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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1894-7-20, Page 2O'u r 20, 1$O4 �F �k1T,f DE CHaa'T,ifrR XVII, CRxTztineee He spoke all language+ ,evert English, with equal .11uenoy, Ana with .e aufti eat y to ertai pronmlolation ; and he had all that polish of manner which 1 suppose hail given rise to the old proverb, that if you cestoid a Russian gentleman, You will draw the blood of a Tartar savage, I need only add that he wtw'obviouely' incapable of truth unless with a embalm object, or by way of amusing himselfwith. a novelty, and that he wee extremely .en. tertaining. Englishmen call themselves cosmopolitan. Americenslaugh at ua Eng1ieh as insular, much nil an Englishman from S. .James's would laugh Al) the hest mon in all Trieton• d'Acunha. 'Russians laugh, and laugh very fairly and justly, at the 'United States, with New York for its $b. Petersburg, and Beaton, that" hub of the universe," whore the axis of the earth visibly sticks out, 'through the earth's anthem, for its Moscow, and the Boater. Philosophical institute (if that be its name), for its Kremlin. The Prince called on ua the next day, and our aoquaintanee soon itcnroved, so that he became one of the four mon whom I could say I had really known. I may at once put aside' any late husband and the Very Reverend the Dean. It is more dia. cult to institute any comparison between Prince Balanikoff and George Sabine. I can only suggest it by saying that eaoh was a perfect specimen of his type, the ono of an English gentleman of old family, the other of a Tarter Prince with unmeasured estates, and unexhausted mines and forests. Amongst the Prince's other cosmopolitan accomplishments he possessed the art of driving four-dn-hand. Amongst his pat toys at Paris was, in addition to his box at the Opera, an exquisite little steam laanoh on the Seine. What with the Opera, and long drives on the root of the drag, and delightful rune in the laanoh on the river, we h dl ever needed to complain that we naturalmatanee. end. without the least 19.preach to anything like discomposure or lose of dignity. As the door oloaed behind him, I threw myself on the sole and instead of fainting, burst out laughing. Thep my thougltta whirled round suddenly, The memory of George Sabine :lashed through my 1010 i act a streak of lightning fiefdom through a pitchy dark sky, After the lightning fellows the thunder and then the rain. ,I began to Rob, end then buret out prying paeaionately. When I recovered myself I began to wonder dreamily, what sort of advise the Very Reverend the Dean would have given meat under the oircnetanoes. I may have been doing that worthy man an in7'ustloe ; but I came to the conolueion that he would have urged that there was much in the pant history of the Prince whish galled for pity rather than for anger ; that his affection was evi- dently oilmen ; that he was no doubt °axiom, under my better influence, to lead a now and better life ; that it was net for mortal man to too severely judge hie fellow; that the manner of my refusal had been, to say the least, unoheritabde, if not actually unebristian ; that from a mere worldly point of view, I had perversely semifluid a very brilliant future with infinite oppor- tunities in it of usefulness and good, and that the Greek Church differed so slightly in its tenets from our own that he for ono never despaired of Reeing, oven in hie own lifetime, the reconciliation of the two, in which happyevent he should be able to exr,laim with the aged Simeon, "Lord, now letteat thou thy servant• depart 1n peace." CHAPTER XVIII. When Ethel returned she was bubbling over with little details. She' had been here, and she had been there ; and in one ar two shops she had seen some wonderful bar. gains, and there had been even more than had lost aday. this.Onl n Miriam, Iwae aomin from the Rue fancy, And why need I trouble myself about de la Paix, and was crossing the thwhat the English world in London, or even theca Vendome when I ran almost fug tilt le ion world, which is smaller and more lenient, might say or think ? into a young Englishman, who looked at me—at me, my dear. Well; I smiled de• mutely, much as a Queen might smile to a bow, and he followed me all along the Rue St. Honore—shying horribly when I looked in at the jewellers' windows, until we My position was quite scoured. I sou do as I pleased, and I intended to do so, 1 was free to take up the Prince if I pleased, and to throw him over again when Ipleased and how. reached the end of the street.Then—I Society, in the etricteet sense of the term, couldn't het it—h° touched his soft felt was closet; to me. As the divorced wife P of an Ambassador, 1 had the doors of every Court in Europe hopelessly shut in my face ; and as I now knew, beyond the circle of the Court there is no society fu auy capital of Europe. Your richest rotnrier sets aside certain nights of hiesalon for the Court circle, and others for the remainder of hia necessary acquaintance. The two great circles may meet ; they may evenin geometrical phraseology, they touch • but never inter. "Nob fair on hire t" "Let !millet admit," the continued. 'ger the mere sake of eruumeut, that he le taken with you. Without flattery; there are few wile would net be ; and Ruasiatis are extremely Minutely!), He couldn't marry you, Why should you blame him eo severely for blurting out the truth in bit own fish. ion, without any lying or beetipg about the beehl You tnay have done wiaaly or enwieoiy; it is for you to judge, not forme, You may have rightly or wrongly, but you heir) no right whatever to complain of hav- ing boon insulted, The Mau told you the truth, the whole truth and nothing lout the truth, and I should like to know what more you would have had from him t" 'Then you would seriously have consid- ered what he Bald ?'. "If I had beep you, dear Miriam, I ans- wer yes. If it hod been myself, I should not have considered what he said at all. I am afraid I should have jumped et it. It is so hard to live comfortably,, and a thee little rents of three hundred thousand frame goes such a very long way." "You are then really in cermet?" "Never more so in my life, my ohlld,and now let us have a cop of tea." With the sup of tea we tacitly allowed the matter to drop. Each of us thoroughly knew the mind, of the other, and where titers is an insuperable difference of opinion at the very outstarb, you ,must remember that life is short,, and that it ie worse than waste of time, the most precious of all divine eifta to man, to keep a discussion going whish minuet possibly end in any useful result. As the Dean used to say, "De priuoipiie disputantibusnon est ratio." If you cannot agree as to what fa a straight line and what ie a point, it is idle to link arms and endeavor to cross the fateful pon asinorum.. hat most politely, and said in 011endorf; that ' It was making a beautiful day.' So what did I do? I kept my countenance, and answered him in English with a French assent. ' Naughty little boy 1 go home at once, or I will write and tell the Proctors and the examining chaplain to his holiness the Bishop.' My child, you should have seen the little parson make tracks.'" When we hod finished laughiug over this defeat of the church militant, 1 turned to oast. more serious matters. The etiquette of the " Almanaoh de " We must really take counsel together, Gotha" may be as devoid of real mean. Ethel. I have had, this morning, a pro- ing as the pedantrlesof heraldry. But it is peal which has fairly bewildered and dis- none the lees en appreciable factor in human life. Not even the Church of Rome, which freely diopenaee tile sacrament of matri- mony, will recognize as Princess at the Court of the Vatican the morganatic wife of a Prince, lawfully married by all the most, sacred rights of the Church. I might have seen what was Doming. To be more exact, I should say that I ought to have seen it To be strictly truthful, I will own that I have seen it, but had simply shut my eyes to it. What happened fell out upon this fashion; and, as Russians have very little aeatiment about them, I can put the story plainly and straitforwerdly. The Prince one day did me the honor, in the most faultless English and with a con- siderable amount of more or less sincere Muscovite passion of laying his heart and three hundred thousand francs a year at my feet. His frankness was something refreshing. He could not marry, he explained without the permission under his sign manual of the Czar himself, who would never consent to the union of the representative of a family allied to the Romauoff with the daughter of an English priest, however exalted in his holy calling. There was besides a little difficulty in the fact that his own wife happened un- fortunately to be still alive, and that her father, although not of very exalted birth, held a position of the highest trust and confidence in the Imperial Chencellerie. Money, however, was the merest trifle. He would deposit a cum with the Rothschilds or any other French or English house euffi- oient to secure me a yearly income of three hundred thousand franca, and I could to- morrow select and furnish any hotel in Paris that took my fancy. All this was said as plainly and as brut. ally as if he had been talking to any mem- ber of la haute oocotterle, and yet with the most imperturbable grace and polish. I remember only two ideas—if I can so term them—that flashed through my mind. One was to ask myself what I had done to merit this insult, nr if I could in any possible way have given him the idea that I had been laying myself open to do it. The other was an almost insane desire to kill him as he stood there, leaning with all his great length against the mantel -piece, and twisting his watoh-chain into knots be. tween his great fingers. I believe I should have 'been idiotic enough to have done as much if a pistol had been lying ready to my hand ; and I am quite sure that it would have been ono of those cases in which the late Maitre Lanhaud would have seemed a triumphant acquittal. Luckily, there was no pistol, or, indeed, any other weapon more dangerous than a paper knife at band • and so, not caring to trust myself to French, I addressed him in my own tongue. I began by telling him that he was a coward to insult me as he had done, and that, if f had lacquoye within call, I would have him thrust out. This, I said, he might teke as my definite answer and as my final answer, sine° I unhappily knew no Englishmen in Paris to call him to account. Meantime he saw the door, and he could go. And here, I am afraid, I somewhat spoiled the dignity of my harangue by adding that the sooner he went the better. This, no doubt, wan vulgar ; but I think, on the other hand, that I can fairly plead I wee, exulted. I cannot tell whether this outburst took him by aurpriee or not, 1 must only pre- sumo'it did; for he would have hardly provoked it if he had foresee it. As there was clearly nothing else to do, he said, without the lamb expression of ir- ritation, that he deeply regretted the un- fortunate misunderstanding which had eocurred, and the whole blame of which he WAS frankly willing to exempt. And he then made me a meet profound, and at the same time graceful bow, and departed in the most gusted me," " Good gracious I" "I feel pretty much as the Dean might have felt three years ago if the Prime Min- ister had dropped from Heaven after the fashion of a thunderbolt, straight through the roof, and alighted at the hearthrug at the Vicarage, and had then said without any attempt at preliminary warning : "Mr. St. Aubyn, you are the ablest man in the whole Church. Mr. St. Aubyn, I will make you a bishop to -morrow, only it must be on the distinct understanding that you live on prison dint—no wine, no beer, no pastry, gruel four days a week, and on the other three bread, and a quarter of a pound of meat I What would the dean have said ?" "Perhaps, my dear," replied Mrs. For- tescue, " he may at some time have read of His Exrelleuoy, Don Sancho Panza, Governor of the Island of Barataria. If so, he would moat certainly have declared that he would prefer to have the stipend of Ossulston raised to five hundred a year, and to go back to it end get drunk every night with his crony the churchwarden, as you tell me he used to do." "I don't get tipsy with you, my dear Ethel; but your opinion is sound all the same. 11 you had been at my shoulder just now, you would have told me to do exactly what I have done." And I then told her, as briefly as possible, all that had token place with Prince Bal. anikaff. Well, Miriam, it is just the impudence of these vagabonds, They live among their serfs, and they think that they have only to throw their handkerchief, or to show the shadow of their little finger. And, on the other hand, you know," and here she drop. ped into a meditative tone of voice, " he was certainly very straightforward. What he said about the Rotheehilda was perhaps brutal, but eminently satisfactory. "What he said about its being impossible for him to marry without the permission of the Emperor, and equally impossible to ob. tain that permission to the marriage in question happens, although it Domes from a Russian, to be acridly true. Of that I can assure you there is no manner of doubt whatever • and when he told you he was married already, I think you may pretty safely adopt the rule of English law- yers whish I understand to be that all admissions are evilance against the party that makes them and may fairly be construed in the most adverse sense. And yet in spite of all this, my dear Miriam, I declare that if I had been you I should have thought twice. You see, of course, it le no good blinking at matters, We must look them in the face, for time and tido do not wait for any of its. " In a worldly point of wow you would have gained considerably by coiuoiding with—shall I say—these insulting propos. als. Of course, dear Miriam, you have done the right thing. About that there is no manner of doubt. And if poor George Sabine were alive it would have been a very different matter. But he isn't alive, and 1 think you were a little hard upon the Rus- sian. After his own barbarous fashion, and according to the boat of those Northern Lights whish do duty in his wretched oountry for a ohm, he meant to act on the square, lie may have been brutal person- ally, Most of those Tartars are, But a Russian is never a cad, and he is always generoaa. I fanny very much that your prince could have taught our own Ambas- sador at St, Petersburg a lesson in manners as well aa in a good many other things," "But do you seriously mean," 1 oriel, starting to my feet, "that you would have entertained bis infamous proposal for a moment?" "bly dear, you mustn't force words upon me that beg the whole thing. In the first pease, the proposel was made to you calmly enough and in the moat aiurteoua mariner possible. And then, too, it was made to yourself, It was not as if the Prince had gone to the Dean and asked him to sell you straight out for a high price, Toil are not fair on the 0050." ant drives in the morning, We've been already to Werwlok and Kenn. Worth, and we mean to da the neigh.. boyhood thoroughly .before we go, We are here requite a humble way, or oleo I would ask your ladyahtp to call, and to d• me the !miter of being introduced .to Mrs. Jenkins." And at this point happily our eonvereation wee interrupted. I left ahnoat immediately. I felt that I was threatened by two dangers. One w.ae entirely my own fault ; stopping at Lean, ington as Mrs. Chiehostpr—brie nota do pnerre I had.ohosen--.I had been addreeatd and recognized as Ludy Craven, After all, he had only Bald, when I came to think of it, "toy lady" and "your ladyship." Thom was well enough so far,, and saved mo from my blunder in sob having at once taken him into my gonfldeaoe and given him warning. But then, what a terrible prospect I Am I forever to bo taking everybody into my confidence and giving them warning, from the eollcitor'e managing clerk down to the dreosmaker'e litter-onf It would be better to go to Kamaohatka at once. Luckily he had not used my name. The first danger was over ; but he would be sura to tell his wife everything as seep as he went home ; and if he did so, Leamington would be impossible for one. And this second dangereoon proved u reality. Some few days after I went in the morn. ing to call nn the wife of a clergyman whose acquaintance I had muds. He wee only a curate, but he had a sufficient 'private in. come, and lived in a big hones in Lansdowne Terrace. I knew they were in, because as I knooked at the door, I caw the excellent lady put her head over the blind in tete ground -floor window. I then sawher two eldest and eligible daughters suooessively do the flame. Indeed all three of them had good Mime at me, When the servant same to the door, it WAS to inform me with the obvious hesita. tion of a rustic ingenue ordered to tell a lie, that her mlatreen was not at home. It is a dreary story to give in detail. Let me summarize it by eayiug that exactly the same thing happened at half.a-dozen other houses. Scandal flies through Leamington, or through any other English watering. p)aoe, like wild fire through a field of ripe corn. I found :remelt in Leamington an outcastand a pariah. 1 asked another curate to tea, giving him a week's notice. He was too truthful a little man to tell a downright lie, and he piteously pleaded the many toile on his time. This was absard, as he notoriously lived upon his parishioners making his tea and supper out a compensation for his mid-day bread and cheese and tahle.beer. He was a good little fellow, and would no doubt have been only too delighted to have come, no far as he himself was concern- ed• But he was weak and terrified, He could not bring himself to say, "Neither do I accuse thee;', and if he .paid me the compliment of writing upon the ground, I was not present to see him do as much, mid so was in no waye solaced by the operation. (To EL CONTINUED.) :715APTER XIX. No mere talking over matters with Ethel Fortescue would have altered the position an inoh. I understood her point of view thoroughly, and she knew I did so. She understood mine. We were far too good friends, and too sincerely attached to one another to quarrel, especially over what was entirely my own adatr. And, eaoh of ua in her own way, we were more like men than women, regarding friendship as a very rare and precious thing which meat not be broken by differences of opinion—opinion being a transitory matter, and liable to sudden changes and shifts of the wind, or to periods of entire calm, such as you get in that horrible region the Duldruma. Whereas friendship, like the tradewinds, always blows steadily in a direetion whish can be anticipated and ooneegnently is not to be made light of, or treated as a matter of indifference and a disturbing element in your plans, A compromise, however, was possible, I had my fifteen hundred a year. As to that there weld be no possible doubt.. If we are to coma to the details of household management, of which my sad and long experience at Ossulston had taught me only too much, two women eon live to- gether as cheaply as one can live by herself. 1, onsequontly I was not hampered in my calculation by my loyalty to Mrs. Fortescue whom I could welcome at any time and upon any notice. So I decided to go to England, and to live decorously and respectably. Not, that I suggest for a moment. that I had ever done otherwise. This resolution determined upon, we parted company with honeetly sincere expressions of goodwillantd affection Ethel went off to Carlsbad ; I made my, way to Leamington. And now begins the story, which, I fear, I must abridge in its telling, of "La Juive Errante." I bed been at Leamington about two months. I lived in unexceptionable lodg- ings. I kept a little pony.oarriage at the• adjacent livery stables. I lodged the larg. est sum at my disposal at the Joint Stock Bank—for at Joint Stook Banks every olark tells the affairs of the customer to all his friends. I engaged a maid, a bleueed Warwickshire woman of thirty, whose orders were to accompany me wherever I might go, and, by way of color, to always carry an umbrella, or a box oi water.00iora, or some such lumber. After about two months people began to call upon me. First carne the wife of a doctor, whom a convenient chill and sore „hroat had obliged mo to summon. I praised her husband's skill and tact. I drew a comparison between him and the great Sir Timothy Carver, by no means favorable to that most distinguished sur- geon. I regretted that the sphere of her husband's abilities should be bounded by Leamington, and I sent her away radiant. Within a week I was asked to dinner,and 1 went. I was dressed in black with a high neck trimmed with some of my most valuable lane. I wore a small sap—soap of protest I might also call it—and my only jewels were a black pearl brooch and pendants which, I believe, upon my honor some of the ladies took for jet. I was a success ; and when the men Dame up from their cigarettes and five.year.old port, bringing the full aroma with them, I could see that I had made my mark, 'for they all clustered round me. Amongst them, however, was one who claimed acquaintance with me, reminding me that I knew him. I, of course, replied' that I had not that honor. "Ah, my lady," he said, with what was meant for a sentimental smile, "the months come and go, and perhaps it is °. surprise to eaoh of us to meet the other. My name," he added rubbing his hands, " is Jenkins, tl'hen I first made your ladyship's acquaint. ease, I was only managing clerk in Lincoln's Inn fields to Messrs. Nisi, Slowcoach, & Absolute, Sir Henry's aolicibmta, I am sure you will rim glad to hear that I am now a partner in the firm. In fact"—and here he dropped his voice to an odiously conliden• tial whisper, "1 am down here at this mo- ment apparently on pimiento. No man likes pleasure better then myself ; but I never let business interfere with it, your ladyship. And Ido not mind telling you that our firm has intrusted me with some very delicate negotiations, much reminding mo of those in which I had the honor of being concerned on your own amount,. What a very strange world and a very small world after all it lel" Now of comae I ought to have conoiliat- ed this little snob. I ought to have asked him to call upon me, and to bring his wife, if he lied one, with him ; but Iwas utterly unable to do morn than to reply frigidly that I remembered the oiroumebanoea as perfectly as himself, 90 perfectly indeed that I had ne Hood to be reminded of them. And I then found myself, without knowing whether he posseased ane, actually asking whether his wife derived any benefit from ono Leamington waters, and whether be found the time and had the inclination to ride with Ube --hounds. "My wife, your ladyship," he oommenoed at once " finds the waters do her a. deal of good, 'She suffers from obstinate liver complaint, for Which I am told they aro invaluable. I don't ride myself, especially after hounds, but Wo , have very pleas. PEARLS OP TRUTH. PURELY f�ANABT�N NEWS Let the end try the man. Poverty is the sixth genes. fraise undeserved ie aatiro in ;Boggle°.. Light ie Hie teak where tawny Blume the toil, Ill company will make thie earth hell. Those who would make its feel must feel phew aolvee. 1 know of nothing eublime'which is 'hot 101110 modification of power, The deoirea and longings of man are vast as eternity, and they point him 80 it. HE FOUGHT AT WATERLOO The arrogant man does but blast the bieseinge of life and swagger away hie own enjoyments, ' Never rail at the world, it ie just as we make it. We ace not the flower if we sow not the seed. Drunkenness planes tnan as much below the level of the brutes as reason elevates him above it. 01 how much more doth beauty beaute ops seem, by that sweet otmement whish truth doth give. 1 can not help suspecting that those who abusethomselves are in reality angling for approbation, The men I' am afraid of are those whobe. lieve everything, eubaoribe tc everything, and vote for everything. Neither piety, virtue nor liberty can long flourish in a community where 'theeduca- tion of youth is neglected. If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime ; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare. Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of oonversation, as in books it ie generally the worst sort of reading. And Ills Grateful Country Generously Rewarded 111n1, A London despatch says:—Handbills wore distributed the other night through- out the working class residence district calling for a mass meeting to be held on Sunday afternoon, under the auspices of the Social Democratic Federation, to con- sider the remarkable case of John Stacey, a Waterloo veteran, whish has just been brought to the attention of the public. Stacey, a Waterloo veteran, who is96 years of age, recently walked from Mexborough iu Yorkshire to London and returned, a to- tal distance of over 300 miles, for the purpose of interviewing the war office authorities and beggingfor an increase in his pension,. whish for nearly a quarter of a century has amolutted to 25 cents per day. Accord- ing to the official documents he was drafted into military aervioe in 1816, and when eighteen years of age he was sent to join the Gorman legion, whish was specially assigned to prevent Napoleon's escape into Germany. He afterwards joined rho army as a regular soldier, and took part in num- erous engagements under Lord Gough, Sir Henry Outram, Sir Henry Havelock and other noted generals. He rose to the rank. of sergeant, and was one of the Queen's escort on the day of her marriage. In 1860, at the age of 63, he was discharged on pen- sion of tenpence per day. On his recent visit he was advised that his request would be filed for consideration. Since his return home, however, he has been advised that the war office finds it impossible to accede to his representations. The object of Sun- day's meeting is to initiate a fund to save the old veteran from ending hie days in is poor house. SKATES FOR LADDER CLIMBERS. They Give a Surer Footing and Sava the Shoes. A ladder skate has recently been designed for roofers and other workmen whose em- ployment mils for their frequent use of the adder. Tho bottom of the elute ie provided Humor requires the dirention of the nicest judgment, by so much' the more as it indulges itself in the most boundless free- doms. The first virtue is to restrain the tongue. He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. The way of a superior man is threefold; virtuous, he is free from anxieties ; wise he is free from perplexities ; bold, he is free from fear. HOW NEW ZEALAND DOES IT. Tn0 0,1000150EATE. With a three.loop casting to prevent slipping on the round of a ladder. The manufac- turers abate that rho skates can be put on or taken elf in'an instant; that they do not ;have to be taken off when walking out the ground ; that by their use standingon the round of a ladder is mads as comfrt. table as standing on the ground, and that INTERESTING ITEMS ABOUT OUR • OWN COUNTRY, Gathered matt Val'lous Points Atlantic to Lite "'Kettle. Tilbury has 17 bioyolos,. Pawnee Bill is to tour Canada.. Watertown hoe $40,000 in bioyoles. Potato huge are hood about Hawkeetone. Potato bilge have appeared in Manitoba Maakhionge ere ptenbifel in Lake Sim' toe, A golf club is to be formed in Winnipeg. Whiskey debootivee are at work in Brook. ville. Allendale elamore for euibable fire proteo. o+ the Kingston Popitentiary now has 494 in. mates. E. H. FIah, of Grand Bend, drives a team of elk. Owners of tagless dogs in Guelph are prosecuted. Augeet 91,h is the date for Owen Sound's oivio holiday, The Christian churoh of Newmarket has been renovated. A oonservatory of mesio ie to beestablish• i \ ed in Winnipeg, A new lodge I.O. 0,F. has been establish- ed at Northfield, B. C. Fake map peddlers are entrapping into. sent people about Guelph. An " Old Times 'Association" has been organized at Edmonton. A Summer Sohool of Science is in session at Charlottetown, P. E. L The Winnipeg Tr ibune pretests °gains the new Hudson ;bay Railway. A hop. vine in a Brockville garden grew a foot in 24 hours the other day. Orillia Masonic Lodge has decided to hold no meetings in July or Auguet., Parkhill oibizena oemplainthat the grass on the public streets is too rank. Strathroy station is without a telephone and the citizens kiok accordingly. Victoria Harbor mills are cutting' and shipping large quantities of lumber. The Sunday School Convention of Mani.' toles will meet in Brandon next year. Forty horsemen escorted BiehopDowling during his recent visit to New Germany. The New Brunsaiek Teachers' Institute has just cloaed a very interesting eesaion. The Church of England rectory at Cam- bridge, N.B., has been destroyed by fire.. Four strawberriespluoked the other day at Nanaimo, B. C., weighed °yarllounces. Mr. H. Cahill, M. P. for East Bruce, has purchased afaat horse valued at over $2-, 000. A settle,; Policy to weak up Large Es- tates—A Provision for ltrItlah Settlement. It is the settled policy of the New Zealand Government to break up large estates. If the owner of an estate objects to the high value put upon his land by the assessor, ho is allowed to name hie own valuation. If the government thinks his valuation too' low it gives him the option of oonseuting to pay taxes oe the Government valuation, or selling hie land to the Government at his own valuation. While it thus discour- ages large estates, the Now Zealand Gov- ernment encourages email holdings in a very positive way. A prominent example of this ie the well-known provision for village settlements. The Government sats aside land for thispurpoae, andworkingmen. are encouraged to go in communities and Bettie upon it. The Government even advances small sums for the purpose of enabling settlers to profitably 000upy their land, and no rent is °barged for the first two years. Moreover, settlers ere directed to districts where Bork is obtainable, so that they can support themselves while getting their farms in order, and can sup. plement their income from land by wages. Such settlements are divided into village allotments of not more than an acro each, end homestead allotmentauot exceeding 100 acres each. The former class can be held under any kind of tenure desired: Home- stead allotments are leased only in porpet- uity at a four per cent. yearly rental on the value of the land. Thea° village settlements have been a greatsuccea, both in the point of numbers who have takea advantage of the provision and in the revenue afforded the Government, not to mention the relief given to congested city districts. Recent figures show that 22,677 acres have been thus set apart, and advances of £24,625 made by the Government to ashlers. The social effects of these settlements can hard- ly be exaggerated. CoNSTliner10N Oa' TUE 51EATE, the skates are se made that the foot can be moved on a ladder to any desired position. The point is made that the skates aro great savers of shoes, Wanted Her Reformed.. Mamma—" Why did you pray that God should stop your sister from telling stories'" Small Son,—" Because she promised mo ahs wouldn't toll that I took the °alma, and oho did tell." ODD EFFECT OF A STRIKE. while the Loddon Cabmen Were Idle Parliamentary I'lapone wont hungry Among the greatest sufferers by the cab trike in London are rho Parliamentary pigeons in New Palace Yard, which always found an abundant supply of corn from the nose -bags of the horses on the cab -rank at the entrance of the House of Commons. For years the spot has been, during the Portia• montary season, a happy hunting -ground for hundreds of these birds. They never hang around the dome of the House of Lords. Peers generally walk to Parliament, or if they drive it is invariably in their own carriages, the horses of which would disdain to eat in public. No corn is ever to be found at the Peers' entrance ; therefore it is that the pigs ma all flock to the House of Commons. But since the commencement of the strike the birds have become quite demoralized. They know itis not the recess, because the light on the clock tower is there at night, and they cannot n,ako out what has become oi their friends the eabmen,the horses and the Dorn. lror seine days their lamentable "cooing" from, the pangs of hunger was distressing to hoer, until the happy idea oane to Supt, Horsley to institute a kind of pi eona'soup- kitchen, or fres breakfast table, every morning. A plentiful supply of crumbs and Dorn ie scattered on the ground, and the pigeons show their gratitude by flapping their wings and cooing in the major koy. The superintendent's charitable exertions are admirably supported by the members of the pollee force on duty at the House of Commons. The effects of a lodge of L 0. G. T., of Woodatook, have beau eeizod to recover rent. The government grant to rural aohodle in the county of Kent, for the current year, 1s 53.793. A sou of the Rev. Mr. Pierce, of Maherly, lost his eye, having been struck by a toy dart. An apple tree near Sombre village, planted in 1824, ie 9 feet in circumference and 3 in diameter. W. J. Chisholm, of Thamesford, has been chosen principal of the Public eohbol of Kingsville. A proposition is on foot to move the Archiepiscopal seat front St. Boniface' to Winnipeg. In a recent thusllerstorm a farmer at Chippewa Bay lost six sheep by one stroke of lightning.. A Stratbroy man has a pair of twin chickens attached to each other like the Smiese twins. A society has been organized with the object of colonizing a northern portion of Quebec Province. Rev. W. C. Clark has been ordained and inducted into the pastorate of the Brampton Presbyterian church. A Botonay firm has contracted with a Chatham man for 2,500 bushels of wheat ab 58i cents por bushel Mr. Murray, teacher in the Georgetown High School, has accepted an offer from the Brampton High School. The assessment of G. T. R. property in Barrie was reduced from 535,000 to $25,000. by the Court of Revision. Henry Down, of Adeliade, has produced a stall, of rhubarb 32 inches in length and five inches in circumference. Prof.Thompeon, of Knox College, Toren to, is teaching theology at the oumme scallion of the Manitoba Coliege. The Ontario Natural Gas Co. has leased nearly all the land on the lake shore extending two miles east of Leamington. The railway conductors of the Ottawa and North Bay district will run their annual excursion to Ottawa August 10th. Mrs. Josephine Joy asks the Port Huron Circuit Court to grant her a divorce from her husband Maurine Soy,1'ato of Sarnia. Robert Kennedy, of Protestant Hill, near Bethany, had -the top of his head blown off by the discharge of a gun he was carrying. Tasmania Batter. A short report, dated March 1, 1 894 has just been received from Tasmania, During the past season the uolony for the first time began shipping butter to Eng• laud, the amount sent being 175,0110 pounds. Space for 700,000 pounds has been applied for to meet the trade of the next season. Tasmania hat an area of 17,000,000 acres, being one•oighth of that of Ontario, The population in 1801 was 146,667, including 24,905 in Hobart and 17,118 in I,auneeetown. The report states that Tasmania lies a traveling dairy, The. people of all the colonies of the Southern Seas appear to be making rapid progress in dairying. Oobario muet keep ahead of them. A white worm that is very destruotive this season in the West has mads its appearance in Fitzroy, and is destroying the wheat. The barns and outbuildings belonging to Wm. Miller, of Utopia, were struck by lightning and burned to the ground the other day. Mecca Pilgrims and Cholera. An article has appeared in a recentnum- ber of the British MedicalJournalby. e Moslem named Maaulvie Rafiud din Ahmad, on the subject of the Mecca pilgrims and cholera, in which the Writer pointe out that alio pilgrimage as at presents oonducted is an international disaster. The remedy, ho thinks, lite in the power of the Sultan, who should at once appoint a oommiasion to in: veetlgate the matter. If the present state of affairs oontintte, the recurrence of the plague at Mecca will diminish the number of udigrime, destroy the trade dependent upon them,and cause a loss of much of the Sultan's moral influence over the Moham- medan world, This view of the subject from the standpoint of the pilgrims tlteiit. 'wives is encouraging, and indicates that the Mohammedans are not so bigoted in the matter as has been believed, The Holy Well has for a long titre? poet been the breeding place of cholera gordhe, and it it to be hoped that the time is coming when its sanitary condition will be improved.