ECHOES FROM EVERYWHERE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9860, 9 March 1896, Page 4

ECHOES FROM EVERYWHERE.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST.

"I am reliably informed," says a correspondent of an English paper, " that when it was settled that Prince Henry and Prince Christian Victor should accompany the Ashanti Expedition, the question arose whether their bodies should be brought home if they got killed or succumbed to fever. The Queen decided in the affirmative, and, remembering the awful difficulty experienced with the remains of the late Prince Imperial, her Majesty gave orders that a proper apparatus of the unguents and spices necessary for embalming should be taken out."

A COLLIER CURATE.

Australia is robbing us, says the PaU Matt Gazette, of a curate who has had a singular experience. The Rev. .H. Bryant was curate of Bearpark during the coal strike of 18S2. Coal Was needed for the fires to cook meals for the children of the parish, but so embittered were the pitmen that none of them would descend the shaft to hew the necessary fuel. Mr Bryant distinguished himself by going single-handed down the pit and hewing coal enough for the firw.

WEED-KILLING BY ELECTRICITY

Professor Woodworth, of the Michigan Agricultural College, announces that electricity is quite as cheap as salt for the killing off of weeds in the long run, as it is much more effective, destroying the plant to the root. He purposes to experiment on the most noxious weeds by taking a wheelbarrow or waggon eupplied with a storage battery to the laud to be cleared and let the hanging wires drag along the ground. He insists on the practicability of remoTiog Canadian and Russian thistles from farms in this way.

A CLERGYMAN ON TOBACCO.

At tho St. Giles's Cathedral Young Men's Guild smoking concert in Edinburgh lately the Very Rev. J. Cameron Lees, D.D., who

presided,said he hoped they had all acquired the accomplishment of smoking. _f fi re . garded tobacco as one of the greatest K ifts that had been given to man. lb WM g by Charles Lamb, the great litterateur that if he said a grace lie would rather say it over a book than over his meat. Well bo (Dr. Lees) would as readily say grace over his tobacco as over his food. It sweetened up life, and hn feared he would have been dead loug ago if it had not baen for his pip c . He trusted they would have a good night' and that tobacco would help to keep them up.

MR CROCKETT'S STUDENT DAYS.

Mr S. R. Crockett has been tolling in the admirable little new weekly the Minute how he used to raise the heat when a hard-un student in Edinburgh. He lodged with a friend over a great coal station, and he ussd to go out in the evening and pick up the coals which the carts had dropped in the streets. •'Sometimes, I grew so bold as to chuck a lump of coal at the driver, who invariably looked for the biggest lump oa his load to hit back with, which was what I wanted. Thus the exercise warmed mc at the time, and the coal warmed mc afterwards. Aud occasionally we got a large enough stock to sell to our companions, and buy a book or two. But I wish, hero aud now, solemnly to state that I never, never condescended to lift a lump oft a cart, at least, hardly. . . . Well, unless it was manifestly inconvenieuciug the safety of the j load, or overburdening the safety oi thi horse, you know ! "

HOW GERMANY COMPETES WITS ENGLAND.

Mr Powell, British Consul at Stettin, commenting upon some new arrangements there for teaching English in the middleclass schools, observes that this English in. struction is made good use of in after years. A young German will ofteu, after having passed his military service, proceed to England, offering his services there at a lower ticure than an English lad will tiemaud. If ha cannot at once get tho billet he is in search of he will wait his chance, making a few shillings as best he can by teaching German, &c, or as a waiter, living with the well-known frugality of his nation. After two, three, or more years in England he returns to his native land with all tho commercial information of his own branch oi business that he oau learn in England at his fingers' ends. Opportunity ia given in a German firm, andhe syts to work to improve on the English business by adapting it to the markets, whilst ** the British merchant goes on in his old manner sending out excellent high-priced material to compete with the interior article at • lower price, made up to look the same, which the German is pushing on to the same market with all his energy, and which meets the want of cash most people are suffering from to a nicety. They find that people like to have the same thing they have beeu used to, but don't want to pay so hiar a price for it as formerly."

A DOCTOR'S DIFFICULTY.

A professional correspondent complain* bitterly in an English medical journal that though he particularly desires that people would not address him as "Doctor," they will persist in doing so. It is true he is a Doctor j but he is ulso a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, which institu. tion exacts from its Licentiates a promis* that |they will not use the title of Doctor. To tell the truth, since folk have come to call a chemist's " a doctor's shop," the plain Mr has been very generally preferred by members of the profession who have a claim to use what has really become a distinction. This correspondent evidently shares in this feeling ; bub all in vain. Patients will call him " Doctor," and so will fellow practitioners, " who ought to know better." Cheques, moreover, come drawn to "Dr." Steynham, aud then, absurd to relate, he is compelled to endorse them M.R.C.S. Some time sines this unfortunate man went to a place mauy hundred miles away. He was asked whether he was "a doctor," and denied it, for he wished for a holiday, and if one is known as a medical man everybody, he says, wishes to addrens you m " Df:'' and to talk shop or a?k advice. Generally, the latter occurs in hotel&in the middle ot the night. Uafortunately, the next post brought him a lettei with "Dr." on it, and he was at ono» regarded as a fraud.

CATHEDRAL BANNERS,

Mr Henniker Heaton (writes the London correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph) has fallen in very cordially with the Dean of Canterbury's scheme for hanging banners, emblazoned with the arms of the sees ol England, iv the arches of the nav9 of th« Cathedral. The object is to render the navt available for great religious Bervices, and it is believed that the banners would not only give colour to the nave, and take away its present cold appt-arance, bub also help materially to overcome the acoustic difficulties. Considering that in the year 1897 will occur the 1300 th auniversftty \ of the baptism of King Ethelbert, aud that the Cathedral will then witness a gathering-' of all the English-speaking Bishops of the , - Anglican communion, this would, Dean • Farrar suggests, bo au interesting and 1I appropriate opportunity for signalising the fact tliat Canterbury Cathedral . witnessed the beginning of the conversion of our English nation, aad that thirteen Centuries ot English Christianity, have flowed through its sacred precinots. Mr Heaton at onco agreed to present a ' banner for the nave, providing the Daan would consent to have it emblazoned with . the arms of the Metropolitan See of Australia. He reminded him this would be specially appropriate, as the tombs of the first Bishop of Australia (Dr Broughten) and of Governor Gipps were in the aacred fane. The Dean nob only gladly assented to thji condition, «>ub promised his hon. friend the banner should be hung near th» cenotaph of Bishop Broughton. TheDuka of Westminster, Lord Northbourne, Mrf Miller and the Rev. G. Holt are alsogivinjf banners.