HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News-Record, 1898-10-27, Page 3STQRl ES OE THE SEAQ
By EDWARD JENKINS, M,F,
Author Of " Little Hodge," " Lord Bantam," "Glue's Baby," &c.
adlifesogie
10H1e11'frER T.. tie heart, which has throbbed to many
u sorrow,p ulsates rudely against the
THE DINNER BELL. whalebone foneing of her stays—her
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong,
ding-dong, ding-dong, dIng -a-dong I
The great ship tiamschatkan, 3,500
tons, Claptain Windlass, R.N.R., com-
manding, had cleared the Mersey, and
was running up the channel for the
west of the Isle of Man, the breeze
being light at N. E., and her speed
twelve knots. But for the thud and
vibration of her screw twirling on
the great shaft ilei mighty revolutions
to the splendid play of a pair of
Penn's marvellous engines. whose en-
ormous cylinders oscillated to end fro
with an ease and quietness that was
almost appalling to a spectator; and
but for the evidence of their eyes, as
the green -set river banks, with th:de
charming panorama of wood and field
and mansion, with here ,and there
the spires or towers of hamlet
churches, and all the other sweet fea-
tures of English scenery, had swiftly
passed from view, the passengers
would soarcely have believed themsel
ves to be driving through the water
nearly at the speed of a racehorse—
six hundred of them, with bag and
baggage, and some thousands of tons
of merchandise into the bargain.
Less than three hours before, the
majestic vessel displayed from the
pier, to the eager eyes of the last
batch of first-class passengers, who
were with much ado embarking on
the tender. her long and graceful
hulk floating out in the middle of
the noble river, the Union Jack at
th,e stern, the pennon of the steam-
ship company at the fore peak, her
masts and spars sharply relieved
against a black cloud, while the sun
from its westering path picked out
with a golden burnish the complicat-
ed tracery of tackle and stay, of rig-
ging, rope and spar,
The funnel vomited smoke, which
the. lazy breeze bore aft in a broad
black ribbon, and across the river
could be heard the bellowing of the
great steam pipe, as the engineer,
watching his guages, curbed the im-
patience of the hissing boilers. The
tiny tender, rolling in the slight
swell of the river, oame bowling
alongside with her deck crowded.
From amidships to the bow of the
giant vessel steerage emigrants press-
ed to the starboard bulwarks, to
watch the embarkation of the few
scores of "felloe" passengers who
were to occupy the luxurious cabins,
and enjoy if they were able the rich
flare, of the saloon deck. The canny
Scotch and Canadian passengers, who
had gone aboard by an earlier tender,
and had seen and "nobbled" their
stewards and stewardesses, and settl-
ed down comfortably in their cabins,
and secured the best seats at the
table, now peered curiously over at
the later arrivals, with whom• they
were to eat and drink and talk and
quarrel and vomit in friendly com-
munity for the next ten or twelve
days. These astute persons had al-
ready studied the list of passengers
which lay before the purser in the
saloon, and had to some extent drawn
therefrom their own conclusions as to
the chances of a pleasant company for
the voyage.
Meanwhile, amidst much uproar, im-
mense confusion, wholesale giving and
disregarding of commands, murderous
heaving about and pitching down of
luggage, screams, oaths, angry words,
Laughter, shouts of captain, mates,
stewards, and seamen, and no little
chaffidg from the leviathan to the
cockhoat and back again, suddenly a
bell clangs, "All ashore!" The cap-
tain roars from the bridge to the ten-
der, "Oast off there !" The steam
rushes out with a deafening clangour
t.h:tt drowns "good-byes." The tender,
darting' off amid a cloud of waving
hen ?kerchiefs, and a feeble cheer,
takes away and leaves behind a few
nu�hing hearts and crying eyes; and
-Men suddenly a little bell rings from
the bridge. A man below lays his
hand on a steel rod; it moves slowly.
It moves! There is a second's pause,
e. rushing, mighty sound through the
bowels of the great ship, a quiver ;
and the screw, at the bidding of that
slight command, twirls its tons of iron
fluke through resisting lone of water,
just like a, child's toy -windmill in .a
breeze. Anon, with a shudder that
thrills every • heart on board, from
the experienced captain to the new
cabin -boy — from Sir Benjamin Peak -
man, K,C.M.G., the swell of the cabin,
down to John and Betsy Smith, child-
ren of John and Betsy Smith from
Dorsetshire, steerage passengers, who
are leaving starvation at home to
risk it abroad—the leviathan majestic-
ally moves forward.
"We are off !" says Sir Benjamin,
with a slight trace of excitement in
his tone, addressing his daughter, • a
young lady of eighteen, fresh from a
crack school near Windsor, where she
has been trying to learn amongst re-
latives of royalty, the accomplish-
ments of an aristocrat.
"We're off !" says Mr. Sandy Mc-
Gowkie, of the firm of McGowkie and
Middlemass, wbo keep a "store" at
Toronto, where everything a man or
woman can wear or use or waste in
the way of "dry goods" is sold, to
yield the thrifty Scots a handsome
twenty thousand dollars a year clear
profit. He speaks to a neat -looking
little Scotchwoman, with a blooming
Lace - just now a trifle pale — and
bright eyes, and a fine row of pearly
teeth, which she displays to .perfection
as between a Rob, thrown after the
tender, and a smile, meant for Mc-
Gowkie, who, however, does not see it,
she faintly echoes, "We're off I Hon-
est McGowkie has just brought this
little woman from Aberdeen, his na-
tive city, where she has figured for
a few short years back as pretty Miss
Auldjo, daughter of the Reverend An-
drew Auldjo, the well-known •U. P.
minister. That worthy—having come
off with them in the earliest tender,
and given them many a word of sober,
warning and good counsel, along with
his parting blessing, emphasised by a
brief exercise of prayer in their litf le
cabin—can still be discerned on the
paddle -box of the tender, conspicuous
by his great height, waving up and
down a tear -damped poeket-handker-
chief with the ungainly regularity of
a semaphore, or a flag signal. For the
011110rold man is going hack to a
widowers hpme, and to his Lord's
work, with a shawdowed albeit a
steadfast heart.
"We're off 1" cries poor little , Miss
Beokwlth. a young lady somewhat
shortof forty summers, in a dingy
grey travelling dress and con.ree
straw hat with a blue veil of nine -
penny net, which she drops over her
pale face and moist eyes, as she takes
from her bosom tt well-worn locket,
containing the photograph of a man—
from
a men not handsome, and made even
ghastly 1r« the ill -need sun, which
1 often so ,lfeeetivety reeente the work
of the eo galled "artists" who endeay.!
our to adapt him to their vile pur-,
poses.) But she kisses the glass that!
nroteots the pieturo, and her poor lit -
oldest and (staunchest friend in the
world. She is departing—the steam-
ship company having agreed to carry
her first-class at helf price, for I can
vouch that steamship companies have
both consciences and hearts—to try
her luck as a governess in Canada.
That photograph is one of her broth-
er, a hopeless "ne'or-do-weel," whom
she hos practically been keeping for
years out of her small earnings; from
whom ahs is indeed now trying to
escape ; who only last night, in the
poor inn they stayed at In Liverpool,
got drunk, land struck her, for not
leaving him the few shillings she had
kept over to give her a week or two's
chance of life in ;America.; a brute
wham she left snoring this very day
in a drunken slumber, and all uncon-
scious of her soerowful parting kisses.
Great Heaven l what bloodless and
bleeding hearts get linked together in
this mad world of ours I
"We're off I" says a seedy -looking
roan, with a sharp, cold, Jewish face,
who has restlessly moved to and fro
among the crowding steerage people,
averting his features whenever they
were glanced at, however casually and
drawing low over his forehead a greab
dirty -brown felt wideawake that looks
fit to serve the gloomy turn of a fam-
ous night -prowling poet. Sharply has
this man, and with increasing rest-
lessness, been watching the arrival of
the tender ; quickly has his eye run
over its company and taken a measure
of every man and, woman on board;
anxiously he sees the steamer at
length depart with its lightened .load;
eagerly he watches the captain, lean-
ing on the rail of the bridge before he
gives the critical command; and deep
and grateful is the sigh he heaves as
he sees the skipper's hand rise and
gently touch the button which sends
the order for the mighty machine be-
low to begin its labors, And now,
drawing a deep breath, he smiles sar-
donically on the people around him,
and cries aloud, "We're off !" "'J hank
God!" he adds to himself, with a
quaint and profane stroke of piety. It
is the gratitude of a heart evil and
full of evil apprehensions.
"We're off 1" says a man to himself
in the captain's cabin, feeling the first
thrill of motion, as he lies on the vel-
vet sofa, and glances round the dark-
ened chamber, where !tis valet bets pil-
ed up, in extreme confusion, bags,
valises, rugs, sticks, and boxes—hat,
dressing, despatch, or otherwise—
enough for a hatch of officials on a
Queen's • Commission. "Ha! we're off,"
he says sighing, "I wish I were ashore
again, I deolare I do." And he
turns his taxa to the cushion
and lies there motionless, but
occasionally grumbling to himself.
This man had the best cabin in the
ship, on the upper deck, starboard side,
at the stern end of the row of deck-
houses, which embraced, as is usual
in these big vessels, the cabins of cap-
tain, purser, doctor, the ladies upper
saloon, and the smoking -room, besides
enclosing the " companion" leading
down to the spar -deck and its port
and starboard line of cabins. The cap-
tain, for a consideration, had agreed
to 'give up this luxurious place for the
voyage, and be satisfied with • his
great chart -room amidships, under the
bridge, where there was every ,conven-
ience for sleeping, and where he was
within hail of everybody. Only the day
before the vessel sailed had an agent
arranged with the owners that his
client should occupy the Savored •room.
astern.
But we • shall have gone over the
whole vessel before we return to our
sheep, so we come back to the huge
dinner bell, which the youngest and
most energetic steward—like the king
of the "ghouls" in the tower in Poe's
celebrated jingle is wringing with all
the zest and ferocity of a madman.
F orrible, jovial bell( To -day every one
may call it, with Byron—
That tocsin of the soul, the dinner bell!
but to -morrow afternoon, driving up
beyond the north coast of Ireland in
the teeth of a nor' -wester, when that
madcap villain stands there, and for
five full minutes bangs and jangles
that brazen bowl about with a brutal
jollity, and over the creak of stay and
warping plank, and the shivering thud
of the waves on the dead -lights and
on the thin iron skin of the ship, the
wild and wanton brawl of that metallic
voice will sound like the crack of doom
—it will thrill to many ears as if it
were the demoniac howling of a spir-
it of the :Corot, or like the hideous
cachinnation of some diabolical cynic
sitting at She foot of the companion,
and laughing over the sorrows of the
wretches who, huddled and cowering
and squirming in their narrow berths,
have that horrible sensation of going
up to heaven and going down into the
deep, so well described by a psalmist,
and have become for the nonce utterly
indifferent where it might all end, if
the infernal torture could only be
straightway and for ever terminated.
—But here, again, we must pull up our
too active Pegasus. To begin, we
were too retrospective; pow we are
proposing too far. For the moment, at
least, when this hideous jangle, inade-
quately reported in our first sentence,
startles the ship, the sea is smooth and
the air is appetizing, and from nearly
every cabin, with few exceptions, ladies
and gentlemen and cads and counter -
jumpers are streaming into the great
saloon.
In the broad, long, low room, with
its row of round -eyed lights, its polish -
gilded cornices, and flashing mirrors,
two tables are laid out on either side.
That to the right, entering on the port
side, is the captain't table, at the
top whereof sit those whom he selects
for the honor to the number of twelve,
friends of himself or the owners, o,pd
distinguished passengers. On The
left is the purser's table, frequented
mostly by bachelors, old and young,
and by leery commereials, who aro
married when at home, but are travel-
ing for the voyage en garcon—a most
lively table, where the purser genially
encourages a vast consumption 01
strong sherry and stronger whiskies,
where rough joke and broad story are
never wanting ; and where, however
dark or unweatheriy the day, the men
come up to the call of the imp with thr5
bell, the strong stomachs of these prac-
tised voyagers ever standing out man-
fully against the perturbing efforts of
storm and wave.
Soup is on the table. Many of the
guests are seated. Stewards are
standing at intervals of every ten per-
sons on either side of the long tables
curiously examining their squads of
victims, and forming estimates of the
probable amount of the gratuities when
the voyage Is over, A bell .tinkled,
the (lovers of the soup tureens come
off with a flourish, their steaming con-
tents are ladled out, and clattering
spoons and smacking lips give teAti-
mony rather to the appetite than to
the good -breeding of the general com-
pany. The benches are pretty well
filled. There are eighty-seven eabtn
passengers on board. Dere and there
in the long"ranks a hiatus is visible,
the empty ty chair of sume ..invalid, or
I weak -stomached man or womai} or of
! some one whose sorrow at parting• is
keener than appetite. There is also at
first a considerable blank at the head
of the captain's' table. He of course is'
absent. So long as his ship is in the
ohannel he will not leave the deck. But
to the right and left of his seat sev-
eral places are vacant. The cards of
the persons to whom they have been
assigned lie on the table -cloth.
"Where are the swells?" said a
coarse -looking middle-aged man, with
cheeks that looked as if it was no un-
usual thing for them to weather an
Atlantic storm, and who sat at the
foot of the captain's table. He ad-
dressed a young gentleman opposite to
him, tall, with dark hair and eyes,
well -out features, and a reserved and
haughty bearing.
The young man lazily lifted his eyes
towards the speaker, and inquired
rather with them than by his tone of
mice—whioh was fashionably drawling
and monotonous—'•I beg pardon. What
do you mean?"
"Why, don't you see," replied the
other, not minding his fellow -travel-
ler's manner, "there ain't any ono at
the head ,of the table, where the swells
sit ?"
''Oh I" returned the young man,
quietly applying himself again to his
soup. The red-faced man plied his
spoon vigorously and audibly. When he
had done, he renewed the attack.
"You know, I s'pose, that only the
captain's friends and the 'aristooracy'
•
are allowed to sit in the twelve first
places?"
To Be Continued.
POINTED PARAGRAPHS.
It takes a pretty good carpenter to
floor a pugilist.
Cruel words seldom cut a,lazy per-
son to the quick.
Many a man punctures his tire on
the road to wealth.
Weather-strips will soon be classed
as long felt wants.
The more bread the baker makes
the more he kneada.
Some people spend the most oe their
time in nursing animosity.
Some men become crooked iu trying
to make both ends meet.
The more innings a man has the
more he enjoys his outings.
It ie sometimes difficult to get even
with a man who credits you.
Nothing worries some people like the
absence of worry in others.
Tho early milkman catches a glimpse
of a woman's true oomplexion.
The heiress who invests in a title
doesu't always purchase happiness.
Work is nature's physician, but most
people prefer some other doctor.
A woman's idea of religion is to have
kindly thoughts of her rival.
Wotnen probably talk most because
men are too polite to interrupt them.
Perhaps it is the microbes in kisses
that cause people to fall "dead in love,"
A few men "think," others "guess,"
some "fancy," while still others "rec-
kon."
Some people prune their genealogical
trees by cutting their poor relations.
The end of one man's failure, is oft -
times the beginning of another man's
success.
The less thought some men give to
a subject the more literal their views
are.
With, the exception of ourselves no
one ever does things as they should
be done.
It must be hard on the fingers of
the jolly mute Vo is always cracking
jokes.
It' always makes a man feel cheap, to
be caught, looking at a photograph of
himself.
Social etiquette doesn't interest the
man who is wearing aporous plaster
on a hot day.
The happiness of some people de-
pends upon their ability to make others
unhappy.
Nothing contributes more toward al-
leviating domestic storms than a clear
conscience.
Some men go abroad to complete
their education and others marry for
the same purpose.
An act of charity pushes 'amen fur-
ther along on the road to glory than
an act of heroism.
The criminal judge may be a man
of few words, but he is not always a,
man of short sentences.
Many a man who has the sand to
propose to a girl lacks the necessary
rocks to get married on.
Love may laugh at locksmiths, but
it never smiles lit the owner of a bicy-
cle repair shop.
People who denounce the stage
should remember that the minstrel is
never as blacks as he tip painted.
Capital and labor would commingle
better if there weren't so many men
trying to get capital without labor,
A southern railway has a female
grain dispatcher. Nearly every small
boy is acquainted with a woman
switch -tender.
GRAINS OF GOLD.
Be not merely gond; he good for
somet hing.—Thoreau.
Evil is wrought by want of thought
as well as by want of heart.—Hlrod.
Our ancestors have traveled the iron
age; the golden is before us. — St.
Pierre.
We are indebted to Christianity for
gentleness, especially toward women.—
C. Simmons.
God governs the world, and we have
only to do our duty wisely, and leave
the issue to him.—John Jay.
Good taste rejects excessive nicely;
it treats little things as little things
and is not hurt by them.—Jfeulton.
No man was ever so completely skill-
ed in the conduct, of life as not to re-
ceive new information from age and
experience.—Terence.
Our lives, by abts exemplary, not
only win ourselves good names, but do
to others )give matter for virtuous
deeds, by which we live. --Chapman.
Narrow-minded and ignorant persons
talk about persons and not things;
hedce gossip is the bane and disgrace
of so large a portion of society.—Sheri-
dan.
There bannot be a sorer proof of low
origin or of an innate meanness of
dihposition than to be always talking
and thinking about being genteel. —
Hlazlitt.
THE RIGHT OF WAY.
It is a well established principle of
law that in` grossing streets or high-
ways the person on foot has the right
of way. Drivers and bicycle riders
should always bear this fact in mind.
It is law, and if you injure a pedes-
trian by careless driving or riding you
are reeponstble for It. A person le not
required by law to ran wogs the
Street to keep out of the way of ve-
hielea and bioyeles. The drivers and
riders aro the ones to look out for a
clear track.
FUNERAL OF GEN. GORDON
HONORS FOR THE QALLANT DEAD
BY KITCHENER'S ARMY.
IEWpresstve Nemo—Mardi), ILeetuterb
Amid the *ulna of Khartoum "leafier
the Conquering ll:usfgn or Ills Own
Teeple.
Geo. Stevens, writing to the London
Daily Mail from Omdurman, thus de-
scribes a touohing inoident :--
The steamers—screws, paddles, stern-
wheelers—plugged 'their steady way up
the full Nile. Past the northern fringe
of Omdurman, where the sheikh came
out with the white flag, past the breaoh
where we went in to the Khalifa's
stronghold, past the choked embrasures
and the lacerated Mandi's tomb, past
the swamp -rooted palms of Tuti Is-
land, We looked at it with a dispas-
sionate, impersonal curiosity. It was
Sunday morning, and that furious Fri-
day seemed already half a lifetime
behind us. The volleys had dwindled
out of our ears, and the smoke out of
our nostrils, and to -day we were going
to the funeral of Gordon. After nearly
fourteen years the Christian soldier
was to have Christian burial.
On the steamers there was a detach-
ment of every corps, white, or black,
or yellow, that had taken part in the
vengeance. Every white officer that
oould be spared from duty was there,
fifty men picked from each British
battalion, one or two from each unit
of the Egyptian artily. That we were
going up to Kbartoum at all was evi-
dence of our triumph; yet if you look-
ed about you, triumph was not the
note. The most reckless subaltern, the
most barbarous black was tquched
with gravity. We were going to per-
form a necessary duty, which had
been put off far, far too long.
Fourteen years next January— yet
even through the humiliating thought
there ran a whisper of triumph. We
may be slow ; but in that very slowness
we ehow that we do not forget. Soon
or late, we give our own their due.
Here were then that fought for Gor-
don's life while he lived—Kitchener,
who went disguised and alone among
furious enemies to get news of him;
Wauchope, who
tPOURED OUT HIS BLOOD LIKE
WATER
at Tareai and Kirbekan; Stuart -Wort -
lay, who missed by but two days the
chance of dying at his side. And here,
too, were boys who could hardly lisp
when their mothers told them that.
Gordon was dead, grown ul. now, and
appearing in the fulness of time to
exact ten thousand lives for one. Gor-
don my die—other Gordons may die
in the future—but the same clean-
limbed.brood will grow up and avenge
them.
The boats stopped plugging and there
was silence. We were tying up oppo-
site a•grove of tall palms; on the bank
was a crowd of natives curiously like
the backsheesh-hunters wbo gather to
greet the Nile steamers. They stared
at us; but we looked beyond them to
a large building rising from a crumb-
ling quay. You could see that it had
once been a handsome building of the
type you know in Cairo or Alexandria
—all stone, and stucco, two -storied,
faced with tall regular windows. Now
the •upper storey was clean gone; the
blind windows were filled up with
bricks; the stucco was all scars, and
you could walk up tee the roof on rub-
ble. In front was an acacia, such as
grow in Ismailia on the Ghezireh at
Cairo, only unpruned—deep luscious
green, only drooping like a weeping
willow. At that most ordinary sight
everybody grew very solemn. For it
was a piece of new world, or rather
of an old world, utterly different from
the squalid mud, the baking barrenness
of Omdurman. A facade with tall win-
dows, a tree with green leaves—the
facade battered and blind, the tree
drooping to earth—there was no need
to tell uswe were at a grave. In that
forlorn ruin, and that disconsolate
acacia, the bones of murdered civiliza-
tion lay before us.
The troops formed up before the
palace in three sides of a rectangle—
Egyptians to our left as we looked from
the river, British to the right. The
Sirdar, the generals of division and
brigade, and the staff stood in the
open space facing the palace. Then, on
the roof --almost on the
VERY SPOT WHERE GORDON FELL
though the steps by which the
butchers mounted have long since
vanished—we were aware of two flag -
staves. By the right hand halliards
stood Lieutenant Staveley, R .N., and
Captain Watson, K.1t.R.; by the left
hand Bimbashi Milford and two other
officers.
The Sirdar raised his hand. A pull
at the halliards, up ran, out flew the
Union Jack, tugging eagerly at his
reins, dazzling gloriously in the aun,
rejoicing in his strength and hie free-
dom. "Bong I" went the Melik's 12 1 -2 -
pounder, and the boat quivered to her
backbone, "God Save our Gracious
Queen " hymned the Guards' band—
"bang I" from the Melik and Sirdar
and private stood stiff—" bang 1" to
attention, every hand at the helmet
peak—"bang!"—in salute. The Egyp-
tian flag had gone up at the same
instant ; and now, the same ear -smash-
ing, soul -uplifting bangs marking
time, the band of the 11th Sudanese
was playing the Khedival hymn.
"Three cheers for the Queen!" cried
the Sirdar; helmets leaped in the air,
and the melancholy'• ruins woke to the
first wholesome shout of all these
years. Then the same for the Khedive,
The comrade flags stretched them-
selves lustily, enjoying their own
again; the bands pealed forth the
pride of country ; the twenty-one guns
Imaged forth the strength of war.
Thus, white men and black, Christian
and Moslem, Anglo -Egypt set her seal
once more, for ever, on Khartoum.
Before we had time to think such
thoughts over to ourselves the bands
were playing the' 'Dead March in Saul."
Then the black band was playing the
march from Handel's "Scipio," which
in England generally goes with
" TOLL FOR THE BRAVE."
This was in memory of those loyal men
among the Khedive's subjects who
could have saved themselves by treach-
ery, but preferred to die with Gordon.
Next fell a'deeper hush than ever,
except for the solemn minute guns
that had followed the Remo salute,
Four chaplains—Catholic, ,Anglican,
Presbyterian and Methodist came
slowly forward end ranged themselves,
with their backs to the palace just
before 'the Sirdar. The Presbyterinn
read the Fifteenth Psalm, The Angli•
can led the ruetling whisper of lb,.
Lord's Prayer. Snow -haired Father
Brindle, 'best beloved of priests, laid
his helmet tit his feet and read a me-
morial prayer, bareheaded in the sun.
Then cams forth the pipers 'and wailed
a dirge, and the Sudanese played,,
" Abide With Me." Perhaps lips did
twitch jt;st a little; to see the ebony
heathens fervently blowing out Gor-
don's favourite hymn; but the most
irresistible incongruity would hardly
have made us laugh at that znonrent.
And there were those who said the cold
Sirdar himself, could hardly epeak or
see as General Hunter and the rest
stepped out according to their rank
and shook his hand. What wonder
He had trodden this road to Khartoum
for fourteen years, and he stood at
the goal at last.
T.hus with Maxim-Nordenfelt and
Bible we buried Gordon after the man-
ner of hia race. The parade was over,
the troops were dismissed, and for a
short space we talked in Gordon's gar-
den. Gordon • has become a legend
with his countrymen, and they all but
deify him dead who would never have
heard of him had het lived. But in this
garden you somehow came to know
Gordon the man, not the myth, and
to feel near to him; Here was an Eng-
lishman doing his duty alone, and at
the
INSTANT PERIL OF HIS LIFE
yet still he loved his garden. The gar-
den was a yet more pathetic ruin than
the palace. The palace accepted its
doom mutely; the garden strove against
it. Untrimmed, unwatered, the
oranges and citrons still struggled to
bear their little hard green knots, as
if they had been full ripe fruit. The
pomegranates put on their vermil-
lion, star -flowers, but the fruit was
small and woody and juiceless. The
figs bore better, but they, too, were
small and without vigour. Rankly
overgrown with dhurra, .a vine still
trained over a low roof its dwarfed
leaves and limped tendrils, but yielded
not a sign of grapes. It was all green,
land so far vivid and rerfeshing after
, Omdurman. But it was • the green of
nature, not of cultivation; leaves grew
large and fruit grew small, and dwindl-
ed away. Reluctantly, despairingly,
Gordon's garden was dropping back to
wilderness. And in the middle of the
defeated fruit trees grew rankly the
hateful Soudan apple, the poisonous
herald of desolation.
The bugle broke in upon us; we went
I baok to the boats. We were quicker
steaming back than steaming up, We
were not a whit less chastened, but
every man felt lighter. We came with
a sigh of shame, we went away wit h
a'sigh of relief. The long-delayed duty
i was done. The bones of our country-
men were shattered and scattered
abroad, and no man knows their place.
None the less Gordon had his due burial
at last. So we steamed away to the
roaring camp, and left him alone again.
Yet not one nor two looked back at
the mouldering palace and the tangled
garden, without a new and great con-
tentment. We left Gordon alone again
—but alone in majesty under the con-
quering ensign of his own people.
POSTOFFICE .AUTO -CARS.
Experimenla ?lade In England and How
They 'Worked.
lA novel feature of the yearly re-
port of the British Postmaster -Gener-
al, which has just been issued, con-
sists in the account of experiments
made with motor vans driven by oil,
steam and electricity. An oil motor
car, the property of the British Motor
Syndicate, was engaged for two separ-
ate weeks, in the first instance con-
veying letter mails between the Gen-
eral Post -office, and the South-west-
ern district' office, and or the second
occasion between the latter office and
Kingston -on -Thames.
For the first week there was a nom-
inal charge of 2es., said to be the
out-of-poeket expenses of the syndi-
cate, whereas for the service which
the motor car displaced in the week,
about £G would have been paid under
the contracts, and for the service to
Kingston rather more than £5.
The work of the motor oar was per-
formed satisfactorily, but the experi-
ment was not pursued, as the syndi-
cate were desirous of constructing a
more suitable car. For the next ex-
periment.. a steam motor car was en-
gaged, the property of a private firm,
and the vehicle was employed for six
weeks conveying parcels between Lon-
don and Redhill. The price charged
was £7 a week, compared with an
amount ranging from £11 to £14, the
estimated cost of a pair -horse van of
like capacity. As a rule, the journey
was performed in from ten, to twenty
minutes less time than that allowed
for a horsed conveyance.
An electric motor car, belonging to
the Electrical Vehicle Syndicate, was
employed on .town work for four
weeks. One or two . accidents of a
minor character occurred, giving rise
to delays, but in other respects the
work was satisfactorily performed.
Arrangements have since been made
for extended trials, and it is confi-
dently hoped that the results will
show that motors can be permanent ly
used with advantage to the mail ser-
vice.
SIXTY YEARS AGO
Canada Bad a Big Garrison, of Brll.lnh
Regulars.
Now that there is talk of increasing
our military strength in Canada, writes
a correspondent of the London Empire,
I may point out that sixty years ago,
not only Halifax, but all Canada, was
adorned with regiments of the regu-
lars; and there were almost enough to
make a " thin red line " around the
then provinces. Now there are not
2,000 regulars in the whole Dominion.
The following is a, list of regiments
and where they were stationed in
1839 :-
1st Dragoon Guards, Chambly, Lower
Canada,
7th Hussars, Montreal.
2nd Batt. Coldstream Guards, Que-
bec.
2nd Batt. Grenadier Guards, La -
prairie.
1st Regt. of Foot, Montreal.
8th Regt. of Foot, Halifax.
llth Regt. of Foot, Sorel.
15th Regt. of Foot, Isle -au -Noir.
28rd Regt. of Foot, Halifax.
24th Regt. of Foot, Montreal.
82nd Regt. of Foot, Sandwich, Upper
Canada.
84th Regt. of Foot, Amherstburg.
38th Regt. of Foot, Fredericton, '
97th Regt. of Foot, Halifax,
48rd Regt. of root, Niagara Frontier.
85th Regt. of •Goat, Kingston.
68th Regt. of Foot, St. Johns, L.C.
69th Regt. of )root, Woodstock, N.13,
71st Regt. of Foot, L'Ae,adie,
78rd Regt. of Foot, Blaifdforcl,
88rd Regt. of Foot, Kingston.
85th llegt. of Foot,
London.
03 regi, of Foot,, Toronto.
ONO
ilif WII011 WON
WHAT IS WINO ON IN THE FOUR
CORNERS OF THE GLOBE.
014 and Now World Events of Interest Cbron.
Icled Briefly—Interesting Happenings oI
R.�,
A peeretDatecannot resign this peerage,
Crabs two feet in length are often
seen in India.
There are enough paupers in Lon-
don to fill every house in Brighton.
San Marino, the smallest republio in
the world, has an annual revenue of
£3,000,
Charity organizations existed in
Egypt 2,500 and in china 2,000 years
ago.
Police Court statistics show that
Cornwall is the best behaved county
in England.
There are supposed to be something
like a thousand murderers at large
in Great Britain.
Tea is cheap in China. In one pro-
vince of the empire good tea is sold
at 1 1-4d. a pound.
Italy produces annually 70,000,000
gallons of olive oil, the market value
of which is £24,000,000.
The largest organ in the world is
in the Cathedral of Seville, Spain. It
has 53 pipes, and 110! stops.
The Lord Mayor of London receives
more than 90,000 letters in a year,
most of which have to be answered.
The deepest mine in the, world is the
Lambert mine in Belgium, which is
3,490 feet beneath the earth's surface.
While boring for coal at Barrow a
bed of salt was found at a depth of
300 feet. The bed'is_said( to be 70 feet,
thick,
There are said ,to be in London alone
8,000 children who are feeble-minded,
as distinguished from idiots and im-
beciles.
The mummy of a Phardh which re-
cently arrived at Marseilles from
Egypt was charged import duty at the
rate for dried fish.
In an exhibition at Dresden are col-
lected a number of boots, shoes and
slippers once worn by emperors, kings
queens and princes.
The cheapest railwtaty travelling ie
to be had in Hungary, where it is
possible to go a distance of five hun-
dred miles for 68 8d,
Capital sentence cannot he pro-
nounced. upon any criminal in Sweden
until aconfession• of the crime has
been obtained from him.
Italy leads in: the number, of crema-
tories, having twenty-four. America
has twenty-two, Germany four, Eng-
land throe, and France two.
About 6,000 persons are employed by
the London hospitals, and of this num-
her 1,300 are honorary medical officers,
who receive no fee of any kind,
Compulsory army service has just
been established in Holland for all
males over nineteen years of age, ex-
cept priests, ministers and divinity stu-
dents.
A scientist declares .ilea ablock of
steel ten feet square •,would) be pressed
Into a block only two feet square if
taken 4,000 miles below the earth's
surface.
Berlin is one of the most cosmo-
politan of European cities. Though ill
Is the capital, of Germany) only 37 per
cent. of its inhabitants are German
by birth.
It is stated that 40,000,000 dozen eggs
are used every year by ealicn print.
works, 10,000,000 dozens by wine clari-
fiers, and• many .mil lions :mora by pho-
tographers and other industries.
Ten thousand new";cab and carriage
horses are among the items which
Paris is acquiring for the accommo-
dation of visitors to the Exhibition
In 1900.
At the sunset hour in Seoul, Corea,
a town bell proclaims the fact when
the tsun has vanished beneath the
horizon. No man is allowed in the
street after that hour, under penalty
c:! n flogging.
More than half the Lord Chancellors
of England during the past fifty
years were the sons of poor men. One
c[ them wast the sore of acountry bar-
ber, and the father of another was a
Newcastle coalheaver,
The Persians in 516 B.C. invented
a transparent glass varnish, which
they laid over sculptured rocks to pre-
vent them from weathering. This coat-
ing has lasted to our day, while the
rocks beneath are honeycombed.
The Great Eastern Railway has an
income of £4,000,000 per annum,which
is larger th9n the entire revenue of
the kingdom of Greece, and, not quite
so large as the revenuer of the united
kingdoms of Sweden and .Norway. ,
nc uding policemen, post -of, tee' of-
ficials, market men and women, care-
takers, bakers, 'hospital nurses and
newspaper writers and printers, it is
estimated that fully 100,000 of the in -
hetet ants of London are night workers,
One of the Sunday amusements in
Havana is cock -fighting. It is cus-
tomrtry at such contests to revive a.
htilf-vanquisher) bird by spraying San-
ta Cruzl rum over ;tri head, The rum
is blown from the mouth of one of
the fight directors.
There seems hardly any limit. to the
age of fish of many kinds. In the
Royal Aquarium of St. Petersburg
there are fish to -day that are known
to have been there al. least 150 years.
Some of them are five times as big
as when first captured; others have
not. grown an inch.
There are no fewer than' 35 tunnels
over 1,000 yards in -length on English
railway lines. Those of notable ex-
tentare the Several tunnel on the G.
W. R., 7,664; the Tottey tunnel, on the
Midland, 6,226; the Stanedge, on the
North-western, 5,312; the Woodhead, on
the Great Central, 5,297; and Bram-
hope, on the North-eastern, 3,7.45 yds.
long.
Tho largest inhabited building in
the world is unquestionably the Vati-
can at Rome, with its eight grand
staircases, 200 smaller ones, 20 courts,
and 11,000 apartments. Its marbles
bronzes, frescoes, paintings and gems
are unequalled in the world, and its
library is the richest in Europe in
manuscripts. Its oolleotlon of sculp-
ture not only surpasses any other, but
all others together.
One of the moat beautiful eights in
the world is the annual migration of
butterflies across the, Isthmus of Pan-
ama. Where they come from or
whither they go no one known. To-
wards the end of June a few seat -
tared specimens are dieeovered flitting
out to spa„ and asl the nays gp by the
number increases until about Jnly ;4th
or 15th the sky is occasionally almost
obscured by myriads of these) frail in-
sects. -
A statistician, who; has been' lookiug
into the matter of tiivorbe has found
that the proporLlio,a el divorces to
population is least in Ireland --only
one divorce to every 400,000 inhabl,
tants. In the United States the pro-
portion of divorces is 'ominously large.
88.71 to every 100,000 of t,population
the largest known, in fact, save in
Japan, the figureq for thab happy ertt-
pire being 608.45 divorces to every 100,-
000 of population.
The Duchess of Marlborough and the
Duchess of Devonshire probably have
the finest pearls in England, the Man-
chester necklace being very well
known. Many smart ladies wear their
pearls constantly, alth.,ugh they are
not seen, as they are worn under a
high dress, as pearls are supposed to
keep their Dolour 'better when worn
next to the skin. Pearls have, within
the last twenty-five years, increased in
value 1,000 per cent.
IRREGULAR BY SYSTEM.
The Ameer of Afghanistan Is Not a Be-
liever in Punctuality.
Civilization, at Least as we under-
stand it, makes much of economy—a
saving of money, effort and time.
Moreover it teaches us that cue of
the most efficient helps to econeme of
any sort is regularity. Nevertheless
the civilization of Afghanistan teach-
es the lesson otherwise.
Miss Lillian Hamilton, M.D., who oo-
cupied the important. position of lady
physician to the ameer tells same of
her amusing experiences—among oth-
ers of the lack of regularity in the
ameer's household, and the reason
therefor. She found that work be-
gins in thoenorning when he is ready,
• when he is tired, work ceases. When
he wishes to eat, dinner,is served, and
when he feels inclined to sleep the
court is closed, Els seldom rises be-
fore noon, though he may be astir
early,
The difficulty is that as soon as he
is astir every ono is expected to be
in attendance. The most important of-
ficials keep a servant wailing at the
court door, to leap on hia horse, and
warn his master the moment the ameer
wakes.
Being so unused to punctuality him-
self, the ameer cannot understand it
in others. Miss Hsrnilton says, that
one day when she had beeu sitting with
him, she noticed that it was about
her lunch Lime. Accordingly she ex-
cused 'herself, texpiaining where silo
was going.
"Are you hungry?" asked the ameer.
"No, 1 cannot say I am."
"Then why are you going to eat?"
he persist ed. "'*'hat a strange idea."
Again she explained that it was her
lunch Lirne.
'Lunch-time?" he said. "Who made
it your lunch-time? And what his that
to do with it? 1 should have thought
appetite was vyhat 'had to- be con-
sulted, not time,"
The treatment of servants was en-
oih•rr• subject on which the stranger
found her ideas had to •be remodailed.
She, quickly dropped into the laced of
being as free and easy with there as
was the custom.
".Indeed," she says, "I should have
gained nothing if 1 had tried to keep
them in what we should call 'their
places.' They would not have under-
stood it, because they were not •icrus-
tomed to it. Moreover you •could nev-
er he quite sure wh it . their places
were, they changed about so. I shall
never forget my surprise wh 'n 1 suet
the ameer's.old doorkeeper riding smile
distance outside Cebu!, surrounded I y
quite a retinue of servants. 1I" isas on
his way to Jlanduhar, of whish city
he had just been made governor. ,
"Several of the ame.‘r's own relations
are table servants. This is, Inde: d, ra-
ther a coveted post, es it c filen mra.ns
advancement. But wh'n they have
laid the cloth—an the, floor, of course
—and placed the dishes on it, they sit
down and partake of the repast with
the rest of the courtiers."
THE CZAR AT HOME.
The nuKMlm, Court is the Molt ILegnin•
cent, In the world.
The Russian court. military and min-
ist eriai dress is costly and rich in the
extreme, and the richness is carried
out even to the liveries of the ser-
vants, th'ir scarlet coats being liter-
ally ablaze• with gold, says a writer in
the English Illustrated Magazine. It
is a fact th cC no court in the world
presents such a picturesque and
magnificent appearance as does that of
Russia. Atany fund ion, therefore,lhe
show is brilliant, but. more especially
perhaps, at a ball, when the rich even-
ing toilets of the ladies, enhanced by
jewels of priceless worth, add much. to
the already brilliant effect. The Rus-
sian dances are of a very stalely de-
scription, and both the emperor and
empress Lake part in them very lbor-
ough'y, The aspect of the armorial -hall
where the gupper is often laid, is grand
beyond all description. This meal is
not partaken of standing, as at the.
majority of ihetcourts, but the guesls
sit down at the long row of tables. A
poreession is fbrrnede which is 'bead-
ed by his imperial majesty, and the
most distinguished lady present, and
the room is then entered in' the order
of precedence. Of course, an immense
quantity of plate is displayed, This
and th' china that is also used are
noted throughout Europe for their
richness and beau) y. There •is one ser-
vice alone, capable of dining 500 per-
sons, that is composed entirely of the
purest. river overlaid with gold. Added
to all this the use of a vaeiely of the
choicest fruity and the rarest flowers,
among which orchids figure largely,
makes the scene one of the most gorge-
ous magnificence, During the evening
a state progress through the suite of
rooms is made by the imperial person-
ages, and t he chief officer of the house-
hold, the guests forming tip into a long
avenue on either side. One specie}
feature is that two or three of the
largest halls in the palate are,. on the
occasion of a bill; \fixed up as a huge
conservatory, palms, exotics, ferns,
banks of flowers, and even .1 rubs treed
being transplanted thither with the
most marvellous effect. Electric light
is parried throughout, and glows
down from myriadrt of globes of a var.
tory of colors. I{n this veritable fairy.
lined hundreds of seats are pieced for
the colnvtnienee oft the guest ti between
dances. It would be utterly 1mpt-
Bible to mention the rare works of
art Id bel mon in thee palace, comprli.
beg 'paintings, stetual•y, colleetions of
jewels, antiquities and curios of every
description. F,verythtng is of oriental
magntficenee, and td see it alit the eye
muss, weary di the continuous dazzle,