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

GUARDING KING ALFONSO. Extraordinary precautions were taken on Sun- day morning at Southampton for the safety of the King and Queen of Spain on their arrival from Scotland to join the Royal yacht Giralda, which was waiting at Southampton Docks. It was reported that two well-known Anarchists had been seen in the town and the local authorities decided that no care should be spared to ensure the safety of the Royal visitors. Only about 50 persons were admitted within the dock gates when the King and Queen were embarking, but even they were not permitted within 50 yards of the Giralda, while every possible entrance to the shed where the King and Queen were waiting was watched by a large force'of policemen. Even when the King and Queen had embarked the precautions for their safety were not relaxed. A few minutes after they went on board the whole crew was mustered for Mass, which was celebrated in an improvised canvas chapel on the deck. The celebrant was the Rev. Father Dorman, of Southampton, and throughout the Mass two sailors stood with fixed bayonets in front of the altar. The yacht sailed at 11.35 for Cowes, where it arrived in the afternoon, and the King and Queen, still closely guarded, went to Osborne House, where they were met by Princess Henry of Battenberg. King Alfonso spent Saturday shooting jon the Langside grouse moor as the guest of tne Earl of Ancaster. The King and Queen of Spain landed at East Cowes from the Giralda on Monday morning, and motored to West Cowes to do some shop- ping. The King attended a meeting of the Isle of Wight Gun Club in the afternoon, and after an exhibition of good shooting won the club's cup, which was presented to him on be- half of the club by Mrs. Howard Brooke. Prin- cess Henry of Battenberg gave a farewell dinner party in the evening, the guests in- cluding the King and Queen of Spain, and Prince and Princess Alexander of Teck, who had arrived at Osborne Cottage earlier in the day.

A RETIRING GENERAL. I The retirement of Major-General Sir Regi- nald Pole-Carew deprives the Army of a most capable officer, who has rendered valuable ser- vice in many parts of the British Empire. The explanation of his retirement is probably the automatic operation of the age limit. Sir R. Pole-Carew is 58, and commenced his military career nearly forty years ago. For thirty years he was in the Coldstream Guards, and first saw active service under Lord Roberts in the Afghan campaign of 1879-80. He joined in the march A RETIRING GEKSRAL. 1 to Kandahar, and was three times mentioned in dispatches. He afterwards served as A.D.C. to the Duke of Connaught in the Egyptian cam- paign, and as military secretary to Lord Roberts during the Burmese War. In the Boer War he commanded consecutively the Guards Brigade and the 11th Division, and was twice mentioned in despatches. Since 1903 he has been in command of the Third Army Corps. Sir R. Pole-Carew married in 1901 Beatrice Butler, eldest daughter of the third Marquis of Or- monde, and has one son and two daughters.

CRICKET IN TOP HATS. Two cricket elevens in top hats and dress coats met at Yarmouth and gave a most divert- ing exhibition of the game. It was an old-time contest not only in respect to the costumes, but in the manner of play and the ages of the players, all of whom were Norfolk and Suffolk veterans. The youngest player was fifty-five, the oldest. seventy-five, and each umpire was eighty-six. The bowling was all under-arm, and one bowler, tg Captain Brasnett, performed the "hat trick." Fielding was the weak feature of the game. One side scored 112 and the other 77. The best individual score was 31.

RAILWAY COLLISION. 1 Sixteen persons were injured, fortunately none seriously, in a railway collision at Preston Station. An engine with two carriages attached filled with passengers was standing at the station when a train of thirteen or fourteen carriages, drawn by two engines, crashed into it, and the passengers in both trains were hurled to the floor of the carriages. Lamps and windows were broken and the passengers sustained cuts and contusions. The driver and fireman of the stationary train saved themselves from injury by jumping from the engine just before the smash. The force of the collision was so great that the stationary train was driven about 20 yards alone the line. One of the buffers from the stationary engine was hurled across the platform, and made a deep indentation in the wall behind. Medical aid was rendered to the passengers in the wait- ing rooms, but no one was so seriously injured as to need hospital treatment. The stationary train was from Birmingham and the other from Penrith for London. A disastrous collision occurred on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway at Saltcoats. A goods engine had broken down between Stevens- ton and Saltcoats, and the traffic was being worked on a single line. A passenger train from Glasgow overshot the platform, and as it was being backed, another passenger train ran intc it. The guard's vain and the rearmost carriages were telescoped, and about 57 passengers were cut and bruised. The majority were treated on the spot and allowed to go home. In a few cases, however, the injuries were more acute, and the sufferers were taken to the Glas- gow Infirmary. Henry Young, of Duke-street, Glasgow, was jammed between the crushed woodwork, which had to be cut away before he could be extricated. His right leg was broken, and it was found necessary to amputate his left foot. His brother had his hip dislocated. John Freer was hurled through the windpw oi the compartment in which he was, and, falling on the platform, was badly injured. The other serious injuries were :—James McKill, frac- tured leg; James Rankin, two ribs fractured and scalp wounds. For plucking a live chicken Catherine Wells was at Grimsby fined Is. and 19s. costs. The French Northern Squadron of seventeen vessels arrived at Tangier on a short visit. An unknown woman while walking along the railway between Canterbury and Alisham waa knocked down and killed by a train. The captain of the Italian emigrant steamer Sirio, which was wrecked off the Hormigms Idles, has left Barcelona for Italy. Accidental death was the verdict at Ult- ing, Essex, at an inquest on Ellen Frost, aged ten, who was drowned in the river. Vegetable marrows, growing wild by the roadside, may now be seen in the hamlet of Wincham (Sussex),

j THINGS THOUGHTFUL. I BT DAVID WILLIAMSON. I 2 j A clever writer has defined as "the blind j opcit," the sudden accident which occurs as often in the moral workl as in the world of business. It has, been said that "the blind spot" in an engine driver's eye causes the accident which hurls perhaps fifty men and women into sudden death. For thirty years that driver has had absolutely good eyesight, but without warning there comes a "blind spot" in his eye which pre- vents his seing the adverse signal. It is a tragedy which is incapable of other explana- tion, when a man who has driven a train safely over the same route for thirty years makes some j commonplace error, and ruins his career. The "blind spot" is present in a man's moral f vision. Look at the cases known to each of us of how a man of upright life mars his career by yielding to a sudden temptation. I heard theothei day of a clerk in a bank who, after twenty years' s stainless service, stole a postal order for £ 1, »n<I cashed it at the post office only a few yards from the bank. "Wliat a fool!" you say, and surely there was folly, but more than folly. There was apparently a blind spot which made its I appearance in his conscience, and thus he .did what for a lifetime he, would have scorned to do. How many an instance could be brought for- ward of this moral blundering-this tragic obliquity of vision, one might call it-on the part of good men and women. The ship sails along on an unruffled sea, the sky is fair, the winds are favourable, when, in a moment,, it strikes a rock and goes. down with all on board. So many a human barque comes to grief. A man or a woman lives an apparently blameless and honourable life, revered by their friends and the community, when "all of a sudden" (as the children say) moral shipwreck is committed and a lifetime of respectable citizenship is clouded over by one brief hour of wickedness. Oh, the pathos of this wreck! Read history, and see with what awful frequency the "blind spot" has ruined a noble life! Selfishness is thoughtlessness. When a man is self-centred he thinks nothing of the feelings or the needs of other people, and gradually he becomes what we describe as selfish. It wag finely said of General Gordon that early in life he came to the end of himself, and for the rest of his days was only concerned to benefit other people. Such selflessness ie rare, but it is the mark of every great character. I remember being told by one of Mr. Gladstone's relatives that to the end of that great statesman's career he was unconscious of the immense interest which his personality aroused. H" never lost his surprise at the fact that wherevre went crowds would collect, and that almost ^very day's newspaper chronicled some fact regard- ing his doing, or his tastes in life. I cannot help thinking -hat one of the secrets of the fascination which Mr. Gladstone exercised over people lay in his selflessness. All that courtesy which found expression in the thousands of letters and postcards which he wrote to strangers acknowledging their often unreadable books, was the product of a fine care for the feelings of other people and disregard of his own convenience. No man could have used better every moment of those hours which he gave to pleasing strangers by acknowledging their letters and answering their requests for j information. As Mr. John Merley, his bio- grapher, remarks, No man had less to regret of that worse waste of human feeling—unkind- ness." I do not think that; iuafuy people recognise their own selfishness, or they would make a resolute effort to overcome it. The father who expects all his family to wait upon him and give him the best of everything, would be amazed if he saw in another man the same evi- dences of selfishness. The daughter who per- mits her mother .to toil while she leads the ex- c istence of a Society butterfly, can surely never have realised her selfishness, or she would, for very shame, have ceased to practise it. The young man who exacts from all the rest of the family an amount of attention which he is not warranted in asking for, would feel inclined to kick another young man if he saw him exhibit- ing the same disregard of other people's feelings. Look your life in face, and see whether there is not in a great part of it such a desire for your own wishes to be met and your own tastes consulted. Until JOu have risen above this self-consciousness, which leads afterwards to selfishness, you will not have become a pleasant member of society. He who comes, like General Gordon, early in life to the end of himself, is the man who after all extracts from life the just amount of joy. It is a truism which needs repeating, that to pursue happiness is to elude it, while to seek the happiness of others is to gain happiness for yourself. Have you noticed the increasing part which alcohol is allowed to play in modern fiction? There ie hardly a popular story-writer who does not introduce brandy, whisky, and other liquors into his narrative. As for smoking, what hero of a modern story abstains from the cigarette? In the time of Dickens there was a large amount of space given to the description of eating and drinking, and some critics have attributed the popularity of Dickens to the fact that he had such a gift for describing hospitality in a way which made the reader almost hungry to par- ticipate in the meals which he described. But to-day it is another phase, which I think is less pleasing, in literature. Countenance is given to the continual imbibing of spirits in a way which cannot fail to influence many readers, and the miseries which follow such indulgence in alcohol are conveniently for- gotten. Dr. Campbell Morgan said not lpng ago: "I was travelling from Chicago the other night, and [ heard some men talking about expositions and all kinds of things, and why this exposition was a failure or a success; and at last one of them I with a very self-satisfied look, said: Well of course, it is every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.' That is what men think. But what a mistake it is! When you find any man running that kind of, a race for life, I every man for himself, and the devil take the hind- most,' he is wrong. The devil doesn't take the tiindmost, but the fellow. in front." There is real truth in this, for we all know that the most gifted and the most genial of men --the men in the front-are those who have sometimes made shipwreck of themselves through sin. The devil seems to take the most trouble to entrap those who have come into public success. St. Paul realised the extra danger which awaits the preacher, when he said humbly that he feared lest, after preaching to others he himself might become a castaway. "Let him that tbinketh he etandeth take heed lest he fall." How many people when they go for their outing on Bank Holiday remember that they owe the happiness which they receive to Lord Avebury. We are almost as much vexed in life by little things'as grieved by great ones, he says. We must not look outside for our happiness, but in ourselves, in our own mind. "The kingdom of heaven is within you." If we cannot be happy here, why should we expect to be happy here- after? If we do not make peace for ourselves on earth, how can we expect to find it in heaven? What deprives us of it? Pride and avaHce, selfishness and ambition. The last watchword given by the good and great Emperor Antoniust, when dying, to the officer. of the watch was "iEquaruautas" (means patience). Nothing ever broke the serenity of Christ's life. In one of his sermons F. W. R<?bertson says: "You reap what you sow—not something else, but that. An act of love makes th» soul more loving. A deed of humbleness deepens humble- ness. The thing reaped is the very thing sown, multiplied a hundredfold. You have sown the eeed of life, you reap life everlasting."

I HUMOUR OF THE WEEK. ABSXNT 1CINDED. A certain popular preacher who shall be nameless is very absent-minded. One day, as he sat in his study, his wife burst in with a cry of agony. ",Oh! I have swallowed a pin He smiled tenderly: "Don't worry my dear," he said, as he fumbled at his waistcoat, "here, here is another pin THA'LL AF TO PAY. An amusing dialogue was heard at the Man- chester County Police-court, when a woman summoned her husband for desertion. Defendant: Why my wife has broken four homes ¡up in twelve years through drink. Complainant: Don't believe him, Mr. Brierley. {Loud laughter.) The ^Stipendiary (Mr. Yates): You have evi- dently been up at the Manchester City Police- court. (Laughter,) Defendant: My wife gets drunk. Complainant: Nothing of the kind. You ask Sergeant-M'Intosh. (Loud laughter.) The Stipendiary: You will have to pay your wife 4s. per week. Defendant: A' cajina pay. Complainant: Tha'll af to pay, lad. (Roars of laughter.) A GEORGE WASHINGTON. A small boy was applying for an office-boyship, and the employer asked: "Have you ever been in trouble?" "Only once, sir." "How was that?" The boy replied: "I was once fined a penny for keeping a library book over 14 days, sir." GETTING ABOUT. j In the City of London Cowrt the brother of an absent juryman attended to explain his brother's inability to "serve his King and country," and said that the juror was at Brighton ? holiday making. He had not heard of the summons from the Court. Judge IÆmlèy Smith, K.C. I suppose he took good care not to leave his address so that he should not hear of the summons. (Laughter.) The Brother: I expect he is getting about, you know, this lovely weather. Judge Lumley Smith (smiling) Oh, well, I will excuse him—this time. THEY WANTED THE REST. I met Y Jur parson on the Continent," said the visitor, "and he told me that he had covered 1,000 miles in four days. Pretty good, wasn't it, considering that his congregation had sub. scribed zC50 to enable him to take the rest cure? But you are wrong there," explained the churchwarden; it's quite true we collected £ 50. but it was we who wanted the rest." TROUBLED FOR TWENTY YEARS. I A crofter met a friend whom he had not seen | for some time, and said, Hallo, Archie! whaur hea ye been this while back?" H. Man," replied Archie, did ye no ken I was lai- doon wi' that trouble they ca' influenza?" 'No; I didna hear ye were ill," said the crofter; "An' what kind o' trouble is that?" Weel, I can hardly explain," replied Archie. but,efter yer gettin' better ye feel very lazy. In fact, ye dinna *feel inclined tae dae anything a' day long." Man, man," said the crofter, dae ye tell me that? I've been troubled that way this last twenty years, and couldna find a name ) for it." NOT IN THE CALENDAR. J A police-sergeant, giving evidence at a Lon- don court, referred to the matter in question as having happened on the 30th ult." The Magistrate: "Ult."? I don't understand you.—" Ult." means ultimo." Yes, but what does ultimo, mean?—Last month. And what was that?—July. Then why not say July? There is no nult." in the calendar. NOT FOR HIMSELF. ] Examining a builder as to his means, a solicitor in a county-court case asked him if he had started building yet, and on being an- swered in the affirmative, asked, Is it not true you are engaged on the erection of Ii new work- house?" Debtor: Yes, sir. The Solicitor: Are you building it for your- self? ° The Debtor: Oh, come now, give us a chance. (Laughter.} The Solicitor: What I meant was that you yourself have taken over a sub-contract?-Now you're talking sense. PAPA'S FIRST PATIENT. The small son of a doctor had another small boy staying with him. Contrary to all rules and regulations, they betook themselves to the consulting-room and began to play about there. The small guest, opening a door, beheld with horror and shrank back from—a skeleton. "Cowurdy, cowardy," said the doctor's son. 'Tisn't anything to be afraid of." "But what is it?" the other gasped. "Oh, just old skel- lington. Papa's had it long times. I fink it was his first patient." HIS CONSCIENCE WAS CLEAR. 1 A tramp charged at Chester with assaulting the police", inquired of the Chairman, "Is a policeman justified in searching my pockets and knocking me about on a good Sunday morning? -No, not without cause. Would he do it to a man with a silk hat and a frock coat?—I dare say he would not; he probably would have no reason to suspect him. But you had nothing to fear from his search if you had nothing on you. He drew his staff upon a poor tramp without wny food in his stomach. Is it a feasible yarn that I would strike a policeman about four stone heavier than myself. The Chairman: There is the evidence of the bruise on the policeman's leg. Prisoner: I have n'bruise on my leg, too, where he hit me with his staff;. The Magistrates' Clerk: A bruise on- your conscience you mean. (Laughter.) Prisoner: No, my conscience is clear. He is a disgrace to the clothes he wears. It is a pantomime policeman he ought to be instead of a proper one. (Laughter.) (To the constable) You will have to state all this before your Maker, just as you are stating it before the magistrates now. You are a terrible, unmiti- gated liar. SINGLE MAN WITH CHILDREN. "I cannot pay anything, your honoue," pleaded a man of the labouring class in th County-court. "I am a single man with eigh: children." (Laughter.) 0 The Judge: But a portion of this debt is for dress material?—Yes, sir, my wife got that, and I've got to pay. But you just said you were a single man?— Yes, but I ain't always been single. I'm a widower now, but I'm thinking of getting married again soon, and I hope you'll make a small order. KNEW HE'D "DIDDLE" HIM. I A smile adorned the faces of the legal gentle- men present at the Brentford County-court when a plaintiff described an absent debtor as a prominent member of the distinguished Bar." The Judge: Do you mean he is a. solicitor?— Yes. He is one of the most eloquent men for miles round. He does a lot of business because he can swank" the magistrates. (Loud laughter.) The Judge: I tire debt is- for wine. He must pay within twenty-one day The. Plaintit f(wearity): Til take the order for what tt's worth, your honour, but I know he'll 11 diddle 11 me. He alwiya d-oee, somehow. (Renewed roars of laughter.)

I COUNTRY NOTES. DESPISED NETTLE Top&. The old hedgerows and the disused quarries and neglected stone heaps in our country dis- tricts will be found full of the most delightful of spring greens, eays an Oxford gentleman. Just at this time, when ordinary greens are so scarce, and yet when their anti-scorbutic pro- perties are so specially needed, it would be well if our children were taught a simple lesson in economy and cooking at the same time. French peasants, when becoming too old to do much work, delight in getting out on the first warm days of spring to gather wild asparagus and wild dandelions and other edible leaves, while in English households it is too often the custom to despise anything that is not bought at a shop! The tender tops of nettles should be cut off with an old pair of scissors, and they, should be well washed and then boiled in a close saucepan until quite tender. Only a spoonful of water is necessary to boil them in. Mash up with butter and pepper and salt, and serve hot, or beat up with cream and serve like epinarda a la creme, or pour some hot fried Darlene over them, or serve with poached or fried eggs. Served in any of these ways they form a delight- ful addition to the routine list of vegetables. THE COMMON GULL. Although termed the "common" gull, this species is not more common than the herring and blackheaded gulls, and may have been by many associated with those birds in the common appellation "gull." Gulls are amongst the prettiest adjuncts to a seaside watering-place; yet many thoughtless visitors will make so-called sport in the wilful shooting of these handsome birds. But to see them flying around, or skim- ming the water whilst in pursuit of food, uttering their squealing cry to one another meanwhile, with possibly a shoal of fish beneath and a lovely sky above, is one of the most interesting sights to be seen at the "sea-side." Their flight is heavy, yet capable of very considerable exten- sion, as these birds fly many miles whilst in pursuit of their food. This they take in an ingenious manner, almost settling upon the water in order to secure it. When resting after THE COMMON GULL. a long flight, or under any other circumstances, they will slepp upon the water. The common gull frequents the whole of the coast of the British Isles, and may be found upon the coast of Cornwall, around Portland Bill, Beachy Head, and the other cliffs of the south coast, off Mersey Island, in Essex, around the east coast to the "Bass" rock, and along the shores of Pentland; but these gulls, unlike many of their tribe, will also be found inland. These birds are gregarious, living generally in such localities as afford convenient feeding grounds and nesting places. These latter, however, are very erratic, as they lare sometimes situated in chalk and other cliffs or rocks,, and again upon flat marshy grounds. The nest is built chiefly of sticks, seaweed, and grass, and is a somewhat large one, in comparison with the size of the bird. The eggs are but two or three in number, of a dark olive-brown, blotched and spotted with black and darker brown. The young differ materially from the aged birSs, the plumage altering; with age. They generally feed together, their call-note (which sounds like "squeel") being the signal for them to gather, -and generally to fight over the posses- sion df any food that attracts them. Their food is principally fish and offal, or any garbage that may be found floating upon the sea. When they fly inland their food is gene- rally worms, grubs, and slugs, and they will even-feed upon grain, some that were kept with clipped wings having been induced to feed mainly upon it. When upon the marshy in- land districts, however, worms and slugs are their most general food. POISONOUS FLOWERS. Among the garden plants commonly in vogue which possess a poisonous mature botanists men- tion., the flowers of. the jonquil, white hyacinth, and snowdrop, the narcissus also being particu- larly deadly, so much-so, indeed, that to chew a small scrap of one of the bulbs may result fatally, while the juice of the leaves is an emetic. The berries of the yew have killed many persons, and it is pretty well known nowadays that it is not safe to eat many peach pips or cherry kern-ale at oncev The lobelias are all dangerous, their juice, if swallowed, producing vomiting and giddiness, with pains in the head. Lady.'e sQpper poisons in the same manner, as does ^common ivy. The bulbs seem to be the most,harmful. Lilies of the valley are also as much so. There is enough opium in red poppies to do -mischief, and: the autumn crocus, if the blossoms are chewed, causes vomiting and purging. The leaves and flowers of the oleander are-deadly, and the bark of the catalpa tree is very mischievous. The water dropwort, when not in flower, resembles celery, and is virulent. A. FRKAX POTATO. Below we give a picture of a potato grown in a garden at Mississippi, U.S. As will be seen, it is shaped almost exactly like a duck. The LIKE A DUCK. I photographer says he has seen many freaks, but nothing like this one. A TREE'S AGE. If an old tree has been cut down, and you wish to find out its age, look at the cut faoe of the trunk, either on the stump left aground, or the sawed part of the main tree. Get a penknife, and carefully count one by one the rings in the wood, ticking off each one as you count, other- wise you will certainly get confused1 ana mafce a, mistake. Each ring is put on by the tree as each year of ite life is accomplished,, and you may tell the age of the oldest tree in Britain by this .,siniple method-providing, of course. that the trunk has been sawed to enable you to do so. The system is infallible, and applies to any species of tree. The rings are most easily counted, however, in oak, elm, and' yew. but in pine they are harder to trace.

I EPITOME OF NEWS. At Ostend a lady visitor has been robbed of £ 8,000 worth of jewellery. A mole was killed in Fleet-street, at the corner of Fetter-lane. The following brief marriage notice appeared in a morning newspaper: "Flaum: Kapteyn.- Franz FIaum-May Kapteyn." King Edward will be invited to open the International Exhibition to be held in Dublin from May to October next year. Mr. Henry Tennaut has just attended the half-yearly meeting of the North-Eastern Rail- way Company for the hundred-and-fourth time. Frank Webb, belonging to the yacht Marg- herita, of Cowes, was found in a copse near Cowes with his throat cut. At Haslemere, Surrey, the wife of Mr. Israel Zangwill, the well-known writer and Zionist, has presented him with a son and heir. In the presence of a distinguished company Sir Benjamin Scott inaugurated a new gravita- tion water supply for Carlisle, which is to cost £ 250,000. Mr. T. Bates, of South Stifford, Essex, while digging in his garden came on some copplr coins of the reign of the Emperor Carausius (287 to 293 A.D.). Several burglaries have been committed at Streatham. In one case a newly married couple were robbed of their wedding presents while they were on their honeymoon. General Booth has purchased three hundred acres of land at Boxted, near Colchester, for another labour colony. Mr. Abraham Bouman, a native of Holland, died suddenly just after entering a train at Freshwater, Isle of Wight. A warrant has been issued at Halifax for the arrest of Robert Calvert, a borough rate collector, who is charged with embezzling nearly ;ci,ooo. Mr. J. W. Peart, who for the last thirty years has been parish clerk and sexton of St. Bride's, Fleet-street, has just died. He wae sixty-two years old. Mr. Arthur Briscoe, of Wolverhampton, a member of an important firm of merchants, was found dead in his gun-room with a discharged gun by his side. John James, a labourer, was committed for trial at Smethwick for attempting to murder his wife by beating her on the head with a cricket bat. Visitors are making big catches of whiting at Scarborough, one party of four landing over a hundred in one night. For having tapped a cask of whisky and ex- tracting one and a half gallons from. it, two rail- way servants were, at Wallsend, fined £1 each and costs. According to the Labour Bureaux report for July. employment was found for 1,897 persons (516 permanently and 1,381 temporarily) during the month. To elect a new General of the Order, a con- gregation of Jesuits will meet early next month at the Jesuit College, Rome. The English re- presentative will be the Very Rev. Richard Sykes. At Blackpool, Ada Cooper and Florence Lonsdale, two respectably-dressed young women, charged with pocket-picking, were stated to have defied the efforts of the police to take their finger-prints or their photographs. Walking along the corridor in the Sheffield Police-cou.rt, where she went to hear a case against her grandson, a woman of seventy fell dead. Signor Leoncavallo, at the inauguration of his new villa on Lake Maggiore, invited Miss Vivien Chartres, .the English child violinist, tc> play to his guests. Speaking at a meeting of the Actors' Asso- 11 ciation, at Newcastle Mr. H. B. Irving pointed out its advantages, and said the profession should join in larger numbers. Joseph Cuthbert, a Grimsby railway guard who was injured during shunting operations at Pyewipe, near Lincoln, on July 20, lias suc- cumbed to his injuries in Lincoln County Hospital. In order to preserve the beauty of the Cornish hedgerows the county council have passed a by-law forbidding any person to uproot or de- stroy any ferns growing in public places, under penalty of £ 5. An inmate has just died in the Cornwall County Asylum who had been in the institution for thirty-seven and a half years, at a cost to the ratepayers of more that £ 1,000. She was eighty-two years old. The Rev. Frederick Luttrell Moysey, of Batheoston Court, near Wellington, has died at Ilfracombe. He was ninety-one years old, and is believed to have been the oldest living Uni- versity oar, having rowed stroke in the Oxford boat in 1836. Gunner R. Goodwood, 146th Battery R.F.A., a native of Leith, died in the Connaught Hos- pital, Aldershot, from the effects of an accident at the Artillery night manoeuvres on Fox Hill. He was thrown from the limber and a wheel passed over him. John Robert Walsh, an Inland Revenue officer, was sentenced at Hanley to three months' im- prisonment for obtaining money by false pre- tences. It was stated that he had become ad- dicted to drink and smoked between fifty and sixty cigarettes a day. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company an- nounces that an arrangement has been made with the Crown Agents for the Colonies for a fortnightly inter-Colonial mail service between Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Deme- rara, and a four-weekly mail service between Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, An- tigua, Nevis, and St. Kitts. Mr. Arthur Briscoe, of Whitwick, Wolver- hampton, was,.found dead in the grounds of his house, shot through the head. A double-bar- relled sporting gun was lying across the body, and near at hand was a forked stick, Mr. Briscoe, who was seventy-two years of age, was of an eccentric disposition. Rather than have neighbours he recently bought, a large house, close by which he kept empty. A verdict of Suicide during temporary in- sanity" was returned by a coroner's jury at Reading on Charles Henry Chappell, who was once a successful traveller. He left a letter stating that he preferred death to the work- house. M. Honnovat, the chief of the Paris police, stated in an interview in "Le Petit Journal," that 18,000 disappearances of persons from Paris have been reported to his department. Only 10 per cent. of these persons have been found. Given a continuance of fine weather. Western Canada will raise the largest wheat crop in her- history, conservative grain men placing the out- come "at a minimum of 100 million to 125 mil- lion bushels, while many place it higher. Mrs. Betty Brookes, who has lived ninetv- three and a half years in the same cottage at Edgefold, Worsley, near Manchester, declares that her keenest regret is that there was no com- pulsory education in her young days, for she was never taught to read. At an inquest held at Bethnal-green on the body of a child aged eleven weeks, who died from suffocation, the mother admitted that she gave it a biscuit. The coroner (Dr. Wynn Westcott) said: "If you give a baby eleven weeks old a biscuit, I should think it is asking Providence to kill it." As a memorial to the late John Bradley, of Waverley, New Zealand, the Very Rev. Dean, Grogan, of Wangami, New Zealand, has com- missioned a Newcastle firm to execute a largo 1 stained-glass window for his church. I; At Manchester the jib of a crane at the top if a new building broke, and the wire rope snap- ping, its load of planks was precipitated to the ground., carrying with it several tons of granite from the top of the building. No one was in juredc