HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1888-2-2, Page 7waodtd
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Now Mom feessafenerzeel {Ate, tilttruTts Essenviiel
LIKE AN
UNLI
BRADDON,
AlIm0A10 " SETUE,T, WvflrAisurfs Wiateu, Ewa., Erg.
HOPS'S OF PEEVIOUS CHAPTER.
OnArTart I. introileoes the reader to Sir
Adrain Beltield and lee twin -brother Valen-
tine, the Like and Valle" ef tbe sitoeY.
,There wee a dose resetnblanee and yet a
snarkeci differenee between them. They
were alike in the ferin of the -head and face,
in the outline of the featurefe (bat in colour-
• ing arid expression they were curieway un-
like. The elder, one had the pallid tints of
• ill.healthetin almost wezen ,brow, hair of a
• pale either; eyes of a dark'elect • it was
. onlyellealktellectnal power and erroa:to mans
IllnessWinding. that Ted -timed Adrian's
• facti frOm effemosavy. •'logarithm, on the
otherhand, was altogether ,differently con-
• stituted. Hie complexion was of a dark
olive, his eyes ot the deepest brown, with a
wonderful capacity for expreseleg all the
passions of which self-willed inanhood is
capable. His head was the head of Her-
. culea, The affections of Lady Belated clung
round her younger ana athletit3 sere A*
• the story, opens Valentine hes been Tiding a
high-spirited horse, inuols against the
wishes of his mother and brother, etet re-
turns from. the built safe and smote and
.with the chestnut beaten and tamed.
"I think we are like Jacob and Esau,
rand that my lather must have willed upon
his death -bed that the elder should eerve
the youngereessed Adrian. "1 can but ball
trey .destiny:"
The mother ofghed and submitted, as she
bad always submitted to Fate in the puma.
.of her sons. She had lived for them and in
them so long theft she had almost ceased to
have individualdesix es or personal likings.
Everything in hong* and stables and gar-
-cleiui and park and home -farm was regulat-
ed and governed by the inclinations of the
brothera, albeit Lady Belfield was tenant
for life in the mansion and its immediate
surroundings. It happened, somehow, al-
most imperceptibly, that in all thinga where-
of she was mistress. the tastes of the young-
er eon derzbiasted that of theelder. Adrian
was at once too weak and too proud to
struggle against that overpoweringinfinence.
" My deox mother, the place is yours. it
is for you to decide," he would say, when
Valentine had hotly maintained his own
opinion with scornful depreciation of every-
body else's ideas, treating architects, land-
scape -gardeners, and nurserymen as if na-
ture had stamped them so obviously an fook
that it would be the basest hypocrisy to
treat them with the respect due to reason
and good sense. "It is for you to decide,
my dear mother," said Adrian, deserting in
the hesteof the battle ; and the upshot was
'inevitable. Valentine had everything his
own way.' How could two gentle yielding
natures stand firm against the force of an
indomitable will and a boundless self-eateem ?
It was natural to Adrian to doubt his own
judgetneret to depreciate his own capacity;
but -Velentine had believed in himself from
rle (reale, had assorted himself to his wet
nun% and had reigned supreme ever since.
• Happily for the household, from an
testhetio point of •view, Mr. Belfield's estate
was better than his temper, his judgment
was sounder than his morality. If he erred
it was on the side of strength rather than
weakness; he inclined to the brilliant and
striking in all things, was in favor of large
eg effects, bold lines, vivid colouring. • There
were those who shuddered at the first as-
pect of Mr. Belfield's den, with its scarlet
draperies against black oak, its Japanese
black and gold, its Hyman pottery and Nea-
politan brass—there were those who declar-
ed that Mr. Belfield was the worat dressed
young man in London—but Royal Academe
oians had admired the arrangement of bis
den, and women liked his style of dress be-
cause it was pictureaque.
"A picturesque man must be a cad," said
Mr. Simper, who would have expired sooner
than wear a hat with a brim that infinitesi-
mal part of an inch wider or narrower than
the Prince of Wales's, or a check that had
not the stump of equal authority. "A man
• who makes himself different from other men
is not a gentleman. No gentleman even
• courted observation."
• A man with a taste mid a temper of his
own. is generally admired and looked up to
by other men. Mr. Belfield had been the
centre of an aristocratic little circle at
Trinity, his rooms the favourite resort of
some of the best -born and wildest young
men at the university. Needless th saythat
he had not worked, that he had missed
chapel and otherwise offended against the
laws of the oollege,that he had worn out the
patience of college tutors and college
coaches; and that, with a reputation :for
first-rate talents, he had contrived to place
himself in the very lowest rank of students.
lifniafkonced by the shades of the mighty
dead, heedless of Bacon or Newton, Byron
er Macaulay, Whewell or Thaokeray, he had
gone his idle way, drinking, rioting, gambl-
ing, carousing at unholy hours, insulting
the authorities, flirting with barmaids,
violating every rule and regulation of the
place. He had disappointea his mother's
ambition, and drawn heavily upon her
purse. Hie return to Belfield Abbey was a
signal for the commencement of a rain of
• Cambridge tradesmen's bills and lawyer's
letters, which for the next twelvemonths(
steadily descended upon the house.
There were expostulations and explana-
• tions, tears from gentle Lady Belfield, sul-
len defiance from Valentine, generous inter-
position on the part of Adrain, and finally
the Cambridge traders, with but a few ex-
• ceptions, were paid their demands in full,
which was very much more than any of thorn
deserved. Lady Belfield found half the
mottey ode of her private fortune, and Ad-
rian ingeted upon providing the other half.
For Adrian, Trinity had meant seclusion
• and eaten*, work ; for Valentine, college
life had been a long holiday, a riotous, reck-
less indulgence of youthful pleasure and
youthful prissions, a bad beginning for any
life, and yet he had contrived amidst all his
self-indulgence to leave Cambridge with the
reputation of having been one of the most
popular undergraduates in that great college
of Trinity. He had flung away his raoeey
With a royal munificence, knowing that it
wee not his to fling. He had been good-
natured, after his fashion ; he talked well.,
had a handsome faee and commanding are
• pearanee, kept his rooms open to all the fast
y meg men of his tithe, lent his horses freely
• till they went lanie, and had a box of lire-
• pthaohable cigars always( open on his table,
or one man who Ifetw and liked. Adrian
there Veto twenty wile ageoted to be warm-
ly attaohed to Velartihe. What their friend.
ship wag worth, ,n‘ly the aftertime Gould
shave At prethet, he was tolerably inde-
pendent of an iriendship outdate Y3elfield
• ,Abbears
He Was six -mid -twenty and bad been in
eel, love, or bed fended himeelf in lote, twenty
times. Indeed, he bed professea to have out -
frown the cepacity,for toeing. '
4" Women are gonvonotonous," he said in
ene them ,gushefe eonildence with which
he eornetimes honoured his ,brother. Re
loned talking aleouthimself, and Askew wae
midi a eynepathetio listener. "Woman ere
all alike. 'Zirpota my soul, Adrian, if yoe
know how littIe difference there is be-
tween the edioeyncracies of a peeress and a
bwsmaid, you would not wonder that a man
who has lind a few selventuree peon begins
to feel that elle is played out."
"My dear Val, I don't think you know
ranch ellout peeresses, and I hope you know
next to nothing alooub barmaids," replied
Adrian quietly,.
"My dear tellow, thee shows how little
you knew abeat the other half of yourself.
I have not seaehed my present age without
an occasional flirtation with a peeress, and
I have beee passionately in love with a bar-
maid. The loveliest woman I ever met was
O girl at an inn neae Trumpington. What
hogsheads of beer Thave consumed as a sac-
rifice to her charms. Once I thought she
loved me, and that I might have been wild
enough to marry her. And now I am told
she is singing pattiotio senate dressed as
Britannia, at an East End musk hall."
• "You know, Val, that a disreputable
marriage would break your mother's heart."
"Dont I tell you the thing is off, I am
not going to break anybody's heart—for the
sake of that lovely deceiver on the Trump-
ington -road."
"But you are so reckseen so heedless of
nonsequences."
"Because I live for myself, and for the
cejoyment' of the present hour!" answered
Valentine in his deep strong voice; tlyieg in
hie low chair, and slowly puffing at a cigar.
How handsome he looked in that easy,
graoeful attitude, the very embodiment of
unblemished youth and physical power. It
was but the highest typo of sensual beauty
—soul and mind went for but little in the
well cut face, the bold, flashing glance; but
there was some kind of charm that was not
wholly physical—some touch of brightnees,
mirth, and courage which attracted the re-
gard of men, and won the love of women.
The creature was not wholly day, albeit
flesh predominated over spirit.
" Forwhat else should a man live but
the present ?" said Valentine, continuing
the argument. "Who can count upon the
future—who cares for the past ?"
"Conscience and memory both care for
ane p f)
"Conscience is a bugbear which the ear- Adrian was exceptionally steady. For
sons have invented for us, and memory is a him there were 110 Wild oats to be sown.
morbid habit of the mind white a healthy He had been his mother's conafort and mein -
man should diseourltwe. I have no memory." stay from his vely childhood; thoughtful,
fered her to go in and pg him. and aeMpted
a lump of etteer from lug palm, after Baff-
ling at it suspiciously for a, minute or se.
• Life was full a interesta for her without
going beyond her own park Otos; and teen
there were duty dtivea to 'be takeu almost
every (ley, and calls th be returned. Teeth
was a regular exchange and barter in- the
way of Visiting to be manteined, though
ady Belfield rarely accepted a dinner inve
tuition, or adorned a ball by her preeence and
and her diamonds. She went to friendly
tea dtinkinge and tennis parties, and so
maintained local friendship. She liked a
free and easy -visiting which did not oblige
her to take off her bonnet or put on her die -
mends. Genoa velvets and Mechlin flouncea
hung idle in her wardrobe. She liked to
dine alone with her boys, in a tea gown,
and to reed or play in, the peaceful eolitude
of her drawing -room. Life taken at this
gentle pace seemed never too long or too
monotonous. She sighed for no change in
an existence which realised all her wishes.
People wondered, much tnat pretty.
and attractive a woman should have escaped
a second marriage. But to Indy Belfield
,seoond marriage would have been a crime.
"1 loved my husband, and I adore my
sons," she said. "What room is there left
for any other affection ?"
But you ought to marry, my dear,"
said her friend. Lady Templetower, who
who was distinctly practical. "A husband
would be immensely useful to you and the
boys. He would look after your timber
and your tenant, and would launch your
sons—get them elected at the proper dubs,
and all that kind of thing., he would be a
steward without a salary. '
Constance Belfiehl did not contemplate
the matter from this common-sense point ot
view. Second marriage in the mother of
O family she considered domestic, treason.
And when Valentinewas troublesome, when
the outaide world deemed that a second
husband, a man of strong will and clear
brain, would have been invaluable to the
lad's mother, Constance rejoined that there
was no one but herself to whom the sinner
need be accountable, that she had the indis-
putable right of pardoning all his follies,
and paying all his debts.
The intervention of a hardheaded man of
business at such times would have tortured
her.
"My darling, my poor foolish boy," she
said to herself, weeping. in secret over the
young man's delinquencies. "Thank God,
here Ism one to lecture him no one to com-
plain of him, no one to nude him worse by
hard ineasures."
She was not altogether foolish, although
she erred on the side of soft -heartedness ;
and she knew that Valentine's career had
up to this point been unsatisfactory, but
she went on hoping that all would come
right by -and -bye; that these evil ways
meant no more than the wild oats which
the heel been told most young men were
doomed to scatter before they sobered and
settled into propriety.
of meeting hire. I would not have him
(nippers) thee for tee work!, No, A-drime
I ahouhl like you to call oat, him, just in the
ordinary way, You can refer en passant to
his early acquaintance with my fatally, not
effectiug to 1111014 that he was ever any more
to inc then a friend. And you will tind out
about his turroundings. His wife died some
years egg, but 1 believe there are ilaughtere.
If they acorn nice girls I might call on them,
I may limit the matter to asking Con
once Deverill to it bochelor dilater, eh,
mother,"
"1 thouldn't !like to be obliged to take
up girls with Continental ideas and foot
manners and I fear these poor girls must
heve been sadly neglected."
"I'm afraid I'm not much of a judge of
the speciem girl, but I'll give you az exact a
report as I can, mother," anti e cred Adrian
gaily.
Ho wes not in any hurry to set out upon
this adventure. Ho still retained a good
deal of his boyish shyness, and a visit to
strangers was of all his amid obligations the
mot obnoxima so he lot some pleasant,
Studiously idle days elip by before he found
the weather good enough for a drive to Mow
comb, and then he girded up his ides, look-
ed out his least damaged hat from the array
of well-breshed felt and beaver in the hall,
ordered his phaeton, and turned his fece
resolutely towards Lord Lupton's Park,
which was a good five miles from Belfield
A.bbey.
The gable olook chimed the half hour
after two as he drove down the avenue. He
would be at Monona) at about three, which
was the prescribed hour for ceremonial calls
in that part of the world. Intimates might
drop in at five and join in a friendly tea -
drinking round a low cosy little table; but
for your visit of ceremony, patronage or
respect, three o'olock was the hour. Un-
sustained by luncheon, unrefreshed by tea,
the visitor must foes his hostess in the wee
fulness of an empty drawing room, prepared
to Olt:Inverse vivaciously for at least tarenty
minutes about nothing In particular.
Moroornb Park was not particularly well
kept. Park and home farm had been let to
the local butcher for some years, and hes cg-
tle:grazed within twenty yards of the draw-
ing -room windows. Therewas an old-fashion-
ed garden on one side of the house, and there
was a spacious and lofty conservatory, vrhich
in Lord Lepton's palmy days had been one
ef the glories of the neighborhood, and all
the rest was pasture upon which Mr. Pon
look's oxen and sheep fed and fattened. Gar-
dens and conservator), nad both been neg-
lected since his lordship's chronic asthma
had obliged him to winter abroad, and the
house had been either empty or in the oc-
cupation of strangers. Those village wise-
acres who pretend to know a great deal more
than their neighbours, deolared that chronic
asthma was only another name for impectud-
osity, and that Lord Lnpton turned his back
uponelorcomb and neon Englatid, because
he could not afford to live Lulus owneountry.
Everyone knew that poor Lady Lupton
adored the place, and was never really hap-
py anywhere else.
(To BE COTTDMED.)
"Oh. Valentine. attentive, devoted, her companion and
" Well, I suppose if I were to sit down counsellor when he was in Eton jachets.
His nature seemed almost passionless. She
never remembered to have seem him violent-
ly angry. She had never suspected him of
being in love. He loved her, and he had an
intense sympathy with his brother, but she
doubted if his heart had ever gone forth
beyond that narkow home circle. His tastes
and inclinations in all respects resembled
her own. He loved musk'of which she
was passionately fond, and ho was no mean
performer upon the organ and piano. He
and try back 1 could remember most things
that have happened to me since my cradle,"
answered his brother lightly, "but I never
• cultivate my memory. I make it a rule to
ignore the past. Sally Withers—the
Trumpington barmaid—Anted me? I blot
her out of my existence. Lady Pimlico flirt-
ed with me—courted me --made a fool of
me—and then deliberately dropped me.
She is gone. Do you suppose I sit and
brood over the summer days we spent to-
gether on his Lordship's houseboat at Hen- had his mother's subdued taste in colors,
ley, when we set in a corner under a .Japa- her scrupulous refinement. and orderly
nese umbrella, hiding ourselves, as much as habits.
ostriches ate hidden, between two great ma- And now they two, mother and son, were
jolioa tuba of pares, and made ourselves con- alone together by the hearth, in the long
spicuously idiotic—or of the nights at the
opera, when we were alone together in her
ladyship's box? No, Adrian. I make it
my business to forget all such twaddle.
Life is too short for memory of the past, or
forecast of the future. Carpe diem dear
boy. Gather your roses while you may.
Be sure I mean to gather mine."
"Valentine, I verily 'believe you were
created without a conecience."
" I was. You have the conscience, I the heard nothing about it."
capacity for enjoyment. We are but two "Then you have not boon with any ot
sides of ono character." your gossips for some time, I suppose.
Here is the paragraph. IMorcomb, Lord
Lupton's fine old family mansionehas been
recently let furnished to Colonel Deverill,
of the Rook, near Kilrush, County Clare.
Colonel Deverill is a keen sportsman, has
been master of foxhounds in hi n own county,
and will doubtless prove an acquisition to
the neighbourhood.' Why, mother, how
vronder-struck you look, and you have
turned quite pale, I declare. Do you know
anything about this Deverill ?' "
"A good deal, Adrian."
"Nothing unpleasant, I hope."
"No, dear; but it was just a little start-
lingto hear that he had settled in our im-
mediate neighborhood. His father and my
father were bosom friende, and. Gerald and
I tweet to see a good deal of each other when
he was a young man about town, in ono of
the household regiments. I don't mind
telling you that he wanted to marry me in
them days, and as he was a wild, self-willed
young fellow, he made himself extremely
troublesome. I was very' young, you see,
Adrain, and I was almost afraid of him.
And then your father catne, and I knew I
was safe. I think it was that sweet feeling
of being protected by his love that firat made
me fond of him—and then—and then—ah
Adrian, how fond I was of him, and how
good ho was—only—only a little 'strong-
willed like your brother. But he was always
good to me. ' '
The tears came into her eyes as she
thought of that brief 'wedded life, which
had been all love timugh it had not been
all sueshine.
" Thie Deverill must be 'a disagreeable
fellow " said Adrian. "11801 assured that
I shall dislike him."
"Oh, no, you wen% Adrian. Ho is not
a bad mate by any means. Re was very
wild in those days, drank a good deal, I'm
afraid, and WM altogether ht a bad way;
but he married a year or two after my mar-
riage and sobered down, I was told. He
has lived a good deal an the ethatinent of Igo
years,' and he and I have never' met since
your father's death."
Whom did he marry ?"
Oh, a nobody, 1 belieye—a girl with a
little money which he spent in a ycar or two.
Her father was something in the city,
merchaht or a broker, 1 think they said;
and they lived in one of the new districts,
near leeneington Gardens. I have heard of
them from tithe to time ; but I luwe never
eeen him since hie marriage, and I never taw
hie wife," '
She was not 10 peer eat, them"
My dear Adrian, her people wero in
trade," aunwered Lady Bel field naively. "1
suppom you ought to oell on Colohel
erill. '
" I een hardly avoid it without being uto
him hero I won't can Ho will unctortitued 120o IsOnaoho 118! blew York 41 ; Chicage
November evenings, while Valentine and
his friend Touchwood went the round of the
theatres in Paris, and danced at strange
danoing places, and ripened their scheme
for breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.
"Mother, did you know that Moroomb
was let ?" asked Sir Adrian, as he scanned
the county paper at breakfast one morning,
a few days after Valentine's departure.
"What, at last ? No, indeed, I have
CHAPTER.—IL
.46 wiLD Mau Qum.
A week after that first day with the
chestnut, Valentine Bel field bad gone off to
Paris at an hour's warning to accompany a
college friend who was going to winter at
Monte Carlo, with an infallible system
which he and a mathematical friend had
invented two or three years before in their
midnight reveries at Trinity. 'Valentine
told his mother nothing about the system or
the intended trip to Monte Carlo. He had
only told her that he felt hipped and want-
ed a change, and that as Touchwood was
teeing to Pans he had decided on going with
him and making a round of the theatre.%
"The drainage is so dreadful in Paris ; I
am elevate( afraid of fever," said Lady Bel.
field, looking intensely anxious.
"My, dear mother, we shall go to the
Bristol. '
"And the hotels are so horribly high.
They will be putting you on a fourth storey,
perhaps, and if there were a fire—" '
"There never hes been a fire at a good
Continental hotel within my recollection,"
answered Valentine lightly. " Can't you
Suggest any other calamity, or any other
carelone, an egthquake, an
rection, the the fall of the Vendome Column 1 I
don't suppose they fastened it very securely
when they put it up again after the Cona-
mune,"
"Dear Val, n I- ays I u h at me."
yo a.sv ag
"Row- can I help it, mother, whem you
give me suoh opportunities. There, kith
me, dearest, and good-bye. Lucas will
have packed my portmanteau by thie time.
There's the dogcart. .Te me wave l" and
with a hurried embrace he ran off to the
hell, his mother following to get the last -
look at her darling as he sprang into the
cart, took the reins from the smart youttg
groom, and drove round the ,circular sweep
to the avenue at pace that threatened a
catastrophe before he should reach the
lodge
He has gone, and Sir. Adrian and his
mother settled down into that placid and
studittue existhnce which suited them both
so well. 'Lady Belfield divided her time bes
tween the newest books and the most chts.
sioal musie. She pleyed Scarlatti and leach.
She read Browning and Herbert Spencer.
She dawdled +Way an occasional half-hour
in her flower gardens which wore lovely;
she went the round of' greenhouses and hot -
bowies, and talked to her gardenera, who
were numerous, and who all adored her.
She moved among them like a queen whom
approving smile le like a ray a whiter sun-
ehirte. She wont every day to the statics
and petted Valentitien hunter', with whom
she was on the Most fabliau teams. EVon
the tteW Chesnut, albeit) set MS ears hack
when she opened the door of *bee, suf,
Funerals Cost too Mach.
There was formed recently ht New York
a Burial Reform Assooiation. Bach an or-
ganization, having for its object the doing
away with the abuses connected with fune-
rale and burials, has been the long -entertain-
ed wish of many of New York's prominent
clergymen. The following plan was agreed
upon by all present, the meeting being com-
posed of representative men of all the deno-
minations
"This organization shall be known as the
Burial Reform Association.
"Its motto shall be :'Not to be sorry as
men without, the hope for them that sleep in
Thess., iv., 13.
"The basis shall be the committal of the
Christian dead, Earth to earth, looking for
the general resurrection at the lest day, and
the life of the world to come through oux
Lord Jesup Christ.'
"Its object shall be to unite all who.pro-
fess and call themzelves Christians, in a
threefold effort :—
" First—To encourage buried in perieh-
able coffins in the simple earth.
" Seconde-To simplify and cheapen fune-
ral and mourning ceremonials.
"Third—To ' seeure lame and ample
tracts of suitable ground for bnrial pur-
poses."
The association will seek to advance its
objects by urging the following specific re-
forms :—
Firsz—The exercise of economy and sim-
plicity in everything appertaining to the
funeral.
Second—The use of plain hearses.
Third—The disuse of crape, scarfs, feath-
ers, velvet trappings and the like.
Fourth—The avoiding of all un -Christian
and heathen emblems and the use of any
floral decorations beyond a few cut flowers.
Fifth—The discouraging of all eating and
drinking in connection with funerals.
Sixth—The discouraging of any but im-
mediate members of the family aecompany-
ing the body to the grave. ,
seventh—The dispelling of the idea that
all club or aaciety money must be spent on
the funeral.
Eighth—The emit, interment of the body
in soil sufficient and suitable for its resolu-
tion to its ultimate elements.
Ninth—The use of such materials for the
coffin as will rapidly decay after burial.
Tenth—The substitution of burial plots
for family vaults.
Eleventh—The encouragement, on sani-
tary ground% of the removal in crowded dis-
tricts of the body to a mortuary instead of
retainingItin the rooms occupied by the
living ; Twelfth—The impression upon °alert of
public charities and correction the claim of
the poorest toproper and reverent buriel.
That while no rules are laid clown SS to
the conduct of members' funerals, each
member of the association shall hold himself
bound to the gerieral terinoiples thereof.
13lehop Vatter, of New York, is President
of the A usociat'ion, whose SIMS certainly
merit the sympathy and co-operation of all
whose endeavours are for social reform in
all matters ; for there are no abuses which
should be sooner done away with than those
connected with hi -iterate and burials, as con-
ducted at present.
Area of Large Cities.
The statutory area, of New Orleans
square Mika ; that of philadeleia is 29 1
square miles. New Orleans( occupies ablAttl,
40 square miles ; Philadelphia. over a hue 1
drecl. So, probebly, justice will be dont by
holdine that Philadelphia is the largest city
in the United States in point of area. As
to the five cities( of the Visited Staten Phil-
adelphia. will lead again; New York comet;
next With 41 semen mike , New Orleans
third, With 40 ; Chicago fourth, with 36,
and Brooklyn fifth; with 26 Smear° milers.
The five cities 'of tho world eoveriee the
civil; but if you dislike the notion of seeing Mates area 'Weida Aeon to be Philadelphia,
to doubt, ur,list. I don't." 36 squere mike. Park cove;e only abed;
" 11 ht tli I tl t f. 30 E. (lno-re stiles, '
•In( Se was S.
11).11141CFN 50TES.
The new pnyelcian, ordinary to Queen 'Vic-
teria is Sir Edward Heursr Leivokieta
syThivectoelrcplesbotrnEnemliarshchaulrog,e0InissM, oh. 3060051100
died,
It will thee £10,000 to break up the GrfP t
Eastern, which was sold recently for £16,-
000.
A•n Amatie violin that belonged to Louis
XIV, was recently sold at Buda Pestis for
g700.
Two hundred thousa,nd infanta under two
years( old are believed to Ise farmed out in
France,
A football player at Aborcarne was re-
cently struck in the abdetnen by the ball
and died instantly.
The Germans are organizing a consider-
able establithment of bacons to catch the
enemy's carrier pigeons.
The castle of Chinon, is to be thoroughly
restored by the Swiss Goyernrnent and
made a national Museum.
The price of pedigree shorthorn cattle
has dropped hi England from an average of
z£5279: wiohal,eh it reached a few years ago, to
It is said that the biggest quill. toothpick
faotory in the world is near Paris. It was
orignelly a quill pen factory, but when, theme
went out of general use the feetory turned
to the toothmolt business, and now makes
'20,000,000 annually.
Miss Emily Eleanor Woodward, aged 20
years, of Greenwich, England, died recently
from tight lacangt She had eaten a hearty
supper, and hurriedly dressed laerself to go
out. Tho pressure around the waist, com-
bined with over exertion, caused death.
The Britannia of the Peninsular and Ori-
• ental Steam Navigation Company's line has
• just made the passage from Brindisi to Aus-
tralia—including detention in Egypt wait-
• ing the mails, the detour to Ceylon, and, de-
tention there for nearly thirty-six hours—in
23 days and ten hours—a continuous speed
at sea for 8,000 milea of, within a fraction,
16 knots per hour.
The experiment of giving halfpenny din-
ners at the Birmingham school has been so
successful that farthing dinners have been
tried and nearly succeeded, Two hundred
and twelve thousand 'farthing dinners were
given last year at a cost of less than 89-100
of a penny. The attendance at the schools
has been greatly increased, and the good
effect upon the temper of the children has
been astonishing.
Many of the valentines wbich are a corn-
bination of laced and silvered paper,. sprigs,
mottoes, bunches of colored flowers little
mirrors, and the like, are made in fondon,
in a factory where the work goes on the
year around. Muck of the work is done by
hand, and women are tbe most expert at it.
They use a goad deal of mucilage in con-
structing these affairs, and invariably me
the third finger of the right hand instead of
the mucilage brush.
A French dandy went to a photographer
to get bis picture taken. When the sob was
done he refused to pay, on the ground that
the picture did not look like him, and he
left the establishment. Next morning he
passed by the place and saw his picture
hanging in the showcase, and under it were
the startling worda in big letters, "The
'biggest fool in the whole town." He rushed
into the store and abused the photographer.
"Birt, my dear sir " said the latter, "since
the paten, doesn't resemble Yon, what in
the world are you complaining abaut ?,'
'All the great universities of the Russian
empire, with the exception, of the Univer-
sity of Moseow, are now dosed by order of
the Czar, on account of the riotous conduce
WMt Time Is It?
good mealy things are token for grantoA
and dierniesced ae ruetterta of coulee Wore
bemuse they are not thought of. I'or m.
stance daylight, where did it begin ? What
is the first day of the week? Whet morel -
nese mu there be about it when it in by no
laeaP4 the same all the world over? While
some have it Sunday others are finishing up
Saturday and others atill arethinkleg ettout
Monday ? Thief is the 21st of Januaee, where
did it begin? How and where does it end?
Many who would net like to be ignor-
ant would be puzzled to say. The followlog
is how one writer puts it, ie a popular, fair-
ly intelligible way :—
When it is noon at London the mentriee
exactly on the opposite side Of the emelt—
eay New Zealand and its neighborhood—are
turned directly away from the sen, and
therefore have midnight. Paris, being a
little further east than London, will 'save
been brought directly under the sun it little
eerlier—that is to say, at London noon?
Paris noon has been gone ole w mieutes.
to Egypt and Cougantimple, further. met ;
their noon has been gone an hoer or tiro.
Further on, again, India is approaching/her
eventide, and China and Japan ha,ve already
flunk into darkness, Turn your face west,
however, woos the Atlantic rs you will find
our American cousins have pot yet reached
their midday; in fact, are thinking in New
York about breakfast, and out weet in Cali-
fornia are hardly yet getting up. Still to
the west we come round again, to New Zea-
land, where the day ---which was only dawn-
ing in California—which was high noon at
London, and afternoon in India—this same
day, say the 1st of July, is, as we saw, o '
the eve of departing altogether, to give plac
to a new one, the 211d of July. I
is clear, then, that while the let is
still young in America, and long be -
before it is over even in England, the 2nci
will be well started in New Zealand and
coutitries in that longitude, and will come
round the world from east to west as all
its predecessors have done. The question
then arises—where did this day, the 2nd of
July, first begin? It was not in Anierica,
for we saw the folks there just about to rise
on the Ise Yet it was beginning in New
• Zealand. Therefore it must be either in
New Zealand or ileum place between there
and America,. The fact is that there is no
defmed place where the day can be said to
appear first of all. Civilization originally
spread from east to west across the Old
World, and then across the new, carrying
its calendar with it. The day came from
the East and travelled across to the west,
and no one asked whence it originally came,
or where it ultimately died. Thus the
common usage, treating the day as first
peering in the Old World and then proceed-
ing to the New, left no place for theenew -
day's birth except the wide Paoifie Wean,
and when traffic began to cross that ocean
and the question was forced upon 'men's
minds a sort of understanding was arrived
at that the day should be deemed to begin
there.
In the Panther's Month.
How it feels to find one's self in the jaws
of a panther is that kind of knowledge whech
most people are well content to acquire
moond-hand. Probably all meta would 'hot
have the same sensations, but this is the ac-
count which Colonel Barras gives of such an
experience. He was a born sportsman, and,
of course, could enjoy many things which to .
ordinary persons would seem anything but
pleasant:
The panther came for me with lightning
bounds. I could see nothing, owing to its tre-
.mendous speed, but a shadowy -looking form
with. two loge, bright, sound eyee fewest on
me with an unmeaning stare, as it literal y '
flew toward me.
Such was the vision of a monaent ! My
of the students. The doors of the Mayer- presence of mind did not desert me. Irais-
oity of Kief were closed firat on account of ed my -gun and fired with all the care I could
an outbreak in which the troops were at such short notice. But I missed, and the
brought into service; then the doors of the panther landed, light as a feather, with its
University of icnzan were doted on similar arms round my shoulders.
grounds; next those of the University cf Thus we stood for a few seconds, anal dis-
Se Petersburg were dosed for like reason ; timely felt the animal sniffing for my throat.
then those of the University of Charkof Mechanically I turned my head 00 08 to keep
were closed on the same account, and, final-
ly, those ot the University of Odessa. The
University of Mogoow, which yet remains
open, is the most coneervative of the Rus-
sian universities, and is located in the Most
conservative of Russian cities; but it .will
be surprising if ite students are not speedily
touched by the disorderly spirit of their
the thick, wadded curtain of eay helmet -cov-
er in front of the creature's muzzle ; but still
I could hear and feel plainly the raid yet
cautious efforts it was making to find an
opening, so as to tear open the jugular vein.
I was helpless, and so stood perfectly still,
well knowing that Sanford would liberate
me, if possible. At the first onslaught we
comrades elsewhere. In the five univeraities wero so placed that he could have it the
already closed there are nearly six thou-
sand students, all of whom, excepting those
under arrest for riotous conduct, have been
ordered to their homes throughout Russia.
We have not heard that the effervescence in
these institutions was of the nihilistic kind,
but nihilism has been found in all of them
within the pest ten years.
ACCIDENTS .AND SUICIDES.
A Toronto film Killed In Illinois — Deter-
mined Suicide.
STREATOR, M., Jan. 25. — Two heavy
freight engines of the Santa Fe road collid-
ed on the bridge over the VermilVon River
last evening. James Anderson, of Toronto,
Ont., a fireinan, jemped off the mettle and
struck on the ice in the water, receiving in-
juries from which he died &Lost immedi
ately.
SAunva.w, Mich., Jan. 25.--JohnHepner,
aged 57, in
committed suicide by
hanging in a woodshed back of his house.
His feet rested on the ground and his hand
on a sawbuck when discovered, showing his
desperate determination. Life was extinct,
Desponderity, mused by poor health and do -
reedit: trouble, was the cause. Deceased
leaves a wife and four grown up children.
JENKINTOWN; Pa., Jan. 25.—A terrific
explosion occurred this morning at the dy-
namite factory Bethayer's station, on the
North Pennsylvania railroad. Four men
were engaged in the manufacture of dyna-
mite cartridges when a huge can exploded,
tearing the building to woes and 'blowing
the men many yard e away. John Gaston
had his left arm torn from the aocket and a
great opening made in his side, exposing hie
vitals. He will die. Probably the others
may recover.
A special session of the Criminal Court
will be beld at Aylmer for the trial of
the stemmed Montreal detectives, it being
considered inadviseble to hold the trial in
the city.
At the Toronto Criminal Assizes Robert
Nail, eiets Thompson, the Central prison
cermet who fatally stabbed George Rutledge
on the Igth Jahuary, Was sentenced to be
hanged on rk 1.1)11417 28%.
Essex County Collude in reverts° to the
repeat, of it delegetioe of tharitable ladies
have appointed a special dommittee to in-
quire into the proposal to establish a counter
poor houssOesith incluetrial farm attached.
juage—How defiles it that you dared to
break Igo this gentlenissen house in the
dead of night? Prssoner—Why, yoer ord-
ship, the ghat time you reproached me or
et:sating in broad day -light. Am 1 uot to
be Nft0W0(1 tO Vvork at all io „
panther only by firing through me, which
would have been injudicious, at least.
As may easily be sup.posed; the animal
did not spend mach time in investigating the
nature of a Wa,dcled bat -cover, ' and, before
my friend could take aim without jeopard-
ing my own life, the beast pounced on my
left elbow, taking a piece out, and burred its
long, sharp fangs in the joint till they met.
At the same time I was hurled to,the earth
with such force that I knew not how I got
there nor whet became of my gun. Still,
throughout, I maintaked a clear impression
of what was going on. ,
I knew that I was lying on the .ground
with the panther on top of me, and 1 could
feel my elbow joint wabbling in and out as
the brute ground its jaws, with a movement
imperceptible to the bystanders, but which
felt to me as though I was being violently
shaken all over
Now I listened anxiously for the report of
Sandford's shot, which I knew would be
heard immediately, and carefully refrained
front making the slightest sound or move.
meat, lest bus aim should be disturbed there-
by.
In a fevy seconds the loud and vvelcome
detonation, vvhioh from fie proximity almost
deafened me,struck upon my ear.
I sat up. 1 was free 1 the panther gone
I looked round and found that I was some
distance from the place where I had fallen,
so that the boast must have dragged me some
little way. Sandford, as soon as he had got
the chance, had pieced the muzzle of his rifle
to the side of my antagoniet and fired a
large bullet right through it, which had
caused it to dart back hastily to its lair.
110,..,Ipubtfu1 Explanation.
"flow io this, my am : You write end
fell its° that e mere up and armed every
morning in time to are the sun rise, while
the President informs me that you lie in
bed till nine o'clock and after ?"
Well, you see, father, the sun rises till
noon out here."
His Daughter Was Qftite an Expert.
"Your (laughter is quite a tuusidan, Mr.
.Tones," said a city beau to an old farmer.
"She rendered ti very difacult paaaage ad
mira,bly last night."
"Wal, yes," replied the deaf Old granger
meditatively ; "she's renderin' lard and
sessago In the back yard now."
Dakote Lady (to bride of a year)—/ un-
derstand, Mrs. Pullquielt, that your hue.
band has reformed somewhat since his mat -
lenge, Mrs. Ptillquick—Oh, my, yes john
drink e se bard as ever, but he doemet hoot
as many people as he used to,"
e