ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 9705, 24 May 1895, Page 3

ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

Mrs Parnell, mother of the late Charles S. Parnell, was found in an unconscious state on the night of April IS at Ironside, a border town near New Jersey. On account of her advanced age she lies in a critical condition. Hhe is believed to have been the victim of a ihrutal attack. A Newark telegram says that Christopher Ritter, a German, who arrived in the United States, declares that Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, is alive, and last winter was acting on the South American stage.— [A highly improbable story.— Ed. E.S.] Lord Shalto Douglas, a son of the Marquis of Queensberry, was lodged in one of the San Francisco prisons on April 2d as a lunatic. His friends so charged him because they were afraid that he would marry an actress. A few days afterwards he was released, and made immediate use of his liberty by attempting to thrash a newspaper correspondent, but in that encounter he came off very much second best. Mr Labouchere, in ‘ Truth,’ says that he Sias always regarded Oscar Wilde as somewhat “wrong in the head.” “So strange and wondrous is his mind,” remaiks the observant editor of ‘Truth," “when in ah .abnormal condition, that it would not surprise me if he were deriving keen enjoyment from a position which most people, whether innocent or guilty, would prefer to die rather than occupy. He must have kuou n in what a glass house he lived when he challenged investigation in a court of justice. After he had done this, he went abroad. Why did he not stay abroad ? The possibilities of a prison muy not be pleasant to him, but I believe the notoriety that has overtaken him has such a charm for him that it outweighs everything else. I remember in the early days of the •cult of asceticism hearing Mr St. George «ak him how a man of his undoubted capability could make such a fool of himself. He gave’ this explanation: He had written, he said, a book of poems; in vain he went tfrom publisher to publisher asking them to bring them out, for not one would even read them, for he was unknown. In order to find a publisher he felt that he must do something to become a personality ; so he hit upon asceticism, which caused people to talk about him and to invite him to other houses as a sort of 3ion. He then took his poeftis to a publisher, who, still without reading them, gladly accepted the M.S.” Easter week, says a London despatch of April 20, has been mainly remarkable for a considerable display of amateur soldiery, and out of it has arisen a small tempest which may result in permanent good to the auxiliary forces, who are divided into two parties—those who are desirous of doing serious soldiering and those who prefer making their holiday a picnic. This year the bulk of the volunteer regiments of the London district were taken to Windsor, and were quartered with battalions from the Aldershot Camp. Some paltry maneuvers were carried out, and on Easter Monday there was a big review in the presence of the Duke of Connaught, the general in command of Aldershot, Prince Christian of SJchelawig-Holstein, Lord Bethune, commander of the Thames district, and other War Office officials. ‘The Times,’ in a leading article, took the Duke of Connaught and other military officers sharply to task for •ordering such a burlesque of real soldiering, saying that the four days were misspent in rehearsing for a Royal review. The cornmeats of ‘The Times’ led to much correspondence on the subject, the writers in a number of instances thanking the paper for its outspoken criticicm of the military officials responsible for the review, -and saying that the criticisms are in the real interest of volunteering.