Clippings.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 220, 27 November 1875, Page 6

Clippings.

A DRAMATIC DEATH

(From the New York Tribune, September 2.) Marly on Tuesday morning a large company of gentlemen from this city assembled at New Rochelle, on the invitation of Congressman N. Holmes Odell, to attend a picnic or clam-bake, and to meet a number of Long Island pilots. Among the invited guests were Gongressmeneleet Benjamin E. Willis, Edwin R. Meade, Smith Ely, jun., and John 11. Bagley, jun., of Catskill, before whom the delegation of pilots desired to lay a number of facts concerning their interests as a body, and relative to which they propose asking legislation next winter. Among the others were Judge Abraham B. Tappen, of the Supreme Court; Jacob Odell, President of the first National Bank of Tarrytown ; J ohn B. Haskin, ex-Senator Sutherland, Dr. Swinburne, former Health Officer of the port of New York, with others of prominence in the immediate locality. A part of the day’s festivities consisted of a sail in a ideasure yacht from New Rochelle along the sound coast to City Island, in order to view some of the localities which the pilots desire to have improved. City Point was reached at noon, and the party on landing repaired to the grounds of Captain Horton, chief of the Sound pilots, who received them xvith great cordiality, and at once led them to a green ■where a clam-bake was awaiting them. They were soon joined by Senator John A. King, Rev. Dr. Monselle, and Professor Ogden Doremus. The professor, who is spending the summer at Captain Horton’s place, introduced to the gentleman present the Italian artist, Pietro Yiani, who had arrived that morning from New York in order to have another sitting from Mrs. Doremus, upon whose portrait he has been for some time engaged. A few words were exchanged between Signor Viani and some of the gentlemen, all of whom extended him a cordial welcome and requested him to make one of their party. He spoke little English, and with difficulty made himself understood by the gentlemen who did not speak his native tongue. He appeared to be also reserved in manner 1 , and of a melancholy mood during the first part of the afternoon, but this moodiness subsequently gave way to livelier spirits. He appeared to be a man of about thirty-five years of age, and was of medium height, and weight, with dark and handsome features, black eyes, and full black whiskers and mustache. He was introduced as having been attached, at one time, to the Italian Embassy, and a friend of Count Corti, the late Italian Charges d'Affaires in this country. It was stated that he had been residing in this country for two years past, engaged in artistic pursuits. He was known in society here as a romantic young man, with a romantic and unfortunate history, which he kept to himself. He was also known to be in good circumstances. Those of the company who recalled his works which foimd a place in the last exhibition, remembered that they were generally of a sombre nature and upon tragic subjects. Soon after reaching the grounds and being introduced to the company, Signor Viani intimated to Professor Doremus, and subsequently to Senator King, that he had something particularly important to communicate to them; but they either paid little attention to him or the festivities, then at their height, prevented the communication at the moment. At any rate, they joined the other gentlemen at a long table which had been constructed on the green, and at which the clams and wine were being served. Signor Viani also took his seat at the table, and sat throughout the repast in silence and gloomy mood. The speech-making usual on such an occasion followed the lunch ; but the company, instead of sitting at table to listen, grouped themselves on the green. The several Congressmen and the spokesman of the pilots made brief speeches each. Judge Tappen sang a sentimental song or two, and others followed with songs and recitations. Suddenly the young artist asked permission to recite a poem in Italian, but as all present were not thoroughly versed in that language his request was not heeded at once. Professor Doremus, however, assured the company that it was worth while to hear him, as, in addition to being a good portrait painter, he was an excellent elocutionist. On this suggestion, Signor Viani was requested to give a recitation, and ho eagerly and even impetuously complied. He stood as he spoke almost in the centre of the group, his listeners half sitting, half reclining on the turf, some sinokiug, others sipping their wine, looking up to him, interested almost from the first moment he began to speak, on account of the intense and earnest manner of his delivery. Every eye became fixed upon him as ho proceeded, and it was soon seen that he was lost to all surrounding scenes as he became absorbed in the recitation of the impassioned lines from “Pluedra,” which he had selected. As he spoke, the young man, seemingly as an appropriate gesture, took from his breast a locket, which he kissed once or twice during the recitation. Most of those listening supposed the act illustrative of the lines. Near the close of the recitation—in fact, while uttering the last sentence—ho took from his pocket a small pistol, which he placed to his temple. Supposing this, too, to be merely an illustrative gesture, no oue of the company endeavored to

interfere. But when, as he uttered the final words, which, translated, read, “ God, who judgeth all things well, will judge this act of mine,” he pulled the trigger and fell instantly to the ground, the entire group sprang to their feet in horror or admiration. For so completely were most of the company deceived by the acting that they began, at this tragic climax, to applaud, and Congressman Willis, entirely misled, cried out, “ Admirably done !” while another person exclaimed, “ Wonderful!” But Professor Doremus, who understands Italian, and recognised how inappropriate were the actions of the speaker, instantly realised that a real tragedy had been enacted. Exclaiming “ My God ! he has really shot himself,” he ran quickly to the body, and raising Signor Viani’s head, found him still breathing. The now horrified group gathered more closely around, and soon realised that the young man was rapidly sinking. The ball was found to have lodged in his brain, and it was evident that death must follow. Dr. Ellis, a physician of New Rochelle, who was present, at once probed the wound, from which a mass of blood and brains was oozing, and pronounced it fatal. At half-past five, after lingering only a short time, the wounded man died, not uttering a word after firing the fatal shot. The tragic termination of the day’s festivity naturally caused the greatest depression of the spirits of the company, and the majority of them sadly returned to New Rochelle. The body of Signor Viani was conveyed to the House of Captain Horton, aud left in the care of Professor Doremus. No cause could be assigned by his friends for the act except that of temporary mental aberration. His circumstances in life were understood to be comfortable, and if he had serious griefs or complications they were kept hidden as his own secrets. It was stated that the locket which he had kissed contained the portrait of his mother. Society gossip last year had it that Signor Viaui had left his native country in consequence of the unhappy termination of a love affair. He had on exhibition at the National Academy this spring two pictures, called “ The First Grief” and “The Father’s Photographs.” As their names indicate, they were serious in character and design. The catalogue represented them to be for sale at 1200dols. and 500dols. respectively.

ROYALTY AND LOYALTY

(From the Indian Daily News and Bengal

Hurlcaru.)

In all the savage criticism that has assailed the throne during the last ten or twelve years, there has been nothing perhaps that has rankled more in the minds of thoroughly loyal people than the dry arguments and drier figures in which the practical usefulness of royalty has been quietly challenged. For the brutal onslaughts of the more unscrupulous type of democrats, cultivated society has no other answer than mute contempt. And for the cultivated but wild Republican, who goes about demolishing royalty in speeches which are really as sentimental and silly in their own way as the artificial loyalty of Court flunkeys, society reserves that good-natured ridicule that is sometimes more killing than contempt. But the unsentimental Republican, who tots up the value of royalty in figures, and assesses it in a strictly utilitarian fashion, is rather a thorn in the side of cultivated society, which is a good deal given to loyalty in a general way. The age itself is strictly utilitarian, demanding a reason from most persons for any faiths that may happen to be in them, and giving short shrift to popular notions that can offer no decent excuse for their existence. And the Republican who puts himself into harmony with the spirit of the age, and after balancing money and power against human happiness, declares more or less clearly against all royalty that cannot justify its existence, such a Republican, we say, causes a good deal of commotion amongst the respectable societies of the world. For, after all, it is felt everywhere, or at all events among most educated persons, that if there is any justification for royalty at all, kings and queens, and in due proportion princes and princesses, ought to have some very distinct and very important mission in the world ; and when kings and queens, or princes and princesses, live as though they had no particular mission, or as though they made it the business of their lives to frustrate the particular mission with which popular fancy has invested them, even sensible advocates of monarchy are compelled to acknowledge that their principles are in danger. The difference between an English sovereign who fails in his duty and those European tyi - ants who were lately swept off in bushels from the thrones which they dishonored in Italy and elsewhere, involves a question of degree, aud not a question of kind. All royalties of this stamp are failures, though one may fail rather more or less than another. Accordingly, when, in the supreme crisis of her life, the most popular sovereign who has ever sat on the English throne neglected some of her social duties, and the public commenced to growl about the neglect, the most loyal journals in England seriously took her Majesty to task for conduct which involved a threefold wrong—a wrong to the nation, a wrong to the principle of monarchy, and a wrong to herself and her family. Amongst the Court flunkeys who worshipped the ground which royalty touched with its boots, there were doubtless some choice spirits who considered all such criticism gross impertinence. The divine right of kings still held high revel amongst their most precious religious beliefs, and the mere fact of a king or queen having acted in some particular manner, of necessity invested that manner, and its fact, with a special sanctity. But in these days, devotion of this sort is exceptional; and for the most part thoroughly loyal persons admitted the justice of the criticism of the better portion of the press, and deplored the conduct that seemed to make that criticism necessai-y. These incidents of a past day possess a value which is not, we fear, sufficiently recognised to-day—when royalty is as human as ever, and loyalty is just as diversified as then. And the value of these incidents seems to us to

lie in this—that they established at once and for ever the justice of that rule of criticism by which power and wealth are balanced against human happiness, and judgment is given on scientific grounds and with scientific precision, quite irrespectively of the social position of the bosom which may feel wounded by the results. We doubt, indeed, whether any one felt more keenly the shafts that were some years back planted in Queen Victoria’s bx-east than those calmly and reasonably loyal subjects who acknowledged the justice of the assaults. And even the ease and readiness with which mere flunkeys can fling the charge of impertinence and disloyalty at really loyal people, whose real feelings such flunkeys are incapable of fathoming, eutii'ely failed to suppress a kind of criticism, the existence of which was an unquestioned public good. Now, most large truths are eternal, aud carry lessons down all the streams of time ; and whenever we hear of any special fuss that may be made about any specimen of royalty, we feel very much disposed to balance the good of it against the money which it is going to cost ; aud, as a rule, not even charges of impertinence or disloyalty succeed in diverting our attention from a mental exercise, which most sensible persons who try it will find both healthy and instructive. Naturally enough, the approaching visit of the Prince of Wales has given occasion for the repetition of this process, which, if good at all, is good for all occurrences. The Viceroy, having invited the son of the sovereign to become his guest for some months, the visit itself may be said to have been removed for the present from the sphere of discussion. But so long as money, wrung by taxation from a burdened people, is spent on this visit of pleasure, we cannot consent on any consideration, to be silent in regard to certain great principles, which cannot be safely neglected by even Viceroys and Kings—and still less by provincial rulers, police commissioners, aud other small fry of that stamp. It may, indeed, be a question whether the visit of the Prince of Wales can be justified on the highest moral and political grounds; but if it would be churlish to raise this question after it has been practically closed, we feel that there can be no impropriety in appealing to the Viceroy so to take this visit and the necessai-y arrangements out of the hands of pettifogging officials, as to give the people at lai - ge the chance of deriving what benefit can be extracted from it. It will not do, we fear, to answer that the Prince will be the guest of the Viceroy. That is not the fact. Bxxt even if it were, the expenditure of public money introduces into the matter aix elementwhiclx cannot now be ignored. The utmost discontent prevails in Calcutta about all that has hitherto been done ; and we think it only right to appeal to the Viceroy to say whether, in his opinion, the possible elevation of a common-place provincial ruler to the baronetcy, and the probable elevation of a police commissioner to some one civil distinction or anothei’, are not matters of complete insignificance, in compai’ison with the large duty of letting the public at large derive as much good, real or imaginary, and at any rate, as much satisfaction, as can be got out of it by any sort of illusion. We fear that a good deal of illusion of one kind or another must be encouraged during the next four or five months, and we call upon the highest official in the country probably the only official whom the people trust—to place the ordering of these illusions into trxistworthy, i.e., thoroughly disinterested hands. Having made this appeal, we shall await a reply in a practical form before making any further protests.

LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE, (From the Canadian Monthly.)

Turning to the Hindoos, with their cruel and hideous divinities, we are told by those learned in the subject, that there is no part of the Indian mythology which has not some hidden meaning, either philosophical, astronomical, and historical. The legend of the deluge appears in what is called the third incantation, or Vahara-Satara, from the Sanskrit—“a boat”-—which has two stories. One, that for the wickedness of the inhabitants the earth was plunged into a great deep, aud that Vishnu, wishing to resexxe it, descended into the waters and bore it aloft on the horns of his tusks. The other is, that a certain devotee or demon obtained from Brahma the boon of universal empire and freedom from danger thi'ough ixoxious animals, which he enumerated one by oue, but forgetting the wild boar. The demon having thus obtained universal empire seized upon the earth, and carried it with him into the depths of the sea. Vishnu, willing to preserve the earth, took the form of a boar, and descending into the abyss had a contest with the demon, and eventixally slow him and rescued the earth on the point of his tusk. During the time the earth was plunged beneath the waters, another of the deities, Paravati, transformed herself into a ship,called Argha, of which a god, Mahadeva, became the mast; but when the earth was brought up from the waters, Paravati (Argha) and Mahadeva flew away in the shape of doves. These two deities are also typical of the productive energies of nature, and symbols of them are sometimes identified with the first parents of the second world. Sir William Jones has furlxished a translation of the Hindoo story of the deluge, from the Bhagavat, in which Heri, the preserver of the universe, thus directs a pious kiug, Satyavi’ata : “ In seven days from the present time the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death ; but in the midst of the destroying waves a large vessel sent by me for thy use shall stand before thee ; then thou shalt take all the medicinal herbs, all the variety of seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, and encircled by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious vessel, and continue in it secure from the flood, on one immense ocean, without light, except the l’adianoe of thy holy companions.” The myths of Egypt have a heaviness and massiveness of which their deities and structxxres are striking examples. Their

temples of Luxor and Carnac were constructed of such a stupendous size as to suggest the idea that their builders were giants, aud so we look for no romance in their legends. Of their mythology however, we have but scant traces. The Egyptian priests kept their secrets with wonderful tenacity, and allowed very little to become common property. They spoke in parables to the multitude, and those parables were understood only by the initiated. We have not, therefore, that full story of the deluge from them which we are able to find amongst other nations. The Egyptian account, which is found in Plato’s “ Timceus,” after discussing the destruction of the earth by fire, proceeds to discourse of its destruction by a mighty flood of waters, thus : “ The gods, now wishing to purify and cleanse the earth by water, overwhelmed it by a deluge. On the flowing over of the waters certain herdsmen and shepherds were saved by the gods bringing them to the tops of the mountains, but those who dwelt iu the towns aud valleys of Egypt were swept into the sea by the rising of the waters.” Stories about the ark are curious. One is that in the dim mythological years, the eight principal gods of Egypt were represented as sailing over the sea in a curious ship. Another is that Typlion —a personification of the sea, and brother of Osiris—envied and hated his brother, and desired to dethrone him. At last, during the absence of Osiris, he organised a conspiracy, and under the guise of a feast, on the return of the king, he caused a beautiful box to be brought in, which had been made exactly to fit the size of Osiris, and declared he would give the box to whomsoever would get into it. The others tried, but none fitted into it. At length, Osiris, being urged, tried, and immediately Typlion shut down the lid, and caused the box to be flung into the Nile, from whence it floated into the sea, and ultimately reached the shores of Phoenicia, and there Osiris was released. Another account says that the box was an ark of crescent shape, and that at the ancient obsequies of Osiris the Egyptians in cutting wood prepared an ark in the shape of a crescent. This vessel or ark, became known as the Argo, or sacred ship of the Egyptians. WILL-POWER. That there is such a thing as magnetic force nobody who has given the matter the least thought will deny. There is hardly a day passes but we see evidences of its working, especially in our family relations, where there is full sympathy between ourselves and those with whom we come in contact. How often this happens : a party are sitting round the table in perfect silence, when suddenly two members speak out simultaneously upon some subject not likely to have been suggested by anything about them. How often we attract a person’s attention in church or elsewhere by looking steadily at him and thinking earnestly of him. How often when some person is approaching us and we are ignorant of the fact, we are le,d by some unexplainable impulse to speak of him, so that it has passed into a proverb, “ Speak of the evil one and he’ll appear to you”; or this, for those whom we love : “ Speak of an angel and you’ll hear the rustle of its wings.” These are all only slight indications of magnetic power.

It would be an easy undertaking to go on and mention scores of cases wherein mental influence is directly traceable in the ordinary affairs of life, but it is the purpose of this article to call attention to a series of interesting experiments which have been carried on in Paris, and to which the writer has been a witness—in which he has indeed been a participator. To test the absolute force of willpower among persons who do not profess to be mesmerists or “ magnetisers” was the purpose of a little group gathered at a well-known pension in the Hue Balzac. To begin with, there was not a single believer in the doctrines of spiritualism in the party, not one “medium,” not one person who had developed any special will-power in himself. There were ladies and gentlemen, artists, and literary men. A young lady was sent out of the room, and during her absence it was agreed by the party that on her entrance they should all will her to take a certain bookfrom a table, carryit toanotherpart of the room, and put it down in a designated place and position. The subject was led in blindfold, that she might not see the expression on the faces of the group, and was simply guarded by two of the ladies, who walked beside her to prevent her running into the chairs and tables. Without a moment’s, or only a moment’s hesitation, she did exactly the thing that had been designated. The same experiment was tried with different members of the party, both ladies and gentlemen, varying the requirement each time, and was successful in nine cases out of ten. The second experiment was still more satisfactory than the first. While one of the party was out of the room, a certain number was agreed upon, and to this number all the company were to turn their thoughts when the subject returned. Ou his return—blindfolded always—one of the party held up his fingers, a different number each time, and each time calling out, “ Is it that ?” In every instance but one, out of a great number of repetitious of this experiment, the subject called out “Yes” at the right number.

The third experiment, made by another group quite as i o Raucous as the fust, was quite as remark - Mr >. m.yfkh-g the professed mediums do. 1u won u ritten on slips of paper, each < ih s >1 u i, envelope and sealed up. A -ail. kG. u.,; tin u elioaen by lot out of the party, vh.. went out of the room, while one of the names v ns fixed upon by the remaining members of the party. To this name, on the subject’s return, they fixedly bent their thoughts. Ho went to the table where the envelopes lay in a pile, instantaneously took up our. of them, broke the seal, and there, written on the slip of paper, was the name “Agatha,” the name fixed on by the party. Four times out of five this experiment was successful— a proportion quite large enough to remove the result from the range of mere coincidence. Now these are all very simple experiments—experiments which may be tried

by any. one. They are quite important, too, as furnishing a clue to the mysteries of the socalled “ Spiritualists.” They point clearly enough, to the existence of a natural force quite independent of any inference of the dead.—English Paper. ANCIENT ADVERTISEMENTS. (From the Church of England Magazine.) Perhaps the first posted bill printed in England may have been one in 1480, when Caxton advertised the sale of the “ Pyes of Salisbury use not by any means the eatables known by that name, but a collection of rules for the use of the clergy at Easter; which could be bought at the Red Pole in the Almonry, Westminster. . Two copies of this bill are still extant, their size about inches by seven. Booksellers were not long in adopting this plan of announcing their goods. Ulrich Gering lias this distich : “Don’t run away ou account of the juice. Come, rich and poor, this excellent work is sold for a very small sum.” The middle aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral soon became the jilace for affixing these bills, which were called signis, most of them beginning with that Latin word ; and all kinds of barter and disorderly conduct were common in that ancient edifice. Ben Johnson describes one of the men who occupied himself in drawing up those advertisement, one of which may be given : “If there be any lady or gentlewoman of good carriage that is desirous to entertain a, young, straight, and upgentleman, of the age of five or six-and-twenty at the most ; who can serve in the nature of a gentleman usher, and hath little legs of purpose (small calveless legs were then characteristic of. a gentleman), and a black satin suit of his own to go before her in, which suit for the more sweetening now is in lavender (that is, in jiawn), and can hide his face with her fan if need require, or sit in the cold at the stair-foot for her, as well as another gentleman ; let her subscribe her name aud place, and diligent respect shall be given.” The oldest newspaper advertisement is to be found in a German newsbook of 1591. It is the notice, of a book written about an unknown plant, which had appeared near the town of boltwedel, and was said to be an evident sign of the Divine wrath on the wicked inhabitants. The Dutch newspapers took up the practice, which was firmly established in the next. century, Here is one marking the introduction of tea: “ That excellent, and by all physicians approved China drink, called by the Chineans Telia, by other nations Tay alius Tee, is sold at the Sultan’s Head Coffeehouse, in Sweeting’s Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London. ’ Coffee and chocolate were not long after the subjects of many announcements ; une man says he sells “ the right coffee powder, from four shillings to four and sixpence per pound as in goodness; that pounded in a mortar at two and sixjience a, jiound. Chocolate might also be obtained at from four to ten shillings under the house seal—Morat the Great. Negro and mulatto boys, which were then the fashion in England for pages, are constantly advertised for as runaways, and often offered for sale. Dishonest servants who had absconded were but too numerous, and almost all are described as “pock-marked.” So accustomed were persons to the ravages of this disease, that it was not deemed unpleasant. Louis XIV., who was considered the handsomest man in France, was thus disfigured, as well as Madamoiselle la Valliere and other beauties of the period. Houghton, in his weekly newspaper, announced that he would gladly serve the clergy in all their wants, and soon after offers “a vicaridge, and another cure which requires service but once a month, value £B6. Tis in Kent, about sixty miles from London.” The use of second-hand sermons, too, appears to have been well known, as he says, “ If any divine or their relicts have complete sets of M.S. Sermons upon the Epistles and Gosjiels, the Catechism or Festivals, I can help them to a customer.

MOSAIC TOKENS AND SIGNS. (From the Month.) These tokens were originally the shapes of the implements in common use : and the original signs were made by placing hands and feet in imitation of those shapes. But Gnosticism, as I have said, introduced new signs and imitated those of the Christian Church. Now the most ancient Christian sign is that of the Cross. The first Christians made this sign at all hours of the day, aud on all occasions. By this sign, as Tertullian witnesses, they recognised one another. This sign the. Gnostic renegades imitated, and the imitation which has been handed down, and which is now practised by Masons, is exactly what an imitation would degenerate into, which had itself been learned from imitators. The Christian sign was, and is, made with the right hand touching the forehead first, then the breast, then the left shoulder, and then the right. The imitation omits the two first movements, and only imitates the latter in such a way as to illustrate the penalty of the entered Apprentice’s oath, of which I shall treat presently. But a still closer imitation of the original will be found in the ceremony observed by Masons at their official banquets, which are themselves, probably, the continuance of Gnostic Lovefeasts, in imitation, and in ridicule of the Christian agajjse. The Masonic sign made on such occasions with the wine-glass (in response to a proposed toast), is precisely the same as that made by the celebrant at Mass when ho moves (according to the most ancient rite, and as still practised in the Roman Catholic and the Creek Church) the chalice from uortli to south, and from east to west in the form of a cross. The Mason, when drinking a masonic toast says, “Poini, left, right ; jioint, left, right,” moving his glass in front of him northwards, then to the right —that is, in the form of a cross. Of course most English Freemasons are ignorant of this practice in Western and Eastern ritual, which I take to be the origin of this convivial rite. Freemasonry has developed its ceremonies, in imitation of ancient Christian ceremonies, as is easily seen by a comparison of the admission

of an Apprentice Mason with the ceremonies of baptism, he., of admission into the Catholic Church. The one will be found in any manual of Freemasonry; the other, concerning the most primitive form of admitting a oatechumeu, iu a Catholic prayer-book. The candidates (of course I speak of adult baptism, the the rule of the primitive Church) stands without ; is asked what he seeks ; is led into the church. In Freemasonry, the candidate (who is blindfolded, his breast bared, and a cable tow placed round his neck, while a “ Brother ” holds the point of a sword to his breast) stauds without, is led into the lodge, and is asked what he seeks. It is worthy of remark that in the Christian ceremonial the candidate has his eyes open, but in the Masonic ritual lie is blindfolded.

THE TURKISH ARMY.

Herr Von Wickede, the military correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, contributes to that paper some interesting particulars about the lurkish army. In order, he says, to form an accurate judgment as to the military value of the Sultan s troops, an entirely different standard should be taken from that which is usually applied to a disciplined European army. “If compare a Turkish infantry regiment as regards outward appearance, the manoeuvring powers of its soldiers, and the education of its officers, with one of the regiments of any of the great European Rowers, we shall find that it is immeasurably inferior. A squad of raw landwehr recruits has a more martial air than the best Turkish battalion of regulars that I have ever seen. . . . Ou open ground, where good manoeuvring is in these days the most imjiortant elements of success, Turkish army would be simply useless against a well-disciplined European force. A single German corps d’armee would beat 100,000 Turkish troops in the open field. But these badly clothed and armed, ill-looking, undersized, slouching Turkish foot-soidierspos-sassmany qualities which, under good leadership, wouldmake them equal to the bestsoldiersiuthe world. In the first place, their bodily wants are supplied with amazing facility, and their jiowers of endurance are immense. A cup of black coffee, a small hard biscuit of maize, and a few handfuls of rice boiled in water, suffice for their daily sustenance, and if they get a small piece of half-dried mutton once or twice a week in addition, they look upon it as a delicacy.. Their dress and equipment are equally simple. If shoes are scarce, a whole company marches barefoot ; and if there are no. cloaks in store, the men remain in their thin jackets without a murmur. During the last war in the East, I saw Turkish battalions which had not received any pay for six months, whose clothing was iu rags, and among whom a jiair of sound shoes—-even among the officers - -was a rarity; and yet, though thus wretchedly clad, and rationed in a way which would hardly have supplied a soldier of V estphalia or Mecklenburg with a breakfast, these men marched for weeks up and down the steep snow-covered mountains of the Balkan, bivouacked in the midst of storms, in snow, and in ice, and never grumbled at their fate or shirked their duty. Ihe. lurkish soldier never drinks any spirits, he never reasons, executes all his orders obediently and submissively, and regards all his. sufferings and dangers as inevitable dispensations of Providence which should be borne without a murmur. . . . Another of his characteristics is religious fanaticism. Under the. influence of this sentiment he shows extraordinary courage and determination, aud it is probable that these qualities will be strongly developed in the struggle with the “ Christian dogs ’of Bosnia and the Herzegovina. However much we may admire the efficiency of our present German army, it may be doubted whether 20,000 German troops in the Herzegovina would do as much as the same number of lurks. If our men had to fight day and night against an indefatigable enemy, in a half-desert country, without pay or sufficient food, badly equipped, manoeuvring up and down hill, ou the borders of deep precipices, in a blazing sun or an icy hail-storm, always without a roof to their heads, aud often without wood or water, their military looks and spirit would soon disajqiear Another very important quality of most Turkish soldiers is an innate sharp-sighted-ness, and almost instinctively accurate measurement of distances, and the complete absence of nervous excitement. This is the reason why so many of them are either excellent shots or could easily be made so. In the Crimean war the Turkish infantry were for the most part armed with old flint muskets, in so decayed a state that it almost seemed imjiossible to: take aim with them; and yet they shot better tiian either tire English or the French. . .. . This great quality in the Turkish soldiers lias also, as I have been assured by several German officers who served in the Turkish army as artillery instructors, considerably facilitated their training as artillerists. Like most uncivilised nations, many Turks of the lower classes have good hearing as well as good sight. As is the case with the Cossacks, they have a sort of inborn instinct for la petite guerre, and do excellent service in outpost or patrol duty if they are led by tolerably good officers, which is but seldom. . . . On the other hand, most of the Turkish subalterns, and oven many staff officers, do not use majis or other scientific appliances, so that in this respect, even for mountain warfare, they would be placed at a great disadvantage in conflict with a well-trained European army.”