TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9008, 22 January 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It is recorded by an AmeriAbsolute can correspondent that on Prohibition, a recent occasion Mrs Cleveland, the wife of the President of the United States, performed the ceremony of christening a new Atlantic, liner at Philadelphia by breaking the usual bottle of champagne over the vessel's bows as she slid into the water. Nobody, one would think, could see anything to object to, in such, an incident, unless some one grudged the vessel the bottle of wine and thought it could have been*put to a better use. At any rate, not the most intemperate temperance advocate could be expected to objects to wine being wasted in such a manner. Yet such is indeed the case, and so serious do the members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union con- , sider the matter that they have, through their President, Miss Willard, issued a protest against the use of champagne on such occasions. They insist that wine should not be used for the christening j of vessels, "not, , ' saye the writer, "on the ground that it is a waste of the sparkling liquid, but because the use of it for any purpose whatever is wrong in principle, j apart from which water would be far more appropriate at a launching." This view was bo warmly supported by many members of the temperance parly that it is thought Mrs Cleveland will in future decline to christen ships with anything stronger than soda water. The W.C.T.U., as it is familiarly called, seems to be "going strong" in the States. The members recently held a convention and issued a sums what remarkable platform, in which they urged wholesale prohibition. The following, it is said, are among the planks of this platform :—•' Absolute prohibition of the use of alcoholic drinks, absolute prohibition ot immorality on the part) of men, absolute prohibition of the editorial ' we/ absolute prohibition of unscientific cookery, absolute prohibition of corsets, ditto of long skirts, similarly of cigarettes, the same as to headache medicine, toothache drops, 'pick-me-ups'—whatever they may be—and if there is anything left to prohibit, its absolute prohibition." Why men only, are forbidden to be immoral is a problem which those responsible for this declaration of. principles leave to the imagination. The use of the editorial "we" has never struck us as a particularly sinful habit, but we trust to notice an inimediate change- in the leading columns of the Prohibitionist. The proposal to absolutely prohibit unscientific cookery has our complete approval'; in this direction we are with the W.C.T.U. every inch of the way. Do they, however, fully realise the gigantic nature of their task 1 The impropriety or otherwise of the use of corsets and long skirts may be left to those principally. con* cerned in wearing them to decide, and the other articles which come into this Index • Expurgatorius must be more baleful in their ! effects in America than they, are here < to justify their inclusion. The members of the Union have mapped out a big programme and will have their work cut out for them u> accomplish all they are desirous of doing; The American public were' A ' recently-- promised some* - Proposed thing quite new in the Experiment way oi sensation,, in the on a chape of an experiment Murderer, upon a supposed dead mur-' , * derer. The man' in question, Wilson by name, had been condemned to death for hie crime, and waa to be •• electrocuted," that method of capital punishment having, been adopted in parta of,' if not throughout, the .United States in preference to death by hanging.' Electrocution consists* it may be mentioned, of bind-, ing the condemned man in a particular sort of chair, and submitting him .to' a tremendously strong current of electricity,' death being instantaneous. In this instance the Governor of New York, at the request of some scientific and medical men, decided to allow Wilson's body .to be experimented upon after the execution, with the. idoa that life might be restored. Hβ promised the murderer's lawyer that if tbe expert? ment proved successful and resuscitation took, place, the man's life should be spared, and Wilson, it is said, clung to this, the only hope left to him, and expressed his gratitude to the governor for the remote chance of life thus offered to him. Bat in deciding to allow the experiment to be made the governor appears to have exceeded his powers, for the Attorney-General pronounced against the legality of thus attempting- to interfere with the sentence, of the law, and the condemned man bad thus to forego his chance of life. Judging from the experiences of a Mr Cutler, au American electrician, this chance apparently would hare been a good one. Mr' Cntler while engaged in work on- some very powerful electrical machine happened to touch two wires,- and received the whole force 6f the current, the shock, being to all appearance immediately fatal. Certain directions, for resuscitation similar to those need in cases of drowning were, however, pat into practice at once, and animation was restored in seven minutes. In describing his sensations Mr Cutler said that the only feeling he had before he lost consciousness was that of being violently tugged by the arms. Half an hour after the accident he could recall everything that happened, except during*the period when he was unconscious. Hβ was perfectly well' the next day, and the only effect of the occurrence was the scare on hie hands where he had touched the wires, which had burned him to the bone. The shock he received' was of no less than 4500 volts, and his recovery under the circumstance* is regarded as most extraordinary. As the current which is used for the execution of criminals is only of 1700 volte there seems to be no earthly reason why, if the experiment at resuscitation, had , ' been 'allowed, Wilson should not have been revived and set free.

Amono the many dreadful Armenian incidents in the recent series Heroines." of awfal atrocities- perpetrated by the > savage* Tnrkish soldiery among the Armenians, there is one which should, live in history; as a. noble' example of women's heroism.' A village named Andaish was besiejged. by the Turks, and wa* defended by a native, leider ; Grge and bis followers, who defended their post-

.■ .. ■ ' ■•' %, tion heroically for six days, fighting the brutal foe with stones and daggers. Aβ the , men in the besieged party fell, their places were taken by the women, and when Grgo decided to go out with his troops and forage for food and ammunition, he left the defence of the place to the mothers and wives of bis men. The women sustained a successful defence for some two days, but were finally compelled to yield to greater numbers. They had scarcely left their camp when they found themselves in a terrible position, sut rounded on all sides, and encumbered as they were, for many carried their babies on their backs, while almoet all had children with them, they soon realised it was impossible to attempt to fight their way through the enemy. "Then the wife of Grgo stepped on a rock and cried—' My sisters, you must choose between two things. Either fall into the hands of. these Turks and forget your husbands, your homes, your holy religion, and adopt the Mohammedan faith and be dishonoured; or you must follow my example.' With these words, holding her year-old bajby'in her arms, ahe dashed herself from the rock into the abyss. She was fol« lowed by a second, a third, a fourth woman. Without a sound one body fell after the other. The nnhappy children followed like lambs the example of their mothers. Very soon the ravine was filled with corpses, and the last women who leapt fell unhurt on their companions' bodies." This appalling scene, it is said, struck even the Turkish soldiers, with horror, but the effect must have soon worn off, for they tortured the women they captured in order to make them reveal the whereabouts of Grgo and his men. To the infinite honour of the women they kept the secret, and thus proved themselves the equals in bravery of their more fortunate sisters who had escaped torture and dishonour by a speedy death.