NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 120, 17 November 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Waziris. have again been giving trouble on the Indian frontier, having, raided mails and attacked a, Government, servant. A policeman near Spalding (England) discovered a gentleman cycling in his "■sleep in the small hours of the morning. Tho somnambulist Avas» Avearing a. coat over his night clothes. Direct telephonic communication will, • *Ht is said, be established betAveen London and Brussels at the beginning of next year. Ten francs will be charged for a "three minutes' conversation. An advance of 2£ per cent, in Scottish ironAvorkers' Avages is intimated, as the result of an examination of the emploj'ers' books for July and August under the conciliation and arbitration scheme. Fouj Avomen in the famine district of India are charged with cannibalism. Driven almost mad Avith hunger, they are said to have exhumed the dead body of a man, Avhich tkoy roasted and ate. Professor Montagu Burrows has re- ' signed the Chichele Chair of Modern History at Oxford, which he had held since 1862. Professor Burrows served in the Navy for twenty-one years before he ''commenced his University career in 1853, and he holds the rank of captain. The United States census slioavs large groAVth in the urban population. In 1890 there Avere but 28 cities of 100,000 and more. In 1900 there aa-e about 40 such. Twenty-nine of th«se contain one-sixth, of the population, of the country, about 13,000,000, and three of them, NeAv York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, cointain about as many as 1 all the other 26: • News comes from New York that Mr. Wm. K. Vanderbilt has given £500,000 to his daughter, the Duchess of Marlborough, the gife being a thank-offering for the Duke's safe return from the Avar. The Duke and Duchess (recently telegraphed the Daijy' NeAvs Paris correspondent) are noAV in Paris investing the money in. antique furniture and decoralions for the house which is being built; for them in Mayfair. The Grayer from Ottawa that the Duke and Duchess of York should return from their proposed visit to the Australasian colonies via Canada recaps to a\ London contemporary the fact that wtyen the Prince of Wales visited that country in 1860, as the representatiA^e of Her Majesty, he then, in answer to the desire of our American cousins, made a private tour of the "United States, through whioh he travelled as "Baron Renfrew." Work has been commenced on Avhat it is stated will be the largest cantilever bridge in the world. It is being constructed by the Phcenix Bridge Company for the Canadian ' Government, and Avill span the St. Lawrence River at Quebec. The main span will be 1800 ft in length and the two end spans 600 ft each, the width of the bridge being 70ft. There are- to be four lines of railway, a carriage way, and two footways, which will be carried across at an elevation of 170 ft above Avater level. , By the death of Mr. Robert Rae (says the Westminster Gazette) a veteran Temperance leader and one of the most kindly and genial of men has passed aAvay. For nearly sixty years he had been an active and earnest Avorker in the cause of Temperance Reform, and by pen and speech did it yeoman's service. He ,met many men of light and leading in the course of his long and active career, and no one kneAV him but respected and loved him. The story of his life is "one long record of earnestness and devotion." It was Cardinal Manning Avho once said : "One such tnan as. Father Mathesv or Robert Rae is worth all the Wellingtons and Napoleons that ever lived." The Army clothing authorities in the Old Country have decided that no change shall be made in the present full-dress uniforms. Each regiment and branch of the service is to retain its distinctive colours, badges, and facings for garrison duty and parades. But for fatigue and field duties every officer, and man is to be provided with a khaki uniform of the pattern that has been Avorn during the Avar. Tunics of the loose-fitting Norfolk shape, breeches and i J utties all of the same design and material, are to be issued to the cavalry, line, and artillery. The garments Avill all be made of woollen khaki serge. It has not, however, been determined as yet what headgear is to be worn with the fatigue uniform. The>Shah, to judge from the following story told by the Daily News, is not alAvays an amiable visitor: — "Last week the Shah slept until long past the time when he was to have received the visits of the Archdukes in. Vienna. They came to his door in vain, and in the afternoon he declined to return visits he had not received. Herimau Khan tried to excuse his discourtesy as Avell as he could by making a round • of explanatory calls. On Saturday he was still in an intractable humour. He began by declaring that he Avould not hunt with the Emperor in the Lainz Park. This Avas to have been the most brilliant entertainment of all, as he could have shot a number of wild sheep without even leaving his carriage." Duels (somewhat senteatiously remarks an English journal) are generally silly and almost always illogical. But one Avhich has been fought* at Budapest seems by chance to have Avorkcd out in strict .accordance with the merits of the case. A young man sent an insulting note to a lady Avho Avas waiting outside a cafe for her husband. The husband very naturally assa\ilted the offender, Avho thereupon challenged him. A court of honour, which happened also to be a court of common sonse, decided that the husband had a right to decline the challenge, but another court, minus the common sense, decided that the husband must fight. When the combatants met the insulter Avas shot dead, and no sympathy can be Avasted over him. Lobengula, the late King of the Matabele, it appears* has had less than justice meted out to him. When he died in his kraal it Avas said that he was deserted and forsaken ; that he Ava3 without will, purpose, or method ; sensual, treacherous, vacillating, and, above all, a • coAvard. Mr. Colenbrander, who appears to have known Lobengula well, in a letter to the BulaAvayo Chronicle, gives a different account of the dead king. He says the deceased monarch lacked neither tact nor ability, and governed an aAvful mixture of tribes admirably, adding, "He died surrounded and loved by his people to the last, as Avill one day become apparent from the message he left to them, which, hoAvever, remains sacred until such time as Mr. Rhodes chooses to tell them Avhat that message Avas." The Rostov police have just succeeded in arresting a woman Avho has been Avanted for the past tAvo years for having driven a lucrative trade in artificial mutilations. After her husband's death (snya the Moscow correspondent of the Standard) the Avidow continued the business, and by some Avant of caution aroused the attention of the police, but she has long managed to evade them, Avhile continuing to perform her operations. By injecting under the skin at the joints some preparation of petroleum she produced a A'try natural-looking contraction of the joint? operated on. Her clients were those among the common people Avho desired, at as small an expense as possible, to escape being taken for soldiers, and among less deserving and richer people a certain number of clever swindlers, Avho defrauded accident insurance companies by affecting the same kind of disfigurements.