General News.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3685, 16 October 1880, Page 2

General News.

It is a well-known fact that the ordinary bedding used in horse stables, from the odor emitted in hot weather, is not only offensive from exhalations of ammonia, but is a constant source of disease to the inmates of the stable. All sorts of sab* stitutes have been tried without avail, none haying been successful in overcoming the evil. The bedding introduced by the Messrs Newell, and now used with the greatest success in their own stables, East Nineteenth street, is nothing more than ground shavings. It affords a better foundation for horses while standing than straw, sawdust, Ac.; it absorbs the urine completely; and as an absorbent, prevents leakage and waste in the stalls, dispenses with the use of drains, and eventually becomes a grand fertilizer, retaining all the ammonia and fructifying quality of manure, in a concentrated form. These ground shavings also act as a disinfectant, and avoid the tarnishing of coach Tarnish, harness, &c, so prevalent in all our stables. Mr August Belmont has adopted the use of this new bedding for his stables at Babylon, L. L, with great success, and we look to see it in general use in a very short time.—American paper. _ - \ A criminal of the deepest dye has just been executed at the City of Gratz, near Vienna. This was an Austrian subject named Zoller, who was proved to have murdered one after another, his three successive wives and two step-children. His object in each case was to obtain the premium for which he had insured their lives. It was not till he had succeeded with hit third wife that the diabolical plot was detected and defeated by the vigilance of the insurance offices. Brief remarks that if Dr Tanner had. not the enormous advantages of medical supervision and various appliances, such ai vapor acd aleobolio baths, it may well be questioned whether he oould have held out to the end of the forty days. This consideration deprives the experi* ment of much of its otherwise marvel* low charioted. In the meantime, while

we are being inundated with the literature of fasting ad namtum, and s ridiculous outcome of a business that once threatened a tragic end, some Yankee glutton has proclaimed his resolve to " eat" continually fer 40 days, with intervals for sleep only. The Colorado Beetles have of late been making themselves unpleasantly con* spicuous by their proceedings in West* cheater County, New Yorkgtthere they hare appeared in alarminvp^umbers. The farmers and gardeners have pressed all the households and all the additional help they can muster into service to make war upon these destructive insects in the potato fields;, but it feems likely jhat ia the end victory will rest with the Colorado ' beetles. The great specific is Paris green; but it requires such frequent application, and is, moreover, to dangerous to use where there are domestic animals, that many farmers hesitate to resort to it, prefer destroying the bugs by means of boiling water. Boys and girls and many other assistants are paid three cents a quart for picking bugs. One smart boy will pick from fifteen to twenty quarts a day. The potato bug is, however, a . cunning insect, or it thinks it is. It knows instantly when the vine is assailed, and drops on its back as though it were dead. When the intruder has passed on it climbs up the stalk and begins to feed^ on the leaves again. The effect' of Patttf green is almost instantaneous. The bug dropß, rolls on its back, gives a few spasmodic kicks, and is dead. Whether it suffers much under these circumstances is a matter of doubt. The farmers generally hope it does, but some of them are inclined to think it does not.

Lord Chancellor Cairns, when travelling from Oxford to London recently, was unfortunate enough to get into a compart* j ment of the train which had to be slipped '< at the Hanwell station. Finding himself thus left behind, and that he would hare to wait, his Lordship thought that he would kill time by making an inspection of the famous Hanwell Lunatic Asylum. He accordingly presented himself at the gate, rang tne bell, and was speedily accosted by a porter attired" in the weU-kuown uniform of the asylum, who asked him what he wanted. " Oh," said the Chancellor, "I merely want, as a matter of curiosity and interest, to look through the establishment." " Where is your order?" demanded the porter. To this his Lordship replied that he had not obtained one, but added "I shall not want one, and you will merely have to take my card as your authority for admit-' ting me." " But my orders, said the porter are not to admit anyone without • pro-perly-signed, order, and.l must not leave my post to carry in any cards." " But, my man," responded Lord Cairns, " I am Lord Chancellor of England;" upon which the porter burst into a loud langh, and, .with a comic leer in his eye,' remarked, pointing with his thumb backward in the direction of the asylum," We hare three or four Lord Chancellors here, and several Archbishops of Canterbury too." r, A Ministerial Bill against drunkenness about to be considered by the Dutch States-General proposes to limit;public houses to one per 500 inhabitants in towns of 60,000 souls, one per 400 in towns of 20,000, one per 300 in toiros of 10,000 and one per 260 in all smaller places. It proposes to forbid the sale of intoxicants to;children under sixteen, to impose from one to eight days'- imprisonment for supplying intoxicants to person! already drunk, and to award a day's .imprisonment, with a fine of 10 florins, for being drunk in the streets; ". ■ A Valuable Estate.—Among the list of English properties locked up in Chanoery are the Townley estates. ; The property is said to be worth - £10,000,000, and the Bank of England, is suposed to hare over £35,000;000 in'its vaults, to the credit of these estates, being the oceumulated rents of a century. Colonel R'chard Townley, last of the Earls of Clarenceau, died about 100 years ago, and being without issue or known next of kin his estates were thrown into Chancery, pending the. determination of the rights of the claimants. The American heirs are represented by Colonel Jaques, who, „ aocording to a letter received by Joseph J, Dij Prat, ,of? San Francisco, from ■ his ; mother, Mrs Elizabeth Dv Prat, Of New Qxleans, has just taken possession of the three estates of Townley, Corbyv and Ashton, under the Act of Magna Charta. ; Through the taking of this step it is claimed' that the Government or contesting, claimants.will now be compelled.to assume the aggressive. , , • .- ".'.',,.,t