County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser Abergavenny and Raglan Herald Usk and Pontypool Messenger and Chepstow Argus

NEWS NOTES. The King's tour has proven a,ll through a most enjoyable experience for his Majesty, and a fitting finale thereto will be the visit to Paris, for which the people of the French capital are making big preparations. King Edward will meet many personal friends during his short stay in the Paris vicinage and doubtless his Majesty's unfailing tact will enable him to materially cement the amity existent between the great neighbour nations of Western Europe* The long succession of severe April frosts have, unfortunately, wrought havoc in orchard and field in many parts of these isles. The prospects of the earlier outdoor potato crops are greatly interfered with, and bush and berry fruit will be almost a blank over wide areas through the action of the nipping air of night. Pear, plum, and cherry blossom is clean cut off in all directions after having afforded the fairest promise, and great fear is expressed that apples will follow suit in not a few orchards, for the blossom is as early this year as it is plenti- ful. Market gardeners are, as one may well believe, very doleful. We badly want warmer nights and more humidity now, the country through. Football is virtually over and done with for the present season, for little interest remains in the few wind-up games to be played. The Association Cup-final drew a big crowd to the Crystal Palace, but the decided encounter turned out a very tame and one-sided affair, for Derby County did so deplorably badly all through the game that one wonders however they could have survived to the last round. The Midland team's goal- keeper was ill to begin with, and soon received such injury in the course of the game as to be of little further use to his side; while the player who was substituted in the net to defend against Bury was quite unequal to his position. The combination of the Lancastrians was good throughout, and all the Bury men displayed dash and resource individually. But a win by six goals to nil was very surprising to most of the spectators, constituting at the same time a record for the competition. Derby battled bravely through the first half, but were worn quite down by the Bury team after the interval. The Sultan of Turkey is not unnaturally very much perturbed about the Albanian rebellion, especially as Russia and Austria are making representations to Constantinople of the serious issue involved in the incidents which have occurred. The strong rumours that Russia has been busy with the mobilisation of her Black Sea fleet have an ugly look about them; and one can never be quite sure what influences are at the bottom of all the mischief, nor what con- sequences may ensue. There will always, it would appear, be a perplexing Eastern question in Europe, so long as the Sultan's responsibilities are in excess of his power. Canada is alive to the possibilities and the ecessities of the future. Mr. W. T. R. Pres- ton, Commissioner of Emigration, has received a message from Ottawa, stating that the dearth of farm labour in Ontario is causing serious apprehension. The Ontario Govern- ment has been forced in its own interests to organise an intelligence service throughout the province, rand are now able to guarantee per- manent employment at good wages to any competent farm labourers going out from the United Kingdom. There seems a chance for likely young men from our rural districts here that deserves consideration. Without taking sides in the matter it is per- missible to draw attention to the fact that strong opposition is made in some quarters to the Shops Early Closing Bill now before the House of Commons. Sir Blundell Maple has characterised the measure as unworkable, in- troducing local option and interfering with the liberty of adult labour." He also calls attention to a long memorandum printed and circulated with the bill as a kind of (first reading speech, and says that this is not accord- ing to the usual Parliamentary forms of proce- dure. It is proposed that shopkeepers should be authorised to memorialise the local autho- rity, which should be empowered to close the shops (with one or two specified exceptions) at an hour named, and that with the same safe- guards, the local authorityshould be empowered to enact a half-holiday. The classes primarily affected by the bill," says the memorandum, "are the assistants, the customers, and the shopkeepers and the bill has tho support of all three." Evidently, however, there is more than one opinion on the subject, which will be watched with general interest. Should the Employment of Children's Bill become law in its present form, it will make the employment of children on the stage illegal. The Entertainments Protection Association are, however, endeavouring to obtain a modification of the measure in that respect. The association proposes to add to the bill the section 3 (1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894, which authorises the granting of licences to children to take part in entertainments or to be trained to take part in them, if the magistrates or authority empowered to grant the licences are satisfied of the fitness of the child for the pur- pose, and if it is shown to their satisfaction that proper provision has been made to secure the health and kind treatment of the children taking part in the entertainment. The thing to do is to safeguard the children for the present without prejudicing their future interests at all.

The following gem has been found in the pages of a prominent German paper "Any person who can prove that Messrs. Bla:>k's chocolate is harmful to health will receive a free gift of lib. of the chocolate." President Roosevelt has sent to Cardinal Gibbons as a present for the Pope a handsomely- boumd set of volumes containing all the Messages to Congress and other official documents of the Presidents of the United States. The late Mr. Samuel Deacon, the well-known banker, in his will leaves C6,000, to Eleanor, the widow of the late Hon. Armine Wodehouse, in loving recognition of invaluable help afforded by her active sympathy in time of trouble.

A MEDICAL SENSATION. I o "INCURABLE DISEASE" PROVED CURABLE. I More Deadly than Consumption more torturing than Cancer: a Living Death. LOCOMOTOR ATAXY I (Paralysis in its Severest Form) cured by Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People. » What is said about this Disease by SIR (DR.) CONAN DOYLE: Sir Conan Doyle, in a powerful story called The Surgeon Talks," describes the mental agony of a medical man who detected in t) himself the first symptoms of Locomotor Ataxy :— He stood with his eyes shut, and he swayed like a bush in the wind. He had the lightning pains. There was nothing to say Here he was, a man in the prime of life. and now, without a moment's warning, he was told that INEVITABLE DEATH LAY BEFORE HIM, a death accompanied by more refined and lingering tortures than if he was bound on a Red Indian stake. It took five years to kill him IN the opinion of the greatest specialists on Paralysis, Nervous and Spinal Diseases, Loco- motor Ataxy is absolutely incurable by Ordinary Medicine. Dr. Williams' Pink Pills have in a number of instances been found, nevertheless, to cure it. The inference is undeniable. The Medical Profession cannot but accept the facts, vouched for by its own most distinguished and learned specialists. Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People have done, and are doing, over and over again, what no other medicine has ever been proved to accomplish. WHAT LOCOMOTOR ATAXY IS. I It is a living death. Creeping inch by inch nearer the vital centre of the brain, it lays its vic- tim down in constant agony. The first signs are a numbness of the flesh and a tottering of the limbs. This is a symptom which may be taken as a warn- ing. Beware of it! Next, the sufferer becomes conscious of a loss of power in the spine; he is weak and shaken. There are peculiar changes in the eyes. One eyelid droops. The pupil (the dark central spot) of one eye is noticed to be smaller than the other. Soon the patient becomes aware of shooting pains in the back and limbs-at first slight and transient. He experiences difficulty in standing steadily; his power of balancing himself erect is gone. At some moment he becomes aware of one of the most peculiar and characteristic signs of the disease: if he closes his eyes while standing, he totters, or may actually fall. IT IS ONLY BY THE AID OF THE EYESIGHT THAT HE CAN BALANCE HIMSELF. The pains grow severer every week, until the agony they cause is indescribable. When the victim lifts a foot to walk, it jerks forward against his will: he can start the movement but he can't stop it. He can still walk (in a good light) by the aid of a couple of strong sticks—crutches are generally useless. The lightning pains (as they are called) increase. Death creeps up the spine by inches, until after agonies too horrible to be described-agonies which make the perspira- tion stand in beads on the brow and make a brave man whimper like a beaten child-the inevitable end comes; and by this time the sufferer is GLAD TO DIE. While the regular medical profession-the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin; the great Hospitals in London and elsewhere—pronounce this awful disease incurable, we are in a position to offer Absolute Proof that Dr. Williams' Pink Pills have cured it. The following are the particu- lars of the latest instance. It will be observed that full Medical Proof accompanies every detail. There can be no possible doubt that this patient, tvho is a most respectable man, was stricken with Locomotor Ataxy. Not only his own doctor, but the staff of two magnificent HOSPITALS VOUCH FOR THE FACT. The cured man's own words are now quoted. His name is Arthur Kirkland, and his address, Chapel-lane, Foleshill, Coventry. It is about 16 months ago that I was seized. First I went to Warneford Hospital, Leamington, and then as an out-patient to the Queen's Hos- pital, Birmingham. THEY TOLD ME I HAD Loco- MOTOR ATAXY. The palsy crept by degrees up my legs. After I came out of Warneford Hospital I could not walk as far as from here to the top of the lane (a distance of about 200 yards). The paralysis affected me so that I could not trust my limbs. They moved without my will. I could not stand "for even an instant in the dark, and I had terrible pains across the bottom of my back, and darting up and down the spine. I did not seem to have any strength at all when I came out of the hospital." Questioned as to whether he had consulted a doctor, Mr. Kirkland replied a The first doctor I con- sulted told me that I should never work again. I am very pleased that what he said has not come true. I have passed the same gentleman in his carriage since I have got better, and he has turned round in surprise and looked at me." We have thus absolute proof of the disease. For more than 12 months Mr. Kirkland was powerless. At first he could walk with sticks. Annexed is a picture showing one which he made for himself from a straight piece of hard wood, with a cycle step securely screwed to the top. This, with its lining of india-rubber, gave him a firmer grip than a walking-stick. THE STORY OF THE CURE. When Mr. Kirkland heard that Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People had cured what, in himself, he was warned was incurable by all Medical Science, he wisely de- cided to inform himself by direct enquiry as to the facts. A pamph- let which reached his hands con- tained a description of the case of a Naval Pensioner at Portsmouth, a Mr. John Kirby. Mr. Kirkland wrote a letter to this gentleman, and received a reply amply confirming the facts. But in the meantime he had read of another and severer case of Locomotor Ataxy which Dr. Williams' Pink Pills had cured-a case on all-fours with his own. It was that of Mr. Greenwood, a Railway Clerk, a man of good education, living at Holt Terrace, Longsight, Manchester. Mr. Kirkland wrote to him also. He had suffered," says Mr. Kirkland, in a similar way to myself, and I felt that I could trust his word. He, too, confirmed what the pamphlet said. He advised me to take Dr. Wiiliams' Pink Pills and persevere with them. I decided to do so. When I started I was power- less to work. I bought the pills at a chemist's in Coventry, and noticed an improvement after the second box. The first sign was a recovery of feel- ing, of which the disease had quite deprived me. Gouch to which Mr. Kirkland was confined during his illness. Before I took the pills I had no feeling at all in my finger ends but after the second box I began to recover it, and also a good deal of general bodily power. I gradually became able to walk-a little farther every day. As dose after dose was taken I could feel my strength steadily returning. I got out into the fresh air, lived as well »s I could afford, and gradually got better and better." afford, ald gradually got better and better." THE CURE COMPLETED. I These simple words, full of intelligence and sin- cerity, represent the beginning of the cure. But Mr. Kirkland did not merely get better." He i recovered his full strength and all his powers of body, brain, and spine. Dr. Williams' Pink Pills had made him as well as he ever was. This startling restoration of a complete cripple did not fail to attract attention, and in order that INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE might be furnished, a great local newspaper, the Midland Daily Telegraph, was invited to investi- gate the facts, and gives an account of Mr. Kirk- land's present condition of health. The following are the words of the Midland Daily Telegraph reporter: Mr. Kirkland seems to have entirely recovered from the effects of the stroke of Paralysis. His employment at present is that of engine driver in a factory. His age last birthday was 40. He lives at Chapel-lane, Foleshill, near Coventry. His health when interviewed was excellent, the only trace of his time of suffering being a slight limp } when he walked. Thanks entirely to Dr. Williams' Pink Pills, I am very well now,' he said, and work eleven hours a day, besides walking to my work, which I can do easily. Previous to my illness I was strong aud healthy, in fact I never really ailed in my life. Then at the Colliery I strained myself, and from that date I began to ail; and I was ill for a year without earning a penny.' And now ?' began the reporter. Now my fellow-workmen and those who know me about here have been surprised to see me get- ting about again they didn't expect to see me go to work again. THE LESSON OF THE CURE. Locomotor Ataxy and Paralysis are diseases that may attack any one of us. Broken-down nerves, a weak back, loss of balance, and every sort of numbness in the members are early symptoms. Any drooping of the eyelids, like a sort of involun- tary wink, or a difference between the sizes of the pupils of the two eyes, must be regarded as a serious warning. No one, man or woman, can afford to neglect any of these danger signals. Remember the awful disease which they threaten! Dr. Williams' Pink Pills are not merely a cure, but they can prevent the onset of disease. They should be taken in time. When they can cure the most hopeless cases-and this we have abun- dantly proved-it is no wonder that minor ailments of life yieiid so much more readily to them than to any other medicine ever discovered. Nervous and spinal weakness, neuralgia, headaches and back- aches, St. Vitus' Dance, are clinically allied to Locomotor Ataxy and Paralysis, but milder and more amenable to treatment. Dr. Williams' Pink Pills are also noted for their good effects on Women. They are the greatest and safest General Tonic Medicine ever discovered. Dr. Williams' medicine company, Holborn-viaduct, London, will send full details on request, and will supply the pills post free at two shillings and ninepence per box if any difficulty should be experienced in obtaining the genuine article.

One of the most "prominent" arrivals is a pimple on your nose. Mr. Balfour will preside at the Primrose League demonstration in London on May 1, when the principal resolution will be proposed by Earl Percy and seconded by the Earl of Lytton. On the previous day the Earl of Powis will preside at the business meeting of the Grand Habitation to be held at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, at 3 p.m., and the same evening the Earl and Countess of Powis will entertain the Grand Council at dinner, and afterwards hold a recep- tion of delegates. Small-pox having broken out in & house at Moygeuvre-Grande, near Metz, the German police have taken extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Every exit has been secured, and nobody is "allowed to enter or leave the house. Thirty-two Italians are living there, and their food is passed to them on the end of long poles reaching from the street to the windows. The marriage which has been arranged between the Hon. Walter Guinness, youngest son of Lord Iveagh, and Lady Evelyn Erskine, youngest daughter of the Earl of Buchan, will probably take place at the end of June. A marriage has been arranged between the Hon. Ernest Guinness, second son of Lord Iveagh, and Cloe, daughter of Lady Russell and the late Sir G. Russell, of Swallowfield. The output of a Chicago stockyard is enormous. At one of these places alone in a single day as many as 26,000 cattle, 29,000 hogs, and 27,000 sheep, or a total of over 80,000 animals, will arrive in the stockyards. The cattle, sheep, and hogs combined would give a grand total of 12,000 tons of dressed meat distributed among the con- sumers of the world in one day by this single live-stock market. The meat would fill a refrigerator train over eight miles long, and the animals- as received would make a solid proces- sion in single file extending over a distance of eighty miles. At Butte, Montana, an armless man, who was formerly shown at fairs, entered the California Club, and, holding a revolver in his righi foot, demanded £ 10. The gamblers, overawed, paid up promptly. Later the police found the armless man at home sitting in a chair, grasping a revolver with the toes on one foot and a razor with the other. He was captured after a struggle. The street-cleaners of Paris form a little army. They number altogether 3,880. They are divided into brigades, under the command of forty-four superintendents and 159 foremen. Five hundred sweeping-machines are used, and these, with the water-carts, find employment for 1,600 horses. The cost of the service works out at about sixpence a square yard per annum.

a SPIRALS AND STAIRCASES. !». The study of spirals is, says the Builder o b scured by two rather curious difficulties. One is that the dextral helix of ordinary parlance is known to the man of science as leiotropic," which by consequence the dexiotropic is the sinistral. The sense of this lies in the fact that if a staircase turns the same way as a normal corkscrew or the ordinary right-handed screw of joinery, a man walking up it turns, as he walks, ever to the left. And here is the other puzzle. A right-handed screw, such as a wire screw-spring, is dextral from p whichever end you consider it; or, take another example, a rifle twist is sinistral whether it is viewed down the muzzle or up the breach. The answer to this riddle (which is sometimes a stumbling block) is that a man in descending, though he turns his face and body round, does not really reverse the conditions of ascent. To truly prove the dextrality of the staircase one has just ascended, one should descend head down- wards, and walking, not on the treads, but like a fly, on the soffit!

VOWELS OF THE HUMAN BODY. I A little Board School girl is said to have given the following as an essay on The Human Body The human body is divided into three parts, the head, the chest, and the tummick. The head ton- tains the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and brains, if any. The chest contains the heart, lungs, and part of the liver. The tummick is entirely devoted to the vowels, of which there are five, namely, a e i o u, and sometimes y and z."

THE HUNTING SEASON. I The hunting season of 1902-3 has been a much 6etter one, on the whole, than any of its recent predecessors. For one thing, there has been, in most countries, a good supply of foxes. It has, moreover, been a remarkably open season. Frosty days have been few, and there has been nothing approaching a long spell of frost. A capital cub- hunting season puts hounds in rare trim for the regular season, and November and December were open months, in which a fair average of sport was enjoyed. One great feature of the season has been the number of windy days. Ever since Christmas one wild day has succeeded another. In one respect the season has been unfortunately dis- tinguished. We have to go back some time to find so many accidents, several of them bad ones, and many fatal.

EMIGRANTS IN DIFFICULTIES. I The advance guard of the Barr colonists in Canada is experiencing difficulty in procuring sup- plies, shelter, and transport. The Saskatchewan Herald" announces that the syndicate for the supply of stores and necessaries has collapsed. The project of a sawmill to furnish lumber, which is so necessary in a rigorous climate, has not been realised, and the transport arrangements to carry the settlers overland have largely failed, with the exception of what is being done by the Govern- ment. The Government, realising the situation, has resolved to extend every possible assistance, and measures are now being taken to prevent hard- ship, and assist the Colonists in all possible ways.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN. The aspersions cast upon the authenticity of What have been regarded as venerable monuments of antiquity are becoming almost bewildering. Something like a climax is now reached in a letter from a member of the Institute of France to the Paris Figaro," calling in question the genuineness of the column of Trajan, in Rome. According to him, writers of the period show the column to have been originally of bronze, whereas there are now suspicions that it is of marble. Arrange- ments are in progress to have the question decided.

—<8    \-r   -COUQH, USE Li F-,I:D MARK TRADEC compound essaioj^f ■ "LINSEED COMPOUND" I J. is a reliable old English home^ H remedy. It softens hard phlegm, 1 permitting it to be expectorated H without strain, soothing the membranes and If allaying the irritation so commonly ex- §g perieneed. There is nothing to equal it). Of |g all Chemists at home and abroad. Refuse the K many tubstiiutes o/ered. Price, 9-Jd., 1/1$, 2/9. i, j BOR IGK S The Best POWDER in the World.

THE ESSEX MYSTERY. ANOTHER REMAND. Samuel Herbert Dougal was again charged afi Saffron Walden on the 16th inst. with forging the name of Miss Camille C. Holland, with whom he formerly lived at the Moat Farm, Clavering. The court was again crowded. J Further evidence was given as to the sales of Shares belonging to Miss Holland, and several documents dealing with the sales were produced. One declaration, dated September, 1899, some months after Miss Holland's disappearance, bore what purported to be Miss Holland's signature and the signature of a local magistrate, Mr. Joseph Bell, as witness. Mr. Bell, however, denied that the signature was his. A SERVANT'S EVIDENCE. Mrs. Blackwell, whose maiden name was Haires, a former servant to Dougal, who went to Moat Farm, in May, 1899, said she first knew Miss Hol- land as Mrs. Dougal." Witness complained that Dougal had kissed her and tried to get into her room, after which she described Miss Holland's final departure from the farm. This took place on May 19, 1899, when Miss Holland and Dougal drove away together in a pony and trap at about 6.80 p.m. Witness did not see her again. Dougal returned about half- East eight in the evening, saying that Miss Holland ad gone to London, but was returning, that night. He told witness to go to bed, but she remained up in her room. He went to meet all the London trains that night. Dougal was in and out all the night. She did not know what became of the pony. Next morning Dougal told witness that he had had a letter from Miss Holland saying she had gone for a little holiday. Witness left the Moat Farm that day. Counsel for the defence objected to Mrs. Black- well's evidence as irrelevant to the charge of' forgery, but the magistrates overruled the objec- tion. PRISONER'S APPLICATION. A Bank of England cashier said that Dougal on March 18 last presented 14 notes. Witness, find- ing some were stopped, asked for explanations. One of the notes was endorsed Sidney Domville.1 Witness produced a large number of notes which counsel for the prosecution said were sent to Moat Farm from Miss Holland's bank in 1899. At the close of this evidence Dougal rose in the dock and made application for the restoration of his jewellery. He was told that he must wait' until the articles had been officially advertised. According to other evidence Miss Holland, when staying at a Bayswater boarding-house in 1898, was visited by Dougal, and it was understood that she was going to marry him. A fortnight after the lady disappeared from Moat Farm, Dougal'a wife and child arrived there. Dougal was, at this stage, further remanded.

VANITY'S CRUELTY. For years past tradesmen have overcome the qualms of ladies who object to the slaughter of wild birds for the sake of personal adornment by assuring them that the graceful osprey and: other plumes which they display in such abundance are made out of fowls' feathers, or hair, or bleached grasses, or something else that they are, in shore, anything but genuine. The Birds Protection Society, after being: besieged with letters on the subject from: naturalists and others, decided to settle the ques- tion for themselves, and accordingly delegates! visited the great emporiums of the West-end andi the East, bought large numbers of the "artificial" plumes, and sent them to the Natural History Museum to be examined by experts. The result is that, on the authority of Pro- fessor Ray Lankester and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe,, every one of them has been declared to be a, genuine plume of the white egret. The fact that these fancy adornments mean the wholesale slaughter of birds for profit i* thus established beyond all question. It is for the ladies themselves to make the, next move.

I PERFECT POLITENESS. The most perfect example of Spanish polite- ness was a letter left for the Duke of Marl- I borough by Dom Arrom Ayala, a Spanish Consul, who committed suicide in Blenheim Park on April 14, 1859: "My Lord,—I humbly ask your lordships pardon and forgiveness for the "great liberty I: have taken in coming to put a.n end to my dreary and miserable existence in your park. It may De,, a childish feeling, but one cannot blow his brains. out in a common road, or on one of those cul- 'I tivated fields full of cottages and life anct civilisa- tion and railways and establishments of all kinds of which your blessed country of England: abounds. "I mean no offence. Your manor is one of the most noble, splendid things I over- saw in your life, and I have travelled about and seen everything worth seeing. You have the finest Rubens that can be seen. That should have a great attraction for me under other cir- cumstances, but now they have been of no use. —I am, your lordship's most obedient servant,. < Annom DE AYALA."

"A MONSTER OF DESTRUCTION." I Mr. Anson Phelps Stokes, the well-knowa I millionaire and philanthropist, has invented and | patented a floating battery, which is said to be a I veritable monster of destruction. The Mail's ij correspondent in New York says this battery, which is designed for coast defence, is circular in i shape, with a spherical hull and superstructure. In other words, it is like a floating apple with the water-line about the middle. The inventor claims that this gives greater strength and safety and greater capacity for the same weight of construc- tion. The battery is to be built of steel, and will carry two guns of large calibre.

SWISS MARKSMEN FOR BISLEY. The Swiss authorities have received, and ac- cepted, the invitation of the committee of the British National Rifle Association to send a team to Bisley next July. Eight of the best Swiss marksmen have been chosen to represent this country (says a Geneva telegram to the Chronicle "). This eight is the same that won all the most important events at the last Paris Exhibition, and at the shooting competitions held last year in Rome and Amsterdam. The team has never yet been beaten, and the English marksmen will therefore have most formidable opponents. The Swiss team will go in for a course of training betore leaving for England. They will use tb, Swiss regulation rifle.

STRANGEJ RAILWAY EXPERIENCES. For the foreigner Holland for the moment is a place of curious sensations (writes the Amsterdam correspondent of the "Morning Post"). He journeys from station to station under the official protection of bare steel and ball cartridge; his train speeds pasts human posts on the line, some- times alternating with formidable groups of posts, and occasionally he may draw up alongside an entire regiment, with arms piled on the station platform, and with details doing sentry-go at his carriage door. In the whole history of iron and steam, in fact, railway stations have never been more sacred than they are now in Holland. Sub-i ways, as at the Amsterdam Central station, have become stables, with all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men ready for heroic dashes as soon as the nose of a procession shall show itself on the Damrak. The stranger himself may not escape sus- picion. If one part of the station is more sacred than another it is the platform. In this respect Amsterdam is more than ordinarily choice. Here doors are open only to admit passengers; and per- haps the hurrying and unsuspecting foreigner, preoccupied with his baggage, proceeds unobserv- ingly to bundle through. A voice comes barrier- wise, Kaart!" The exclamatory challenge most effectually arrests him. Just outside the door, close on each hand, he realises two infantry men with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets. They form an odd type of ticket collector, quite unlike the species to which he has been accustomed at home; but their very unfamiliarity facilitates a quick despatch of the business in hand.

I THE SPURIOUS TIARA. M. Clermont-Ganneau, who was charged by the French Minister of Public Instruction to investi- gate the authenticity of the so-called tiara of Saitaphernes, has coinpleted his inquiry, and the report is now in the hands- of the Government. His conclusion is that the tiara is spurious, and that it is, in all probability, the work of M. Rou- chomowski. Considerable curiosity is felt as to the action to be taken by the Minister. Remember the Black Beetles, and be sure to tell Cook to well sprinkle the floor near the fire-place last thing at night with KEATING'S POWDER, the unrivalled Killer of Fleas, Beetles, Moths also Nits in Children's Heads. Harmless to animals. Sold only in Tins, 3d., 6d., and Is. Filled TIE Bellows ready for use, 9d. One in every thirty-eight Londoners is receiv- mg pauper relief. In the county districts of England one in every forty-one is a recipient of charity. Beating Butter to a Cream.—If you scald the pan, and then well dry before putting in the but- ter and sugar, you will be able to beat into cream far more easily than if you use a cold pan. The warm pan will not hurt the butter in the least. Stewed Ox-Kidneys.—Cut the kidney into thin slices, season well with pepper and salt, and fry a light brown then remove the kidney from th, pan, and add half a pint of stock and a little plain water dredge in a little flour, and mix in a cup- ful of sifted breadcrumbs. Put the kidney back in the stewpan, put on the lid, and stew slowly for an hour. Serve with sippets of toast. Average cost Is. 6d..