CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8597, 26 September 1893, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

The transfer of Clieveden, the Duke of Westminster's celebrated mansion on the Thames, to the American millionaire, Mr Astor, very nearly collapsed. Mr Astor, it appears, laid claim to the visitors' and as this was a valuable record of the life and friends of the Duke, the latter refused to admit the claim, and went so far as to threaten even to cancel the sale if it were persisted in. The Duke of Westminster has been allowed to retain the book on payment of £300.

"Few people have any conception," says the Los Angeles Orange Belt, "of the immense quantity of oranges which Southern California will yield within a few years. Riverside, which is this year shipping in the neighbourhood of 2500 carloads, five years from now will be sending about 10,000 carloads a year. Badlands, with 200 carloads this year, will then ship about 5000 carloads. Ontario will then ship close to 7500 carloads. Rialto will have close to 5000 carloads. Other large districts will then be coming into fine bearing, and it would not surprise us if the total shipments reached 10,000 carloads. Then, with the maturing of trees, there is a prospect that these figures will be doubled in ten years more, when it will require 20 trains a day, with 20 cars each, for 200 days, to take away the fruit."

One of the most extraordinary incidents in modern journalism is to be recorded in connection with the loss of the Victoria. Several hours before any rumour of the disaster had reached a London newspaper office, the essential facts had been given to ita readers by a journal in one of the most distant cities of South America. The news that the Victoria had been lost, and that Admiral Tryon with nearly 500 of his men had perished, came to the knowledge of the London correspondent of Lα Nation of Buenos Ayres, from a private source, at 2 o'clock in the morning. He instantly cabled it to his paper, the difference in time leaving ample opportunity for its transmission in season for publication in the morning edition. It was not until about 10 o'clock on the same day that the direful news first became current in London.

An exciting incident occurred on board the ship Collingrove during her recent passage from London to Australia. When off the Cape of Good Hope one of the passengers, who with his wife was making a honeymoon trip to the sunny South, while standing outside the gunwale of the ship fishing for albatross, accidentally slipped and fell overboard. Luckily Captain Angel was on deck, and being attracted by the screams of the agonised wife took in the situation at a glance, and throwing a lifebuoy in the direction of the man immediately gave orders for the vessel to be put about and the boats to be lowered. As the ship was travelling at the rate of eight knots an hour some little time was necessarily taken in obeying these orders, and when she was brought to the whereabouts of the passenger was lo3fc. After a short but terrible interval, the practised eye of the captain noticed a flock of sea birds hovering in the air some considerable distance away, and despatching a boat in that direction had the supreme satisfaction of rescuing the man comparatively little the worse for his immersion.

A new method of preserving pictures, the invention of Mr W. d. Simpson, C.E., was shown recently in London. This invention, which is simplicity itself, is an outcome of the report of a Committee which sat a few years ago at the instance of the Science and Art Department, with Sir Frederick Leigbton as Chairman, to obtain the opinion of scientific men on the fading of pigments, the inquiry being deemed necessary in view of the deterioration of pictures in the national collections. The Committee reported that pigments faded generally in moist air, and in a lesser degree in dry air, but that in vacuo no material change took place. They thought that this indicated the direction in which experiments should be continued. Of course, it was easy enough to make a vacuum, but the difficulty was to adapt it to a picture and be certain that it always remained. What Mr Simpson has done, therefore, has been to decide npon a shallow copper box, which can be made to take any picture as it leaves the easel. The picture being put in, glass is fitted over it and hermetically sealed to the box. The air and all gases are then absolutely exnausted, and the picture may be transferred to the ordinary frame. Bat the process is not complete till an indicator on the principle of the aneroid barometer—and this is the special feature of the invention—has been applied. That consists of a very tiny slip of copper, which is wholly invisible so i long as the vacuum is maintained. Should, however, the slightest quantity of air or gas find its way into the picture box the indicator is at once forced out in a corner of the frame, and the defect may accordingly be at once remedied. Moreover, a picture thus placed " in vacuo " appears mucb more distinct than when exposed to the air, and if the theory be well founded that colours may be preserved for almost any length of

time when withdrawn from exposure to fog, smoke, gases and whatever may be contained in the ordinary atmosphere, then the invention should prove of great value, not only in the homes of our national art collections, but wherever it is desired to preserve paintings, drawings or manuscripts.

The correspondence respecting tho efforts made to obtain tho extradition of Jabez Spencer Balfour was presented to the House of Commons on July 25th. It cohered tho period from February 22nd to May 12th, and consisted of seventeen despatches. It appeared from the correspondence that Balfour was expected to arrive at Monte Video from Buenos Ay res Jon April 25th, in order to meet there a Mr Daniel Hill, who was a passenger from England in the steamer Sorato, due at that date. At the request of the British Government the Uruguayan Government undertook to arrest Balfour, and the chief of police at Monte Video was instructed to effect his capture. On arrival Balfour, however, either received warning of what was going on, or at the last moment he feared to incur the risk of leaving Argentine territory. At any rate he abandoned the trip, and Mr Daniel Hill, who duly arrived at Monte Video, proceeded iv tho local steamer Minerva to Buenos Ayre3. Mr Hill took rooms at the Grand Hotel, where he remained for some time, but although Balfour beyond doubt was in Buenos Ayres at the time he did not visit Air Hill.