HERE AND THERE.

Evening Star, Issue 11168, 17 February 1900, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

The American is nothing if not original. He is, besides, an expert in dollars. An occasion occurred recently for the use of the “ little tambourine.” Uncle Sam, who likes to know how the wind is blowing, so to speak—how the public pulao is boating—invented a gauge of that same—a sort of money measurer. It was gob up like a barometer, Sft high, and was marked with 120 divisions. For each 100 iol contributed the mercury rose Ideg. The miserable wretch who gave less caw no movement of the indicator. But it was a voluntary subscription !

Vercholausk, in Siberia, is considered to be the coldest place in the world. It is a small collection of native Inghouses, planted near to, but nut on, the Yana River. The street, it so it may be called, extends on either side of a narrow sheet of water, a kind of creek formed by the autumn overflow of the Yana, and which in winter forms a frozen promenade or driving place for sleds. It is a dreary place enough. The summer lasts only four mouths, and during

the other eight of the year it is bitterly cold. The thermometer sometimes indicates 85deg below zrro, and seldom goes above 50dcg until April 30. Corn will not grow in this deiolate region. Barley and oats have been sown, but have always succumbed to the early frosts. Of vegetables, there are only tho radish and the turnip, with perhaps an occasional and very precarious crop of potatoes. Cabbages all run to leaf. The ground rarely thaws, even during tho hot season, beyond 12in or ISin deep, and in places most exposed to tho huts never beyond a yord.

A sum of close on £400,000 was left by the late Mr Peter G. J. Ennea, a Manchester merchant. Of that amount he bequeathed large sums to relatives and considerable sums to charities, leaving £IOO,OOO to be applied for the benefit of his relatives who might be “ in need of pecuniary assistance.” This latter sum may also be used for the benefit of his former servants or clerks, or generally in support of objects worthy of encouragement, ouch as public baths, hospitals, washhouses, libraries, or model cottages. There is therefore a pretty wide field of activity open to the trustees.

A good story is told by the London ‘ Daily Chronicle’ at the expense of the gallant defender of Matching. When ha was Assistant Military Secretary at Malta he was in great request hs leader in all entertainments, and was an indispensable M.O. at

such' functions. At a concert for some charity a young lady had contributed a skirt dance, which called forth much applause and many encores. “Ask your girl to do it over again, will you, Powell?” said tie principal military chief present. The major (as he then was) stepped up to the danseose and put the request as fascinatingly as he knew how, but it was in vain, “ I really couldn’t,” she lisped in a rather affected, manner; “ you see I’m almost breathless now, and—and—indeed, I should be quite blown if I did it again.” “ What does she say ?” asked the commandant, cn bis ambassador’s return. “She says, colonel,” replied Baden-Powel), rather piqued, and quite loud enough for every one round about to hear, “ the young lady says she’ll be bio wed if sho does it again !” And the fair amateur had the bad grace to be absurdly angry with the gallant officer.

Prince Von Arenberg, lieutenant a la suite of the German Colonial Forces in South-west Africa, has (says the Berlin correspondent of the ‘ Standard ’) been tried by court-martial for causing the death of a Native named Willy Cain. The sentence in still under the Emperor’s consideration. The facts of the case, according to the ‘ Volkszoitung,’ are as follow Willy Cain seems to have held a confidential position under 'he Prince. One day, however, as Cain was leaving the Prince after a conversation with him, the latter, who is in charge of a district station, called out to the sentry to shoot Cain. The soldier fired into the air, upon which Cain quietly walked away. “Did

you not hear,” the Prince asked, “that you were to shoot the fellow ? ” The sentinel fired again, wounding Oaiu in the leg. Upon that Prince Arenberg came up, drew hia revolver, and shot Cain twice. The ‘ Vossische ’ remarks that if the above account really corresponds with the facts the crime was an outrage meriting the heaviest penalty.

A vigorous attempt has recently been made to exterminate the Sicilian brigands. The notorious Elias band were so powerful that even great landed proprietors', farmers, and a mayor aided the brigands in their sinister designs in order to secure immunity for themselves. At last they were hunted to earth in the solitudes of Mont Dorgolai, in the province of Nuoro, and one after another they were shot down by the Italian troops. When Captain Petella entered the hut which served as a night shelter for the bandits he found, besides other curious objects, a prayer book belonging to the chief, open by singular chance (or hod the terrible Elias been reading it?) at the chapter entitled “De preparatione ad bonum mortem.”

One feature of the Dreyfns case has not been fully touched upon—the exceedingly large sum of money which the Dreyfus family has been forced to spend. The trial of 1894 costa very fair sum, limited chiefly, however, to lawyers’ fees. The large outlay was caused by the efforts of the family to discover the real culprit after the departure of the unfortunate prisoner from Devil’s Island. M. Mathieu Dreyfns employed two sets of detectives. The French detectives were watched by a set of English detectives, and the familyj of course, footed the bills in both instances. This work went on for two or three years, until the discovery of the famous petit bleu designating Esierhazy as the culprit. ' Then came the expenses lead-

ing to the revision of the case, the lawyers and the memoirs and other documents which had to be published. But the deserved compensation given M. Mornard, M. Demauge, and M. Labor! was nob the only outlay which the Dreyfus family had to support at Rennes. As they lost their suit, they hhd to pay all the witnesses a round sum of nearly £2,000. Thus Dreyfus was placed in the carious position of paying the car fare and the board bills of his deadliest enemies. It is estimated that up to the present more than £40,000 has been employed in this great fight.

A wonderful piece of mechanism, consisting of a watch dial of unique construction, has been finished and put on exhibition by one of the deft-fingered artists belonging to one of the large watch factories at Waltham, Massachusetts (U.S.). It contains, instead of the usual numerals, twelve small but distinct silhouette fingers, beginning with a woman with a very small child in her arms. At one o’clock the little mother and her miniature baby are clearly depicted, the infant being in “long clothes.” At two o’clock tho same figure appears, but the child has perceptibly grown. At three o’clock the little* mother is still the same, but the baby is in “ short clothes.” At four o’clock the child again appears, and so on up to eight o’clock, when he goes to school for tho first time. At nine o’clock ho is seen in his college gown, standing beside the now elderly mother. At ten o’clock the

death bed is brought to view, the young man taking leave of bis loved parent. At Seven o clock he is aged with the snows of winters. At twelve o’clock he makes his final appearanoe, an old and decrepit specimen of humanity, praying for his end. During the next twelve hours the same scenes are again enacted. The little machine is a wonder all round.

In the ‘ London Gazette,’ 1667, there is this advertisement:

A Sore ger Falcon of His Majesty, lost the 18 of August, who had one Vurvel of hie Keener Roger Higs, of Westminster, Gent. Whosever hath taken her up nnd.give notice Sir Allan Apgley, Master of His Majesties Hawks at St. James’s, ffallbe rewarded for his paines. Back-Stairos in Whitehall.

In the number for June 28, I€6o, of the ‘ Mercurius Bublicua ’.this appears . A Smooth Black DOG, less than a Greyhound, with, white under his breast, belonging to the ivms s Majesty, was taken from Whitehall, the mghteeth day Of this instant June, or thereabouts. If anyone can give notice to John Ellis, one of his Majesties Servants, or to hia Majesties Backstairs, shall be well rewarded for their labour. The “Smooth Black Dog” apparently does not turn up, and the following announcement, in large italics, is to be met with ia the next publication of this journal We must call upon you again for a Black Dog, “ Greyhound and a Spaniel, no white °, ne r’. a - at T? al^ on his Breßt and Tayl a bb d ‘ / t , IS ? 1B Majesties own Dog, and Btoln ’ f°r the Dog was not bom nor bred m England, and would never forsake his u-'tho^ 68 him W acquaint any nl r L i f ,"? s better Known at Court, than these who stole him. Will they never Doel r Th •’ r> n H - 18 W.Y ? Most he not keep a 8 1 ptr ' r . e (tllou e h better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody offers to

Most people are interested in glancing roug an old book or an old magazine. Through these we can, in a measure, enter into the life our fathers lived and ece things as they saw thorn. Better than any novel ea ing with the past, a faded old newspaper serves io recall the realities of the days that are gone. The following are from an Engishpenodioal published in 1731, and called the Monthly Intelligence s : ? h f 0f Fp ' ,r , ua jy. M3I. two publishers for publishing a libel enFaulyo?the Stuarts’ ataStr ° Phe ° f the On the next day the new church at BJoomsburv was consecrated by the name of iL (SSJS S was also the burying ground in the Fields aljoin-

p™v i l i r T h / S f CharlfOTtll and Cox. two solicitors Rnvaf ]evchLl°e Kto ?, d in P'»ory at the novai Exchange, and on the same day five malefactors were executed at Tyburn th r. death of “Mr Daniel de Foe, or., eminent for his many writings,” is recorded 5 and among the appointments on tho 29th of the same month is that of William Cowpcr Esq to be Clerk to the Commission of Bankruptcy: ’