General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4852, 29 July 1884, Page 2

General News.

A. marrellous escape froai dea' h, vrhicbt, reads more like ja passage from Baron Marichauseu than an incident in real life, is reported of a private of Itfarines who ."•'; arrifed home invalided in the Jumna : troopship. During the first Battle of; Teh a bullet struck him on the chest, and; actually passed throngh his body, out at : his back, ah-i struck a comrade who was standing &Sew yards away. Strange to . say, the comrade was killed instantaneously, whereas rthe mau who was first hit was not even dangerously hart, r and is ow actually convalescent.' * v ; -^ v ; ;V " I think/ says a NewYjbrK;merchant^ "ilmt bur trade^ with AastraHaJsidestiued^ to 5 have a steady and: healthy growth. Their climate, on the whole is much hotter than ours, and the vegetable and animal world there is entirely different from that of tbe United States Many things grow there which cannot bo raised here, and while the products which our, country' sends abroad stre mostly raw, as well as those exported' by Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand, theirs arei en* tirely different; with, the oxoeptibn of wboU The figures for Australia which I have are not separated from those of Australasia, but to that quarter of the jelobe we sentlast year 352,C0pd01. worth of agri-' cullnral implements, 225^)C3d01. carriages ; andcarls,^ BitijOOQAokl, 4r.ugs and, itoedi-, ,ciues. i,203,00pdb1. ' irtm tnanufactures, 252,C00d01. steel manufactures,; lll,Go3dpl. leather and manufactures „ of leather, 555,000d0ir keroseriei 370,C30d0U fish, 169,000 dpi. ssFing machines, :796i0C0d01.v tobacco, 224,t!00d01. lumber, 229,C00d01.5 household furniture, and 234,000d01. manufacture?of wood." -.'■; . .«

Instructions baye-besn receivedat the School of Military [Engineering, Chatham, for the immediate formation of a corps of submarine miners. KecruitinK for this newly organised body will be at once actively commenced, especially in_ the s,ea- , side and:fishing districts, seafarinjß;;mea being principally required for the work. The special functions'of.thju new: branch of the service will be the laying of submarine mines for oast defence, and three vessels specially designed land fitted forthe work are now lying in the Mciiway. J Canon Liddon's last germon-at.St. : «Paul'B 5 during his residence was (says an ex* change/a fierce denunciation of interested .marriages, to the fearful aad scandalous number of which be attributes;the "flour- >.; ishing existence of that infamous' tribune ' which is a standing disgrace to our civili* .* sation." His vast congregation listened^ spellbound, but whether the good seed fell upon barren or fruitfulsoil lime alone can decide. It will take more than a sermon preached, even by the eloquent lips ofj Canon Liddon, to turn the tide, and bring! love matches into favor again, and to a-..:... student of hum-in nature itrefill ever be an insoluble problem why "those who marry for money and positions should,'.:,;. after a time, be bo ready to give up both at the call of a sudden fancy. Permanence alone can give real value to r any. possession ; to be rich and envied today and a poor Pariah to morrow! The woman must be a fool indeed to volun* larily become the latter when she-might remain the former. It is a hard, saying,; - but the present is such a materialist age that it is only by putting things on the lowest platform "that a: bearing can-be obtained. Denunciation, too, as a weapon, is blunted; deepen the degredatiqn and loss incurred by passing through the > Divorce Court, and its work will soon be i lessened. ■.■ '■•.'■-. ■. . •••.-.'■: .■..•.' .', • ..■'', ■ v/; ;r „"Cv■':" _ One of the healthiest symptoms of:th6:.;{ time is that Young America becomeaX^: more and moire attached •to athletics. ?v The advance in this direction during the last 20 years is astonishing., Harlem Eiver is now lined with iscores; of boathouses, and every evening the river is crowded with hundreds, of shells and small craft. Every Saturday throughout the summer there are athletic games, '.attended by from 5,000 to 10,000' people,: and every dayj fronr the Ist May until October, the ball ground of the Neir ■ Torks at the polprgrounds, the new ground, of the MetropoJitins, and the ground at Brooklyn, are fiUed with^graafc? audiences at 50 cents a head, tb look on at the playing and to bet on the resnlti JliiS every, part of the city there are ", turn - clubs and gymnasia, and there are a dozen or rcoro of celebrated and expensive schools of the "noble art of self-defence," each of them presided over by a profenior who has won name iand fame in the;ring; ' Sir Lapsl Griffin calls attention to the advance of Euwia towards India,- where, he says, a thanderoload is rising above the horizon even more black and threatening lhan.that preparing to burst in the valley of the Nile. The forward movement of, Eussia on the Persian and Afghan frontier has, he says, brought her into a"po3itipn when hoi' next step must' bring'herfinto , collision with England, and the- J'bVep which then recedes before the other musV from that day, hike the gscoad place in Europe-and Asia.:. .•■'',■■: :;-'..-;:^>H:-:'/.-:'vV- ■•■"';