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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1885-11-13, Page 3AN EGYPTIAN ROMANCE A Story of Love and Wild Adventure, founded -upon Startling Revell - tions in,the Career of Arabi Pasha, By the Author of " NINA, TIIE CH.PTER I. NIHILIST," " THE RED SPIDER," " THE RUSSIAN SPY,' ETD,, ETC. • GRAND CAIRO—TIIE CIIOUIIRAH ROAD AT SUN- SET. It is the celebrated Choubrah Road of Grand Cairo, the favorite European ride, drive and promenade in the cool of the eve- ning, which h already here, for the great .golden sun of Egypt is fast sinking below the neighboring desert sands, enorimsoning a heaven that crim•one again the bouu1lesa plain of burning Baud till it looks like a vast lake of blood, with Sphinx and Pyramids rieiag like the grotesque thapod rooky ielete from out its mldet. They, too, are bathed in the same fierce, ensanguined glow, which, sh,oting athwart the entire exanpee of pale ultramarine sky, like the streamers, reddens even the crumb- ling walls of the citadel and steeps in a rosy bluah the alabaster dome and heaven -inspir- ing minarets of the Mosque of Mehemet Ali. But the Choubrah Road, bordered and in places almost overarched by its broad leafed syoamore and magnificent laroh trees, is pleasant and agreeable, gay and animated, a nineteenth century fragment of Europe plumped down is the midst of a laud that seems to have remained stationary ever since those long peat ages when the little ark of the outcast Hebrew infant and the golden barge of the gorgeous daughter of the Ptol- emies gloated over the lotus and lily stud- ded river, whose yellow waters are now plowed by many a steam launch under the euphonious name of dahabeeyah, and re-echo Instead of the plash and clangor of Pharaoh's war timbre's, the last catching opera boufle or blatant music hall air, as bored on the flute or blared on tho cornet by some avorego sample of American or British tourists But, thanks be, there are few of this class of gentry on the Choubrah Road the even- ing in which our tale opens, but the most showy turnouts that Paris or London can supply are there, as well as ladies and gentle. men mounted and attired as they would be in Central Park, the course at Longohampa, or London Rotten Row, and neither is mueio wanting to enliven the scene, for almost within sound of the muezzins' voices, as !rem every minaret top of the adjacent city they throw out their arms toward the set- ting sun and chant in sonorous tones, "God is great, and prayer is better than sleep 1'' a brass band is playing selections fropr ""pfu. afore" and "Les Menteaux No;: " Yet the scene is not all European, for it would be impossible to plant London or New York beside Grand Cairo without the pop- ulation of the one overflowing occasionally into the other, and thus it is that along with European carriages and horses, ladies and gentlemen, grooms clad in 'showy liveries and of course, better mounted than their masters or mistreseoe. we behold also the' swarthy Egyptian officer l in his dark blue uniform and red tarbouch, taking an airing on his thoroughbred Arab stallion, for well he loves to look upon the unve led women of the west, with every now and then some "Light of the Harem," mounted on a paint- ed Cairene ane, which is led by an armed eu- nuch, who (a perfect study in black and white) scowls savagely at any Feringhee who dares to gaze too fixedly at his mistress, albeit that there is nothing to be seen of her e ,ve a shroudlike mass of drapery and a pair of lustrous eyes, that gloom like stare through the elite of her yaehmack, Then, too, there is the wandering Bedouin, with a turban as big as a pumpkin and a pear of prodigious length, who is mounted on a great gaunt camel and is making his way desertwerd with what speed ho may through the fashionable crowd, cursing them all under his beard, as neclean dogs and un- believere, and frequently muttering some such pious wish as that "jackasses may de• fi'c the graves of their burnt fathers," for the amiable Bedouin has boon stifling in the close city all day, and even the gay Italian :llae, each standing in its own grounde, t eat still border the island on either side, tem to him like prison walls. He pants to mach the boundless sands and freedom. Here and there also aro a few scantily clad Fellahcen, the peasantry of the land, a peasantry who are always working and yet ever on the brink of starvation, by reaeone that three-fourths of their earnings are ground out cf them by iniquitous taxes for the building of palaces and the feting of strangers. They have to help pay, too, for the, construction and maintenance of that i-. drou ship canal, connecting two seas, 1. oda has given to France glory, to England calth, and to poor Egypt eimply a debt which will weigh her down for generations yet untold. CHAPTER II ItOMANTIC I ESOUE—THE MYSTERIOUS EMT- ' DEAUTX. On the Choubrah road at the rosy euneet hour there is no time for further moralizing, and here comes one who deprives us of all desire to do so, She is a most beautiful girl of some eigh- teen years of age, and she is driving a pair .of cream colored ponies in an elegant little phaeton that is shaped almost like a shell. She manages her whip and ribbons very prettily with the tiniest of hands, that are -^aced in dainty buff gauntlet gloves, and ehe is dressed in the very height of Parisian -fashion. Surely that peerless girl, with her spiritu- elle violet eyoe, golden hair, porcelain puro complexion and sweet, swaying form, will not be allowed to run the gauntlet of so many eligtblo cavaliers without a single challenge. Nor is she', tor presently a "tall, manly looking,' curly haired and laughing Dyed young follow, who sits his horse as though be and the animal wore one, curvets toward the elegant little equipage, and as ho get§ into elese proximity thereto, lifts his hat and exclaims in accents of evident delight : "I felt sure it was you when you wore ever so far off, When did you return to Cairo l" ' Last night. And you ? Yon have been away also, have you not?" "I went 'limply because you went Day- light cannot long linger when once its mis- tress, tee nun, has dieappearcd, So, not knowing how to kill time, and having no do - sire that time should kill me, I went up the Nile with half a dozen friends, and we en- joyed ourselves immensely." "What, without me ? Are nou aware that the conclusion of your epeooh has com- pletely spoiled the effect of its commence- ment? In the beginning you declare that my absence has almost killed you, and the result ie that you go away and enjoy your- self Immensely." "Oh, I meant to have said that the other fellows enjoyed themselves immensely. If you Met me be your o'larioteer, Nellie, I'll tell you all about the affair and send Simeon b ick with my groom. You don't want to fin'sh your drive this early?" "I am not very particular, and I don't think wean -me will squid much if I don't re- turn for another half hour, Anyhow, in con- sideration of our no; having met for five weeks, I ll take a turn down the road .with you and chance it," The reeult of this `chancing it" was that Captain D molly called up his groom, Pat Monaghan, dismounted, threw him the bridle, ordered him to be sure to take the horse in cool, en 1 then entering the little phaeton he relieved the fair charioteer of the white enameled reins, wheeled the ponies sharply roun t, and after a flint show of re- bellion on their part, made them trot back ori their tracks. "Well. Frank, I wonder what brought us back to Cairo almost together ?" "1:11 tell you what brought me back, Nellie It was the conviction that you would return for the fete at the Gezirah Pal• ace to-cnorrow night, It will be a grand affair. Three thousand guests are invited, and it will be gotten up regardless of coat," "Then I've a great mind not to go, for the immense amount of money that is to bo wasted thereon, will be first wrung from the wretched peasantry, who are the only work- ing class of the ent re community, and whose honey is stolen from them as fast as they can accumulate it by their idle and cruel rulers, who leave them only the wax." "The shucks, you mean. Well, perhaps so ; but anyhow they grin and bear it re- markably well, which is more than I should do your absenting yourself from the fete, Oh, you must promise you will go. I,ahall not let you alight until you do." "''hemse for my ponies' sako, I will give you the promise—there;" "In the name of the ponies and my own as well, I thank you. And now tell me for how long a time have you been studying Egyp- tian political economy ?' "I have given a few stray thoughts to the subj ^ot ever since I made a ,delightful ao- quatntanoe at Alexandria in"Arabi'• Pasha, the war minister." "Whew 1 His is a name offensive to Eu- ropean noatrila just at present. Why, Nel- lie dear, he is a dark schemer, a reckless adventurer, an unsornpulous soldier of for- tune." "My opinion of him is that he is a man in a thousand, a true patriot, if ever there was ono, the sole living Egypt'an whose heart bleeds for the degradation of his coun- try and the misery of its people, and who would will'ngly die to exalt both or either.' "Yon little rebel," laughed the yqung,of-. ficer. "You will make me jealous before long if you rattle on at that rate. But I'll tell you what, Nell, I don't feel at all up to discussing politics with you, of all folks in the world. I'd much.sooner talk about to- morrow. You'll go to this fete of the Khe- dive's and you'll dance the firet round dance with me. Come, that all settled, is it not, dear ?" "Why, yoe, if you will have it so. But isn't it, a shame, Frank, yes,- a burning shame I call it, that whilst the Kedive and all his officers of etate dance with us Euro- pean girls and enjoy it so that they keep their wives, sisters and daughters and—and —and in short, the whole of their woman- kind looked up•in what can -only be called prisons, where •they can see nothing of what's going on or enjoy themselves in the least ?" "It is the custom of the country, and all countries have some absurd customs, you know." "Then why don't the men observe the cuatoms of this especial country as well as make their women do so ? I'm sure an Egyp- tian looks as much out of place in a round dance as one of their Nile crocodiles could do. And if they drank sherbet instead of champagne they'd be a deal more closely fol- lowing the laws of their prophet. Oh, dear, what it is to belong to the weaker sox 1 Do you think their w(ark en cap be so very love- ly ? They never give us Feringhee girls a chance of judging, for in the street they look like bales of merchandise. Mamma, who has been inside a harem, was only received by the older ladies, whose charms had al- together flown." "I should say that none of the younger ones would compare in beauty with you, Nellie." "Oh, I might have known that you would have made some such reply, though I don't believe that you have ever seen one, and so can be in no position to judge." "Then permit me to inform you, Miss Nell, that not only have I seen one, but that not a fortnight ago I hold what I should take to be a very favorable bpecimon of the genus in my arms, who was clad in nothing .more shape -destroying or beanty.00ncealing . than one of those scant bathing costumes that ate in common use at Crouvillo or Biar- ritz. It was a wonder that the black rascal who was in charge of her didn't slice my head open with his scimitar, for so it was his duty to serve any ono who gazed on his mistrees unveiled." ° "I don't fcl at all sure that it wouldn't have served you right if ho had," "He'd have used his soimitar and his ails ver inlaid pistols as well to bettor purpose if he had attacked with them the or000dile that was on the point of making tho pretty bather its prey. Had he done so I might not have interfered, but en it was I threw Mohammedan etiquette to the winds, by flint shooting the crocodile from the bank with my rifle and thea plunging into the river to preserve from drowning the woman whom its advance had frightened out of her depth into doop water. I,saved her, carried her beak to her dahabeeyah, and deposited her therein, and then waded and swam ashore as best I could with my water -satu- rated elothcs on and a current running at the rate of very nearly four miles an hour." "Well, all things considered, you did not deserve to have your head sliced off. I'm very glad you saved the poor thing. And so she was not so very, very beautiful ?" "Certainly not. She had the most splen- didly lustrous eyes, magnificent hair and a most perfect form, but though her features were also good in the main, herlipe are like those that we atm in the pictures of Pharaoh's daughter, and to an exaggerated extent in the Sphinx, and they aro certainly the re- verse of lovely to European taste.' "Yet they mark her as being a real Egyp- tian, and one of pure blood and ancient lineage." "Such is my impression, and I should say that she was the wile, sister or daughter of some very great man. for her dahabeeyah was also a magnificent one, and her eunuch - was most gorgeously attired, whilst she her- self wore on neck, wrists, ankles and arms almost sufficient of golden ornaments to have sunk her with their weight even had she been able to swim," "I declare, Frank, I think I have as much reason to be jealous of your interest- ing bather as you have to be of my war min- ister. Pray, how did she thank you 7' "She pressed my hand, and then slipped on to my little finger this ring, which she took from off her thumb She accompanied the gift with these eoftly murmured words in broken yet perfectly intelligible French, 'Tia the jewel of the month, eo wear it ever, and be sure that as long as you do so during this month of the year, death nor misfortune will ever find you.' Then she looked me full in the face with a world of sentiment in her dark, lustrous orbs, and added in still lower tones, `Answer the summons of the lotue flower,' and immediately drawing the curtains that surrounded the little cabin of the dahabeeyah, I caw her no more." "A very pretty adventure, I declare; but what did she mean by the summons of the lotus flower ?" "I'm sure I cannot say. Some mere flower of speech, I should imagine, Nellie." "If I were at all jealous or suspicious I should feel positive that it bore reference to some future meeting that she intended to have with you. However, I poseesa neither feeling, so let mo have a nearer look at the ring which she gave you," "Frank Donelly passed the whip into his rein hand, and his hastily drawn off glove along, and hell up the other for his compan- ion's close inspection." No sooner did Nellie's gvze alight on the gem, however, than she exclaimed : "Oh, it's a fire opal, and it glare'f`like a con- flagration. Why, Frank, it is the most un- lucky stone that one person can possibly give unto another." As Nellie Tregarr uttered the words, still holding Frank Donelly's hand in hers (in- deed she was unable to let it go, so great was her horror) she happened to look up and round, and was instantly fascinated by the glance of two eyes that were fixed upon her from within a rapidly passing carriage, and whose expression filled her with more unaccountable dread than even the opal ring had done. "Frank," said she, hastily dropping his h-nd, "who was inside that carriage?" "What carriage 1 The Kttedival affair that just flashed past us, do you mean ? I declare, I never noticed. Not your war minieter, you may be quite sure of that, Nellie " "War minister ? Who is thinking of such nonsense ? It wee t ao yashmacked women who worn inside, and one had the most beautiful eyes, but they glared on me like those of a fury.' Frank Donelly looked around on hearing this, and beheld the huge face of a Nubian negro, with a scarlet and white turban stuck sideways on the top thereof, and a hi: eous grin on his thick blubber lips, stare ing back at him across tho top of the heavy, cumbrous vehicle which they had just en- countered. "Confound it," ho ejaculated, "that fel- low perched beside the driver on the box is the very eunuch who had charge of the bathing lady whom 1 saved from tho croco- dile." "Then it was your bathing lady who glared at me through the eyelet holes in her veil as though she would like to kill me. Frank, her fierce, vengeful eyes and that ring together have given me such a turn, And see how dark it has suddenly grown. It is like an ill-omened something suddenly overshadowing our young lives. It may be foolish of m© to think so, but I can't help It. Oh, do lot us turn around and drive home." "By all moans, if you desire it, darling; but pray, how long have you been so super- stitious 1" "I don't know, not for long, I think, but this strange, mysterious land forces me into weird strains of thought that are even op- poeed to one's common sense. Frank, I have never doubted your affection or your con- stancy, and yet do let me hear you say that you will never in the future love any ono else as well as you now love me." "If I so far humor you, you will bo quite sure to go to the palace fete to -morrow ?" "Quite sure ; in fact, I would not miss going there now on any account." "Teen, Nellie, may I die a death of ehamo if I even learn to love any ono else a quarter so much as I now love you," and ho raised her gloved hand to his lips and kissed it. Lot us picture the.remainder of the home- ward drive, and the tender leave taking of its termination, a beautifulltalian villa call- ed Mount Carmol, the abode of the rich English countess, whose only child our pret- ty heroine is ; nftorwards accompanying in imagination the young Irish dragoon guards- man (who is wintering in Egypt for his health's sake) in his solitary walk back to his quarters at the world -famed Shepherd's Hotel. CHAPTER III. THE ILLIIMINATED FETE AT THE PALACE. Pass we over an uninteresting twenty- eight hours, and then change we the soeno to the illuminated palace of Gezirah, on the opposite bank of the Nile, a vast Setaoenio structure standing in the midst of many sores of park and shrubbery seed beautifully laid out gardens, in which a fete ie being given by the Khedive on the mere occasion of his birthday. Out of the three thousand ;guests who have been invited, there are at least two thousand five hundred preeent, the hundreds being represented by the fete -giver's fellow countrymen, and tho thousands being drawn from the most influential and opulent of the Christian population, who, of late years, have made the land of the Pharaohs their home, and who, the Khedive knows hill well, are the sole supporters of his throne. The gardens are adorned with a thousand flower beds, whose shrubs are the myrtle and the minora, wl h orange, lemon and citron trees showing the blossom, the green fruit and the ripe, at one and the same time, whilst high above them all the feathery forms of the palm, the dusky foliage of the olive, and the broad waxen leaves of the fig wave in the gentle breeze that comae laden with the hot air from the dietant desert. Here and there, too, are perfect groves of roses, whose fragrance is almost overpower- ing, and in and out through flower beds and emerald leaves, like silvery scaled serpents gliding in all directions, trickle rills of bub- bling water in tiny terra cotta canals, for flowers, grass and shrubs aro ever thirsty in such a clone, and would soon fade and per- ish but for this tribute drawn from the neighboring Nile. Nor without it would even the leaves of the tall trees be so green, or the gaily plumaged birds warble so blithely in their branches, thinking that another day has dawned before its time, and little wonder, for the outlines of every bed and path are traced with little, colored imps, and thou- sands of gaudy Chinese, lanterns hang like Brobdignangian fruit amidst tree and shrub, whilst every fountain (and there are many score) tosses high in air water of the most brilliant and ever changing colors, But let us quit this scene of fairyland nn - til the fairies arrive to people it, end enter- ing the palace, take up our position unseen in the gorgeous Hall of a Hundred Mirrors, from whose azure -domed roof a thousand stars of glass gleam down on an assemblage that is well worth contemplating. The superb band of the Khedive's favorite regiment of zouave uniformed lancers is dis- coursing the most modern dance mueio in a shell -shaped gallery, which is entirely coat- ed with mother of pearl, and in the vast spade beneath, the Khedive's guests are al- ready nearly all assembled. Seventeen out of the twenty foreign connuis, each of whom brings his own laws to Egypt, and it sista that his countrymen shall be amenable to no other, are there with their wives and fami- lies, a swarm of locusts that certainly form one of the seven plagues of modern Egypt ; but they by no means exclude the other six, who are also present in full force, oomprie- ing men who have grown fat on the spoiling of the Egyptians, and whom one can only feel half inclined to forgive, because so much of the loot has gone toward enhancing the charms of their comely wives and pretty daughters. Nellie Tregarr is there, looking as beauti- ful as a Peri, but not quite so happy as one, for she is under her mother's wing, and her mother is eseentialiy worldly. Like many mothers, so she has a pet aver- sion for the man whom her daughter loves better than all others, and in heart (and herein we hope that chs is unlike tho majori- ty of mothers) would rather see her fair child even the fourth wife of a rich Egyp- tian or Turkish pasha than married to a pen- niless Irish dragoon. "But Frank is not penniless and he has, besides, groat expectations," Nellie had pleaded as they were crossing the Nile by the especial pontoon bridge that spanned it for the occasion, on their way to the palace. "Yes, mamma, he has very large expecta- tions." "I never knew an Irishman who had not, my dear, and expectations they in general remain to the end of the chapter. But as to Captain Donelly, I have objections to him . on other grounds, for he is volatile to a fault, extravagant, reckless, and in addition that most detcettbl thing, a male flirt," "Oh, mammal) I am sure that his worst enemies cannot say that of him." "Then I will Bay it for them, my dear. I'm sure that ofttimes his attentions to me have been of a roost devoted nature, yet no sooner have you come up to us than he has transferred thein to yon as lightly and easi- ly as he could change his gloves." "But, mamma, dear, he was only atten- tive to you because you were my mother." "Nellie, I'm really surprised at your self- conceit, I'm sure I'm still a very presentable woman, and therefore it is by no means a necessity that a gentleman should pay atten- tion to mo merely for my daughter's sake. I've known queens of sooiety at sixty, and how a man of taste and discernment can suffer his attention to be lightly diverted from the conversation of a cultured woman to the commonplace inanities of a mere girl is more than I can comprehend, No, Nellie, I have a very poor opinion of Captain Don- elly, and I fear with grave reason," (TO BE CONTINUED.) The Canadian Yrtci3io. A few more miles of track -laying and the Canadian Pacific Railway will be complet- ed. In a few days the iron band will unite the oast with the west, British Columbia will be only a few hours' from. Nova Scotia. As a triumph of engineering skill our great trans -continental line stands unrivalled in the annals of railway building. Tho history of the work from its inception to its grand con- summation will bo interesting and instructive reading when it is written by the unprejud- diced historian. In the prosecution of such a work, involving, as it has, millions of money it would be scarooly possible to carry it through without some attempt at jobbery. The building of the Canadian Pacific Rail- way, has boon carried forward by the Com- pany with commendable energy, and if thoy have succeeded in getting a big price for thoir work they should bo allowed to enjoy the benefits of their good bargain. What is matter for sincere rot ret, however, is the exceeding sparseness of the population along the line of the railway in the Northwest. Before the concern can ever pay a dividend the number of settlers will have to increase millions, At present, scattered through a thousand miles of the territory through which the lino pence, there are little over 200,000 people, whilst the resouroes of this vast region lie practically undeveloped, But the oompletion of the road will increase the tide of immigration in that direotion, and villages, towns and cities will multi- ply until Manitoba and the North west will be peopled by the millions for which there is ample room. The Principles of Color. BY W. A. SHERWOOD. There is no element in nature more wide- ly diffused, or more infinitely developed, than the element of color. Look around you everywhere and it abounds. It, indeed, is the medium through which we look and see, for the sunlight itself 11 a component of the • three primary colors. Of thio foot we are every day convinced. The three prim- ary colors are, viz,, Red, Blue and Yellow, and these, by their -various combinations, produce what are termed secondary colors, and the secondary colors, by a union of any two, produce a Tertiary. Red and Blue of the primary will give yon Purple, a seoon• dary ; Blue and Ye' low, Green ; Yellow and Red, Orange. The range or scale from light to shade must mere or less be appar- ent to all. Take Red, for example, follow it through in all its varieties from pale pink to deep crimson ; to what an infinite degree may not its range runyet, preserving all its primary characteristics, for the red of the pink is equal to the red of the crimson ; the presence of the lighter or deeper tons in no- wise affecting the primary. And the law that governs the one governs all colors. The scale of tonee iu Yellow ie apparent to every lover of flowers. You know how pale the the Primrose is, and how deep and rich the yel kw of the " M+reechal Neil " Rose, yet since that degree of depth does neither add nor detract from the primary, they both are equally yellow. There are many flowers, the Tulip for example, that will illustrate this truth. Indeed almost every flower is in it- self an excellent illustration, the more se- cluded parte being invariably darker than the outer portions. The terms we use to ex- press these varied hues do not leesen the fact of their being but one in color. Of Blue —we know the pale hues of the little " For get mo not" and the deep hues of the Con- volvolus, and both are equally blue. Thusto know and understand the first principles of color is to know and understand the whole range, whatever variety it mayaseume, Alittle ob servation will well repay, the time spent in the pursuit of thio most charming study, and oan there be any study more beneficial in all of nature's schools than the study of the beautiful as exhibited in the principles of color ? We all nave our favorite color in nature—it may be assooiated with a tree or a flows', a mountain or a lake. It may be at the rising or the setting of the com— fier both are beautiful. And when nature exhibits onr favorite oolor, it is then we admire her most. ITEMS OF INTEREST. Eggs sell in Panama for 30 cents apiece. The shamrock is growing scarce in Ire- land. Complaint is made that nothing fit to eat can be had in Quba. Trained seals in Paris lie on their backs and smoke a pipe. Homer, a plane in Georgia, hasn't had a death in three years. Narrow streets are said to be promotive of murder in Baltimore. The cultivation of the bamboo hap proved quite successful in Collier sin. Tho largest, fortunes accumulated in Ire- land have been made in the liquor business, The London Truth tells of a dog that lona all desire to get out of a Sunday after being shown a prayer book. Charles NII„ of Sweden was killed at36, after having epent eighteen years in com- mand of his army. A Cincinnati husband who threatened to cut bis wife's heart out and carry it around on a shingle got off with a find of $5. A echeme is afoot in France to convert Paris into a seaport town. It is proposed to build a ship canal from the seacoast to the capital. The oak tree planted by Lerd Byron at Newstead Abbey is large and flourishing, although the alder on which he out the names "Byron and Augusta" long since died. The largest apothecary's establishment is said to be that of Waldemar Ferrain of Mosoow, in which 800 laboratory and other assistants aro employed, and over 1,000 pre- ser►ptions are dispensed daily. The same flag was used at Vallejo, 'Cal,, during the celebration of the repent Ad- mission Day anniversary that was flung to the breeze when the news of the admission of California as a State was received thirty- five hirtyfive years ago. , In several villages of the Viatki province, in Russia, the peasants manufacturewooden watches, which work steadily, though they do not keep very accurate time ; all the parts of the watch are of wood, exoept the axles, which are of horn. Lieutenant Schwatka and Engineer Mel- ville aro again laying their plans to find the north polo, 11 would be easier for them and less expensive to go to bed and blow the gas out, "If tobacco is an evil," observes the De- troitlree Press, "why does Providence per- mit such thumping big crops?" Providence, we believe, is not responsible for the manu- facture of cabbage leaves into Havana to- bacco. The old-fashioned spinning wheel was introduced a short time ago into the Isle of Man Insane Asylum with the idea of amusing the patients. Tho latter seemed delighted that they could inbhls way con- tribute to their support, and became so absorbed in their new oconpation that their nervous symptoms no longer pre- dominated. As Dr. R'.chardson,themed- ical superintendent expressed it, the di- rection of the nervone force was changed, and their condition was improved. The oxperimentls to be tried in other asylum*