GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9253, 5 January 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

'Determined to riSe. Ik the year 1784 a person passing near the military station at the Barriere Foissonniere, m the outskirts of Paris, might have seen a young soldier assisting a markefa gardener in the cultivation of hie plants— now digging, now watering, now weeding and again gathering the crops from fcfia ground and packing the fruit in baskets for the markets of Paris. This younnfellow was the son of an ostler, and havinjr lately joined the army, was lying with hia comrades in the neighbouring barracks. He had made a resolution, however, to rise in his profession, and had set himself to work to accomplish his object. His firsb want was books for the purpose of study, and to supply this he hired himself out' during his leisure time, to a market gardener, for whom he laboured two days for a franc, until he had realised a sufficient) sum to purchase the volumes upon which he had set his mind. This done, he set to work with equal diligence to study them, and uniting a practical attention to tho details of his profession with personal bravery in the field, he rose by degrees to the command of an army; and though ha died at the early age of twenty-nine— having been mysteriously poisoned—he lefb a name behind him which will demand and obtain honourable mention so long as tho wars of France are matters of history. The voluntary labourer of the gardener died as General Lazare Hoche. A YOUNG GIRL COMMITS A SHOCKING CRIME. Olga Bardianska, a depraved and callous girl, though only 15 years of age, has committed a dreadful crime in Russia. One night she crepb to the side of the bed in which her father was sleeping, and cut his throat from ear to ear with a kitchen knife. This horrible act of parricide she committed out of revenge for the dismissal of her paramour by her father, who had taken that step in order to pub a stop to tho illicit connection which he discovered had sprung up between them. The girl then eloped with the young man—Alexel Nava. rovicz, a clerk in her father's employ. They have just been arrested at a railway station on the Austrian frontier, and handed over to the Russian police. a madman's suicide. William Brook, an inmate of the Cane Hill Asylum, near Croyden, determined to die. _ While engaged in picking stones ho ran into the highway, threw himself under a waggon with a load of two tons, and tho rear wheel passed over his shoulder. Ho jumped up, remarking, "that has nob killed me," and ran on to the line. Ha faced an express train, and was cub to pieces. At the inquest the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased committed suicide while insane, and recom. mended that an additional attendant should be in charge of men when working on tho farm. TRACKED BY SPANISH GIPSIES. Dr. Gowing Middleton, who killed a gipsy guide at) Cordova in self-defence, and who ia at present staying at Scarborough, is being watched by several foreign gipsies —presumably Spanish—who, it is inferred, have followed the doctor to England, with the object of avenging their comrade's death. The other night Dr. Middleton was followed by two of these men, and ha ultimately escaped them by seeking refuge in a cab. He is, however, on his guard, and doubtless (says a correspondent) will be able to take good care of himself should he be attacked. UNNATURALLY BRILLIANT EYES. " Did you notice that girl's eyes?" asked a doctor, in a large gathering in New York. The reporter addressed had not, but a few minutes later, when he met her, he noticed their unusual lustre. " It's belladonna," said the M.D., "and you have no idea of its use. It is used chiefly by j young ladies who have light eyes, and ib ■ distends the pupils until the eyes look as ! dark and deep as those of any Spanish I beauty. One peculiarity of its effect is I that it causes partial blindness, and I have j often seen a society lady at a reception, where the light was very bright, run against someone or something that she was apparently looking directly at. The continued use of it not only affects the eyes, but tho nerves of the face, and often produces muscular contraction, that causes the skin to wrinkle in the region of the eyes, and sometimes a fulness under them." INITIATION OF PROFESSOR BALDWIX. At a late meeting of the Strand Lodo-ev 1957, at the Criterion, the W.M., Brother W. T. Madge, presiding. The ceremony of i initiating Mr. Thomas Scott Baldwin, aeronaut of the Alexandra Palace, was performed in a very perfect manner by the W.M. In reply to the toast of "the initiates," Professor Baldwin said : I thank you for the appreciation you have shown me this evening. I am very pleased to become a member of your valuable order, and I am only sorry I have not joined the order long ago. All I can say is that I think I have missed a very great deal in nob joining the order before, and going through the valuable service. lam only sorry that I have to leave you so soon ; probably in a week I shall be on my way to Australia, but I shall return again in June, when I hope to be here for four or five months. I do not know whether I shall take out my naturalisation papers, and become a citizen of this country—l have been treated so well since I have been in London, and I think ib one of the grandest citie3 in the world. I am also proud to be a member of one of the best conducted lodges in this great City of London, and your kindness to-night) makes me feel very proud. THE GUILLOTINE IN PARIS. Mathelin, the navvy who murdered his friend, Eugene Oudin, a gang-man of street sweepers, was executed the other day on the Place de la Roquette, Paris. At twenty minutes past six, when the prison doors opened to let the condemned man pass out, comparatively few people had assembled to witness the tragical spectacle. Mathelin's appearance was most pitiable. He was in an advanced stage of consumption, and already as pale as death. He reached the guillotine with difficulty, supported by Abb 6 Faure, the_ prison chaplain. The execution was achieved in the shortest possible time, as ten minutes after the condemned man was waked the knife of the guillotine had severed his head from his body. Mathelin, doubtless, deserved his fate, as he decoyed his friend into a wood, and there strangled him, in order to steal the five hundred francs he knew be had in his pocket. THE THOUGHTS OF THE DROWNING. It is well known that people who have just escaped death by drowning say thab during the last period of their immersion, after the conscious struggle for life has ceased, they recall, with incredible vividness, all the events of their past life. Admiral Sir Francis Beaumont gave a very clear account of his emotions under such ciroumsbances, which is quoted in Harriet Martineau's " Biographical Sketches." He first thought of the accident which had just token place, the awkwardness that had produced it, the effect ib would have on his father, the manner in which the latter would break it to the rest of the family, and of a thousand other things connected with home. Then his reflections took a wider range, and he recalled his last cruise, a former voyage and shipwreck, his schooldays, with the progress he had made and the time he had misspent in them; even his boyish pursuits and adventures recurred to his mind. And all this took place between his losing consciousness and his being- taken out of the water—that is, within a space of tv,o minutes. ELOPEMENT OF A LADY. The fashionable society of Bath liaS been shooked by the reported elopement of a young lady with her manservant, a married man with a family. The lady, who is about 30 years of age, was well known in the district, and on the death of her father a few months ago she set up housekeeping on her own account. She engaged the man with whom, it is alleged, she has eloped as her butler, whilst his wife had to do the work of the house, and an arrangement was made that a relative of theirs should look after the children. Ib seems thab the partiality of the mistress for her butler excited, and naturally so, the ire of the butler's wife; but it was little suspected that matters would_ end as they have done. The young lady is possessed of ample means. butlec '" I ~ves behind him a family of four.