GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11854, 4 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

' , "t Jit EPIDEMIC OF. MARRIAGE. ' . , '•/ ;Servia is in trouble now. with an epidemie - ■ ..-.-' ' , -..■.: ■•■■:..■■.'■.■■■■.■ ,■■;.,-■■;..■■■■. ■:.-...■** .■■...,■■■■.'■ ■,;■■.■,.,.;/■■■'',:? of marriages. The cause is the system of f§M. marriage banks founded as an encourage-' ment to thrift, but.which have.proved to /': have quite an opposite effect. The young ;■•'/;';;, men and maidens of Servia begin paying : in to these institutions at'an early clay on the promise of a premium on marriage. Immediately a small sum has been accumulated the .desire for marriage grows overwhelming, with the -result -that the first offer is snapped up. In consequence prematurely early and unhappy marriages are " general. ■ The 'matter has now reached such lengths that it is seriously troubling the Govern;ment, and,. tho- advisability of ; abolishing these banks, which are held to be the root : of the evil, is being debated. ; A CALLOUS CRIMINAL'. Sentence of death was passed at Northampton Assizes lately on Alec. Claydony a shoe operative, for murdering! his wife. Prisoner killed tho woman with a formid- x able file while she lay asleep in bed on a Sunday morning. The murderer then slept by the corpse for two hours, and afterwards cooked some eggs, had breakfast, and went for a long country walk, eventually surrendering to a village constable and confessing the crime; ■ ' - - PRETTY. PASSAGE-AT-ARMS. Mr. W. L. _ Alden suggested some time ago that, in view, of the enormous amount of Writing signed;" Andrew Lang," it was ;'■ '' only reasonable to suppose that it was the result of a syndicate of authors, and that no such man as Andrew Lang existed in the flesh. That is.: an/old story. Mr. Lang's retort is new. He, replies that, not only is ho a real man, but that he wrote all the later works of Buskin and Tennyson, and all of "the humorous essays and correspondence of W. "L. Alden." He also speaks of "My pseudonym, 'W. L. Alden.'" Mr. Alden has decided to" make a collection of certain of his early " idiocies" (the term is: his own), and publish them with Mr. Lang's name on the title page.—Sketch. ■ •• INTELLIGENT ANTICIPATIONS. Were the Russians to set about extending their line from Kushk to Herat the English would at once reply by continuing the British Indian railway to Candahar. Consequently, the events of the immediate future :in these: regions imply ; the I commencement of a struggle which has,been preparing for a century, and the result «f which will be of immense importance for the,fate of the. whole human race.—Pester Lloyd, Buda- . pest. ' , ' . • ■'... LIBEL ACTION SETTLED. A libel action - brought bv Mr. Charles '""''-- Miller, manager of Sadlers' Wells Theatre, ~ against the , proprietors of ;' the People was settled by the defendants agreeing to indemnify Mr. ; Miller against tie expense to which he had been put. The libel com- • plained of was the publication of an irrelevant statement made by a witness at an inquest. , Mr.; Justice Lawrence said thai ' the case raised a point which had never been decided, viz., whether something that took - place in a court of justice which was not - material to the determination of the inquiry was privileged. Here they had what he thought he might call a drunken man, or at all events a man in a very excited; state, and he thought he could hardly direct the jury that the publication of what he said was a fair and correct: report of a judicial • proceeding. ' FUTURE OP ENGLISH SPEECH. The speech of the cultivated Englishman is more musical and pleasing than our own... His voice is better, his modulation is more varied and rhythmical and 1 better suited to the * thought. To assert that English as spoken in America will become the standard throughout the world is to say that a retrograde movement will bo made, for certainly that '.would be a retrograde movement which; should make the strident tones, and monotonous inflection of the American, the stand-, ard of English speech.'—Times, Philadelphia, - .THE NEW POSTAGE STAMPS. The npw. stomps, with the portrait of . King Edward, are being printed by Messrs, De la Rue at the rate of ab0ut.40,000,000 a week. Over 500,000,000 have already, been " turned out. The portrait of the King is; from a design by Mr. Emil Fuchs, the sculptor, the profile facing left, like that of the late ; Queen on the present stamps. The '.% head is enclosed in an oval, with bay leaves on the left and a branch of an oak on the right. Above is the Imperial Crown, surmounted by cross and ball. : Oh either side ;| of this, in the form of an arch broken by •:; the crown; are the words " postage and :/ revenue" in white letters. At the foot of the stamp is^its' value, also in white letters. The colour is red instead of lavender. This • [ will serve to bring the stamps into conformity Avith those used -by the other coun- . . tries of the Postal Union. The number of * •:.': penny stamps used in England reaches the I formidable figure of close on 2,500,000,000. per annum.' A NOTABLE WEDDING. New York society was astonished on De* ■■* cember 2 when it was learned that Frank. Gould and Miss Helen Kelly, : grand-daught-" ei\ of Eugene Kelly, the ; noted ; California ? banker, had been married at half-past five o'clock on December 2, at the home of Miss i Kelly's mother, / 17, East Thirty-second- : street. The young people were married in [the Protestant faith by the"'Rev.: Dr. Greer, j rector of St. Bartholomew's :Episcopal Church. The wedding was very unostentatious and was attended by but very few. The marriage was decided "on only a few hours before the ceremony occurred. The drawing-room was hurriedly but exquisitely decorated in white roses, chrysanthemums, and maiden-hair ferns. There were no attendants, not even a maid of honour or best man. Mrs. Kelly gave her daughter away. The bride was attired very simply, but elegantly, in white satin, and wore a string of magnificent pearls, ■a : gift '; from > the bride- - groom. She, carried; white orchids and lil- v lies of the valley. i Much surprise is caused by the fact that. Dr. Greer performed the ceremony, as Miss Kelly has always been & Catholic, and only recently her mother declared that she had become a Protestant. . DIVINES WHO SELL WELL. "Besides those of the King and Queenportraits of ladies! sell by far the best," says Mr. Russell, the well-known photographer,' in the Temple Magazine. The. illustrated .papers have killed the demand for rhotos. of statesmen and authors,"and I cannot name one who sells at all well.' "For Mr. Gladstone there was a great.demand,Vahd I have no doubt; there would; be still, though not nearly so much as in the days when portraits in the papers were few and far between." "What about His Majesty's judges?" A decided drug was the sum of Mr. Russell's experience on this point, orders only coming in for single photos "Do portraits of leading divines sell well?" "Yes, some of them ;i; do. There is a good demand^or the Arch- , bishop; of' Canterbury,; and especially, just ';;■?: now for Dr. Ingram, the new Bishop of London." "Of all.Nonconformist ministers, tho Rev. Hugh Price Hughes' photo, sells the best." "And how about the. other ministers?" "-■'.' Of; course -we dispose of a ; good / number, but the sale of them individually does not approach that of Mr. Hugh Price : Hughes'." AN ACTOR'S SECRET OF SUCCESS. Mr. Charles Richman, who has been playing Mr. Charles' Wyndham's part in "Mrs. Dane's Defence" in America, learned from Mr. James A. Heme, the manager, the trick of writing and committing to memory certain lines; to say to himself at important crises in a play while listening to.the person who is talking to him. For. instance, in. "Mrs./ Dane's Defence," during the. long' speech, of confession, he is repeating inward- ' ly: "My God, and this.is the woman my boy loves! ; I cannot ; give her to him, and yet if I refuse my consent it will be like to break his heart.''. With these thoughts fixed in his mind, he is, to quote his own 'words, "kept keyed up in the story, ready to look my cue as well as speak it when it comes." IN THE DAYS OF THE CORN LAWS. Dr. George Mac Donald's father, a Huntly man, was a successful merchant who did an ; extensive business in oatmeal, and was, , moreover, a quaint character. His business : ; was flourishing at the time of the Anti-Corn Law agitation, and in some way the people J got the idea into their heads. that the mil- -/ lers were storing up corn for sale at famine prices. They decided to mark their disgust and contempt by burning old Mr. MacDonald •• in effigy, and they were about to ■ ; set a light to the figure, when the good man ■ :)i himself came along, hopping on his wooden leg.*" Stopping to look at the figure, he said, quietly, "Yes, boys, it's not at all bad; but it's a great pity you've made the wooden . leg the wrong one!" The effigy, we are told, was. not burned after all, * /./"•;;■;: : '^o;v//H'/;.:./:. ; ;:/-/%A/^f^ >■-■/■.;■■■ ; .- ■'.-; ■■■>-". - • -■; ■■■:■:.■-.: a i '■*,„'•