CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8726, 23 February 1894, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

The new Frenoh tax of 10 francs each on cycles has produced in the first year it has been in operation 781,657 frauos, or about £31,250. Making fcllowanco for fines for late payment, and, on tho other baud, for the fact that only a part of the tax was imposed last year, the law nob having been voted until.April, this sum represents 132,276 cycles. The Seiue, which includes Paris, ha 7th* largest number in any Department, 19,540. The smallest number is iifi Cokticv which hae no more than twenty for the whole island.

" Beware of the farm pond," is Professor Wprtley Axe's advice to English agriculturists. Very few, he thinks, realise the evil consequences resulting from these generally ill-conditioned stores of water, though they are otteu little better than plague spots, and thousands of young animals die every year from parasitic infection incurred by drinking from them. "It has fallen to our lot," says Mr Axe, " to ace many valuable stuils and flocks curtailed from this source." Iα his paper published in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, Professor Axe gives practical directions for protecting iheso valuable adjuncts of the farm from becoming polluted.

Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson is not, we all know, a believer in overwork being so extremely injurious as some suppose it to be. Although no longer young, he himself, as he has informed a representative of the Saturday Journal, works eighty hours a week. Some one wrote to him recently to ask whether a man ought to work ao long; and he had to reply that perhaps he would not be a fair judge, a3 that was precisely his own dose. After fifty five ho thinks perhaps a man might work less than before that age, although he has nob found tho necessity for this iv his own case. Iv fact, most long-lived men lie has met have remained active far beyond that period, and he lias definitely come to the conclusion that it is a very bad practice for people nearing sixty to retire. Competitive athletic work of all kinds, according to the same authority, should not be engaged in at too early an age. Sixteen, or even eighteen, is early enongh to begin. On the subject of longevity amoug politicians, he observed that the cares of the nation are quite different from the cares of individuals, such as doctors have to reckou with, aud, moreover, he is of opinion that public speaking i<3 such a healthy exercise, that he has often recommended consumptive people to read aloud, and he ia sure they have benefited by the advice.

Some sensation haa been caused at Warsaw by the perfonnauces of un alleged spiritualistic medium named Palladiuo. This man gets some one to tie him to a chair in a lighted room, and instantly he is lifted by an unseen ageucy on to a table. A professor of Warsaw University heard of this, and feeling incredulous, asked to be admitted that he might be able to convict the performer, if possible, of trickery. A performance was arranged.' at which the proceedings with a dark seance. All of a euddeu, as the professor sat in eager expectation, he felt a terrific blow on the nose from a fiat that had nothing ghostly about it Covered with blood, he was helped into a cab and taken home. The subject will be heard of again in the law courts.

A youth belonging to a highly respectable family at Saint Cloud recently met iv the Boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris a young lady with whose appearance he was much struck. He followed her, watched her as she wont into a house, and having ascertained her name and the fact that she lived with her widowed mother, contrived to find some one who knew the ladies by way of getting an introduction to them. He was extremely well received, and repeated the visit more than once. Finally he determined to offer marriage to . the young lady, and he spoke to the mother on the subject. The mother was very sympathetic, but declared it could not be. •'But tell mc why not,' said the love-sick youth, ," Because," said the widow, bursting into tears, "my husband is a convict, a villain, who abusing the power the law gives him in France, has declared that he will never give his consent to hia daughter's" marriage unless he has 10,000 francs given to him." The youth said he wae willing to pay the money provided the father undertook never to molest him in any way, and in a few days the sum was forthcoming. The day after it was paid, however, the widow and her daughter decamped. The police are now on the look-out for them.

One of the most remarkable finds made by the Historical Manuscripts CommissioL, among the family papers of the Duke of Portland at VVelbeck Ahbey, is a series or letteta from King ,'Charles 11., mostly written from St. Qermaina iv 1649, ■" to various persons whose names are written iv cipher, the key to which has not been discovered. They were found folded and packed together in a little leather box, and by their appearance it would seem that they had been sent over for delivery, but. had never been - used. ,Aβ the. Commissioners observe, they. ",are mostly of a kind to which the adherents of the Stuarts must have ' been accustomed, and the promises contained in them were not" always completely porformed." Iv brief, they present the yoang prince in the character of- a begging-letter writer on a rather extensive scale. Some thirty correspondents seem to have been addressed by him in the month ot August of that year alone. The following will serve as a sample:—"l 649, 31st. St. Germaitts.—l havd had so good testimony of your affection for the King,' my dear father of blessed memory, that I desire you on this occasion to lend mc £500, whereof Iproniiae you on my royal word; very faithful repayment. T havotroubled fe.w of ray id ends in this kind." Of this missive five copies have been found, all bearing the royal signature and Seal, and therefore presumptively intended for different peraoup.