General News.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5202, 30 September 1885, Page 3

General News.

A Iragio instance of violent resentment against a doctor occurred during the spread of cholera in Spain. In a village ■ear Valencia a man was attacked by the epidemic, and medical assistance was called in, rather against the wish of his relatives. He died in the course of a fendays, and the family planned their yen. geance against the unfortunate doctor. When he next called to see his patient the fact of the death was concealed until the doctor was in the bedroom of the defunct, j Then he was brought face to face with the | corpse, and vehemently reproached for \ being an assassin who deliberately killed { the sick instead of administering them ; remedies. The persons collected in the j room, in their frantic irritation, afterwards assaulted the practitioner, insisting on his swallowing all the drugs that were intended for the deceased, and so ill-used him that he succumbed a few hours later fc> his injuries. A private letter to a Cape Town newspaper reportb Madagascar to be rich with precious stones and metals, but that the aw of the country prohibits mining mder a penalty of twenty years in chains. The Museum of St. Petersburg has a bank note, probably the oldest in existence. It is of the Imperial bank of China, issued by the Chinese Government, and dates from the year 1399 before Christ. The Bote at a sovereign value, with compound interest, ought to have been developed into seven millions sterling. The Queen's eldest daughter will, in the ordinary course of things, become the German Empress. One of her sons is married to the daughter of the Empress of Bussia. The Princess of Wales is the daughter of the King of Denmark; her lister is the Empress of Kussia, her brother the King of Greece. One of the Queen's cousins v King of the Belgians, toother KiDg of Portugal, while through her children and grandchildren she will be related by family ties to every princely family on the continent. A curious story is told by a Victorian paper, which states that some time ago a Melbourne firm indented a new and costly tiara for Archbishop Goold set with pre eious stones. Thetiara reached Melbourne, but a difficulty arose at the Customs as to how it should be classified. The officials proposed to regard it as belonging to " hats | and caps," and a clerk who went to clear it put it on his head so that he might be enabled to make a declaration that it had been worn. That would not do, however, and finally after the discussion of various plans, it was resolved to pass it as ••samples." The vital statistics of London show a fearful mortality among insured infants. The books of the insurance companies show that the death rate among infants who are insured is much greater than the general death rate for the same ages as published in the Government reports. The latter include, of course, both insured aid uninsured infants. If the two classes could be separated in the official reports bo that they could be compared, it is believed that it would be shown that the mortality among the insured is 50 per cent, greater than that among the uninsured. These facts strengthen the suspicion into the conviction that many infants are deliberately murdered for the sake of the insurance on their lives. Insurance companies which accept risks on infants' lives will insure none but healthy children, and consequently the mortality among them should naturally be less than among the general average of children. Some insurance companies seem to accept the conclusion that child-murder is the cause of this anomolous condition of affairs complacently, and only seek to secure their own profits under the additional risk by increasing their premiums. This operates as a hardship upon honest parents who insure their children's lives from worthy motives of prudence. The note of alarm has been scunded by the actuaries of the more respectable insurance companies and echoed by many physicians. It has bow been taken Tip by several medical and legal newspapers, which are imploring Parliament to devise some remedy for the growing and horrible crime. , It is announced that the Queen has granted four pensions of £50 a year each to the Misses Power, of Merrion Square, listers of the late Frank Power, whose tragical end in the Soudan is still fresh in the public memory. Mr Power was for some time a member of the Dublin Free* man, and few pressmen were better known in Dublin. When Edmund O'Donovan set out on what unhappily proved to be the last of bis adventurous missions as a war correspondent, he was accompanied by Power. O'Donovan left Khartoum with Hicks Pasha's army, which was subsequently annihilated so utterly that not a single man survived to tell the tale of the catastrophe that befel it, and Power escaped the general disaster through being so enfeebled by illness that he was unable to advance with the troops. In the siege of Khartoum he played an important part, and it was only when the defence of the city was drawing to a close that he attempted with Colonel Stewart to make good his way down the Wile. A few days more and the safety of the travellers would have been assured, but their steamer was wrecked and they themselves slain. Mr Power's letters to his mother and sisters make, next to Gordon's own book, the most' interesting record of a memorable and fatal siege. . A comedy, which might appropriately be called M The Absent Bridegroom," was enacted one morning recently at St. Andrew's Church, Cambridge, the following account of which is from the local News:—" It appears that a young man, who for some time past has dispensed liquors to the thirsty at a local hotel, had become enamoured of a young woman who was ' lady help' in the dining room of another hotel. AH had gone sweetly ts the marriage bell, and the morning had arrived on which their two lives were to be made one, and all that sort of thing*, The scene at the church was interesting. The bride, was there looking charming, of course; the bridesmaids also, who mustered in force; the parson with choker unusually white; the best roan in full dress—a really beautiful sight. But long, long, they waited— the bridegroom came not. At first they all thought the day he'd forgot 5 and then at last full enquiry rerealed that the horrid young man from the marriage had •■peeled.' By the train of that morning he had• vamoosed' quite clean, and ruthlessly spoiled the maiden's sweet dream. Did she icream? did she yell ? did she bunt into rhyme ? Deuce a bit.—she just laid with a toss of her head, * Never mind, ladies and gents, better luck next time.*" The turn of the " tied."—Starting homeW«d •ftertbe wedding trip.