NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 68, 22 March 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Viscount Wolseley, speaking at St. James' Hall on December 5, on the occasion of the distribution of prizes to the 2nd Volunteer Battalion Royal Fusiliers, dwelt on the importance of shooting as against mere show on parade, and stated that within ten days the division at Aldershot would be completely armed with the new magazine rifle, and that within a few weeks a oertain proportion of the Home army would be provided with it. He expressed perfect confidence in the new smokeless powder, which he hoped the army would be in possession of by next April. Leander Richardson, editor of the Dramatic News of New York, has j been arrested for publishing in his newspaper that he had seen Mr. De Lancy Nicoll hugging Mrs. Blame, the actress, in a brougham. Mrs. Blame is the wife of James Gillespie Blame, jun., and daughter-in-law of the Secretary of State. While the general increase of voters caused by the Reform Bill of 1832 was only about 220,000, the number enfranchised in 1867-8 amounted to nearly 1,000,000, and in 1884 to no less than 2,500,000. The smallest engine in the world has just been finished in Baltimore. It can be covered by a thimble. Three drops of water fill the boiler. At the Imperial kennels at Gatchina, reoently, the wife of Dietz, the chief huntsman, sent her son, aged eight years, to fetch the newspapers from the station. The child was attacked by some half-bred wolves, used for coursing their wild brothers, and literally devoured alive. The Museum of Natural History at Paris has a colossal block of salt. It weighs 29,0001b. It has just been given it by Prince Bibesco. According to recent statistics, the total consumption of tobacco per annum is 23,000 tons, or an average of 230z. per inhabitant, in the United Kingdom. The vast proportion of this is imported.. " Stanley in Africa " is a spectacular piece which has had a long run in Berlin. It is said to have been now acquired for some London stage. There are said to be 275 women preachers in the United States. It is justj ust seventy-five years since the first newspaper was printed by steam in. London. A large owl has taken up its quarters in the grounds of Guy's Hospital, and seems quite at homo in one of the lofty trees. At dusk the owl quits its perch in Bearch of prey, and several half-devoured sparrows and rats have been found lying about. Some statistics of the Parnell Commission are of interest. The President (Sir James Hannon) made 624 remarks ; Justice Day made only one. Exactly 500 witnesses were called, io whom 98,267 questions wore put. Sir Charles Russell crossexamined 175 Times witnesses, including four of the chief. The official notes of the inquiry number 7,096, pages. The Earl of Egmont has sold the whole of his large estate in Kilkenny and Tipperary for £250,000. The farmers are fortunate enough to get the land at the rate of fifteen years' purchase. This is the largest single transaction yet effected wader the Ashbourne Act, For many years the Rothschilds had a curious way of providing a birthday present for all female children born to them at their coming of age. A s soon as tho child was born, six pearls were put aside for it of the value of £500. This was repeated at every successive birthday, and at the age of 21 the fortunate young lady was presented with aU the pearls thus collected \^ y«^ shape of a necklace, By \\s way, ifc is not known that Count Karolyi was a great admirer of Mr. Gladstone's, and remained a strong Irish Home P- y uler. The Municipal Council of Paris haes.passed resolutions congratulating the people and Government of, Brazil upon the organisation of. the Republic. The I^ormouft who are being driven from pillar to po9t ou account of their views on the marriage question, bought aom,e time ago a large tract of land in Canada on which to locate themselv.es on leaving Utah. In this new howe they are turning out to b§ a very desirable class of settler^. Smoking is now so much popularised among women that there ia a large sale in the West End for pastilles for ladies after smpk.ing. ■ Xh* gentlemen have. thei£ ijachoua. The agricultural returns Bhow an imprc.YOiaent. There are now 572,840 j occupiers of land in Groat Britain — 14271 427. 884 in England, 63,003 in Wales, and 82,453 in Sootland, making altogether -1,084 more than lasi year, Liverpool expenda a day in strong drink. Theret ape. on an average 200 .pigeons officially kept in every ! German fortress.

Tomatoes were only raised for ornament fifty years ago, and were called love apples, aud not thought fit to eat. This year about 72,000,000 cans were put up. A Bill ia the Mississippi Stale Senate proposes to restrict suffrage at Jackson to those who can road and write, or to those who own £100 worth of taxable property. A leasehold property iv Worcestershire was sold a few days ago which is held for a term of 2,000 years from IGOO A.D., so that the loase still line 1,710 years to run. ; The Portuguese Geographic Society proposes, with the aid of the Governmeut, to organise a national company to explore tho alleged immense riches of Mozambique. The promoters of the Watkin Tower, which is intended to surpats inLoudon the wonderfulEiffel Tower, have found two sites exactly suitable for their purposes in West London. Tho Forth Bridge was successfully tested with two trains, each consisting of throe engines and 50 waggous laden with coal, and weighing together nearly 2000 tons. Of the 233,959 population of San Francisco by tho last census, 129,7 1u wore native and 104,244 turc-iga born. When Greek civilisation shorn* tit its brightest, in the Republic of Athens were 40,000 citizens and 400,000 slaves. The Lord Mayor is the recipient of much curious oorres pond ence. Among the oddest letters which have reached Sir Henry Isaacs since his election is one from a gentleman who proposed, for a modest salary, to write all his Lordship's speeohes throughout his public appearances of the year. When the excited people of Dallas, Texas, heard that some farmeia hud been waylaid by highwaymen, thoy set bloodhounds on the track of the thieves. The first two caught were lynched. John Davis, master of the briganline Louis Montgomery, of Carnarvon, was fined ..£4O and costs" at Plymouth, a few days ago, for neglecting to exhibit lights on his vessel on a voyage from Monte Video to Plymouth. A band of Mexican horse thieves ambushed a camping party, consisting of three men, two women, and four children* in a canon near the Chihuahua, and shot and killed two of the men. When the cruel derd was over the murderers told tho remainder of the party that they mi ptook them for officers. For many years Mr. Tupper, who receivod half the profits, derived an income of from £50.0 to £800 a year from 'Proverbial Philosophy,' and from first to last his receipts ou accouut of the book were £10,000, as he tells us in his 'Autobiography.' A Dalziel despatch from Tokio, Japan, reports that a eunuch attempted to kill the King of Corea by trying to stab him with a dagger. One of the Queens arrested the asßassin's blow. A powerful conspiracy was revealed. The eunuch was tortured to death. One hundred and nine thousand orphans have been supported and educated at George Mulior's famous orphanage at Bristol, England. Five large houses, capable of affording homes for 2050 orphans, have been built, and sixty.six schools are now maintained. Ammonia is better for washing windows than soap. Sir Noel Paton, the Queen's limner for Scotland, is 69. The Society for the Protection of Children has an income of £4,000 a year, while that fox the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has an income of £20,00.0, a year. Tho celebrated racing yacht Mayflower has been sold by her original owner, Mr. E. D. Morgan, of New York, to Mr. W. A. Gardner, of Boston. ' There have been some sixteen outbreaks of influenza in Russia since 1830. A Standard Berlin telegram says : — The Emperor has ordered tho erection of colossal bronze busts of Scharnhorst, Stein, Roon, and Bismarok on columns at the two entrances of the Hall of Fame in the arsenal. _ Of 37,273 dogs registered in Berlin, only 34,383 pay the dog- tax. The exemptions are 1,692 always on the chain, 1,056 used for draught purposes, 51 guides of blind men, 21 sheep-dogs, y the property of public watchmen, and 61 attached to members of foreign embassies. Consul Lewis, who has beon removed from Tangier by Secretary Blame, says the charges against him are the result of tattle by tho wife of an English Ambassador, and his recall the work of an English editor in Tangier. The Financial Reformer contains the following : — "On page 193 of our December issue a passage reads : ' I would ask Lord Salisbury, Mr. W. H. Smith, and Balfour,. the Irish Secretary, who aro always tollinglies, that by o,ur agitators, etc' This should, read are always telling us." The return for 1889 show a certain decline in the maritime progress of the port of. Antwerp. The abolition of certain harbour duea is now urgoniiy demanded. The average, eosfc of a fullyequipped lifeboat, with transporting carriage, Jife-belts, etc., is £700.