Weekly Mail

DECLINE OF CIVILISATION. The editor of the Western Wind came in gloomily and sat down at his desk (says the Detroit Free Press). "Any fights to-day he asked of the reporter present. No, sir." Any lynching P I No, sir." I Any horse-stealing P No, sir." j Any cowboys raiding the town?" "No, sir." Any plug hats shot off the heads of Eastern visitors by our prominent citizfiis ? No, sir." "Any report from the Vigilance Com- mittee No, sir." Any new gambling-shop3 opened? I No. sir." A ny new dance-house ? No, qi 'r." A iiyl)ody ghort „ No, sir." Any cattle thieves nung" No, sir." I The editor was sinking deeper into the gloom he had brought with him. "Is there anything P" heasked in despairing tones. '•Oh, yes, sir," replied the reporter, "there was a five o'clock tea this afternoon at Mr". S De Rooky's, a reception by the Art League and the dmcing class is giving a cotillon to- night." The editor I okedat the reporter helplessly, and snatching np his pen he dashed off an article on "The Decadence of Western Civili- sation," and left the office.

iHJLNDSOME CLOCKS & WATCHES lifinilq TO BE GIVEN CLIRING 1893 TO USERS OF VENUS SOAP. Anyone desirous of possessing a, "Venus" Clock or Watch (warranted to keep correct time) can obtain one free of CioD %ost by sending to Messrs. Joseph Watson and Sons,, Hfflr Whitehall Soap Works, Leeds, their full name ani JJO-— address and VENUS SOAP WRAPPERS, as follows;—- POE 150 Wrappers, Timepiece No. 1, 4-in. Dial, will be sent, f SFr 533 Wrappers, Timeptaoa Ho. 9, 0-la. Dial, will be sent. 890 WraP?er«» Timepiece Ho. 3, 9-in. Dial, will be sent. '!Ui ^PPer*'a Gentlemen's ] Handsome 'i Y/atcb wi'I be sant. k x La«jr'« .1 Keyless | Watch «lil be sent. p* !<: <: THE STATUE) VRNUS OF IVHLQ." IN THE GALLERIES OF THE LOUVRE, PARIS. For 83 Wi-ggy of thi-i beptvillul Statute will be sent to any address. Size Iii-in. by I a aiuitla* picture, handsomely framed, will be sent.

Sports and Pastimes. I Ancient and Modern. BY WILLIAM FRANCIS. MO. IV.—FALCONRY AND HAWKING, Falconry, the art of taming and tutoring birds of prey, more especially falcons and hawk", with a view to employing them ut., it in the pursuit of game, was exten- sively practised in England in former days. "In our time," says a writer of the twelfth century, hunting and hawking are esteemed the most honourable employments and most excellent virtues by our nobility, and they think it the height of worldly feli- city to spend the whole of their time in these diversions. Accordingly they prepare for them with more solicitous expense and parade than they do for war, and pursue the wild beasts with greater fary than they do the enemies of their country." To what country or people the world is in- debted for THE INVENTION OF HAWKING as a pastime it is difficult to ascertain. There is little doubt that the dwellers in the eastern quarter of the globe were amongst the earliest to adopt the pastime. Marco Polo, who went on an Embassy to China from Pope Gregory X., relates that he> £ oiind hawking to be a fashionable sport in the vast empire of Kublai Khan, and describes with great particularity his Celestial Majesty's falconers. However, the origin of hawking cannot be traced bicl. earlier than the fourth century. Julius Finnicers, who lived about that time, is the first Latin author who speaks of falconers and the art of teaching one species of bird to fly after and catch others. According to the testimony of Ctesias (about B.C. 400) bares and foxes were hunted m India by means of rapacious birds Aristotle (B.C. 381) making special mention of the art as being practised by the Thracians. "In that part of Thrace formerly called Cedropolia the men go out into the marshes in quest of birds, accompanied by falcons. The men beat the trees and bushes with poles and put the birds to flight; the hawks fly after them; by that means they are ao frightened that they fall to the ground, where tbe men strike them with their poles and kill them." < f course, this sort of hawk- ing is very inferior to the art as it was prac- tised by our forefathers and is now by the Arabs of Syria and Arabia. HAWKING IN ENGLAND. From time immemorial the eport of hawking has been favoured in England. We are told that King Kthelbert wrote to Germany j for a brace of falcons which would fly at; cranes and bring them to the ground. 14 roiii that date to the time of Charles 11. falconry was so far a national pastime that an old writer asserts that <! every degree had its peculiar hawk, from the Kmperor down to the holy waterclerk." That the clergy were as much in favour of this amusement as the laity appears from an old Shropshire author, Piers Plowmen (Langdale), who satirically gave it as his opinion that they thought more of sport than of their flocks, excepting at sharing time, and like- wise from Chaucer, who says, In hunt- ing and riding they were more skilled I than in divinity." No better illustra- tion of the universality of the sport can be given than the following extract from an ancient writer, which shows that according to one's station in life a hawk of a certain quality was apportioned him for his pastime, tiius Fur the Emperor The 0age or vul'ura „ King G, r-falcon „ t'riuco Falcon ge.itle or lerccl gentle „ Dulic R,ck fllleon Earl Peregrine falcoil „ Huron U istard falcon Knight. S'lcre and the ecret „ Esquire. Harrier and thu Jauwnsret >, Lady Merlin t, Young man Hobby t. Yeoman Goshawk t, Poor innn Tercel t, Priest. Sparrow hawk Holy-water clerk Muket „ Knave or servant Keslrel Alfred the Great excelled in hawking, and is said to have written a treatise upon the subject for the edifioation of his nobles and the glory of the royal sport. Harold, afterwards King of England, when he went on a most important embassy into Normandy, is drawn in an old bas relief as embarking with a bird on his fist. and a dog under his arm. In those days it wa thought sufficient for noblemen's sons to wind the horn and carry the hawk fair, and leave study and learning to the people. After the Conquest hawing still retained its nobility, and several laws were passed which prevented any but the bi-, itest in rank and power from pursuing the spirt. One of the privileges wrested from King J.-hn was the forest charter, which enabled all I nifiu to fly their own hawks and keep th-ir own heronies on the banks of their o-,t ii rivers. and thus a sport which before bad been he pride of the rich became the privilege of the poor. Still it remained a felony to steal falcons or their eggs from a freeman's woods, and a term of imprisonment not exceeding a year and a day was the penalty, In the reign of Elizabeth the imprisonment was reduced to three months, but the offender was to be in prison till he got security for his good behaviour for seven years further. Henry VIII. was passionately fond of hawking—so fond, indeed, that on one occasion he nearly lost his life when hawking. While pursuing his game on foot at Hitchen, in Heitford- shire, and attempting to leap a ditch by the aid of a pole, it broke when he was at the height of his vault, and down he w ent burying his royal head in mud, in which he would have been stifled, it is said, had not John Moody, a footman, rescued him. And so says an old histor'An "God of hys good- nesse preserved him." Elizabeth and James I were very fond of the sport. So must Sir James Monson have been, who lived in the reign of James, and who must have had more money than wit, for he is said to have given the enormous sum of £1,000 for a cast (a couple) of hawks. After the introduction of gunpowder, and from the moment the musket was brought to perfection and pointed out a method more ready and more certain of procuring game, the practice of falconry declined. The im- mense expense of training and maintaining o( hawks became altogether unnecessary. The gun superseded the bird, and the art I of hawking was rendered useless. Still an attempt was made to revive the art by the Earl of Oxford at the close of the last century, and Sir John Sebright at the beginning of the present century practised it in Norfolk. We seldom hear anything of the art now. The modern enclosures of the country, with its numerous hedges, are obstacles to the sport. THE TRAINIISG OF FALCONS is a very diflicult business. The birds were taken either out of the nest, in which case they were call d "mas" birds, or were caught after they had left it these last were called haggards," and were tamed with more diificulty, but with patience and dexterity were capable of being mad« tractable. The Abb6 Pluche, an old Trench writer, who lived about the middle of the eighteenth century, haa given a the eighteenth century, haa given a very entertaining description of the process of training. 11 When they are too wild," he says, "they are neither fed nor suffered to sleep for three or four days and as many nights, and are never left alone; by which means they grow familiar with the falconer and obedient to his com- mands. His first care is to accustom them to settle on his fist, to spring when he throws them off, to know his voice, his singing, or any other signal he gives them, and to return to order on his fist. At first they are tied with a string of about thirty fathoms in length, to prevent them flying away when they are called back. They are not freed from this confinement till they are completely disciplined and always return at the re-call. To accomplish this the bird must be lured. A lure is a piece of red stuff or wool, on which are fixed a bill, talons, and wings. To this is likwise fastened a pieoe of flesh, and the lure is thrown out to him when they wish to call him back. The sight of the food, with the addition of a certain noise, immediately brings him back. In a little time the voice alone is sufficient. The various plumage with which the hue is set off is called a I drawer.' When they accustom the hawk to fly at a kite, a heron, or a partridge, they change the 'drawer' according to the game in view. When be is to spring at a kite they only fix the bill and feathers of that bird on the lure: the same care is taken with respect to the rest. In order to entice the bird to his object they fasten to the lure the neck of a chicken or some other fowl, but always conoeal it under the 'drawer.' To this they add sugar, cinna- mon, marrow, and other delicacies. He is then prepared to spring at real game, which he does with surprising precipitation. Having been accustomed to a month's exercise in a chamber or garden the bird is tried in the open fields with little bells fastened to his feet in order that the trainer may more readily be informed of his motions. lie is always capped,' that is to say, his head is covered with leather which falls down over his eyes to prevent him seeing an object but that they wish him to discover and as soon as the dogs either stop or spring the game the falconer uncaps the bird and tosses him into the air after his prey. It is very diverting to see him wing the air in all the varieties of flight; and behold him soaring by degrees till out of Ile then CODIi-fiatids the plain, contemplates the motions of his prey, whom the distance of its enemy deludes into an imaginary security till at last he launche upon it with the rapidity of an arrow, and bears it to his master, who re-calls him. They never fail in these his first essays to present him when he returns to the fist with the neck and entrails of the prey he has brought. These gratuities and the caresses of the falconer animate the bird to perform his duty, keep him in regularity, and a proper fierceness of disposition, and particularly pre- vent him from bearing away his bells-that is to say from flying away and returning no more, an accident that sometimes occurs." THIS PLEASURES OF THE PASTIME. "Falconry, says the same author, "is the proper recreation of a gentleman; the sport is one of the noblest and frequently proves one of the most profitable pleasures." Cer- tainly there must have been something very pleasant in falconry, as practised in its palmy days; the clear, bright air, the open country, the various tactics of the hawk and quarry, the one to seize, the other to allude; the training of the hawks, their courage, beauty, and in- telligence-all these points must have contri- buted to make the sport a very exciting one. In the air," says Anceps, in Walton's "Angler," I;my nou;e, generous falcon ascends to such a height as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to their bodies are too gross for such high elevation but from which height make her descend by a word from my mouth (which she both knows and obeys;, to accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her master, to go home with me and be willing the next day to afford me, the like recreation," The pastime may be repugnant to the finely strung feelings of the Koyal Society for the Prevention of Craelty to Animals, but there was much more sport and far less cruelty in falconry than there is in the shooting battues of modern times. Next week's Article will be on THE NOBLE ART OF SELF DEFENCE."

ON THE CONTRARY. She Why do they call a man a chappy ?' He: They don't. THOUGHTFUL. Mrs. Wicklow Why do you want to marry again so soon P illrs. Leftpoor: So that I can buy some mourning for the husband who has just died. SARCASTIC. Miss Robinson This watch I wear was a present from my mother on my twenty-first birthday. Miss MalUs And aren't the works worn out Ft No EXTRADITION TREATY PERHAPS. First Young Lady of Distinction My ances- tors came to this country 150 years ago. Second Young Lady of Distinction Mine did not find it necessary to come to this country at all. ALTOGETHER OUT OF PLACE. Mrs. Brown Johnnie wishes to go with as, but it wouldn't be right to take a child along with a theatre party. Brown Of course not, my dear. A child, you know, should be seen and not heard. A TRONG BID, Mrs. Strongmind: Why don't you go to work? Tramp: Please, mum. I made a solemn vow twenty years ago that I'd never do another stroke of work till women was paid the same wages as men. IT WAS NOT MARS. He was out with his sweetheart in the suburbs (says the Boston Globe.) They were talking about the stars and he was pointing several of them out to her. lie had heard that Mars lay very low in the sky. After looking around, he observed what be thought to be Mars, and accordingly pointed it out to the young lady, remarking that she would not, have thought that the little brilliant star was millions of miles away. They went on chatting, he still pointing out stars and professing to know a lot about them, when he suddenly observed that Mars appeared much more brilliant and larger, and he began to think something was wrong. He soon forgot it, however, and went on talking and laughing, when they suddenly stopped, both looking at the same object. It was the ohj ot he had pointed out as Mars, and which now turned out to be a railway signal. I thought you said that was millions of milt's away ? said the young lady. For the next half hour he wished himself millions of miles away. He never talks about stars nolv.

Ask for Tyler aud Co.'s Gold Medal Flannel.

Your i'Worst: Enemy is RHEUMATISlUj ■AFFLICTED 20 YEABwl h- Mr. William Dean, of 6 Row, Walsall, says I have beerf afflicted with rheumatism almost cotlf tinually for twenty years. For twelvf months I was unable to work; I different hospitals, many doctors, an several kinds of medicine, all to no us0»: was unable to get rest night or day until I used St. Jaoobs Oil. As the result» Using this marvellous Oil I can now sleep well, and go to my work regularly overl day free from pain, perfectly cured." A95h ST. JACOBS OIL Cured him the same as it hes cured hundreds of other even worse. That which it hafl done once it will do again. I* OONQUER9 P IN Is. 2s. 6ëiJ MR. THOMAS BURT, M.P., Secret*' to the Board of Trade, writes:—"J and i».v family have used Dr. WHITE'S KOMPO fur irior>- than nine years, with tlie most satisfactory results. It is not only a first-class family medi* cine, but as a pure and healthy stimulant, I coil" tider it. unequalled. When well sweetened with augiir it is very palatibl' and a capital substi" tuie for tea or coffee. In travelling long d's" tances in cold weather I have used it with great advantage. It gives a glow and gen Li warmth to the system of a much healthier and more enduring kind than anything else I have tried. KOMPO A valuable remedy for Colds, Bore Throat. KOMPO For Quinsy, Diarrhoea, Dy»ente,f4 Cholera Pains iu the Stomach Bowels, Disordered Stomach, ache, C,)ld Feet, Cold Sweats, Bad Cir° laliou of the Blood, Gi ittii)ess, &c KOMPO Is notonlj a Mo'.licine buta See directions How to Make a ranee Cordial." KOMPO Is a pure and healthy stimulant '• superior to bratidv or any ether into ctitg ddnk. All teetotalers and psiance advocates should recomoien I Komi'O „ M Can be taken in either Hot or Water. Tea, C'iBee, Milk or Cocoa. ASK FOR Dtt. WHITE'S K OAIPO t And do not be persuaded to take a woribless substitute. J £ OMPO FOR CO I i US. J £ OMPO Is registered as a Trade Mark Patents, Designs, and Trade Mark* 1H83, No. 43,220. Any person or perso using the word will be prosecuted. J £ OMPO FOR COLDS. J £ UMPO Is sold by all Chemists and P»!cn* Medicine Dealers. ALL PERSONS EXPOSED TO COLD WEATHER SHOULD TAKE D n. w IIITE's j £ ompo. HOW TO MAKE A TEMPERANl# COCDIAL. Take three-quarters of a pound of lump sugar, and one quart of water; let it boil two or three minutes; when COLD, add two or three ta'ile- spooufuls of Dr. WHITE'S KOMPO, nnd it is ready for use. A wine-glassful, neat, or the same quantity with hot water, makes a very ngreeable drink, and a good stimulant for all persons ex- posed to cold weather. By many it is used as a substitute for tea or coffee, and instead of brandy or such liquors, after dinner or supper, who fiud it much better than those stimulants, and with* out any of the bad effects intoxicating drinks produce. ^OMPO FOR COLl>S' DR. ^THJTE'S K 0 1,1p 0. Sold in Bottles at It. I'd. and 2s. 9J. each (the 2s. 9d. bottles contain three times the quan- tity of tile. Ia. lîd. oue), by all CHEMISTS AND PATENT MEDICINE DEALEB9 Post free J. F, WHITE and Co., Benson-street, Leeds. LI0023 BY SPECIAL TO HER MAJEf?* APPOINTMENT TIIE QlJIiE3' PhEA.SE! ASIC FOR A Y7> TTSE <>?( £ }? r- L NO Her Majesty's, Royal Buckingham Palace..J HIGHEST EXHUaiTJLQN HONQTTRS. f A FOR MIGHT. SILVERY, QUICK POL#* STOVES AMTFS. plumbago" » f,. STOVE- POILISH"- Always Bright & Beautifo*- In Large Packota Id. & 2d. Uso ouitf lor Liuuiiry l'urpose», producing tlie be.t r FNIXEY'S "SOHO PI ||C SQUARE "|j|IB(JE> TBE PUREST—BEST—NO SEBIMSJJj Eight 1-oz. squares in Box '°r Of all Grocers and Oilmen or write to 13, soao sftgAas, LONDON. FOR KNIVES, FORKS, BLIASS AV STEEL WORK, &c., &c. Won't wear the Blades like Others. 6d. and 19. Tins. NIXEY'S" KNIFE POLISH OF ALL STOREKEEPERS EVERYWHERE Wholesale: W. G, NIXEY. London, Elllarld. PHILLIP R. JAMES, PONTYPB^ and lJHON'DDA VALLEY, BILL FOSTER gf, MSTRIBUTOIf, XllEOKKY.and 6 CHUUCH-STW^ POrrryrRIPD. Rents all the principal Btai.ions in Pontypridd and 3?bondda Va'ley* and irap.and Pianoforte kept for Hire.