NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 125, 28 May 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

Tho St. Petersburg newspapers announce that the Russian Geographical Society has resolved to fit out an expedition to explore the Tian Shan Glacier. At the same time scientific expeditions will bo sent to the Caucasus, to the Trans- Caspian territory, and to Baluchistan. ( On tho occasion of Mr. Gladstone's illness tho nowspapora in Athena strongly urged tho authorities to erect and unveil his statue which was made many years ago, the cost being defrayed by national subscription. A number of soldiers who had been on active service in connection with the frontier war in India, and who had been invalided homo, were, it appears, suffering from dog bites, and six of the number, with the assent of tho War Office, travelled to Paris for admission to tho Pasteur Institute. The Sultan has issued an irade ordering tho admission of twenty-five young Armenians every year to the superior State schools in Constantinople. A court-martial held at Versailles a short while ago sentenced a young soldier named Jamin to death for striking a superior officer while under the influence of drink. The Sultan of Turkey issued an irade for the removal of Mgr. Senesius, the Bishop of Ueskub, but the Exarcb refused to comply. The Bishop was accused of being privy to the recent disturbances there. ■ The whole of the workmen employed at the Moss Bay Steel Works, Workmgton (Eng.), recently turned out on strike in consequence of the refusal of a man named Johnston to join their trade union. Johnston was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, and said that his religious convictions prevented his joining the trade society. The Empress Eugenie's condition is causing much anxiety, as instead of improving she has fallen back, and suffers intensely from rheumatic pains. She was not able to vißit the Queen at Cimiez, or .to receive her at the Villa Cyrnos. Princess Beatrice visited her, and Sir James Reid, the Queen's Scotch doctor, was twice in consultation with her own doctor. An enterprising amusement manager in New York came forward with a great scheme which he hoped to put into effect in case of war with Spain. He thought that the first grand naval engagement would take place just off Sandy Hook, and intended to send a fleet of excursion boats down the harbour to see tha performance at sdola a head. Piper Findlater, of Dargai fame, has had another offer of marriage, this time from a lady who is well known in Indian society, and who not only offerH the piper a home, but says she will willingly plape at his disposal her income of £5000 a year. A labourer of Irish nationality was fined recently for jumping upon a train in motion between Barnes aud St. Marys-grove, near London. He stated that he had only once before been on a train, and as it did not atop at Mortlake, where he and a mate had intended to alight, they jumped out. The mute was in hospital from hia wounds, and unable to appear. In a hall attached to the German Catholic Church in London, at which Prince Max of Saxony was at one time an assistant priest, a Bort of Oberaramergau Passion Play was presented during Holy Week. A Bacred oratorio was rendered, with tableaux repreßenting Beven scenes from the Saored Passion. The first scene depicted was that of the ' Agony in the Garden,' showing the Apostlea asleep, with the Saviour accepting the offered chalice in the background, after the conception of Tissot. Tho other tableaux were the ' Betrayal and Arrest of Our Lord,' 'Christ before the High Priest,' ' Pilate handing over Christ Crowned with Thornß to the Soldiery,' 'The Carrying of the Cross,' ' The Crucifixion ' — the oratorio here being founded upon the Gospel story of the Seven Laat Words — and the ' Entombment.' Every care had been taken to render the costumes, scenery, and portraiture of each group as nearly correct as possible, and the effect upon the audience was entirely impressive. The late Mr. Thorneycroft'a Boadicea statuary group is, by decision of the London County Council to be placed at the west end of Viotoria Embankment by Westminster Bridge. Before tho Liqnor Commission in the Old Country Mr. Mosell, Inspector of Constabulary at Befast, gave evidence on March 29 that habitual drunkenness was increasing', especially among women, and advised that publichouses should only be open from 2 to 5 instead of 2 to 7 on Sundays. The arms taken from the steamer Baluchistan and stored in tho Custom House at Muscat under the Sultan's promise that they should not be removed without tho British political agent's sanotion are, it ia believed, being smuggled piecemeal to the Indian frontier tribesmen. The Sultan haa been urging the appointment of an Ottoman subject aB Christian Governor of Crete with an autonomous Constitution like that of the Lebanon aud , Samoa. The deaths of three children at Battersea have been ascribed by a coroner's jury to eryaipolas caused by improper vaccination. The Austrian Court of Appeal quashed the sentence of 14 days' arrest passed by the district Court upon a police official for an alleged assault upori the Socialist member of the Reiohsrath, Herr Cinger, on the occasion of the stormy aitting and expulsion of the Socialiata on November 26 last. At tho annual graduation ceremony at St. Andrew's University, among the other recipionta of the degree of LL.D. was Mr. J. M. Barrie. In presenting him to be ' capped ' Professor MeTklejohn aaid he had made Thrums a familiar place to the dwellers in London and New York. A conscientious and skilful artist in words, he had shown to the world that power which was latent in the homely speech of his native Angus, aud the heroism that could consist in lowly lives of toil, monotony, and suffering. A March advioe from Stockholm stated that Herr J. Studling, who accompanied Herr AndreVa expedition to Spitzbergen in 1896, had been appointed by the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Socioty to undertake a search through Siberia in order to make enquiries as to the 1 fate of Herr Andree's balloon expedition. For this purpose Herr Stadling had received the Vega stipendium from the society. He would start with a companion from Stookholm early in April, and the journey would last probably until January next. Tho efficaoy of the use of oil bags in calming the waves in the immediate vicinity of a ship at sea has been abundantly proved. In many cases of exceptionally stormy weather, however, the area affected by the oil as ordinarily used has been found insufficient to give the ship tho protection from the force of the waves that was desirable. It ia now pi'oposed to discbarge the oil at such a distance that a wide circle of smooth surface will be created in which the Bhip can rido in safoty until the storm has spent its fury. Professor Lombroao, the noted criminologißt, writes : — ' One of the surest and moßt confident conclusions I havo drawn from a study of crime ia that, in those countries which are supposed to be the moat cultivated and civilised, crimes, if they do not decrease in numbers, are certainly deoreasing in ferocity ; whilst, on the other hand, crimes destitute of the elements of violence, auoh as swindling, fraudulent bankruptcy, and kindred offences, ate constantly increasing. In other words, the assassin aud the murderer become transformed into the thief, and tho transformation involves a maximum risk to property and a minimum risk to human life.' The following statistics of homioide show the 'relative proportions of homicides in the countries named . per 100,000 inhabitants: Italy, 96; Spain, 68; Portugal, 25 ; Hungary, 75 ; Austria, 25 ; Sweden and Norway, 13 ; France and Belgium, 18; Germany, 6] England .6.