ROUND THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2058, 3 August 1885, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

At a recent sale in London, Leikvre'B Recuyell of the Historyes of Trojir the first book printed in England gave rise to a spirited contest. Caxton states in the •epilogue to the third book that it to during the progress of this work'that he learned printing. The book was put in at £2OO, and by bids of £lO and £2O run up to £IB2O. Shortly after the auctioneer informed the purchaser that in 1756 the same copy was sold for £8 8s The Vienna correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that the execujtin recently of Mathias Benarzik, youthful assassin who some' months ago cruelly murdered a woman at Vienna, was attended by one of the most ghastly and disgraceful scenes ever witnessed at an execution at Vienna, The capital sentence is carried out there by hanging, and the practice is to choke the criminal, and not to disjoint the vertebral column, as in England, Ordinarily the executioners succeed in doing this with an apparentminimum of pain to the criminal ; but on this occasion, the arrangements were so badly made, that Benarzik, who though onlytwentyyearsofage, hadjvveiy powerful frame, was at least fflfteen minutes in dying.. Duringtime his struggles were terrible to witness, notwithstanding that the 'executioner's assisstants pulled him down with all their force. So terribly did the ghastly scene affect the bystanders, that several policemen fainted. " During thefive years of his reign (says a daily paper) the Ameer has rid himself of all who sought to disturb his peaifcj)f mind." This is a euphonestic wayof saying that lie caused his political opponents to be put to death. Indeed, before we get to the end of the leading article in which his habits are thus described, we leaijn that " he never moved without his executioner,, and that he had even brought one to Rawal Pindi in caso of any unpleasantness arising with some member of his personal suite." There has been nothing likethissince the incident described in "Quentin Durward," when Louis XI, while on a visit of friendship to the Duke of Burgundy, is attended by a similar official. The question is, ,can a gentleman of these murderous habits be trusted, when, his interest is opposed to his personel guarantee ?". Louis XI himself was certainly no example of the..butcher and the man of honor. Upon whole, I think we should be contenflp say that the word of the Ameer is 6s good as his bond.—"Town Talk."