General News.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5082, 29 April 1885, Page 3

General News.

The dynamite scare in London is tolerably serious. A Catholic lady was lately very ill, and 'a friend, a former *: neighbor, who had been abroad for some 'time, brought home a bottle of Lourdes • vfaier, hoping that its miraculous powers might effect » cure. This bottle was enclosed in a small iron casket. On reaching London, he took this to the lady's house, and was there told that she had so far recovered that she had been removed to the South. Hating several calls to make, he left the casket at a shop close > by, where he was known. On applying for it a few days afterwards, he found the casket gone, and the following^explanation was offered :—""Well, sir, you see, we knew you lad been in foreign parts for some time; and, as you did not return for the iron bos the next day, we didn't quite like it, so we went for a policeman and showed it to him. He thought it very : suspicious, and fetched the inspector, who bad the tiling removed to. the police station, where it was broken up and a bottle found inside. It was then all taken to the Home Office, and the stuff in the bottle analysed and found to be * a clear, colorless liquid,' so the whole thing was sent to Woolwich to be destroyed." A strong feeling against football has sprung tip in the United States in consequence of-certain mishaps which have lately occurred at matches. The following notice has been posted up at Harvard College:—" The Committee on Athletics, having become convinced that the game of football as at present played by college teams is brutal, demoralising to players and to spectators, and extremely dangerous, propose to request the faculty to prohibit the game after the close of the present season." ' , _ The staid city of Glasgow is much exercised over the doings of a poor photographer who has suddenly developed a wonderful facility for painting admirable landscapes with his eyes blindfolded. He is said to boa" painting medium," and the pictures produced are supposed to be the trork of denizens of the spirit world.. The stances, we learn from Society, are given in the usual manner—a certain number of people attend the sitting, the medium is carefully blindfolded, and then, .under the full glare.of the gas, a landscape is produced in oils. These pictures are *aid to possess undoubted •'artistic merit," and the performance, even if a trick, is certainly a very marvellous one. Sometimes the entertainment is varied. The palette, clean and with the colors arranged around it, is laid upon a table with a supply of brushes ; a couple of pieces of card are fixed upon the easel, . some person, selected by the audience, tears a small piece out ot each of the cards for the purpose of future indents fication/and then the gas is turned out. After the lapse of a few moments it is re lighted, when it is discovered that landscapes or figures have been painted upon the blank cards; the wet pamt testifying to their recent execution, while the matching of the pieces.held by the member or members' of the audience show that the cards bare not been exchanged. . The New Tork Herald of the 17th Dec says:—"Last Sunday the Herald published a list of nearly 700 divorce cases pending in the courts of Chicago. This morning we print the names of the parties to more than 7CO suits on the dockSt» of the Philadelphia Courts. We also eive a similar catalogue for this city, but its length is insignificant coingarod with that of the others., Fourteen hundred applications for divorce pending in two cities is a atartling fact, whose announcement is well calculated to arrest public attention. The more creditable showing of this city is doubtless duo to the strin- • Kency of the law of New; York, which recognises but one cause for.a dissolution of the marriage tie. The laws of Pennsylvania and of Illinois are far more lax than ours, and consequently the abuses which flourish under them are mucKireater. How far the marriage reUtidff* should be held sacred and the «ontract indissoluble, whether the , turn total of domestic happiness will be increased or diminished by the most •tringent diyorce laws, is a question on which moralists and legislators have always differed, and always will differ, in opinion. Bat there can be no question that 700 pending divorce suits in a single city indicate either an extraordinary extent of married misery, or a looseness of divorce regulations which calls for correction. N The Her. Dr Stuart, minister of the Free Holy Trinity Church, Leith, .when lately referring to Mr Gladstone, said, in . the course of his prayer—" Bless Thy gemnt, for he is Thy servant, the great Miniiter, the chief Prime Minister of the Parliament assembled in the great city. Grant Lord that his great gift may be more and more dedicated to the nic and promotion of .Thy glory and of the goodwill of men. It is said, Lord, that he is very Popishly inclined. Like ourselves, he denies that. Like ourselves, Lord, may there be truth in the denial. We deny it, and we •re doing so in truth. . The day has been, , when we read the denial by the great Minister of the Popish tendencies, that wq .-'.■■, aid not think it correct. He was : calumniated and maligned to go to Jtome, and to leave the guiding and rule of this ; great pition. tc other people. But be haft

not taken the invitation, and we take ii ''•■- £ ranted that in conscience he is juat »* here he ought to be." HOW EITGEKIE MET • NaPOIEOK.—It was at a ball given by President JN"apoleon at iheElyeee, some uights before the coup d'etat, that Madle. Eugenic met' her future ' husband. A romance is connected with this meeting. Wishing to avoid the crowded ballrooms, Louis Napoleon, with the Duke of La Moskawa, went into the Ely see gardens, where be -suddenly came upon a radiant, blushing girl She was tying up her hair, 'alone, opposite a glass in the conservatory. Her hair had come down during a waltz, and the crowd was too great to admit of her reaching the ladies, dressing room. She had glided to this place,' hoping to be' unobHerred. This little circumstance of the fall of her back hair led tojier subsequent elevation to one of the proudest position ever ocenpied by a woman. In March, 1843,, Ivan Golorine, a Enssian exile resident in Paris, wrote the following :-—" Petersburg cannot remain the capjtal of Russia ; it is an advanced camp—the founder of which never intended to make it a permanent residence. Constantinople or Calcutta are the natural capitals of the Empire." Italy has 3.250,000 men in its army,,and some of the finest ships aud guns in the world. One of the Italian ironclads has just been subjected to the test of hating a torpedo exploded under her keel. It was desired to ascertain the precise nature of the injuries which, would result from such an explosion, and the sequel is said to have shown that torpedoes are not nearly so effective as was supposed.