NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 11, 13 January 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

In the course of an ejectment case in the Southwark Police Court (London) it was stated that there were three families living in one small room, the recognised tenants having taken the others in as lodgers. AL a sale in London an Anno pattern farthing fetched five guineas. Two brass candlesticks, used by Burns, realised 111 guineas. A Cranmer Bible (1541)' sold tor £40, and £100 was paid for a Dickens MS. of 30 pages. In some parts ot Germany, as also in portions of the United States, laws have been enacted prohibiting persons under the age of 18 ironi smoking, and rendering it a punishable offence for anyone to give or sell tobacco to children. The Senior Vvranglership is to be abolished, if the proposal of the Special Board of Mathematics at Cambridge is adopted. In all the other Tripos lists except the Mathematical and, the Law, the order of merit has already been abandoned for the alphabetical. The Illinois Steel Works, one of the largest concerns in the United States, has given notice of a heavy increase of wages this month, when the new contracts come into effect. The minimum wages will be £30, while the maximum will exceed £60 per month. These will be the highest wages ever paid for this class of labour. Mr. Justice Grantham, charging the Grand Jury at Durham recently, said with one exception he was now confronted with the most terrible list of crime ha even had to dispose of there. The thoroughly black calendar was manifestly due to drink. He urged that pub-lic-houses should be dealt with more strictly, and inn-keepers made to feel the results of this crime. Writing from Berlin, a military correspondent states that arrangements are being made at the Krupp Works, at Essen, for the manufacture of a number of specially heavy siege guns for the Uerman, Government. The firm of Krupp, it is said, has promised the authorities that special care shall be taken in the casting of the guas, and that no particulars whatever concerning them shall be allowed to transpire. Doctor Pestana, a well-known scientist, died from the plague in Lisbon. During his illness he was inoculated with the plague serum without effect. Shortly before his death, he said: "The plague is a disease which is not understood by the doctors of to-day. They know no more about it now than in olden times." Deceased had devoted months to the study of the plague, and met his death in the execution of his duty. Mrs. Evlyn Adams, the novelist and dramatist and a former society star, died recently of starvation in h»r apartments at Windermere Hotel, New York. She was a beautiful and cultured lady of 30. Despite the fact that her first book on the "Marriage Lottery," attracted considerable attention, her subsequent works failed to find a publisher. Dressmaking as an alternative also proved unremunerative, and death from hunger was the result. The cotton mill, with 7000 spindles and 140 looms, of the Coleman Manufacturing Company of Concord is largely owned and oflicered by negroes. W. O. Coleman, probably the most wealthy negro in the South, is the prime mover in the enterprise. He is very greatly interested in' the future of his race, and fully believes that a cotton mill can be run by negro officers and operated by negro labour. H. E. Smith, a white man, formerly of Lqwell, Mass., is to superintend the mill. The Berlin correspondent of tho London Daily News says: — "In contradiction of assertions to the effect that there have been no political negotiations in London during the Emperor's visit to England, I learn that a further enlargement of the scope of the Anglo-German Africa agreement haa been disoussed, chielly relating to tha western part of South Africa. It appears that Germany will get Tiger Bay allotted to her, when, sooner or later, Portugal deems it advisable to sell her African possessions." A new Rowton House at Liverpool, known as the People's Home, has just been opened. This gigantic lodging house, the foundation stone of which was laid about fourteen months ago, will accommodate 454 men and 132 women. The experiment of providing homes for women on the Rowton House plan will be watched with interest, because although Lord Rowton has been several times asked to build a Rowton House for women in the Metropolis, he has declined on the ground that certain difficulties present themselves. The United States Government is strengthening the fleet at the Philippine Islands. The most important selection is the armoured cruiser Brooklyn, of 9215 tons displacement, but the greater number of the vessels ordered out are small cruisers and gunboats, which are to be used to completely and effectively patrol the PLilippinea, to render the receipt of supplies by the Filipinos from outside impossible. The vessels are sent out that the United States may have a strong fleet in Eastern waters, and also to afford assistance in the carrying out of a vigorous campaign in the Philippines. The Daily Telegraph says:— Target practice is not nearly extensive enough in th« English army, and many an hour that is frittered away in old-fashioned useless drill, in "toe - pointing," and marching-past, might well be spent on the ranges. Remove the difficulty of obtaining ammunition, remove the tedious and vexatious routine of register keeping and register checking, except for tho annual official course, and make ifc possible for a man to shoot when he wishes to do so for his amusement, and the Britis- soldier will soon be as good a shot as any soldier, regular or irregular, in the world. The captain of the barque Silicon, which has arrived in New York from tho Arctic regions, reports finding a desorted Russian ship of old-faSlnoued pattern. He and some members of tho crew at the Silicon boarded the ship, and found the hatches battened down and tho doors fastened. Tkey forced an entry and discovered that tho vessel bad a cargo of furs in fine condition, while tho log aud letters on board Btatod that the vessel had beon abandoned iv 1818. The supposition in that tho vessel had reached the high latitudes, and having been frozon in by tho icebergs over since had only just thawed out. riw captain possesses many interesting relics brought from the vessel. George Barker Jamos Cooper-Cooper, who wus in 1892 sontenced to ten years' imprisonment for killing his wite at Douglas, Isle of Man — a crime which produced a sensational trial — has just beon released. He find* awaiting him a fortune which a London correspondent states is estimated at £1,000,000. Coopor, whose father was one of the richest men in the County Palatine, in September, 1891, married at Chester a Miss Edith Cooper, the daughter of another wealthy man. Twelve months later the wife was found dead, stabbed to the heart, in the rooms the couple occupied at a Douglas hotel. The husband) when arrested, affirmed that ho was cutting his nails with a penknife when his wife fainted suddenly, falling on the blade and causing her death. After seven days' trial the prisoner was found guilty of manHlaugnter. Both Cooper's father and father-in-law were, however, convinced of his innocence, and died leaving him their respective fortunes, which are said to make nim a millionaire. The released man intends settling in the colonies.