MAIL NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 154, 1 July 1901, Page 5

MAIL NEWS.

WOMEN AND TOBACCO

QUEEN VICTORIA'S WILL

RUSSIAN BRUTALITY AT PEKIN

THE NEW BRITISH NAVAL GUN.

GIPSY VENGEANCE

The following items are from the latest English papers:—

Dr. Leopold R{?i|H', a fashionable Vienna dentist, has? just sued his assistant (Dr. Yon Auev) for the sum of £ 130, being the estimated value of certain luncheons and dinners eaten by the latter while he was the fiancee of Dr. Keiger's daughter. The engagement lasted two months, and was then broken off. Dr. Keiger maintains that the food was obtained under false pretences, as his assistant was never serious in his attentions xo his daughter. After a deal of argument, the ease was decided against Dr. Reiger, who has to pay costs amounting to £120.

Dr. Legerix, one of the most active of French tobacco-phobes, is considerably alarmed at the progress of smoking among women. "It is simply disgusting," he says. "In fashionable Society, at their 'iive o'clocks' and 'at homes,' at their private reunions, and in their boudoirs, women smoke regularly. Young and old, women of the town and of the country, middleelaKS women, and literary women, smoke in public and in private. I have tracked nicotine to the vital parts of more than one lady of exemplary character, and discovered in their haunts of learning the use of tobacco. It is a tyrannical passion, enslaving1, disgusting, dangerous, and pernicious; and with all my force I wouls advise the cry of alarm. The three stages of the nicotine vice are tobacco, disease, and death."

Queen Victoria left a million and a half of money in her will to be divided equally between Princess Christian, Princess Louise, Princess Henry of Battenburg, and the Duke of Connaught. Their Royal Highnesses, however, are only to receive the interest, the principal going to the late Sovereign's grandchildren.

The following, related by a gentleman of good position, who witnessed the occurrence, will serve as an instance of things which have actually happened in Northern China: A few days after the occupation of Pekin by the Allies, a Chinese woman, with her small children, one of them a mere 'baby in arms; was crossing the Beggars' Bridge, outside the Chien-men gate, in thfe main thoroughfare leading from the Chinese to the Tartar City, when a party of Russian soldiers came along. The woman was not quick enough, apparently, in getting out of the way, so they prodded the mother and baby with their bayonets, and threw them over the parapet of the bridge, into the canal below; and, as the other child, a boy of about's or 6 years, lay screaming on (lie ground, one of the Russians seized him by the heels, dashed his brains out on the marble flags, and flung the body headlong after the others.

One of the most formidable weapons ever made is the new 9.2 gun, weighing 28 tons, which is now being supplied to all new first-class cruisers of the British Navy. Considering its length, some 50ft, it is extremely light, while it fires shot and shell of 3801b- weight the extraordinary, distance of fifteen miles with an accuracy almost approaching .that- of the rifle. The charge required for every, shot is 1031b of cordite, the biggest yet used, and its average firing pace is three and a half shots per minute. The great feature of the gun is the new mounting, known as the Hogue, manufactured by the Viekers-Maxim Company. All the machinery and vital portions of the gun are protected in such away that it is almost impossible for it to be put out of action by any missile, while a new application of, the hydraulic principle' renders it unusually easy to work.

Carolina, in the Transvaal, was occupied for the fifth time by British troops on. May 17, when an advance force of the IS th Hussars, commanded by Acting-Brigadier General King, of the Fifth Lancers, rode into the town. The few Boers who retired as the troops appeared (the "Times" correspondent says) belonged to no organised commando, and intended to surrender; but" a message arrived from General Louis Botha at Ermelo, telling them to retire and hide till we passed. The English,' he said, were embroiled in war with Russia, the plague was destroying the' soldiers, • atid the rest were being hurried home. The Boers had completely ■ destroyed the railway in the Orange River Colony, and the British were obliged to "trek" to the coast. He owned that he had thought of making peace with Lord Kitchener, but thanked God that he had rejected Ms 'terms. In 1881 a blood-red comet appeared, betokening1 weeping and war. The comet now seen was white, and signified peace, which would shortly be given them, and with independence.

A telegram from Constantinople gives particulars of an alleged outrage committed by the Sultan and his entourage. A few weeks ago an Italian was arrested as an emissary of Mahomed Pasha, brother-in-law of the Sultan, and of the Young Turks. The Sultan, it is said, had him brought to the Yildiz Kiosk, and interrogated him personally. .Tn spite of his denials'the Italian was sent to prison, and two days afterwards the Governor of Gaiateii went to the prison and shot the Italian with a revolver. The Governor declared that he was'acting in accordance with the orders of the Sultan. The matter has caused a great sensation, and Italy has demanded satisfaction.

A startling story of gipsy vengeance is reported by the "Independence Beige." Some gipsies had camped near Bacstopolya.in Hungary. Petty thefts followed," Jrtl'a irritated the population, who caused the marauders to be arrested and their heads shaved— a mortal affront to the Hungarian Romany. The latter took revenge in a horrible fashion. They poisoned a village cistern, and the day afterwards five villagers died from the effects of drinking" the water. When the malefactors'were armsted large quantities of strychnine and arsenic were found in the camp.

It has been semi-officially announced at Odessa, Russia, that a concession for the construction of a ship ca-nal from the P.laek Sea to the Gasp pian will be given to a British syndicate, with n capital of twelve million potmds sterling. , ...-.■..■..

The expected birth of an heir to the Servian Throne was officially anuouncced at Court, and in his last Speech from the Throne the King informed his people, of the coming joyful event, and the Servian law of succession to the Throne was even altered, securing the Crown to the female line in cose there should be no male heir.

The Rev. .Charles Sheldon, the wellknown author and preacher, of Topeka, Kansas, U.S.A., recently wrote a book on the servant girl question. His idea is that servants should be treated as members of the family. All the servant girls in Topeka and manj' other Western towns have been reading the book, and hundreds are giving up domestic work because their employers refuse to treat them as social equals and give them the privileges demanded. The local employment agencies are overwhelmed with applications from former domestic servants who want to be clerks, telegraphists, typists and shop girls. Wages have gone up 25 per cent, as the result of Mr Sheldon's teachings.