The Brussels Post, 1892-6-10, Page 3jun• 10, 1892
,11111111.11111MMIMIN....110.
TZB iiRUSSELS POST.
AORICULTURAL,
Mattel's in England,
Lognee, Eng., alay 31. —There heve been
several indloations Oaring the pest week of
the growing strength of the movement
among Britieli egrioultairiste for the toad
prohibition of the importation of live etook.
The outbreak of foot and Inauth disease
which hae been experieneed this year inta
inevitably given fresh force to the amend
long since first put forward by British
ferment and landowners, True, the spread
a the disease has been very effeetoally
checked by Mr, Chaplin and the Board ef
Agricultural, thanks to the legislation of
recent steam, bot the restrietions the Agra
ouleural board have enforced on the
movement and sale of eattle have °tweed
groat inconvenience and loss, The result
is that the farmers are inert) determined
than ever to insist on the total exclusion of
foreign live stook, except importatione for
breeding purposes under very stringene
conditions.
This feeling found very forcible expres•
sion at the council meeting of the Central
and Associated Chamber!) of Agriculture
this week. This body inoludes amongst
its members some of the bestaknown and
most intelligent agriculturists in all parts
of the country, and the views expressed at
its meetingitro certainly thoroughly repro.
sentstive. Hence it is siguifitutnt to find
the Cattle Diseases Oommittee of the ethatn.
ber, in a repore presented this week, again
urging that no real security existed ttganist
the re-introcluoeion of dieease, so long as
live animals were continually un ported f rom
Europe. But more noteworthy still was
the deolaration made en this point in the
subsequent disoussion by Earl Fortescue,
who said that, thongh a veteran free trader
for mere than half a century, he wished to
express his cordial agreement with the re-
port in its condemnation of the introduction
of foreign live stock. These imports veers
perfectly unnecessary for Ole supply of
meat for this country, and caused a great
deal of destruction and injury to our flocks
and horde. He added :— ' The interests of
the consumer, of the producer and of
humanity to the live stock imported ren-
dered it most desirable that after a long
lapse of years we should recur to the prac-
tice of forbidding absolutely the importa-
tion of live stock." I quote these words,
because every one in this country knows
Earl Fortescue to be, as he himself said, a
staunch freetrader, a keen agriculturist and
ono of the most influential men in the west
of England. It is views like these which,
from all quarters where landowners and
farmers predominate, are being suddenly
pressed upon Mr. Chaplin.
There aro, however, other straws to show
whiah way the wind is blowing, Mr. Henry
R. Rew, the well-known agricultural writer
has again been dilating in Bell's Weekly
Messenger on imported meat and imported
disease. He re -states the old arguments
that the foreign supplies represent no small
a proportion of the total mem supply that
they are hardly worth taking into account.
Moreover, if any falling off resulted from
the prohibitidn, it would be atoned for by
freedom from disease of Britishaherds and
flocks. He makes a point, too, by showing
that the prohibition of European stock re-
cently enforced has made no difference to
the consumer, as the current market quota.
tions show a lower range of prices than the
mean average for the previous ten years at
the same period. Bell's Weekly Messenger
itself follows up Mr. Row's contribution by
supporting the suggestion that a monster
petition should be got up, and signed by as
many farmers as possible, asking for the
total prohibition of foreign imports. It in.
vibes the Royal Agricultural Society and
every country agricultural society to take
up this project, and there can be no doubt,
if the hint were acted upon, that a monster
petition would indeed be the result. I mny
add, though, that petitions carry very little
weight nowadays with Parliament or the
Ministry.
I mention these points so that Canadian
readers may realize the strong feeling exist -
in this country on the subject and the
influences which aro being brought to bear
on Mr. Chaplin. Ten years ago the pro-
hibition of live stock from the Continent
which has been carried out this year would
have evoked a great outcry. But Mr. Chsp.
lin has, as a matter of feat, been able to en-
force it in 1892 with the °unseat of every-
body. Of course it would be necessary for
him to show some justification tor extend-
ing that prohibition to the States and Cana-
da. It may, however, be taken for granted
ehat any outbreak of disease across the At-
lantic will render such mitten on his part a
dead certainty, Altogether, therefore, the
outlook, so far as Canadian trade is con°
corned, is not too bright. So much tumor.
tainty exists that shippers may well heel -
tate before committing themselves to any
extent in freight contracts or any other
ways for the coming season.
Give Ds SmalllFe,rms.
The clay of large farms is rapidly passing
away and it is well that it is so. There are
two potent remises why the large farm,
comprising hundreds of acreashould become
obsolete. First, it is beeter for the farm
owner to restriethis possessions to & moder-
ate amount of band; and second it is better
to have as nutny homes in this country as
possible.
It is a positive fact that the small farm—
the farm of reasonable size- paye better
than the largo farm, Eighty acres of lancl
properly managed, manured, cultivated and
kept up to its highest standard of produc-
tion, will produce more returns from the
same amount of labor and oapital than will
twice) that many acres managed in a half
hearted way ea most largo farms are maneg-
ed. It is not the number of acres one culta
vates but the amount at returns one gets
that inakes farming profitable.
In many localities, mid especially in the
West, faxiners bend every elfeet to add to
their landed possessions. They scrimp them.
selves, their wives and their childrea in
order to be elle to accumulate more lend.
The regult of the matter is, they get loaded
down with land that) they don't need and
which theyare unable to use to ealvautage,
and ell their lives they are worried to keep
trp expenses and pay texas, They become
land poor they nor their 'emblem get any
enjoymmit from hying and they get a moll
return on their investments.
The small farm where 11 is kept in a high
state of culeivittion, all the make and cor-
ns utilized, and every acre of it made to
produce to its utmost extent, is 01110 to pity
a good profit on both capital tind labor,
When farmers confined themselves almost
exclusively to corn, wheat and Stock raising
there was some (amuse for large retells, but
now that it has boon demonstrated that
other things pity as well ov better, requite,
ing ions lancl and capital, that ems° no
longer exists.
I would rather own and operate twenty
acres of good ground, planted largely in
fruit, than ti hundred acres run altogether
to grain, One good, thrifty apple (toe in
its prime will produce more financittlinemno
ono year with another than an acre devoted
to oorn. And yob there is vary little ex.
ponse or labor required by the fernier, and
the ground ocuripied by an orehard ean be
made to do double clul•y by raising fair
!nee of grain, vegetables or grass.
alum there la small truly,. There is nett).
ing to which the farmer earl turn his mean.
Gen with an assurance of greater proii 1,
and but littleground is required. Poultry
is another thing that 'rays, aud pays leg,
beoeuse on the faun it Is Oaally 011OMPLY
kept, and there is no requirement, for any
marked (realty of capital. There eve in.
nurnevable ways by which the small fern'
oan be made to yield, not only a good living,
but e snug little bank amount hesitate. And
that is something that cannot be said of the
large farm.
Then again, there are thousands of ferm-
ent wanting homes, and by cutting up the
largo, unprofitable bodies of land they eau,
many of them, Hectare what they want.
The idle acres that are nogleeted and lefe
to grow up in weeds and bushes will be
eleat•ed up and made to produoe a money
earning crop, thus not only bringing a re.
turn on i
the nvestment but enabling honest,
industrious people to live. What we want
is more and better homes, a higher state of
cultivation and no melees waste of laud.
In other words, we want small farms instead
of great tracks of lands that are ineuna
brances to the owners as well es profitless.
Toms. P. MoterkonT,
A QUEEN SAVED HIS
Under ider Protestutions A. Soldier Con
stints to an Amputation.
The Roumanian has, in every walk in life,
a fieroo and savage pride which (muses him
to abhor the idea of medicine and surgery,
and to consider the loos of a limb as terrible
as that of life itself. He has become accus-
tomed to the idea that only beggars are so
disfigured, and believes that no necessity
should constrain him to such a loss.
During the Russo-Turicish campaign, of
1877, many Roumanian aoldiers were
wounded, and Queen Elizabeth—Carmen
Silva—who constantly visited the hospitals,
found that some of the patients died be-
cause they chose death rather than disfig-
urement. It occurred to her that if one
yielded, others would follow, and one day,
when the surgeon was turning sorrowfully
away from an obstinate patient, who could
be saved only by an operation, ahe ap-
proached and added her own entreaties.
Still the soldier reiterated that, if his leg
were amputated, he should only be taken
for a mendicant, like the wretched outcasts
of the Carpathians.
"I am not a beggar," said he, proudly.
"I will lose my lite, but not iny honor."
" It is true," said the queen, "you are
not a beggar, but I am,' and she threw
herself on her knees at the bedside. "1
have never prayed but to God, but now
supplicate you to listen to His wish and
mme. Let your leg be taken off, and
spare your life to your family, your country
and mo, and—"
"And if I consent, my lady, what then?"
Why, then," she said, joyfully, rising
and seizing his hand again, why, I will
give you the most beautiful cork leg in
Europe ; it shall work with springs, and
when the war is over, you shall come and
dance at the palace with your sons."
"1 consent, he said, softly, "but you
must hold iny hand during the operation."
After that, there was no more opposition
to the surgeon's wishes, since they were also
those of tRe beloved lady of the land.
Terrible Experienoe of a Hangman.
Berry, the retired English hangman, re-
lates the following incident 1—" A miser-
able experience which lingers in my memory
was the execution of Robert Goodale, who
was condemned to death for the murder of
his wife, and on November 300h, 1885, I
was at Norwich Castle to conduct the exe.
oution. At that time I was working with
my oricinal table of lengths of drop, which
I h •d based upon Mr. Marwood's system.
Go odale weighed 15 tones, an d the calculated
drop for a man of that weight, according to
the old table, was 711 Sin. As Goodale did
not seem very muscular, I reduced the drop
by about two feet—in fact, as closely
as I could measure it, to 5ft. 9in. The
rope that I used was one made and supplied
by the Government, and I had used it
seven days previously for the execution of
John Williams, at Hereford. The drop
was built on a plan supplied by the Govern-
ment, and had been used before. In fact,
everything was in perfect working order.
The whole of the arrangements were carried
out in the usual manner, and when I pulled
the lever the drop fell properly, and the
prisoner dropped out of Engirt. We were
horrified, however, to see that the rope
jerked apwarde, and for an instant I
thought that the noose had slipped from
Otto culprit's head, or that the rope had
broken. But it was worse then that, for
Otto jerk had severed the head entirely from
the body, and both had fallen together to
the bottom of the pit. Of course, death
was instentaneous, so that the poor fellow
heel not, suffered in tiny way; but it was
terrible to think that such a revolting
thing should have at:mined. W9 were all
unnerved and shocked. The governor,
whose effort to prevent any accident bad
kept his nerves at full etrain, fairly broke
down and wept. The inquest was a trying
ordeal for all concerned. The Coroner ex.
°Iterated me from all blame."—Illy Ithsperi.
owe as MA ?executioner.
To be Read to Slow Militia
Ee looked weary and worn as ho sal; in a
street -oar, holding a little girl in his arms.
She was restless and wanted a story, and he
told her about the bold bad burglars who
are meking hay while the sub shines, or
rather while the sun does not shine, The
little one list:nod attentively and filially
broke the thread cf ehe discourse by saying:
" They wouldn't come to our house,
woeld they, papa, because we haven't got
anything?' Then she paused and, after
moment's thought, said, ‘"eepting that new,
baby, and they wouldn't want thee"
And despite the jolting, of 6110 oar and
Oho funereal slowness of its progress, every
passengen face wore a smile.
A Modern Husband.
Iie'ned married well, extremely well, yet
them were times when he would have pre.
forted paying hie own exponsee and remain-
ed at home. This night she wanted to drag
him to the theatre and he was stubborn.
What's the play ?" he inquired,
A 'Modern Iltisbanda " 'she told him
ourtly.
" What's it like?"
"1 don'e know," she replieta petting
on her gloves; "but if it is anythieg like Ite
eitle 1 pastime° the Women constitute the
leading support,"
Plant it was the hoe aims, .1 an his soul
and ho entered n eolenin yea 1 j.M- if over Ito
married again he d gat e um
nan so poor
that she would oven -have to borrow trouble
of him,
A BIG WHEAT FIELD.
°row ,T;nal;Illaa PariE Wi MEIN'
10
BY nrI/VAltP 101e1.1
" Five clays ago there wasn't. a foot of
earth to see, It wee just neturnaly termed
with snow," treys the conductor standing
in the roar Oar of the Great «farther') train.
Ile speaks as though the IMOW bad hal
sometime; prioalees. Here le the view :
One railway tree's and a line of staggering
telegraph poles ending in a dot and a blur
on the horizon. To the left and right, a
sweep as it were of the sea, one huge plain
of corn lancl wailing for the spring dottee
at rare intervals with wooden farm houses,
patent eelf reapere and binders elineet as
big as the ilOUSOB, ricks left over from last
year's shundant harvest and mottled here
tiO there with Meek patches to show that
the early plowing had begun, The enow
lies in a last few streaks end whirls by the
took ; from ehyline to skyline is black loam
prairie grass so dead that it seems as though
no one yesr's ruin would waken it,
This 10 the granary of the land where the
farmer who,bears the burdens of the State,
and who therefore ascribes last year's bum-
per crop to the direct action of the McKin-
ley bill, has also to bear the glwatlymouot.
ony of earth mid sky. Hu keeps his head,
having many thine to attend to, but his
wife sometimes goes mad as the women do
in Vermont. There is a little vaelety in
nature's big field. They say that when the
corn is in the ear the wind phases shadow,
waves across it for mile on mile, breeds as
it were a vertigo in those who must look
and cannot turn their oyes away, And they
tell a nightmare story of a woman who lived
with her husband for 14 years at an army
post in just such a land as this. Then they
were transferred to West Point among the
hills over the Hudson and she came to l'aew
York, but the terrors of the tall honees
grew epee her and grew till elle went down
with brain fever, and the dread of her de-
lirium was that the terrible things would
topple Oman and crush her. That is a true
story.
They work for harvest with steam plows
here ; how could mere horses face the end-
less furrows? And they attack the earth
with toothed, cogged and spiked engines that
would be inonstrous itt the shops, but here
are only apt:aides on the yellow grass.
Even the locomotive is cowed. A train
of freight oars is passing along a line that
comes out of the blue and goes on till it
meets the blue again. Elsewhere the
train would move off with a jnyoue vibrant
roar. Here it steals away down the vista
of the telegraph poles with an awed whis-
per, steals away and sinks into the soil.
Then coulee a town deep in black mud—a
straggly inch -thick plank town with
dull -red grain elevators. The open country
refuses to be subdued even for a few score
rods. Each street ends in the illimitable
open, and it is as though the whole house -
less outside earth were racing through it.
Toward evening under a gray sky ffies by
an unframed picture of desolation. In the
foreground a farm wagon almost axle deep
in mud, the mire dripping from the slow
turning wheels as the man flogs the horsee.
Behind- him on a knoll, of sodden, soggy
grass formed off by raw rails from the land-
scape ab large, are a knob of utterly unin-
terested crtizens who have flogged horses
and raised wheat in their time, but to -day
lie under chipped and weather•worn wood.
en headdones. Surely, burial here must
be more awfel to the newly made ghost
than burial at sea.
There ls more snow as we go north and
nature is hard at work breaking up, th
ground for the spring. The thaw has filled
every depression with a sullen gray -black
spate and out on the levels the water lies
eix imams deep in stretch upon stretch as
far as the eyes can reach. Every culvert is
full and the broken ice clicks against the
wooden pier guards of the bridges.
Somewhere in this flatness there is a re.
trashing jingle of spurs along the oars and
O man of the Canadian mounted police
swaggers through with his black fur cap
and the yellow tab aside, his welatitting
overalls and his better set up back. One
wants to shake hands with him because he
is olean and does not slouch or spit, trims
Ina hair and walks as a man should. Then
a Custom House officer wants to know too
much about cigars whisky and Florida
water. Her Majeaty, the Queen of Eng-
land, and the Empress of India, has us m
her keeping. Nothing has happened to
Otto landscape, and Winnipeg, which is, as
it were, a oenter of distribution for emi-
grants, stands up to her knees in the water
of the thaw. The year has turned in earnest
and somebody is talking aboub the "first
ice -shove" at Montreal 1,300 or 1,400 miles
ease.
They will not run trains on Sunday at
Montreal, and this is Wednesday. There-
fore the Canadian Pacific makes upa train
to Vancouver at Winnipeg. Thi
is s worth
remereeeejee, because few people travel in
that trete, eld you escape any rush of tour.
iste running westward to catch the Yoko.
ham& boat. The ear is eour own, and with
it the services of the porter. Our porter see-
ing things were slack, beguiled himself with
O guitar, which gave a triutnphal itnd feetive
touch to theaourney ridioulously out of keep-
ing with the view. For twenty-eight long
hours did the bored locomotive trail as
through a flat and hairy land, powdered,
ribbed, and speckled with snow, small snow
that drives like dust shot in the wind—the
land of Assinaboia. Now and &gain, for no
obvious reason to the outside mind, there
was a town. Then the towns gave place to
Section 8o aud So ; then there Wen) trails
a the buffalo, where he once walked in his
pride : then there was a mound of white
bones supposed to belong to the sant buffalo
and then the wilderness took up the tale,
Sotne of it was good ground—very goo4
ground—but most of it seemed to have fall.
on by the wayside, and the tedium of it was
eternal.
At twilight—an unearthly sort of twilight
—there came (mother eurioua pieture.
Thus : A wooden town shuts in among low
treelese rolling ground ; a calling river that,
iwn unseen between scarped banks ; bar.
racks ofit detachmene of mounted pohso;
a little oemetery where ex -troopers rested •
a painfully formal public, garden with peb-
ble paths and foot.bigh fir braes ; a few
tines of railway beildings ; white women
walking up end down in the bitter cold with
their honnets off ; some Indians in red
blankebine, with buffalo horne for sale ()tail-
ing along the platform, and, not ten yards
from the track, a cinnamon bear and a
young grizzly stenffing up with extended
arms in Limit, pens bogging for food. It was
strange beyond anything that this bald tell.
ing cen euggest ; opening a door into a new
world. The only commonplace thing about
the spot watt its natne—Modielno Hat—
whioh struek one instantly as the only pos.
gbh" name such a town could awry.
The nex6 morning burtight tle the 0,ane.
dim% Nether Beltway as Otto res,cls about it.
blo pen of man could do justiee to the
tarenery there, The guide books struggle
desperately with desoriptions adapted for
summer reeding ot rushingeascatles, lichen.
ed rook, waving pines, and snow.capped
mountains ; but in April these things are
not there. The place ia looked up—dead as
a frezen oorpse, The mountain torrent Is a
hoes of palest emerald leo against the
(Welt, ol tile snow ; tht. pine stumps are
cappedand hooded with gigantic Mushrooms
of anow ; the rooke are overlaid five feet
deep, 1,1)0 rock, the fallen trees, and the
Whom) together, and the dumb white lips
(Jeri up to the track out in the side of the
mountain and grin there, tangled with
giguntie it:toles. You may listen In vain
when the tritM 0001)4 for the least sign of
breath or power mons the It The snow
has smotherea the mere, and the groat
looping treatlea run 01101' What might be a
lather of SUCiti in a huge wash tub, The old
mime near by ie blackened and smernhed
with the smoke of to locomotives,
and dullness is grateful to aching eyes. but
Otto mon who live upon the lino have no con.
siderationfor these things. At a halting
'Atwell' &gigantic gorge walled in by the
snows, one of them reels from a tiny %loon
into the middle of the treat, where helf is
dozen dogs aro chatting a pig off the metals.
Ho is beautifully and eloquently drunk. He
eines, waves his !lends, end collapses bit.
hind the shunting engine, while four of the
loveliest peaks that the Alm igh ty ever mould-
ed look down upon him. The landslide that
should have wiped that Baleen into kindlings
has missed its mark and has struck a few
miles down the line. One of the hilleides
moved a little in dreaming of the spring
and °might a passing freight train. Our
cars grind oantiously by, for the wrecking
engine hem only just come through. The
dune -god locomotive is standing on its head
in soft earth thirty or forty feet down the
slide, and two long oars loaded with shinglee
aro dropped carelessly atop of it. It looks
so marvellously like a toy train flung aside
by a child that one cannot retain what it
means till its voice erica : "Any one killed ?"
The answer conies beok t " No ; all jumped,"
and you peroeive—with a sense of personal
insult—that this slovenliueess of the moun-
tain isan affair which may touch your own
sacred self. In which case the train is out
on a trestle, into a tunnel, and mit on a
trestle again.
It woe here that every one began to de-
spair of the line when it was under constrno-
tion because there seemed to be no outlet.
But a man came, as a man always will, and
put a descent thus, and a curve in this man.
nor, and a trestle so; and behold the line
went on. It is in this place that we heard
Otto story of the C. P. R. told, as men tell
O many times repeated tale, with exaggera-
tions and ommissions, but an Imposing tale
none the less. In the beginning, when they
would federate the Dommion of Canada, it
was British Columbia that saw objections
to corning in, anti the Prime Munster of
those days promised it for a bribe an iron
band between the tidewater that should not
break. Then everybody laugh ed , w h lob seems
necessary to the I. ealtil of ell big enterprises,
and while ehey were laughing, things were
being done. The 0. P. R. got a bit of line
here and a hit of One there, and almost as
much land as it wanted, and the laughter
was still going on when the last !spike was
driven between East and West at the very
place where the drunken man sprawled be-
hind the engine, end the iron band ran
from tideway to tideway, as the Premier
said, and people in England said, "How in-
tereating!" and prooeeded to talk about the
"bloated army estimates."
Incidentally the man who told us—he had
nothing to do with the C. P. R.—explained
how it [raid the lino to encourage immigra•
tion, and told of the arrival at Winnipeg of
O train load of Scotch crofters on a Sunday.
They wanted to stop then and there for the
Sabbath, they and all the little stock they
had brought with them. It was the Win-
nipeg agent who had to go among them
arguing (he was Scotch, too, and they
couldn'e quite understand it) on the impro-
priety of dislocating the company's traffic.
So their own minister held service in the
station and the agent gave them a gpod din-
ner, cheering them in Gaelic, at which they
wept, and they went on to seetle at Moses -
min, where they lived happily ever after-
ward. Of the manager—the head of the
line fame Montreal to Vancouver—our com-
panion spoke with reverence that was al-
most awe. The menager lived in a
palace at Montreal, but from time to time
he would sally forth in his special car and
whirl over his 3,000 miles at fifty miles an
hour. The regulation paces is twenty-two,
but he sells his neck with his head. Few
drivers cared for the honor of taking him
over the road. A mysterious man he was,
"who carried the profile of the line in his
head," and, more than that, knew intimate-
ly the possibilities of back countrywhich he
had never seen or travelled over. There is
always one such man on everyline. You
can hear similar tales from drivers on the
Groat Western in Eugland or Eurasian eta -
tion masters on the big Northwestern in
India. Then a fellow traveller spoke,
as many others had done, on the
possibilities of Canadian union with the
United States; and his language was not
the language of Mr. Goldwin Smith. It
was brutal in places. Summarized, it came
to a pronounced objection to having any-
thing to do with a lanci rotten before it is
ripe, a land with 7,000,000 negroes yet un-
welded into the population, their race type
nuevolved, and rather more than crude no.
tions on murder, marriage, and honesty.
"We've picked up their ways of politics,"
he said mournfully. "That comes of living
next door to them, but I don't think we're
anxious to mix up with their obher messes.
They say they don't wane us, They keep on
saying 10. There's & nigger in the fence
somewhere, or they wouldn't lie about 10."
"But does it follow that they aro lying?"
"Sure. I've Weed among 'one They can't
go straight. There's some damn fraud at
Otto back of it."
lirom this belief he oould nob be shaken,
He had lived among them—perhaps had
been beeten in trade. Let them keep them-
selves and their manners Mid OUSLOMS to
their own side of the One. •
This is very sad end chilling. It seemed
quite otherwise in New York, where Can-
ada wee repveriented as a ripe plum ready
to fab into Uncle Sam's mouth when he
should open it. The Canaclinn Ina no sire.
cial love for England—the Mother of Col-
onies Imam wonderful gift for alienating the
affeetions of her own household by negleot
—but perhaps he loves his own Wintry.
We ran out of the snow through mile apon
mile of snow sheds, braoed with twelve -inch
betting and planked with two-inub plonking,
In one place a snowslule mil caught just, the
edge of a abaci and scooped it away 00 15 knife
s000pe ohm°, High up thehillsmen had built
divortiegbarriers to butt the drifts, but the
drifts had swept over everything, and
ley five feet deep on the top of the sheds.
When we woke lb Was on the banks of the
muddy Fraser! River, and the spring was
hurrying to meet ue. The SDOW, hacl gone;
the pink blossoms of the wild (=rent were
open, the budding alders stood misty green
against the bltuablack pines, the brambles
on the burned stumps wore in the tenderest,
loaf and ovary moss on every stone WM WS
year's WOOL fresh front the hand of tIto
Maitar, The 'land opened into eleerings of
son black earth. At one etation ouo hen
had laid ono egg and WaS Ooitttig the world
about it, The world answered with to breath
of tho roal spring—spring that flooded the
stuffy car and drove us out on the platform
to send' end sing nini rejoice and pluck
squarhy green marsh -flags and throw them
at the colts, and shout at the wild duck
that rose from a jeweagreen lakelet. thul
be thanked that in travel ono can follow the
yew'. '1'111a, my spring, I lost last Novern-
bor in New Zealand, Now I ;hall hold her
fast through Japan and the summer into
New Zealand nein,
Here are the waters of the Pacifie, and
VaDOOLIVOC (completely deatitute of any de-
cent tiefeneeta grown out of all knowledge
in the last, three years. At the railway,
wharf, with never a gun to protect her lies
Otte ElOpr0101 of India -the Japan bont a and
what more aueeicious name could you with
to find at the end of one of the etameg chains
of Empire?
A DARING LITTLE WAR.
nrave Heeds of BrElsh TroonS.
AccountS are published desoriptive of the
struggle the Imperial troops had in establish-
ing themselvee in the valley of the Kangut
&Yea To underatand the position it must
be premised that Colonel Durand, with a
small force of Goorkhas and some sappers,
was last December engaged making a road
from Gilgit to Chalk. The Henze and
Nagar tribee combined to stop the construe.
elan of the react, which, though it is in
Cashmere territory, will command the ap-
proaches to their country. Nilt Fora about
twenty miles below the capital of the petty
State of Nagar, was taken Oa December 2
by assault, but the country bristled with
dormice. Only 80 yards from tire fort, on
the summit of a °lift, was a " sanga," or
stone breastwork, through a gate in which
Otto only road up the valley passed. Lien.
tenant Gordon and six sepoys wore wound-
ed and one sepoy killed on the ad in trying
to dialoclge the garrison, For eighteen days
Otto expedition remained in cheek. The
hostile tribes of the Indus Valley were pre.
paring to fall on the line of communication,
and the
SNOW-COVEEED PASSES,
eating off' all possibility of reinforeeinents
till next slimmer, it was absolutely neces-
sary to turn the enemy's position. There
were 40 ;nen incapacitated by wounds eight
mon killed, and more than a quarter of the
British officers hors de combat. There were
two tributary " nullabs," with precipitous
banks, defended by fortresses and numerous
"sangas." From the glaciers to the river-
bed the Indian troops were faced by im•
pregnable chiefs lined with marksmen, and
easily defeated by what is so far more ter-
rifying to men than any rifle fire, the ava-
lanche of rocks only acquiring the displace-
ment of a single stone to startit from above.
The correspondent then proceeds :—" From
O block house, which our men had built on
our aide of the Nilt imitate we saw opposite
es a steep cliff rising up the bed of the
ravine for about 1200 foot, commanded by a
row of sangas standing on the very edge of
the precipice. As it would have been almost
inipossible for men to pick their way up
this difficult cliff side by night, it was pro-
posed to send a party to scale it, and to
storm the Bulges ahove in broad daylight,
under cover of a heavy fire from the ridge
on our aide of the nulla.h. The command of
Otto party which WaS to carry out this daring
deeign was entrusted to Lieutenant Man-
ners -Smith, political assistant to the British
Agent at Gilgit. At the time when the ac-
cessibility of this portion of the cliff was
first ascertained Captain Bradshaw happen-
ed to be at Gilgit to consult with Colonel
Durand, so the command devolved on
Captain Colin Mackenzie. At seven o'clock
on the evening of December 19, it being
very dark, with no moon, Lieutenant Man.
ners•Smith and Lieutenant Taylor, with 100
men of the 2d Kashmir Rifles, half of whom
were Goorkhas, the other half Dogras—all
hillmen and accustomed to the mountains—
sot off for the bottom of the nullah. At
daybreak, December 20, 130 picked marks-
men, together with two guns of the alazara
Mountain Battery, advanced up the hillside
and took up a position on the edge of the
ridge, just above the party concealed In the
nullah bed. Opposite to us
ACROSS TEE RAVINE,
at 400 yards distance, were three sangas,
to whose fire and rock -rolling the storming
party would be chiefly exposed. Lieuten-
ant Manners•Smith had been instructed not
to oommence his ascent until we had carried
on fire for half an hour. Accordingly, after
the specified time had elapsed, he, with his
fifty Goorkhas, began to clamber up the
steep rooks, Lieutenant Taylor following
with the 50 Dogma There were 1,200 feet
of hard olimbing before them, and from
where we were on the opposite side we could
eee the little stream of men gradually wind-
ing up. Having attained a point SOO feet
above the nullah bed, Lieutenant Manners -
Smith was °beaked by the inaccessible na-
ture of the ground, and had to return to a
lower point. It was, happily, not until
this moment that the enemy had any idea
that a party of seppys were scaling the nul-
lah side. The leleaun people first detected
our men, and shouted a warning across the
river, which was carried up the mountain
side from seep to sena, until the noon
holding the three Lunges with tvhich we
were immediately concerned realized thaa
their position was being stormed, and that
unless they bestirred themselves to make a
resolate defence, our sepoys would be
amongse them and their retreat be out off.
Rocks were now thrown ovet the sange,
walls, and showers of stones poured down
the oliff. Luckily by this time most of the
gallant little party had passed the points
most exposed to
MSS DEADLY METHOD
of defence, and the rooks either swept down
the steep shoots to the left of our inn or
bounded harmlessly over their heads. Sever-
al men, however, WM MOr0 or less seriona•
ly woundedaLietenant Taylor himself being
knocked down by one rook, but luoluly re.
oeiving no injuries of any moment,. Still
our men pushed up the stems slope under
the gangue, while the Itagrtti became des-
porate, knowing that there was no hope for
them shouffi the sepoys once) attain the
summit, One man espooially showed groat
bravery, he boldly standing out in the open
and throwing down rook after rook as fast
as he was able until he wits shot down by
Otto nutresman on our side of the ridge, At
last—and it was a mothent of suspense for
Otto onloekers—wo sem Lieu tenant Manners.
Smith reach the front of the sanga, clamber
round to the right of it, and reach the fiat
ground beside it. A few Goorkhas were
close at his heels, and then, the men having
got to the hank of the sang& the Hiles of
Otto etorming party wore for the fit* time
broright into plo,y. A few shots in rapid
stumeseion end the first, amp was ours,
those of the garrison who wore not killed
Within being shafts they lied down the hill.
slide by our marksmen on the ridge, Mere
mon having rejoined leieuteeent eitemere.
Smith, Oho other two sangas wore rapidly
cleared in the same way, and, the position
being scoured, to short halt wee called until
Otto remanung Hoorkluts and the Degree
under Lieutenant Taylov had come up. Ilion,
dividing into parties
01111 sr:NYS AVVACKAP
and captured the numerous slurps whieh
atudiled the hillside, tiring their roan aft
they emptied each one, A detei mined to...
sistance was offered by some of the enuiny'
markemen, but, seeing how desperate wa
their situation between the storming pare
on the one side and our riflemen on the op.
posite ridge, they became flurried. The
lire was unsteady, and the easualties on our
side were remarkably few. The attack had
proved a coundete snow, and our men
raised .)beer upon cheer when they saw the
result of it. As oue of our officers remark.
ed, "One might see ninny a bigger fight
than this was, but never a prettier one."
We had only five wounded, and 100 of the
Kangrits were killed. Our MOR then came
from the Nilo Fort, and Lientenan Olanners-
Smith descended on the other side and sur-
rounded a large amigo.; so the Mari holding
the gangs, to the nuMber of 90, finding
themselves surrounded by our troops,
promptly surrendered, praying for quarter
by grovelling on the ground and eating
grass, to indicate that they were no longee
liglttittg men, 1)00 10000 beasts of the field.
The next day (December 21,) after blows
ing up the towers of the Giarat and Thol
Volts, the force tnarolied right up the valley
without encountering any opposition to the
capital of Nagar, twenty miles away. The
Thum of Huns& fled with his treasure with
the intention of escaping to Yarkand. The
people are now again cultivating their fields.
A force of only 300 sepoys now oecupies
Henze, and in so peaceful a condition as the
country that I was able (says the corres-
nondent) to maroh through it alone without
incurring any risk. Thus ended this suc-
aessful little war.
REFUSED THE OZAR,
4. Soldier Refused to Breen Utiles Even
for Ills Sovereign.
One of the Grand Dukes told the Czar
that a sentinel on the grade railroad cross-
ing et Peterhoff had refused to raise the toll
bar for his carriage, although the train was
not due fox three or four minutes : "It is
against order, your Imperial Highness ! I
can't do it, your Imperial Eighuess !" the
soldier had replied ; the rule being that,
once the tolabar is shut, it must not be
opened until after the train has passed.
The Czar said he was very glad to hear that
the soldiers knew how to obey orders, as
discipline was the very life ol the army.
The Grand Duke le,ughed, bet said he was
certain that if the Czar himself had been
present discipline would have given away
before the Imperial presence. The Emper-
or did not reply, but a few days afterward
put the matter to the Gest by driving up
with the Empress to the level crossing just
after the toll -bar was crossed. The Emper-
or called to the sentinel of the day to let
him pass. The sentinel, in dire trepidation,
saluted, but did not stir to the bar. "Open
Otto bar, I tell you ?" oried the Emperor;
" don't you know who I am?" "Yes, your
Imperial Majesty 1 I know your Imperial
Majeaty 1" answered the sentinel, still
saluting, and turning almost blue witlt
anxiety, but not moving an inch_ from his
place. "I am the Emperor, and I com-
mand yo11 to open 1" cried the Czar again.
" Cen't do it, your Imperial Majesty,"
despairingly cried the sentinel, still stand-
ing firm, but too disconcerted to note the
smile in the Emperor's eyes.
Just then the train passed, the Emperor
burst into a fit of Homeric laughter, and
warmly commending the astonished sentry
presented him with a twenty-five rouble
note and drove back to the palace.
THE INDIAN ADEPT'S PORTIT1TDE
Iltorrible Tortures Gone Through. by the
Fakirs Without Emotion.
An ateount of the performance of the
Indian fakiaaoliman ben Aissa, is given by
O Vienna correspondent. The exhibition
has very properly been forbidden in public
places in Vienna, but a series of private on-
tertainments has been arranged. An aristo-
cratic audience was present at the first of
these, The fakir commenced hie perform-
ances by inhaling the fumes of burnt powder
prepared from extracts of snake and
scorpion poisons and by (Attain quick move-
ments of the head he produced a foaming at
Otto mouth,
After these prelitninaries needles and
other sharp instruments were thrust
through various parts of hia body, including
a stiletto a foot long aud half-an.inch
broad which was thrust through his tongue.
Another feat which is said to have caused
great sensation consisted in pulling forward
Otto eyeball and presenting it outside the
orbit to the view of the audience between
two fingers. He was "Invulnerable" also
to the heat produced by a flaming torch held
for a minute and a half against the under
surface ot his forearm. Chewing glass and.
playing with poisonous snakes were among
his other tricks.
TIRE HEAD SURGEON
Of the Lubon Medical Company is now at To-
ronto, Canada, and may be consulted either in
person or by letter on all chronic diseases pe -
Guitar to man. Men, young, old, or middle
aged, who find themselves nervous, weak and
exhausted, who aro broken down from excess
or overwork, resulting in many of the follow-
ing symptoms Mental depression, prema-
ture old age, ion of vitality, loss ca memory,
bad dreams, dimness of sight, palpitation of
Otto .heart, emissions. leak of energy, pain in
Otto kidneys, headache, pimples on the face or
body, itching or peculiar eansabiou about the
scrotum, wasting of the organs, dizziness
spooks before the eyes, twitohing of the mus-
cles, eyelids and elsewhere, bashfulness, de-
posits in the urine, loss of will power, tender-
ness 01 000 !main and spine, weak and flabby
muscles, deeire to sloop, failure to be rested
by sleep, constipation, &illness of hearing, loss
of voice, desire for solitude, excitability of
temper, sunken eyes surrounded with LEADEN
einem, oily looking skin, Mo., aro all symp-
toms of nervous debility that load to insanitY
and death unless mired. The spring or vital
force having lost its tension every funotion
wanes In consequenoo. Those who through
&Muss comMittecl in ignorance may be perm-
anently cured. Send your addresa for book
on all diseases peculiar t: t ienpaoni,N, 1p3uoropki so
sent free sealed, Heart disease, the
887vpi
hieati.i
atraGfation, skip beate, hot
ensiles, rush of blood to the head, dull pain n
BlYpisti,lint°11aMbn0o±
Otto heart with boats strong, meld and icrog-
ular, the newel heart boat ouieker than the
first, pain about the breast bone, oto., canoes.,
Steely be ourea. No cure, no pay. Sena tor
book. Addreee let. V. wrnon 21 Maedenriell
---
Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
A merchant in Germany has been fined
heavily for nsing a, quotation from the
Bible to head at advertisement,
in Ind tam and Now York the statriee
take no account of the extra day in baa,
Geetnanya railroaas have traeke, ,1
nay in leap year,
114,113 miles, 0,000 Milos 'Moro then
treat lirit sin and Ireland, the early home
of the railway.