CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8478, 9 May 1893, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

At Innsbruck an eccentric miser, Dr. Earl Beidtel.died on the 6th March, having thrust a rusty old sword into his body. Hβ has left Innsbruck University 120,000 florins for poor students in bis branch of science.

The Strand Magazine gives a picture of the famous " Postage Stamp Boom," of which all collectors have heard. It is a photograph representing the study of Mr C. Whitfiela King, of Morpeth House, Ipswich, which he has papered with 44,068 unused foreign postage stamps, bearing the value of £699 16s 9d, and eontainiog fortyeight varieties of different sizes and colours, presenting an example of mosaic work which is altogether unique of its kind.

There will be no Wagnerian performances this year at Bayreuth, but Mr Aahton Ellis, who is one of the leading spirits of the London Wagner Society, has just received new*that a Wagner festival will beheld there on a grand scale in 1894, when "Parsifal." "Taonnaiuer," and "Lohen-

grin"- will be given. " Lohenefiin, Wβ believe, has not before been mounted at Bayreuth, and its performance is therefore likely to excite a good deal of interest.

Suggestive of an adventure in the Far West (save the P*rie correspondents of the London Vaily Telegraph) is the extraordinary experience undergone lately by the passengers of a steam tramway on the line which goes from the Place de l'Etoile to St. Germain. At * late hour the team, composed of three carriages and a looomotiverwas passing through the usually peaceful suburb of Puteaux, when the driver perceived a human figure standing on the line » few yards ahead of the oncoming engine, and holding a thick stick. Ttt* driver reversed his machine in order not to run over the man, and got down to demand latter refused to move off. bix fellows Who had been hidden by tho darkness, thereupon Sprang out and assaulted the driver and the stoker, who had come to his colleagues assistance, and who was severely wounded by some blunt weapon. Fortunately, at this juncture the guards and somepassencers ran to the rescue and pat the woaldbe brigands to flight, without the totter having succeeded in deriving any pront , from their attempt at train robbing.

The German papers contain accounts from Pomerania of a crime that recalls in some respects the murder of the Jew pedlar in Erckmann-Chatrian's "The Bells." One evening a farmer and his daughter, on their way home from the market at Rummelaburg, called at an inn situated between that place and the village where they lived. In paying for something he had to drink, the man took out a purse in which he had the money he had that day received in payment for a cow. Soon afterwards he left, and he had not gone far when he was attacked from behind by a man armed with a thick stick. With a terrific blow the man smashed his skull in, killing him on the spot. The little girl was so frightened that she ran baok to the inn and told the innkeeper's wife. This woman, after advising her to leave her money in her keeping, shut the poor child up in a room and locked the door. Looking through the keyhole, the child saw the innkeeper return with a blood-stained stick in his hand. She then heard him tell how he had committed the murder. On hie learning where she was, she heard him discussing the best means of getting rid of her. In a dreadful state of apprehension she jumped from a, window to the ground, fortunately without hurting herself, and fled to her home. The innkeepor and his wife were arrested.

A Northampton correspondent writes to the Daily News: —Mr Thomas Hornby, of Kingsthorpe, Northampton, has just taken to his residence from Stratford-on-Avon the whole of tho Shokesperian relics formerly in the possession of his grandmother, Mary Hornby, who was the occupant of Shakespeare's birthplace from 1793 to 1820. Mary Hornby, who is picturesquely described by Washington Irving in hie "Sketch Book," removed from Shakespeare's house in consequence of the rent being raised fourfold, taking with her everything movable. She exhibited these things in her new house opposite the birthplace ; bub in recent years they have been kept in comparative obscurity, and were only taken to Northampton this month on the death of their last owner, who devised them to Mr Hornby. They include five carved oak chairs, portions of carved bedstead, carved oak chests, and other furniture, ail contemporary with Shakespeare, and said to have been his property; his iron' deed box, sword, and lantern; portions of the famous mulberry tree; the visitors' book to the birthplace from 1812 to 1819 ; and several oil paintings. These last inchide a fine contemporary portrait of Shakespeare's daughter Judith, and oval portraits of his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall and her husband, Mr, afterwards Sir John Barnard. It is suggested that Northampton should purchase the relics to place in Abington Abbey, recently presented to the town by Lord and Lady Wantage, Abiogton Abbey being the residence and death-place of Lady Barnard (Elizabeth Hall), , the last of Shakespeare's lineal descendants.