Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 30 April 1892, Page 2

Notes and Events.

# . An extraordinary outbreak on the part of the students at the agricultural college at Guignon, near Versailles, occurred on Sunday night. ' Lately some seventy of the youths, armed themselves with stout cudgels made a raid upon the village near the college, iorced their way into the cottages, beat the inhabitants with their sticks, and broke nearly all the windows. " Bir," said an anxious enquirier as he deferentially made obeisance before Mr Curtis-Bennet at the West London Police Court " can you advise me in my difficulty ? My landlord has seized my dog for the rent. Is he justified in doing so, sir ?" " Yes,"' briefly replied Mr Bennet. " A dog is a chattel, and the landlord can seize your chattels if you don't pay your rent." The population of Africa, accord" ing to the latest and most reliable estimates is given at 163,000,000, or fourteen inhabitants to the square mile, while the population of the three Americas is given 121,718,000 or eight inhabitants to the square mile. It must be remembered that while explorers tell us of large districts in Africa that are scantily peopled, there are also vast regions densely populated of which but few persons have ever heard. It may, in fact, be said that only the fringe [ of the Dark Continent has as yet been reached after a thousand years of intermittent exploration. Theodosius, the ex-Metropolitan of Servia, died on 10th March. It was he who pronounced the decree of divorce between King Milan and Queen Natalie — a decision contested at the time as contrary to the canonical laws of the Orthodox Church, but declared valid by the Servian Patriarch of Karlowitz, th^f ex-Arch in Constantinople, and other ecclesiastical authorities. The Metropolitan Michael who had refused to be subservient to the King, and . was forced to leave the country, but who was subsequently restored, declined to confer the usual religioua benediction upon the remains of his predecessor. The death at- the age of 79 of the Eev. James Calvert, the most distinguished missionary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society is announced. To him was due in great part tho evalgelization of Fiji. He found tao people cannibals, and left them civilized and christianized. ' An account is given of a fearful and novel machine, the invention of ; a Colorado man, through which hanging can be effected by machinery — which, it is added, has not yet failed in its awful purpose. The instrument is the only one in the world, and is in a stone building a short 1 distance back of the cell rooms within the penitentiary walls at Canon City, Colorado. Entering the front room you notice a noose hanging from the - ton foot ceiling. The rope runs to a rear room over a set of pulleys, and is fastened to a pig of iron weighing uOOibs. The pig rests on a collapsing shelf, which is kept in place by a i trip lever, on which hangs a receptacle holding fifty- six pounds of water. In the bottom of the vessel is a plug, which is attached to a chain. The chain passes down through the floor, around a pulley, and is hooked on to a rod which stands upright under a raised portion of the floor of the execution room. This surface is kept from touching, the rod by means of four spiral springs. On the wall of the room is a white disc, on which is a red mark, and a black hand points downward. "When the man condemned to die steps under the noose his weight forces the raised floor surface down the rod, which gives the chain a pull, and the plug drops out of the water receptacle, i his starts the flow of water, and at the same instant the black hand on the di:>c on the wall travels upwards. When it reaches the red mark the" witnesses know that the water vessel is empty, and the trip lever, fifty-six pounds lighter, is forced upwards by spring, the heavy weight drops, and the murderer hangs in the air. All this iss done silently ; not a creak or a snap is heard. The machine baa never yet failed to break i^uaan's neck.