ECHOES FROM EVERYWHERE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9224, 30 September 1895, Page 4

ECHOES FROM EVERYWHERE.

MR LABOUCHERE'S DIGESTION.

1 have been enlarging my tniud, and I hope eventually improving my constitution (write 3Mr Labouchere ia Truth) with a pamphlet advertising a mixture called Guy's Tonic. In it I found a comprehensive table showing the time different foods take to digest. The first great discovery I made ia that mushrooms are the most digestible articles of diet known, being disposed of by the average humau digestive apparatus in one hour twenty minutes. Being very fond of mushroom?, but having always suspected their virtues, this takes a great weight off my mind, and I urn looking forward to many happy u*yo during the mushroom season. Another interesting discovery is that the banana is tho most digestible of fruits, digesting in ona hour forty-five minutes, agaiust four hours for a walnut or chestnut* and four hours five minutes for a raisin. A look, it seems, ia the toughest morsel a man cau eat, taking him six hours to negotiate, while a lark or a snipe is assimilated in two hours. If Mr Guy is to be trusted, you had better live on roast pork than rook pie, for a dish of roast pork only lasts five houra thirty minutes before it is finally absorbed. I never heard of anybody but an agricultural labourer eating a, rook, and if it lakes him six hours to complete the process it is a question whether we feeble dwellers iv towns would ever accomplish it. I fear that a rook would fiuish mc before I finUhed the rook.

UTOPIA IN SIBERIA.

Captain J Wiggins, who recently returned from Siberia, entertains a high opinion of the future of that vasb couutry. Far from being the barren, useless pltvco it is generally considered to be, it abounds, he say?, in animal, cereal and mineral wealth, including gold aDd silver. Iα the north, even in the centre of the country, the winters are very severe, bub in tho southern parts all kinds of produce may be grown. A man may make his fortune there, the Captain declares, as easily and as quickly as anywhere ; and, as a matter of fact, millionaires are nearly aa plentiful there as in America. Even the famous Siberian exiles—that is to say, the well-behaved among them—are in a better condition, on the whole, than they were in their own country. As regards education Siberia, it appears, is ahead of England. In the for off city of Irkutek, schools and colleges, all kept up by Government authorities, abound, and iv Tomsk ten years ago the University, then scarcely finished, had a 'library of 60,000 volumes, and possessed acclimatisation gardens which would be envied by any city in the world. Captain WiggiDs has been giving an account of his remarkable adventures to a correspondent of Cassell's Saturday Journal, to whom he confided tho fact that he intends to present to one of the English national museums the collection of siiver pieces, valued at £500. which was presented to him by the lato Czar.

THE AWAKENING OF ICELAND.

Tourists who have exhausted Switzerland, Tyrol, Sweden and Norway, and sigh for fre3h mountainous countries to conquer (says an English paper), might try Iceland. At all events, the people of Iceland are anxious they should do so, and, in the interests of the trade of their country, are ready to welcome them with open arms. An association of leading inhabitants oi Reykjavik, the Icelandiah capital, has been formed for disseminating information respecting that little known part of the globe. It is called the Tourist Information Society, and it is not at all in the nature ot a trading association. At the same time, the Althing, or Jcelaudish Parliament, has determined to take measures for improving the means of communication between the island and other parts of Europe. At present only four Danish steamers visit It during the whole summer season, and even they do not go direct, but call at the Faroe Islands on the way. The Parliament is determined to buy a steamer which 13 to establish a direct postal and passenger lino from England. In d>l probability this will entail a loss, but there will, ib is hoped, be at least an indirect gain. Prince Carl of Denmark ha? recently been on a visit to the island in a Danish man-of-war, and there have been great rejoicings at Reykjavik. Business has boen bad of late on account of the failure-of the cod fishery.

RED TAPE IN FRANCE.

Mr John Burns, when he first heard of Herr Dowe's famous ballet-proof cuirass, suggested tbab possibly it was stuffed with War Office red tape. iC ia not in England alone, however, that circumlocution offices abound. Iα France innumerable instances might be found of official pedantry of the sort that causes vexation. One of the latest instances to come to light refers to tho Ptria inspectorship of weights and measures. An inspector cillad upon a wellknown hatter and asked him to produce his weights and meaauree for verification. The hotter politely remarked that be had no need of either, as he did not sell his hats by the pound or the yard. This, however, would not do for the inspector, who pointed out that the l«w requited all tradesmen to

have their weights and measures verified from time to time, and that they could not have them verifled if they had uot got any. For the sake of peace auJ quietness, the hatter gave in, aud bought a pitr of sciles aud a measure. Hβ is now wondering what the law expects him to do with them.

ATROCIOUS BOY CRIMINALS

The brief cablegram which reported the murder of Mrs Coombes, of Plaittow, m Essex, by her two sons, aged twelve and thirteen respectively, disclosed the bare fact of one of the most revoltiug crimes of the century. Their victim had euffad the younger boy, Nathaniel, for a potty theft. "An hour afterwards," aays Robert, the elder brother " Nat. proposed to mc that we should kill our mother in revenge for the blow, aud so obtatu possession of her money and jewels." 'I'he younger boy slept in hia mother's roo;n. and arranged than he would cough as soon m she had fallen asleep. When the signal was given, Robert softly entered the room, and drawing aside bis mother's nightdress stabbed her to the heart with a knife prepared for the purpose, leaning on it wi*,h all his weight. Death seems to have been instautaneous, and the youug murderer* then helped themselves to their mother , * rings and money, and their absent fatlie. , ,* watch. Next day they pawned the I itt«r. bought a new suit of cricketing flannels, and regaled themselves with pastry uud whiskey! Some inquiries for the mianng woman by her husband's siater, which the boys tried to parry by lies, led to the discovery of the murder, and the corpse was found in ail advanced stage of decomposition o>» the bed. At the Police Court the two culprits displayed au atrocious sang froid.

INVISIBLE MUSIC AT THE ABBEY,

Ihe effect the new celestial organ at Westminster Abbey has upon the visitor is weird in the extreme. It has been set up in the triforium of the south transept, aud at a recsnfc servica was played by Dr. Bridge. 'Chough in all respects a separate organ, complete iv itself, it forma part of the yraud iusti uinont in the choir. It is controlled from the same console, and may bo used in conjunction with the great organ. The action U electric, connectiou being established by a cable 200 ft in length. Sinct the organ is not visible from the church below aud is separated from tha or e iui»t by the full length of the building, the sudleo outburst of music is remarkably stiikiug.

DOES A DOG CRY?

This quo3lion has been auswered in the affirmative by one of the Paris magistrates. A man had been summoned before him on the ground that he had contravened the couditions agreed upon whoa ha had taken Uμ his residence in a flat. His landlord had stipulated that he should not keep anything that cried, but tl\e tenant purchased two small Mexican dogs, and took them home with him. His neighbours complained, and the summons followed as a matter of course. At the police court he pleaded that his dag* did not cry, while eveu if they barked, as they weighed but twelve ounces apiece, thej could annoy no one. The judge, however, hold that the whimper of a dog constituted crying, and accordingly ordered the owner tc at once get rid of his pets.

A GRIM PICTURE OF WAR,

We give below a horrid picture of war ai it is now baing waged in Madagascar. Tho French troops assailed the village of Amparihilava on May 2nd, but tho brave old chief KamnzombAyaki would not surrender, preferring death to disgrace aud shame before hie owu people. " Then," cays an eye-witness, " shot and shell rained upon the people who were iv tho village, ana it is impassible to estimate tho number of the slain. The corpies were lyiug in heaps, and the shot and shell were slill niakiug ravages while the village was feeing evacuated. As to the number of people, men and women, ohildren and adults, who were swallowed up ia the water it ie impossible to estimate it. Oil the one hand the water made victims while the shot, like the sowing of lice, rained on those still in the river, their only way of retreat. Only those with a lucky star eecaped death. The French seized in the village two small copper guns and a seven-barrelled revolver."