CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8789, 10 March 1894, Page 6

CLIPPINGS.

Recently the captain of a naphthfl ship passed a vessel at anchor on the Volga. He signalled, but receiving no answer, Doarded the vessel and found that the only occupant was a child about four years old. Two men, it has since trauspired, had visited the vessel the previous night and murdered the captain and his wife while asleep in their Cabin. They afterwards made for the cabin of the pilot. The wife of the pilot came to the door, and was killed with an axe. The aleeping pilot was also murdered. The wretches threw the bodies into the Volga and departed, leaving the child onboard. All the money they obtained was forty shillings, together with some clothes and a revolver. It was the possession of the revolver that aroused suspicion. The men were arrested, and one of them has since made a full confession. The maximum quantity of water in butter, according to Professor James Long, ought not to excved 15 per cent., nor would a greater proportion find its .way into butter if artificial means were not used for the express purpose of adulteration, in spit* of the well-known fait that an excess-if water has a tendency to hasten decorap'Sition and rancidity. Mild salted butter contains half an ounce of salt to each porad of butter, and vvhat is known as leavily salted batter half as much again as that quantity. Any larger proportirfw than these are, according to the same authority, of no use in keeping the butte% though a larger percentage of salt is, he atatea, often used to cloak a bad flavor Professor Long considers that as regard* both salt and water all butter makers sh'hld work up to one standard, no matter what their appliances are. Writing about thar marvellous colourproducer Coal-tar, a writer in Longman ! reminds us that ib * only thirty-six years I ago Perkin "gathered up the fragments' in I coal-tar and prodded the beautiful raahve dye. Now from-he greasy material which wa3 considered iseleHS is produced madder, which makes worth £100 a ton. This alone now employs an industry of **° —-lions Bterliag per annum. One ton of _o°d cannel coal, when distilled in gas retft*« l«avee twelve gallons of coaltar frop- which are produced a p-jund of be_zine.'a"'pouad of toluene/ a pound and a-half >f phenol, six pounds of naphthalene, a smad quantity of xylene, and ha!f-a-pound of a*tbracßae for dyeing purposes. Accord"

ing to Roscoe, there are sixteen ui«tu_* yellow colours, twelve orange, thirty «£? fifteen blue, seven green,, and fjine violet besides a number of browns, and aa iuß_it« number of blendiogs of all shade*. The practical utility of a photogr*Dkin camera is strikingly illustrated by an tail dote told by Mr Ray Woods, of toe Cftp%_i Good Hope Observatory, in the new •♦ vv! Book of Photography. ,f Iv sending home the last 400 pages of the result of the Victoria observations cf some of the minor planets, made with a view to determine the mean distance of the sun, it was considered too risky to trust them on the high sets without a record. Consisting for a large part of closely-written columns of tables of figures, ready for the printer, figures whose outlines might have been damaged U written iv copying ink and pressed ou wet paper in tho rough commercial way, the question arose, " Row was the record to be kept ?" The copying of 400 pages of foolscap would have boea no light task for the small staff of tho Observatory, nwre especially when columns of figures requiring the greatest accuracy are in question. Photography, however, came to the rescue. A canvas-covered frame, which happeoud to ,be lying handy, was set up in a convenient {>art oi the Obsorvatory, and the sheets of oolscap rapidly aud roughly pinned on to it, and thus, with a single lens of twentyinch foous aperture, the required copies were speedily obtained. A correspondent sends particulars of a cose which occurred iv Argentina. Some ten or twelve years ago au official in * north-country Bank, who had embezzled tho funds of the concern, took refuge ia Argentina, and for a time Scotland Yard was at fault. At last a oapable officer was sent to Buenos Ayrea. He foil ml that the defaulter had gone up the country and started sheep farming. He followed, and succeeded in opening up an acquaintance which subsequently developed into intimacy. Tho pair became such fricuda that when the ofticor suggested a trip to Buenos Ayrea for a change, tho ex-Bank official readily went. One day the detective received from the captain of a British gunboat an luvitatiou to a supper aud a dance, with the intimation that "any English friends would be welcome." This was shown to the fugitive. Would he go with his friend on boa'd ? " Delighted.' Evening came, and tho boat which was to uke them otf was brought in. But the defaulter drew back. "No, thank you," he sai<i, "No, thank you, Mr " (giving to his no small astonishment the detective's real name, which he had nsver used iv Argentina), " I think it will be as woll for mo not to go aboard that ship. I might fiud it difficult to get back again." Was tho late Marshal yon Moltke ever employed as a spy in France ? A writer in M. Jules Simon's review, La Vie Comtemporaine, says ho was. In 1868, says th* writer in question, Count yon Moltke entered Franco in disguise, aud inspected the froutier of tho Rhine and ttio lines of Wissemburg. In particular ha made a study of the defences of Forbvch and Spioneren. Thero is always, according to the same authority, a regular espionage department connected with the German army. It is a bureau with a general at the head of it. It comprises three seetious, at the head of each of which ia a colonel. Each colonel has under him a certain number of officers of the general staff and clerks. Tho oilioers in this tor* vioe are selected with tho greatest care from among the most capable and distinguished men iv tho service. In 1882, the Duke of S&xe-Meningen, the brother-in-law of the Emperor William 11., at that time a major, was employed in it. In 1870 many additions were made to the number of clerks, men who liud lived iv Francs, and who knew the country well, having been chosen for the posts. The love of mountaineering is not con* fined to tho male membors of the Royal house in Italy. Mrs E. T. Cook tells ug that no overworked professional man, college don, or schoolmaster looks forward more eagerly to au autumn holiday among the Alps than does Queen Margherita, who delights to don the picturesque costume of tho women of the Yal de Lye, aud to linger j long after the frosty autumn nights have driven away less hardy visitors, at Grossony, in the Val u'Aosta, iv Piedmont. A picture of this spot appears among the numerous drawings accompanying Mrs Cook's article in the "English Illustrated Magazine." When tho Italian Alpine Club formally opened their hut ana shelter on th* extreme summit of the Signal- Kuppe, Queou Margherita made the ascent with her two ladies-in-waiting in order to officiate ou the occasion. Her Majesty is described as taking part in a recent " ice expedition to the summit of the Vinoent-Pyramlde, the lowest save one of tho ten peaks of Monte Rosa, and camping out amidst snow aadiae. One of her male, attendants has given ft comic description of tho Queen taking to the rocks, hand over hand, for pare love of climbing, where her suite, by all the rale* of etiquette and gallantry, are bound tc' follow. Returns of the " Pari Mufeuel," or »*«?*' stakes, on raoecourses around Paris for lSw snow, says the Daily News correspondent* the extent to which the betting mania rages among the middle and poorer classes inTParis. The tax of 8 per cent, brought in' last year, from suburban courses aloes, a sum of £140,000 sterling. Tbe wealthier classes of backers continue to do their bust ness through bookmakers, aud,- of course* escape all Government' control, Among the poorer classes many do not take the trouble to go to the races, but give their money to touts, who swarm in town notwitbsi&auiflg police raids. These agents charge 10 per cent., and assuming them to be honest ondeverything to be- carried on fairly, the gamblers stake their money with 13 per cent. ■ odds against them. Even members of the Thirteen Club would surely find something uncanny in this. A banker told mc tbe other d*y that he now gives bis clerks a free lunch on the premises in order to keep them from the temptation °* runninaaway to racing touts with their money. ** ve ° J his accountants had combined to robezzw money from him at the rate of about» WKJt a year. This went oh four years, and whan the fraud was. discovered by the merest accident,' every penny of the sum* embezzled' had already been squandered ao raves. The new volume of the collected sermons, of th« late Mr Spurgeon fornw the thirtyninth of >he series, aud brings the number of these published discourses up **> 2ML Nevertheless, Messrs Passmore and Al*w»ter have, we understand, still iv hand a suulcienb number, never yet published in any form, to enable them to issuo one sewn©**' weekly for «omo years to come—a " fcr v t evidence oi the intellectual activity of t_§ author. r ?he Metropolitan Tabernacle P*tf» is, we further learn, still read regularly h? 1 tens of-'thousands of subscribers. A? 9 sermoM hi the now volume abound » examples of that fertility and aptness of anecVote and that power of homely »oa. forcible expression with whioh all who are 1 familiar with Mr Spurgoon's pulpit oratory ere familiar. , 1 ' The late Mr Spurgoon's conservatism to the matter 0/ the authorised text of WW Scriptures is exhibited in more "> an ?°~ characteristic passage in the newly own-., pleted volume of his sermons. 1 «*■. born (he says) in a county where there wen many old-fashioned people, and I *» °* a ' fashioned myself, and whenever I f^*, 1 "* Bible and find that it says * everlasting « •evermore/ 1 believe that it means what" says. Ofcourselhaverlived iua worldw waica I am informed that ib does not mean anything of the kind, that it means a period, or a period shorter or longer injr as circumstances may happen, *a™ afraid I shall never learn this new hog o - * never mean to try to learn it. so I I Oever shall be able to understand tBWg the wrong way upward, as the Wia*»«*. now do. * Everlasting ' will bo •? r J."£* with mc for ever audever, I can teit *»«*> and it will find mc, at.any rate,, a in eternity as being that which nß " r .r£ an end. I believe that those »**«»* differently will have to come wood tot" opinion that I have found in fcße "°tL* God. At any rate, if vve ate to agree, tMJ will have to do so; for I shall never com*, round to their view." ! ~ ""— ~~~' .. «r ,