NEWS BY MAIL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 59, 29 June 1908, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL.

It is reported that the "slump" m the American diamond market is at an end. The U.S.A. imports of diamonds during April were, roughly, double those during February.

The marriage of Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, fourth son of the German Empe.-or, to Princess Alexandra Schles •vig - Holstetn - SeuderburgGlucksburg has been fixed for October 22, the birthday of the Empress.

A telegram from Oldenburg announces the engagement of Irince Friedrich of Schaumburg-Lippe to his deceased wife's sister, Princess Thyra, daughter of the King of Denmark. Prince Friedrich married in 1896 Princess Louise, Bister of Princess Ihyra, who died of meningitis in April, 190b, leaving three children.

According to a Rome telegram, the marriage of the Duke of the Abruzzi, the cousin of the King of Italy, to Miss Elkins, daughter of the U.S.A. Senator, will take place in September on his promotion to the rank of rearadmiral. Miss Elkins has abjured Protestantism, and has been a Roman Catholic for over a month.

By order of the Kaiser, it is suggested, the Alcase-Lorraine 'Journal de Colmar,' a bi-weekly paper in the French language, has been authorised to publish daily. A Ministerial ordinance has also be«n promulgated permitting the use of French in all public meetings. These liberal measures, taken by Count Wedel, the newStatthalter, are quite in consonance with the high character for justice and impartiality which the ex-Ambassador at Vienna brought with him to his new post.

America has been furnished with yet another object-lesson in the folly of tolerating "firetraps" in big towns, by the total destruction of the Avehne Hotel at Fort Wayne, with the loss of thirty lives. Of the seventy-four guests who were sleeping when the hotel caught fire, not one escaped without injury. In an instant all the means of exit by way of stairs and elevators were cut off, and the guests, men and women, were compelled to leap from the windows or remain and be suffocated to death. When, after much delay, the fire brigade arrived, every window was crowded with maddened, panicstricken people. Ladderß were raised, and some thirty persons reached safety with their aid. The coroner has declared that there was a neglect of prooer precautions, and that the building was constructed .with gross disregard of all proper rules.

In St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo every house was decked with flags of Swedish blue and yellow intermingling with the Russian white, blue, and red for the wedding of Prince Wilhehn of Sweden, King Gustaf's second son, aid the Grand Duchess Marie Pavb/na. daughter of the Czar's uncle, tne Grand Duke Paul. The ceremony at Tsarskoe Selo was conducted with more gorgets pomp than has been seen in Russia for many years. The Czar and all his Royal guests were in brilliant attire, and the hundreds of ladies of the Court w..re the beautiful historic old Russian druses, the long trains embroidered with gold, and the quaint headgear from which tulle veils floated to iheir leds. Many wore magnificent necklaces oi priceless pearls and diamonds. The dazzling uniforms of officers of a hundred regiments gave added beauty to the scene enacted at the Imperial Palace of Tsarskoe Selo.

At Kill-Devil Hill, near Manteo, North Carolina, the 'Daily Mail's' correspondent was privileged to witness the first successful test flight of the new aeroplane invented by the famous Wright Brothers, of Dayton, Ohio. With the machine under perfect control, the two inventors, Messrs Wilbur and Orville Wright, flew a distance of a thousand feet in a light north-easter-ly wind. Starting easily along a railway 300 ft. long, the aeroplane, driven by an engine of 20-h.p., quickly attained a velocity of twenty-five miles an hour, when it suddenly left the tracks and rose like a bird in the air to an elevation of 20ft. from the ground. After travelling at that height for a distance of a thousand feet, the inventors landed with the machine without the slightest difficulty. The flight was made for the purpose of testing a new steering contrivance, the adaptability of which was unknown. The contrivance proved satisfactory, but, the adjustment requiring a slight alteration, the two brothers decided to discontinue the flight. The inventors intend to carry out an endurance flight from Kill-Devil Hill to Cape Henry, a distance of seventy-fivo miles, and Back.

Dr Loewe, n professor of the University of Czerhowitz, who was killed on the Gaiseberg early last month, lost his life in saving that of a favorite dog. The story of the tragedy, told in a 'Central News' telegram, is a touching one. The professor had climbed the mountain in search of geological specimens, and had the dog with him on a chain. It would appear that tho animal slipped over the edge of a rock, and that its master, in trying to pull it back to safety, lost his balance, striking a ledge a short way down, and then rebounding, and falling a sheer distance of 600 ft down a precipice. In falling he released his hold of the dog's chain, and the dog fell, uninjured, on to tho ledge just mentioned, where it remained howling until it attracted the attention of some peasants. These endeavored to secure it, but the dog, on their approach, jumped from the ledge, and, half falling, half scrambling, eventually reached the valley up which it had originally come with its master, and raced home, bleeding from many cuts, to warn Dr Loewe's household, by its very evident concern, that something terrible had happened. Searchers at once went out and found the terribly mangled body of the professor lying among some huge boulders at the foot of the precipice. He had obviously been killed instantly.

According to the 'Berliner Tageblatt,' it is rumored in diplomatic circles in Berlin that Great Britain has not yet abandoned her endeavors to arrange an international understanding for the limitation of armaments. The journal reports that while Great Britain does not intend to issue invitations to a conference immediately, endeavors continue to made towards the attainment of this aim.