THROUGH OUR EXCHANGES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1758, 15 June 1886, Page 4

THROUGH OUR EXCHANGES.

The sublimation of the mind-cure craze in Boston is a man named Bennet, to whom patients go in and lay down lOdols., never more nor less; tbe l{ doctor" pronounces tbe formula. "Tou are cured," and the patient walks out again. There is no diagnosis, no treatment, nothing but faith; and yet it is said that Bennett is making a big income, $10 bills coming in by the mail, and requests for consultatiou by telegraph. He calls himself an apostle of the " order of the Inspirati." The Minister of the Interior bas issued an order to the Mayors and Prefects of France that they are to do all in their power to dissuade emigrants against carrying out tbeir purpose, by representing the almost certain disappointments and difficulties which await them in foreign lands, and especially in the United States. As it ia, the French are the least migratory of nations, the annual average of emigrants being under 5000 out of a population of 37 millions. One result of the labor disturbances in the States (says the ' Detroit Free Press ') which everybody can appreciate is the abandonment of projected enterprises involving large outlay and promising employment to many men. A well-known capitalist in this city, who has been engaged for some months in preparations for tbe establishment of a 0200,000 steel plant in Pennsylvania, has definitely decided to give up the project because of the uncertainty of the business outlook. An inquest was held at Camberwell concerning the death of a man named Stace, a farrier, who has been in the army. One of the witnesses stated that some time ago the deceased went to a woman near the Elephant and Castle who professed to tell fortunes, and she told him he would die either in April or May. That had so preyed upon bis mind that he had been drinking ever since. The man was found insensibly drunk, and was removed to the Camberwell Infirmary, where he died. He told a companion that he : had taken laudanum, but the medical evidence showed that no traces of the drug had been discovered, but that Heath was due to alcoholic poisoning. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with this evidence. The Oregon court of inquiry has decided that without any fault on the part of officers or men, an ocean steamer with nearly a thousand souls on board, can, on a perfectly clear night, be run into and sunk by a schooner. If this is so the voyager across the Atlantic needs to have double insurance on his life. The reliance which it has been customary to place on the official sense of responsibility must be dispensed with. If the officers are not to be held to any responsibility tbey will not j take the trouble to feel any.—' Detroit Free Press.' The census is furnishing the papers with the usual batch of good stories. Tbe Masterton man, however, who wrote under ' threshing machines' ' my wife' is certainly at the top of the poll for eccentric answers, up to date. An extraordinary fact in connection with the Russian conscripts drafted into the ranks is shown by some statistics just published. The total number of conscripts accepted was 847,589, of whom no fewer that 43,830 were Jews, | If we take the approximate Eussian population among whom the conscription is operative at fifty millions, this remarkable disproportion is, remarks an Odessa correspondent, abundantly apparent, and would indicate a determination on the part of the Imperial Government, through the military authorities, to check tbe hitherto steadily increasing monopoly of the Jews in nearly every branch of Russian industry. Jewish trade enterprise is less remarkable in the capital, where stringent and repressive bylaws are still enforced, but in South Russia generally, it may safely be averred that four-fifths of the entire home and foreign trade of the province and city are in the bands of the Jews. The St. Petersburg correspondent of tbe ' Times ' stated that f he following information reached him from a trustworthy source in the south of Russia : — " As you are already aware, the Emperor intended to visit the Don Cossack country this spring in order to present his son, the heir-apparent, to Cossacks at Novo-Tcberkast as their Attaman in chief. The imperial visit to tbe south was, in fact, paid as much on this account as for the purpose of launching the new ironclads on the Black Sea. The journey had been put off every summer since the coronation, and it was decided that it could not be delayed any longer. At the last moment we hear that the visit to the Cossacks has been again put off, and private news from Novo-Tcherkast gives a very good clue to the reason. The police of that place, in the exercise of the extraordinary vigilance always now required of the authorities of any locality which the Czar is about to visit, recently received information which caused them to order a search to be mado at Anto, about 40 versts from the Don Cossack capital. This led to the discovery in a pond close to the village of a quantity of explosives — dynamite cartridges, hand-grenades, <kc. The dynamite, was what is known as black dynamite, of the qualtity used among I miners, and i-3 reckoned the strongest quality made. There is little doubt as to the wicked purposes for which it was intended, and the probable terrible consequences that have been averted by

its fortunate discovery. The affair has been traced to the son of the elder Cossack of the village, who is a »Cossack* officer. The youth has been arrested, as well as his brother, a student in St. Petersburg. Itis believed that both have been acting as agents for the Nihilist party at, their respective ends. This dreadful discovery has caused a profound sensation at NovoTcherkask and throughout the Don prbvince, as the Cossacks claim the proud privilege of being the special defenders of the sacred person of the Emperor, and have hitherto escaped the Nihilist contagion." We learn from the 'British Trade Journal,' that Chinese-made scissors are sold in Canton for 4d a pair retail. Rough ones cost only half that price. The smallest pair of scissors with brass trimming to the ends of the handles, cost only -f- d in the Kui-Chen Province, where iron, fuel, labour, and food are exceedingly cheap. Such scissors are used by opium smokers t;> trim their lampß with ; but there are some of a superior make for the same purpose, costing about 2£d to 3d a pair. " The drink bill of the colony," as shown in the Customs returns for the last quarter of the financial year, reveals some curious facts. It shows a decrease in the consumption of beer of 728,550 gallons since 1882, which represents a diminished expenditure of £368,578 per annum. The decrease during the year ending March, 1886, amounts to £104,602. Taking | the different items as they appear in | the drink bill, spirits exhibit a decrease of 39,824 gallons ; wines, a decrease of 12,730 gallons : colonial beer, of 43.862 gallons. The reduction is attributed to two causes : first, to commercial and social depression ; and secondly, to the continued spread of temperance views. A correspondent in an exchange in writing of " Tbe Premier Drawing Book " authorised to be used in Government schools says : The exercises consisted of what appeared to be embroidery patterns, or portions of mosaic printed upon dotted paper, the ' dots being so arranged in squares that j the pupil has only to count the number of squares occupied by a given figure in the example, and then draw from square to square on the paper accordingly. Most of the lines do not exceed a quarter of an inch, so that it will be seen that these examples do not train either the pupil's haud or eye. In fact for all practical purposes he might as well measure the lines with compasses, and rule them in with a T square. There are in the book before me sixteen pages of this rubbish, each pa»e containing five examples, and I venture to predict that when the unhappy victims of this fad bave been driven through the lot they will not, without the aid of this dot-and-go-one system, be able to copy corectl} the simplest geometrical figure.-