NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1952, 7 November 1874, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

FAMINE IN ASIA MINOR. While we are congratulating ourselves on the manner in which the famine crisis has been surmounted in India, terrible accounts reach Constantinople from the famine districts in Asia Minor. "It is said that the, deaths from actual starvation and diseases resulting from insufficient food cannot fall far short of 150,000. Tn one small district alone there were 5000. The head-quarters of the famine lies in a region defined by lines running from Angora to Konia on the west, from Konia to Nigdeh on the south, and. from j Nigdeh to Tokat on the east, a district containing about 40,000 square miles. This whoh locality, nearly eqeal in area to four-fitths of England,* is in a- great i measure depopulated, the inhabitants having fled, leaving their farms and vineyards. Their houses have been burned for fuel, and their flocks and herds have perished. The harvest will not be sufficient to meet the demand, as much less ground was cultivated, the wretched . peasantry having had to consume their seed and oxen for food, and thus, without immediate steps are taken .by the Government, there is the danger of a greater famine in 1875." WIFE -BEATING. The "Echo" has had some amusing, letters on the subject of wife-beating—: " Ought men to beat their wives ?"— some advocating, others denouncing the . rather too prevalent custom in England, where a man gets five years' penal servitude, and ten years' police supervision for stealing a piece of bacon, and a wife-beater, who ... nearly kills his wife with kicks, and another who sets a vicious dog to worry his, only get a few months'iimprisontrient ; but I do not so much wonder at this, after reading some of the letters published on the subject, in which the writers state their wives, are much mvgroved by occasional beating. No doubt our judges and magistrates are of the same opinion, and bear in mind the old adage — A woman, a spaniel, a walnut tree, ■' ' ; ; : The more you you thrash 'em the better they be. „.' . . , LADIES' DAY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. One interesting day was occupied chiefly by the ladies, who had a crowded section to hear them speak, and they spoke with a grace and vigor which left nothing to be desired. Mrs Grey, a member of our London School Board, advocated a scienceof education. Miss Beedy spoke in favor of medical reforms. The suggestions of the latter lady, though they aroused the ire of the doctors, may have practical interest on your side of the world as well as ours. She wished "to abolish the whole system of fees by visits, and to introduce the practice of paying a physician aa annual stipend to keep a general look-out over your health and that of your family.He would call every now and then in a friendly way, warn you if your habits were injurious, if your treatment of your children was mistaken, if your house was in any way unsanitary. He would detect the germ of incipient disease, and apply the proper treatment in time to arrest it, and would, in short,. be ready with valuable advice of all. kinds. At present the doctor's income depended upon the illness and not; the health of his clients." Of course, under such a system the lady practitioner would have a larger scope in dealing with mothers and their children. Dr Farre, our Registrar-General endorsed the suggestion, and said that several medical friends of his in London would be quite ready to enter upon such a practice if there were any r families who desired to make the experiment. "It was, in fact, only one step further in the direction of the change which had, been made when a' physician began to charge for his advice instead of making his living off the price of his drugs." ladies' swimming match. We are beginning to follow. the Yankee example, and every day sees us nearer the manners and customs which prevail across the Atlantic. A public ladies' swimming match took place the other day at Blackrock, near Dublin, whenv five ladies swam a match of' one hundred yards. There was an immense crowd of spectators, and the competitors .beguiled the time before the commencement of the race by taking " headers" and diving, &c., for the diversion of the company. The race was won by a Miss Rounds, of Dundrum, by a length, Miss Adelaide Dixon coming in second. Swimming is now taught at the best girls' schools as .a portion of the programme of calisthenics. OUTRAGE AND LAWLESSNESS IN ALABAMA. A Washington special says authentic information was received by the Post Office department to the effect that lately a train on the Albemarle and Chattanooga railroad was stopped by means of a false signal near York Station, Alabama ; that immediately on its halting it was boarded and taken possession of by a band of armed men, who shot down the negro mail-agent without provocation and in cold blood. Official despatches were received, stating that soon after a body of armed white men surrounded a negro church in Lee county, Alabama, soon after the commencement of the service, and without the slightest provocation fired into the congregation, killing four persons outright. In addition to this, the Alabamians have stories to tell of the intimidation of the white and negro radical speakers, the whites being visited at their homes by armed men, and warned not to speak, and negro orators being driven from the platform, in full view of their audiences, by the same means. A SAD STORY FROM CANADA. A heartrending tragedy occurred near Ottawa the week before last. It appears that three little children named Forrin, went into their father's barn, which was full of grain, and set fire to il. After doing this they climbed to the top of the mow, and jumped around in a merry | mood until the flames began to get too hot. They then tried to get down; but > found escape impossible, and commenced 'to shout for help. Their mother, who ', was a short distance away, heard their cries of distress, and ran to their assistance. When she entered the barn she could see a dense cloud of smoke and flame, and from it proceeded the most piteous screams and cries of her little children. With a mother's devotion the brave woman climbed into the burning mow. No sooner had she done so than she was overcome by the heat aud smoke add fell on her face on the hay, a short distance from the children. Some of the neighbors were by this time attracted by the smoke rising from the burning building and arrived just in time to see her roll out of the motf to the floor in an unconsoious condition. They picked her

up, but she was dead. After the barn was burned down, the bodies of the three little children were a ] so recovered, and now await the action of the coroner. Mr Forrin was absent from hon?e when the unfortunate affair occurred, and knew nothing of it until he returned. Much sympathy is felt for him among the neighbors. SUICIDE OF A NOTORIOUS SWINDLER. The "Lord George Gordon" who has iust closed hia career by suicide was an imposter of the Oagliostro stamp. He was a native of Orange, Hew Jersey, and his family belonged to the same clan as the Earl of Aberdeen. When the heir to the earldom, who had shipped himself as mate, under the name of G. H. Osbou'rne, in January, 1870, on board the Hera, a small vessel bound from Boston to Melbourne, fell overboard and was drowned, and the news reached America, young Gordon took it into his head to represent himself as the missing man. Ha found plenty of tuft-hunters who not only believed his story, but advanced him money. He took up hia quarters at the Metropolitan Hotel, in New York, where his "lordly bearing and aristocratic habits" excited the admiration of all plebeians who listened to his conversation about his titled relatives with that eager interest which democrats always exhibit in regard to high life. In the summer of 3871 he visited the Western States in company with a " Col. Leomis," another venturer of his own kidney. Here he announced his intention of taking up a large tract of country, and of expending some of his immense wealth in bringing out the poorer tenantry of his vast estates in Scotland. On his return to New York, he kindly allowed some of his intimate friends to purchase from him — as a parricular favor — corner allotments in. the Scotch city he was about to build. Strange to say, Jay Gould gave Gordon 600 shares of Erie for 80 acres of real estate in Westcheater County, New York, to which the vendor had about as much title as he had to the White House at Washington. Gordon had broached a great project for consolidating the Erie and New York Central Railroads, for building a bridge across the Hudson, and for erecting a great depot in Westchester County. Even Vanderbilt was drawn int the scheme, for Gordon had succeeded in convincing the capitalists that he controlled the Press of New York, and more particularly the because the late Jas. Gordon ▼"^onnett " used to be one of our tenants, and took our family name." Latterly, the audacious adventurer — who, previous to his assumption of the iiile, had led a ■wild roving life in California, Mexico, and South America— had been playing hide and seek with his creditors and with the officers of justice, and finding their toils closing round him, he was probably impelled to take a leap in the dark to escape the like exposure and punishment which have befallen Arthur Orton.