulty being met in forcing small quantities of this nourishment down her throat. Several physicians have attempted, fruitlessly, to break hpr trance, and now the royal physician, Dr, Burkhardt, of Stuttgart, has interested himself in the case,

LIQUOR SALOONS CLOSE®. The Good Templars and members of the various churches in the town of Windfall (Indiana) have, after three weeks of crusade labour and shrewd financial negotiations, forced everyone of the half-dozen saloonkeepers there to close out their business and leave the place at terms dictated by the crusaders, and now the same citizens have begun a vigorous war on the drug stores, which, it is affirmed, supply drams to young men and old topers on the sly. Most of the saloon-keepers were paid nominal prices for their stocks of liquors bri hand, which were entirely destroyed, but enough money Cannot be raised to carry out the same plan' with the druggists, and in consequence the siege and boycott method is being put intq execution against them.

LORO ROSEBERY ©N MOME RULE. A significant incident in politics in England is Lord Rosebery’s declaration in Edinburgh about Home *Rule and the political future of the Liberal party. He began by telling his somewhat astonished Scotch audience that Home Rule is not a question of morals, but of expediency. No vital principle, said Rosebery, is at stake, a view which seems to differ widely from the accepted Gladstonian view. “I believe,” he said, “ that the next election, whenever it comes and whatever the result it may have, will in all probability, for our gene-j-atjop at least, settle the Irish question.”

ANOTHER ©ENTEfARIAN. Petaluma (U.S.) has a centenarian in the person of a coloured woman named Peggy Barnes. She was born in Virginia 105 years ago. Aunt Peggy has resided there fbr many years, and for the last few months has been confined to her bed.

TOOK. HER OWN LIFE. Jennie Wickersham, a fifteen-year-old girl, died at Los Angeles Police Station, on April 3rd, from the effects of an overdose of opium administered by herself with suicidal intent.

Minna Forbes, a companion of the dead girl, states that she saw her Monday evening, and that Jennie told her she was disgusted with her home, and that she was going away, never to come back. It seems the girl has been reading sensational love stories and novels lately. She conceived an idea from reading that class of literature that her quiet home in East Los Angeles was not good enough for her. She according left, and after one day’s experience with the world committed suicide.

CHINESE EXDDUS. Over sixty Chinese have sold their laundries in New York, and left in a body for Hongkong by way of British Columbia, and a still larger company of laundrymen will, it is said, soon follow them. The reason of this sudden exodus is said to be fear of persecution from the association of white laundrymen, whose lately formed plan of campaign is directed against them.

BOTH FELL BEAD. James Sloan, while making a settlement at Greenwood, near Cincinnatti, and Robert Burgen, a coloured man, became involved in a quarrel, and Sloan tried to shoot Burgen. He missed his mark, and Burgen fled to a saloon, where he was followed by John Sloan, a brother of James. There both Burgen and John Sloan drew revolvers and fired simultaneously, and both fell dead. Sloan belonged to one of the best families in the neighbourhood.

A RELSGSSDUS IMPOSTOR. It does not take any large measure of ability to start a new religion in these days. A man named Schweinfurth of Illinois, calls himself the Saviour and is gathering in a fine revenue from tithes furnished by his dupes. The fellow has not even the shrewdness of Joe Smith, the founder of Mormonism, for he has devised no new creed, and he cannot preach anything but a commonplace sermon. Ho has plenty of audacity, however, and this is the main requisite.

RUSSIAN EXILES SN SIBERIA. A letter has been received by Ivan Smirnoff from a Russian exile now in London, the Countess Nargaiknow, which gives some painful revelations of the condition of exiles in Siberia. The exiles to Siberia in 1886 numbered 16,840 nihilists or their reported supporters. In 1887 there were added 14,277 more; in 1888 the number was 15,015, and in 1889 the exiles were 12,000. Of the number exiled the deaths range from 180 to 220 per 1,000, due to natural sickness, cold, exposure and knout punishment. The suicides average about 20 to the 1,000. During the month of August, 1889, in one of the central political prisons, 275 of the 490 prisoners were prostrated with fever. The average of those flogged with the knout is ten out of every hundred persons. Instances of cruelty in various prisons are quoted, in which prisoners’ feet were frozen ip their cells, and then they were sent out to wash clothes when the thermometer waa twenty-five degrees below zero. Commander Massinkoff is also charged with calling men before him in irons and striking them in the face while they were there helpless. Despite these facts, it is noted that the Russian papers continue to represent that the life of the exiles in Siberia is a pleasant one.

A HEADLESS ©HOST. The headless ghost of a murdered wife is creating intense excitement among the residents of Reading, Pa. It is no ordinary scare, if the testimony of a dozen witnesses can be believed. A few weeks ago a young jealous husband, Harry Lebo, called his pretty wife to the back gate of her father’s house and shot her dead in the yard. Her father died on the spot from fright, and the murderous husband escaped into the country and shot himself. According to the various statements of the residents in the vicinity of the murder of the girl wife, her spirit has come back to earth and is now haunting the spot of her cruel murder. Mrs Rupport, a plain, matter-of-fact woman, says:—“The murder of young Mrs Lebo was horrible, but we had nearly forgotten it until we saw her awful apparition just across the way. I was in bed and dozing at the time. Suddenly I heard groans, as if some one was in great pain out in the street. I arose, thinkipg it might be some one in distress. It was a bright moonlight night, with hardly a breeze stirring. I looked across the way to the spot where Harry shot his wife, and there I saw the figure of a woman near the gate. The figure of the woman had no head. It appeared then to be leaning over the gate. All the while the groans continued. Filled with horror, I again looked at the figure. I was sure it looked like the form of the murdered woman. 1 closed the window and dropped into convulsions, which lasted two hours.”

JOHN BURNS. John Bubns has removed from his squalid lodgings in London to an elegant house on Lavender Hill. He suffers extremely from s.ciatica. He has just written to the American Labour Federation declining a pro posed lecturing tour through the Dnited States, saying he could not neglect his duties in England.

A CONVENT BURNED. St. Joseph’s Catholic Convent at Milwaukee was burned on March 31st. Sister Blanker finding her escape cut off, jumped from a fourth-storey window and sustained fatal injuries. Two young candidates, Rose Minet and Mary Werner, jumped from third-storey windows and were seriously injured. Two firemen were also badly hurt by falling walls. All the other inmates, nearly seventy-five in number, succeeded in getting out safely under the guidance ef the sisters, who prevented many young girls from throwing themselves from windows in their frigh£.

FH©f©©RAPIIS SN COLOURSFuller reports from Klausenberg, in Aus' tria, where a photographer named Veress nearly a month ago hit upon the discovery of photography in colours, show the event to be more important and definite than was at first thought. Specimens, both on glass and on paper, have now been exposed to the light for three weeks and are in no way affected. The colours obtained range from a deep clear ruby red to a light orange, and there is also a brilliant French blue, but thus far no suggestion whatever of green, no variations of blue and no approach to violet or brown. Viennese professors are much impressed by the discovery, and are confident that we are on the eve of a revolution in camera work.

POSITION OF THE POPE. A large number of Cardinals are advocatingl the idea that the future Tope to be elected to succeed Leo XIII. leave Italy immediately. • They declare - that the position of the Pope there is untenable. Pope Leo strongly opposes -the scheme,

and has appealed to the Cardinals that his last days on earth be comforted by the assurance that such a course will be abandoned.

ASTUTE CHINESE POLITICIANS. Leading Chinese politicians advocate the opening of Thibet to British trade, and the conclusion of a defensive treaty with Great Britain. These measures, they urge, will act as a check upon Russia.

TRADE IN THE SOUTH SEAS. A company is being formed in Stettin to trade in Samoa, Tonga and the Fiji Islands. A regular steamship service will be established between the Islands and New Zealand and Germany.

OFFER OF TRIESTE TO THE POPE. The Vienna correspondent of the Roman “ Tribune,” who is also professor of Latin to the children of Archduke Charles Louis, telegraphs to thatimportant Roman journal the following startling information, resulting, he says, from an interview with a high personage whom he cannot name at present : “ According to this personage negotiations have been in progress for several months between the Emperor of Austria and the Vatican which may lead to a cession of the troublesome province of Trieste to the Holy Father as a place of residence. The offer has been actually made, and only an answer from the Vatican is awaited.”