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The Brussels Post, 1898-8-5, Page 3AUrU$T 5, 1995. (THE asBUS$J+IjS POST, CURRENT NOTES, (TWENTY ILLION DOLLARS skoaltohttofe msnnow wod me ohdd to THE BOYS E FLOGGED t The now naval programme of the Brie Vele Government is soon to be present- ed to Parliament. It is said that the grogr'amme will include important ad- dittons torthe British Navy, in the num- her and armament of the vessels to be oonstruoted. Tho proposals will not be of a. very exacting ebaracter finanel- 1] d they ill t cel! for an add!- amend at Seattle from St Miehao!'s others who perished by falling Unleash the iceman being found every day, and will, ° eour:ee, never' be All. re ports published in The Post-Intelllgeneer about sickness at Dawson aro true in every particular, and the death retie is anpidly increas- On who are worth from • 5, and in plan rases nun more,are in ate ton of a' t and unable to melee ane tela medi- al attention. UB1'ain fever le troubling AN ESTIMATE OF'1'HE YEAR'S CLEAN their identity 'Il, f I CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN (TREAT UP A'1' DAWSON, known. A 1 BRITAIN'S NAVY. aW90 The nest (.deli nom arrives at Rustlllc_Ut. (ltd. the t'nl. ro Nine T,dls is now MhOtnotrn Lervlews Min Passengers anti cantata to th L $Z" OUO •• 1t the 01[1 0075 Sailers Were Often —,fudge ltlnll's Espe •lento—SayX flntY, increas- ing. d ' y 1 h Terre -bey whipped. son to a la Flooded Wille sharpers• lying g the 1 t t f de 11 Much is said about the cruelty of The fleet gold boat, the New England, b f' I d' flogging in the present navy, although in fact, the real flogging with, the cat of -nine -tails is unknown on shipboard and only boys are corporally punished not more than twenty-four Cuts with the birch being permitted. Emotional people outside the navy have made this into a grievance, though complaints do not come from the navy! itself. No- thing which degrades Lbe fighLing man should be tolerated in a soundly or- ganized military force, but it is ab- surd to pretend that the present pun- ishments do degrade. On the other hand, where violence is used to a su- perior offloor abarp punishment is required. The offence of striking an officer is becoming too common, and it may be questioned if the present penalties are sufficient. In the old navy the flogging of grown men with the oat was more common then is the caning of boys, with mix or a dozen strokes, to -day. The discipline was essentially brutal and savage, as it was an age of savage punishments, yet some offences, such as theft and for- gery, ware more lightly visited afloat than ashore. Allowance must be made for the peculiar difficulties of war, and for the dangerous and mutinous condition of too many of the craws. In time of war, when every hand was wanted, men cannot very well be im- prisoned in the ship much less could they, in the prevailing scarcity of food or powder, be sent ashore for long terms of penal servitude. Hence cor- poral punishment was mere justifi- able then might at 'first sight appear. Flogging was an old -established cus- tom, and it is noteworthy that at the great mutinies at t5pithead, Plymouth and the Cape, the men did, not protest against it, and even INFLICTED IT THEMSELVES upon ill-behaved members of the mu- tinous crews; at the Nora, where the mutineers went further, there were suggestions that this Form of punish- ment should be less used. There were two kinds of flogging—by the captain's order and by sentence of court-martial. By the Rules of Disotellne and Good Government to be observed ,on board His Majesty's ships of war, dated 1730, no captain could inflict more than twelve lashes. But this had been modified by the time of the American War, and captains were then to Lbe habit of awarding up to forty-eight lashes. The offenues thus punished were drunkenness, theft, insubordina- tion, malingering and slackness in performing duty. The sentences and the number of punishments varied greatly with various captains, and there was an old saying, "so many captains, so many navies." Thus sea- men had a real grievance, for what was tolerated in one ship, might be severely punished in another. This irregularity and oaprioiousness were bad in every way. The captain wee omnipotent; complaints, as the court- martial show, were rarely successful, and only too often draw down upon those who made them yet severer pen- alties. Deaths from flogging by the captain were not uuknown. A man in the Theseus' was severely and repeat- edly punished till at lest he, could not walk. He was, however, brought on deck in this weak condition, laid, upon a gun, as he oould not stand, and again flogged. Ha died almost imme- diately afterwards, and being buried on shore, an inquest was held and a verdict of wilful murder returned. The captain does not seem to have suffer- ed, and the shop's surgeon swore that the easy appeared so lenient that his attendance was not required. "To see man lose their liven for petty matters, this is a thing God will reckon for," said Cromwell, hut our country had forgotten his saying. How frequent were these floggings can be proved by an examination of ships logs. SOME CAPTAINS HATED THEM. a y, au ay w no of many of Lite people, Men who have tion to the burdens of the taxpayer; Iasi Sunday with a number of minors, bean at Dawson far months and oro therefore there should be very little ( laden with nuggets and drafts,, on unable to receive word from home difficulty in oarrying them through I board, The passengers had come worry themselves sick and in many Parliament. Tho programme will bei down the Yukon in small boats to St. cases they die. Misfortunes also have tally on the new oondi- Michael's, and chartered the Naw Eng- monk to do in kringles on brain based principally I trouble," Eng - Cons arising out of the recent changes, land for the sum of $1,200 to carry $00,000,000 IN DAWSON, in China and In eonnectioh with the I them to Seattle. It was stated by II. Anderson of San lr'ranoisoo, who .acquisitions of Wei Hai Wei and the t the passengers that the amount of , was on board the New :t4ngland, states gold brought down by them was cam-' v0 that 000 000 in safes at Detvneighborhood on v ailing paratively'vary small, not more than transportation out. and that awaiting re- 415,000, as those in St. Michael's bar- preaonts the clean-up of last winter, beg large sums in their possession were together with what was left over waiting for a treasure ship, in which 1rom last fall. their earnings could. be safelyguarded, , He further states that than are many fine claims 0n (Bonanza and, 111 Dorado One of the passengers on the New • Creeks, but there has been some diaap- England, was Judge R. A. Hall of Los' pointment over the results obtained on Angeles, the owner of several valuable I Dominion and several other extensively claims in Dawson City, and who is ,1 advertirod districts. This disappoint - y, ; meat probably arises over the fact that supposed to be in a position to speak the expectations of many inexperienced authoritatively and intelligently upon prospectors had been raised too high, the situation in Klondike. In an in -;and while they obtained gold, yet it ryas not in such fabulous quantities tervlew, after he landed, Judge Hall that they could walk on nuggets as said, in speaking of the season's output' they would on stones in a gravel bed. of gold that the estimates had run' Tho gold was there. but energy and all the wayfrom ten millions to forty work were required to secure it. While many Yukoners have made hand - millions. Up to Juno 6 there had been some stakes, others have not done so three clean-ups on claims Nos. 4,6 and I well, and in consequence there is a territory an tbe mainland in proxim- ity to Hong Kong, which will become a naval base of tits first order. The details of the additions to be made to the British Navy bavo been worked out 7n aeoret thus far, Mr. Goshen having said that he had no intention of giv- ing foreign Governments the opportun- Lty of getting an even start in the eon- structton of the special kind of ships that were oontemplalod. From this it may be conjoetarexl that it is intend- ed to produce a fleet of vessels with • many novelties in design and arma- ment adapted to the exigencies of a new line of policies, 1 From the hints dropped by Mr. Gosh- en a few months ago, in presenting the ordinary naval estimates to Par- liament, it seems likely that the addi- tions to be made to the Britieh Navy will oomprise a class of vessels between the buttleahip and. the armored cruiser, in which advantage will be taken of the improvements in the manufacture of armor to diminish the thickness and consequent weight of the plating and to add some of the weight saved in the hull of the armament. Efforts will also be made to seektre a high rate of speed with, at the same time, a maxi- mum coal -carrying oapooity, it having snipe to be recognized that Mecum - stances might arise where the supply of fuel at a British coaling station might be destroyed or fail Lo be kept up through the action of an enemy's cruisers, Whether it will bo possible to keep the details of the style of con- struction of these new ships a secret for any length of time after they are begun remains to be seen; but it is certain that other countries that are .giving attention to their naval arm- aments are only waiting the first in- dications to start building similar vessels. --- The great question in England now is as to the value of the older as•mor- clads, so many of which still figure on the list of effeetive ships. Lord Charles lBoresford, who has made this subject particularly his own, bus conclusively shown that as at present armed they are useless for purposes of modern war- fare, and he oalls for the complete re- armament of no lass than forty-five of these ships. The muzzle -loaders with which they are at present furn- ished. are of no mora use ithan so many popguns, and to send them to sea to meet the ships of France, Russia or Germany would be a criminal net. Of these forty-five, thirty-seven figure on the last Parliamentry return, which shows the armored vessels of the [Brit- ish Navy to comprise sixty-four battle- ships, twenty-six armored cruisers and fifteen coast defence ships, as against fifty-seven battleships, thirty armored cruisers, and thirty coast defence ships which are included in the united French and Russian navies, all armed with the best modern guns. Hitherto it has been considered that all vessels built siuoo 1880 might bo classed as effective, but it is now held to be doubtful whether, through the advance made in the manipulation of high explosives, and in consequence of the power and, rapidity of fire of mod- ern guns, those vessels built before 1888 may not also have to be relegated to the list of those classed as obsolete for the battle line. In that case a large number of the Fennell and Russian ships pass off the) effective list also, though they, es well as the (British ships similarly placed, could still ren- der effective service in the matter of coast and harbor defence. But if the ships to be built under the new British programme Dome up to the expectations formed of them, we may he entering on an entirely new period of naval oonstruotion that Will soon place the latest built war vessels where those of ten years back oro now. For designers and inventors it will he a highly in- teeesting time, and in the newstimulus to produce the ideal warship we may, arrive at something that will place at the disposal of some one country the power of imposing promo on all others. That country will undoubtedly be the one where the mechanical faculty vend the intelligent handling af•its produc- tions are, the most highly developed. . A SAFE (RULE. New Cook—Do yo put portages on to boil'in cold water er hot Old Cook, trained by her mistress, Phwiolt Ivor wov is th' most throuble do bo th' roight way. HOME LESSONS, Who Is the man of the hour, mam- ma? Your father, Dickie; he :always says that he'll, got up itt a minute, and then stays in bed sixty. . 0, on Eldorado, owned by (Berry Bros., and the amount obtained was about 65,000. WILL CLEAN UP $1,000,000. "A man named Antons," said Judge Hall, "who, I believe, is from Juneau, is also interested in these three olaims, and his interest is equal to that of the Beery Bros. They estimate that they will take from these three claims $1,- 000,000. The amount, however, may fall short. According to the bast informa- tion obtainable there are between 10,000 and 15,000 claims staked in each of the four distriots, namely, the Klondike, Dominion, Indian River and Yukon, of which not to exceed 200 are on a pay- ing basis, or from which it is expected a 10 per Dent royalty will be collected by the Government.. From these facts it can be readily aeon that the chances for a new -comer to succeed are not very encouraging. There are probably from 1,000 to.1,500 people walking the streets of Dawson waiting and anxious young army of men who went In with insufficient means and supplies and who have reached the end of their rope and will come out poorer than they want in. But this is always the case under such conditions as have prevail- ed in Alaska, and their tales of woe should not operate against the country. OTHER ESTIIYIATES. Capt. Joyce of The New England, in speaking of the amount of goldawait- ing transportation, said that from all he could gather through conversing with parties from Dawson he judged it to be from $10,000,000 to $00,000,000. Capt. Joyce estimates that 10,000 men will come down the river this season from Dawson and vicinity and return to oit'ilization for a while. Mr. H. M. Lacy of Seattle, was an- other passenger on the boat. He gave as his estimate of the gold to be brought out this season $20,000,000. Ho said:— "The treasure boats will commence to arrive very shortly, and you can put me down as saying that the first ones will be heavily laden with the yellow metal A great many people will come out of the Klondike very much discouraged and will have some great tales of woe to dispose of wildcat property to new to relate. The most of these went into arrivals. I can also say that property the country dazed withgreat visions of must pay over eight cents. to tbe pan wealth. Many of thorn seamed to think or the owner cannot afford to pay $1.50t nuggets were lying along the banks of the Yukon, waiting to be pick- per hour, the wages paid to miners, for ed up like pebbles. working the same. I learned this from "When they saw the great amount of parties who are in possession of inform- labor before them and the hardships to ation wtion cannot be disputed, and overcome they became discouraged and gave up. But those who went to with I, therefore, know whereof I speak. the firm determination to do something Gold Commissioner Thomas Fatvaett is for themselves and who ware not engaged In recording hundreds of afraid to buckle down to hard work claims, and the applicants literally have done well. camp out in front of the commissioner's I spent the greater portion of my office all night in order to be on hand time in Dawson City, where I had a the first in the morning. hIany of the earl estate office. There was no man who record such claims are pro- • shortage of food there this winter, but motors of wildcat schemes, and they from the prices in the restaurant one are, of nurse, oompellod to resort to would think so. Here is a bill of fare dishonest methods. The Government from the (restaurant where I boarded, requires that gold shall be discovered It reads as follows:—Coffee or tea, 500 in the property before a claim can be a cup; beef tea. 75o a oup; doughnuts, recorded, and in order to hoodwink the Government one man will purpose- ly dropseveral nuggets on tha ground, 75c per order ; Salndwlches, 75c apiece; pie, 75e a cut ; stewed fruit, 750 a dish; three hot cakes, $125; three waffles, $2; while his partner, who will appear let- mush -and milk, $1.50 ; beans, $1.50 a er, will find the gold and hasten to the elate; sardines, $1.25; stewed corn, commissioner's office to a'eoord the $1,60; soup $1; Northwest dinner, $8.60," claim. It is this kind of property that A large number of the passengers on is offered to uawdomers, and 1' would the boat were Canadians. advise all men who go to Dawson this season to give these sharks a wide berth. A DAWSON FUNERAL. "A short time before I left," he said, "I attended the funeral of Matthew Stacey, an ex -policeman of Tacoma, and A. N. Anderson, both of whom died at the Dawson City Hospital. The bodies of both men were strapped to Yukon sleds and hauled to Pioneer YELLOW AND RED IN DISFAVOR. Yellow and red will not this summer or any time in the future, as far as can be foreseen, be used as a floral combination for Lawn or garden beds• Ithas just occurred to the horticul- tural mind that these are Spanish col - Hall, where a panty of hardy Yukonera ors, none the less from being a tra attended the obsequies. A choir, con- ditional and innocent arrangemeht, sisting of seven minors and Gold Com- missioner Fawcett, rendered music, while at the conclusion of the service we all united in repeating the Lord's Prayer. The burial was on respectable as possible. The bodies were drawn to the hall by six Malamute dogs which cost $2,000. The nails to the coffin cost $8,50 per pound, the wood in the coffin 40 cents per foot, and the work of dig- ging the Bravo, which ocoupied six days, Dost $200. The number of deaths which have taken plaoaat Dawson and vioiuity will never be known, The started many years since. To replace the brilliant yellow and red flower beds the gardener of the moment is now resorting to a scheme of pure, unrelieved yellow. His beds are to be yellow symphonies of tone, but without a suggestion of any oth- er hue. This is a marked novelty in gardening, and promises to somewhat transform the lawns of the day, The flowers that will be mainly used are yellow daffodils, yellow roses and jon- quils, often pass without Itis resorting to 11, Sauittarez tried kindness with success, and, though, .firm as a disciplinarian, rarely punished, "We may confidently assert," says his biographer Ross, "that had all the ships in His Majesty's ser vice been coeuntndnd by snob officers at Saumarez, the atsgraceful spirit of insubordination would never have Wee so seriously and generally diffused," But he owns th..,.e may have been ships Collingwood said of an officer, who was famous for his flogging tendencies; "The conduct which is Imputed to him has always met my decided reprobation as being big with the most dangerous consequences and subversive of all dis- oipline." His dislike of corporal pun- ishment, we road in his correspondence, grow daily stronger, and in the latter part of his life more than a year would LANDING HORSES SIBONEY, CUBA, THE SHIP'S FIGHTING TOP} EVOLUTION OF THE MILITARY MAST ON A MAN-OF-WAR. rho nlosI Exposes Position In pallia -die Primary iimleet Is to (/ear signets, lint 11 Carries rt naiad Fire Armament. 'wherein the crewa were made up tram As a place of peril, the fighting top .he metropolitan and other prisons, of a modern men-of-war, is the most that no t:reatrnent 'would have exposed poei.tioe in aheated octiott— out off as its oeoujants are from all eheltering armor and poised high and which were is action pieced over the clear as a tempting target for un un - hatchways, but which were at other emy's quick -firing guns. Let that row passages on mob side of the ship times kept in the gangways, or par- mast. be corn away and swept overboard Cram the quarter -fleck lo the fore- by the tempests of a small shell that castle. IIe was stripped to the waist; brought under proper discipline. When a man teas flogged by the cup- tain, be was tied no to the gratings, the crew were tanned up to witness on murmured parts of a foe, and the his punishment; and then Cita lashes brave defenders must were laid on byy tbe boatswain's mate, go to certain a big and strong man. There were death without a chance of 0 bit of two kinds of cat, is special one, which floating spurs as in the olden days, to inflicted severer torture, being used hold them bit aueiwr camas after the for thieves. Occasionally brill at caps tains pickled the oat in salt, but such fierce rush of conflict. practices were reprobated and censur- The story of the fighting top reaches way back centuries before the Chris- tian era—in fact, back to the earliest time when war craft might pardonably be called ships by virtue of their sue - ships of to -day can bring to bear Up. ed. Eyewitnesses of floggings of whom there are still many to be found in the navy, tells us that the blows very soon draw blood. THE " BULLET-PROOF " SOLDIER. A MEM:older 01 the Battle of Admire (las a Number of Narrow lsrapes. A letter written by Corporal Laurin of the Seaforth Highlanders, to his sine ter, deseribing the battle of Atbara, is published by the Scotsman. The Cor- poral writes; " I suppose you have seen me re- ported as slightly wounded, and pic- tured me as an interesting invalid, Well, 1 was struck, but the effect was so small that I have often been worse hurt in a football match, But during the rest of the day and for some days afterwards I have been an objent of interest, and have been questioned by almost every officer and man in the battalion, referred to as the "bullet- proof man,' and asked it I would mind letting a section fire a fete rounds at me to see if they could do me any harm. The fact is that I got most of the corners of my clothing shot off, while personally I was uninjured. " Before I entered the zareba I was not struck, but soon afterwards a bul- let took off the toe of my left shoe with- out hitting my foot, the shoe being a si.zo too big, for easy marching and sleeping at night. Then my bayonet was struck, and bent over at a right angle. Then a shot went through my sleeve, near my left wrist, tearing two holes, but not hurting myself. Then my rifle was struck, while I wa i load- ing, the bullet splintering the butt and being stopped by an irou bolt which it met. This bullet would cer- tainly have gone right into my body but for my rifle being there. Then a nigger in a trona let drive at me with a spear, missed my ribs by an inch and slit up my haversack. A bullet. then grazed the back of my hand just enough to make it bleed. When I reached the river bank, which was nearly perpendicular, a shot came from the bottom, about twenty feet be - Imo and a little to the left, which cans. ed the wound I am supposed to have got, and was so curious that I was paraded before the General. It enter- ed through the. lid of my right am- munition pouch, which was open, went into my right coat -pocket, smashing a penknife and two pendia, tore four holes In my shirt, made a surface wound two or three inches long, on my left breast, and came out near .my left shoulder through my goat and non munition -pouch braces. In the after- noon I strolled over to the field hos- pital and got a piece of dressing on, and it has never troubled me at all; in fact, it was a farce to put it in as a wound, and was done without my knowledge by the color -sergeant. So you see I've really been, as I'm told by everybody. wonderfully lucky in getting off. as 1 have done, while oth- er poor chaps were given no chances," hundred or more of one -pound shell its the same time, the modern MORAry top' is something to be eonsiderod, where the band -grenade, the stink -hallo, and thin wroitohks a ofomnithe s. past might be dismiss- ed There is but little doubt that; the French have set the .prate for the mod- ern fighting top; and so luxuriantly bavo their vessels developed these growth,' in riots -ma profusion and var- taties of forms that it was no wonder we soon heard of eventing stability in their ships. Tbeir most recent designs. are decidedly moderated, but still beer the halt -mark of great freedom. With the lorenrh, the idea lies been to Dover entirely the t:ositions of the guns, and the mon in the tope to give the naviga- tor a chance to guide his ship Ln ac- tion from a point well above the smoke of the guns, and, too, to bear aloft the searehligbts. Wherever a closed -in top its found on ships of other nations, It is of FRENCH INSPIRATION. The British have almost exclusively held to an open or uncovered top—the only real protection to either guns or mere being the shields carried on the weapons themselves. The purpose of Ibis is two -fold. It ie out of the, quem tlou to place armor in sufficient quen- t4t:y for protection up on the masts— weight and the stability of the vessel prohibiting; and where not possible to have armor t.biok enough to keep cut cessfel struggle with wave and tem- shell. even the t.hinoest plating will pest; and, amid the rapid changes of cause them to explode then and there, where unohstruei:erl, they might pans by 2tarmleasly. The single *hell that might hit and kill one in in the top of a British ship without exploding, would burst on hitting even the thin plating of the French tops and kill perhaps every man therein. The national tendencies of the var- ious navies are !narked by the military meets their recent vessels bear; and, whether they seek their inspiration from Creat Britain oe France, it is easy enough to tell. The Russians are unsettled; Austriais equally divided; Germany leans towards the French, while the Japanese and the Italians follow the English. . to -day, It is hard to trsoe the eon- neclion between those ancientcraft with their rude equipments and the modern battleships fierce and strong by right or the powershehas plucked from the bowels of the earth, and turn- ed to her own purposes of might and majestic dominance. The carvings and drawings of the war craft of the ancient Egyptians and Asiatics, 2,000 years.before Christ, bear the embryo of the military top perch- ed at the masthead of the single spars that bore their sails then. It was merely a rough basket -like arrange- ment in which one ur two men might stand, and assail the warriors of the foe where they crouched behind the sheltering bulwarks of bucklers bung against the sides. Perched high above the >nen in the " gabie," as later it was called, picked off, like sharp -shoot- ers, the enemy before be could come aboard or tempted him In to open ex- posure, and the consequences such rashness brought. Down upon the foe's deck CHINES CHARACTERISTICS. Strange lams of Economy, Politeness and Ernillnde. The spirit of economy in the Chin-, este race transcends all that can be imagined. The old east -off account book of the merchant is cut into pieces and oiled to serve, instead of glass, in windows 01 lanterns. A coolie who has a six hours' march with a heavy burden will return to his point of de- parture without having broken his fast, in order to save the two cents his breakfast would have coat away from home. Nothing is mere curious than to see them eat, although, with their famous chopsticks, they do not per- form all the wonderful feats generally suppesed, Everything is served them in bowls, or saucers, and with the chop- sticks they raise the piece of meat or fish to the mouth, with sufficient. grace. Boob one .has a howl of rice, which he bonds near his lips. and with the aid of the chopsticks he pushes the contents into his mouth. it is curi- ous to sen them pick up with their chopsticks the grains of rice that fall on the ground. The children are taught this art from their earliest years; nothing must be lost, not even the smallest grain, Europeans regard politeness as an expression of those qualities of the heart which render the person who dle- eires to be polite agreeable to 'those with whoan he is thrown, The Chinese look upon the mattot' from an entirely different standpoint. The same senti- ment which accords importance to the preservation of dignity regulates his actions as regards politeness. !I'o determine your conduct when a Chinese offers you, e, present is the roost difficult thing in the world. Cer- tain things are not offered to be ace monad, and others may not he refus- ed peremptorily. In Is general »rnn- THE HURTLING SPEAR [vas sent, while the topmen rested far above retaliation, neve from the ene- my's topmen, if he -haat any. During the time of the naval struggles between the Greeks and the Romans, the fight- ing top disappeared, for it was cus- tomary then to lower the masts and trust only to the great sweeps of oars when going into action. Strange ns it may seem, the mer- chant vessels alone carried fighting lops then, and for the purpose only of meeting the attack of pirates, with whom nearly every sea was then in- fested. Talose tops were not unlike casks, and with two or three men in them, could be hoisted well up and into position in time to be of service. Many of our large merchant liner's, and all winders carry a soruewhat similar ar- rangement well up on theta masts to- day, and, from the crow's nest, as it is now called, most of the lookout duty is now done. The Japanese have ad- opted something of the kind, In their modern naval vessels. As the ships grant- in power their masts had to be heightened by spic- ing on additional spars, and to give spread for the stays and ebrouds that held t.bem in place a platform was built at the top of the louver mast. There tate archer and spearman found ample room for his work; and the ehrouioles of that lusty [triter, Sir John Frois- sart, in the latter part of the 14th cen- tury give us some very interesting ac- counts of the damage inflicted upon the French, the Spanish, and the Gen- oese by the topmen of the British ships. Down upon the fragile structures of wood they hurled great stones, that bore down the foe in GREAT BLEEDING MASSES, tore through their decks, opened their seams, and sent thein to tbe bottom, in a style that Sir John regards as highly rommendahle, Then it was for the archers the high 'Castles, lore end aft, to peak off these topmen ; and, PS it consequence, we see the tops later hung with the shields or bucklers of the soldiery to form a bulwark for the topmen in the growing peril of their duty. In the sixteenth rentnry these tops had multiplied as the masts went up- wtird, and we find the Great Harry carrying as many as three on each plash, and each resplendent with shields end fluttering pennons. In the seventeenth reetnry, we. find the tops broad and open save for the after part where a wooden breastwork was reared to shield the topmen. Why only the after part should have been singled out for the protection is open for epeculation; but it is not improb- able that the sails before the mast cov- ered to a great extent the marksmen m the top, and behind the masts only dict they need supplemental protection. .('hese wooden bulwn.rks in the loe'swers varionely painted wording to the na- tionality of the ship ; and for a couple of hundred years that style of top pro - veiled, and in form, *tare behind end rounded in front, still is in vogue in modern sail -pottered naval vessels. Early in the history of ordnance, the French (rut swivels in their Lops; but despite the good execution done by those guns, other na.tinne did not l.eke kindly to ide idea or adopt it gen- ernlly. THE MODERN MASTS on it fighting ship, is purely for mili- tary purposes, 1,0„ on such ships that aro without a spread of canvas of any sere and its duty 110hv is ptinaipaily for a snrvlee l.hla wee onna merely in- nidental to those of the exiling ship. '1'o beau signals is its first mission, and then to carry an nrmument of repi.d- fire guns, with which to meet Ilse at - teak of torpedo bonts, to sweep, the open ports, erld to entilade the ml - protected gun Mallon:, of an enemy, With galling guns rott'ring out is ver - nen, nevertheless, one may nrrepi, ant- ]table rain of bullets el the vete of deratandin,g perfectly Ont. the gift` 2000 et minute, and with other heavier moat be returned a hundredfold, t automatic. guns capable of hurling a • THE QUEEN'S TRAIN. ' Not Rork n (:rand Affair as Those Used by Some Other Crowned (feeds. The Queen has modelled her long life rather on virtue and usefulness than on pomp and vanity, She cares compare - Lively little for luxury. She is bomoly in her surroundings; and the Queen's train cannot compare in sumptuous- ness to those used by some of the crowned heads of Europe. She has not vied even with the late Emperor of the French, who travelled in a train of imperial splendor, a train with nine richly appointed carriages, which in- cluded a cellar of choke wines and a conservatory of rare flowers. Still, to quote the old nursery rhyme, the roy- al train fashioned by the North West- ern " is good enough to set before the Queen." The saloon formerly consisted of two six -wheeled vehicles connected by a flexible central gangway; but in 1806 the two bodies were placed on a sixty -feet under -frame, with two six - wheeled bogies, making one vehicle, The day compartment, upholstered in royal blue silk, with white silk roof, is furnished in satinwood, inlaid with tulipwood; and the night compartment. upholstered in red patterned chintz, with heavy green curtains, is furnish- ed with a brass bedstead. The saloon Is strongly braked, lighted by electric lamps, and has electrical communica- tion from the Queen's apartments to the Indian and other attendants and also to the guard of the train. The des- cription riles not read very grandly ; but the shrewdest thought, the high- est mechanical skill, and the best work- manship have been concentrated in the building and equipment of the Queen's train, and the arrangements safeguard- ing it, are though the words merge on paradox, careful and °only. The ordinary traffic is suspended; so is all shunting. Plate -layers watch the track, and there is vigil at every crossing. A pilot -engine is run fifteen minutes in advance of the train throughout its entire journey, its progress is tele- graphed from pont to point, and a sharp lookovt ]s kept by the officials to deteot the slightest irregularity in running. The average speed of the train does not exceed thirty-six miles an hour; and her Majesty has such a sense of security on the line, that some years ago, when railway accidents were more frequent, she wrote to the direc- tors of the railway companies express- ing the hope that the seme security in travelling might be assured for all her people as was so judiciously pro- vided for herself. BLACK SPOTS ON ROSES. A writer says one of the worst dis- eases which afflicts roses Is the black spot, a fungous disease whiolt appears on the foliage in small black spots, which increases rapidly in sire and number, and soon cause the leaf to drop. It is infectious and rapidly spreads to other leaves and plants, and soon defoliates the plants and ruins the flowers. 1t is a good practice to gath- er all the disease.l leaves, and lawn them, thereby destroying the spores and checking the further a spread of the fungus. But the only sure wary of pre- venting the disease is to nmmence ear- ly in the spring, as mon as the leaves appear; to spray the plants thorough- ly once each week throughout the eea- eon with the Bordeaux mixture. This is almost a complete remedy for this disease, as well as tor the mildew, and Muth better than sulphur, for the 1e,t- ter. The flowers should all be out when they begin to fnele; if left oil thiP plant thoy.vat only look unsightly but cheek the production of flowers. 0i. EGGS IN Il'R,ANCP..., More eggs are produced in France than in any country in the world, the number being about 40.000,000 annu- ally. THE GENE1101,IF ANCESTOR, Dickie, how did you happen to mai:• the whole pie? Mamma, I played you wuz grandma, an told me to tike all I wentnd.