NEWS BY THIS SUEZ MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7975, 15 June 1887, Page 6

NEWS BY THIS SUEZ MAIL.

IS GORDON' DEAD. Sib Richard F. Burton writes to the Academy from Trieste as follows:—"I have just received a note from the Rev. Mr. Robert W. Felkin, dated Edinburgh, April 2. Under the supposition that I am proceeding with an expedition to the Soudan in order to discover General Charles Gordon, he encloses me a note from a youth whom he educated in England for some years, and 1 whom he has now placed at the American Mission School at Assiout. It dates from as far back as November 28. ISS6. The following is the extract' There was a man came from Khartoum and said he was one of General Gordon's soldiers ; he came into class [school] and tho master asked him many questions, and he said that General Gordon had a steamboat, and went down to South, and there was a Turkish soldier whose face was like his, and they killed him and said it was General Gordon. He said a great many things : about Gordon's soldiers, that they were not able to use their guns because they were so weakened with hunger.—(Signed) Sclayman Kabsun.' I see with pleasure that Mr. Felkin never thought that the evidence proved Gordon's death, and con-! ceives many ways to explain bis esoape." FATAL SEARCH FOR SUNKEN TREASURE. Referring to the death of Mr. Tester, the diver engaged to recover the last box of treasure trom the Spanish steamer Alfonso XII., sunk off Grand Canary, the following particulars have been supplied by Messrs C. S. Heiuke and Co., who fitted out the salvage expedition:—"The expedition hai been engaged at the wreck for about four months, during which time the deceased had made in all about sixty descents. Upon SO March he went down and remained longer than was customary or prudent, although he was signalled to come up. He stayed under I water about thirty-sir minutes—an unprecedented time at so great a depth. Upon his return to the surface he seemed quite well—so much so that he avowed his in tention to make another descent. He was strongly urged not to do so, but in about ten minutes went down again, remaining down about ten minutes. Upon returning to the surface there appeared at first to be nothing wrong with him, but shortly after he complained of a pain in his left arm. He was at once taken on shore, and the usual treatment in cases of attacks of pressure was resorted to. A doctor was sent for, and under his instructions Tester was rrmoved to a neighbouring village, where, notwithstanding all the efforts which were made to relieve him, he expired, after suffering considerable pain, on the evening of the following day. He had reported that he had succeeded in clearing away all obstacles to a direct descent to the bullion room, and he seemed to be sanguine about recovering the box of gold. It is feared in his desire to achieve success he overestimated his powers of endurance, which had been proved to be of an exceptional and remarkable character." A HORRIBLE CASE OF TRANCE. The Odessa correspondent of the Daily News sends particulars of a case of this kind, which has caused considerable sensation. Major Majuroff, an artillery officer, aud aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Odessa, aged 35, died as was supposed three weeks ago somewhat suddenly, and was interred forty hours afterwards. His funeral was marked by much military pomp, and by the presence of all the civic and military notables. A few days ago, while the family vault in the necropolis was being renovated for the Russian Fete des Morts, the coffin lid was noticed to have been partly forced open. It was immediately removed, and the body was found face downwards. The face was dreadfully lacerated, and the flesh gnawed from the hands. The corpse was still bleeding, which confirms the statement of a workman that his attention was first attracted by a noise in the coffin, and the unfortunate Major died only on the instant of the appalling discovery. A NEW JOAN OF ARC. The career of a female enthusiast who professed to have received the mission to set everything right in France has just baen closed for the moment, not at the stake, but in a cell at the Prefecture of Police. Marie Costerg, born of humble villagers in Savoy, is said to have been subject in her childhood to reveries, ecstasies, and other sensations of a dreamy and mystic character. She professed the utmost piety, and had on one occasion, while climbing up a mountain, held a tete-a-tete with an apparition, vaguely described by her as a white form, which revealed to her the high destinies which the future had in store for her. Inspirited by these revelations, Marie Costerg resolved on making a move, and she came not to Orleans, for we are in the nineteenth century, but to worldly and frivolous Paris. Her mission led her to take a small room in a quiet house which she furnished, nun like, with two chairs and a pallet ; but it is to be feared that a few walks about the gay metropolis inspired the saintly maiden with more ambitious ideas, for while writing to various personages, including several ministers, in the hope of obtaining interviews, she ordered furniture to the amount of £400. What with these outward and visible signs of comfort and the replies to her applications which she had to show, Marie Costerg soon succeeded in making dupes, especially among the ladies ; but her furniture bill remaining unpaid, she was arrested, and to the magistrate who questioned her, she answered that she had been charged by a person well acquainted with the Comte de Paris and Prince Victor to come to an understanding with M. Jules Grdvy for the repeal of the Expulsion decrees. She added that there was also an idea of a coup d' Mat, and that she had been working bard to save France through the return of the Princes. Unfortunately, all her projects for the salvation of her country have fallen to the ground, for this new Joan of Arc is under lock and key. AN OFFICER CHARGED WITH ABDUCTION. At Bow-street, on May 6, Lieutenant Colin W. Young, of the 2nd Surrey Regiment, stationed at Dover, was charged, under two seetions of .the Criminal Amendment Act, with the abduction of Eliza Aspey, 17 years of age. Mr, Newton appeared for the prosecution, He said the young lady lived with her stepfather, Mr. W. Wyatt, proprietor of the Royal Mail Hotel, Dover. The prisoner was a lieutenant and quartermaster of a regiment stationed at Dover. He was a married man, but notwithstanding this he paid considerable attention to the young lady. He asked her to go away with him, but she at first refused. Then he told her he was very unhappy with his wife, and if she would go with him he would take her away and marry her, and then his wife would be sure to get a divoroe. After considerable persuasion she agreed to go with him, and last Sunday she left her father's house by agreement with the prisoner, and' proceeded with him to London, going on to Liverpool. She passed as bis wife. She was arreßted as she was about to go on board a steamer which was to sail for Boston. The young lady was 17 years of age on March 23 last. When she came of age she would be entitled to £600, aud while at Liverpool the prisoner asked her to write to her executor, and gel; him to advance £400, and with that he said they could do very well in America. The prisoner was remanded.

MURDER OF JEWS IN RUSSIA.

An Odessa correspondent writes:—Eastertide in Russia is a season more especially marked out by the popular and uneducated classes for persecuting the Jews. These manifestations are happily becoming less frequent during recent yearn, under the more repressive measures now generally adopted by the Military Governors. The following caHe is somewhat exceptional, the Russian fanatic not usually having the courage to attack his Jewish neighbours single handed : During the recent Easter holidays a railway servant at Kryshopol on leave of absence, and with a free pass, want to Kief to visit the holy places of the Russian Mecca. On hi's return in the evening he accosted derisively the first Jew he, mot with the Easter greeting, "ChristoH Voskress" (Christ has risen), at the same time plunging a knife into the Jew's abdomen, Th? next victim was a harmless Jew, standing by hia little market cart. Into this victim the Russian plunged his blade to the hilt, killing him on the spot. Six Jews were rapidly attacked in the same manner, two of whom died immediately. The murderer then proceeded to the Railway Restaurant, where he called for some tea, and when the waiter, who was a Jew, approached, he attempted to stab him also. The waiter parried the blow, and called in the gendarmes. As they were attempting to arrest him the murderer again made a rapid out with his knife at the waiter, nearly severing hia hand from the wrist, The

I fanatic was finally overpowered, thrown on the floor, and his arms pinioned behind, A crowd of Jews rushed in to lynoh him, and the gendarmes had the utmost difficulty in preventing them. Ono of tho Jews, unfortunately for himself, got near enough to strike the prostrate murderer on the head, who immediately retaliated with a kick in the Jew's stomach which necessitated his removal to the hospital. The other injured men, some of whose wounds are likely to prove fatal, were sent on by train to Odessa for the better treatment obtainable here. In the end this murderous fauatio will not probably receive more than a few months' imprisonment at the hands of a dozen Jew-hating jurymen. A FRENCH MARRIAGE ARRANGEMENT. About a year ago a Frehoh working jeweller married a laundress, a very hand» some woman, who gave herself out as a widow with a family of three children. While the happy pair were still in the honeymoon the husband ascertained that bis wife was carrying on a flirtation with an elderly and wealthy individual, and he arrived at the conviction that they had been for some timo on very intimate terms. The working jewoller's first impulse was to kill the woman, but he soon determined on treating the difficulty in a more philosophical spirit, and as he found it hard to maintain his wife and her throe children he wont to her lover and proposed that he should then and there take the family off his hands. The other agreed, and a contraot was made to the effect that the working jeweller abandoned his wife to his rival as well as her three children, on condition that he should render her life happy, and bring up the little ouea well ana honestly. A proviso was added that if these conditions were not Adhered to the agreement should be null and void. Oddly enough this contract was actually attested by a mayor in the department of the Orne. Lately, however, the working jeweller learned that the bargain had not turned out well either for his wife or her childreu. The woman was continually beaten by her protector, and the little ones were utterly neglected. The husband at once returned to Paris, where the party were living, and went to a police magistrate and, after explaining the case, implored him to intervene and insist on the bond being duly adhered to by his rival. Greatly to his surprise aud delight he was informed that the contract was worthless, and that ho could take his wife and her children home with him without a moment's delay. The working jeweller lost no timo in following this advice. SHOCKING AFFAIR IN IRELAND. Intelligence has reached Thurles from Kuockalough, a remote district in the Tipperary mountains, about ten miles away, that a woman named Margaret Dwyer had been brutally murdered by her husband, Thomas Dwyer, who is stated to have beaten her skull into a pulp with a stone. The police at once proceeded to the scene of the occurrence. MURDEROUS OUTRAGE AT A PARTY. A woman named Heeler gave a party to a number of female friends in Dublin. A quarrel broke out amongst the women, one of whom stabbed Mrs. Hesler severely in the breast with a knife, and smashed the skull of another woman with a hatchet. Both women are lying in a critical state in the hospital, THE NEW CONSPIRACY. There has been considerable mystery, which has led to many misstatements, concerning the journey of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh to Russia. The truth is, says the Paris correspondent of the Standard, that he started from Paris for that destination, travelling under the name of Mi. Patrick Casey, whose passport he used. At the station of Berlin he was robbed of his travelling hand-bag containing that document, as well as 30,000 francs. The Maharajah naturally applied to the German police authorities with tho hope of regaining possession of his property, and gave his name as Mr. Patrick Casey. His application to the Prussian police remaining without result, Dhuleep Singh wrote to most influential people at Moscow explaining the circumstances, and by their influence soon received the assurance that he could go to Russia and travel there without passport, which was a most extraordinary exception made by the Russian authorities in his favour. The person who is travelling with Dhuleep Singh is a Hindoo, who is half valet, half secretary, and who has gone under various aliases, one of which is Yan Merlandy, He is a British subject, and succeeded in getting his passport at the English Embassy in Paris. Mr. Patriok Casey, though in Paris at tho present moment, has not very long returned from a journey to Russia, where he, so to say, prepared the way for Maharajah Dhuleep Singh. He visited M. Katkoff and many other personages, and it may be said that it is owing to the preparatory work done by Mr. Patrick Casey that the Maharajah was able first to enter Russia without a passport, and then to have access at once to the personages he has interviewed. Before going to Russia the Maharajah was for some months constantly in Paris, where he lived in the strictest incognito. He then formed a sort of alliance with the advanced Irish Revolutionary party, who willingly accepted his proffered aid. The Irish Revolutionists aim at weakening England all over the world, and bolievo that Dhuleep Singh can be of use to them by embarrassiug England in Afghanistan and India. Dhuleep Singh has, says the correspondent, recently issued 'several secret circulars to the disaffected Indian sheiks, recommending them in strong terms to make common cause with Russia. Acting on the Maharajah's suggestion, several Irish Revolutionists are about to leave for the Rnsao- Afghan frontier. As for Mr. Patrick Casey's future movements, he is very reticent about them. THE WAR CLOUDS. The clouds of war seem to rise and sink in the East and West alternately. When the aspect of affairs is threatening in the East the sky clears up in. the West, and when the atmosphere of the West is heavy and foreboding matters begin to assume a more favourable aspect in the East. While the Schnaebele iucident was in a state of suspense the Eastern question seemed to improve ; but now that there is no fear of a present dispute between France and Germany on account of ttie arrest of M. Schnaebele, the state of affairs in the East has this week begun to look more unsatisfactory. There is nothing definite to account for the general feeling of apprehension which prevails, for, practically, tho Eastern question and the Bulgarian problem have not altered from the state in which they have been for some time past. But a certain feeling of uneasiness prevails all over Europe in regard to the cituation in the East.