Abergavenny Chronicle

OUR LONDON LETTER. I [From Ow Special CorrttpondenL] I 11 I It is rather a remarkable fact, considering j 'the important part that journalism plays in (national life to-day, that there have been so I few plays dealing with it. The new pro- I duction at the Kingsway Theatre is an attack upon what the author presumably considers to be a dangerous tendency in modern journalism-the concentration of tre- j mendous power in the hands of one man, who I owns a number of newspapers, one of which, 1 "The Earth" gives its title to the play. With: his circulation of a million daily he is, he boasts, the real government of the country, and he is responsible to nobody. He can rfrlead public opinion and make and un-make reputations." There is a Wayes Bill which the Right Bon. Denzil Trevena, M.P., means to carry through Parliament, but Sir Felix Jinioil, rfhë newspaper proprietor, is bitterly opposed to the Bill, and fights it through his papers. ^Trevena, however, goes on his way, and ia only persuaded to drop the Bill when Janion, having discovered that a liaison exists be- tween the Minister and the wife of a good ifor nothing peer, threatens to make the said ipeer acquainted with the condition of affairs. JThe great scene of the play is the meeting be- tween the two men, when Trevena at last consents to withdraw his Bill, to save a woman's name. Janion triumphs, but only :for a time, for the lady in the case, deter- mined that her lover's career shall not suffer, in her turn threatens to go to the Press Association and expose Janion's peculiar journalistic methods. The great man has to give way. Nobody believes, of course, that newspaper men play the -part of private detectives and use the knowledge thus obtained in such discredit- able fashion, but the play is undoubtedly a strong indictment of the methods of yellow journalism, and it seems likely to be a huge success. Talking of plays, it is interesting to note that "An Englishman's Home," which is still attracting crowds at home, and filled an Australian audience with such enthusiasm that they sang the National Anthem with one accord, has met with any- thing but success in other lands. In America people were frankly bored by the whole thing, and in Berlin the people declined to be interested or amused, expressing their dis- approval, indeed, with some little violence. There is nothing very surprising in the fact that the play has failed to please people of other countries. They can scarcely be ex- pected to enter into the feelings of those English people who see in the play a prophecy of very unpleasant things to come. "An Englishman's Home" happened to be produced at a time when recruits were badly wanted for the Territorial Army, and it made a sensation on that account rather than because of any merit which it possesses as a dramatic production. To make the play a success abroad there would have had to be translated besides the book," the atmosphere, a few national characteristics, a touch of panic, and some other trifles. But these things are impossible. One of the places of literary pilgrimage in London is the church of St. Clement Danes, in the Strand, where a series of stained-glass windows have just been completed. One of these is a memorial to Dr. Samuel Johnson, who worshipped in this church Sunday after Sunday for many years. His pew is still pointed out to visitors. It is marked by a brass plate, which was placed there, as the inscription sets forth, by some inhabitants of the parish "in the remembrance and honour of noble faculties, nobly employed." Boswell tells that on Good Friday. 1781, he came to St. Clement's with his friend, and there saw Johnson's old fellow-collegian Edwards, to whom he said, "I think, sir, Dr. Johnson and you ifeeet only at church." "Sir," was the reply, "it is the best place we can meet in, except Heaven, and I hope we shall meet there, too." When the renovations and alterations were carried out in the church in 1897-8, the paint and varnish were scraped off the central doors, and the curious discovery ,was made that they had at some time been riddled with bullets and small shot. At the base of the new Johnson window are thi, seated figures of the great lexicographer himself, Garrick, Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Boswell, and Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, the poetess. The Paris police have at last laid by the heels Hcnri Lemoine, the young chemist who succeeded in making a number of notable people believe that he could manufacture diamonds, and who obtained no less a sum than sixty-four thousand pounds from Sir Julius Wernher for the purpose of carrying out his experiments. Ten years' imprison- ment was the sentence passed by the Paris Court upon Lemoine. who. however, could not be found, though detectives were looking for him all over Europe. He is a cool customer, and seems to have had quite a lot of fun while keeping out of the hands of the police. He has apparently spent a good deal of the time in London and Paris, and states that he has seen Sir Julius Wernher several times. When arrested at length he was lunching in a restaurant in Paris, and he in- vited the detectives to join him. or, at least, to take a glass of wine. The detectives were sportsmen, and though they declined his in- vitation, permitted him to finish his meal and enjoy a cigar. Not everybody could face a ten years' sentence with such nonchalance. The recipe for making diamonds which Lemoine had lodged with a London bank was a curiosity, and the whole gigantic hoax, for sheer impudence, was a masterpiece. All efforts to induce the party in power on the London County Council to change their policy with regard to the Thames steamboats, ind to permit a summer service, however limited, have as yet proved unavailing. They are determined to sell the boats, and to have nothing to do with the cares and expenit- of ltdmiralty. Neither, it would seem, is private enterprise sufficiently enterprising to put steamers on the Thames. There was some talk of a company purchasing the steamers and running a service. The prime movers were at one time connected with a company which had penny steamers on London's mag- nificent river highway. For some reason, however, the necessary capital is not forth- coming, and it is hardly likely that private speculators should be very eager to under- take a business out of which the Council I .failed to make a profit. Those people who had hopes of pleasant trips on summer days down to Greenwich or up to Chelsea are dis- consolate, and they make their voices vocal in this lugubrious refrain "We can't cheer up, lads, 'tis to Holland they steer. Our steamboats, you know, have been sold to Myu Heer; 'Tis German, or Belgian, or Dutch people, thus iWill get all the pleasure intended for us. For we bought the boats. 'Tis to us they belong r And now they are rotting— Rotting, yes, rotting Or sold to the Germans for just an old song." A. E. M.

In the turbine stea.mers Victorian and. Yir- i ginian, of the Allan Line, passengers will iu future he kept in touch with the world's latest oings by means of the Marconi long-distance jj apparatus now being installed. In Bodmin Parish church, before the mayor and corporation and a distinguished congregation, the old colotirs of the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall's ILight Infantry were deposited for safe keep- U> £

I WIGAN MINE DISASTER Serious comments were made by the coro- ner on Monday at the resumed inquest into the explosion at the Maypole Colliery, near Wigan, in August, when seventy-five lives were lost. The manager and under manager, he said, were unable to give i. any conclusive opinion as to how the explosion occurred, either by a blown out shot or by a defective lamp. It was no good mincing matters. The sugges- tion was that during the career of the colliery the ventilation had been so bad that the col- liers had to work naked, while other colliers had fanned them to keep them cool, and that the gas had accumulated to such an extent that the collier in his working place had been unable to use his lamp in the ordinary way, but had had to put the lamp behind him out of the gas. Mr. Walsh, M.P.. had stated in a speech that he had never been spoken or written to, by any person, living or dead, about the con- ditions of the mine. Mr. Walsh said that his speech was answering anonymous letters read by the coroner to the effect that the miners' agents must have known the condi- tions in the mine. That was an awful i charge to make.

WEALTHY MEN LYNCHED. At Ada (Oklahoma) a mob of 300 citizena I marched at three o'clock on Monday morning to the city gaol, where there was only a single guardian, took out four white cattle- men who were detained there, and hanged them from the rafters of a barn near by. Two of .the victims were prominent, and wealthy men, in custody on a charge of com- J plicity in the murder of ex-United States Marsnal Bobbitt in February. Their leader, a man named Miller, is credited with having killed half a dozen men at various times. The mob did not molest Miller's nephew, who is only seventeen years old, and was de- tained in gaol as a witness after having turned States evidence and given the authorities a detailed account of a conspiracy, engineered by his uncle, which resulted in the shooting of ex-Marshal Bobbitt from an ambush.

SUFFRAGETTE PROCESSION, I Part of the official welcome to Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, who was released from Holloway Prison on Friday, was a procession on Satur- day from the Marble Arch to Aldwych Theatre. Bands played the "Marseillaise," etc., on the way, and the chief spectacle was a Suffragette representing Joan of Arc, mounted on a greyish white charger, and wearing a coat of white armour, and greaves to match. About a dozen horsewomen formed a bodyguard for Mrs. Lawrence, who rode in an open carriage, with a banner bear- ing the words "To Victory." At the mass meeting in the theatre it WM announced that Mrs. Lawrence was to be pre- sented with a motor-car, to hold in trust for the union.

I RUNAWAY TRAIN. I A cool and resourceful guard averted an accident on the London and North Western Railway, near Buckingham, on Monday. The engine of a goods train at Padbury be- came started while the driver and stoker were away. The guard, James Bates, of Bletchley, scrambled on to one of the wag- gons, and crawled along the trucks, applying the brakes to each. The train ran through Buckingham Station at twenty miles an hour, and the I ofiicials, seein g no one on the footplate, tele- graphed warning to Westbury, five miles further on, where a passenger train was standing on the single line. This train must have been dashed into by the goods train but for Bates, who managed to stop the runaway before it reached Westbury.

RESCUES FROM BURNING HOUSFL I Ernest Smith, hardware and general dealer, living with his wife and family over his business premises at Sutton Mill, near Keighley, Yorkshire, was aroused early on Sunday morning by an outbreak of fire. Making an e:;it through the window of the room in which his three children were sleep- ing, Smith dropped upon the roof of a stable, and reached the street. A ladder was brought by which he ascended to the smoke-filled rooms, and thence lowered his wife and children in safety to the street. The children were in their night attire and they, with Mrs. Smith, were taken charge of by friends.

KILLED ON THE ROADSIDE. I The body of a man named Jenkins, terribly injured about the head, was found early on Saturday morning lying in the roadside about three miles from Port Talbot, Gla- morgan, with a bicycle by his side. He had escorted a friend on his bicycle to a neigh- bourin g village at eleven o'clock the previous night, and had apparently been returning when he met his death. As ii e spot where the body was found is not a dangerous part of the road, it is sup- posed that Jenkins must have been struck from behind by some passing vehicle.

PARENTAL CONTROL. I The Archdeacon of Kingston, who opened St. Mary's National Schools at Rotherhithe on Saturday, does not believe in the Socialist principle tifat the State should take the place of the parent. If parents had proper control over their children, he said, it would be unnecessary for Parliament to pass a law to stop boys smok- ing. Possibly the best way to do it was for the father to fill an cfld pipe with shag tobacco, and make the boy smoke it. They should not let the State snuff the parent out. A man who could not control his children under eighteen was a very poor specimen of a man.

FATAL COUNTRY WALK. I Mr. Walter John Titley, a solicitor, aged sixty-seven, died on Saturday afternoon at New Maiden Police Station, to which he had been taken after being found lying uncon- scious in a stream which runs through Old Maiden fields, the latter being a favourite walk with local residents. Mr. Titley had been staying at Merton, and left there, saying that he intended to walk across the fields to Surbiton and would return soon after ten o'clock. It is thought that in the darkness he must have missed his way and fallen into the stream.

KILLED BY ELECTRICITY. I Albert Rawlins, aged thirty-two, a French polisher, on whom an inquest was iheld on Monday at West Ham, received an electric shock of 250 volts while removing a lamp from a Great Eastern railway carriage, and fell dead. An electrician said he had frequently re- ceived shocks of 450 volts without injury, and a medical man stated that Rawlins was the first healthy man he had ever known to be in- jured by so mild a shack.

PUNTING TRAGEDY. I The first fatality of the season on the Thames occurred on Sunday in a Teddington backwater, when Bertram Atkinson was drowned by the swamping of a punt. In endeavouring to clear a stationary barge Atkinson and a companion were thrown into the water. The latter saved himself, but Atkinson's body was recovered two hours later within fifty yards of the spot I where the accident occurred.

In laying the foundation-stone of new Church schools at Newport, Isle of Wight. the Bishop of Southampton said that the fioltition of the educa- tion problem might come by the end of the century, but while the English character remained what it was any settlement would be based on justice to all. ) The rector of AlderJey declared at his Vestry meeting that his parish church was now entirely free from fees. '• I have a conscientious objection to receiving either marriage or burial fees," he said. I think they are a source of abuse." Alderley is said to be the only parish church in England where there are no fees.

I EPITOME OF NEWS. Last month the weight of fish delivered at j Billingsgate was 23,241 tons. The Transvaal Rifle Association is completing a team of twenty men for Bisley. Lord Kitchener will probably leave India early in September, travelling home via Japan. Two robins have built their nests in the cover of one of the meters at the Market Drayton electric light works. Dr. Whitley Stokes, who was one of the fore- most Celtic scholars, has died at the age of aeventy-nine. The clothes of a baby on whom an inquest was held at Ely had been set on fire by an elder child. It is expected that a "skirted tunic of blue cloth and a peaked cap will be adopted for the United States army. All Prussian elementary schools are to be pro- vided with a sister who will take charge of the health of the children. Sir Arthur Nicolson, the British Ambassador in St. Petersburg, was received in private audience by the Czar. Mr. W. T. Wildish has been re-elected people's warden of St. Peter's Church, Roches- ter, for the forty-ninth time. Dr. Charles Bell Taylor, the eye specialist, has died at Nottingham,, aged eighty. General Booth was one of his patients. Mr. Sydney Can Goody, Clerk of the Peace for the borough of Colchester, died at the age of forty-four. A woman at Acton Police-court asked for a summons against another woman for "confirma- tion of character. The annual report of the Hospital Saturday Fund, just issued, shows that last year the collections totalled .£29,830. Rev. Dr. Garvie, the Princip* al of New College, Hampstead, was elected chairman of the London Congregational Board of Ministers. "Bazaars and whist drives," says the Rev. J. Maxwell, vicar of Collierley, lead to premature and ill-assorted marriages." The Emperor Francis Joseph has conferred on Baron Aerenthal the title of count in recogni- tion of his services. "Let's have a packet of coffin nails," was how a boy asked for five-a-penny cigarettes, accord- ing to a constable at Willesden. Sparrows' nests under the eaves of a roof through which passed an iron flue pipe caused a serious fire at a house in St. George's-road, Forest-jate. A scheme for boarding military horses with Norfolk farmers is about to be tried by the Army Council. A strike of Nottingham lace-makers, which has been proceeding for two months, has come to an end. Miss E. H. Mackman, of Spalding, took part in change ringing on the bells of the Spalding Parish Church this Eastertide The late Colonel Arthur Saltmarshe, of Holly- Wood, Kingsdown, Sevenoaks, Kent, left estate of the gross value of < £ 226,669. In a special Army Order issued the retirement of a substantive of brevet-major is made com- pulsory at the age of fifty. Several members of the Glasgow Trades Council defied the chairman's ruling at a meet- ing, and a free fight resulted, the .meeting breaking up in disorder. A youth six feet eleven inches in height col- lapsed while taking part in a Marathon race at Pittsburg, and died from over-exertion. The Yarmouth Corporation has decided to purchase a cinematograph machine for its winter garden at a cost of .£53, instead of hiring one. Mr. T. Butt Miller, who has been master of the V.W.H. (Cricklade) Hounds for twenty years, has been presented with a painting by members of the hunt. Removed from Wormwood-scrubs Prison chapel for continued talking during service, Samuel Mumford, aged eighteen, hanged him- self in his cell. Court-martialled at Chatham, John Reed, blacksmith on the Black Prince, was sentenced to six months' hard labour and dismissed the service for stealing articles of clothing. The death was announced, after an operation, of Mr. Algernon Charles Fountaine, of Narford Hall, Norfolk, a Deputy-Lieutenant for the county. Mr. Dickinson, M.P., has presented a Bill pro- viding that in all Acts relating to the qualifica- tion of Parliamentary voters all words which import the masculine gender shall be held to include women. On the ground that jokes about his name were becoming stale, Mr. Ulrich Egg has been permitted by the Supreme Court of New York to change it to Eck. A rear coach of the 5.30 p.m. race special from Newmarket to Liverpool-street caught iire at Sawbridgeworth, and was detached. No one was injured. A landslide has occurred at Alvi, in the dis- trict of Crognaleto (Italy), wrecking several houses. No one has been injured. Assistance has been sent. Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford, the retiring Governor of Western Australia, accompanied by his family, left Perth, travelling by way of Broome and Singapore. "Did you see much of this man? the Batter- sea coroner asked a solicitor's clerk at an in- quest. "I saw a very small quantity of hint," was the reply. At an inquest on Robert Beadel, who was knocked down by a bicycle and killed àt Caversham, near Reading, the cyclist was ex- onerated from blame. A motor-car belonging to General Sir John French, in which Lady French was riding, knocked down a little boy at Waltham-cross and cut his head. The Army Council contemplate providing practice swords and masks safer than those of the present pattern. Meanwhile singlesticks only will be used in both mounted and dis- mounted combats. For the English Church Pageant at Fulham Palace the grand stand will be a very substan- tial erection, and there will be seating at each performance for nearly seven thousand persons. Colonel Druitt, of the Board of Trade, held a j private inquiry at Birtley as to the accident to a Scotch express on Good Friday, when eight coaches left the rails between Chester-le-Street and Birtley. No formal patronage has been given by the International Polar Exploration Commission to the proposed Antarctic expedition of M. Borch- grevink, the Norwegian explorer. While attempting to enter Portrush Harbour in a gale the steamer Hamilton, of Stranraer, was driven on the rocks, and it is feared that she will become a total wreck. Postage stamps of the British South Africa Company have hitherto been used in Rhodesia, but a special issue has now been created by over- printing all values up to .£1 with the word Rhodesia in black. Westminster Abbey will shortly be enriched with two fine stained-glass windows, one to the memory of John Bunyan, and the other to that of the late Sir Benjamin Baker. An investigation into the nutritive values of the red, white, yellow, and violet varieties of potatoes has proved that the violet stand highest. Yellow-fleshed potatoes come next. During a rehearsal of "A Persian Princess at the Queen's Theatre, Miss Lily Iris was bitten on the finger by a non-poisonous snake which she had coiled around her neck. Delegates of London Jewish charities dis- cussed at the Jewish Guardians' office means of co-operating in purchasing food and other sup- plies in order to reduce expenditure. During a sudden squall off Hartlepool a coble containing two pilots named Robinson and Corner capsized, and, although the men were rescued promptly, Robinson died from exhaus- tion. Isaac Davies. of Basford House, Augusta- street, Llandudno, retired railwav guard, left .£2,169, and bequeathed his oil paintings to his daughter and £100 to his servant. The Lowestoft Corporation has been peti- tioned to stop the numerous religious services and Socialist and other meetings which are held on the south beach during the summer. The following advertisement appears in a Belgian newspaper: "Inconsolable young widower anxious to make the acquaintance, with a view to marriage, of equally inconsolable young widow." For the year 1909, Canon McLarney, the rector of Clonfert Cathedral parish. Co. Galwav, states that his income will be reduced from to £ss in continence of arrears in the k Sustentation Fund and withdrawn, of poor parish grants.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE. I Li HUNG CHANG'S GODSON. I Mr. George Macartney, C.I.E., who pro- poses to return in September to his duties as Consul-General at Kashgar, is the son of the late Sir Halliday Macartney, who was for many years the English Councillor at the Chinese Legation in London. Sir Halliday's first wife was the niece of the late Li Hung Chang, and the Chinese statesman was Mr. George Macartney's godfather. His Excel- lency Li Ching Fong, Chinese Ambassador to Britain, is his cousin. When he came from India to this country in the autumn of last year, Mr. Macartney travelled overland with his wife and children, and much of the earlier part of the journey, as through Tur- kestan, had to be accomplished' on ponies. Mr. Macartney was born in China, and has been thirty years in the service. M • LOOKING POLEWARDS AGAIN. I Surely one or other, or both, of the Poles must I be discovered before long. No sooner does one expedition return than another is announced. Dr. William Bruce of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory, who is planning a new voyage to the Antartic, proposes to approach the Pole from the Atlantic side, and cross over to thf Pacific. Lieut. Shackleton, of course, made his at- tack from the -Pacific side. Dr. Bruce was born forty-two years ago, the sou of an Edin- burgh surgeon. He has already had an exten- sive experience in both Arctic and Antarctic regions. He was naturalist to the Scot- tish Antarctic Expedi. tion in 1892-3, to another expedition in 1898, and also to the Prince of Monaco's expedition to North Polar regions. Dr. Bruce was Jeader of the Scottish National Ant- arctic Expedition of 190'' 4, and discovered 150 miles of the coast-line of the Antarctic continent. ——?—— A NEW MEmrxit. I East Edinburgh has returned an Edin- burgh man to Parliament. Lord Provost Gibson, who held the seat for the Liberals by a majority of 458, reduced from 4,174 at the General Election, was born sixty years ago, and educated in the Scottish capital. He re- ceived his business training in an Edinburgh tea. warehouse, and is now the head of the provision firm of Messrs. R. and T. Gibson, of Princes-street, of which his father was one of the founders. Mr. Gibson has taken an active part in the municipal government of the city. In 1892 he was elected to the Council, and has been returned unopposed at every election since, except one. In 1900 he was made a Bailie, and in 1906 was elected to the Provostship. He then severed his con- nection with political organisations, but before that he had been a prominent workes in the Liberal cause. o "THK WHEAT KING," I Estimates vary as to the exact amount of financial profit which- has accrued to Mr. Jame? Patten, the American who has "cornered" the wheat market. Sometimes the amount he has cleared is placed as low as £ 500,000, and one journalist has put it as high as 4:2,000,000. Any- how, if Mr. Patten's object was to make money, he appears to have achieved it. "The Wheat King" is fifty- four years of age, and he began business in a country shop. Later he went into a brokerage firm. and was a big win- ner in grain market campaigns. One in- cident in his career up- on which he looks back with pride occurred when he was Mayor of Evanston, Illinois. The notorious Dr. Dowie visited the town, and refused te leave when asked to do so. Mr. Patten ordered the fire brigade to turn the hose on "Elijah II, and his order was obeyed. Mr. Patten started his present wheat corner last December. MILITARY TOURNAMENT SECRETARY. It was in 1896 that Col. F. C. Ricardo first became I connected with the Royal Naval and Military I Tournament, the secretaryship of which he is about to resign. He was iifvited to organise the Sons I of Empire Pageant," which will be remembered as I a very successful spec- tacular display. In 1900 he was vice-chairman, and assumed the duties of honorary secretary in addition. While he has held the office more than 930,000 has been distri- buted amongst naval and military charities, the largest sum in any one year being £8,000 in 1906. The tournament which is to be held next month will be Col. Ricardo's tenth and last as secretary. Besides the King and other members of our own Royal Family, Col. Ricardo has assisted in welcoming iiiiny distinguished foreign guests, among them the King of Spain and Prince Fushimi, of Japan. -0:- ) LIGHT BRIGADE SURVIVOR. I One of the survivors of the Six Hundred who charged at Balaclava is Viscount Trede- gar, who is to receive the freedom of New- port on his seventy-eighth birthday, which falls this month. He has told the story of his experiences in the following words: "I appeared to be riding straight on to the muzzle of one of the guns, and I distinctly saw one of the gunners apply his fuse. I shut my eyes then, for I thought that settled the question so far as I was concerned. But the shot just missed me and struck the man on my left full in the chest. In another minute I was on the gun, and the Russian's grey horse, shot, fell across my horse, drag- ging it over with him and pinning me in be- tween the gun and himself. A Russian gunner came on foot and covered me with his carbine. He was just within reach, and I struck him across his neck. At the same time a mounted gunner struck my horse with his sabre on the forehead. He half jumped, half blundered, over the fallen horses, and bolted with me. I only remember finding myself alone amongst the Russians, trying to get out as best I could." A SELF-MADE MAN. I Owing to ill-health, Mr. Batty Langlev, Liberal I member for the Attercliffe division of Sheffield, is resigning his seat. Mr. Langley is a native of I Rutland, and he was at one time a working joiner. He is now a tim- ber merchant in a large way of business at Sheffield. He has been prominent in the muni- cipal life of that city for a good many years, and since 1894 has been one of its representativeR in Parliament. He has been alderman, over- seer. chairman of the Burial Board, and mem- ber of the School Board. He hu also served as President, of the Shef- field Sunday Sehool Union. He was Mayor of the city during the great coal strike which occurred in the year before he was elected to Par- liament, and he was very active in bringing about a settlement.

Mr. Harold Sydney Chapman, son of the Mayor of Deal, has received from the Koyal National Lifeboat Institution a letter tendering him and Mr. Bernard Russell cordial thanks for the assistance they rendered by towing the North Deal lifeboat with fourteen passengers of the wrecked liner Mahratta on board from the Good- wins to the shore. Two convicts named Ralph and Harvey, who attacked a warder at Princetown Prison, have been ordered twelve strokes with the "cat," black dress, chains, and solitary confinement. The Western Telegraph Company has pro- posed to the Argentine Government the con- struction of a new cable directly uniting Argen- tina and Europe and touching at Ascension Island.

I VALUE OF ADVERTISING, The value of advertising was insisted on by Mr. James Welch, the celebrated actor, in an action he brought at Cardiff against the pro- prietor of the New Theatre, Cardiff. Mr. Welch claimed damages because the pro- prietor refused to advertise "When Knishta Were Bold" in the "South Wales Echo." He stated that in consequence of the proprietor's refusal, he himself inserted an advertisement in that paper, and the takings at the theatre roso considerably. He estimated his loss at £ 100. The proprietor said that he refused to adver- tise in the "Echo" because of unfavourable criticisms. The judge held that- the agreement did not bind the proprietor as to how he should adver- tise, and the jury gave a verdict in his favour.

l HEROES HONOURED. i The heroes of some plucky rescues were honoured at a meeting of the committee of the Royal Humane Society in London. Perhaps the most striking case was that of R. A. Cox, a boy of 14, of Ipswich, who was awarded a medal for rescuing a lunatic who threw himself into the Stour. Among other awards were the following: — Bronze medal to Flag-Commander D. T. Norris, of the cruiser King Alfred, for his gal- lantry in jumping from the ship when she was steaming 12 knots, and saving a seaman, near Hong Kong, on February 3. Medal to A. E. Ward for his rescue of a girl who fell through the ice on a pond at Esham on March 4, and a clasp for the medal he how holds to R. Barrett, toll collector, Margate Pier, for rescuing a youth from the sea there on March 21.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN'S COURTS I "The case shows a side of the Act which re- quires careful attention," said Mr. Paul Taylor at Westminster Police-court, after disposing of a case in which two boys were charged under the Children's Act with begging. The Act eays that the parent must attend the court, unless the Court holds that it is unreasonable. The father of one of the boys, replying to the magistrate, said that he had lost time by coming to the court. The father of the other boy was not present, and the magistrate told the mother he was very glad that her husband was at work and had not come there. It was said that one of the boys was heard to beg for a penny, as he wanted a bath.

MINING CAMP RIOT. I Advices from Valerdena, a mining camp in Coahuila, state that the mayor on Saturday last endeavoured to suppress a religious procession. I The mob thereupon stoned and (burned the j mayor's house. The mayor and his wife es- caped. The rioters then stormed and looted a Chinese hotel. The police fired on the rioters, but were forced to retreat, leaving six of their number dead in the main street. Later in the day troops arrived, and a fierce fight ensued, in which 32 persons were killed and many wounded. Fourteen rioters have been executed and many imprisoned. I

A local inspector named Henry Jones fell from the platform at London Bridge Station and was run pver by a train and killed. Alderman John Kettle, who was a member of the West Ham Corporation for aboi.t fifteen years, and who served as mayor of the borough in 1903, has just died. j The body of Mr. William Cook, of The Moor- ings, Ailsa-road, Wcstcliff-on-Sea, was found I' on the Tilbury Railway between Southend and Westcliff. It was reported to the Northampton Guar- dians that the relieving officer had removed to the workhouse a man named Mills, who had been receiving out relief; and that £25 in half I crowns was found in the house. It was reported that twenty-two head of cattle, the property of Mr. C. M. O'Connor, D.L., of Mountdruid, Co. Rosscommon, had their tails cut off during the night. Mr. J O'Connor recently sold property under the Land Act, but retained some grass land. J I

GREAT POET'S FUNERAL. On a perfect spring day, in a blaze of aur- shinc, the remains of Algernon Charles Swin- burne. the famous poet, were laid to rest in the little churchyard of St. Boniface, which looka out over the English Channel from one of the prettiest corners of the Isle of Wight. Extreme simplicity marked the sad ceremony, but the last scenes connected with the'dead poet were none the less deeply impressive. Several old friends, including a daughter of William Morris, accompanied the poet's body from The Pines, at Putney, to its last resting- place. .L lie Rev. J. F. Andrewes, the rector of Bon- church, met the funeral procession at the churchyard gate, and read the dpening sen- tences of the burial service as the coffin was borne to the grave, which was lined with moss and primroses. At the graveside the rector said:- "I should like to say that I have received a telegram from the late Mr. Swinburne's sole executor, Mr. Watts-Dutton, stating that the quiet burial service previously arranged for could not take place, and expressing the hope that the friends would gather round in silence and throw flowers, if they wished, in the open grave. "As rector of the parish in which Algernon Charles Swinburne spent the earliest and some of the happiest years of his life, I have felt it my boundsn duty to pay the utmost respect to one who, whatever his after-thoughts may have been, was a baptised member of our Church, and who craved a last resting place in this beautiful churchyard."

MEMBERS OF SUICIDE CLUB. An extraordinary development is announced in connection with the suicide of two young. women on board the Cunard liner Lucani a during their voyage from New York to Liver- pool. It is now believed that the two ladies were members of an American suicide club. Both victims of the tragedy, Miss Clarke and Miss Miller, were found to be in possession of re- volvers cf the same pattern. Each weapon bore the same secret mark. At first it was thought to be an ordinary trade mark, but inquiries showed this to be unlikely. The mark is thought to be the symbol of one of the suicide clubs. In one of the American suicide clubs Vint was known as "the Order of the Black Veil" pre- vailed. Lots were drawn from time to time for a. member to commit suicide. To the member thus chosen a black veil, black gloves, 1md black stockings were sent, and the member was sup- posed to take his or her life within a week after receiving them.

DEAD MAN" RELEASED." When the name of Arthur Hudson, aged 26, was called at the London Guildhall Police-court, the gaoler reported that the prisoner had died in prison since he was remanded on the charge of stealing a nightdress from a van. It was stated that he was in the employ of a firm of carriers, bore an excellent character, and was the sole support of his parents. He was to have been married at Easter. The circumstances attending ii.Q crise were made all the sadder by the fact that Hudson's father, who had been unwell for some time, died on the day of his son's arrest, while an applica- tion to release Hudson himself would have been, granted if the magistrate, Sir Vesey Strong, had been informed that lie was so ill. Sir Vesey Strong observed that all he could do now was to say that, so far as the records of that Court were concerned, the charge was dis- missed, thus relieving Hudson's memory of any i stigma.

Blackpool has decided to abolish the gipsv camp which has existed on the south shore for more than eighty years, and several of the gipsies wev-o fined at the local police court for telling fortunes, unfortunately for them, to policemen in plain clothes. Under the auspices of the Salvation Army, a party of more than 200 emigrants sailed on the Lake Erie, from Liverpool. An interested spec- tator was Brigadier Yamamaro, who has arrived in this country to confer with General Booth as to the future of the work in Japan. I*