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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1888-3-1, Page 3AnntlenteneettlefieWreilitainettMellantanntianenaneateatineitininetante. (Now Fran PDBUSTllin.) [ALL Pamirs RianinvED,) hie eetabliehMent in that solitary abode, and had left biro with a daughter of three yeere LIKE AND UNLIKE. By M. E. BRADDON, Minion or " LADY ALTDDRY'S &cum," WyrzAnn's Wainn," En., ETC. 11••••••••••••••••.•.. ()RAFTER IV.—IN Tun HuNTIND FIELD. Mrs. Freemantle was right in her diagno- sis. Adrain was in love. He was not al- together ueconsoious of his own condition ; but like moat intellectud young men he fended himself much wiser than he really Wan ' He thought that he only , Oinked Helen Deverill ; and he told himself that he would go no •further than admiration until he knew a great deal more of the lady. :He watt his own master, free to marry whom- soeveehe chow for his wife, indepeudent of 4, all ne„tNenary conisiderataine. A penniless girl of good family seemed to him the moot proper person for him te marry; but he told himself that he mud have the highest qual- ities in a wife.. She must not be beagtitul alone; mentally and morally she mast be perfect. He was not to -he soared by a ht. nennworiventionality ; he admired a girInvion dated to think and eat for herself, and whose manners were not modelled upon the' man- ners of alrother girls ; bunhe meant to study that lady's character before he suffered his heart to go out to her, never auspeoting, poor fool, that his heaa was already hers, and that he who aspired to be her junge wait in reality her elave. He nad never ridden to hounds since he was a boy, for from the hour he found hard riding was perilous or even imposeible for him, he had turned hie hack upon the sport, and had tried to perimade hircitelf that he did not care for it. Yet now he was out every hunting day, dawdling at the meet, pottering about the lance, watching and waiting at corners and outside covers, as much in the day's sport as it was possible for him to be without going fast over pas- ture or common and taking his fenceswith s the rest of the fietd. Whenever there was a bit of elow•going he was at Helen's side. When the hounds were in full cry she was off after them, while he waited patiently in a sheltered corner or to leeward of a hedge, hopkg fate and the fox might bring her back that way. She seemed to like his society, talked to him and with him of all things' under heaven and earth, but she was full of caprices and ancertainties, wayward, wilful, a. coquette to the marrow of her .bonea, only. Adrian diet not so judge her. Ho thought her a various, versatile creature, a being of whim and fancy, disinterested, uncalculatisig, in- nocent as a wood or water nemph, but full of ericks and changes like the nymphs. That she was a clever, keen -witted young womanwho meant to mance a good match, knew the value of her own beauty to an iota,and in- tended to enjoy all that is best and pleasant. est in ttis brief, swift race across the earth's surfaceiewhich we oall life—this he suspect- ed not • He admired her adoringly, saw only graces and charms and frank uncon- scious loveliness of person and of mind in every look, and word and, action. ' To him the appeared faultless, and yet he thought that he was over -critical, that he erred on -died& of deliberation and Severe judgment. Spree days, when the fax was what she called "a ringing brute," and the run scarce worth serious conaideration, she would spend the whole day in Sir Adrian's com- pany, utterly indifferent to the scandal such companionship might ocoadon. • She had been accustomed to be talked about ever since she was tteen, and wouldi have fancie e „ • ed her attractiveness on the wane, if people it, —womankind especially—had ceased to say hard things, of her.. She hitt her sister for ehaperon, but then Mrs. Baddeley anways had her own a/faith-to look after. She was asplendidhorsewonnweand rode ina business- like way which admitted of no favor to that little court of admirers which shs always had inherwake. Her admirers must be in the first flight if they wanted to see anything of her; for those who rode as boldly and as fast as she did, she had ever the sweetest smiles, and the kindest words ; and the. long ride home with two or three of these, after the Kill, was likeia procession of-loveree - ii " Launnelot and Guinevere," exeltiamed Toffstaff, one Of the county Dittos, the way those two young women so on is too astounding. I never saw anything worse in tho Row, and that," added Miss Toffstaff significantly, "18 saying a great deal." There were three Miss Toffstaffs, who rode to hounds, and ,who rode well, and. were always well tnounted. They prided thenteelves in turning out in perfect style, and had their habits, hate and boots from the best maker, be he who he might. fa- shion is very capricious in its- treatment of habit-mekers. There is always a new man coming to the front, with advanced theories upon the re Ang of the knee ; so the Miss Toffstaffe enanged their habit maker about 01100 a year. . Mr. Toffstaff was a new man in that part of Devonshire, who had lately acquired the estate of a deceased native. Needless to say that he was more "county" than the county people, whose ancestors had been owners of the soil ever since the Heptarchy ; subscribed much more liberally to the hunt, and gave himself mote airs than the men of the eielle roche. In opposition to, and yet,in friendly rela- tions with the three Mies Toffstaffs, were the two Miss Treduceys, whose father, Sir Nathaniel Treducey, was of an older family and owned moteariatooratic connection than any Other man in the neighbor- hood. His mother came of a ducal race in &Wand, and his wife was the da-ughtor of &Trent& marquis, who had fallen in love with the handsome young diplomatist at one of the Empress's bells in the golden days of the Seoond Empire. Lady Treducey was still beautiful, but it was a beauty almost subnaerg.ed in fat. She led a life of utter idleness in a lovely old house in he midst of a small. deer -park ; never be tirred herself save when she went to Londo for a few weeks in May or June to ]aunch.jier daughters and then she only transferred her elegant languor, and her ,Itsofa cushions and eau. de • cologne bade from , the Moat, Chadworth, to Claridges or Lim. mere as the case might be. The Misses Treducey had been on it were born on horse back, and looked down fun( a tremendous 0,11k -tide upon the Misses Top - staff, whom 'they suspected of having been taught by a riding monitor. They were fair, rather pretty girls, with large liquid blue eyes, and they were as thin as their mother was fat. Their aquiline meets and slender figura were an inheritance from Sir Nathan- iel, who belonged to an eagle nosed nee, and had the air of a gentlemanlike bird of The Misses Toffstaff and the Misses- Tre- alloy rarely agreed about any one subject, albeit thervvere such very good friends; but they were untitimous in their cent demriation of Colonel Deverill's deughtere. "it makes one feel arthained of being a gkl, clon't it ?" milled lidatilcia Treclueee- of Merjory Toffstaff. ' "V The Miss Treducey had been christened Matilda and Isabel, in honour of their Nor- man descent; the Miss Toffstaff were Petty, Marjorie, and Jessie, having been christened at a period when quaint rustic namee were in fashion. Mrs. Tatted' was , a woman who followed fashion andelootaely, and as he never thought of anything else, sometimes oveetook it. Everything at Wilmington, the dinner, table. the drawing. ronin, the stables, and the gardens e as in the Dewed etyle, A fashion could hardly be heard of in Devonshire before it was to be seen at WtImington, At the Moat, on the contrary, everythhig was of the old school, a curious and rather pleasant ming- ling of old French and old English fathom, Lady Treducey protecited her abhorrence of all innovations, and boasted of her husband's poverty, as if it were a distinction in au age when parvenus are egregriously rich. "Since Ennio has been a Repnblic every- thing new has been detestable " she said, "and England is very little bOtter than a Republic. All our habitats have an Ameri- can taint, The cley is fad coming when lenclon and Paris will be only suburbs of New York." The five young ladies were all agreed as to one fact, that Colonel Deverill's daugh- ters were a disgrace to the neighbourhood by their laxity in the hunting field; but as lady Be/field knew them, and in e manner vouched for their abetract reapeotabilitni everyone mann at Morcomb, and the ob- jectionable edies bled been bit/den to hutch. eons and, afternoon teen , Marinas and maids owned that the new- comers were pretty, but were unanimous in denouncing them as bad style. The word had been 'passed 'round, as it were. They were to be received and tolerated, but they were not to be admitted to the inner sanctuary of intimate friendship. They were received, however, that was the mein point. Sir Adrian met them every- where. His life was a new life, full of new interests. Be wrote long letters to his brother, filled with descriptions of Helen, her looks, her sweet little vrays, her spark- ling conversation, which lost a good deal of its sparkle when reduced to pen and ink. "f did not think it was in you to be such a fool," wrote Valentine with brotherly can- dour ; "the girl is evidently setting her cap at you. She has not a sixpence, and you are one of the best matches in Devonshire. However, of oeurse you will please yourself. There is no reason why you should try to please anybody else. I, who have only my mother's fertune to depend upon, must mar- ry money, if I ever marry at all. To my own mind at present my state is the more gracious as a bachelor." CHAPTER V.—As mix, SrAnuS FLY •Ur - Though he was mach of a student and more of a dreamer, Mr. Rookstone was a true friend, helper and counsellor to the poor of his parish. It was a sadly ignorant parish, such an one might expect' to light upon could some magicionta wand reverse the glass of time and and take us back a a century to the days on Farmer George and Saaffy Charlotte. Reading and writing were rarest accomplishmentktainimg those a mature years, dig% spibielicEoole and schoolmasters,' the youthful mina was in a state of dal:knees Which Made a simple garue of dominoes in the Victar's Reading Room seem as 'mysterious and perplexing as an inectiption on a 13eltylonian brick. Often in the long winter evenings would Mr. Rockstone tear himself away from his own connertable fire -aide to go down to the little Reading Room, where he would labour with s,ublipae patience at the mystery of deniiines, or the perplexity of Nugguis " or"Slap Jack," two games at cards, by which he tried to enliven the dunness of a purely literary evening. Here, too, he would read, aloud, and enlighten the rustic mind by ailettder in the Slatularcl. or the Post, and would listen geodnaturedly to the rustic ideati as to the last political crisis. Nor did the Vicar °Definehis ministrations to the vicinity of vicarage, chard], and schools. His sympathies extended to :the furthest limits of an extensive but sparsely populated parish. The Deverills had been settled at hiorcomb for nearly. a 111012th, and it was the first week in' December when Mr. Rookatone set out one mild, sunny inorning for a leisurely ride to Wyrnperley Marsh, which was at the ex- treme edge of Chadnouth Parish. The soft west wind and bine sky suggented April rather than mid -winter, and the Vicar felt p. privilege to exist as he trotted along a Devonshire lane on his steady going old horn, Don—so called because he was aa stupid and as lazy as some of the college dons Mr. Rockstone had known in his youth. The Vicar, who was at all times somewhat a dreamer, was most of all given to day- dreatning when he rode his good old bay cob, who never did wrong, except so far as to come to a dead stop now and then when he found the Vicar's mind had wandered, to crop and munch the hedgerow, or the young hazel twigs, for a peaceful five minutes, or to get his head down into a dry ditch after Borne succulent herb, 'before his rider roused himself from his reverie so far as to become aware that locomotion had ceased. The Vicar loved Don, and Don loved the Vicar, would reoognise his master's voice afar off in the garden, and appeal to him from his stable with loud neighings. Don had carried the Vicar over every acre ef his capacious parish, and knew every cottage at which he was accustomed to stop, and every turn in the lanes which led to his own stable.. Horse and rider had a gentle tussle now and then when Don wanted to go home —which was the normal conditiori of his mind—and when the Vicar wanted to go further afield. But this morning Don was as fresh and as ready for his work an it was in his nature to be at anytime, and he got. over the. ground rather quicker than usual. The levee Chad is one of the mot pictur- esque streams in England, but even the Chad has its bits of commonpilace ,• and it is,. never lese romantic( than in that broad reach whioli is bounded on one side by Wymperley Marsh, on the other by new level meadows 'where the cattle wallow in fatness and 'wade breast deep in the tank sedgy grabs. The marsh mistake nothing but wild fowl, and can only be eroded at one point by horse or foot painenger, who has to piek his way along a rough stone causeway, which Was constructed in the .dim remote - nem of an unrecorded past, end which it Is nobody's busitiess to improve or repair in the present. Yonderi hovel, with low Olt wdls and a gable roof of blackened mode, had been ten- anted for the last forty years by a basket maker, whoae gipey wife had died eon after old. The child hacl down up Ninth hhia somehow, as the birds grow la their nests, in that looely place, without wernauly help of any kind, and be had grown into a creature of a etrenge wild beauty, in which her gipay blood was manned. She had grown almost to womanhood When Mr. Roketone cause to the pariah, and he heel been interested ili her as a 'curious greeith of savage ignorance in the very miclet of civilization. She had grown up knowing hardly anything which oivilzied young wo- man know, but she had on the other hand the innocence of ignorance, had no more knowledge of the outer world, ite pleasures, temptations and sills, than she had of the great ehining worlds in that unfathomable universe above her head. She could neither reed nor write, she could not count her own ten fingers without breaking down two or three tiros in the attempt, and die bad never been inside a chloral since she was ohrietened. Her Muted excuse when °barg- ed with his sine of omission was that he was a very poor man, and that he lived four miles and a half away from over thing.' "How could. 1 send her to school ?" he asked, "You might have moved tet a more civil- ized home,' said the Vicar. , "Moved 1 Why this cottage is my own freehold, parson. I'd as soon part with my right arm as sell the house that shelters me. I should never get another if ono I sold this. The money would all go in drink." "Yon might at least go to church once a week," pursued the Vicar. "You wander many a mile in the week to sell your basket/. Could yon not walk a few miles on the Sun. day to save your soul ?" john Dawley shook his head. "When a man has lion on the tramp all the week he wants his rest on Sunday,' he said. The Vicar talked to Madge Dawley, tried to teaoh her the elements of Chriatianity— but the task was difficult. He could not ask her to walk nine miles a day in quest of eplightenment He rode over to the cottage by the marsh on often as he could, and he to* more pains with this beautiful young ignoramus than withanybody 18 1118 parish., After be had been engaged thus for about n year, he began to think he hail idled scene raya of light upon the dimness of the girl's naked. • hatelligence ;eke:Lied to be a waikeeing. Madge waa lise�hitdlihuia 1 er remarke upon the Gospel, and more (=Hone 'abt the world in which she lived. • Mr. Rockstone was full of hope about her, vvhea the nisap- ell •snddenlyfrom the fre- , th , marsb, and parish ,of Chadmouth, wothottb leaving the slightest clue to the mod.? ,aid Motive of her departure. All that her Whet could tell the parson was that hehad left the hovel at daybreak to carry his baskets to a remote market towo, where there was a fair ; and on coming Back 'at midnight he found the house empty. Had he ever seen a strange man lurking about 'the cottage? Did he suanece his daughter of any acqnaintence with a person, who might lure her sway? . No, to both questions. Mr. Rockstone took infinite pains to trace thefugitive, but iti vain'she had net been seen hothe village, nen at the nearest rail- wity station. The local polio could do no- thing, the metropolitan police were equally at fault. John Dawleyni daughter was but , another vanished, drop in the great -ocean of humanity. . - five years. afterwarde the basket maker, returning towards niidnight from the same nnanket now; and t4p.,eame -annual fair upon the anniversary of his daughter's flight, ifound a child, apparently between. two indite° Years old, sitting on his hearth staring at the fire, which had been lighted not longbefore by unknowa hands. -He had to occasion to puzzle hist:trains about the child's identity, for •she was the exact reproduction of his daughter's infancy, and she wore round her neck the incite.* glo,ss necklace which Madge had worn from infancy to 'womanhood, her mother's favor- ite Ornament without which she had never considered herself dressed.. He searched the hovel,thinkingnto feid his daughter in hiding somewhere; hilt the place was empty save- for that young thing squatting before the. fire.- • He questioned. the child, but she was backward in her i speech, and •could only express her own , wants in a very infautine fashion. Maggie tired, Maggie hungry, Maggie want railke She did not cry for her mother, or make any objection to her changed surroundings. She ate her aupper of dow bread contented- ly; but she refund tont upon the basset - maker's knee. She curled herself up like a kitten upon the bed where he put her, and slept as peacefully as a kitten. The basket maker took to his new bur- den with a stolidity which might be either resignation or indifference. Ile would have brought up the granddaughter exactly as he had brought up the daughter, but here the Vicar interfered. He arranged that the child should be boarded for two weeelts out of every four in the house of a respectable cottager on the outskirts of Chadinouth. During that fortnight the girl was to attend the school, and be Wight and ored for as a Christian child in a Christian country. The second fortnight in each month she liv- ed with her grandfather, and as sotn as her baby fingers were capable of work she began to help hini in his basket -making. Her friend the cottager taught her domestic work of all Kinds, and trained her to usefulness in the earliest age. She was able to keep the hovel in order from the time she was eight years old. Her board was paid for by the Vicar, who asked no otton help in this good work. When she was eleven years old the cottager's wife died, and Madge, who was able to read and write and cipher, now took up her abode permanently in the cottage on the marsh, and was only expect. ed to appeer at Sunday school and church Sometimes she tramped about the coun- try side with her grandfather, selling bas- kets. At other times she spent long, soli- tary days in the cottage garden, a quarter of an tore redeenied laboriously frem the marsh, a paradise of flaunting wallflowers, etook, and nasturtiums, hollyhocks and sunflowers with patches of potatoes and cabbage, and a tall screen of starlet -runners bright against blue river and blue sky in the hot summer afternoons, when Madge sat on a little mound at the edge of the stream. basket -weaving, and watching the lazy tide flow by her fingers moving softly with a monotonous regular motion as if she had been weaving a, net to catch the 001118 mr. Rook stone had deferret his visit to old Dawley' s cottage longer than usual, and he appnesthed the marsh to•day with a eel.- t.ain anxiety of mind, inasmuch as Madge had not appeared in her usual place in the gallery of his church for More than a Month. The weather bad been either bad or tioubt- ful on all those Sundays, and he had, taken that to be the, 0.0080 of her abeence, yet when a fifth Shadily came and the darkly beautiful face was not to be seen in 18ac. et/aborted place, the Vicar began to thlnk e, thei e mot be some more eerlone reason for Aladge)B 01500ECO than rain 'Arvind. The emolce rose in a this, white olumn from the low chimney of the hut, and a gleam of firenight showed in the windeW that looked across the =rah. There was 80010 life in the hovel at any rate. • Old Dawley Was sitting by the hearth which occupied one side of the low, dark liviugnoom, making a bseliet ; his grand- daughter Iteelt by the window with her tams folded upen the sill, looktnaout aerose the broad, level marah te the road on the edge of the low hill whielt shut out all the world beyond. The marsh was about a quarter of a mile in width, broken up hero and there into tools where the wild fowl congregated; a long etretch of waste land and dark water yery dear to the sports man, and not without a charm for the land- scape painter, but of no vela° to anyone else. The girl turned her head with a listless air an the Vicar entered, but she did not rise from her knees or cffer him any greet- ing night through. She breaks my rest, she with!' imet jitst an if she was half asleep all day, yet sigh as if she'd a mort o' trouble, half the do, as well as her own. She's the most die- oontentedest young female as ever I met idle's' awake almost all night, for I hear her said her grandfather, disoontentdly. " 1 don't know what has come over her. She's mansion ? No better, eh," as the old basket maker shook his head. "That's bad. The weather luta been against us old fellows for weather was bad enough to keep a healthy, dark eyes were looking at him dreamily, as if she were but half-conscious of external things, in the absorption of her own thoughts. , toss about Vother side the lath plaster, and active young woman like you from Ourch, Madge," added the Vicar, with good.humer- (id remonstranse, smiling at the girl who° the lest three months, But I didn't think " She's neither healthy nor active now," "Haw d'ye do, Dewley, how's the rhue- come, friend, you musint be hard upon her. It may be that the life is too lonely for her, and that she's not well. Young women most of them seem subject to neuralgia. now.a-days. They all seem to want tonics, quinine and iron, sea air, and change of Beene. What'e the matter, Madge ?" asked then/leer gently, laying his broad fatherly hand upon the raven heir. " Nothing's the matter," the girl answer- ed moodily "1 am tick of my life, that's all." 1 "You are tired of this lonely place, you 'want to leave your poor old grandtather ?" "No, I should he. no better any it here else. It Mu i; the place I m eked ef, it's my life." I "This is a case for quinine, I'll send you a box of pili'," said the Vicar cheerily, I Madge turned her bAck upon him and looked. out 08 thehi just as she had been looking when her patron entered. The old man got up from his three lagged stool; and pointed significantly towards the door. "Como out and have a teak, Dawley," said the Vicar. "your cottage is too War111 for me, mre, and I've got Don outside to look (TO BE CONTINUED.) A Great Fish Stray. On Wednesday and Thursday of last weak urmenal event occurred in the Des Moines river at Bonaparte, Van Buren county, Iowa. There is a dam across the river there, and no water passe.s dwelt& it, the man escape being taro -ugh the ma -race "and. the. waten heelsFor the piet few daya ill kinds of figh--blade bees, buffalo, bludecat, yellow oat, mud °A salmon, pike, robin:nee and all the varieties of fish in this dream—filled the millrace so full that the powerful wheels of the mill were stopped by them. An eye- witness writes: "The people, pi the town turned out en mass with rakes and hoee'and took out flab by the tub, basketand bagfull, and now everybody haa nth and to spare. They are of all sizes and varietiee, 10 to 12 - pound catfish and buffalo being frequent. The fish have been crushed by hundreds in the wheels, and thouaands have been carried away by the people. This began on the 18th and continues. The run is supposed to be on account of the severe weather having fro- zen the upper river and creeks to the bottom and the fish seeking. deeper water or breaks m the ice foie. more au. The mills were dos- ed, the wheels &topped, and race wickets opened yesterday to permit the nah to pass through and empty the race." Ae an evi- dence of the number of flab, the race, which they crowded for two days in succession, is about 300 feet long and 60 to 75 feet wine, .4a about ten or twelve feet deep Bona- parte is a, fatuous fishing ground. In winter holes are out in the ice and catfish weighing from 5 to 75 pounds are speared in large numbers. Tiger Shooting in India. Mr. John Powell, a zemindar in the Saha- runpore district, shot three very fine tigers a short time ago under peculiarly exception- al circumstances. Mr. Powell had gone down to his estate—which is in the vicinity of Badshabligh, a village on the south side, and two to three miles from the Timli Pass, on the road between. Saharunpore and Chu- krata. Iti Seiema a buffalo had been killed by a tiger. Mr. Powell bad a =than tied up near it ; on this he sat for some consider- able time ; but, nothing turning up, he grew tired, got offend rode home. He then had a bath, and intended to go for a drive ; but changed his mbad and went again to the ma- ohan. He had scarcely settled himself down—that ie, he had not been in the miechan ten Minutes -- when out stalk- ed a fine fulagrown tiger from the adjoin- ing jungle and commenced to devour the dead, buffalo. He fired a shot, which hit it in the shoulder and rolled it Over dead. He had simnel), reloaded the discharged barrel when out came another; at this he fired folk shots before he geve it its quietus. This animal had hardly given up moving its body in its final deatlathroes, when an enormous tigress put in her appearance. One well aimed shot struok her close to the ere and rolled her over dead. Now, ctll these three tigers were killed in a space of tittle somewhat less than half an hour ; and the very next day he killed a remarkably fine panther over the tame "kill." Climbing the Ladder Slowly. Gentleman (to tramp)—Why do yon a,sk for only a penny, my man? gest of you people want nickels and dimes ? Tramp—Yes, sir, but I'm a neW hand at the hotness,. an' I want to begin right; make it a dime, though, if you like. Laborer (to ivife of hie bosom, who hum, bly begs for a portion of his earnings).— " What, giveiye my money? Be aff wid ye 1 Yene not related to me at all, excet by marriage." Farming property in New Jersey can scarcely be sold at any pried, and farms which have been offered at auction tumid find no bidders: !NC mosquito ha at last making his work tell. FOREION NOTES. lately iarptiaottand.scost i500 oud R008i0. has l uaroo 00dnu oei nwh out nn zd eoodnu da n4 aseevdean7 thofofuorgeind paupers Onerrehffun,r edx ricehd tailoleon: cubic mfe2e4tnelefflgesprois. pose to (Herniae all foreign employees, The owner a the Lennon 2dines, Ur. ,:irylnovweloy4nWood. theverge one of 0f ergoeCI0 :71rn.A hot, was nearly kilied out huuting lest iwneLehog Auedop. dnmany have !seen out ap and built bu over, t there are still 444 burying grounds An improved Lee -Burton rifle Tis now thought to be the favorite of the British Communion. Piof. Tyndall has reported a white rain, atoue bow, oanbederLyoartidonMonteagle follows with the The Empress of Awitlia, having been forced ito give up hunting, ho token up fenoing for exercise. clergyman has been caught making olippings from books hi the reacting room of the British Museum, The experiment is to be tried of connec- ting all the British lightships with the shore by submarine cables. Paris is gayer now than it has been since the days of the Empire. The Faubourg, however, es still offish. The purification of the British turf has stimulated the Frenoh. Mr. Barnard has been warned off at Nice. The most famous cricket ground in the world, Lord's, has juat been enlarged by the purchase of more land at heavy figures. Se Paul's has joist had a new reredos put in costing £37,000. The old Cathedral is ooming into fashion again, and is crowded every Sunday. King Ja,-Ja., the African potentate who recently had to stand trial on board her Ma- jestyta ship Royalist, has been let off with a pension of £800. Germany ha,a now more than seventy man- ufactories of "champagne francalen Of 450,000 bottles imported annually by Russia, Germany provides 3e0,000. The Czar has refused to give the Comte de Paris permission for his son and the son on the Dao do Chartres to join the Rued= Imperial Guard. The shocutivg record for a single day was established at Lord Mansfield's; Perthshire, week before last. Fourteen hundred hew of game fell to eight guns. Baroness Burdett -Coutts is about to es. tablish workshops equipped with sewing machines where poor teamstresses oan go and use them at a low charge. Forty-one thousand chasubles formed one portion of the Pope's jubilee gifts. The i Chartreuse monks sent £20,000 n cash, and California sent a staff filled with gold dol- lars. The Platters rocks in Holyhead harbor are to be removed, and the Liverpool Mer- cury says that a "powerful line of American steamers will make Holyhead its head- quarters. London " opera has indeed gone down. Her Majesty's Theatre is to be transformed into an immense concert room, capable of hold- ing 4,000 persons, and called Her Najeety's Concert Hall. - The famous Goodwin Sands in -the Brit- ish Channel are disappearing. They have receded toward the Kentish coast half a mile within a ahort time, and show signa of generally breaking up. Ignatius Donelly mustpubliah or subside. Dr. Masson, Professor of Eoglish Literature in the Edinburgh University, apeaka of Mr. of Mr. Dannelly's cipher as " miserable driv- el drivel ending in a dame of arithmetical conundrnms which would be hissed even in Bedlam." Oxford's chances 'in the coming boat race with Cambridge are considered poor. .Mc- Lean, the President of the Boat Club, has just died of typhoid fever, themost promis- ing new oar is laid up with a sprain, and Titherington, the stroke of last year, refuses to row. An Anthropometrie Laboratory, with Francis Galton as President, is now being built in South Kensington. The purpose is to measure everybody's physique and sen- ses at various ages, to record family pecu- liarities, and gain much useful knowledge of the human race that we have not now. The Gretna, Green to which Englishmen usually took their deceased wife's sister when they wished to marry her, the Swiss canton of Neuchatel was disestablished by the Great Council on New Year's day. The inhabitants are much cut up, for tEey will lose the trade of about twenty Engliah couples a. year. The body of Mrs. Fox, wife of the quart- ermaster of the Connaught Rangers was buried with military honors at the military cemetery near Portsmouth on Jan. 25. She had been dangerously wounded during a Boer attack upon the regiment in the Trans vain in 1880, and finally :died in conse- quence. , Lord Colin Campbell lately applied to the London Court of Bankruptcy for a cer- tificate that his bankruptcy was extueed by misfortune without misconduct on his part.' Three thousands pounds of his liabilities arose front the costs of his divorce suit against Lady Colin Campbell. The certifi- cate was tefused. The Gaikwar of Baroda paid £240 for a month's rent of apartments in Paris, and was presented afterward, with a bill of £1, 120 for repairs and damages. The Prince left, and his train was stopped at Belfort by a Judge's order to detain the Maharajah's baggage till £800 was deposited with the police agents. He has made a formal pro- test to the President of the republic. At the canonization of the new saints in Rome, after the Pope's speech, the Cardi- nals presented his Holiness with the custoxn. ary gifts for the newly canonized saints, which consisted of a thick wee candle, two bowls, one silver and the other gilt ; three cages, one containing pigeons, another doves, and the third canariee and green- finches. There were also two small barrels, one filled with water and the other with wine. Cremation must be quietly striding for- ward. At the firet monthly meeting 6f the Churoh of England Burial, Funeral and Mourning Reform Association, presided over by Canon Elwyn, the motion was agreed to : "That in the present ondition of the public health it is imperative that a combined effort should be made on the part of ministate of religions members:0411e medi- cal profession, and persons of influence gent erally, to put a stop to the repulsive, dan- gerous and utterly indefensible provide° of 1 storing up in the neighborhood of large no - pnlations vast accumulations of litmeari re- mains in every stage of rrested and pro- nged cle coy." TAKER POR A MURDERER, • Wooing Vermonter's Experlenre en His 4V4V14 loefid0100 LONDON, Feb, g.5.—A mild-mannered and altogether inoffeneiVe'ltiellinn Pining "AP from Vermont crossed the ocean op the City of Chicago and arrived in London today. He got off the train fr .411 Liverpool at lihiston .Square Station • and dm e off to o Wel in a hansom, Jo $t as he was en. gaging a room two men, . whom he re- membered having seen wetehing him closely - at the Princen landing-atage, Liverpool, stopped up to him and demanded to know who he was. The young man got angry and told them that he was an in.merlean here on a pleasure trip and, that it woe none of their busmen who he was. The men told hint they wete detectives and that he bore a striking resemblance to Taseettn who was wanted for murdering Millionaire Snell in Chicago, end that, unless he could give a satisfactory account of himself, they would, Ing hip ono Scotland Yard. The young Vermonter, thoroughly frightened, tenured them that he was not Taseett, and showed them letters of introduction front prominent people in Vermont to Minister Phelps. The detectives went away and the young man jumped into a cab and hurried to the Ameri- can Legation to find out what it was all about. While he was talking over old pelmet days with Mr. Charles P. Phelps, son of the American Minister, the two detectives came in and wanted to know if the letters of in- troduction were all right. Being assured that they were, the detectives apologized, and, by way of atonement, showed the young Vermonter all around Scotland Yard. Singularly enough, the young man did bear a striking resemblance to the description of Tascott cabled here, and the detectives were amply justified in following him as they did. The instance only goes to show bow snowily every man who crosses the Atlinitie is watch- ed, and how thorough is the system of com- munication, between the police of the two nations. Scottish Crofters. The official accounts given sf the abject poverty and unutterable wretchedness among the crofters in the Scottish High- lands would melt a heart of stone. Anything more deplorable could not be easily imagin- ed. Take the following specimen from one of the most recent, reports of the Govern- ment Commissioners :— The Commissioners visited the house of Deneld Mackenzie, a crofter, a holding £1 rent. Ke is an old man .but he had at home five young children, sicklynooking and ragged. The general appeaaanco of his house • was exectediegly miserable and uncared for. For his household of seven he had but two beds. Pour slept in one bed and three in another. His lot, he said, produced this year upwards of twenty bolls of potatoes, and of that he had seven or eight bolls left ; but he had tato meal. He had a stook of a cow, a heifer, and four sheep, which, of course, entered by the same door. There is not even a partition to separate their house proper. He explained that he had lost a cow and stirk last year by starvation. Last spriug, too, his family had suffered from want of food, and they had subsisted as much as a week on what they had. bor- rowed. He had spent three months last summer at the fishing, but just got what kept him. The Commionera afterwards visited a very remarkable cape of three: blind people, who are occupants of a thirty shilling lot adjoining the last mentioned crofter. They had inherited the lot from their father. There had been a family of ten, of whom the three blind folk had been the only survivors. One of them, Donald Mackenzie, was now married,- and the wife worked the croft for the three blind people, who were quite helpless. The two brothers, it appeared, had received some education, and could talk a sort of English veryfinently. They were, as might be expected, even worse off than their neighbours; and the wife told the visitors that once in August last, before their pota- toes were -ready for lifting, they had sub- sisted for a week on the produce of their hens' nests. Quite a typical case of poverty was that of Donald Mackenzie. a middle- • aged man, who occupied a half croft at a rental of £2. He was married, with five young children, and they had been living exclusively on potatoes, occasionally with fish, for three months, until they got a half - boll of meal from a destitution fund. That was now done, and he had that day borrow- ed a bowlful from a neighbor. He had fish- ed at Stornoway in the summer, and had kept the family alive; but his wife assured. the stranger that he had not brought home a single shilling. She added that she her- self had not had shoes for four years, and the children were no better off. Killing Park Deer. Here is what is said of one of those who was lately tried in Edinburgh for park deer raiding, and for killing some of the wild animals that live in those desolate wilder- nesses : Macmillan lived in a very small cot at the back of his father's house, which his father had used as a barn. It was very poorly fur- nished even for that locality. There was a family of five small children, and there was only one bed itt the house, with one blanket. Three of the children slept out with a neigh- bour. Macmillan cultivated the half of his father's oroft, and had one cow. He was also a fisherman, having a share in a boat of forty-one feet keel; but, though he had attended the Barra fishing last summer, he had made nothing. His wife had got erboll of meal from the destitution fund, but, be- sides that, she had only two barrels of po- tatoes. Previous to getting that meal, they had lived exclusively an potatoes. She stated that when her husband went out to the deer raid, there was but one has rel of potatoes; but since then, she explained, she had fallen back upon the see& Let it be borne in mind that these are not cases of extra misery but are not much other than fair samples ot what are going in different localities, and yet these are the people who are being evicted because they have not been able to pay for their miserable crofts rote often more than doable their tel value as determined even by those whose natural sympathies are all with the landlords. Of course, law -breaking is bad, but great allowances are to be made for starving men who have starving Wives and children. Comfortable and Well-to,do people can preach patience with a good deal of fervour, but perhaps if their stomachs were empty them eloquence might fail and their ideas be aothewhat changed.. Rural Simplieity. A drummer Who kissefl a country girl re. marked, ecstatically: "ttow charming it is to press the lip of mnoeence for the firbt time 1" "Alt you city fellers thud hove gone to the some school. Every mother's son of you says the same thing when he kieses me," she replied.