HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1888-02-10, Page 2THE WEEK'S NEWS.
CANADIAN,
The jury in the inquest on the body of
Robs, Or►ne, of London Township, came to
the couolusion that the fatalshot was fired
by the deceased's own hand, either acoiden•
tally or intentionally.
In oonaequence of the successful ocmbine-
tion of squatters. on Manitoba school lands.
tQ prevent fair prices being realized at the
recent, sales, the Government threatens to
pass a bill next session to enable them to
dispose of the lands by private sale.
Canadian interest in the new Sault Ste.
Marie bridge is the greater owing to the
circumstance that the chief engineer of the
work is a Canadian, Mr. P. A. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson had also the honour of being
the chief engineer of the Sb. Lawrence
bridge at Lachine.
Tne Tiverton correspondent of The Kin-
cardine Review referring to the death of
Mr. Hugh Lemont, who was suffocated by
escaping gas at the house of Mr. D. P.
McLaurin, of Toronto, says :—The deaths
that have occurred in that family have been
peculiarly sad and tragic. One brother
was drowned, another murdered in Michi-
gan, and Hugh suffocated in hie bed by
escaping gas.
A rich fled of gold -bearing rook is re-
ported from a new opening in the Richard-
son Hill, Madoo, It is supposed that a
gold -bearing lode, which has many times
been unsuccessfully sought, has at Last been
struck at a depth of only 14 feet. Mr. J. B.
Church and another resident of Madoo are
operating the mine. The find was made by
Mr. Mark Powell, who first discovered
gold in North Hastings on the same hill.
The death of Big Bear removes a pro.
minent figure in the North-West rebellion.
This Indian was the head of the band that
perpetrated the Frog Lake outrages ;
but he escaped punishment other than
imprisonment owing to the discovery that
he had not acted as chief during the troubles.
Big Bear's son usurped the father's position
and practically controlled the actions of the
band. Big Bear, whatever his faults dur-
ing his lifetime, is now a dead and there-
fore a good Indian.
Governor Dewdney, at a banquet given
in his honour at Calgary the other day,
gave some interesting statistics regarding
the North-West. He says the Territory
has now four members of Parliament, four-
teen representative local legislators, 238
tustiees of the peace, 59 issuers of marriage
icenses, 58 advocates, 29 doctors, 136 post -
offices, five Supreme court judges, five regis-
trars, two daily papers, 133 school's, and a
population not yet reaching thirty thou-
sand. For the population the country is
well officered.
Saturday is a great day for petty smug-
gling from Detroit, whence so many people
from the country cross over on the ferries
and purchase goods in the city. Saturday
last, Landing Waiter Beers followed from
the dock a couple of women, whom he sus-
Teoted of having smuggled goods about them.
hey entered a livery stable, made their
way to the office, all unsuspioious that they
were being watched, where they put their
parcels into a market basket and started
for their carriage. At the door of the office
they -real into, the arms of the official, who
• - in the Larne orthe Queen took the basket,
goodsand all and carried them into the
Custom -house. The women were very angry,
but the official was inexorable and the goods
were confiscated.
321 totally incompetent, Every day they
were thus engaged an explosion was liable
to occur.
The people of Buffalo offer $100,000 for
sueoossful plan for utilizing Niagara Falls.
A great many haokmen have discovered how
to utilize the Falls without offering any auoh
big prize.
A Michigan boy, in a spirit of fun, tied.
little socks on his dog's feet one cold day re-
cently. The dog was delighted and now
refuses to go outwithout them when the
weather is gold,
The Kentuoky Legislature has empower,
ed the deacons of the Methodist Church to
elect ushers upon whom shall bo conferred
fllu police authority to maintain order dur-
ing the services.
There is a thrifty woman living at Briar
Creek, N. Y. Not long ago her husband
died, and she took the headstone from his
first wife's grave and had it dressed over
and relettered for bis grave.
A Main man who owns a big and shaggy
and blank Newfoundland dog out off the
dog's hair carefully, had it oarded and spun,
and got two and a quarter pounds of jet•
black yarn as soft as lamb's wool.
A young man was found frozen to death
in a Michigan forest a few days ago. Leap
year is getting in its work promptly. Stand
to the rack, young hien. Only a dunce
would take to the woods in mid -winter.
A revised list of the fatalities by last
week's blizzard in the North-Western States
shows a total of 135 deaths and 55 reported
missing. Dakota is the heaviest sufferer, 98
of the total number of deaths having occur-
red in that. Territory.
Mr. ;Wanamaker, . of Philadelphia, has
quietly solved the problem of cheap homes
for his workingwomen. For $3.25 a Week
they get board, lodging, washing of a dozen
pieces and the use of bath room, reception
and dancing rooms, and bowling -alleys.
Fall Book, Cal., is a prohibition town and
all deeds to town lots forever forbid the sale
of liquors. A company is now building a
hotel there to cost about $20,000 tobe named
the Frances E. Willard. This will be a
prohibition house and no wines will be
allowed in it.
A Missouri man says that he recently
went into the woods, painted a black circle
on the end of a log, and when he went back
to the log an hour later he found 300 dead
rabbits there, the animals having mistaken
the circle for a hole in the log and dashed
themselves to death against it.
The fire marshal of a Western city want-
ed an axe, costing about $1. His communi-
cations to the Council concerning the mat-
ter were printed in the official paper, and a
curious person found that the printing of
his communications concerning the axe
amounted to $6.80 before he got it.
The saddest phase of the Central Bank
failure is the number of widows and orphaned
families that it impoverishes. Bank shares
have been too generally considered a secure
and paying investment for trust moneys.
Heavy interest and a sense of dignity that
partial ownership of a bank promises to the
shareholder probably encouraged the small
capitalists who placed their all in Central
stock. Their experience will make invest-
ments in any but the beat bank shares un-
popular for years. There is a prevailing im-
pression that the Dominion law provides ab-
solutely no machinery to protect the people
from the incompetence or dishonesty of bank
directors. If they are all able and honest
the report the act requires and from which
the public learns all it can know of a solvent
bank is true. If they are not it is false and
leads to ruin innocent depositors and share-
holders that any searching inspection would
save.—[Ex.
man fainting, and eight persona were melt-
ed to death.
At a war council in Warsaw, Gen. Goer.
Ito said 20,000,000 roubles would be requir-
ed to complete the fortifications on the Rus -
mien frontier.
A bill for the government of London has
been drafted and will probably be brought
in early in the approaching session of the
Imperial Parliament.
A Greek named Dimitrius Antippa has
just died in Constantiuople at the age of
115. He knew Robespierre and possessed
several of his letters.
The police authorities say Mr. Balfour
is in constant danger of assassination, and
that his life has been preserved so far only
by ceaseless vigilance.
A German paper makes thestatement that
Germany could again overrun France within
a year, and that next time the whole of
France will be annexed.
Paris boasts of 10,000 cabs, 600 omnibuses
and 500 tram -cars. The omnibus company
possesses 14,000 horses. , The length of the
tramway line is over 150 mileo.
A Frenchman was recently granted a di-
vorce by a Paris judge on the sole ground
that his wife would not allow him to read
all the letters she wrote and received.
The English Divorce Court has decided
that an American divorce holds good in
England when the divorced persons were
married in America and lived together there.
Ismail Paoha, the ex -Khedive, left Naples
and went to Constantinople to live because
he was unable to keep the young men of
Naples from making love to the members
of his harem.
A cablegram says the Duke of Cambridge
hopes the people of England will insist on
the country's commerce being adequately
proteoted, that being the surest guarantee
against war and panic,•
Rev. J. P. Moore, a missionary, writes
from Japan that if missionaries attempt to
be economical they can have very little in-
fluence. If they do not live in good style
the people despise them.
The Emir of Afghanistan has fallen in
love with bagpipes and has ordered 200 of
them for Cabul. The Shah of Persia has
also ordered a brass band. Thus music
soothes tt;e savage breast.
It is stated efforts are being made to ar-
range a meeting between Mr. Gladstone
and Prince Bismarck to convince the ex -
Premier that Eagland's beat policy is to ad-
here to the central powers.
Probably one of the oldestmeeting•houses
in the world is the Bangund church in Nor-
way, the age of which is 800 years. The
pagoda-likeetructure is coveredwith shingles
and an inch or two of tar. Runic inscrip-
tions interesting to scholars are on the build-
ing.
A women has been elected president of a
street railway company in Dover, N, H.,
while her husband is given the modest
position of treasurer. Perhaps ladies i iding
in those cars will be required to stand up
and give the men their seats. Man in that
vicinity appears to be the weaker vessel.
Among the passengers by the Britannia,
which arrived in New York a few days ago
from the Mediterranean, were several young
girls who said they had come to America
tp marry men whom they had never seen.
The intended bridegrooms failed to meet
them, and the girls were detained at Castle
Garden.
Opporents of Government ownership of
telegraph lines in the United 'States are call-
ing attention to the recent boycott of the
Commercial Cable Company by the German
Goverhment. Operators in Germany have
been instructed to refuse despatches offered
for the lines of that company, and, as they
are all Governmonttofiicials, they must obey.
The incident is cited as an illustration of
the power which control of telegraphic corn-
munication gives a government.
The steel gun cast the other day at
Pittsburgh, when it is bored and ready for
mounting, will weigh 51i tons, and will be
the largest steel gun ever made in one cast-
ing. It will toss its projectile with a speed
of 2,000 feet a second, the pressure in the
chamber being fifteen tons. Its cost to the
United States Government will be about
$3,300. Abuilt-up gun of the same size, or
one not made by a single casting, would cost
$22,( 00. In view of this fact, the success
of the experiment is considered one of the
most important recent achievements in gun -
making.
FOREIGN.
The Bank of England . has reduced its
rate of discount from 4 to 4 per cent.
The French Court of Appeal has decided
that priests in France may get married.
S. R. MacLeod, hosiery manufacturer, of
Glasgow, has failed with liabilities of $200,-
000.
Joseph Chamberlain Bays that as a race
we shall be longer lived when we take more
leisure.
UNITED STATES NEWS.
The sugar trust in the States has closed
up four refineries,
Barnum has made an offer for the steam-
ship Great Eastern.
Georgia farms are mortgaged for $8,000,-
000 of foreign capital.
Real estate valued at $100,000,000 chang-
ed hands in New York city during the year
1887.
It will take £10,000 to break up the
Great'Eastern, which was recently sold for
£16,000.
Twenty-six persons are confined in the
Fort Smith, Ark., jail on the charge of
murder.
qIt is "expected. that the new German Mili,
tary bill will involve an expediture of 243,-
000,000 marks.
A football player of Abercarne was re-
cently struok in; the abdomen by the ball'
and died instantly.
Leprosy, is said to be afflicting many
Scandinavian immigrants in northern Min-
nesota and Dakota.
Ati Ohio man who sent $2 to a Now York
advertiser for a reliable method of reducing
gas bills, was told to burn oil.
The City of Washington is said to have
the largest underground main sewer in the
world—twenty-two feet in diameter.
The State of New York expended nearly
$14,000,000 in 1887 for Common schools.
Of that amount nearly $9,000,000 was teach-
ers' wages.
A Georgia farmer's horse reoontly swal-
lowed $425 in greenbacks, The farmer
now watches his horse as though he were
a savings bank.
Iowa, after twenty-two years of the abet.
;tion of the gallows, returns to it with vig-
or and hearty enjoyment. One or two
other States have had a similar experience.
A Chicago bootblack has a box, the sides
of which aro ornamented with $5 gold pieces,
bowl
offered, $35 for it, butcth thinks ito isos worth
snore.
Of the 1000 men who were running engines
in Brooklyn last year en investigation proved
A. "Drop Leap" of 237 Feet.
Cheap Sires In England.
We have clipped the following from the
Saturday Review as bearing on a :most im-
portant subject; The Royal Commission on
horse -breeding, at present, has only £5,000
at its disposal, and of this £4,400 is to be
distributed in prizes of £200 each for
thoroughbred stallions whose owners will
guarantee their services at a fee of £2, the
remaining £600 being reserved for expenses.
If the judges are well chosen, the very fact
of a horse having won a Queen's premium
will be a great recommendation to breeders,
irrespective of the reduced fee, especially to
those who make a groat point of soundness.
The low fee, again, ought to ensure a full
subscription to a winner, so that his re-
ceipts, including his fees and the premium,
should be about £300, or the equivalent of a
full subscription at a fee of £6. The Gov-
ernment never gives more than £800 for a
thoroughbred stallion to be sent out for
breeding purposes to India ; and many peo-
ple might bo surprised, if they took the
trouble to go through the sale lista of
thoroughbred stook, to find how few horses,
apart from foals and yearlings, fetoh
more than that sum. In 1886, only
about five -and -twenty realized anything
above 300 guineas at the sales given in the
long lists. in Rv '. and a good many of
these were two -year-olds and three -year-
olds in training and of high promise.
Even at a cost of £500 or £600 a winner
of Queen's premiums should prove a remun-
erative investment. Country stallions are
often purchased for very email sums. Bruer,
who is serving at 5 guineas a mare, was
bought for 50 guineas. That good old horse
Berserker only cost 100 guineas a year and
a half ago ; he has had a season since then,
and he is stilladvortiaed at a fee of 10 guineas
for thoroughbred and 5 guineas for half -bred
mares. The most extraordinary case of a
well -bought stallion is that of Londes•
borough, who is said to have been sold as a
stud -horse for £24, and is now advertised at
a fee of 50 guineas.
Low as the fee of the winners of Queen's
premiums appear at £2, there are something
like forty stallions in the United Kingdom
advertised at fees varying from one to two
guineas. They are, however, as a rule, a
set of unaounds, worthless brutes. Accord-
ing to the useful list given in the almanac
published at the Field office, there are about
a hundred and fifty sires advertised for half -
bred mares at five guineas or leas. At fees
varying from £3 downwards there are a
good many exceedingly well-bred stallions ;
the pity is that they are not all sound, but
it may be worth noticing how excellent are
the strains obtainable at such low fees.
There are four of these cheap sires by Low -
lander, whose descendents ought to be pow-
erful, fast and fine fencers. There are two
by the celebrated sire Speculum. There are
two, again, by Petraroh, who himself earns
the large fee of 150 guineas ; and there is
an equal numberby(Sterling, who receives a
similar fee. In 1886 the fourteen yearlings
by Sterling, sold at publio auction, averag-
ed 1,068 guineas each. There are three
sine, serving at two -and -a -half guineas or
less, by the .fico old grey Strathconan.
Admirers of the Sing Tom blood can
get it, through his son Tom King, cross-
ed with that of the great birdcatcher him-
self for £2. The most fashionable of
all crosses at present is that of Touchstone
and Birdoiitohme This blood, too, may he
obtained for a couple of sovereigns through
Chichester. The same blood evista far more
directly in the splendidly bred Exminster,
who is by Newminstor out of a Stockwell
mare. He serves at £3. The name cross
oscura again in Limestone, a horse with a
grand back and loius, wheservesat 3 guineas.
The successful double cross of Touchstone
can be had for 2 guineas, Althotas by Rosi-
cruaian, ahorse that serves at a hundredlguin-
eas. Few better horses have ever trod the turf
than Gladiateur and Fille de l'Air ; they
were mated and their highly -bred son, Can-
didate is given in marriage for the nominal
consideration of a couple of guineas. The
services of a son of the handsome headman,
called Carthusian (a big horse with plenty
of bone), are to be had for £2 10s. Florin,•
a horse by Sterling, serves mares, " the pro-
perty of tenant -farmers of those within
Baron Rothcbild's hunt" for nothing. Ten-
ant -farmers living in the Meynell country
get the use of Oswestry, a powerful horse
with splendid blood for hunters, at £1, and
tenants of his owner pay nothing for it. The
Duke of Westminster keeps a sire of much
the same blood in Golden Cross. who stands
in the Eaton paddocks at a fee of £2. The
master of the Badsworth houndaonly charges
£i for the use of Knight of the Forest, by
Knight of the Carter out of a Kettledrum
mare. ' '
In the latter part of December Mr. P. A.
Mentz, M. P. for North Warwick, while
out with the Pytchley found himself head-
ing at full speed for an old gravel pit.
When he spied the hole he was too near it
to think of pulling up and so he made an
attempt to clear it. His horse failed and
with his driver 'dro ped a distance of forty
feet. Most rental• bly e. Luntz and his
horse escaped with no injury more severe
than a few bad cuts. This incident has
called forth in the English papers a number
of yarns about wonderful falls, that should
have been fatal, but weren't. One of the
last correspondents to be heard from is
one who signs himself " Rustic," and he
caps the edifice with the following : "A
more remarkable escape from death by a
fall (though not in hunting) than any of
those mentioned was that of (tnen) Lieut.•
Colonel Moore, 54th Regiment, on June 15th,
18.48. When riding through the Tanraui
Woods at Dominica, on his way back from
the Layou river to Morne Bruce, he fell
down a perpendicular precipice of 237 feet.
His horse was killed on the spot, and him-
self miraculously saved without having sus-
tained any lasting injury, and it isnot long
since I saw the gallant general (now) enjoy-
ing his dinner at the Junior United Service
club."
The correspondent encloses with the let-
ter an etching of the spot, showing a very
steep rocky coast scenery, with a road way
cut on the side of the cliff high up the hill.
A petroleum Clas Engine.
The following is translated from. Nature
(Paris) : "The launch worked by this ma-
chine is 23 feet long, 5 feet 5 inches ,broad
and 3 feet deep. It has been running since
June last from Havre to Tancarville by the
new canal, making an average speed of 7.5
knots per hour. There are two cylinders of
simple action and a fly -wheel in a horizontal
plane. The cylinders can be worked inde•
pendently of each other. The petroleum
steam is produced cold and so without any
danger of, explosion, in a receiving cylinder
placed next to the engine, and worked by
the engine itself. This petroleum motor of-
fers considerable advantages over the steam
engine. The vessel is started at will, with-
out any previous generation of steam.
Whilst the vessel is at rest absolutely noth-
ing is consumed. There is no smoke nor dirt
of any kind. There is absolately no danger
of explosion. Perhaps the greatest advan-
tage is the small weight of burning material
necessary to carry ;, indeed, this motor eon -
seines about 89 Ib. per horsepower per hour.
Three gallons of the petroleum will last
twelve hours."
T.venty-Eight Miles "Upon a Single
Landon Socialists were prevented from
holding a meeting in Trafalgar square yes-
terday.
Russia is said to be contemplating the
strengthening of her land and sea forces on
the Pacific.coast.
It is understood in Rome thas the Ameri-
can biaheps have advised the Pope not to
condemn the Irish Nationalists.
Sir Miohael Hicks -Beach advocates .the
extoneion of local government to Ireland
after order has bean established.
Home Secretary Matthews, speaking at
Birmingham last night, denied the rumors
of dissensions in the Salisbury Cabinet.
A monument is about to bo erected to de
memory of the late Czar in the Grand Court
of the Kremlin at Moscow, which is to cost
$650,000.
The Pope has declined to receive Don
Jaime, son of Don Carlos, who desires to
present to his Holiness a cross set with
diamonds.
The Queen Regent of Spain has addressed
s letter to Mrs. Cleveland' asking her for her
photograph,
The Scottish crofters object to the osecu-
tion of the emigration scheme while good
lands in Scotland remain unoccupied.
Cardinal Manning is reported to have writ•
ten a letter to Rome, cautioning the Vati-
can against °ppoming Mr. Gladstone •in Irish
affairs,
The family of the Crown Prince is greatly
excited over the poisoning by some un-
known person of the Crown Prince's favor.
ire dog.
A panic occurred in a church in the south
Of the Tyrol on Thursdays caused by a WO -
Wheel.
On the occasion of the Hamburger Bi-
cycle club's run to Ahrenaburg and back
this stretch of about twenty-eight English
miles was accomplished upon ono wheel by
Richard Schulz, one of the members; already
well-known as a trick rider.
Until now it
was considered scarcely possible to turn the
one wheel to any practical use, because it
requirea an immense amount of •persever-
ance to enable one to ride for any length of
time upon a machine that affords no rest to
'the rider. Sohulz, moreover, took the best
drivers along at a very good pace, se that in
spite of the very muddy and soft state of
the roads, the mile (nearly four and a half
English miles) was covered in half an hour.
Even " gutter stones" and bad paving wets
no hindrance to the one -wheel rider. On
the way back Schulz showed no trace of
fatigue, and caused the greatest sensation
everywhere, Schulz alwaya uses the front
wheel of an ordinary 52•inoh bicycle, fitted
merely with fork and handles bar.
Australia now exports oranges to Eng -
ho was imprisoned at
Cam -
he other day and was
Attention has recently been drawn to the
wonderful material development of India.
When India first came into British hands it
neither bought or sold to any considerable
extent in the markets of the world. It has
now become one of the most important buy-
ers and sellers. Iii the cotton' trade, for
instance, India is becoming a formidable'
rival of Lancashire. Its exports in cotton
yarn have increased nighty -three per cent.
within five years. Its proximity to China
and Japan enables Bombay to interfere ser-
iously with Lancashire's 'command of these
ma rkets. In 1886 these two countries ab-
sorbed no less than 80,000,000 lbs. of Indian
yarn. In regard to the wheat export from
India to England, of 'which so much hes
mbeen said, it swum that though the United;
Kingdom took twenty per cent. less of
Indian wheat hi 1886 7 than in 1885 6. India
actually exported between five and six per
cent. more in the former than in the lat-
teryear. The apparent discrepancy is ex-
plained by the foot that Fraitee
notwithstanding her high tariff, took
large quantities, and a vast expansion
took plaoe in the export to Italy, where.
Indian wheat is becoming inoreasingly pop-
ular and by reason of its cheapness is mak-
ing the cultivation of the native product
unprofitable. An important factor in thea
rapid progress of India ie the remarkable
development of her railway system. Dur-
ing the year ending March 310 1887, 1,025
miles of railway were opened or traffic,
making 'the total mileage in operation at
date 13,390. And yeb such is the
activity of trade that in the year 1886, an
averageroturnof close upon six per cent.
was yielded on the entire capital of nearly
£180,000,000 starling invested in these
Dade.
land.
Father Ryan, w
Limerick for a month for inciting to illegal
acts in connection with the Plan of Cam-
paign, was released t
given a reception by ten thousand persons.
PEARLS OF TRUTH.
Patience, humility, and utter forgetful-
ness of self aro the true royal qualities.
What a man—be he young, old, middle.
aged—sows, that, and nothing else shallhe
reap.
Think well over your important steps in
life, and having made up your mind, never
look behind.
It is his action when the danger Domes,
not when he is in solitary preparation for it,
which marks the man of courage.
Every man is a consumer, and ought to
be a producer. He fails to make his place
good in the world, unless he not only pays
his debt, but also adds something to the
common wealth.
We should remember that truth is many-
sided ; that all truth comes from one source.
There is only one sun in the heavens, yet, as
you know, there aro many beautiful colors,
all of which come from the one aun.
As a rule, the more thoroughly disciplined
and fit a inau may be for any really great
work, the more conscious will ho be of his
own unfitness for it, the more distrustful of
himself, the more anxious not to thrust him-
self forward.
Self-love is, in almost all men, such an
overweight that they are incredulous of a
man's habitual preference of the general
good to his own; but when they see it prov-
ed by sacrifices of ease, wealth, rank, and
life itself, there is no limit to their adminis-
tration.
The ideal American, as he has'beenpaint-
ed for us of late. is a man who has shaken
off the yoke of definite creeds, while retain-
ing their moral essence, and finds the high-
est sanctions needed for the conduct of
human life in experience tempered by com-
mon sense.
Nothing is beneath you, if it is in the di-
rection of your life, nothing is great or de-
sirable, if it is off from that. I think we are
entitled here to draw a straight lino, and
say, that society can never prosper, bub
mast always be bankrupt, until every man
does that which he was created to do.
He who has the clearest and intensest vis-
ion of what is at issue in the great battle of
life, and who quits himself in it moat man-
fully, will be the first to acknowledge that
for him there had been no approach to vie.
tory, except by the faithful doing day by
day of the work which lay at his own three -
hold.
The Long Distance Trotter.
A type of horse which we would like to
have back among us is the old long-distance
trotter, which is not to be confused with
the American trotter racer. This old long-
distance trotter was very common just about
the time stage -coaches were developed, and
was 'a great favorite amongst butchers„
grazers and others, being indeed indispens-
able in the purchasing of cattle in those
days. This style of horse may be simply
described by a quotation from an old maga.
sine : "On Monday, July d8, 1787, a trot-
ing match from Monkbridge, near York,
to Melton, about 17i miles, was performed
for a considerable wager, between Mr. JohnHarrison, butcher, and Mr. Simpson, inn-
keeper, both of York, each riding his own
mare, which was won easily by the former.
Mr. Iarrison, who was in the sixty-second
year of hisage, and rode 18 stone 12 lb.,
went the distance in one hour, twenty-one
minutes and a half. Mr. Simpson rode 10
atone 6 lb. Greet sums wore depending on
the event of the match." This was 100
years ago last July. We fancy that a mare
that can take 'a man 18 atone 12 lb., 17e
miles along a country road would prove a
very useful one nowadays for most pur-
poses.
A Philantk ropic Indian Prince.
The Maharajah of. Darbhanga, Bengal, has.
established, in connection with Lady Duf-
ferin's Medical Aid for Women fund, a•
hospital and dispensary for women at a coat
to himself of more than $25,000. This bene-
volent nobleman during the past eight years.
has expended in philanthropic works fully
$1,700,000 ; including the building and en-
dowment of three hospitals and twenty-
three schools, the opening of 150 miles of
roads, and the conseruction of irrigation
works at the cost of $350,000. When he was
made. a. K. 0. I. E. he remitted $150,000 of
rents to his tenants. In 1882 he cancelled
all arrears due him in his dominions,
amounting to over $925,000, and in 1885 he
remitted $155,000 More. To the Benares.
drainage works he contributed $50,000. He
is,.as might be supposed, a highly educated
man, a fine English scholar and a most loyal
supporter of the British Empire.
The Truth of Weather Lore.
The persistent survival of weather -lore in
these days of intellectual emancipation is
not at all remarkable when we consider the
extent to which the vulgar sayings embody
real truths. A few years ago Messrs. Aber-
crombv and Marricet embarked on an ex-
tremely interesting inquiry with a view to
determine, by actual comparison, how far
the popular proverbs express relations, or se-
quences, which the results of meteorological
science show to be real. The investigation
proved that something like a hundred of the
more popular sayings ars, under ordinary
conditions, trustworthy. Such being the•
case, we need not be surprised that simple
country folk prefer familiar couplets to all
the " isobars," " cyclones," and " synchron-
ous charts," in the world. If " hills clear,
rain near," means the same as "the pres•
Made of a wedge-shaped area of high pres-
sure, accompanied by great atmospheric
visibility, is likely to be followed by the ad-
vance of a disturbance with rain and south.
crier winds," which for all practical purposes
it does, the preference is justified on the
mere ground of breath economy, The
thirty-one words demanded by science atand
no ohanee against four.
Ilut it is unfortunate that, along with the
limited number of folk -sayings founded on
truth, there hat survived a very largo num.
bar founded on the grossest error. These
latter have borrowed credence and respect
from the proved credibility of the others,
and apparently they are all destined to sink
or swim together. Hammer as we will at
certain favorite proverbs which we know to
be bated upon error, it is all in vain. The.
reverence for tradition is too much for us.
And of all the superstitions, puro and simple,
which defy our attempts at destruction,
the most invulnerable are these ascribing
certain effects to the influence of the moon.