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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1889-3-14, Page 2YOUNG FOLKS. The Land of Nod. Where's a beautiful land that the children know, Where it's Summer the whole year round; Where chocolate-drepe, and balls and tops, Lie thick on the grassy ground; Where the trees gro* tarts and Banbury hearts, And bull'a.eyes pop from the pod, , .Aud you never do wrong the whole day long— They call it the Land ef Ned 1 'When the clock strikes eight, and each curly pate Lies low on the pillow white; When the small naouee squeak': and the wain• soot creaks, And the ahadows dance in the moonlightstreaks, And the ster-lamps jewel the night; fully they did emir work. On the morrow Tommy worked hard to When the eat lids close on the ripe eheek's make up for the day before. About mid rose day he master came to inepeot each one's And the'tiny feet that trod work, When he reached Tororay's table The nursery floor are heard no more— he turned each face over and looked at it Hurrah for theLand of Nodi oarefully. "Here, what does this mean?" he asked, as There they play in the puddles and steal he picked up the last face, holding it so that frnm the stores all might see. .A. loud laugh followed from "Now, you will have to work on wax dolls for spoiling that beautiful one thie morning, You will have to stay here for ever, may be; for very few beoeme so good that we allow them to go back. Poor Tommy I what could he do? A stranger iu a Orange land' and not oven a guome for a friend . , Someone rudely tapped him on the shoal- ais and 'mid: "To work with you. we can have no laggards here." Then takinihim by the arm, he put him in front of a table and told him he was to put eyes in the doll faces lying there. One little gnome, kinder than the rest, told him how to do it; and to, have great care, as the master was coming on the morrow, and woe be to the one who had any. thing wrong. Tommy went to work and succeeded better than he expected to; but a good deal of his time was spent in wen:thing his strange com- panions, and seeing how neatly and taste - =They juggle with matchea and knives; -And they poke suoh jokes at the grown-up folks, Who daren't say $' Don't " for their lives 1 All the persons who teach are deprived of speech, And wIlipped wi.h a pleated rod, And fed upon datea, threngh dark dungeon - grates, In. the beautiful Land of Nod I When the clock strikes eight, and eaoh curly pate Lies low in the darkened room ; When'the small mouse squeaks and the wain- scot °reeks, Soon they brought it—a doll twice as And the shadows dance in the moonlight- large as Tommy. In vain he protested every one the room, and no wonder. Tommy in his hurry had put in one dark brown eye and one blue eyo. "What shall be done with him?" said the master. Many were the tnethade of punishment proposed, but none seemed to be severe enough. "I know," said one at the last; "make him swallow one of those wax dolls that spoiled in the making." " Yes, yes," said they all; " Urn is just the thing." " Geb the largest one you can find," said the overseer. streaks, And the orioket chirps through the gloom; linen the soft lids close on the ripe cheek's rose, And the tiny feet that trod The nursery floor are heard no more— Hurrah for the Land of Nod 1 AM the dear old dollies are mended there That were broken in days that have flown; All the kittens that died in their early pride To beautiful cats have grown; All the pleasures upset by the wind and the wet Smile out in the sunshine broad; And. the meaning of "dose" not a youngster knows, In the wonderful Land of Nodi When the clock strikes eight, and each curly pate Lies low on the dainty bed; :When the shadows dance in the moonlight• streaks, of it is consumed in South America. .And the dull fire's core glows red; dream, he was careful of Susie's playthings, An African trader has so trained a young When tile eat liale cisme en the ripe cheek's lest h e might bate another trip there. gorilla that it follows him around like a TOM doe. It recently aocompartied him on a And the tiny feet that trod tramp of 20 miles. The animal does num- erous tricks and is so docile that its master The " New York Herald" says :—One him. esn't hesitate to allow it to sleep with The holy oity of Tunis, Kairwan, oen nowbe entered by0hristians, and its mosques oan be visited. The great mosque has 565 columns of marble of eveiy conceivable color and of every variety of architecture, and is, perhaps, the next in beauty to the great mosque in Cordova. The new pencils introduced by Faber for writing upon glass, porcelain and metals, in red, white and blue, are made by melting together four parts of epermaceti, threeparts tallow and two parts wax, this mixture beingcolored with white lead, red lead or Prussian blue, as desired. against it, and said he would nob do it. They held him; forced his mouth open, and ---Tommy in some unaccountable manner, found himself back on the grilse right where he had started from. The first thing he did was to feel his throat, to see if he had really swallowed the doll; but concluded that he ned not. Then he found he was his nature!' size. He got up and turned over the rook where he had seen the gnome, but unearthed nothing but a big black (wicket. By this time he was fairly awake—for he thought he must have been asleep, "though it was a wonderfully vivid dream," as he told his mother afterwards. He went to the house, hoping all the morning's work had been a dream. But he knew by &mien looks that her lost doll had come to Iife, and being thoroughly sorry by this time, ran up stairs where he kept his pennies, took them out and went to a store and bought the big- gest doll that could be had for the money. Tornmy was a changed boy after his visit to Gnomeland, and though it was only a As YOU LIKE IT, TRE tIAGIC WELL. T,Jpon nsy table stands a well— No end of secrets it oau tell; IM liquid Oepths, of little Rime, Are deriter than nn Ethiop 'a face, e I shut it from the light without; And yet it has the power, no doubt, When touched by some Ithuriel hand, Light to emit from land to land. This fountain is not mine alone, o there a kindred treaattre own; Possessed it was in Harner's age, And from it bloasomed Dante's page. When Shakespeare took one drop from it, What unimagined stores of wit, Ofbeauty, subtlety, and power, Poured forth on that eventful hour ! With it ne played hia greatest part, With it unlooked the human heart, And, under Ithemes of joy and woe, Wrote what no future cam forego. I sometimes tremble when 1 think What things lie deep below its brink, What sorrow its misuse mat bring, What joys from it may take their wing. Although a child may dip in it, Its outlined field is infinite; Part of the wotld's moat precious dower, No human thought exhausts its power. --Noel Benton in Christian Union. When a pretty girl turns her head to look at a young man on the street it is al moat sure to turn his head completely. A New Jersey man has made a ballot -box which cannot be stuffed. Now all the country wants is a voter built in the same way.—"Yonkers Statesman." "Coffee Pot," a well known charm:ter who peddled lunches around the New York newspaper cffioes, is dying in that city. He is worth a quarter of a million dollars. George Agustus Sala is said by a Paris correspondent to have had his ambition as a painter cut short by having it pointed oat to him that he had painted one of his figures with six toes. 11 the Anti -Poverty Society is seeking no- toriety, it is successful. Attendance at its meetings is now to be regarded as a sin for whiola the priest cannot grant absolution. This is Archbishop Corrigan s mandate. The kerosene used in Dakota freezes solid WILDOATS IN A FIGHT - _— A Duel Between TWO Tome in the PrOSORCO ot an Applauding Female. Levi Smalling a Spring Brook hunter, re- cently witneseed a retnalkable fight between two male wildcats in the woods of that Ben tion. "1 was still hunting for squirrels and rabbits," said Mr. Smalling, "when I heard a terrible yowling and snarling down in the ravine from where I Was tramping through the woods. I knew n.t once that the noise was made by whcloats, for I had heard them sore= at night many a time, and my first thought was that a wildcat had been caught in a trap and was yelling from pains I listened for a minute, and then I heard two distinct voices. I hurried to the balsa of a, ledge, to look down into the ravine, and on my way it seemed as though I could hear three wildcats' screaming, and I was not mistaken in this, as I soon found out. , "When I got where I could look down I SSW what all the fuss was about. Juan open space two he wildcats were making the hair fly from one another's bodies,yelliag, scratch - ng, and biting, and every now and then umbling over each other and tearing up the leaves. On a. limb close by to them eat a she wildcat, with her back hutnped up, and she was spitting and aiming, and Urging the he ones on. I made up my mind right away that the two toms were fighting over her, and 'enjoyed the row more than anything I had ever eeen in the woods. When the toms got tired of clawing one another they crouched on the ground a few feet apart and lashed their tails and howled, while the she one on the limb kepb up a continual noise and lash- ed her tail, too, "After each resting spell the toms rushed at one another again, and while they were ripping and rearing and making the blood fly, I olambered down the ledge, stopping every time ,they stopped,for fear they might hear me and either run away or make for me. It seemed to be nip and tuck be- tween them, for they were both big and strong, and each appeared bent on killing the other before he would give up. I want- ed to kill them both, and get their hides and the bounty money, and so I waited for a good shot at them. I had a charge of buckshot in my right barrel and a bullet in the left, and my intention was to send the buckshot at them when mixed in the next bout. "They flew at one another again, but before I could reaoh the spot that I want- ed to get to before I blazed away the toms at seven degrees below zero, and it is as separated once more. By this time they much a part of the household work to melt the cake of kerosene as it is to wash the were pretty well fought out, and for a few minutes all they did was to glare at one dishes or sweep the floor. A curious crop 18 a harvest of 4,000 spong- es. It was obtamed by an Austrian savant as the result of an experiment of literally sowing small parts of living sponges in a soil favorable to them produotion. The production of the es plant 'in South America ia so enormous that one eighteenth part of it would be sufficient to swamp the markets' of the outside world. Almost all The nursery floor are heard no more— Hurrah for the land of Nod! And it's Oh! for the dreams of thenild2 old the:old, , days That have fled for ever and aye 1 "'Tor I watch and weep, as the dull dawns creep Up the cold gray cliffs of the sky. lUould mine eyelids close on that bleat repose, Wmild the hearts that lie under the sod Rime to greeb the glad sound by my feet and beat On my heart—in the Land of Nod? Winn the clock strikes eight, and each:curly pate Liesslow in the curtain's shade; -When the small mouses squeaks and the waingoot creaks, .And the shadows dance in the moonlight - streaks, And the hearth -sparks glimmer and fade; •Whenithe soft lids close on onnhotnripe cheek's rose, And the tiny feet that trod eiThe nursery floor are heard no more— Hurrah for the land of Nod? [Illustrated London News TOMMY'S ADVENTURE. EY ]3ESSIE CLARE. Tommy was not always a bad little boy, but sometimes a spirit of naughtiness would • 'prevail, and he would be sure to get into trouble. Just now he was in disgrace, for he had a quarrel with his little sister and had taken her prettiest doll and thrown it into the fire, and before it could be rescued it had burned to ashes. As goon as it was done the little boy was sorry, but it could not be helped nor would it reconcile Susie to the loos of her favorite doll. His mother had given him a severe talking to, and he had ram out and thrown himself on the grass, wishing so much that he was BOMO place where little boys were not always being ..scolded. He looked up at the blue sky and watched the soft, white clouds floating lezily by, and was thinking how nioe it would be if he might be a fairy— he was sure fairies had no troubles. Just then he heard a voice close by, and turning his head beheld %little man about four 'inches high standing on a fiat -rook beside him. He was dressed in brown -and green, and was altogether a comical, lookinglittle obap. " So, ' emid he 'you think we fairies have -an easy time of it, do you? Suppose you Just COMO with me and see what we do; then, maybe you will not be so anxious to -exchange pitmen" Tommy was startled at first, but by the time the little man had finished he had de- termined to see what he could of fairyland. The little man tonohed him and he found Isimself growing smaller and smaller, until he was the same eize as his companion. Then the fairy said, "Como with me," -opening a tiny door on the very rook he was standing on. Tommy followed, feeling very --queer and saying to himself. "What if never get out of Isere again." They went airing a narrow path out out of the earth for quite a distance, and finally came to a large room, where he 'law many little fairies who all seemed to be doing etametlaingWhich he could not make out. , " said hisnsompanion, "is one of our workrooms, We have Di great many of 'them, and we Snake all the pretty toys you gee in the stores." He took Toinmy into many other rooms and ehowed him how they lived, at last bringing him to a room Where dolls were made. " "1 don't mind telling yen now that I ern not a fairy, but a gnome, Fairies do have nice time, he you thought they had; but smotnes ,dertit, Atia you are a gnome now, my bueltengs ig to punish libtle boys who spoil pretty toys, eapedially if they belong ab other people," of the greatest men of this earth, Colon- el Routh Goshen, the famous Arabian giant, was laid to rest yesterday in the little ceme- tery at Mindlebush, N. J., and only a few neighbours and hie adopted daughter were the mourners. The death of this well known museura attraction oecurred on Tuesday, as published in the Herald. Goshen had been suffering for several months peat from a complication of diseases. but an attack of dropsy finally proved fatal. During his sickness his nurses had recourse to a double tack le and block in order to raise the big man from bed. Nothingin life was more than i pleasing to him an his mmense size, and he took great delight in all the arrangements made for lifting him about on the improvis- ed derrick, because it was a constant remind- er that he was very large. The plain farm- house looked very dreary yesterday morning. The oloth-covered cetteket which contained the remains was too large to pass through the door and the corpse was taken outside and placed in the coffin, resting on the front ver- anda. The great coffin was eight feet in length. It was lifted into a waggon by eight stalwart farmers and then borne to thegrave, where a prayer was said by the preacher and the body lowered into the ground by means of four strong ropes. As no gate would al- low the passage of the coffin a section of fence was removed 'in the yard. The colonel was buried in the wig which he bad worn for years to conceal his black, kinky hair, and which was SURpOted to hide the evidences in his alleged negro origin. The giant was first discovered by Showman P. T. Barnum in 1857, and it is altogether likely that he did not himself know his exact age or birth- place. The colonel had once lived in Mexi- co, where he gained his military title, and was a genial gentlernan. For thirty years he told marvellous tales about his adveix tures, enough to fill a book, but before his death be (named to the parson that they were untrue. Row East Londoners Farm. Rev. Hugh Huleatkof Moosoniin,gives an account of the operations of the London Artisan colony, which owed its inception to a drawinterocm meeting at the:residence of the Baroness Burdette-Coutta. The colony consists of nineteen families, numbering in all over a hundred souk, most of whom are from the east end of London. The London Artisan colonists, Mr. Huleabb says, in tak. ing up their homesteads at fd.00somin, "did every man that was right in hie mind," like the children of Israel; every man had been doing what was right In hie own Wm% and so there has been many mistakes and disappointment% This Is the chief cause why five out of the fourteen col- onists have turned aside from farm- ing to follow their own trades In Moose- - min and other towns. This is how some of the partiee commended operation:4: Nurnberg 2 and 3, heeds of families; isa the morning they commenced work, harnessid their oxen to the plough, but they would not move; the men thought the beasts were obstinate, and belabored them most unmercifully, but it was no sass; from mornhig till naid-day mein oxen and plough remained in etatu quo until a neighboring farmer <same to their help. He found the Londoners had so harneseed the bIllooks that they could not possibly move; he put them all right, showed them how to handle the *Ugh and turn up the earth, and both these raen aro new average plough- men. On the whole, Mr. Hnleatt speaks of the experiment of making artiOaR/1 turn ar mere, ao a MOMS. , The Illustreted Lotdoti NeWs will erect an enact reprodtiotion Of Shakeepearen hewn at Stratford,MS-AVOn fin* itii headquettere etthe Paris idlxpoeition this year. The In. tendon It to make the copy complete in every detail. Prudence is the better part tif ehrowda netts. So Mr. Ediaon is to have 8,000 square feet of space in the Paris Exposition solely for the display of the more important of his own works. Is there a parallel to this in all the annals of invention? This ex -news- boy is the eighth,wonder of the world, and you are respectfully requested not to forget it. A young negro boy, only tbree years old, is going to England for exhibition. He is blind, but possesses a remarkable memory. The youngsteriwill answer 3,000 questions contained n a book, and any combination of figures or MUMS told him at the beginning of the entertainment will be repeated at the finish. The old Marquis of Donegal, who died the other day in his ninetieth year, was a typical Irish nobleman such as Lever depicts n his novels. He was rich and spent his money in his own country, where he lived the greater part of hie life. His son, Lord Belfast, who succeeds him, sympathisee with Horne Rule. The religious condition of New York ap. pears to be rather discouraging. There are a million and a quarter of lehabitante in it and of these there are only 100,000 who are metnbers of any Protestant church. Instead of successfully fighting.the abounding un- godlinees the ohurch actually reoeding. At present in a certain district with 631,000 inhubitants, there are 127 congregations. In 1860 there were in that same district half the inhabitants and 141 congregations. How is this? Have Protestants lost their en- thusiasm and their go? Are they satisfied with makingtheirfinechurcheslittleeke than rioh men's clubs while they leave the masses to perish in their sin? Something wrong somewbere. The Canadian Pain& coed rivals northern Florida and the Carolina cosine in oompar- tive exemption from snow. The firet flurry of .now at Vlotoriathis winter ocourred on the 14th inet., and almost. difiappeared the following day. It is worthy of note that many places on the east; side Of Vancouver, in the lee of the mountains that traverse the bland, combined vrith their inild winters the absence of strong winds and an absence of rainy weather, such as is not generally found on the Pao& coast, or even bi parts of East, ern Canada. Undoubtedly the dry side of Vancouver will yet abound in favorite health resorts for people too delicate to en - dare the bracing and for most people thoroughly healthy climate of the Dominion eat3t of the Rookies. The sad case which occurred a few days ago at Norwalk, Ohio, in which a young lady died in the dental chair, after being placed under the influence of chloroform, emphaeleee the need that eniste for dendrite to be wc:11 acquainted with the praotice Of auscultation, whereby they may be Able be ascertain the condition of the patient's heart with enough certainty, at any tete, to know whether to ompley, or not to employ, a powerful anteStlietio. In the opinion of most people, however, chloroform. should nob ba given except by a duly qualified 1:tradition- er ; and until dentists (Albino With their other qualification's a prs.otioal ability to diagnose incipient or developed heart disease it would, no doubt, be V0011 to Oat it a phyoldan when ohlettiform ie required. We believe, however, that the modern dental mune inoludee instruotion ita the usual methods of eismifitation. another, swing their tads back and forth, and howl. The she cat then !prang from her limb to another branch, giving a scream as she leaped, and in lees than ten seconds the he ones dashed at each &nee and fought more furiously than ever, filling the woods with their yowls. "Then I banged away at the heap with the oharge of buckshot. One of the wild- cats leaped into the air and fell down dead, and the other went howling into the bushes out of my sight. I saw that there was no. use in trying to get another ehot at him, and I senb the bullet at the she 'one and knocked her off the limb. I didn't stir from the spot until I had chucked a charge into each barrel, and then I hurried down to tat if I had killed the he one. She as dead enough, I was glad to find out, and. then 1 bbought I would search for the live Tom, thinking that he might have been wounded by one of the buckshot. I. found him after a little'and I guess he would have given me a pretty ,lively time of it if two of his legs hadn't been broken. As it was, he showed fight and tried to tear my bootleg off, but I had the advent sge of him, and I shot him through the bead.' SINGULAR PREMONITIONS. A man Twice Saves Mis Life by Obeying sterlons impulses. A few minutes after the fall of the Win- ne), building, while a crowd was [lathering to viewathp ruins in which so many mangled and dea,depsople lay, a stranger who was gazing ar the vrreoked structure', from the opposite aide of Wood street entered into conversation with a Pittsburg reporter. He said: "For about five years on every week day, I have passed along tbat side of Wood street at about the hour this terrible disaster oc- curred. To -day I was on my way to Fifth avenue, and had reached the Chamber of Commerce building wheu a sudden impulse came upon me to take the other side of the stied. I crossed over, and before I reached the sidewalk the crashcame. Had I kept along as I was going I would have been in front of the Weldin building juin in time to be crushed by bricks and falling timber. I can no more account for the action which probably saved my life than you oan ; I simply felt that I must do it and I do not know that I felt even ' a premonition of danger. "Years ago I escaped being robbed. and possibly murdered in a way that was equally remarkable. At the time I was a collector in the province of Ontario. One bitter cold winter evening I found mvselt in a small town about fifty miles from Toronto with a large sum of money in my possession, Hav- ing determined to go to Toronto that night on the nine o'clock trair, I telegraphed to the.hotel where I usually stopped and asked that a room be reserved for me and a fire pub in it. When the train came along I got on the front of the smoking oar, walked through the car, through the next one, then got off and walked to the telegraph office and sent another menage to the Toronto hotel stating that I had changed my mind and was not coming that night What made me do go was more than I could tell —the same indefinable impulse that control- led me today had poseemion of me, "I went back to the house where I had taken supper and remitted there all night. The next martial / read in the Toronto papers of an &Mau b and attempted robbery of a man Who had arrived In that city on the train I was gang to take but did not. The man WM sandbagged while on his way from the depot to the hotel, and frora the des- cription given he must have been my exact eounterpart—dressi, size, color of hair and even the cut of his whiskers, being like my own. The thugs had mistaken him for me and they knew I had money." Mr. Spurgeon. Mr. Spurgeon the well•known London preacher, has a beautiful residence at Beulah, Upper Norwood, with extensive grounds and handeome ooneervatorien A 'Ater cafe ket frotio the Queen le one of his moot pre: - dons household gods. His corresponclenee averages 500 letters a rlay, and he employs three secretaries to answer the eomtrainicce. tiene Which coin° to him from all parts of the world, The onernions revenueo of the Metro- politan Tabernaete add entirely devoted to the various philazithroplo inovements isa whieh the reverend gentleman is interested, isa the ample income derived from his boolse and sermons is more than 'sufficient for his utmost needs. CONDENSED DESPATCHES, Port Arthur is already without snow. n'ifteen Mormon converts have left South- ern Georgia for Utah. Another rich strike is reported from the Silver Mountain mine, near Port Arthur, Victoria University, at Cobeurg, has all interesting colony cf Japanese etuder ts just now. Cherie': Phillips, of Sorel, Qaebeo, a Ince ther of John L. nullivares backer, has made an assignment. J. W. Roe and Mrs. Cooper) of Oshawa, have been lined $100 and $50reapeotively for violation of the Scott Act. With the single exception of Quebec) the reports from the business centres in regard to settling up day are of a eatisfaotory tone. The victims of the accident at St George are reported as improving. The injured waiter, who was taken to Brantford, is dead The inauguration of President Harrison was not favored 'with good weather, but there appears to have been no husk of en- thusiasm. A Kingston mother discovered is parcel of 'nothing belonging to her daughter packed up preparatoryno eloping. The mother suited- tuted some of her own clothing, and when the sweetheart took the bundle he was ar- rested for larceny. The body of Hon. George Robertson late member of the Michigan House of Ram. eentatives, has bean recovered from a mill pond at Albion, Mich. He was despondent over his wife's death, but whether it was an accident or a suicide ia not known, DJ•R Leary and Will Gronus, each aged 10 years stole money, bought revolvers and started out from Jackson, Miolt. to kill Indians. They went to the woods, met Eddie Byron, also aged 10, when Leary shot him in the neck. The boys were arrested, and Leary said he didn't know it was loaded. Byron may recover. Another Desert Disappearing, The Australian desert which was once sup- posed to cover she larger part of the in- terior of that continent is going the way of all the other deserts that have failed to stand the test of exploration. Just as the early explorers of the African coasts filled all the regions that had not been visited with uninhabitable wastes, so a great part of in- ner Australia has been represented as utterly valueless to man. The faith in this illimitable desert was somewhat sheiren in 1872, when Giles found Amadeus Lske,200 miles long, at itsgeographical centre; and the few explorers who have since visited inner Australia have whittkd off great sections of the desert and put forests and streame where only sand was supposed to be. Sir Samuel Davenport, in an address et Adelaide a short time ago, said that the recent travels of Messrs. Lindsay and Tietkens had proven that inner Australia WWI by no means a Saharan waste and, though. now unhabited, it was espable Of supporting a large popula- tion. They found not only wide regions °li- vered with luxuriant grass, but also mineral deposits that are bertata to attract attention. Almost in the geographical centre of the oon tinent Tietkens founded several large rivers whose head waters were on the northern slopes of mountain ranges. The rivers flow- ed north, andes far as he traced them he found a great deal of large and valuable tim- ber along their banks. Lindsay's investigation between 18 ° and 24 ° south latitude resulted in some surprin ing discoveries. In the McDonnell range oamountains he found garnets and rubies and abundant indications that mining in this re- gion for precious stones will be highly pro- fitable. On Tennant's Creek he found gold. bearing quartz in abundance, and he brought home •stories of almost boundless pasture lands, of water in abundance, and of deep, blue lakes, one of which, some 300 miles north of Amadeus Lake, ie of large and as yet unknown extent. His explorations cov- ered a region, extending several hundred miles north anti south; and both east and west of hie route stretches a vast and whet- !), unknown regien that gives promise of be- ing equally inviting. The great railroad which is to extend across the continent from north to south through the eastern part of the country once supposed to be a desert, will much facilitate the work of exploration ; and although inner Australia has been sadly neglected by tray - tillers, it will not be many years before the last of her geographical seorets is revealed. This railroad is now in operation for 660 miles north of Adelaide. Track layingis pushing steadily on and the line is growing southward also from Port Darwin, its north- ern terminus. An exploring party has just been sent out by the Geographical Society of Australasia to more fully explore the re. won, of which our first accounts have been so unexpectedly gratifying. Sikkim and Suakin. Sikkim and Suakin both threaten to give the Britiali forces and their allies more trou- ble in the immediate future. The Mahdi is about to send reinforcements to Osman Digna for a new attack on the English lines, while the refund of the Thibetans to make any concessions to the Indian Government seems to render another campaign among the Himalayas necessary for the coming saloon. Again, the dangerous impetuosity of the Ameer of Afghanistan needs to be restrained. Flushed with hie defeat of Ishak Khan, he preitioaes, it is said, to take steps against Rums, as the suspeoted instigator of Ishak. This imprudence England would have to restrain, since, however well pleased with the Ameees fidelity to her, she could not permit him to go beyond his frontier and thereby give RUMais an eta:lute for driv- ing him back and crossing in her turn. Al together, if the bursting of that "thunder aloud" whioh the British Secrettuy of War semi gathering over Europe should net come to pees during the present year, there will yet be mom° play of distant heat lightning for the British War Office to watoh.—fN.Y Times. ' Sudden Death. MonnE.in, March., 7. Sutherland, a married man and foreman of the Montreal Ice Company, met With A (hidden death the ether afternoon at five o'eleek under the following oircnmstancei :• The deceased Was employed overseeing the peeking of ice in the company's °ellen in Virilliani street, when is large block, which was being hoisted from the top .of the load, Blipped from the hoots': and fell upon Sutherland, 'killing him almost instantly. A terribly sad feature Of the ,ciute Wee the prof:ends, Of 11.1r6, Sather - lend When the sed fatality took plaeo. The poor tvOiriail Woe paigling at the tinte, and the blood winch inehed from her hue - band's noes: add earn Weit Spattered upon her clothes. The hut:bend was at one° :taken liCt the hospital, where death immediately misted, and the diecionsolate tvidOW was taken by kind Mends to 'her home, A DUNG NOVIllia May Semi )60 Without enhabitanue A curious oonstitational problem is likely to be presented to the Amerioan people be. fore very long, Faye the Chicago ,t-israid. is, in effect, whether a State can surrender its constitution and statehood and be remit`ted to the condition cif is Territory. It is queotion like that of seoession, upon which the Constitution of the United States is silent, but which will have to be eettled., not by war, but by some extra constitutional deafen It will arise in respect to the State of INTOVab, winch, without offence be it said, appears to be in a moribund condition. Since 1870 its population has been stectdily decreasing, until now there are pro- bebly not more 50,000 residents (f that ri v sterile and rooky region. There er was anything but the bonenza mines M induce people to go thither, and now that these are practically exhausted, and no new - mines are being disoovered, the people are rapidly leaving. For years the State has been governed from San Francisco, and all its expenses have been paid by the silver kings, who, for the poor honor of being United States Senator, or Governor, er some such dawn, have held it as a sorb of pooket- borough. In the nature of things such a, condition of effairs cannot last, and this the people who aro residents of this State are beginning to realize, They know that within its present borders there are not oufficient resources to sustain such a. population as is State should have, and they are now seeking to gain additional territory. A year or two ago they en- deavored to obtain is slice out of Idaho, and recently the Legislature of the State sent is committee to the Legislature of California foraying that a few northern, counties of California might be annexed to Nevada. The mission was in vain, and the committee returned despondent. The entire State is so uninviting ancl so. wanting in natural resources that even the Morznons have refused to go in and possess - the land. There is a State with all its ma- chinery ready at their hand, which they could easily oontrol and in a great measure make themselves independent, so far as their peculiar institutions are concerned, of the Federal Government, and yet they retuse IL This tells the whole story. There is no hope for Nevada, and its population must dwindle away until but few office -holders are left. So long as the San Francisco millionaires. task and are willing to pay the expense, the State may continue, but when they give out, as they must in time, and no people are left: to be taxed, what will the office -holders do? They, too will have to decamp, and the State wiledie of inanibion. But the consti- tutional problem will remain. There will - still be 110,000 equare miles f rocks and desert aver which the United States Govern- ment has no more authority than, ovAr the. State of Illinois. Under the Conetieution Congress can not divide a State nor add t�. it without the consent of the people of that State. But if the people have fled, what is to be done about it? It looks as if at no distant day Nevada would be in truth and, No "No man's land," A ra1110118 Camellia, 1. On the banks of tbe Ashley Riga., near Charleston stands Middleton Place, the home of Arthur Middleton, a signerof the Declaration of Independence. Though the hall was burned during the last war, the gardens, terraces and hedges remain substan- tially as they were is hundred years agos This remarkable place is still widely known. and in the proper season's rows of azaleas, japonicas, with all other Southern planM and trees are the delight of its many visi- tors. Some time ago, Mr. William Middleton went to London, and there met an old col- lege chum who procured for him a ticket te visit the Queen's gardens. The proud gard- ner-in-ohief took his visitor all about and finally stopped before the queenly treasure of the place. It was under a large glass case—perhaps five feet high— a beautiful camellia shrub in gorgeous bloom. "Now confess," said the inflated function- ary, "you haven't seen anything like this before." "It is beautiful—very beautiful," answer- ed Mr. Middleton. "But tell me, you haven't ever Essen any- thing to approach this ?" " It is wonderful. It is marvellous." "But," said the disappointed head -gard- ener, "you haven't answered my question. This surpasses anything of the kind you have seen, eh ?" "1 did not answer you," replied the Southern -gentleman, " because I was unwill- ing to hurt your feelings ; but I have in my garden at home, and growing out of doors, a camellia thirty feet high, that has on it six thousand blossoms.' "Sir," said the ;gardener, "11 that is so, you are Mr. Middleton of south Carolina t I know that bush. It was planted by Mac - lane in 1780 I" Rifle Shooting. General Middleton spoke out boldly and truly at the annual meeting of the Dominion Rifle Association in Ottawa laet week. He begrudged, he said, some of the money that wae devoted to target thinning by rifle awn ciatione and would like to see more given to. the volunteer service. Eight men out of twenty-five he deestad, in the provincial battalions hiadn't the most elementary know- ledge of the way in which to handle is rifle, and many of the remaining seventeen could hardly bit a haystack. The majority of the prizes, the General further raid, at these rifle meetings, Were won by officers. This latter is doubtless a feat, but there are good and olavions retuume why it Is so. But more attention than is at presect the custom should certainly be paid to the rank and file, every member of which should be me as perfect in the manipulation of gun, bay- onet and sword as his brains and muscle will permit. Divorce in the United States. According to the special report just sub- mitted to Congress by 11,Ir. Carroll D. Wright on the statistics of the laws relating to mar- riage and divorce in the United States front 1867 to 1886 inclusive, no Icese than 328,716. divoreee were granted during that period, 111inole head the list with 36,072, and Ohio and Iridiatut come next with 26,367 and 25,- 193 respectively. It is no credit to the men that of the whole number 216,739, or 65 per omit, were granted to wives, and 111,983 to husbande. 'Drunkenness is assigned as the 0/1AOJO IR only 13,843 oases, lint kir. Wright says it is apparent that this figure does nob represent the total number in Which drunk- enness or intemperance was is serious factor, In a few representative counties the investi- gation watt tarried outside Of alleged (Janus, audit Wad found that biteniperthice was a direct or indirect cause in over 26 pet cent, of the whole number of divoroes granted in thezie cOuntleti.