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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Gazette, 1894-04-19, Page 7eie eent l.< ei CREMATED HER. king Crime In the of Canada. Ward dtabbed Isis Wife er Kal:e, Carved Her I the Fragments in the recent trial of Walter ,rampton, the lag& con- antial evidence fog mora is recalled with much peculiarly horrible one, Lble foe the crushing ►n tial evidence that was perpetrator. el was a member of a iving in Caledon town - spring of 1375 he made England. On the way quainted with a pretty on ber way to Toronto. ber name, was coming r uncle, a garde.;er at ripened fast and soon Canada Mary became use was furnished and ,ent to live on the hus• ledon Township. Ellen titer of a neighbor, as- vork, • fez MURDER. mewhat of a failure so Ward were concerned, >f frequent occurrence. Mrs. Ward prepared to Toronto. Her husband tion and drove her to at Caledon, but when he is.wife that she had bet - and he would then ac - was strangely persistent yielded and went back h he requested her to irl away. tormy one and the wind out the house. What cording to the theory of ve Murray,who worked by the opinions of many rd, while his wife was utcher knife and stab - Then with the skill of a e carved the bleeding ess pieces. The bones h in the same manner as use carves a Christmas g F P THE BODY. utilated fru ments of wife, the fiend calmly horrible work. rom ght u several jars of rl a roaring fire in the the fire was so intense the stove was burned tallow sp read over the e whole house was in g of a madman, Ward ember and seared his en, when nothing could rushed to his father's e alarm. When asked id he was awakened by He called for his wife, y. Then he ran out of out being badly burnt. TALE CLUE- spected that something once telegraphed the ronto. Detective John ed on the case and he while the timbers were aw Ward in bed at his questioned him closely. ed that, while the man burned about the neck, en singed and he bore fought a battle with burned itself out the away. A piece of the d the fragment of an that was left of Mrs. of the house was found g and some feathers d, that apparently had y the fire. A butcher t as if it had been used der the spot where the erre had the fire been peen burned. CTED FROM THE IRoi then commenced to fix expert testimony on ally convicted of mur- alyzed the iron of the feathers. His evidence • d was present in large e position in which it was surmised that = killed while in bed. s the case was tried at ing of 1876, eron defended Ward. nneth MacKenzie and d for the crown and by the researches of The defence pleaded of less than a dozen . Workman, who said unsound mind: The a. preponderance of the and among others Dr. Asylum, testified that fectly sane and respons- along tediously and ty and sentenced to n the first Friday in •ns were sent to the for clemency and the •cited to imprisonment A MANIAC. his sentence he showed insanity and was sent Ium at Rockwood. Five the asylum. ad many a wordy war Ward's sanity, and to ''said of New York, an ex• s, and another expert f rom e made an examination Bided that it was diseas- ig fact that a son of John the defender of Ward, Osier in preparing the against .MacWherreli raise and reward e Pthan to have• them ger#shy of them ; we o to speak for us. The Care of Poultry. The care of poultry is just as difficult to obtain success as that which is necessary in the breeding sad handling of the domestic animals. The difference lies only in the magnitude of the business. In both cases the strictest attention must be given to the details. A writer says: As the season is now upon ns when the countryman is using his utmost endeavors to induce his hens to lay their fall limit of well developed, fertile eggs, in order to supply his egg trade and those for his own use, a few hints from a practical standpoint may not be out of place. As the breeding stock are usually yarded in rather small pens. the first prime necessity is to keep them strong, active, in- dustrious and healthy. We find no method in oar years of experience more satisfactory than the following : Provide a scratching .pen' near by the roost house. Keep the floors or runs littered six or eight inches deep with dry straw, chaff, leaves or shav- ings from the lumber mill. In this a small quantity of grain, such as oats, wheat, millet or buckwheat, is well scattered, early in the morning. This grain, sifting down through the loose litter, compels the fowls to work and scratch for their food. This keeps them active and strong, instead of sluggish and unhealthy, as a heavy morning feed given daily is sure to inspire. Crushed bone and sharp grit are abso- lute necessities and should be kept before them at all times. FowLs must have it, as it is the teeth with which they grind their food. In many parts of the country where there is no atone the supply of sharp gravel can be obtained by going to the runs and streams and hauling an occasional load. We also use all the broken crockery we can lay hands on, and break it up to the size of wheat grain. Some writers advo- cate kroken glass for poultry. Don't al- low this. Keep all glass out of their each. We have had some experience in that line and want no store. All the sour milk from the house is given to the fowls ; it makes them thrive and keep healthy. Two or three times a week fresh lean meat scraps. from threetimes butcher shop are also given Keep plenty of pure, fresh water before them at all times, winter and summer. In winter the water should be given warm. Always be sure their drinking utensils are perfectly sweet and clean. Fowls require an enormous quantity of water, and it should always be within their reach. Care of Sow at Farrowing. The care of the breeding animals should not be spasmodic or irregular but continu- ous through all seasons of the 'year. The sown should especially be fitted for the uses they are intended to supply. They mast necessarily have laxative foods, con- taining the nitrogenous elements and the phosphates, such as millstufis, oats, oilmeal and plenty of clover, which promote mus- cular development. Corn or any other starchy foods constipate the bowels and contract the muscles to the extent that parturition is difficult and often impossible, so that fatalities are the result. At a meeting of the Missouri State Swine - Breeders' Association Mr. 0. D. pester said: " There might a great deal be said on the question of how to treat the sow at farrow- ing and at the instance of our worthy sec- retary I will give you a few impressions gathered from my own experience. When we take into consideration the value of the brood sow and the important part she - plays in the great swine breeding world it behooves' us to make every effort to • dis- cover how best we may treat her that the highest results may be obtained. "At the time of mating I prefer to have the sow in good, vigorous condition, but not fat. After being bred she shouldbe put aside and watched closely as the time of heat draws nigh. As soon as she is found to be in pig, she may be put in bet- ter flesh to enable her to respond to the additional strain made upon her system in the sustenance and development of the un- born progeny ,butinevery case this shouldbe done with bone and muscle; forming food, such sah�oats or a slap made of mill -stuff and oil cake meal but with little corn. She - should at all times have the run of a good roomy lot or pasture in order to afford her an abundance of daily exercise: " A week or ten days before due to far- row she should be isolated and made ac- quainted with her new quarters. - At this period no corn should be fed but a - liberal supply of warm slop. I have never had a sow thus cared for experience much trouble at farrowing time. As to the best kind of a house, I hardly know what to say, but during theneinter and early days of spring, a warm, dry house is most•certainly called for. I use a house built expressly, for this purpose, with a stove in it, and find it a success ; and use prairie hay or bluegrass, which grow abundantly in our section, for bedding, as it accumulates less dust and wears longer than straw. It is well to be present when the sow farrows. I use eight inch fenders securely fastened seven inches' from the floor; this often prevents the sow from crushing the pigs against the wall. During' warm,dry weather a ground floor is much cooler and preferable to plank. The . first week after farrowing, the sow's diet should be carefully regulated. One of the greatest dangers -is in over . feeding. Very young pigs cannot take much milk, hence the flow should not be unnaturally stimn Iatest - As the pigs grow older the feed can be gradually increased until the pigs are ten days old,or two weeks old,when she may be put on full feed and all kinds of milk producing food may be, fed generous- ly." Early Maturity. With the class of stock. intended for meat, more especially, it is quite an item to feed -an& care for them in the way best calculated to secure a quick growth and early maturity. Under present. conditions no hog should beallowed to be kept onthe farm until he is a year old, except as a breeding animal A wether should noti be kept until he is fully -two years old, or a steer until he is three.. In order ,toe .taco ' profitable early! maturity, no animal ehould.be allowed: to pass= these -lilting To a very considerable e telt the -growth must be pushed from the start, €eeding - ration -*ell calculated make'sgood frame ;and aecnre a good- topircent of eandmuscle, and at the e feed en Art ani mal kept it grd'dtlh, ti> 767T401,4 -in, -a t with no class ogr 'wine animals i f s it -desirakl le toteepthem fat. The est health and thief -tie not maintained when a grow- ing animal is left too fat. At the same time the growth and -development must be. pushed and the judgment of the feeders angst be exercises as to the condition of the animals, and the ration must be deter- mined by the condition of the animal& If a growing animal is fed sufficient to keep in a good, thrifty condition it will grow readily enough. With an animal in- tended for meat it is an exception when they can be considered as growing too fast. One of the best seasons for pushing the growth is after grass and clover make a sufficient growth to furnish a fall feed, but in order to get the most out of it, have the stock in a good, thrifty condition. If they are allowed to run dawn from now until grass starts, it will require more or less of what we may consider the best time to make up for what has been loet. It will pay better now to feed a little extra to maintain a steady growth, than to allow them to run down. Every item of profit mwet be considered, and pushing the growth from the start sufficient to secure an early maturity is one of the essentials necessary to make stock return the most profit. One item should always be remembered in connection with growing stock, and that is whenever they are fed without securing a gain the cost is increased without a cor- responding profit. OBSERVING THE TIDES. The New Work Undertaken by the Marine Department, and its Conductor. Intimately connected with , the efforts now being made to make Canada the great highway across the American continent, and between Europe, Asia and Australia; are the surveys in progress and now being extended, f>f the tides and currents of the great waterways both on our eastern and west ern coasts. This matter was brought under the notice of the BZtish Association at its meeting in Montreal in 1884, by Dr. John- son, of McGill College. As the association had giready intere,ted itself in similar ob- servations in other parts of the Empire,and as Canada is eminent for the greatness of its inland waterways, while the know- ledge of the tides and currents which embarrass navigation in them was very imperfect, the subject was warmly taken up by the association, and a committee was appointed which was afterwards aided by a committee of the Royal So- ciety of Canada, Dr. Johnson acting as convener of . both committees. In this way and by deputations and petitions representing the most important Shipp ng and commercial interests, the matter was urged upon the attention of the Govern- ment, and eventually action was taken to the extent of instituting some tentative tidal observations at a number of stations under the management of Prof. Carprriaei, of the Meteorological department. A fur- ther step has now been taken under the auspices of the Minister of Marine, in the special employment of Mr. W. Bell Daw- son as engineer in charge of the work and in preparing for careful observations with the best instruments to determine the actual nature, rate and directions of these cur- reetjwhich have proved so disastrous shipping and obstructive of any attempt to run swift lines` of ocean steamers to our great interior ports. The means at the disposal of the department are very small when compared with the greatness of the work and the importance of the practical ends to be secured ; but they will, no doubt, be supplemented, and will be used as far as possible in ascertaining the most important data of a practical character. The officer in special charge of the work is believed to be eminently fitted to the task imposed on him. He is a graduate in Arts and Engineering of McGill, and after graduating here spent three years in Paris, taking the full course of the celebrated Eaole des Fonts et Chaussees and passing its examinations with credit. He subse- quently spent some time in examining the great engineering works then in progress in Eastern France and prepared a descrip- tive account of them for the English Insti- tution of Civil Engineers, of which he is -an associate. He has since had somewhat var- ied experience in Canada, extending from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, and is thoroughly acquainted with the climatal and other eandisions and requirements of this country. The work is one having no party or sectional aspect, but tending to the general good by removing obstacles to navigation and trade, and thus benefiting all classes of the people and the inland districts as well as those on the sea coast. It is one that it is felt should be prosecuted with vigor, and with adequate means, so as to ensure efficiency and to obtain practically useful results at as early a date as possible. A report has been prepared and will shortly he published giving the actual condition of our knowledge, whether learned in the preliminary tidal observationsalready made, of previous surveys, or borrowed from foreign sources, and indicating the methods and appliances most suitable for securing, in the first instance,- as early as possible the information necessary to reduce to a mini- mum the dangers of the navigation of our eastern coasts and of the Gulf of St. Law - ranee, to be followed by similar observa- tions in .the west. A Durable. Paint. A fire -proof and water -proof substitute for paint for use ih boiler and engine rooms consists of six quarts of freshly slaked lime, well sifted, to which is added one quart of rock salt and a gallon of water, the mixture being then well boiled and skimmed clean. To five gallons of this mixture are added a pound of slam, half a pound of copperas (stirred in slowly), three-quarters of a poun of potash and four quarts of fine sand or hard -wood ashes. well sifted. To this may be added any coloring desired. It is said to be as durable aislate, and to be especial- Iy applicable to brickwork and similar surfaces. Yates Thompson, known es the most ens emetic man in England when he controlled the Pall Mall Gazette, now wants to enlarge Westminster Abbey ,and has offered -to sufi. eribe $200,000.1or an additional chapel., Mere-. rhetoric in.'serious , discourses is Eke, flowers in corn, pleasing to those who look only for amusement, but "prejudicial- -to $ilia who would reap profit Iron!` : No man call tie- brave who considers pain t+a t eve of life etc isasure as tth crate g 9. MINERALOGY OF:,THR NORTKi POLEi it isitnowa to include Gold., Silver, Dia- monds Coal, Asbestos and Cryyilte. Although 'the region surrounding the north pole has so far presented a condition of dismal defiance to the peeringeuriosityof men, enough has been gathered concerning its mineral resources to establish the fact that in those inhospitable - surroundings nature has stored her wealth most lavishly. Far within the arctic circle fine veins of bituminous coal have been seen. Isinglass stone abounds, and there can hardly be a doubt but that underneath the perpetual ice cap might be found a plentiful supply of the precious metal. The Alaskan rivers and streams give evidence of auriferous abundance, and the Astatic and European polar appror.ehes also furnish these indica- tions. Despite the intense cold which prevails over all the approaches to the pole during the greater porton of the year, it is evi- dent that the earth's crust is here of less than the usual thickness. this evidence lies in the fact of THE VOLCANIC'CHARACTER of much of the circumpolar region, in the colossal geysers of boiling water, and when it is considered that a vast area is entirely unknown, not having been trodden ley human feet since the last great cata- clysm, it is inferrable that there are other evidences only awaiting the explorer. On the Ural Mountains, which form a part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and which project northward to the Sea of Kara, are deposits of asbestos, silver, plat- inum, diamonds, gold and iron, and all things indicate that in the pre'olar time this region must have been a veritable Ar- cadia. A point on the southwest coast of Greenland, just a few miles south of the arctic circle, enjoys the distinction of hav- ing the only known mine of cryolite in the world. This is an ice-caoped point on Cape Desolation and is only accessible to vessels of unusually staunch construction. Very early in the century a German prospector named Golseck, who landed at Cape Farewell, which is the southern ex- tremity of Greenland, was the first Euro - peau to make this discovery. Being told of this curious stone by a native, he pro- ceeded up the Arsuk Fiord, went to the place, and at the water's edge saw -the outcropping of the white, soft substance which the natives used in dressing pelts, rubbing it on the fleshy aide, where its action was much like that of soap. The material was then named cryolite, meaning ice stone, and the prospector had found the floride of sodium! and aluminium, the substance having a considerable cammercial value, as alum, salsoda, bicarbonate of soda and other substances having value are its products. This cryolite deposit is very peculiar. It occurs at the base of a moun- tain slope, in the form -of an oval pocket or chimney, its longer and shorter axes being - 100 and 200 feet respectively, extending downward at an angle of forty-five to the horizon. Thesides,asfar down asthe excava- tion extends, are of gray granite, and the formation was also coveted with this rock. In the absence of any more specific infor- the best condition, thequality of both mation as to geological chacteristics it may oil and skin being best fitted for the processes in which they are used. NEWFOUNDLANDERS IN LUCK. The Seal. Hunt Promises to be a Good One. A St. John's,Nfld„ special says :—Twenty two steamers with five thousand --men e board are engaged in the seal fishery. Th prospects are excellent, and the weathe favorable. Steamers are reported takin seals off Fogo and Tilt Cove. Thousand of seals have been hauled ashore over th ice. The seals are welt` distributed, so Lha many steamers are participating in th catch. Writing on an earlier date a St. .John' correspondent says :— On the 10th instant our sealing steams started for the icefields. The . Season i favorable so far for getting norf<h. W have had, up to this date, but little east- terly wind, which often packs the ice clos in upon the sh re, and fills up the bays -so that the ste • era cannot penetrate th great masses so as to search, for the seals. Westerly and southwesterly winds have lately driven the ice off shore, so that the steamers have made a favorable start. The same number of steamers as last year, namely twenty- two, will this year take part in our great seal hunt. One steamer, the Eagle, was lost at the whale fishery, but her place has been filled up by another, the Windsor Lake. About 5,000 men are embarked. Much depends on the success of the seal fishery. In a favorable year it is worth over three-quarters of a million dollars to the country. Formerly it used to reach a million dollars. This harvest is reaped without any sowing in six or eight weeks. It is, however, very precarious. Last year only 129,061 seals were taken. In 1892'the number taken was 340,624. So many of the seals escaped the hunters last year that it is anticipate d they will be found in large numbers this year and that the returns will be above the average ; but the ice,the winds and the waves have to be reckoned with ; so that, as we often say here, "it is all a lottery." Nothing is cer- tain but its uncertainty. steamer BRIGHT AND BREEZY, The Isle of Man has no pawnshop. New Zealand has only one-story houses. M• ore people die in spring than in any of e the seasons. ✓ It takes a Danish express train a day to g travel a hundred miles. s Foreigners took sixty-three per cent. of e the Chicago World's Fair prizes. s a e - Naturalists assert that a healthy swallow devours six thousand flies every day. e Moscow's foundling asylum, founded by Catharine II., is kept up by a tax on play - e ing cards. The parish of St. Marylebone has as many as 3,000 buildings officially described as factories and workshops. Dressmakers in Paris are said to charge unmarried women less for their costumes than they do their married sisters. Eighty of the towns in Great_ Britain supply the navies of one hundred towns in America. The huge guns of modern navies can only be fired about seventy-five times before they are worn out. It requires an order from the President of the United States to procure an impres- sion of the great Seal of State. It is a point of honor that Moorish wo- men never know their own ages. They have no birthday celebrations. The takings of London theatres and music -hails exceed £1,500,000. Smooth taper fingers are generally in the higher degree artistic. Football was a crime in England during reign the Henry VIII. ACT REGULATING THE FISHERY. Last year certain amendments were made in the act which regulates the seal fishery. As the act now stands, no steamer can leave a port in Newfoundland for the pro- secution of the seal fishery before the 10th day of March in each year, at 2 o'clock, afternoon, under a penalty of$4,000,unless the 10thof March falls on a Sunday, in which case steamers can leave on the 9th at 2 p.m. No custom house officer is to clear a vessel for a sealing voyage . before March 9th. Taking seals on Sunday was prohibited in the, same amendments ; and should any seals so killed be brought into any port in the colony the owners would be liable to.a penalty of $2,000. The object for prohib- iting the sailing of steamers before March 10th is to prevent the capture of seals before they have reached the age and size which have been found to 'give- the best returns. When taken before the age of three or four weeks, the skins and fat are comparatively of small value.If allowed to reach the age named they are then in be surmised that this chimney in some past age did service as a vent .hole for some spouting geyser, and may at one period have spouted water highly charged with the sub- stances mentioned, held in solution. It is a most unique mine, being simply a huge shaft worked in " benches " and extending slantingly DOWN INTO THE EARTH. Being close to the arctic circle it is near the sixtieth Parallel, and is farther. north than are the Russian penal mines in Siberia. Although this pocket has been profitably milled since 1864, as the excavation covers 13,000 square yards of superficial area, the depth reached is not very considerable, be- ing only 100 feet. It may seem like a contradictionof terms to speak of an animal mineralogy, and yet it is a fact that there are islands in portions of the circumpolar districts that are really quarries, if the term be allowable, of an- imal remains, bones and tusks, ivory of the finest kind, of a quantity warranting a one- time' aggregation of aiirimal forms to which all thatnowexists on the earth hardly affords a comparision. If we survey the present animal construction on strictly mechanical lines it seems incredible that colossal mon- sters should once have existed carryin g tusks more than sixteen feet lung and weighing singly over 300 pounds, yet the evidence goes to show that not only were there herds of those forms, but they were also myriads in numbers. The polar region is one vast cemetery of the remains of a world of bygone fauna, and on a scale of aggregation that would probably exceed that of the combined world at. present. The time has gone by for our earth again to possess the conditions of such reproduc- tive vigor as produced both theearlier fauna and flora. Without a doubt a time will come when this frigid storehouse will be A CANADIAN FORESTALLER. A good deal of lively feeling has been awakened by the announcement that on the 5th the sealing steamer Newfoundland passed the mouth of St. John's harbor, shaping her course for the ice -fields. She has thus a start of five days in advance of our steamers and has the field all to her- self. She cleared at Lunenburg, being manned there, and consequently is not bound by our laws outside the three mile limit. The newspapers have commented in strong terms on the injustice of a Domin- ion steamer being permitted to disregard's our fishery laws, and injure a valuable fish- ery which we are trying to protect. The matter has also been referred to in the House of Assembly, and the Government were called on to explain why they had not corresponded with the Dominion Gov- ernment on the matter, so as to secure co- operation in the protection of -cur seals. A resolution, it seems, was passed last ses- sion instrusting the Government to do. this, but they allege there was no unanim- ity of opinion as to what the Dominion Government should be asked to do, and in consequence they did nothing. No w this matter has a very serious aspect. Should more Cana,lian steamers take part in the seal fishery, which they have a perfect right to do, and should they follow the ex- ample of Captain Farquharson, by starting several days ahead of our vessels, thus not only forstalling them, but injuring the prospects of this industry for the future, then disastrous results would be likely to follow. Our laws for the protection of this fishery are the results of extended and experienced and much thoughtful consider. ation. Before such protection was estab- lished the fishery had been declining rapid - opened up and its treasure made to respond shouldt thinksinceithere t w beuldhaslroveop ifficulty to human needs. Itis even well that some in coming -to an understanding with Can - things can be placed out of the common ada so as to secure whatever lei islation is reach, as coal,gas'and petroleum all illus- trate with what reckless greed we waste when once we have access to the stored resources :of nature. DANCING IN ADEN OF LIONS. The' -Novel "Entertainment Furnished ton ttonera by a White -Clad Girl. -` Late London exchanges devote consider- able space to the performance of "Mile. Bob- Walter," whose specialty is a skirt dance in a cage of lions. The performance is of suoh'a creepy characterthat the atten- tion of the government has been called to the matter and, when the usual amount of red tape has been unwound, the show may come to a.sudden end. Several young lions have been trained to remain tolerably quiet while Mlle. Bob does her act. The cage is wheeled onto the stage with the lions, and and the trainer enters, carrying a long, sharp -pronged rod in one hand and a heavy Whip in the other. The animals are chased around the cage until they are pretty well tired out, and then Mlle. Rob enters, clad in along white . gown: She first gives a preliminary pirouette or two and then pa es to see the effect on theions. If needed to regulate the departure of vessels from Canadian ports,so as not to strike the seals prematurely. The Government of Canada would not for a moment refuse co- operation in such a desirable object. It is for the interests of both countries that this valuable fishery should be preserved, and a common arrangement agreed on. Probably before the close of tluesession some action will be taken in this matter. THE CATTLE EMBARGO. Another Deputation to Wait on President Gardner, of the Board of Agriculture. A London special says:—(Star-News. cable)—The Right Hon. Herbert Gardner, President of the British Board of Agricul- ture, will receive on April 3 a deputations from the Chamber of Agriculture of the United Kingdom and from the Royal Society in reference to the cattle trade of Great Britain. I learu that these depute. tions will urge a proposal antagonistic to the Dominion of Canada's cattle export trade, and to this end will make strong representations urging that° all imported l cattle shall be slaughtered at the port of they do no more than growl she continues landing. her performance to the end, always getting _ s enough applause to; warrant an encore. The The idle man is the devil's cushion, on . dancer, howeever,hasnever-done more than which lie taketh his free ease, who, as he is acknowledge theappiause with a bow,not incapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed, earing, apparently, to • tempt - providence for all evil notions. ;anyfurther tt*an is absolutely- necessary. Exact j ustice is`comrnonly more merciful in the long run than pity; for it tends to thosestronger ualities -hie `T ah o inwhich � o foster t ffiie _ h s 'on °Mem of me collection q m are coilt memory indci - - ria them good ozena. tr s make buil a ors ,_ m i The Crown Prince of Siam is among the boy authors of the world. Helas -written several stories for British (children's) maga. zine&, and can write fluently in -three Ear. opean languages. In China, when there is only circumstan- tial evidence against persons suspected of crime, the accused is tortured until -he con- fesses. Sometimes an innocent person will confess, just to escape torture. Statistics compiled by the Census Bureau show that in the United States there are 14,969,467 horses, or one horse for every four inhabitants ; males, 2,295,532 ; cows, 16,511,940 ; ewine, 57,409,583; and sheep, 32,126, 868. Providing the recent survey of the Mia - gourd River under the direction of the United States Geographical Engineering Department is correct, the once majestic river has dwindled greatly in the past fifty years. The ratio of decrease is said to- be alarming. _ In the face of the absolutely stupendous number of pictures which represent Queen Victoria on any and every domestic occasion with her crown on, it is rather curious to learn that she has not,as a matter of fact, worn n it more than twenty times during her whole reign. A Spaniard, a millionaire, is at present working as an ordinary paid workman in a soap manufactory at Berlin. He possesses the largest soap factory in Madrid. He wishes personally to learn the difference between the German and French modes of making soap, as he ia'not satisfied with the French method, which has up to now been followed at his factory. As he cannot speak one word of German he is accompan- ied by an interpreter. Mrs. Kendal, who is so justly noted for her lovely complexion, gives the following as her complexion recipe:—Zen hours' sleep every night ; a four -mile walk every day ; vigorous rubbing in cold water 9 brown bread, no sweets, and no coffee." An old and curious key and lock is at- tached to the door of Temple Church in Fleet -street, London. -The key weighs seven pounds, is eighteen inches long, and, unlike other keys, was not made for the lock. On the contrary, the lock was made for it. Both key and lock have been in ase since the Crusades, the church itself having been built by the Knights Templars in 1485. One of the sights of China is the antique bridge of Suen-tchen-fow,2,500 feet long and 20 feet wide. It has on each side fifty-two piers, upon which huge stones are laid, some of them 20 feet, long. Many thousand tons of stone were used in the errection of this wonderful bridge, which is.regarded by engineers as indicating constructive talent as wonderful as that which raised the Egyptian pyramids. At Quebec the winter markets are -very curious. Everything is frozen. Large pigs, killed, perhaps, months before, may be seen frozen in the butcher's shop. Frozen masses of beef, mutton, deer, fowl, cod, haddock and eels, long and stiff, like walk- ing sticks, abound on the stalls. Milk also is kept frozen, and is sold by the pound, in masses which look like lumps of .white marble. , Journalists in the United States are pro- verbially imaginative. The following quo- tation is from an American medical con- temporary :—" The voracious daily Press states that the mother-in-law of the Mikado of Japan has recently been ill. She was attended by 423 physicians, but in spite of that has pulled through. The 423 medical men hadn't much to say as to the cause of the lady's illness, but a Buddhist priest of ingenious mind declared that it was owing to the introduction of railroads. His logic was simple. Before there were rai',roads she was well. After there were railroads she was ill. What could be more clear than the conclusion he drew? VieE,oria's� R Dislikes. Edmund Yates says that Queen Victoria refused to purchase the necklace, earrings, and brooch of Mary, queen of Scots, in the Eglinton collection, because Mary was not one of her favorites, and when she was persuaded to buy for the Windsor castle collection a fine portrait of Charles II., which had eome into the market, she thus indorsed the memorandum : " I consent, but with great reluctance, for L do not like Charles IL" The sentiment does her credit, but it recalls her interview with Macaulay. The queen said to him : "Yott have drawn a sad portrait of my ancestor, James II." To which the historian prompt- ly replied : " Your majesty means. your majesty's predecessor, not ancestor." Macauley says in his diary that he meant this for a compliment, and intimates a hope that the queen took it for one. The Poe has decided to forbid all per- formances of the well-known masses p of He expresses and Weber. es t Ha do Mozart, Haydn,P he opinion that they -are -of too florid a character to be Conducive to ptoty.