ITEMS BY THE MAILS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 430, 15 October 1868, Page 2

ITEMS BY THE MAILS.

Admiral Walcott, M.P., is dead. A boy, five years old, was recently killed and devoured by a lynx in lowa. The number of cattle driven out of Texas this season is estimated at half-a-million. The Archbishop of Canterbury has left for the Continent, on account of his health, and will be absent six or eight weeks. Richard Wagner is repoited to have quitted Munich in disgust at the failure of his last opera, the " Meister-Signer von Nurenberg," and to. be seriously ill at Zurich. It ia computed that not less than 168 generaL in Mexico have an eye io tha Presidency of that delightful country, and are only awaiting favorable opportunities to issue pronunciamentos. A rev. gentleman of Montreal has been fined 100 dollars and damages for manying a youth of sixteen years to a widow of forty-nire, without due inquiry. The marriage has been annulled. '•'■ '""' The overseers of Booking," Essex, aid of Frinstead, near Sittingboume, Kent, have decided to place woman on the register of electors. A Minnesota editor says that a man came into his office to advertise for a lost dog, and that such was the wonderful power of advertising, the dog walked into the office while he was writing out the advertisement. The North Pacific, which arrived at San Francisco on the 26th July, brought nearly 1000 Chinese as steerage passengers. 25,000 Chinese are working pn the Pacific Railroad. The entire restoration of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, commenced twenty years ago, is at this moment being terminated by fixing a railing all round the building to protect it throughout its extent. This is the last operation of the whole works undertaken to give this magnificent building the phystognomy which it possessed when first erected in 1447. Several medical students, walking in the ground of St. Thomas' Hospital, London, in August, noticed some winged insects flying about of a different description to any previously observed in these gardens. One or two of the party felt some smart stings or bites, which a gentleman who had been in the West Indies, thought proceeded from mosquitoes. In this he was confirmed, by allowing one to settle upon his arm and capturing it, but he was unable to preserve it alive. Some of his

companions caught several others in a' similar way, and it was eventually ascertained that large swarms of mosquitoes exist in the gardens, which, from being small in size, are supposed to have been but recently generated. A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette describes a discreditable affair which occurred last week at the Paignton races, South Devon. There were four horses in a steeplechase for the Builders' Plate, and ail of them refused to take a deep dyke K eight feet wide, and full of mud and rotten banks. Two of them, .after a great deal of persuasion, made a jump, and both fell with their riders into the ditch. The latter were buried in mud, and were with difficulty extracted from their unpleasant position. The horses had to be got out with ropes. Brimmacombe, one of the jockeys, appeared to be seriously injured, but he was re-mounted, and made to finish the race. He was declared the winner, but on his arrival at the paddock he fell down in a state of insensibility. Brandy was administered, and in half-an-hour he partially recovered from the faintness, but he was complaining deeply of a pain in the neck, and was evidently suffering great agony. Notwithstanding his cries, he was put on the scales and weighed, and for half-an-hour the man was jostled about more dead than alive. He was ultimately carried off to a cottage near the race-course, and he was left in a very dangerous state. The Oocos Island gold hunting expedition, which started from Panama on the 3rd June last, returned on the morning of the 23rd August, after an absence of about eighty days, during which time they were engaged kicking about the coastand getting out to sea a couple of hundred miles without ever finding the island they were in pursuit of, or really knowing where they were a great part of the time. They have returned tolerably sick of the sea and half starved ; still they are no doubt as sanguine as ever that the treasure is just where they expected it to be if they only had had the good luck to get at it. The Ist East Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers (Bridlington), numbering 112 men, have been disbanded by the War Office for insubordination. The disobedience thus punished occurred on Whit-Monday, when a brigade review was held at Scarborough, under command of Major Harcourt Johnstone. The brigade, composed of the Bridlington and other corps, assembled at the railway station. Previous to starting therefrom, and during the formation of the brigade, Major Johnstone, in disposing of the troop, ordered the Benior captain to march his battery to the front. This Captain Commandant Hargrove (3rd W.Y. York) did. When "attention" to receive the order for marching was given, the Bridlington (the first) battery, with the exception of the gun detachment in front, refused to proceed, and the refractory corps was left at the railway station, the review going on without them. Offence, it seems, had been taken because a junior corps (the York) had been place lin front — a position which, as the first and oldest corps, the Bridlington men thought they had a right to occupy. No inquiry has taken place, a simple representation of the case having resulted in an immediate disbandment and a surrender of the arms at once. A number of fatal cases of sunstroke have occurred in London and in the east «nd south t>f England. Six cases of sunstroke occurred in Essex within two or three days, principally among laborers in the harvest-field, arid several of them have proved fataL Two were at Witham — one of the men dying at the time and the other shortly afterwards. A man at Coggeshall died the other day; and of three case 3in the neighborhood of Saffron Walden, one proved fatal after the man, struck had lingered for some hours. There have also been several cases of death by sunstroke in the neighborhood of Hertford . during the last few days. Mr Sworder, the Hertford coroner, held inquests on three persons who had thus been killed. One of them was a marine store-dealer, named John Shaw, who was driving his cart along the Westmill road, just outside the town of Ware, when he was suddenly attacked, and being carried into a neighboring house, died immediately. About the same time a man harvesting in a field close to Gils.ton Park, and another who was cutting wheat in a field at Hadhain, were struck down, and died immediately. A young man playing in a cricket match at Essenden, and a laborer, working in a field close to Penshanger Park, also suffered sunstrokes, but hopes are entertained of their recovery. Charles Fisk, aged twenty years, died from the effects of a sunstroke. The deceased was a journeyman baker, and whilst he was pushing a baker's barrow up Fleet street he suddenly fell to the ground. He was picked up and carried to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he died in an hour after his admission. On the same afternoon a clergyman, while walking along the. pavement in Farrington street, fell dead from the effects of the heat. A reaper, employed on a farm near Bedford, was suddenly smitten with sunstroke the other day, and died in the field. In Staffordshire, the great heat of the weather has almost put a stop to some of the operations at the iron furnaces, and the other day a puddler at Wolverhampton became exhausted while at work, and quickly died. Upwards of 300 deaths from sunstroke occurred within the metropolitan districts of New York within three days. A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette writes thus from Baden-Baden : — In the interests of fashionable humanity, I beseech you to make known to your readers the fact that, at this most elegant of continental spas, nothing but short dresses are worn by all but quite old ladies. Even at the evening concerts the constume courte — marvellously elaborate and fanciful sometimes — reigns supreme ; and, to crown everything, at the last ball in the talons de la conversation the dresses scarcely touched the ground. Of course, there were a few of what Albert Smith used to call "Prancers," unmistakably British, and attired . in the trailing draggled, wispy garments, adorned with those stringy little ribbons and crushed flowers so dear to the English female, such as are invariably to be Been in all the public reunions abroad. These perennial belles adorned the walls the entire evening, and looked on with great scorn at the fresh and crisp toilettes of the dancers, -who, unencumbered with trains, moved easily and gracefully round the superb saloons. Who would, save under some dear and deep obligation, undertake the dangerous and laborious task of steering a woman who drags a couple of yards of " material* after her on the floor through an intricate dance in a crowded ballroom when he has the choice of a neat and trim

damsel whose dress cannot possibly trip him up or throw herself down 1 In London, I have this very season seen trains trailing through the filth and dust of the streets, and among the legs of unoffending male mankind at fetes, flower shows, and, above all, at balls. For pity's sake let trains be relegated to the courtly halls and palaces for which they were intended; and let Englishwomen— the most conservative of their sex^-in future use those trailing appendages only at royal receptions and state balls. At a late court, a man and his wife brought cross actions, each charging the I other with having committed assault and 1 battery. On investigation it appeared that the husband had pushed the door against the wife, and the wife, in turn, pushed the door against her husband. A gentleman of the bar remarked, "he could see no impropriety in a man and his wife adoring each other. " The Marquis of Abercorn, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is to be made a Duke. The creation of a new dukedom is a very rare event, and the distinction thus conferred by Mr Disraeli on the Lord Lieutenant correspondingly great. No dukedom has been created since that of Wellington, even the vast wealth and political influence of the Whig Marquis of Westminster having failed to gain him a ducal coronet, although his party held power almost uninterruptedly for many years. The- Marquis of Abercorn has filled the office of "Viceroy of Ireland since the accession to power of the Tories, and to judge from the brilliancy of the reward conferred upon him, his services in the repression of Fenianism must have been very great, while he has gained great popularity by the way he has discharged the social duties of his position as representative of her Majesty. He is the head of a junior branch of the great house of Hamilton, and will certainly do more credit to his name than the foolish and reckless young spendthrift who now holds the titles of Duke of Hamilton, Brandon, and Chatelherault in the peerages of Scotland, England and France respectively, besides a dozen inferior degrees of nobility. It seems a little curious that plain Benjamin Dis>aeli, ex-clerk in an attorney's office, should now be able to transmute " the most honorable the Marquis into the "most noble the Duke." The following- challenge has been transmitted by the well-known oarsmen, the Ward Brothers, to the Editor of Bell's Life, London : — The Ward Brothers, desirous of testing the relative merits of the oarmenship of Great Britain and the United States, will make a match with any four men for LSOOO a-side. Distance, five or six miles straightaway. The race to be rowed in either country, on waters to be mutually agreed upon. We will give 1000 dollars to any crew willing to visit the United States, for expenses, or will take that amount and row in England. Communications by steamer or telegraph, addressed to care Editor New York Herald, will receive immediate attention. The managers of the Atlantic Cable have very wisely resolved upon a still further reduction in their tariff of prices. On and after the Ist of September the cost for transmission of a message of ten words (exclusive of the address, date and signature, which are free) will be Lls. This is the third reduction which has been made since the opening of the Cable, and we have no doubt it will result in a very large and profitable increase of its business. The last reduction brought a heavy addition to the busin,es3 of the line, but it is stUl capable of doing a great deal more than it has lately had to do. The new and reduced tariff will bring the Cable within easy reach of the commercial community and the public at large, and it will thus become of far greater service to the two continents than it has ever yet been. — Panama Star. This winter has been the most rigorous that has been experienced for many years past in Chile. The rain-fall has been very heavy, and in consequence the rivers have been much swollen. The line of the Southern railway has suffered considerable damage near San Fernando, and news continues to arrive from different parts of loss of life and damage to property. At San Jose de Miapu, a mineral district situated at the base of the Andes, to the east of Santiago, forty-four persons are reported to have perished by avalanches, one alone of these having destroyed thirty-eight individuals. Notices of loss of life by drowning also continue to arrive. The cold has been, and continues unusually severe. Snow has fallen in Santiago, but as it was raining at the time, it melted as fast as it reached the ground ; between Montenegro and Colina, on the Northern line, however, the case was otherwise, it having accumulated there to a depth differently stated at from one to two feet. The intermediate range is covered with snow. So far the^ weather can scarcely be considered as prejudical to agricultural operations, though our farmers are already half inclined to abuse San Isidro. — Panama Star. Regular trains are running on the Pacific Railroad to Wadsworth, thirtythree miles beyond Reno and one hundred and sixty-four miles from Sacramento. Day and night gangs are working on the road beyond, which is progressing at the rate of three miles per day. In addition to the large amount of iron now on the way round the Horn, the Company have ordered ten thousand • tons via the Isthmus, and this, with the iron which was intended for the Western Pacific road, will enable the track layers to keep up with the graders. The journey between the Atlantic and Pacific can now be made in a little over twelve days ; before the season is over the time will be reduced to eight or nine. Work on the Western Pacific is suspended, and we will probably be able to go from Sacramento to New York by rail before we can go from San i Francisco to Sacramento. The first section of the Southern Pacific from San Jose to Gilroy is being pushed ahead ; the California Central is finished to within two miles of Marysyille. The Sacramento and Vallejo will, it is said, be completed within the,, |iime promised and the Company are making preparations to do a large grain business this season. — San Francisco Times. A young man is now stopping at the Key City house, by the name of George W. Porter, whose parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives were all murdered at Redwood, Minnesota, in the great Indian massacre of 1861. He is the sole survivor, and was the only one left to communicate the mournful intelligence to the nearest settlement. Bereft in one brief hour of all that he held dear on earth, and with

the victims, of savage ferocity extended in death before him, he took a solemn vow of vengeance. How well he has performed that vow the reader may judge when we state that in six years young Porter has alone, and with the assistance of his trusty rifle, sent to the happy hunting-grounds the souls of 108 Indian brave 9 ! He carries with him a piece of cane-brake, about twelve inches in length, and whenever ho killed an Indian he made a notch on this. 108 notches are now to be counted on the piece of cane alluded to, the last one being on Christmas, 1806. Surely young Porter has been an avenging Nemesis on the footsteps of those who have slaughtered his kindred. The Indians killed embrace representatives from every tribe on the plains. By night and by day he followed them ; through the trackless forests, over the desert wastes, by the mountain sides and in the lonely glen, has he pursued his victims, until the crack of his rifle and the death yell proclaimed that another redskin had been sent to his final account, and sated with blood the vengeance of his pursuer. Porter has not passed through all these perilous scenes unscathed. His body has been riddled by eleven bullets, and slashed in thirty-three places by the knife. But he has withstood all, come out victorious, aud now exhibits with pride the trophies of his power. — San .Francisco Bulletin. By the arrival of the barque Catharine from the Cape of Good Hope, we (Argus) have tiles of Cape papers to August 14. The items of news they contain are few and unimportant. The Government were about to despatch a prospecting expedition to the gold fields. The latest news from the diggings was that very excellent and promising spocimens had been sent down from the Rev. Mr M'Kenzie to the Governor, and that within a few weeks the Rev. gentleman, who is stationed as missionary with the Bamangwato, expected definite and decisive news from Captain Black, the leader of the digging party. Machen, the chief of the territory in question, had offered to hand it over to the Government of the Cape on reasonable compensation. Another diamond had been found at Hope Town, near the site of the first one. It weighed 13 carats. Matters in the Free State were in the same condition as at last advices, the opposite parties waiting the result of the deputation to England. The mail steamer Cambrian arrived from England on July 16, bringing Captain Faulkner, late of the 17th Lancers, and several other officers, who arranged, at their own cost and venture, a fresh expedition to the regions of the Zambezi andNyassa. " Capt. Faulkner," says the South African Advertiser, "is well and favorably known as one of the search party sent out last year by the Government to ascertain the fate of Dr Livingstone. His object now, along with his associates, is to combine sport and exploration — to steam along Nyassa to its northern extremity, explore its eastern shore, and hunt the country down from thence to the Zambezi. The steamer they have built for this purpose is now on board the Cambrian, in no fewer than seventy-five sections ; and, from a drawing we have before us, will look as elegant as she is substantial in build and ingeniously convenient in all her arrangements. She is two-masted, schoonerrigged, with curtained awnings provided amidships and in the quarter."