CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8738, 9 March 1894, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

Guy de M»upa_sant's furniture sold badly in Paris. His old ancestral Norman buffet, in oak, with three lichly carved panels, went, a correspoudcnt says, for £11. The large gilt wooden Buddha, seated on a lotus flower, for £3 3s, the two small Louis XV. desks in olive-wood for £5, and tho old Boule timepiece for £3- The faiences were more briskly bid for, but there was a perfect rage among the bidders for the watches, shirt studs, rings, and toilet-table nicknacks. No article was so feverishly bid for as the white-handled razor with which ho tried to commit suicide by cutting hi 9 throat. A stain on the handle gave it the value of a personal relic. Holland is a country which manages to exist without protection. Its tariff ranks among the most liberal—not Liloi.U in the misapplied 6ense —in Europe, being for reveuue only. Although the farmers have —like farmers in other parts of the world— suffered from the recent Lwll iv prices of produce their general condition is fairly prosperous. Even the manufacturing industry has taken the liberty of prospering in the absence of protection, while, notwithstanding the gradual introduction of a free-trade policy since 1845, and ii>-.> moderation of the present duties, the Treasury has sua tamed no lose. On the contrary, the Cus-tom-house revenue has beeu constantly increasing, and is now half as much again as it was forty years ago. At the monthly meeting of the Medical Sickness, Annuity, and Life Assurance Society just held in England some remarkable facts were reported in connection with the sickness prevailing among medical practiocera. The returns showed a very heavy list of sick claims, mainly due to the epidemic of influenza, which ao far had been very rife ; among medical men, and had attacked them with a virulence quite exceptional. Astonishing, too, as it may seem, the -icknesa claims of the Society for November bust woro no less than 70 per cent, higher than was tho case in November, 1892. Moreover, the Committee anticipated that during tho winter the amount of sick benefit received by the members of the Society will exceed that paid in aDy previous winter since the foundation of the Society in 1884. A marked feature of the winter claims ia the number arising from accidents in riding and driving. These, for the most part, happen to country practitioners. A great, broad-shouldered, genial Gallicized Englishman is the description given of Mr Philip Gilbert Hamerton, the art critic and editor of the Portfolio, by a member of the World staff, who has discovered him at his residence at Boulogne, near Paris. For over thirty years Mr Hamerton has resided continuously in France, so that he has become accustomed to the ways and mode of life, as well as the , thoughts and ideas of French people of the j cultivated class. Mrs Hamerton is a French lady, who speaks English well, and j is. well versed in ouc literature. Close to Mr Hamerton's house, which is within easy walk of the vast Bois de Boulogne, the park at Saint Cloud, and the Forest of St. Germain, lives M- Urrebietta, better known as Daniel Vierge, whom Mr Hamerton regards as the greatest of all modern illustrators. M. Urrebietta, who is forty-two years of age, has been entirely paralysed on the right side for the past twelve year 3, and the power of articulate speech has been almost completely denied him. Yet he has produced with his left hand a wonderful serieß of drawings, amongst them tho illustrations to "Quevedo" and " Pabla de Segovia." Dr. Murray is the " celebrity at home" in a recent issue of the World, and naturally we are given some vague idea of the stupendous publication on which he is engaged. When he set himself to the task of compiling the great Dictionary, be found the work which had already been done in a frightfully chaotic condition. Originally twenty-six sub-editors had been appointed, one for each letter of the alphabet. He now discovered that nearly half of these were dead. From their representatives, and from the survivors, there now poured into Dr. Murray's house at Mill Hill the conteuts of the garrets, the cellars, the odd corners of staircases, from all parts of the Englishspeaking world. " Slips" arrived literally in tons aud tons. They came in coses and trunks, in hampers, iv creels, in an old bassinette with a mouse's nest as part of the cargo. The whole thing looked hopeless ; there threatened to be no room in the house to turn round. In this emergency Mrs Murray declared that an iron building in the garden must be erected at puce. It was done. While it was building a German friend arrived on a visit, and Dr. Murray found him looking on convulsed with laughter. It was so English, he said. "You want to write a book," said the Professor, "you build a house to write him in ; iv Germany I write the book with my wife, my children, and my tobacco-smoke all round mc." iVhen the sorting was accomplished the slips of PA were wholly missing. The responsible person had shifted them from place to place; he had then died; all that was left of the missing portion was found in a loft over a stable iv Couuty Cavan. One of Dr. Murray's earliest steps was to send circulars to all tbe registered contributors. He sent out five hundred notifications ; four hundred and fifty came back through the DeadLetter Office. He plodded on; after three years of "preparation he found himself in a position to begin his labours with just four million quotations in hand.