HERE AND THERE.

Lake County Press, Issue 980, 19 September 1901, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

The late Senator Ingalls. of Kansas, was for a long time the most typical Yankee figure in the United States Senate. Thinner than Sara Bernhardt in her leanest days, he was over 6ft in height, bony, lan-tern-jawed. He was once staying with a jocose doctor in Kansas, who one morning lured a newsboy to open ;i door in his surgery. The inevitable skeleton sprang out. and the boy ran away shrieking. At that moment che Senator entered. Wanting a paper, he ran to the window and called the fleeinc youth, who stopped, turned, and gazed'at" him with a shudder. " Not much," cried the boy, " I know you, even if you have got your clothes on." The series of lectures on workmen's insurance given tins year at Berlin strives to show how complicated are the details of this huge piece of State machinery, how much time has been required tn build :t up, how incomplete in many respects it still remains, but how important it already is from a social point of view. The magnitude of the insurance system may be estimated by the fact that it pays out. in one way or another, about one million marks i£50.000) a day. Though poverty and misery have, of course, not been driven out of the world by the insurance system, yet the sick workman has no longer to trouble himself as to how he shall obtain money to pay for medical treatment, and what will become of his family should he himself be rendered unfit for work. The workman whose earning power is reduced by an accident connected with his employment now obtains just compensation, and the aged poor have the satisfaction of knowing that, although they can no longer work, they can still. owing to the insurance system, contribute their share towards the expenses of the household, and are not obliged to depend on the earnings of their children or on ordinary public charity.

Recent mysterious attempts at assassination have thrown ilie towns of NijneFaguilsk and Kombra, in the Perm government of Russia, into a state of panic. Several <>f the inhabitants of these towns', among them a policeman and a priest, have received packets by post from an unknown sender. The policeman came into possession of a very elegant cigar case, but as he pressed the spring a violent detonation occurred, and he fell dead. To the priest a small case was sent, apparently containing a watch. As lie was on the point of oper ing it he remembsred the policeman, and stopped in time. Several other persons who received similar presents handed them over to the police. They were opened with great caution, and found to be filled with hirro-glycerine. They were, in fact, small but very ingenious infernal machines. In the succeeding few days packets were also found lying in the public squares and gardens. Several persons have been arrested and taken to Orenburg for trial, but in no case was there sufficient evidence to convict. The vox populi accuses a new sect in the Oural Mountains, btit the police are persuaded the affair is me work of some mentally disordered individual, probably a mechanic.

A disagreeable incident happened, the other day to Professor Carl Hudovernig at the Budapest University. A wild-looking woman met him in the corridor, brandishing a large kitchen knife. She said: "Herr Professor. I know that I am mad. Yon must, however, restore my mental balance at once, or I shall without further delay plunge this knife into your breast." The professor preserved his composure, and told the woman to follow him to his consulting room, and, taking a rather roundabout route, they encountered several servants, whom the doctor signalled to follow him. With considerable difficulty they overmastered the woman and placed her in an asylum.

The manifesto concerning scholastic reforms in Russia has just been published, and the new measures are to be applied upon.the reopening of all gymnasiums and colleges in August. The principal change is the rejection of Greek and ' the less arduous study of Latin in those classic colleges which are preparatory to the higher university courses. The long hours devoted formerly to the dead languages are to be employed in the study of French and German, and of Russian history and literature, branches which had been singularly neglected. But these reforms (remarks the St. Petersburg correspondent of the 'Sydney Morning Herald') will not reach the root of the evil which causes the disorders—i.e.. the extreme amount of disrespect for religion manifested by many Russian youths. The defects which prevail arise from the whole method of education, too severe and dry, entirely separating the teachers from.their pupils, and the professors from their young disciples. These radical defects of the Russii n schools, perfectly known and keenly felt by all well-meaning and intelligent- parents, cannot be uprooted in a, few month-. even by the strong will of such an energetic and devoted patriot as General Vannovsky, the present Minister of Public Instruction. It is only gradually that youth can be won over to love study for its own sake, and not to consider it solely as a means for getting a position. Step's should be taken to check" the materialism and pessimism so rapidly invading the Russian schools, so that the suicide of pupils that occurs so often will oease to take place. It is no doubt in view of this that the Czar, on signing the manifesto, wrote with his own hand the following words:—"All this I approve, but I hope that the most seriou attention will be turned towards the religious and moral education of our youth among all classes." M. Marconi's muck-talked-of method of telegraphing without wires—wonderful as it seems—seems almost crude when compared to the invention of Mr A. Frederick Collins, a voting electrical engineer of Philadelphia. Mr Collins has invented a means of telephoning—that is. of sending spoken words—from any one place in the world to any other place, without the use of intermediate wires, not through the air but through the tarth; and the apparatus, unlike that necessary for Marconi telegraphing, is so extremely small that one c-n up the whole thing in five minutes and carry it. off in anv ordinal y rlress-suil ease.--'Pearson's Magazine.' There is a dog ill London which turn.' out without fail to almost every City fire. and to many beyond the boundaries of tin square mile. By breed he is a Great Dane, and he is the pet of the men at the Thames street lire station. He came into i'ier p< ssession in a curious way. One day a > eni'eman called at the station, chatted with the men. and showed an interest in the engines. The dog was with him, but when he was leaving it positively refused to go. Said his owner to the officer hi charge: "I shall call to-morrow, and if he refuses to come you may keep him.'' The dog declined to budge next day. and so became the property of the station. He has since been at almost r:\erv fire to which the men have liinied out. Kite seems to be "in" him. as i hem istrv was "in" Mr Kden I'hilpott's boy hero "Nubby"' Tnmkins. Iml ii has nol yet led to hi- undoing, although he has run risks by entering burning building- when no one was watching him.

Ideals.— Maggie (aged six): "My ideal uv a man is a soda-water clerk ; dey's : imply perfect! " Kate (aged fight): "How vouiik you are! Jcs' wait tdl yer old enough ter go l.cr a circus and sec a guy wot kin l.iini Mine somersaults over .seven elephants ;tii<l a camel! '