Miscellaneous Extracts.

Hastings Standard, Issue 275, 19 March 1897, Page 4

Miscellaneous Extracts.

MEMORIES OF GLENCOE. The people of Fort William have not yet forgotten the massacre of Glencoe. At a meeting held recently, for the purpose of opening a new post office, the Provost of the town remarked that they in Fort William had no reason to think kindly of the Prince of Orange ; and he hoped that during the forthcoming celebration of Her Majesty's record reign an effort would be made to have the name of the burgh changed to Victoria. Should the suggestion be carried out, the town will have been renamed six times since the reign of James I. THE COCAINE HABIT. Cocaine inebriety is the latest form of evil which our medical mentors are warning us against. In many parts of the world it is, according to the British Medical Journal, largely on the increase. The greatest number of victims is to be found amongst society women and amongst women who have adopted literature as a profession, and a considerable proportion of chronic cocainists have fallen under the dominion of the drug from a desire to stimulate their powers of imagination. Others have acquired that habit quite innocently from taking coca wines fortified with salts of the alkaloid in solution. It is stated that at Manchester, Kentucky, the cocaine habit has recently assumed the proportions of a veritable epidemic and thousands of people are suffering from it. In Paris the use of the hypodermic syringe both for the adminstration of cocaine and morphine is extremely common, and there are establishments to which ladies of fashion resort periodically in order to have the accustomed stimulent administered. In England, it seems pharmaceutical chemists are fully alive to the danger, and, as a rule, they decline to supply preparations of cocaine without a prescription. THE BULLET CATCHING TrllCK Hermann's trick of catching bullets fired from regulation rifles straight at his heart, was explained by h im in this way :—" The idea of being fired at with powder and ball is not orignal with me," he said. " To the manner of its execution only do I lay the claim of originality. There are various ways of performing the feat. One way is to have the pistol or gun made so that the tube that connects with powder pin if it be a flintlock, or with the cap if it be a precussion lock, instead of running into the breach of the barrel proper, runs down into the tube that contains the ramrod. Then the committee is called upon to mark the bullet, load the piece and fire at the performer. The false barrel or ramrod tube has been previously loaded with a charge of powder and wad only. The i*amrod is laid aside, and the report is just as loud as though the charge w T as fired from the regular barrel, while no part of the barrel proper is charged with powder, and the leaden bullet remains undisturbed. The bullet market by the committee having been palmed by the preformer, is then presented, and the thing is done." THE LATEST BRIDGE BUILDING MARVEL. Recently a gang of 60 men, under the engineers of the Great Eastern Railway Company, achieved a phenomenal task in connection with modern railway bridge-making (says a London paper). In several instances bridges have been pulled down and others erected in their stead in the course of a single night, but on this occasion one was removed and another pulled into its place by the same operation. Over the River Lea, at Tottenham, was an iron bridge of 77ft long, weighing 100 tons, and it has been replaced by one Sift Oin long, weighing 180 tons. The new structure has been erected on cross staging side by side with the old, and the first work was to cut the old bridge at both ends and raise it bodily lHin, so that it could be mounted on wheels, as the new bridge was. Then the two were hauled along until the new bridge occupied the place of the old. This was successfully accomplished by H o'clock in the morning, the hauling having been completed in exactly an hour. Then the new bridge had to bo raised for the removal of the wheels. This was done by a huge travelling crane, and the new viaduct was gently lowered into its place. The permanent way was restored, and the first train passed over the bridge at p.m. The ordinary traffic was not resumed until L.'iO, but solely became previous arrangements had not been made to that effect. On their part the engineers were ready at least three hours before the appointed time. PROFESSOR lit XLEY ON SMOKING. At a debate on smoking among the members of the British Association, many speakers denounced and others advocated the practice. Professor Huxley said, " For forty years of my life tobacco has been a deadly poison tome. (Loud cheers from the antitobaeconists). In my youth as a medical studen, I tried to smoke. In vain ! at every fresh attempt my insidious foe stretched me prostrate on the floor. (Repeated cheer-h I en- | tered tin* navy ; again I tried to sn >k« and again met with a defeat. 1 h tt> d tobacco. I could almost have lent niv i support to any institution that had for i in object the patting of tobacco- 1 r- to death. f Vouferutss ap- ! pliiiise). A few years ago 1 was m l'ritiany with some friends. \\ <> went to an inn They Ugan t > mnoke. Thev looked very h;ij|v and outside it was very wet mul ; dismal. I thought 1 would uv cigar. (Murmurs.) 1 did so. (Great j

expectations.) I smoked that cigar—it was delicious! (Groan?.) From that moment I was a changed man ; and I now feel that smoking in moderation is a comfortable and laudable practice, and is productive of good. (Dismay and confusion of the anti-tobacconists. Roars of laughter from the smokers.) There is no more harm in a pipe than there is in a cup of tea. You may poison yourself by drinking to much green tea, and kill yourself by eating to many beefsteaks. For my own part, I consider that tobacco, in moderation "is a sweetner and equaliser of the temper." (Total rout of the anti-tobacconists and complete triumph of the smokers.)