NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 164, 10 January 1912, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL.

£SBOO PAID FOR A BIBLE. RECORD PRICE FOR A MAZARIN. London, November 21. There was a spirited duel at Sotheby's saleroom yesterday for possession of a splendid paper copy of the "Mazarin" Bible which was offered during the sale of the Huth collection. This copy was bought for £2690 at the Perkin sale in 1873. The opening bid was £2OOO, and then the fight started between Mr. Maggs and Mr. Quarritch. Mr. Maggs stopped at £5250, and then Mr. Leighton took up the bidding, and ran it up until it was knocked down to Mr. Quaritch at £SBOO. The numbers of chapters are supposed to be in the handwriting of Gutenberg himself. . Mr. Quaritch paid £6OO for a copy of the "Poor Man's Bible," printed about 1430. 'He also became the owner of a vellum copy of the Latin Vulgate, dated 1462, the first edition of the Bible with a date. The price of this was £3050. It was bought by Mr. Huth for £6OO. A paper copy of the same edition was bought by Mr. Quaritch for £I9OO. The price paid for the Mazarin Bible is a record for London, 'but. £IO,OOO has befen paid in the United States for a vellum Mazarin.

The Mazarin Bible was printed before August 15, 1456. It is so called because the first copy described was found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin. It is also known as the "Bible of 42 lines," because each column has 42 lines. There are 1282 spaces left for illuminated i'i tials. It is printed in Latin. The prin er is believed by German authorities have been Gutenberg. Other-authoriti think that the printer was Peter Schoeffer, perhaps in partnership with Fust. The "Poor Man's Bible" is a picture book, which was used as a help to the clergy in educating the poorer classes. There is an easy explanatory text. It represents the life and passion of Christ, and manuscripts of it, in some cases beautifully illuminated, which were prepared in the thirteenth century, are in existence.' The specimen sold yesterday is a Flemish manuscript nearly 500 years old, with fifty-three pen-and-ink sketches. TRAGIC MISTAKE. HOW AN ENGLISH MISSIONARY WAS' SHOT. Lisbon, November 19. .The official story of the death of the Rev. A.- J. Douglas, the English missionary who was shot at Ivango, on the Portuguese side of Lake Nyasa, where he landed with .the Bishop of Nyasaland and three ladies, is told in a despatch received here yesterday. It is stated that a number of natives from Likoma entered Kango on November 10, and took forcibly arms and amunition, which had been seized "by the Portuguese Customs. The commander of the Portuguese j military post there, Senhor Taveira, immediately communicated, with the English missionaries, and the arms were returned, but other objects which had been taken away were retained. The Rev. A. J. Douglas, three ladies, and natives entered Kango subsequently, and Senhor Taveira, mistaking them for robbers, called on them to stop. The order was not complied with, and the party was fired on. This version is said to be admitted by the English authorities there. CONDEMNED MAN'S CHANCE. EXTRA MONTH TO LIVE IF HE CONFESSES. New York, November 20. Henry Clay Beattie, junr., the 26-year-old son of a Virginian millionaire, who was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife in a motor car, and whose execution has been fixed for Friday next, has been informed that he will be granted a month's respite if he confesses his guilt. He would then be executed on Christmas Eve. The Governor of Virginia refused to interfere with the sentence, but he told friends that he would be willing to postpone the execution if Beattie confessed, and this-decision was communicate!} to the condemned man in his cell at Richmond prisoft. Beattie's father has issued a statement to the effect that if his son confesses it will be against the advice of his family and counsel. But to Beattie,with death less than a hundred hoiirs away, the possibility of a month's respite must appear like a sail to a swim--mer nearing exhaustion. 1 If Beattie does not there re-difcinsi-the consolation'to :his aged fa-ther-that his boy might ii ftor 'all be the innocent victim of a miscarriage of justice. If, on the other hand, Beattie confesses himself a murderer, lie stands self-branded before: his family, Yet by so doing Beattie may be exchanging death for life. It must appear to him that anything might happen during the next month.- It is suggested that something might happen to Govern-or-Mann, and his successor might conimiite the -death sentence to one, of imprisonment for life. , Or, again, Mr. Mann might become suddenly touched, as was the governor of a Western State recently. He commuted the death penalty on the day of execution after reading, an, "anguish" poem entitled, "They've hanged Bill Jones." . .

If the execution js postponed for a month it.will make the date Christmas Eye. The Christmas spirit of forgiveness might lead public sentiment in the' .direction of demanding that a life imprisonment sentence should be substituted for that of death? Those possibilities must all be passing through the mind of the lone Richmond prisoner, with the question'ever before him, "What choice shall I make?" ' Note—Beattie has since been executed. GRAZED BY AN ARROW IN THE ABOR CAMPAIGN. Simla, November 22. A despatch received from the headquarters of the Abor expeditionary force states that in an attack on a stockade General Bower, who commands the expedition, was slightly grazed by an arrow. Www The stockade was captured, eight Abors being killed.