NEWS SUMMARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1024, 16 October 1891, Page 34

NEWS SUMMARY.

MUTINY OF SHIPBOARD. SEDAN DAY IN GERMANY. A GATE-MONEY FLOGGING. DISCONTENT IN GUATEMALA. MURDER BY BOYS. THE QUEEN’S HEALTH. MIRACLES BY TSE HOLY COAT.

San Francisco, September 18. Mr Riddell, proprietor of the famous Break Hall stud, Renfrewshire, sold, on September 14th, 50 pedigree Clydesdales, for exportation to the United States. Berlin is to have an elevated railroad, built on the model of those in operation in New York, with the advantage of the motor power being electricity. M. De Hubert of the Gil Bias, and M. Laurent, of Ls Jour, both Paris papers, f.iught a duel on September 39. De Hubert was painfully wounded in the face. Edward Clark, James Heath, and Thomas Hayes, seamen in the American four-masted t,nip Roderick Birlings, were arraigned before -United States Commissioner Hitchcock, in New York, August 27th, charged with mutiny while on the voyage from Havre, July 2Sth last. The three men mutinied and made an assault c>n the captain, H. H. Williams, and his son the mate. They armed themselves with knives, and threatened to kill the captain unless the ship put back to Havre. They gashed the ship’s hawser, and had they not been prevented weald have cut it through. They were overpowored and brought to New York in irons. The accused men claim that they were triced up by the captain. Sedan Day was celebrated in Berlin on September 2 according to custom with school fetes, services in churches, parades of veterans, and banquets to the various garrisons. A large Imperial crown, eommema ting the victory, wrought in copper, was seen for the first time surmounting the dome of the Reichstag building. Favourable forecasts are made of the sugar beet crop, especially ia Germany, Hungary, and Moravia. Austria’s yield will be in excess of that of 1890, and there will be a great increase in the yield of France. Mrs Jefferson Davis, widow of the exPresident of the Confederacy, has brought a suit against the Belford Publishing Company of New Y'ork for royalty accruing from the publication of her late husband’s memoirs. Two negroes at Raleigb, N.C., sentenced .to receive 39 lashes, asked that spectators be admitted to see the flogging at 25 cents a bead. This was agreed to by the authorities, and the blacks received the “gate money,” enough to pay all costs. With regard to the famine in Russia, the Vossische Zeitung says Russia is undergoing a periodical famine, to which she is subject, and which becomes more serious with each recurrence, owiDg to their primitive husbandry and the indebtedness of their peasants. The Pope has prohibited the church authorities a: Treves from attempting to effect any cures by means of the Holy Coat. The financial condition of Guatemala is represented as deplorable. For the three months previous to September Ist neither the army nor the Federal em;jloy6< had been paid. Scarcity of food in tho capital was causing mnch Buffering. Miss Mary LincclD, daughter of the United States Minister to tho Court of St James, was married to Mr Charles B. Isharn, of Chicago, cm September 2nd, at the Brompton Parish Church. The wed-> ding was of an extremely eimple character. In her hand Miss Lincoln carried an ivory covered prayer book* The walls of an iron foundry in Leeds collapsed on September 9. Two children ■were"killed and two others mortally injured. In a communication, made public on Sep tember S, Mr Gladstone writes in favour of an increased representation of labour in Par. liament, but deprecates the formation of a Labour Party. “ If evory class in the community,” he says, -‘exercised the right to form a paity we should have a queer Parliament.” Crawford and Sheron, two eight-year-old boys, in Liverpool, have confessed that, wanting the clothes of a p’aymate, thoy pushed him into the water, and drowned him, and pawned bia clolhos. Lord Esmal Stewart Gordon, brother of the Marquis of Huntley, and heir to tho Marquiaate, was declared bankrupt ia Don. don on 11th September. He has unsecured debts to the amount of £81,900, and hia assets are placed at £BOOO. The Queen’s health is reported not to be good, and the physicians regulate her diet more strictly than ever. Visitors find a notable alteration in the Queen’s aspect as respects age. The Emperor of Germany is fully confirmed in his determination to have passed at all hazards at the next session of the Reichstag a Bill to diminish and punish drunkenness. The Radical members will oppose it to the uttermost, on the ground that it is an unconstitutional interference with pereonal liberty. Immediately after the Copenhagen visit is concluded, the Czarina aDd Ozarewiteh, escorted by an imposing Russian squadron, will proceed in the Imperial yacht to Char-

bourg. Tho French are preparing to receive their august visitors in a style that has not been seen in France since the days of the first Napoleon. . Peter Sells, one of the proprietors, Mid Charles Stowe, the general press agent of one of the largest circuses that has ever left this coast for tho colonies, are passengers by the Mariposa. Tho show will follow on the October steamship from San Francisco. Maurice Curtis, known In the profession as “ Raoul of Posen,” a play in which he made a fortune, has been arrested for murder, which prevents his iutmded Australian tour, A policeman arrested him for drunkenness, and later on tho policeman wai found with a bullet through his brain, while •Curtis was caught subsequently with the handcuffs still on his wrists. The newspapers are beginning to publish cures wrought by tho Holy Coat—tho restoring of sight to the blind, and the curing of cripples. An abbess had her withered arm restored. Each case reported is said to be sustained by medical testimony, but tho details will not be published till the exhibition of the relic ia iiuishW. HORRIBLE SCENE AT AN EXECUTION. The execution of Louis Bulling, wife murderer, took place at Kansas city on September 4th, and was attended bv circumstances of the most horrible description. Just before the time of his death the doomed man shot himself in a vain effort to commit suicide, and died on the gallows shrieking for mercy and cursing his exeoutiouers. Up to a few days previous ho was cheerful, in expectation of the Governor’s clemency, but when he heard that hi 3 appeal had been denied he fainted, and then bogan to indulge in large doses of opium. Tho sheriff extended the time for the execution one hour, at the criminal’s piteous request, aad also gave him a pint of brandy, but neither the opium nor the brandy had much effect. Then he shot and wounded himself with a pistol, given him, it is said, by his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Mr Lavike. As Bulling sat on the scaffold he presented a revolting spectacle. Blood poured from his shoes, which were filled with it by the wounds he had made, and formed dark pools on the floor of the scaffold, dripping from thence to to grouni below. He cursed and swore at the Deputies, cried and screamed for meroy, and shrieked in terror. Finally he was told to get up, and stand on the drop. He refused, and four Deputies had to hold him while the rope was placed. The black cap was then drawn over his head, and screaming and blaspheming, he shot through the opening. His nock was broken by the fall, and he died instantly. Immediately after the execution Mr Lavike was arrested for handing Bulling the pistol. •

EUROPEAN HARVEST PROSPECTS. Despatches received at London on the 14th September say it is authoritatively Btwted in the north of Europe that the harvest prospects are deplorable; that bread has already gone up SO per cent ; and that famine prices are feared for the winter. In Central Sweden some of the lower valleys have been under water for weeks. Ia Denmark the condition of things is no better, and in both countries the wheat crop Is reported to be entirely destroyed. Unfortunately, the damage is not confined to the wheat, which is the least important of Scandinavian cereals. The agricultural losses in Denmark ara estimated at 15,000,000d015, and as onehalf the cultivated area in Sweden is under water, the los3 there, though no estimate hag been made of it, can hardly Jb_e logs. Hitherto these countries have maintained in good years something like a balance between exports and imports of breadstuff's, sending away oats and barley and receiving wheat and rye. Their contributions to the European market must apparently fail entirely this year, and by the general scarcity they themselves must puffer under the failure of the Russian rye crop. Despatches from Dublin, September Ist, state the crops throughout the province of Ulster are in a pitiable oonditiou, and that in many parts of that province and elsewhere they are almost completely submerged owing to constant rain. In some sections the crops aro entirely destroyed. The River Barrow at Waterford overflowed on September 2nd, and thousands ef acres of land were flooded, crop 3 destroyed, and houses, bams, and other buildings swept away. AN EXTRAORDINARY SH V ADVENTURE. The British steamer Elburz arrived at Antwerp on August 27 from Baltimore. On board was Captain Andrews, of the dory Alermaid, whioh sailed from Boston some time ago on a Translantic race with the dory Sea Serpent. Tho latter arrived at a port in the English Channel on August 5. Andrews said in an interview that ho had good weather till ho was 35 days out from Boston, then a terrible storm oamo up. On August Ist a huge wave filled the Mermaid with 7in of water. The nrxb day the boat was captiz-sd and Andrews thought he was lost. Ho was in the cabin, but managed to open tho hatch and ciimb upon the keel and right tho boat. lie prayed to God for the sake of bis family to give him nnother chance, and ho would quit this business. He then closed himself in the cabin again, and pasted two days and nights in tho same way. The wind all this time continued blowing with such force that when he opened the hatch the little air he respired caused a sound like a big whistle. The lamp oil was exhausted, and being too fatigued to keep watch he lay on the'bottom of tho boat four days uutil picked up by the Elburz. Andrews declares he will. never attempt the voyage again. ANOTHER SEARCH FOR GENERAL GORDON. J. J. Coyle and P. G. Johnson sailed from New York August 29th on board the steamship Servia on route to the River Nile, on what will doubtless be termed a wild goose ohase. Coylo ia familiar with portions of Egypt, having served there several years in the British Army. He says, “ When I was in Cairo I had interviews with three French

nuns and four priests, who expressed a belief that General Gordon is still alive. Upon their statements, which were consistently linked together, and obtained from souroos whioh for prudential reasons I am not at liberty to reveal, I believe that Goneral Gordon is not dead, but held as captive. Tho object of this journey is to ascertain whether he is dead or alive. I will disguise mysc'f as a native, and enter Khartoum or else lose ray head in the attempt.”