CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9994, 24 March 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

A Bfcory of Japan. Evidently the plfto* where the Borndrunk family comes from«f —There is in the world to-day an entire; race of people who regard sobriety as* calamity, and drunkenness as tho acme of bliss. These people are called the Ainu,' and inhabit the northern islands of JapsiuJ They were the aborigines of Japan, but were crowded northwards by the present* inhabitants until they reached th* “jumping-off place,” much an the Indianij of the States have been driven; into th*. setting aun by the aggressive white man. And they are jumping off, too, at an alarm* ing rate. They must have numbered several' millions atone time, but now cannot count' twenty thousand. They are all small; hairy, half civilised people of C low order of intelligence, and this filthiest on the face of tho earth* The Japs believe that oleanlinese is cousin » german to godliness, and aia! always paddling in the water, but th«j Ainu never bathe. At bear-feasts and.; funerals they make a pretence of washing! hands and face, hut not a drop of water! touches their bodies except by accident. They have one drink—enough to cure any* one of dipsomania—but it will make ona drunk, and is swallowed by the Ainu la! enormous quantities. Men, women and children appear to be always drank. I| paid them several visits while coasting in' the eastern seas, and I never saw a member of the race who could bs accused of being even reasonably sober.

A romantic affair baa just come to light in Essex. Seven years ago Henry Chaney, a sailor, belonging to Wivenhoe, in that county, left England on board the ship; Ironopolis, of London. The ship was! wrecked and most of the crew were lost,; including, as there was good reason to sup*; pose, Chaney. An insurance on his lira was paid by the Prudential Company, t and; death allowances were also granted by th« Fisherman’s Aid Society and the Foresters; Mrs Chaney bravely set to work to earn d living for herself and her children, whom: she brought up most respectably. ' Last! spring two of the daughters thought they, saw their father in the street at Wivenhoe, while quite recently another daughter, who is now a lady’s maid in London, wroth home to say that she had met her father; and that each had recognised the other;! Soon after this tho missing man wroth a! letter to his wife, describing the wreck of the Ironopolis, and saying that he was picked up by a passing steamer and taken: to Brussels Infirmary, and thence to an 1 asylum, where he was detained till laet[ April. He then returned to London, and visited Wivenhoe with tho intention of seeing his wife, but being told (which was not true) that his wife was on the point of getting married to another man, he did not fulfil his intention. In consequence of tho accidental meeting with his daughter! in London, Chaney has been re-united to the family from which he has been so long* separated. He is now employed at a ware* house in Choapeide.

Mr Jay Gould (says the Morning) had a double, a doctor practising in New TorlL and a gentleman of a very scientific tonal of mind. He had the same little wizened features as the arch-millionaire, the carnal! black and ragged looking beard, and th«| same nervous habit of twitching with hid fingers and thumbs while thinking. The; resemblance was heightened by both mea having the same indifferent taste in drew, particularly aa regards a suit of sober 1 brown, which the millionaire and the doctor adopted as their familiar ! attire, each unconscious of the preference oB the other. It is said that they onlyl met on one occasion, and that was at a winter resort on the coast of Newt Jersey. The two men were taking an: early walk on the beach, and they came towards each other. Both stared at each other. Both had on similar suite of! brown check. “Mr Gould, I believe>.”■ said the doctor. “I am not quite sure if I am,” was the testy reply. “I wish you would not wear clothes like me.” wont, if you will shave your heard,” snapped back the doctor; and then bom men glared at each other and passed on. The doctor was in the habit of complaining to his friends that people frequently stopped him in New York and asked hie advice in regard to certain stocks, and at times were very rude when he attempted' to explain that he knew nothing about' Wall street or the ways thereof. "Oneday in particular,” he relates, " 1 waa slapped; on the back and dug in the ribs by several perfect strangers, who cried ‘How about! that cradle ?' I went home very much annoyed, and read in an evening paper that Mr Gould had presented Mrs George Gould’s first baby with a silver cradle."

A Dalziel telegram from San Antonio,; Texas, Feb. 2, says:—“News has been; received from Burnet, a post village not; far from here, that Mary Ellis, a young coloured woman, barely twenty years of age, was lynched last night by a body of masked men, and that it has already been demonstrated that she was entirety innocent of the crime for which her Ufa; was taken. The girl was a nursemaid iaj the family of a well-to-do farmer, named' Parker, living some miles from Burnet. 1 Three or four days ago two of the children were found to have been poisoned/ and one of them died. Suspicion pointed to the girl, and in her fright she committed' the error of running away. The case, how-1 ever, had been placed in the hands of thd> local police, and they, suspecting a neigh-' bearing farmer named Eobinson, who bora' a grudge against the Parkers, proceeded; quietly to find and arrest Mm. In the; meantime the news of the unfortunate; girl’s flight had spread throughout thej district, and very soon a mob assembled! with the avowed intention of hunting her' down and lynching her.. The Parkers; endeavoured to explain that it might be a mistake, and that strong suspicion pointed' in another direction. The lynchers were/ however, obdurate, and after a search Of three hours they found the girl hiding ini a barn some few miles away. In spite of her supplications they draggedher to*a tree,; and gave her five minutes in which to «ay her prayers; The scene that followed was; inexpressibly touching. The young girl,; resigning herself to her fate, fell on her knees, and surrounded by about 300 men, buried her face in her hands and prayed. Five minutes later she was dangling from, a limb of a tree; and the mob, after discharging a gun or two at the body, left'; it swinging in the air. It is now reported; that at almost the identical moment when; the lynchers were taking tho young girl's life, John Eobinson, the man suspected of poisoning the children, was caught by the police, and at once confessed/’