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

"I have never seen one tramcar lifeguard worth twopence," said the coroner at Colne at an inquest on a woman who had fallen in front of a car, and whose neck had been broken by being dragged under the life- guard. A canary breeder named Johnson Turner, of Tinsley, near Sheffield, was fined £ 6 and costs at Wellingborough for cruelty to canaries. Nine birds were sent from Shef- field to Earl's Barton in a nine-inch close box. On arrival six of the canaries were dead.

I HUMOUR OF THE WEEK. I WHAT THE CONSTABLE MEANT, Giving evidence at the Thames Polk*s-court a constable said he was in a coal-shed. Mr. Mead: What were you doing in a coal- shed? Another Constable:: He means "cul de sac." "Ton shouldn't use French when giving evidence," said Mr. Mead when the laughter had subsided. I COLD COMFORT. A poor traveller had lost "nis way in a rural district Jate at night. It was raining hard. when at last he saw -a house. It was all in darkness, but, hopefully, he thun- (dered on the door. The irate 'householder opened a window, and asked who it was making that row. "A friend in distress," replied the weary travel- ler. "Weill, what do you want?"'—"I want to stop hero all night." "Well, stop there!" said the householder, slamming 'down the window. I A DANGEROUS AMUSEMENT. When summoned at Lambeth County- court to enforce payment -for damage done when he was on a motor cycle a smartly- dressed youth said he had no money what- ever. What is your -bus;iiessp -Nothing. A gentleman of leisure?—No. What then?--A schoolboy. How old is the schoolboy? Seventeen. (Laughter). Judge Emden: There is a doubt about that.—The Defendant: I am on my oath, your honour. I will be 18 in August. The Solicitor: Did your counsel say you were only '17 when the case was heard?—No, The Solicitor: Did your counsel say you were only '17 when the case was heard?—No, 1 do not think he did. He spoilt my case al- together. (Laughter;) What do you get for pocket money?—Oh, that is very uncertain—sometimes 5s., some- times more. Juige Emden: It is dangerous to allow a boy like this to run about on a motor cycle. (Laughter:) If he knocks any one down they have no remedy. MUST HOLD UP SOMETHING. A Glasgow bailie experienced a difficulty in swearing a witness in the Scotch fashion. "Hold up your right arm," he commanded. I canna dae 't." said the witness. "Why not?"—"Got shot in the airm." "Then hold up your left."—"Canna dae 'that ayther—got shot in the ither ane tae." "Then hold up your leg," responded the irate magistrate. "No man can be sworn in this court without holding up something." I NEITHER. "Were -you drunk?" was asked of a prisoner at Birmingham.—"No, sir," was the reply. "Sober?"—"No, sir." (Laughter.) "Then what were vou?"- "Neither drunk nor sober, sir." (Laughter.) WHAT IS "PATSEY MIKE." A man was charged at Marlborough- Treet as a suspected person frequenting Regent-street, and a constable said that when taken to the police-station prisoner said: "If I had had my Patsey Mike with me I would have shown you what I would have done." A Patsey Mike, explained the constable, was a knife. Prisoner: Nothing of the sort. Patsey Mike is my bulldog. (Laughter,) MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. Upon an old woman asking him for a sum- mons against her daughter for assault, Mr. Plowden, at Mnrylebone, asked, "How old is your daughter?" Applicant; She's sixty. Mr. Plowden (astonished): Sixty! A little older than you, then, isn't she? (Laughter.) How old are your—I'm sixty five. (Loud laughter.) Mr. Plowden: Sixty-five! Well, you cer- tainly have not lost any time in this world. (More laughter.) Are you sure she is your daughter not your mother?—Oh! no; I have no mother. Have you any other children?- Y es I've had ten. And is this the youngest? (Laughter.)- No: she is the oldest. Mr. Plowden: Well, you may have a sum- mons. It is very expensive 2s. but you may have it free. I want to see this daugh- ter. The old woman expressed her thanks, but. walked straight out of the court and disap- peared. JUST LIKE A MAN. While a lec.turer in Manchester was illus- trating his theme by trying to ignite tinder with some sparks from st-eel and flint, an old lady at the back of the hall exclaimed, with evident disgust: "Well, if that ain't just like a man There 'e keeps 'ammering an' 'am- mering at that thing, breakin' 'is fingers to get a light, and all the time there's a box of matches at 'is elbow, an' a lighted cannel, an' three gas jets all burnin' within reach of 'is 'and!" A MOTORIST'S REVENGE. Mr. Oliver Stanton, who said he had had the honour of instructing the King, the Prince of Wales, Prince Christian, and other members of the Royal household in motoring, summoned at Marylebone for driving along Avenue-road, St. John's Wood at more than twenty-miles an hour, told an amusing story to the magistrate. 11 "The two constables, he said, "were very brusque, and looked like brigands — (laugh- ter)—and when they asked for my license I refused to produce it, because it was a virgin one (i.e., it had no stains upon it), and offered instead to drive the whole load of them to the station. "Some time after the incident," he con- tinued, "I went into the park, and met there a very high official from Scotland Yard, who greeted me with the remark, c Oh, have they 11 got you in?' (Loud laughter.) I confessed with regret that they had, and said I felt very wrath about it." The high official then asked, 'What did you do?' I told him that, having been caught in a trap, I went to the top of Avenue-road, and stopped there from ten minutes past ten to a quarter past one warning every motorist who came along that the trap was in existence and advising them to avoid it. "Altogether I warned fcrty-two, and held them up, and they all went down the road like a funeral procession. (Laughter.) What the police thought of it I don't know, but the Avenue-road was quiet. (Laughter.) The high official remarked, <v:- e7 good; you have helped us greatly; we will give you a tunic and helmet. (Laughter.) NOT FINISHED. II "I have not finished my evidence." re- marked a witness at Chiswick Police-court. The Clerk: What have you to say then? Witness; Nothing more, thank you. (Loud laughter, in which the Court joined.) A GOOD PROVIDER. I The vicar, stopping a parishiouer who had recently married a man who was reputed to be lazy, said to her, "Well, Mrs. Brown, I hope your husband is proving a good pro- vider." "Yes, sir, thank you, sir, he's a very gooj provider-he's provided me with three now places to wash at since we were married

I NEWS IN BRIEF. I Tragedies and Disasters. Mrs. Suhr, one of the persons injured in the Croydon tram accident on Easter Monday, died ;SIt the Croydon Hospital on Monday morning. Evan Thomas, a Cardiff butcher, was killed on Monday by an express train on the G.W. Railway near St. Fagans, South Wales. When riding a motorcycle near Weymouth, a marine named Keu, of H.M.S. Hampshire, collided with a wall and died several days later from fracture of the skull. The body of Mr. Henry Knight, librarian at tile Public Hall in George-street, Croydon, was found by some boys on Sunday hanging from a tree on Wimbledon Common. Thomas Blaekstoek, of the Manchester United football reserve team, while playing in a match against St. Helens, at Clayton, on Monday, suddenly collapsed. He was carried off the field, and died without recovering con- sciousness. At a Wakefield fair the ear of a raerry-go- round gave way, and three boys were injured, one being killed. As he was about to enter a tramway-car at Anerley on Monday, Mr. James, a retired builder, of Leicester-road, Addi&eoffibe, com- plained of illness, and suddenly expired. 1 will do away with myself somehow," said Jchn Bennett, 16. of Upper East-street, Green- wich, after asking a friend to join the navy with him. Bennett '.vent home. He tied a sheet in a loop, and hanged himself to the bed- room door. Accidents. In crossing Stoke Newingt-on-road Mrs. Eliza- beth Adderley, aged 54, of Stamford-hill, and her married daughter, were knocked down on Monday by an L.C.C. electric ear. Mrs. Adder- ley's face was terribly cut and bruised, and her daughter received injuries to hex back and legs. Lightning struck the boot factory of Messrs. Todd at Northampton on Monday, and sent a large chimney stack crashing through the rooi of a dwelling-house. No one was hurt. Mr. J. Job, the conductor of the Felixstowe Choral Society, dislocated his arm by an over vigorous flourish while conducting a perform- ance of Hiawatha." After receiving medical attention, he resumed his duties. The treasure ship Alfred Nobel put into Wey- mouth on Monday, and landed her chief engi- neer, whose hand had been caught in the machinery. He went to the hospital, where his hand was dressed and a finger amputated, and then rejoined hia ship- Miss Lloreen Hamilton, who is playing at the Waidorf Theatre, while dancing on a. steam launch on the Thames, was thrown into the water. A male passenger rescued her, but, no lady's garments being obtainable, Miss Hamil- ton was forced to accept a waiter's offer of a dress suit. To a spark from an engine shunting in an adjacent siding is attributed a disastrous outbreak of fire at Wyre Dock, Fleetwood, by which damage estimated at over £ 20,000 was caused. Nearly 20,000 creosoted Nor- wegian fir telephone and telegraph poles were destroyed. Loaded with grain for the Black Sea, the Newcastle steamer Newstead stranded at Newhaven. It was refloated, and was towed to Southampton. Told in the Courts. A number of Cambridge undergraduates who are studying -with a clergyman at Eastbourne were fined 2s. 6d. each on Monday for playing football on the Parade at 11.40 at night. John Patrick Dane. the music-hall artist who popularised The Bogey Man," was sentenced at Liverpool on Monday to two months' hard labour for theft. Wilful murder" was the verdict returned on Monday against- a young domestic servant named. Alice Keeling, of; Longton, Stafford- shire, at the inquest on the death of her newly- born child, which was found with a piece of knotted counterpane round its neck. Herbert Franeis Lesmond, late manager of f the Hibernia Bank, was remanded at Athy on Monday on charges of embezzlement and faisifi- cation of accounts. You will find my body on my wife's grave in the cemetery," a Preston man wrote to his friends at Stalybridge. The letter was de- livered sooner than he anticipated, and when he went to the cemetery with a razor in his pocket he found the police waiting for him. Judge Willis said at the Southwark County- court on Monday: To bring an action against anybody is the last thing in the world I should think of doing. I should not bring an action in regard to character unless the attack upon me affected some third person." ■ The World of Sport. For the first salmon caught this year in the Chester reaches of the Dee two local fishermen have received a prize of a load of coal. A large and influential committee has been formed at Tottenham for the purpose of get- j ting up a presentation to Mr. John Cameron, the late manager secretary of the Hotspur Club. At a meeting of the management com- mittee, of the Football League at Newcastle it was reported that not enough First and Second Division clubs had assented to the proposal to confer with the Southern League on the formation of a National League, and it was therefore deemed unnecessary to take any further action. February 29 was fixed for the Inter-League match next year. Music and the Drama. Connected with the staff of the L.C.C. there is a dramatic club, of which Mr. George Alex- ander has just accepted the presidency. Mme. Melba was a passenger on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse., which arrived at Ply- mouth from New York on Monday. She went on to Cherbourg, whence she will proceed on a holiday visit to Paris and Berlin. Mr. Walter Gibbons, proprietor of the Bal- ham Duchess Palace of Varieties, has decided Jo erect at Tooting what will be known as the Tooting Hippodrome, which will have seating accommodation for 4,000 persons. Mr. Gaston Mayer has fixed on April 25th as the date on which he will produce at Terry's Theatre the dramatisation of Mrs. Anne Hegan Rice's successful books, "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" and "Lovey Mary." Miss Kitty Gordon has reliqtiishqd her part in "Lady Tatters" at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and will remain with "Nelly Neil." Mr. Otho Stuart, lessee of the Adelphi Theatre, who twenty one years ago was an actor in Mr. F. R. Benson's Shakespearean company, will return to the stage for a single performance of the one-act play "The Peace- maker" during the Shakespeare festival at Stratford-on-Avon on April 25. Sir Walter Parratt has promised to con- duct the combined choirs at the Hertford- shire and North Middlesex Musical Festival, to be held at the Alexander Palace in May. Military and Naval. Workmen at Pembroke Dockyard began lay- ing blocks in one of the building slips on Mon- day to receive the keel of the new fast un- armoured cruiser Boadicea, which has been designed for accompanying destroyers and act- ing as a parent ship. In reply to a question by Mr. Pike Pease, Mr. Haldane has written that the cost of a new suit of service dress for infantry, including great coat, boots, helmet, cap and badge, and putties would amount to a sum of £2 17s. 3d. per man, or about £ 858,750 for 300,000 men. Sergeant Joseph Miller, D.C.M., of the King's Royal Rifles, has received a commission as lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion the King's African Rifles. The Army Council hE,s notified commanding officers of Volunteer corps that no new cyclist companies or sections are to be formed, and no increase in the strength of the existing com- panies or sections will be sanctined. The reason for this decision is the more pressing need of monev for other branches of the service. News of the Churches. The Rev. R. F. Rind has been appointed Precentor of Norwich Cathedral, in succession to the Rev. A. M. Moss, who has accepted a South American appointment. St. Cledd's Church, Stratford, was bur- glariously entered on Sunday night, and an un- successful attempt was made to carry awav the large safe from the vestry. St. Luke's Church, at the docks, has also been broken into, and many robberies have occurred on ships in the docks. Having severed his connection with the Church of England, the Rev. E. W. Sealy has preached at. the Unitarian Church, Blackburn, with a view to becoming its minister. The Rev. Frank Burnett, of Northampton, has accepted the pastorate of Upper Holloway Congregational Church. The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon has consented to take twelve months' holiday, and at the end of that periocY, if his health permits, he will take up his work at the Metropolitan Tabernacle again. The Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated his 59th birthday on Sunday. The Rev. Cyril Golding Bird, of St. Barna- bas, Dover, has been appointed dean of the Falkland Isles diocese. One of the Oldest clergymen in the Oxford diocese, the Rev. O. E. Slocok, died at his residence near Newbury. He was ordained in 1858. The Rev. R. C. Fillingham, of Hexton, who is under suspension by his bishop, has, it is stated, been creating disturbances in Cordoba, Spain, by distributing broadcast pamphlets fSi ving the Resurrection. Sociul. At the request of the Prime Minister the date of the speech-day at The Leys School, Cair- bridge, has been altered to Thursday, June li. Two large and deep chalices of plain silver of the time of Charles 1. have been presented by Colonel Sandys, M.P., to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. Professor James Dewar. of Cambridge, has been appointed as corresponding member of the Copenhagen Academy of Sciences. The death is announced of Sir Frederick Wil. liam Wigan, Bart., at the age of forty-eight, at Windlesham Court, Surrey. He recently suc- ceeded his father, who died suddenly after re- cording his vote at the L.C.C. election. The death is announced at the age of ninety- two of Mr. Frederick Bowker, of Winchester. He was the Tichborne family solicitor, and contested Arthur Orton's claim to be Sir Roger Tichborne. Mrs. Hannah Bursnall, of Skillington, near Grantham, on Tuesday attained her 103rd birthday. She was born at Wymondham, was married when 23, and had fourteen children. She has about forty grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Judge Greenwell has been appointed chair- man of the Durham Quarter Sessions, in suc- cession to the Right Hon. J. L. Wharton. Commercial and Industrial. Yarmouth sands are more valuable than ever. The singers' ring on the Central Beach was let on Monday for t600 a year, and the minstrel arena on the North Beach for k29O. At a meeting of men on strike in the potting trade, the rector of Hanley, the Rev. W. S. Knowles, unexpectedly appeared, and offered to try and arrange a conference between mas- ters and men. He was loudly cheered, and his offer was accepted. Sir John Wolfe Barry, arbitrator between the Guildford Corporation and the Woking Water Company, issued his award on Monday at £ 46,900. Ten thousand Glasgow carters lodged a de- mand on Monday for an advance of 2s. a week. They threaten to strike if the claim is not met. It has been decided by the directorate of the Co-operative Wholesale Society to close the Rochdale corn and flour mill. The Wholesale Society purchased the mill two years ago from the Rochdale District Corn Millers' Society for £ 15,000. National and Political. As a protest against the Education Act the first revolt school in permanent buildings has been opened in Merionethshire, Wales. The King is sending to the International In- dustries Exhibition, in Dublin, Lady Butler's well-known painting, entitled The Roll-Call," for exhibition in the art section. Sir Fortescue Flannery was adopted as Unionist candidate for the Maldon division of Essex on Monday. No matter what measure the Liberal Govern- ment brought in to deal with the question of Home Rule, Mr. T. Smyth, M.P., declared, at a meeting in County Roscommon on Monday, they would not accept it as a full measure until they got Home Rule in its fullest form. Dr. Jameson, the Cape Premier, has been compelled by reasons of health to decline in- vitations during his present visit to England. The national memorial to the late Sir: Hector Macdonald, at Dingwall, which takes the form of a Scottish baronial tower a hun- dred feet in height, will be opened on Thursday, May 23, by the Marquis of Tulli- bardine, who fought with the deceased gene- ral in the Sudan and South African cam- paigns. A Commission to settle various minor points of detail connected with the adminis- trative system to be set up under the Anglo- French Convention in the New Hebrides is to meet in London, the probable date being some time in May. From Other Lands. The King of the Belgians celebrated hia seventy-second birthday on Tuesday. A horse named Jack, owned by Judson Dale, of Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania, refuses to work more than ten hours a day. It starts work with The trade unionists at six, and will do nothing after they have finished. A Ladies' Colonial League, with the Duke and Duchess Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg at its head, has been formed in Germany. The object of the league will be not only to interest women in the colonies, but also to induce women and marriageable girls to emigrate, and to provide careers for them on their arrival. The power-house of the Metropolitan Street Railway, in New York, was destroyed by fire on Monday. Seven firemen were killed by falling walls. Owing to the melting of the snow many Servian towns are flooded, and railway com- munication is hampered. Great loss of life is feared. Thirty Dalmatian road labourers have been overwhelmed by an avalanche in the Flexen Pass, says an Innsbruck message. One was killed and several others were severely injured. In the fiscal year ended March 31st the Canadian revenue increased by nine million dollars, and expenditure bv one and a quarter million dollars. The net public debt de- creased by fifteen millions. The total ordi- nary revenue amounted to sixty-six millions. Other Interesting Items. The Athlone Board of Guardians have gained a record in the price of coffins. They have just contracted for a supply of children's coffins 4tft. in length at 3d. each, and infants' 2 at one penny each! Mr. Beviss, who has presided over the Chard Board of Guardians for twenty-one years, will not accept office again because the new board p z-, will include lady members. Mr. Beviss is a bachelor. Pycroft House, Chertsey, was offered for sale at the Mart, Tokenhouse-yard, on Monday, but was withdrawn. The place has been identified as the house of Mrs. Maylie, where Oliver Twist was initiated into the science of burglary. Frederick Williams, a Philadelphia boy of three, so frightened his* mother by pretending to be a burglar and knocking at her bedroom door, that she had to be removed to the hospital, and is not expected to live. The Home Secretary has ordered that as ,soon as Mrs. Rayner is well enough she shall be permitted to have an interview with her husband, who is still in Pentonville Prison. Among the wills proved on Monday was that of Donald McDonald, who was employed as a shepherd by Mrs. Panton at Blairgowrie, Perth- shire. He left £ 1,450.

BRIDE FROM AN EARTHQUAKE. Benjamin Simons, a manufacturer, of Rochester (New York), who was married at Chicago to Miss Bettie Jacobson, the daugh- ter of a retired merchant, met and wooed his bride under very romantic circumstances. He was on a business visit to San Francisco at the time of the earthquake, and found among the ruins a photograph of a girl whose features attracted him so much 'that he determined to find her and marry her. He stayed for weeks in the ruined city showing the photograph to every one and asking if the original was known. Finally he found the girl in a refugee camp, and cultivated her acquaintance with such assi- duity that she promised to marry him when she had finished her course at the Leland- Stanford University, where she took her de- gree a few weeks ago.

I ROUMANIA QUIET AGAIN. It is stated by the Roumanian Minister in London that order has now been definitely es- I' tablished over the whole of Roumania, due to the energetic measures taken by the Govern- ment. The army throughout the whole dura- i tion of the disturbances has shown a great I spirit of devotion, and, without excesses of any kind, has behaved with great firmness and energy. A great number of agitators have been arrested. The peasants express great contri- tion for the wave of madness that has taken hold of them, and are denouncing the plunderers, in many cases forcing them to restore their booty. The landlords and farmers are meeting the peasants in a most patriotic and concilia- tory way.

I BOY'S WONDERFUL ESCAPE. An exciting incident was witnessed at Pont- lottyn Station, on the Rhymney Railway, on Saturday evening. A train was drawing up in Saturday evening. A train was drawing up in the station when a boy, five years old, began to race along the platform by the side of the engine. Before he could be stopped he stumbled and fell on the track, but the driving rod of the engine fortunately threw him clear of the wheels, and he escaped with slight shock and ( bruises.

MR. BURNS'S HOLIDAY. Mr John Burns, the President of the Local Government Board, paid a surprise visit to Ipswich Workhouse, and stayed there for about an hour. The house was built only a few years ago, and is regarded as a model establishment of the kind. Mr. Burns has also inspected the labour colony at Hollesley Bay, in pursuance of his announcement be- fore the Easter recess of his intention of making such visits during the holiday.

MISHAP TO AN EXPRESS. As the 1.10 express from Bradford to Man- chester was passing through Littleborough Sta- tion, between Todmorden and Rochdale, on Saturday, the "motion" of the engine dropped. The facing points of a loop line were smashed, and many sleepers were splintered. The per- manent way was damaged for four hundred yards. The train, which was travelling at over 50 miles an hour, pulled up within a quarter of a mile. A breakdown gang from Newton-heath g was speedily on the scene, and the express was sent on after an hour's delay. The damaged engine, the bottom frame of which had been torn out by the dropped "motion," could not be I moved until seven hours after the mishap.

Just before a balloon ascent at Shobley Spa grounds, near Consett, the balloon caught fire, and after blazing for a time burst open and collapsed. Clutc,hing a five-shilling piece in his hand, Mr. James Quickenden, formerly a member of the Metropolitan Water Board, fell dead in the street at Penge. Intelligence reached Hulton-park, Bolton, of the death at San Remo, of peritonitis, of Sir William Hulton, Baronet, in his sixty-third year. He owned the Hulton collieries and occupied a prominent position in the public life of Lancashire, being specially interested in educational matters. He once stood as Conservative candidate for South- East Lancashire, but was defeated.

I INTERESTING ITEMS. At Brooklyn, New York, is a bakery whicls* turns out 75,000 loaves a day. Bishops of the Established Church of Eng- land are of the rank of barons. There are about thirty tunnels in England ot a mile or more in length. At a sale of old English furniture at Chris- tie's, a pair of Sheraton side tables fetched 110 guineas. The Prince and Princess of Wales will visit Tottenham on May 7 to open the extension of the local hospital. The Rev. Emile Duplerny, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Southwark, died at Kingston-on-Thames. To improve trout-fishing in the Thames, 100, fine fish have been turned into the river at Weybridge, and 200 at Henley. "I wish I could," said the Premier, asked when he could make a definite statement as to, the date of the Licensing Bill. Of our population, the working classes form' 69 per cent., the middle classes 28 per cent., and the upper classes 3 per cent. Three boys found a cartridge near Hull and apj-Hed a match to it to see what would happen. They are all in the doctor's hands. The Bishop of St. Albans states that in the- oourse of the ordinary work of his diocese he- slept in fourteen bed in eighteen nights. Prince von Arenberg, a Centre member of the- German Reichstag, and formerly president of the Colonial Society, has died at Crefeld. At the rural district council election in the Spalding Union, Mrs. A. Veall officiated as poll clerk, and her husband as a presiding officer. Brandy and water are supplied at the expense of the Government to every member of the' Belgian Parliament who makes a long speech. Estate valued at X57,060 gross has been left- by the late Sir Godfrey Lushington, formerly Permanent Under-Secretary at the Homer Office. To save the life of one of the Gosport beagles its throat was cut, a hard piece of biscuit ex- tricated, and the wound stitched. The dog iø- doing well. William Arthur Jones, a convict at Park- hurst Prison, twenty-nine years old, was found; dead in his cell. He had hanged himself with his towel. When the Hull steam trawler Sardius arrived in St. Andrew's Dock it was reported that the- skipper had jumped overboard and been drowned. Paper can easily be made fireproof. It only requires saturating in a strong solution of alum- water. When thoroughly dry it will resist the action of flame. Major-General R. S. S. Baden-Powell will pre- side at the great demonstration of the Boys" Brigade, to be held at the Royal Albert Hallr on May 2 next. According to Turkish newspapers an Imperial Irade has been issued abolishing the poll tax and the tax on domestic animals which were de- creed two years ago. Lord Dysart has offered to bear half the coist, -Y.1,183--of placing Grantham Hospital in an up-to-date condition, provided the other half isi subscribed by July next. Colonial ladies visiting England for the con- ference of the Colonial Premiers are to be enter- tained at a luncheon in May by London ladies interested in the Colonies. The death took place in Cardiff of the Rev. Dr. John Pugh, founder of the "forward" movement of Calvinistic Methodism. Dr. Pughi was in his sixty-first year. Mr. William Preece sailed for New York in- the Cunard liner Caronia to take part in the inauguration of Mr. Andrew Carnegie's Insti- tute of Technology at IPit'tstmrg-. While he was American Minister in Peking during the Boxer troubles, Mr. Conger pur- chased a rug for £ 5. He has since sold the rug to a Chicago man for £ 9,400. Prolonged singing took place at an Eistedd- fod in a village in Montgomeryshire. The pro- ceedings lasted without interval for six hours,, during which three women fainted. The keepers of the New York Zoo have- cured Caliph, a hippopotamus, of an illness which had lasted for several months. They ad- ministered a bucketful of castor oil. "Don't worry; get married and keep on mov- ing." At Wandsworth County Court, a woinart. defendant, a furniture remover, was stated to have these words painted on her van. The Mayor of Workington, Mr. Henrr M'Aleer, died suddenly at Workington from; angina pectoris. He was fifty-eight years old and was serving his second year of office. Four generations of her descendants, includ- ing her great-great-grandson, a boy of three, followed the remains of Mrs. Hunt, who died at Thornford, aged ninety-four, to the grave. The Amir of Afghanistan has started cotton and silk weavin U factories at several of the cities in his territory, and is actively endeavour- ing to foster these industries as far as possible. Skipton Workhouse infirmary is so full, eays, the medical officer, that aged patients are forced to live, eat, and smoke in the general al wards where patients are undergoing treatment i11 bed. Eleven valuable racers, including Finecloth, son of the English racer Melton and brother to Sysonby, have been roasted alive in a fire in the stable at Sheep's Head Bay racetrack,. New York. The Rev. John Campbell, late curate-in- charge of St. Andrew^, Toxteth Park, Liver- pool, has been appointed by the Bishop of Sodor and Man to the vicarage of St. Goorge's, Douglas, Isle of Man. Under the new scheme Malta will only have* five infantry battalions instead of seven, and Gibraltar two instead of three. The strength of the two garrisons will then be reduced to 7,500 and 3,800 respectively. "Three times when I counted the collection after church I could not help noticing that, there was only one coin bigger than a sixpence,, and that was put in the bag by myself," saya, the vicar of Fareham. Two brothers are exhibitors at the Naval and Military Art Exhibitions—Major-General R. W" Sartorius and Major-General E. H. Sartorius" They are both V.C.s, both C.M.G.s, both major generals and both artists. A shorthorn bull, which was waiting to bet put in a train at Cockermouth, attacked at herdsman and pinned him against a wall, dislo- cating his shoulder. A sack was thrown over the bull s head ,and it was hauled back to th& truck. A tramp recently asked for admittance to- Zernlin Hospital, announcing his death for the; same evening at seven o'clock. The doctor's ex- amination revealed no sign of disease, but the tramp died, nevertheless, at the hour he had foretold. A party of peasants clearing away the snow from a hut on Mount Bresovits (Servia) heard a faint call from within. It came from a boy who had taken refuge there with his father 4f) days previously during a terrific storm. The- father had died. The ingenuity of a South Norfolk (Connecti- cut) workman in tying a small bell round the' neck of a rat and then liberating it has com- pletely freed the Automatic Machine Company's factory of an army of these pests. The noiso of the tinkling bell frightened them away. A daring burglary has been effected at a branch shop of the Ipswich Industrial Co-opera- tive Society. The fanlight over the entrance door was smashed with a stone, fragments of glass removed, and the premises thus entered. The tills had fortunately been nearly cleared the night before but aboui Y.3 was stolen, together with a quantity of tobacco, eighty yards of linen, some women's c.othing, a dozeo pairs of gloves, and other small articles.

I THE SUEVIC IN DOCK. The salved portion of the once magnificent White Star liner Suevic which was blown in two with dynamite after being wrecked on the Lizard rocks, made a strange sight as it was towed by tugs into the Southampton docks. A large number of spectators watched the operation of hauling the vessel stern foremost iuto the confluence of the rivers Itchin and Test. For the sake of safety the Suevic was kept outside the port during the night, after having taken fifty hours to accomplish a journey of 170 miles. The twisted mass of iron plates and refriger- ating pipes stood out from behind the funnel hatchways, and only the stout iron columns supporting the decks were in proper position. In the course of an interview, Captain Murray, the commander of the vessel, said a heavy sea was running and a stiff breeze blowing from the south-west when the Suevic was towed off the Lizard. As the vessel passed the Isle of Wight the boisterous weather had abated, and speed was slackened and so regulated as to enable the ship to ar- rive at the Nab Lightship by dawn. The voyage was as pleasant as could be in the circumstances. Captain McClellan, of the Liverpool Tug Company, stated that the task of salvage was the largest of the kind that had ever been attempted. The divers laboured under the great disadvantage of the vessel's being loaded. One of them, J. Citrine, said: "We worked at a depth of 40ft., and stood on two other wreckfe while we were working. As I fast as —o blasted holes in the Suevic car- easas oi fciii~ep fell on us, and what with that cind the heavy swell forcing us into the holes we had an unpleasant time. There was, too, a risk of our air apparatus being severed." Tiie divers were frequently washed some distance away from the vessel and badly bruised and cut by being dashed against the pinnacled rocks. Seventeen hundred tons of cargo will be discharged by the Suevic at Southampton, and after the vessel is surveyed the question I whether the work of repairing will be done at Belfast or at Southampton will be settled. Lord Pirrie, the chairman of Messrs. Har- land and Wolff, was on the quay and had a conference with the manager of the Ameri- can Line and Captain Murray on the subject.

I TEACHER BURNED TO DEATH Singular evidence was given at an inquest at Birmingham, relative to the death of Lydia Thomas, school teacher, who was found on fire. A butcher, named Brown, who extinguished the flames, said the girl shouted when he wrapped her in a rug, "Take it away you fool; let it burn." He found the basin containing paraffin, and her corsets, boots, and stockings were soaked with it. He believed she poured oil over her- j self, and then set fire to it. The girl's mother said her daughter was anxious 'to go to Canada, but she persuaded her against going, telling her she could get a living in England, and that people who left England for Canada, Africa, and other countries were looked upon more or less as social outcasts, and as the refuse of England. She advised her to get a situation as clerk. She believed her daughter accidentally spilled the oil over her clothing, and being near the fire it ignited. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death." ———————————————————