NEWS BY THE MAIL

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2179, 1 July 1890, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL

Great preparations have beeii made to quench the thirst of visiting riflemen from America and elsewhere during the approaching Schultzen festival. The Munich and Berlin breweries have put aside an immense quautity of beer for the occasion, as ifc has been estimated that each guest will require 31 large glasses of beer a day. It would be idle to deny (says a Paris correspondent) that the antiSemitic movement is growing in Prance. Its leading causes may be different, but there is the same unreasoning hatred and the same accusations that characterise the crusade in other countries. Baron Alphonse de Eothschild says that the feeling at present is far greater than during the Commune, when he and the members of his family were unmolested. J)v Norman L. Walker, editor of the 'P. C. Monthly,' said in his American correspondence that it is almost necessary nowadays for a theological professor to be under some susipciou of heresy in order to call forth the confidence of youug men. The downfall of Mormonism, in Utah, progresses steadily. The Mormons no longer control the Municipal Council, and their women are rejoicing that their emancipation is assured. A public school system is likely to be introduced. The Christian churches are working admirably. A totally new state of things is rapidly developing in the State.

Mr Tarry, one of the engineers on the Sahara railroad, now being constructed by France, reports a curious discovery of great archaeological valueComing upon a mound of sand, he had it dug into and found a dome, which proved to be the top of a tower ; and digging deeper the tower proved to belong to a mosque embedded in the sand. Continuing his researches, he has already uncovered niue houses and a watercourse. The watercourse is of great value and will be used for irrigation. This discovery confirms the impression that the Sahara was once 3 populous land, by no means a waste or desert. The restoration of the vast tract will be pushed with renewed courage.

The B-ev. Jaco > Primmer, Dunfermline, on a recent Sabbath forenoon, said that for some time past the Shorter Catechism, including the Ten Commandments, had been turned out of Townhill Publio School, with the result that the scholars were demoralised, as they had riddled the windows of his Church with stones — no fewer than twenty-live panes of glass being broken, and most of them within the last few days They were anxious to know by whose authority the Catechism was excluded, seeing the School Board professed to continue, use and wont as to religion in the schools. They had use and wont in the neighbouring schools of lialbeath and "Weliwood — the latter being one of the most efficient and successful schools in Great Britain, the number of passes beingorer ninety-nino per cent. He trusted that the smashing of his Church windows would rouse the School Board to see that the Ten Commandments and Catechism with the Bible were taught ia all their Schools for that was the desire of the 'whole; population. The ' New. York . World ' has been taking what is called a child census, with the following results :— 3OO

families iv the aristocratic quarter known as Fifth Avenue were found to contain only 91 children under ten years of age, and not more thau six children have been born in them within twelve months. The same number of families in the poor neighbourhood of Cherry Hill possessed G6O children under ten years of age, and the total number of children born within 12 months was 111. These startling figures are occasioning quite a sensation in the United States, as thoy serve to show that the wives of men belonging to the wealthy classes are shirking maternity, while the poor are multiplying with the utmost rapidity. An enormous quantity of lead, extracted at »reit cost from the earth, is returned to it every year in the shape of bulletf. A recent invention is said to obviate this great waste of material at the targets. The target is ot paper, fastened in the centre of a largb screen of canvas. Behind this, and inclining backwards at an angle represented by a rise of one inch iv two and a half, is placed a large steel plate. It has been found that a bullet does not splash when it strikes a plate at that angle, but rushes up the inclined surface. Along the upper edge of the plate is hinged what is termed a " fiopper " which has a concive surface and hangs over the plate like the cave of a roof. Against this the bullet rushes, has ita force spent by the sudden change of direction and rattles down the plate into a receptacle provided, whence they can be returned to the melting pot.

A telegram from Joliet, Illinois, to the ' New York Herald ' says :— A big sensation was unearthed in the penitentiary a few nights ago when four convicts, including Burke, the Cronin murderer, were found hanging to the bars of the windows of the soliiary confinement ward. The officers discovered that a conspiracy was on foot, and brought into the office convicts Burke, Schell, a former policeman of Chicago, Kavauah, and Myers, alias Muldoon. The four were stripped and on each was found a big roll of notes and on Burke a bottle of whisky. Myers had a letter to his friends asking for money to be sent in the care of Barrett, who has been there 14 years as the foreman for the owners of a cooper's shop in the prison. Myers said that Barrett supplied the convicts with letters, and carried correspondence to them from outsiders, and also furnished them delicacies, for which they paid. It is said that a conspiracy for the wholesale escape of prisoners, including the three Cronin murderers, was about to be made.