HERE AND THERE.

Lake County Press, Issue 976, 22 August 1901, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

In an English provincial court recently Fanner A. sought to recover from his neighbor. Farmer 8., the value of certain sheep alleged to have been worried by B.’s dog. For the defence, it was contended that the dog which worried the sheep belonged not to 8., but A., and the following dialogue took place:—Counsellor defendant: “ You admit that the defendant's dog and yours were alike?” Plaintiff: “Yes, they wor as much alike as two peas.” Counsel: “When you saw the dog worrying your sheep where were you ?” Plaintiff : “ About a hundred yards away.” Counsel: “ One hundred yards ! And you mean to say that at that distance you were near enough to swear the dog was defendant’s, and not your own?” Plaintiff : “ Yes.” Counsel: “ Wonderful! Now, do you mind telling the Court what made you so sure on the point?” Plaintiff : “ Not a bit. Ye see, ma dog had been dead two days.” Verdict for plaintiff. The amusing phrenological scene in ‘ Florodora ’ was re-enacted in real life on June 12, at Colorado Springs, a fashionable summer resort in the Rocky Mountains (U.S.). The Rev. Samuel Riddell, an itinerant clergyman, delivered a lecture in the Town Hall on ‘ Love, Courtship, and Marriage,’ and attracted a large audience. At the conclusion he announced his intention of performing phrenological and psychological marriage right on the spot. Amid wild applause, he went among the audience, picked out two young men and two young women, and escorted them to the platform. After a phrenological examination of their heads he declared them temperamentally suited, and then solemnly pronounced each couple man and wife. This, according to the Colorado laws, constitutes marriage. The parents of the young people were dumbfounded, as all * were strangers. One of the couples think of keeping married, but in the other case the young woman refuses, and will appeal to the courts to have her marriage dissolved. A petition was presented to the House of Representatives on July 24 by Mr Piesse (Tasmania) from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Australasia, praying “ on behalf of the mothers of the Commonwealth, and in the interests of their sons, who have so freely been given to protect Australia,” that the Federal Defence Bill should be so amended as to prohibit the sale of intoxicating drinks at any of the military canteens throughout Australia. “ The voice of religion,” the petitioners add, “ the voice of science, and military men of high standing and long experience have each declared that the use of alcohol is not necessaiy to the performance of those duties which devolve upon those who are soldiers of the King and the defenders of their country.” A good book about millionaires is wanted more and more every year. A year book of millionaires, stating in each case whether married or single, their hobbies, their income and expenditure, vouched for in every instance by chartered accountants, and the names of the secretary (or secretaries) of each, is a desirable book. Mr Arthur Humphreys, who mentions this want, would do well to undertake the volume himself, as he seems to know a great deal about the natural history of millionaires. Among other things he remarks: —“America is the land of millionaires, but America demands of her millionaires that they should never rest. They must continue to work in their offices as though they had only £1 a week. The alternative is to leave tiny country. Thus it is that we welcome among us Mr Astor, Mr Carnegie, and. last but not least, Mr Pierpont Morgan, whose only recorded aphorism is that ‘you can have everything you want if you will only take it.’ A few days after this sententious wisdom was let loose upon the world a burglar was discovered in Mr Morgan’s house, and, strange to say, was promptly arrested ; so we are forced to the conclusion that to have the courage of your aphorism you must take the precaution of being a millionaire. It is commonly supposed that millionaires are very happy, but this is not so. They often die of fright. Many American millionaires have magnificent yachts, and live on them. They are afraid to land anywhere, lest they should be done by somebody.” A somewhat amusing way of guarding against unfair practices has been hit upon by the street railway officials of Hagerstown, Maryland (U.S.). It was found that long-distance tickets were sometimes transferred to a new passenger, to the losss of the company. To prevent this, a pictorial ticket has been adopted. Near the lower righthand corner are pictures of four typical male passengers—a boy, young man, middle-aged man, and old man. When the conductor gives such a ticket to a passenger he punches it at the figure that to him appears beet to represent the person to whom it is issued. The punching is a guide to the collector, who can at a glance see whether picture and person tally. An amusing difference is seen between the arrangements for keeping track of female passengers and rhose employed for the mile part of the travelling public. At the lower left-hand corner are figures of women, but only three—a girl, a young woman, and an old woman. Four were originally seen, but the use of such a ticket gave serious offence. The conductor found it dangerous to look at a lady passenger, and then, passing over the figure of a young woman, punch the label upon the middleaged one. The company have solved the problem by removing one figure. In a recent compilation of suicidal statistics Sweden had the lowest average of all the countries considered—namely, 1 suicide to 92,000 persons ; Russia had 1 to 55,000 ; the United States 1 to 15,000; Saxony 1 to 8,446. In St. Petersburg and in London the'proportion was 1 to 21,000. If we take the statistics of the fifty years just

passed for France tLc .... 0 ...suits: r every 100,000 inhabitants of France there were in 1841-45, y suicides; in 184650, 10; in 1861-70, 13; in 1871-75, 15; >n 1876-80. 17; in 1889 alone. 21; in 1893, 22; in 1894, 26. During the years 182690 the percentage of suicides increased in Belgium 72 per cent. ; in Prussia, 411 per cent. ;in Austria, 238 per cent.; in Prance, 318 per cent. ; in Saxony, 212 per cent.; in Sweden, 72 per cent. ; in Denmark, per cent. A case recently heard at (England) Police Court fact that even corns possess redeemingfeatures. Isabella Baker, landlady of the Crown Inn, Woodgate, Bartley Green, was summoned for permitting drunkenness, and serving a drunken person, on May 25; and Herbert Green alias James Bullock, a laborer, was proceeded against for being drunk on the premises. Green’s unsteadiness of deportment resulted, contended Mr Vachell, for the defence, from the fact that he suffered extremely from corns on the feet, which made it almost painful for him to walk. He hobbled painfully along the road, taking I half an hour over a journey which ordi- ! narily should only occupy ten minutes. The Bench came to the conclusion that, though the cases were proper ones to be brought .before them, they could not convict. Believers in cremation will derive encouragement from the report just issued by the Council of the Cremation Society of England, which shows continued progress of the movement in England. During the year under review 301 cremations were carried out by the society at Woking, as against 240 during 1899, being an increase of 25 per cent This brings the total number of cremations performed at Woking up to 1.824. During 1900 88 bodies were cremated at Manchester, 16 at Glasgow, and 40 at Liverpool This brings the totals at these places to 475, 75, and 102 respectively. The recently-formed London Cremation Company have been fortunate in securing an extensive site, which will enable them to make provision for the disposal of the ashes of an immense population for a number of years, and at the same time to create a beautiful place which will remain an open space. A ton of gold is worth £125,585. A ton of steel made up into hairsprings is worth £1,576.458 —m0re than twelve and a-half times the value ol pure gold. Hairspring wire weighs one-twentieth of a grain to the inch. One mile of wire weighs less than half a pound. The balance gives five vibrations to every second, 500 every minute, 18,000 even,' hour, 432,000 everv day, and 157,680,000 every year. At each vibration it rotates about one and a-quarter times, which makes 197,100,000 revolutions every year. In order that we may better understand the stupendous amount of labor perforated by these tiny works, take, for illustration, a locomotive with six driving wheels. Let its wheels be run until they shall have given the same number of revolutions that a watch gives in one year, and they will have covered a distance equal to twenty-eight complete circuits of the earth. All this a watch does without other attention than winding once every twenty-four hours. The Dreyfus case is at last a thing of the past. It occupied, however, the attention of the whole civilised world so largely that the opinion formed by so great a Judge as the late Lord Chief Justice (Lord Russell of Killowen) must still be of interest. Lord Russell, who occupied a seat in court during some of the last sittings of the Rennes court-martial, recorded some of his impressions for Queen Victoria, and the gist of these the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J., now makes public in the ‘Saturday Review.’ From them we learn that wliile Lord Russell considered ’Dreyfus to have been wrongly condemned, he believed his military judges, both in the first and in the final court-martial, to have given their verdict honestly and according to their lights. “If I had been trying the case before a jury,” he wrote, “while I could not have said that there was no evidence to be considered by the jury, I should certainly have told them that it was a case in which it would be utterly unsafe for them to convict. That there was some evidence I think cannot be doubted, amongst other things that as to the handwriting of the bordereau and that as to the alleged confession, but on both points it was of so utterly unreliable a character that I think no jury or Judge could properly have acted upon it.” Nevertheless, Lord Russell considered “ that a harsh judgment was pronounced bv the foreign Press generally, and notably by that of Great Britain, not only upon some of the persons concerned, but even upon the French nation as a whole”; and while speaking severely of the tone of the ‘ Croix and other French religious newspapers, he expressed bis disbelief in the existence of any “ complot between the heads of the army and what are called the clericals.” A* naturalised German resident of Liverpool left a will which formed the subject of an application in the local Chancery Court the other day. It contained several expressions not generally found in wills. One clause provided that if testator’s sister died before himself one-quarter of her share of his estate would go to her husband, and the rest would “ drop.” This phrase puzzled the lawyers, but the Vice-chancellor ruled that it meant that the money should fall to the residue. *The final clause caused some amusement, and it was suggested that by inserting it the testator showed a shrewd knowledge of the temperament of his relatives. It stated: “ Whoever is not contented will not receive anything,” Counsel who appeared for the beneficiaries informed His Honor that no one interested in the will was particularly anxious to express dissatisfaction in court. His Honor smiled when informed immediately after that the persons interested in the money numbered seventeen.