GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

A HEARTLESS I ELOPEMENT IN HIGH L'IFR. The recent elopement that has so shocked and scandalised the American colcuy in Paris of a young American married lady with a well-known French viscount, who is also married, has become a topic of universal comment. The lady, who is very beautiful, ; .8 connected by birth a3 well as by marriage "with, some of the leading families of New York and New England origin, who have for yeais past resided in Paris. . She is also a distant relative of a young and gifted American prima donna. She left in her deserted home three little children, the youngest of whom is only eighteen months old. Her husband will, it instated, immediately apply for a divorce. LIQUOR LEGISLATION. A despatch from lowa of April 11, says • The Clark Liquor Law has struck consternation to the hearts of the saloon keepers in many of the principal cities of the State where liquor selling has been going on slyly. The saloons were all closed here to-day. At Cedar Rapids thirty saloon keepers said they would close. At Waterloo the saloons were closed. At Davenport, Muscatine, Keokuk, and Burlington liquor sellers have heretofore defied the law, but it is believed they will now give up *nd stop. Tho breweries have been making a drink called " prohibition," a light beer; and a fight will be made to test the law on that. A JEWISH SCHEME OF MORAL TEACHING. I New York, May -4.—The semi-annual con« ference of the Jewish Ministers' Association [ opened yesterday. In the opening address Dr. Gottheil gave a report of the progress made by American Judaism during the past six months. Rev. Dr. Minter, of Brooklyn, submitted a resolution commending the admission of women to a voice in the administrative affairs of congregations. Rev. Dr. Payson, of the Presbytery of New York, was present, to hear a paper by Rabbi Lasker, of Boston, on " Moral Teaching in Public Schools." Dr. Lasker spoke of Dr. Payson'a plan of moral teaching, which was sent to the Presbyterian Synod, and which is a basis of the plans submitted to the Boston schools. It is broad enough to include Jew, Catholic, and Protestant. The four principles of Dr. Payson's platform are : —First, the existence of a personal God ; second, the responsibility of every human being to God ; third, death, lessness of the human soul as made in tho image of God after the power of an endless life ; fourth, the reality of a future < spiritual state beyond the grave in which every soul shall give an account of itself before God, and shall reap that which it has sown. To these the Presbytery added a fifth item :—The do. calogue, as interpreted by the Sermon on the Mount, and by the life and example of Christ as a standard of morality. INTERESTING DISCOVERY. On April 21, the workmen engaged in digging into the enclosed space which fronts Christ's ChtSrch Cathedral, Dublin, came upon the buried cloisters of the original ancient itructure erected by Sigfried the Dane in the eleventh century. The cloisters are of considerable extent, and their plan can be dig. tinctly traced. In the Chapter House, which is now completely cut out, two very interesting monuments are exposed, one being the stone coffin of an early Archbishop of Dublin, the other the tomb of a female whose carved effigy lies on the upper slab. Both monuments are in excellent per3ervation. During the day there were many visitors to the excavations. Mr. Drew, the architect, under whose supervision the work is being carried out, is investigating the facts connected with the chapterhouse with a view of identifying the tombs which have come to light. The area fronting the cathedral is intended, with the consent of the authorities, to be used as an "open space" fo. - the public, and tho excavations were being made to discover whether any remains of the old cathedral were underground. The chapter house has been buried for nearly COO years, being covered up after the great tire in Dublin in the thirteenth century, by the ruins of the buildings destroyed upon which the present cathedral was erected. It was used at one time as an exchange, and the old Four Courts the site of which has also been foaud, were built upon the cloisters. COMMITTAL OF THREE JUDGES. At the Jersey Royal Court Philip Dubeaume, Clement Nicolle, and William De Gruchy, three judges of the Royal Court, the former chairman, and all three managing directors of the Jersey Banking Company, uow in bankruptcy, were committed for trial charged with preparing and issuing false yearly balance-sheets of the Bank's affairs from 1880 to ISSS inclusive, and distributing among themselves and others dividends of six cent., knowing the bank was insolvent. There were also other charges. Bail in £500 each was accepted. GOLD IN SCOTLAND. There is a report of gold workings being restarted in Scotland. The currency of tho world is not appreciably affected by the gold workings of the United Kingdom. The old gold mines of Sutherlandshire were abandoned long ago because the amount of gold won from the soil was not enough to pay an interest on the capital. Now, however, the crofters and others who find that, agriculture does not flourish arc doing all they can to induce the Marquis of Stafford and other persons to resume gold mining operations, and if, as the result of farther search, there should be fresh and profitable finds, the entire nation would rejoicc with the Highlanders. ELOPEMENT OF A LADY WITH A GROOM. Great sensation has been caused in Cheshire by the elopement of a fashionable and reputedly wealthy young lady with one of Lord Delamere's grooms. The young lady went ou a visit to the county, and elegant apartments were taken for her in the centre of the hunting district. She was very fond of field sports, and thus became acquainted with the groom. One day recently, having stated that she was going to dine out, she is said to have met her lover at a cross road, and both were driven in a hired conveyance to Crewe, where they booked for London. EFFECTS OF ATHLETICS. Certain members of the University crews are suffering seriously from the effects of their exertions on the day of the race. The time in which the race was run does not look fast on paper, but when the conditions are remembered the race was a marvellous one. A more severe struggle was never witnessed on any water, and the oldest boating men say that they never saw or heard of a better contest. Two men in one boat and three in the other did not recover from the.effeets for some hours, and croakers say that some of the young men will never get over the con* sequences of their severe punishment. NEW YORK I'RKE LIBRARY. The annual report of the New York Free Library is a document which the managers of such institutions on this side of tho Atlantic might well desire to possess as a record of their own work. It shows that the most popular works in the collection are those on history, biography, and sciences, and that "no trash, no blood-and-thunder stories have circulated." The only danger is lest the rising generation of New Yorkera should be too painfully earnest. HORRIBLE CASE OF STARVATION. William Stevens, a tailor, of 236, Thistlestreet, Glasgow, was remanded at Glasgow on April 20 for failing to support his children Alexander, aged nine, and Maggie, aged seven. The boy, who was naked, and a perfeat skeleton covered with skin, died in tho house, in which there was no food, fire, or water. His iter, who was also starving, was removed to the poorhouse. A FOX-HUNT ON ME STAGE. A fox-hunt on the stage is the latest sensation of the hour, It may be seen any evening in a new play at the Standard Theatre, London, called " Our t-'ilver Wedding," written by James Willing. Every detail of the chase is accurately given. The meet, the mount, the country-house breakfast, are all accurately represented, and then the scene changes to a steep decline out of a spinney with a thick-set hedge and a brook at the bottom. Out comes a fox from the cover and steals away. After him come the hounds in full cry, and then helter-skelter the whole hunt, who respectively take or are baulked by the formidable leap. The scene is so natural and exhilarating that it is loudly encored by an East-End audience. THE CREDIT ST STEM. Lord Randolph Churchhill's first attempt at legislation was directed towards diminishing the evils of the long-credit system. His proposal was to limit the period during which debts under £100 can be recovered to twelve months. At the same time the late Earl Cairns proposed to reduce the period within which actions may be brought on simple contract debts from six years to three. This proposal of Lord Cairns's has now been adopted in a Bill introduced Mr. by Hobhouse, The attention of the commercial world should bo drawn to these proceedings, which are O f much import to them,