CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10212, 5 December 1893, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A Melbourne paper of a recent datf soys :—Some months ago it was reposted that a tiger had been teen in the Dandenoag ranges. Nothiag, however, had since been heard of the animal .untilyesterday morning. About hsif-post 7 a.m., Mr H, Hyne proceeded to hie brickyards on the main Wsrburton road, and noticed peculiar footprints in the yard. He tracked the prints as far as the large dam which supplies the engine, where ha found some heavy footprints, and determined to take a plaster cast of one, which was ouccesofully accomplished. The footprint is about 4in across, the toes are large, and the claws are long, narrow, and very pointed, Mr Hyne traced the marks for some distance, the animal going in the direction of Yeriug, The cast is to be forwarded to Professor ’ M'Coy in Melbourne for his opinion. William Clark, a man recently in custody at Chelmsford on a charge of horse-steal-ing, has eo deep-rooted an objection to having his portrait taken by the prison authorities of that town that every time the photographic lens has been levelled at him he is reported to have wriggled and straggled and “winked the other eye” in a way which has rendered the operation impracticable. As the police are very anxious to circulate a portrait of " William Clark,” in the hope of obtaining somo duo to his real name, identity, and past career, they have resorted to a ruse for attaining their object, which is said to have proved perfectly successful. Taking advantage of the fact that the prisoner had to appear before the magistrates, the photographer arranged his camera behind a deck which was cub for his convenience, and the lens was made to peep unnoticed upon the spot where the prisoner was to stand when charged. Clark accordingly stood unconsciously in front of tho camera; the photographer hid himself behind a copy of the Essex County Chronicle, and an excellent likeness of the man was procured. A startling item of news has been brought to Sydney by the ship Oromdale, from London. Captain E. H. Andrews reports that when about a hundred and fifty miles south-west of Madeira he observed a largo wooden ship floating on the water. The vessel was lying on the port bilge, with almost all the starboard side showing out of the water. She lay in an almost level position, the maato Just appearing from under tho surface of the water. Tho vessel seemed to be new, the hull being painted dark green, or black, but nothing could be discovered which could lead to her identification. It is supposed either that the ship had a cargo of ■ timber, or that she was in ballast, with tho batches battened down, thus rendering her airtight and enabling.hor to float. Tho derelict was right in the track of ships coming southward, end therefore was a danger to navigation. Although tho Cromdale cruised about for a considerable time she taw no trace of the crew, or of boats or wreckage. She also bore down to the Crozets, but there was no oign of anyone there.

Probably the first feat of arms the late Marahal MacMahon' ever performed waa the assault on the Malakoh Tower. Almost immediately after his arrival In the Crimea, he was ordered to take the lower, which, as Sir John BurgoynC had originally pointed out, was tbo hey of tho Russian position. The attack, under tho chief command o! General Pelissior (who afterwards received the title of Duke cf Halakoff) was made by MacMahon with great energy. Stationed on the highest point of the parapet, he directed from this conspicuous position tho advance of his troops. Several times in the course of the day General Pelissier sefit to request that he would not expose himself in eo reckless a manner; to which the only reply made by MacMahon waa the famous “ J’y euis, f'y reste,” words which s)me years later he applied to his position at the head of the French Republic. MacMahon did, in any case, * f remain ” in tho‘ Malakofl Tower until it was taken.

Two famous Parisian prisons will shortly cease to exist. They sire the -Eoquette, near Pere Lachalse cemetery, and the prison of Ste. Poiagie, with its sorrowful souvenirs of the Eeign of Terror, The Government intends to build a large prison in their stead, a little way out of town, at Freenes, on the Sceaux railway. The Eoquette prison is chiefly known as the place outside which the guillotine is erected whenever there is an execution in Paris. • Is lies, as most visitors to the French capital are aware, in a narrow street leading to the Pere Lachaise cemetery. It was there, in the quadrangle, that the Archbishop of Paris and hie , brother hostages were shot by order of the Commune in 1871. Upon au iron grating on the door of the cell in which the Archbishop wai confined for forty days .before ■his murder, he wrote in chalk the words'— “0 crux, Ave! 3pcs uuic:t/’ They are still legible. It was in Sainte Pekgie that the last batch of suspects during tho Eeign. of Terror heard the joyful news of the downfall of Eobespierro. There is a tradition that they first guessed how matters'' were going outside by hearing a gaoler say “ How then, Eobespierre/’ aa he gave a ■ savage kick to a dog. I

The Indian papers discuss the report that the Ameer has intimated to his Ministers that he intends’to proclaim hia son. Prince Habibulla Khaa, cb-Begent. The statement is thought improbable. Prince Habibulla is a son of the third wife of the Ameer, a elave-girl from the Upper Oxus;. he is known as weak and yielding, though genial; he is, moreover, tifEictecf with a marked impediment in speech, which hm caused him to be known as “ The Stammerer/' Better, it is thought, are the chances of the four-year-old eon of tho Ameer, by hia fourth wife, the present Mistress of the Harem, a Princess by birth, and also a cousifa.