ALL THE WORLD ITEMS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 16

ALL THE WORLD ITEMS.

(From Special Telegrams to the London Dailies). DECORATION PRICE LIST. VIENNA, May 2. A nobleman whose title dates from the fourteenth century has been put on his trial here for fraudulent transactions in connection with the sale of titles,* orders, and decorations. In the course of the proceedings it transpired that the defendant, Baron Rollendorf, guaranteed to provide any of his clients with the title and arms of an Italian earldom for the sum of £3OOO, the title and arms of a Polish barony for £2OOO, the title and arms of a San Marino earldom for £IOOO. He further professed to be able to obtain an English ducal title in return for a payment of £20,000. Baron Rollendorf’s transactions were found to be fraudulent in every detail, and he was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment. BERLIN “INNOCENTS” CLUB. BERLIN, May 3. A few' more details of the result of the preliminary examination into the “Innocents’ Club” cases have again leaked out in spite of the extreme caution of the police. The police are still on the track of the man Wolff who played such a leading part of late years in the club’s transactions. It is now stated that this man succeeded in relieving the late Prince Alfred, of Saxe-Coburg of the sum of £4OOO in one evening. A Hungarian baron is also mentioned as having been a frequent visitor at the club and as having lost £SOOO ; his name, however, has not yet been made public. Extremely interesting details are prophesied when the case is tried. It is also stated that ladies of the demimonde will pay a large role in the trial, as they helped largely in attracting the “innocents” to the club. ENGULFED UNDER THE ICE. ODESSA, April 2. A terrible and curious accident is reported from the village of Snamensk, in the Government of Orel. A few days ago, when the spring thaws had begun to raise the ice on the river Nugr, where the village stands, a miller hired a number of peasants to break away the dam. The peasants were, all standing on the ice, which seemed firm enough; suddenly, however, it burst beneath thenweight, and, engulfing the unfortunates, instantly closed again over their heads in such a way, as to render any assistance utterly impossible. No less than 28 men thus perished. DONKEYS IN BERLIN. BERLIN, April 21. The German Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has long been trying to abolish the custom, so prevalent in Berlin, of using dogs as beasts of draught. In winter the poor animals suffer extremely through having to tread in the salt scattered on the tram rails to get rid of the snow, and through their feet getting no firm hold on the wet asphalt. In summer they are easiiy overcome by the heat. Major Wagener, the active spirit of the society, concluding (in view of the apathy of the authorities) that the only way out of the difficulty was to get costermongers and other small dealers to use donkeys instead of dogs, went to London last year and arranged for the purchase of Irish donkeys. A cheaper offer, however, was afterwards accepted from a dealer who has imported donkeys, and will deliver them in Berlin at a cost of 80s each. The first consignment has arrived, and there has beensuch an eager demand for them that the dealer feels confident in increasing the number of his next consignment to 100. The donkey can draw a load seven or eight times greater than that drawn by . a dog.lt can also, while costing no more to feed than a dog, be worked from 20 to 25 years, whereas dogs are worn out in three to four years. BLACK SEA TO ADRIATIC. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 20. Servia returns to the charge on the subject of the Black Sea and Adriatic Railway w-hich was first broached here by the Legation in July last, but has not been pursued owing to the unresponsive spirit in which the Porte received the proposition. The scheme is that Servia should construct a railway from Gladova, on the Danube, up the Timok Valley to Nisch, and thence by Kurshundji to a point on the Turkish frontier in the direction of Mitrovitza.

This line would be joined to the Roumanian system by a bridge over the Danube between Gladova and TurnSeverin, whence there is a railway to Rustendji on the Black Sea. Turkey is asked to continue the line from the Servian frontier by Mitrovitza and Diakova to San Giovanni di Medua on the Adriatic.

In a 'Note presented two days ago to Tewfik Pasha the Servian Minister revives the subject, and urges the prompt realisation of the great advantages w-hich the project holds out both to Turkey and to Servia.

As regards Turkey, I fail to discover any advantage, either commercial, strategical, or political, in the proposed railway. It would cost the Porte over a million sterling, traversing a thinly-populated region where meagre agriculture to provide for local wants is the only industry, and it would necessitate the maintenance of a. naval force at the terminal port in tho Adriatic. But as regards Servia, the advantages are visible enough. It would connect “Old Servia” with the kingdom, and greatly facilitate the political propaganda w-hich Servia diligently carries on in furtherance of her desire to secure North Albania for her ow-n portion when the Macedonian scramble conies on. It is scarcely matter for surprise that the Porte should look coldly upon the Servian scheme. “DER VIVISECTOR.” BERLIN, May 2. The opponents of vivisection have devised a new plan of showing up its horrors. Dr Ernest Arthur Lutze, President of the Berlin section of the International Union against Vivisection, has written a play called “Dor Vivisector,” which has just been privately acted before the members of the union. Considered as a drama, “Der Vivisector” is not a success, but it certainly attains its object of portraying the cruelties of vivisection in a most convincing way. Dr Martius, the viviseetionist, is shown making experiments on unsuspecting patients of the institution to which he belongs. The most telling scene is w-hen an assistant inadvertently draws aside a curtain and reveals the inside of the vivisection room. A magnificent dog is just affectionately offering his paw to the vivisector to whose knife he is about to be sacrificed. The Berlin theatrical censors (the police) will not allow- the piece “for various reasons” to be produced in public. Dr Lutze is also at present carrying on, in association with the well-known German singer Lily Lehmann, a campaign against the practice of killing singing birds for the ornamentation of ladies’ hats and bonnets. BRIGAND MANIFESTO IN SARDINIA. ROME, April 22. Sardinian brigandage has a characteristic of its own. It is not branded by public opinion as a crime: on the contrary, it is surrounded by a halo of glory. In the eyes of the half-savage islanders the outlaw- is a hero, whose praises are sung in many rude ballads and celebrated in primitive verse by wandering bards. So prevalent is this opinion that the brigands appear to consider themselves the persecuted victims of the gendarmes, and assume an attitude full of offended dignity. Incredible as it may seem, a great number of these banditti, many of whom had lived as outlaws in the impenetrable forests of their native island for the last 25 years, have w-ritten to the King during his visit asking for safe conducts to the royal presence in order to set forth their grievances and obtain redress for the persecution to which they are eing subjected by the gendarmes. Among these strange epistles the most notable, perhaps, is one from a celebrated bandit of Nuoro, w-ho has been “wanted” for 32 murders, besides minor offences. The King’s presence in Sardinia did not seem to have had the effect of awing the natural sovereigns of the island even into temporary inactivity, for while the royal party was at Sassari the famous brigand Budroni caused a manifesto to be affixed at Ozieri, not many miles distant, of the following tenor: “We hereby order all the tenants, workmen, and contadini on the estate of Signor Carta to leave the latter’s employment and service within eight days, on pain of death.” This means that the unfortunate Carta, who has incurred the brigand’s displeasure, is irrevocably boycotted and ruined, and will in all probability have to sell his property and leave the island to save his life. DEATHBED REVENGE. VIENNA, April 25. The following story of the vendetta of a countess readies me from Trieste : The Count and Countess Napodauo lived happily together on their estate at Matuggacci, a village on the Istrian peninsula, until the Count fell in love with the daughter of the local doctor, Concetta Devajo by name, a charming young girl of 18 years. Count Napodauo deserted his wife, and eloped with Concetta Devajo, w-hoss scruples lie overcame. The Countess Napodano obtained a divorce from her husband, who then married Concetta. Tw-o years later, Count Napodano and Countess Concetta returned to Matuggacci. The former Countess Napodano, after being cast off by her deathbed. Hearing of the arrival of her former husband and quondam rival, she sent a message to the latter that she would like to see her before she died. The Countess Concetta, feeling many qualms of conscience, and wishing to humour the wishes of the dying woman, went to see her. The invalid asked her to stoop and kiss her. As the fresh, young face of her rival came near her ow-n the dying woman raised herself, and, by an almost superhuman effort, bit a piece clean out of Concetta’s cheek and

mouth, then fell back dead, with a contented smile on her features.

Concetta was disfigured for life, and her husband, the fickle Count, has already left her for a new love. MARBLES OF PENTELICUS. The fame of the marble quarried in Pentelicus is as okl as the ancient Greek classics, and it is painful to read that toe methods of quarrying it at the close of the last decade of the nineteenth century are scarcely less primative than tucy were in the days of Phideas. From details given in the annual report of the British Consul at the Piraeus, it appears that this unfortunate state of things is due to the marble w orkings of the historic mountain being in the hands of small rustic owners. The one modern process introduced by these manglers of marble is blasting which wastes almost as much good material as it secures, and explains the fissures in so many of the blocks. Gradually, however, an English company is acquiring the marble quarries of Greece, and has now laid its hands on the north side of Pentelicus, where white marble of the finest quality is being obtained. However even British energy cannot in a clay get over the stage of non-deve-lopment in which tlie most famous marble yielding mountain in the world still lingers, and until the line of rail now- being run from Athens to the workings can be completed, as it is expected to be during this month or next, Greece must continue to be almost as much the exclusive patron of her own quarries as she was when all the rest of the world was barbarian.” LOTTO IN ITALY. ROME, April 23. The Italian lotto, a w-holesale gambling system not only encouraged, but managed, by the Government, who -.erne a net yearly profit of £2.480,0000 from their uqestionable speculation, is invariably associated with superstitious practices and very often with crime. On Friday last a serious accident occurred at Genoa, two horses bolting and falling headlong from an elevated piazza into a street several feet below-, where they were killed, upsetting a lamp-post in their fall. ... Now- the popolino, or plebs, immediately profited by this tragedy to play the following numbers: 2 (number of the horses), 5 (equivalent of horse), 90 (meaning accident), and 16 and 40 (the lumbers painted on the lamp-post, which was also upset). By a curious fluke every one of the numbers came out, and it is calculated that over six million lire —£252,000 —have been won. So great was the affluence of winners at the" lotto-shops that payment had to be suspended, pending the arrival of funds from the Treasury at Rome. The general rejoicing, however, was saddened by a revolting tragedy. A policeman had told his wife to stake one lira on the winning numbers, and hearing that they had come out, rushed home in order to get the ticket and cash the amount of his winnings. To his diappointment and despair lie found that the poor woman had thought it wiser to invest the money in some articles of pressing necessity for the miserable menage, and in a fit of ungovernable rage he extracted his revolver and shot his wife, inflicting fatal injuries. MUSIC AND MURDER. ROME. April 18. Extreme excitability and a passionate love for music are not uncommonly united in Italians, but owing to the combination bloodshed and murder resu’ted a short time ago at Alessandria, when tw'o friends, Ferraris and Bagliani by name, came to blows because the latter maintained, in spite of the other man’s arguments, that “Lohengrin” and the “Gioconda” w-ere one and the same work by Verdi. The enormity of this assertion so irritated Ferraris that he fell on Bagliani with a dagger and killed him. He was arrested, and at the trial did not make the slightest attempt to cover liis guilt, merely remarking that the provocation had been too great for human patience to bear. The jury were apparently of the same opinion, for they only gave him lour years’ imprisonment and condemned him to pay £BO to the murdered man’s widow. This sentence need not surprise English readers, as Italian juries appear to place very little value on human life. Quite recently a man convicted of having killed his father under particularly revolting circumstances was sentenced by the Assizes of Aguila to mght years’ imprisonment. CORPSES CASED IN ICE. NEW YORK, Sunday. I had an interview- to-day with Professor Tripier, who claims to be the discoverer of liquid air. He tells me that he has now- solved the problem of preserving corpses. To this end he constructed a refrigerator, in which he placed a corpse a fortnight ago, and he has since succeeded in keeping the temperature to 250 under zero. The body is still perfect and frozen into a solid rock. To illustrate this he broke a toe from the body with a hammer and reduced it to powder. The New- York Morgue superintendent, Mr Burns, has ordered the construction

of several compartments fitted with Prof. Tripler’s mechanism. “The twentieth century,” says Trip’er, “will see a graveyard revolution, cremation or inhumation becoming less and less frequent, thanks to my discovery.” AMERICAN MINERS’ STRIKE. WARDNER (Idaho), Sunday. The miners in the Coeur d’Alene mining district have been on strike for 10 days principally as a protest against tac Bunkerhiii and Sullivan Mine, where non-unionists are now employed. The owners acceded to the strikers’ demands for an increase of w-ages, but refused co recognise the union or discharge nonunionists. This so angered the men that yesterday several hundred unionists and thensympathisers seized a train at Cannon Creek, 20 miles from this place, a-J came down here w-ith 30001 bof "iant powder, with which they destroyed the Bunkerhiii and Sullivan mill and other buildings, doing damage to the amount of 250,000d015. The non-unionists had quitted the mine on the approach of the strikers, but the latter, through a misunderstanding, fired on their own pickets, killing one and wounding another. —“Reuter.”