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I LITERARY CHAT.
I LITERARY CHAT. Maxim Gorky wishes to include the Pope in one of his contemplated works, and with that idea went to Rome to see his Holiness. When dealing with life at sea in a novel, Mr. Clark Russell invariably has sketches of the ships he describes before him as he writes. Mr. Rudyard Kipling speaks Hindustani al- most as well as he does English. As a child he had to converse in both languages. A series of articles, entitled Mary Baker Eddy the Story of her Life, and the History of Christian Science," commences in the April issue of The Woman at Home." A new novel by Mme. Albanesi is announced. She is hard to please with her work, and though the story has appeared serially it has since been largely re-written, while the title, "The Strongest of All Things," is also new. Although 1,00,000 copies of the first number of Messrs. Cassell's new fiction magazine, "The Story Teller," were issued, they were entirely exhausted in a few days, and fresh supplies had to be rapidly prepared. Sir Percy FitzPatrick, the leader of the Pro- gressives in the Transvaal, has found leisure to write "The story of a dog," "Jcckof the Bush- veld." Sir Percy is the author of "The Trans- vaal from Within," a volume that sold greatly at the time of the war. The Baroness von Hutten was Miss Bettina Riddle, an American beauty of the stately type, before she was married to the Court Chamberlain of the King of Bavaria. Her first novels gained great popularity in America, but HPam" and its sequel have enjoyed still wider fame. The Baroness does most of her literary work at the Schloss Steinberg, her husband's ancient castle in Bavaria. The disaster which befell Mr. Upton Sin- clair's socialistic colony was a sad ending to a bold enterprise. Helicon Hall, at Englewood, New Jersey, was, from all accounts, a magnifi- cently equipped building, which lodged more than fifty people of literary and artistic tastes who were willing to join in Mr. Sinclair's co- operative scheme. Though each family had private apartments, the dining-rooms, drawing- rooms, kitchens, etc., were used in common; no servants were allowed; and the manual labour was distributed between the members of the colony. Mrs. Grace MacGowan Cooke, who was seriously injured in the explosion at the Upton Sinclair Home, is a very popular writer for American magazines, in which her pen has been busy for twenty years. She is forty-four years old, and was the first president of the Tennessee Woman's Press Club. She has a humorous style which makes all her stories very enjoy- able. Her books include "For Falstaff, He is Dead" and "A Gourd Fiddle," titles which show her original vein. 0 April 22 is the 200th anniversary of the birth- day of Henry Fielding, "Father of the English Novel," as Scott called him. The event is to be celebrated, among other ways, by a banquet of Somerset men in London, for Fielding was himself born in Somersetshire, at Sharpham Park, Glastonbury. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has now recovered from his illness, will take the chair, and it is hoped that many literary lights will be present. When the Dickens Fellowship at Manchester visited "Cheeryble House," for the last time before its demolition, one of the company was a former employee of Messrs. Grant, the originals from whom Dickens sketched his Cheeryble Brothers. Mr. Ciompton recalled how he was j employed there in 1849, and mentioned how on y one occasion he was rushing downstairs at such j speed that he nearly collided with Mr. Daniel Grant. He looked at the eager youth, and said, "You're a very active young man; here's a sovereign for you." At her residence at Torquay, has died, at the age of seventy, Miss Wilmina Parksmith, an artist whose best illuminated work is preserved in the Rc^al Library at Windsor. She illus- trated for Queen Victoria "The Chronicles of Balmoral," and taught Princess Henry of Bat- tenberg sketching and the art of illumination, also assisting her Royal Highness in the pro- duction of Princess Beatrice's Birthday Book. The microscopic nature of her work in many of the illuminations injured Miss Park- smith's eyesight, with the unfortunate result that for the last ten years of her life she was blind. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the American poet and humourist, who has just died at Boston in his seventy-first year, had three years in his uncle's office in New York, and in his spare hours wrote both in prose and verse with such success that at the end of them he was able to give up commerce for literature. English readers know him best by the Ballad of Babie Bell," first published in 1856, and Pru- dence Palfrey," a sketch of New England life which appeared in 1874, and placed its author in the the front rank of American humorists. Aldrich also held editorial positions on several New York journals, and was editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," in succession to Mr. W. D. Howells, from 1881 to 1890. The news that the Hon. Walter Rothschild's book on birds is nearly ready will be welcomed by all naturalists. Mr. Rothschild lives with his father at Tring Park, and there, has a wonderful museum with specimens of all the rare beasts. There is a perfect quag^a and a great auk, with two of its eggs, probably worth much o,s £ 300 tlundrG-cls of other eggs are there too; butterflies innu- I merable, strange fish, odd birds, with several of the giant tortoises which live to such an extraordinary age. One of those in the Tring museum is said to have died prematurely when he was only 250. Many interesting relics of Keats and Shelley were seen at the concert at Stafford House in aid of the memorial which it is proposed to erect at Rome. The collection included the autograph draft by Keats of the Ode to a Nightingale "—the identical draft which C. A. Brown, Keat's friend, saw him thrusting away at the back of a bookshelf; the copy of Shake- speare's poems in which Keats wrote his last sonnet-the exquisite Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art the life mask of Keats, the most authentic of portraits made by Haydn a manuscript having on one side part of Shelley's "I arise from Dreams of Thee, and on the other an Italian prayer, picked up on the shores of the Gulf of Spezzia by Cap- tain Roberts after the wreck in which Shelley was drowned some of the ashes of Shelley col- lected from the funeral pyre by Trelawney, and given by him to Claire Clairmont; the draft of "Adonais which was in Shelley's pocket when he was drowned; first editions of the poems of both poets; pictures, miniatures, the very trinket which dangled on the chain of Mary Godwin-- Shelley's wife and many other relics. Mr. Max Pemberton prefers French novels to English, as a rule, and his favourite French author is Victor Hugo. He thinks Balzac's "Cousin Belle" one of the greatest books ever written. In England he would at any time sooner take up "Pickwick" than any other novel he has read. Sir Edward Clarke is not the only great lawyer who has turned author. Mr. Justice Darling his published at least three witty volumes; Sir Alfred Wills has four books to his credit, chiefly on mountaineering; Sir Edward Fry has written on a wide range of subjects, from British mosses to Christianity; and Mr. Haldane and Mr. Birrell (to mention no others) hava been voluminous writers.
NOTES ON NEWS. -
NOTES ON NEWS. So the Channel Tunnel ill apparently doome-d -for the present, at any race. The Government view the project with disfavour, and, with official announcements to this effect made in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons, it is quite clear. that, oven if the measure comes before Parliament for a second reading, it will stand no chance of becoming law. Lord Rosebery in the House of Lords, urging that delay in making a Government statement meant expense to the promoters, drew a reply from Lord Crewe, who stated that the Government were unable to publish 'any papers on the subject, as practically the only document were of a purely confidential character. Lord Lansdowne, although four- :arid-twenty years ago he favoured the tunnel, has apparently repented of the idea, for he says that he is now not nearly so convinced, but he describes his conclusions of riper years as sentimental rather than strategic or his- torical^ The general feeling in the House of Lords is said to be one of strong opposition to the tunneL It was on the ground of general public In- terest, said Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, that the Government were opposed to the Bill. Even supposing the military dangers involved were to be amply guarded against, there would exist throughout the country a. feeling of insecurity which would lead to a constant demand for increased expenditure, naval and military, and a continual risk of unrest and, possibly, alarm, which, however unfounded, would be most injurious m its effect, whether political or commercial. On The. other hand, there had not been disclosed any such prospect of advantage to the trade and industries of the country as would com- pensate for those evils, and they viewed the project with disfavour. It had been ru- moured that Mr. Balfour was, if anything, 5a favour of the Bill, but, on his own behalf and on that of his friends, he concurred in ithe views of the Prime Minister, and ex- pressed his great satisfaction at the de- claration of policy. There is said to be no disposition in Paris to cavil at the decision which the Government has arrived at, as it is thoroughly understood that in this matter England is the best—indeed, the sole-—judge of what suits her interests and requirements. As a matter of fact, it is reported, there had been no great movement on the other side of the water in favour of the tunnel, so that there is little disappointment. The pro- moters of the scheme, however, will not be satisfied until they have gained the day. and the propaganda will be continued. Mr. L. V. Har-court has done a good many things since he became First Commissioner of Works, and now he proposes to humanise the House of Commons. It was at a dinner given to celebrate the opening of the new Terrace dining room of the House a room constructed out of three com- anittee-rooms, and now beautifully decorated, intended for the accommodation of members and their guests, including ladies—that Mr. Harcourt made the announcement that he had departed from previous policy, and was now willing to accept gifts from members, the object of which was to beautify the House of Commons. Mr. J. E. Ellis, M.P., has under- taken to fill up the panels in the library of the House with portraits of all the Speakers isince 1377, and with mezzotint portraits of all the Prime Ministers since Sir Robert W-al- pole. Mr. Raphael, M.P., will contribute por- traits of a long series of Chancellors of the Ex- chequer, and Mr. Agnew, M.P., is to supply •to the new dining-room panels twenty engrav- ings and mezzotint portraits of other eminent statesmen. The most recent acquisition in ■a similar direction was the unique collection of Gill ray caricatureiS, which now occupy a prominent position in the tea-room, and in other parts of the Palace of Westminster there are many pictures of great historical I Interest which have been presented from time time. Is there anything new under the sun ? Garden cities and housing problems are sup- posed to be matters relating to the present century, but an interesting announcement was made by the Archbishop of Canterbury to a deputation-the first of the kind ever received at Lambeth Palace—which waited upon him from the National Housing Reform Council. His Grace, who was accompanied by the Bishops of South- wark and London, promised that the proposals of the Government would re- ceive the closest and most eager attention, for he and the other bishops had all close personal experience of the terrible pvo spect the suburbs presented. In the concluding part of his speech the Primate, declaring that in England we wore very much behind other people and towns, pointed out that we were oven behind the times of Nebuchadnezzar. His city had recently been unearthed, and it was discovered that one of the regulations was that half of the space within the city wails should be left unoccupied for the use of the citizens. It would be strange if we in England, in the twentieth century, were only endeavouring to reach the position attained by Nebuchadnezzar a few thousand years age, and yet it would seem something like it. Like the poor, the alien we have always with us, but from a return just issued it appears that during the first two months of the present year 33,877 more people went oat of the United Kingdom to non-European countries than came into this country from those parts. The figures compare with 26,588 for the corresponding period of last year. The excess this year, as last, was made up of foreigners as well as natives. No fewer than 13,905 more foreigners left Great Britain for inon-European countries during last- and February than entered the United King- dom from those countries. It is pointed out that such excesses as these nmtralise the ..influx of aliens from European lands into this country, and thus prevent the total foreign population of the United Kingdom from in- creasing at a quick rate. The destination of those leaving tho British Isles is mostly tho United States. British North America, how- ever, is a good second. Many people refrain from leaving the shores of this country as they have such a dread of sea-sickness, but there is hope for them at last, successful experiments having been made 'with the gyroscope, which steadies ships at a, Sir William White has been experiment- ing, and the experiments were carried out in a. torpedo-boat, formerly of the German Navy. The apparatus was placed in a com- partment before the boiler-room, and Sir William said he could personally testify to its remarkable steadying effects. In all ca.ses the practical effect was to extinguish the rolling motion. The waves seemed to disap- pear under the vessel, and she rose with a gentle motion vertically upwards, and sank again just as gently into the trough of the ,I W «ea, without even spray coming 011 board to any extent worth mentioning. Sir William Wliite, said cross-channel and coasting pas- senger steamers of high speed formed a class on which the steadying effect of gyroscopes would be of great advantage. The gyroscope, from having been received as a beautiful theory that I" would fail in practice, has be- come a proposition so practical that it is said its use might possibly have averted the disaster to the Berlin. Anything which would avert such a terrible calamity should be wel- comed on all hands.
THINGS THOUGHTFUL.
THINGS THOUGHTFUL. An impressive parable found among the Hindus is the following:—Many years ago a thief was captured with stolen money in his hand and sentenced to die. The night before his execution lie devised this novel plan for j rescue: He called the gaoler into his cell, and said, "Go tell the king that if I can coma to him, I can tell him how to grow gold." The news was carried to the king, and he said, "Let the culprit be brought before me." When the thief entered the royal presence, he produced a piece of gold, and said, "Your majesty, if this piece of gold be planted in the soil it will grow into a tree, every branch of which will be laden with gold as an orchard with fruit. But this golden seed must be planted by a hand which has never been stained by a dishonest act. Of course, I am a thief, and cannot plant this seed. My hand is not clean, so I pass it to your majesty." The king looked at the gold a moment, then he said, "I would plant it if I could; but alas, my hand is not clean. I will pass it to my Prime Minister." Tho Prime Minister's hand was not clean, so he passed it [ to the governor of the citadel. The gover- nor's hand was not clean, and he passed it to the high priest. The high priest's hand was not clean, and ho passed it on to another. Thus the golden seed went from hand to hand. Then the thief said, "Your majesty, if no man's hand is clean, why should I alone die for the crime?" "You are right," said the king. "If you are to die then I must die also." 9 Then the conscience stricken king pardoned the culprit, because he and his officers were all sinners alike. Is the story a mere legend, a fable? We think not. We say certain men arc degenerates and beyond the pale of Gospel hope. Are they? Aro our own hands morally clean? Have we always been pure? Earthly sorrows, richly borne, fit the soul for heaven. Guilt and Shame were at first companions, and in the beginning of their journey in- separably kept together. But their union was soon found to be disagreeable and in- convenient to both; Guilt gave Shame fre- quent uneasiness, and Shame often betrayed the secret conspiracies of Guilt. After long disagreement, therefore, they at length con- sented to part for ever. Guilt boldly walked forward alone, to overtake Fate, tftat went before in the shape of an executioner; but Shamo being naturally timorous, returned back to keep company with Virtue, which, in the beginning of their journey, they had left I behind. Thus, my children, wrote Oliver Goldsmith, after men have travelled through a few stages in vice, Shame forsakes them, and returns back to wait upon the few virtues they have still remaining. To live is to suffer, and a brave man al- ways struggles to be master of himself. There is no more of personal merit in a great intellect than in a great estate. It is the use which is made of the one and of the other which should found the claim to res- pect; and the man who has it at heart to make tt- best use he can of either, will not be much occupied with them as means of commanding respect. A PSALM OF LIFE. Tell me not, in morunful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And tilings are not -what they seem. Life is real! life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Art is long, and Time is fleeting, 11 And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Li ves of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time:- Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er Life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait. —Longfellow. A sermon is too often like Hodge's horse, said the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. It is over- done with brasses and bell, harness and har- mony, but there is no real strength in it, no life and vigour. It is fine, but not forcible. Now, it strikes everybody that the trappings of a poor old half-starved horse look like mockery. You cannot plough fields with fibbons and bells-you want muscle and sinew; and so there is no moving men's hearts with pretty phrases and musical no- things; what is needed is thought, truth, and sound doctrine, and the Spirit of God. Young men are apt to think less of what to say than how to say it; but our advice is, think of both in due proportion. Set the matter be- fore the manner; get the horse first, and get a good one, and then harness him. Give tne people the grand old Gospel, and plenty of it, and they will not much mind the way in which you bring it forth. A good horse should be decently harnessed, and divine truth should be fitly spoken; the mischief is that some appear to think that the Lara ess makes the horse, and that a fine style is the main thing in a sermon. Churches and chapels would not so often be empty if ministers would take heed what they preach as well as how they preach. Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad if thou wilt; Do what thou dost as if the stake were Heaven, And that thy last deed ere the judgment day. When "all's done, nothing's done. There's rest above— Below let work be death, if work be love. Each man and woman's life is like a gar- den. What he or she sows there they will find again. -,If they sow nothing, the garden will be bare and dreary. If they let weeds once get a footing, they will cover the ground rapidly with their foul growth. If you tackle life with a determination to succeed, life is bound to yield success. If your heart is full of love and sympathy, the flowers of tender- ness and gratitude will spring up wherever you go. What are you sowing in your garden? Flowers or weeds? Or are you just letting it alone ? Strive to be, not to seem: One is truth, the other dream. The companionship of the young is of in- estimable value in helping to keep a young heart and as elastic mind. Youth is infec- tious in its gaiety, irresponsibility, light- heartedness, and its roseate outlook on the world. A- mistake some elderly people make, when their youthful beauty has not faded but ripened into autumnal maturity, is to withdraw themselves from scenes of youth and gaiety and give themselves up to profit- [ less regrets for the days that are fled. These persons age rapidly, court all the miseries of crabbed age, and shun tho joys of growing old gracefully.
INEWS IN BRIEF. I
NEWS IN BRIEF. Tragedies and Disasters. A youth named Clarke, of Alconbury, whilst crossing the Great Northern line near Huntingdon on Saturday was knocked down by an express train and decapitated. The barquentine Emma Crook waa on Sun- day towed into Lowestoft, having on board the body of one of the crew, William Hading- ham, aged 60, who had fallen from the rig- ging to the deck and had broken his neck. At Swansea Harry Reed, engine-driver on the G.W.R., was killed on Saturday. He got off his engine, and in stepping backwards was caught by a train which was passing. With his legs strapped together and his hands tied with a handkerchief, the body of Mr. Featherstonhaugh, a clerk in the em- ployment of the London County Council, has been found in the River Stour, near Dedham, Essex. A farm hand at Wrightington, near Wigan, became so depressed because he had broken a leg for the second time that he committed suicide by hanging himself with a halter. Depressed by an attack of influenza, Annie Joyce, licensee of the Hope Tavern, Salford, first lowered all the window blinds in her establishment and then committed suicide by hanging herself. Mary Ann Richardson, a widow, was knocked down at Hull by a draper's van, and subsequently died. The driver stated that he shouted to deceased, and went on the wrong side of the road to avoid her. While engaged in shunting at Hornsey Great Northern Station, James Richard Spriggs, of Rectory-road, Hornsey, was caught between the buffers of two carriages and crushed to death. Robert Hunt, a decorator, who was repair- ing the roof of St. Stephen's Church, Ken- sington Park-road, fell to the ground and was killed. Alderman Solomon Cohen, aged 80, the A father of the Hull Corporation, was found dead in his bedroom. The body of Robert Dixie, a chief engi- neer, late of the steamer Edernain, was found in a pool of water on the highway from Lancaster to Heysham. Accidents. Alfred Garney, five years old, was knocked down by an electric tram at Kensal Green and had both his legs amputated. A large empty mansion standing in its own grounds at Ascot was entirely destroyed by fire. It was being built for Mr. Chas Stonor, and the finishing touches were being put on it. The damage is estimated at X2,500. The infant children attending St. Mark's School, Gillingham, had just assembled when a fire broke out in the roof. The child- ren saw the flames and raised such a cry of alarm that it was heard by the girls, whose school adjoins. All the children, about five hundred in number at once rushed into the street. A number of Royal Marines, who were passing, moved the school furniture to a place of safety, and soon afterwards the flames were extinguished. A small fire broke out at the Great Western Railway Station, Paddington, which, though quickly put out, at first caused considerable alarm. A store room leading to the general offices caught fire, and for a few minutes the flames attained a considerable height. In less than a quarter of an hour, however, the outbreak was got under. The Marquis of Linlithgow, who last season was seriously injured in the hunting field, has again been the victim of a serious accident while out with the Cheshire Hounds. The Marquis's horse failed to rise at a fence, and came down heavily. The Marquis was severely bruised, and it is be- lieved that his collar-bone is broken. M. Santos Dumont twice tried his new aeroplane at St. Cyr. At the first attempt the machine did not leave the ground; at the second a wing was broken. The aeronaut was unhurt. The London steamer Umgeni, going down the Thames, ran into a bank of fog in Half- way Reach, and collided with the steamer Cadeby, of Hull, which was lying at anchor. The Umgeni came to anchor with her bows slightly damaged. Considerable damage was done to the Cadeby's bows. Told in the Courts. "Death by misadventure" was the ver- dict at the inquest on Dr. H. W. Payne Makeham, 54, of New-cross-road, S.E. De- ceased had been in poor health recently, and had taken morphia to relieve pain. He be- came unconscious, and expired within a few hours from the effect of this poison. "I found a pipe near one of the dead men, and another had a pipe in his pocket," said a witness at Llanelly at the inquest concerning the deaths of six men at the explosion at the Genwen Colliery. -When arrested on a charge of converting to his own use < £ 13 belonging to a servant girl to whom he was engaged, Israel Stras- bourg, a Russian Jewish tailor, explained that he did not marry the young woman be- cause he could not disgrace his family by marrying a Christian. Known as the "human pincushion," William Currie was arrested by the Scottish police in connection with a burglary. He travelled with Barnum and Bailey, and stuck pins into his body without drawing blood. A jury was summoned to inquire into the deaths of two children at Tottenham. After waiting an hour and a half without the coro- ner putting in an appearance they were dis- missed. The coroner had apparently for- gotten his appointment, and he mulcted him- self for the oversight by paying the fees of the jurymen. Thomas Joyce, a chauffeur, employed by Mr. Oscar Lewisohn, was fined E6, and costs at Kingston for scorching on February 26 last. It was stated that Mr. Lewisohn and Miss Edna May, to whom he is engaged, were in the car when it was stopped. The World of Sport. Mr. J. F. Byrne has been elected captain of the Warwickshire Cricket Club. Mr. W. Findlay, the old Oxford University and Lancashire wicketkeeper, has been ap- pointed secretary to the Surrey County Cric- ket Club in the place of the late Mr. C. W. Alcock. Mr. Findlay was born in 1880. He has acted as tutor to Lord Harris' sons. Prior to the meet of the Quorn Hounds at Frisby a race was run over a two-miles course on the flat near Cream Gorse, be- tween horses ridden by Mrs. F- H. Dur- lacher and Mrs. G. W. Hillyard, both ladies being well-known followers of the Leicester- shire packs. Mrs. Bmrlacher won easily. Music and the Drama. Mr. Thomas G. Hales, supermaster at the Drury-lane Theatre, has just retired after having filled the post for the last 38 years. An influential committee, including the principal theatre managers of Berlin and a number of prominent German authors. and newspaper editors has been formed to give a banquet to Mr. Tree and his company on April 4, on the occasion of their visit to Berlin. Military and Naval. The new submarine C4 ha.s arrived at Devonport from Barrow. Mr. Haldane distributed the shooting prizes to the 14th Middlesex (Inns of Courts) Volunteers at Inner Temple Hall. The appointment of Lieut.-General Sir John Chetham McLeod to be colonel of the Black Watch, vice the late General the Hon. Sir Robert Rollo, has been gazetted. Satisfaction has been caused in Dover by the announcement that the Admiralty, fol- lowing on the grounding of the cruiser Duke of Edinburgh, intend to make alterations affecting the entrance of Dover Naval Har- bour to counteract the currents. News of the Churches. For 22 years assistant master at Rugby, the Rev. Leonard Francis Burrows died in his 86th year. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel will hold its summer school at Lowes- toft, from June 22 to June 29. While digging at the back of his church the Rev. W. M. Bellamy, rector of St. Giles's, Colchestei', discovered a vault 10ft. deep filled with skulls and bones and. tha re- mains of ancient coffins. The Rev. Dr. Wood, headmaster of Har- row, has been appointed by the Bishop of London to the prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral vacant by the death of Preben- dary Kempe. Thieves broke into St. John's Church, York, and took the money from two collect- ing boxes. Social. The Prince of Wales has accepted an invi- tation to dine with the Benchers of Gray's- inn on April 16. In addition to the Royal visits to this country already announced, it is stated that the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Roumania (Princess Marie of Saxe-Coburg) will be the guests of the King and Queen during Ascot Week. Mr. James Elliman presented Slough with the Salt Hill Playing Fields, which cost him nearly £ 32,000 to purchase, lay out, and en- dow. The endowment consists of £10,000, a cheque for which Mr. Elliman handed to the chairman of the council. The King, who will be accompanied by the Queen, has consented to open the buildings of the Union Jack Club, in the Waterloo- road, which are nearing completion. It is expected that the ceremony will take place during the ensuing summer. Commercial and Industrial. It was announced at a dinner in connec- tion with the General Motor Cab Company, at Kennington, that seventy taximeter motor-cabs would be plying for hire in Lon- don immediately. Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Belfast, have received a telegram from Lord Pirrie, stating that all arrangements have been completed with the L. and S. W. Railway Company for the erection of their new repairing and en gineering works at Southampton, and that the building will be proceeded with immedi- ately. The Scotch Conciliation Board met in Glasgow to discuss the demand of 80,000 Scotch miners for 12J per cent. advance in wages, and decided to grant 61 per cent. ad- vance. The total output of coal for the United Kingdom for 1906 was 236,111,150 tons. Of this the Midland Railway Company carried 25,000,000 tons, or more than one-tenth of the whole. The Fiat Motors, Limited, are organising a motor coach service from London to Brigh- ton, at a guinea f-are, starting from Long- acre at half-past ten and arriving again in London at six p.m., three times weekly. If there be sufficient call a daily service will be run. A society has been formed entitled the Barmaids' Defence Association, barmaids and waitresses only being eligible for mem- bership, to oppose the forthcoming Licensing Reform Bill so far as it proposes to abolish or limit the employment pf barmaids. Lord Kinnaird, who presided at the annual meeting of the London Young Women's Christian Association, at the Queen's Hall, stated that more than 330,000 young women in London, were engaged in various employ- ments, including domestic service. j The Liverpool Dock Board adopted a scheme to improve Crosby Channel, Liver- > pool's main waterway, at a cost of over £ 66,000. Replying to a deputation which called I attention to the combination among railway J companies to prevent their carrying agents from granting rebates out of' their commis- sion for the benefit of certain traders, Mr. Lloyd-George hinted that the powers of the Board of Trade weuld probably have to be strengthened to protect trade against the railway companies. National and Political, The Prime Minister's visit to Manchester is fixed for May 9, when the right hon. gen- tleman will be chief guest at the banquet of the Manchester Liberal Federation. During last year 752 aliens were natura- lised in England, 204 being Russians and 192 Germans. | The Youthful Offenders Bill, introduced in the House of Commons by Mr. Wedgwood, M.P., proposes to extend the principle of the Youthful Offenders Act of 1901, and make a parent or guardian liable in all cases j for any fine, damages, or costs imposed upon a child or young person by a Court of sum- mary jurisdiction, unless he is able to satisfy the court that the child or young person is beyond his controL J From Other Lands. < Two men who carried the mails between the Grand Central Station and the sorting house, New York, have been arrested for pos- sessing silk blouses and costly laces and other goods despatched by the mail order houses ("shoping by post"), which recently have lost < £ 10,000 in thefts of this kind. Lieutenant Schuurman was engaged at the Artillery Works, Amsterdam, in filling a five-inch shell of a form invented, by himself with smokeless powder when an explosion occurred, which killed a workman and wounded several others. Lieutenant Schuur- man sustained twelve separate wounds and lost his left arm. News from Diisseldorf states that the nego- tiations for the extension of the steel com- bination were broken off, the Westphalian steel works having insisted upon their pre- vious demands. With the departure of a battalion from Harbin, the Russian evacuation of Manchu- ria will be complete. A great mail robbery has taken place on the liner Provence, the value of the booty being £ 80,000. The Commonwealth Government has de- cided to introduce next Session a Bill estab- lishing penny postage not only throughput Australia, but with all parts of the Empire, and with all countries which will deliver penny postage letters from Australia. America is landing troops at Honduras, and a British sloop has been despatched in connection with the fighting in Nicaragua, which claims a victory over both Honduras and San Salvador, with hundreds of dead left on the field. Frau Josephine Eder, the oldest woman in Germany, has celebrated her 119th oirthday at her home at Spitzendorf, Bavaria. Other Interesting Items. Mr. Hudson Maxim, New York, claims, after ten years' experiments, to have in- vented a safety detonating fuse to explode an armour-piercing shell at any desired dis- tance behind an armour plate from 'one to twelve inches thick. The life of Iowa McKenzie, six years old, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, has been saved by skin grafting. The child was burned over half her body, and four persons contributed 320 pieces of skin from their own bodies. Nine hundred inmates of the National Sol- diers' Home at Leavenworth, Kansas, are suffering from ptomaine poisoning after eat- ing hash. The victims fell in groups about the grounds and on the roads near the home. Many of them are not expected to recover. Authentic information has been received in Ottawa of the finding in the Temishamingue mine, in the Cobaldt district, of a silver nugget weighing 276 pounds. The nugget has been assayed at 12,000 ounces to the ton, but a smaller one, turning the scale at 100 pounds, contains silver in the proportion of 22,000 ounces to the ton.
INTERESTING ITEMS.
INTERESTING ITEMS. Sir Richard Solomon will accompany General Botha to England. There is no truth in the report that Indian troops have been landed in Persia. A child named Ivy Everett, aged five, was killed by a horse 'bus at Shepherd's-bush tube station. Major H. Marshall, R.A., attached to the Army Ordnance Department, has been appointed chief ordnance officer at Pretoria. Twelve hundred tons of coal were taken on board by H.M. battleship Formidable at Malta at the smart rate of 200 tons per hour. The Archbishop of Canterbury has consented to receive a deputation from the National Hous- ing Reform Council at Lambeth Palace. Mr. F. Moore, coxswain of Southend life- boat, who is retiring, has attended 300 wrecks, and been instrumental in saving 94 lives. It is officially announced in Rome that the Pope has consented to be godfather to the ex- pected child of the Queen of Spain. Mile. Genee will take the leading part, uxat of- the daughter of Sir Roger de Coverley, in the forthcoming ballet at the Empire. A railway guard named Slunkins, of Col- chester, died from apoplexy while in charge of a train at Great Bentley Station, Essex. The Harbour Traffic Board of Hamburg offer work to 2,000 strike-breakers as labourers under contract for a year at a weekly wage of 30s. A private court of inquiry has been held at Dorchester Depot Barracks with reference to the recent disappearance of Lieutenant Tryon. The elections in Finland, where the women voted for the first time, have resulted in a great victory for the Social Democrats. Charged at Nottingham with having robbed little children of their clothes, a woman named Hodder, was committed for trial. By the smoking of a quarter of a pound ot tobacco a week anybody's eyesight will be in- jured, says Dr. Bickerton, a Liverpool eye specialist. Estate valued at C29,141, of which £ 24,000 is the value of an insurance policy, was left by the late Sir Allan Russell Mackenzie, of Glen Muick. The sexton of Oake Parish Church, near Well- ington, committed suicide by hanging himself with one of the ropes in the belfry of the church. On June 24 next an all-Swedish choir is com- ing to Queen's Hall, London, in connection with the political lectures which will be held there. The allied forces of San Salvador and Hon- duras, numbering 5,000 men, have, it is stated, been defeated by the Nicaraguans at Nama- sigue. A Sunday-school class at Carnarvon contains a member of Parliament, a member of the county council, a town councillor, and a guardian. Portions of the service at the Church of Uni- versal Truth, Streatham, have been rendered in Esperanto by the Rev. Morton Barnes, B.A., the pastor. Lieutenant Prince Arthur of Connaught, 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars, has passed for promo- tion to captain at an examination held from .February 18 to 21. Lord Charles Beresford left Winnipeg for Chicago, en route for England, having com- pleted the settlement of his late brother, Lord Dela-val's estates. The Camberwell Borough Council, at its meeting, decided to reduce the rate for the ensuing year from 8s. lid. to 8s. 5d., a re- duction of 6d. Mrs. Hannah Williamson, of Millville, New York, who was 100 years old and had never suf-fereci a sBrious illnes in her baa haaa burned to death. One of the mottoe3 on the walls of the new Technical Trade School, South Norwood, to be formally opened shortly, is "Eyes first, hands next, tongues last." An epidemic of measles of a severe type is reported from Nottingham, and the Citv Edu- cation Committee are closing the whole of the infant schools in the city. Miss Mary Bateson, of Cambridge, a writer on historical subjects, left the whole of her es- tate, valued at C8,560 to Newnham College, with which she was associated. Otto Lipfert, a chauffeur, whose car killed Mr. Walter James Wells in the Strand on January 26 last, was tried at the Old Bailey for manslaughter and acquitted. An eagle has been observed to rise from the ground and completely disappears into the sky within three minutes. Eagles sometimes soar to heights of 15,000ft. or more. A unique record for regular school attendance has been established by a family named Red- head, residing at Northampton, five of the chil- dren having earned twenty-nine medals. The sale of patent medicines for a year in Great Britain averages more than one package for each inhabitant of the country, with a face value of over £ 2,750,000. In January the death-rate from accidents is greater in the country than in the town, but in May and June the proportion of City accidents is considerably the heavier. A pew in Grace Church, one of the wealthiest and most fashionable churches in New York, has been sold by auction for £735. The ground tent of this pew is P.17 annually. If not absolutely the oldest, the Stora Kop- parberget in- Sweden is the oldest copper mine of which we have any official figures. It hai been worked continuously for nearly 800 years. Great Britain consumes more butter than any other nation. The average per head is 131b. a year, as against 81b. in Germany, 41b. in France, and 21b. in Russia. Parsee& are much better educated than any other Indians. In every 10,000 Parsee men 4,075 know English. Among the Hindus only sixty-four in 10,000 speak English. A mountain of salt is one of the natural curiosities of San Domingo. The mountain is about five miles square at the base, and is esti- mated to contain about 90,000,000 tons of salt. Mr. Justice Darling in delivering judgment in a case in the Lord Chief Justice's Court, suddenly stopped and said: "Will the usher be good enough to wake up that gentleman who is sleeping so that he may listen to my judg- ment?" j o Clover Osborne, an agricultural labourer, aged sixty-four, was killed in an attempt to stop a runaway horse, at West Bergholt, Col- chester. The animal struck him with such vio- lence that he was hurled over some bushes into a pond. A fire broke out in a hairdresser's shop in Dulwich Village. The alarm was at once raised, and the inmates managed to escape in safety. Engines and escapes from Lordship-lane, Herne-hill, and Brixton were soon upon the scene, and the fire was confined to the shop. The Government has acceded to the request of General Sir Mansfield Clarke, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta, that he might be relieved of his duties from May 1 on the ground that he has passed the age of military retirement and completed 51 years' of continu- ous service under the Crown. The Essex Staghounds, one of the oldest packs in the country, are in danger of extinction. At, the annual meeting of the subscribers, held at the King William Inn, Leaden Roothing, the present master, Mr. Jackson, announced that he had finally decided to resign the office. The Hon. Mrs. Beresford, otherwise knovvn as "Kitty Gordon," was a defendant in all action brought at the Westminster County-conrti by Messrs. Hampton and Sons, of Charing-cross, for R3 15s. 9d. for goods sold. The Judge or- dered the amount to be paid within fourteel1 days. ■I