Untitled

Thames Star, Volume xv, Issue 4776, 30 April 1884, Page 2

A French meteorologist has, in the exposed court of his house, two bars of iron planted in the earth, to each of which is fixed a conductor of coated wire, terminating in a telephonic receiver. His pratice is to consult shesapparatns every day, and it never fails, through its indications of earth currents, to give notice of the approach of a storm twelve or fifteen hours ahead. • The largest school ia the world is said to be the Jew's Free School in Spitalfields, London. It has a daily attendance of 2800 pupils. The institution is also a training college, and nearly every teacher in the school has been trained within its walls. Besides the ordinary branches, the Jewish child has not only to learn the Scripture history and the elements of religion- and morality, but has also to be taught to read the Hebrew fluently, and to translate some portions, at least, of his prayer book of the Hebrew Scripture. 1 News of Mr Stanley's exploration in Africa is to hand by the last Suez mail. It appears that after a five months' absence that gentleman returned to Stanley Pool about the middle of February, having successfully established tations along the Congo up to Stanley Falls. He had everywhere been well received, and, in addition to the establishment of stations, he had made the discovery that the Ourounga, the most important confluent of the Arawimi, is a navigable river. It appears that hostilities had broken out between the natives and the French, Dutch, and Portuguese traders.on the Lower Congo. The trade caravans were plundered and the carriers killed, and an expediton of traders to punish the marauders was defeated. However, an expedition despatched under the auspices of the International Association succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat upon the natives. The last heard about M. de Brazza was that be and two white men had arrived safely at a point about 130 miles above Bolobo. The inhabitants of the village of De Brazzaville have petitioned to be taken under the protection of Mr Stanley. A colonial paper thus descants on Freemasonry, with special reference to the fact that the Prince of Wales has been raised to the highest rank which the Mark Masons have it in their power to{ confer;—" Freemasonry, in all its forms, is. a very popular institution in this country. Its members have a pleasant sense that they belong to a secret order, that they can communicate with their fellows in some special way, and that they have therefore a claim of right to an "acknowledged brotherhood with the highest and noblest in the land. To the uninitiated public, including the whole female sex, the whole- thing is supposed to be a mystery, and, as such, an agreeable subject for speculation. Its secrets, it is true, have not been very closely kept. Indiscreet or treacherous brethren have revealed them to the world a dozen times over. The fullest information may be picked up for half-a crown at almost any London bookstall. But the public prefer to be in the. dark, and go on guessing and speculating. If it really believed that Freemasonry iB no more than what the' Prince of Wales describes it to be—an order and an in*, stitution of charity and usefulness—it would care much less for it."