News and Notes.

Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 3, 20 April 1895, Page 6

News and Notes.

During’ the recent severe weather iii Scotland, Glasgow had something like 2000 men employed in breaking stones at a shilling a day, with an additional couple of meals, and from a public fund of something like £IO,OOO some 30,000 starving men, women, and children were relieved. In the country districts the privations of rich and poor were altogether of an extraordinary character. Here, for instance, is one curious effect of the storm. In order to get a loaf a Glenlisa inhabitant had to wire to a neighbouring town for it. The loaf cost 4d, the telegram 6d, and cost of posting’ 7HI.

In the Edinburgh Bankruptcy Court a tale of money-borrowing woe was lately unveiled. Bernard Franklin, a jeweller, failed with debts under' Li,ooo. He had borrowed money at the rate of one shilling a. month for each £1 on bills, which is sixty per cent per year. Franklin went on borrowing' LIOO a year at this ruinous rate of interest, and was obliged to pay the money-lenders with the creditors’ money, until about as much interest had been retunied as had been paid in principal. In the Highlands and in the southern districts innumerable deaths from exposure have been reported. In the Fort William or Far Lochaber district the renewed snowstorm culminated in :a blizzard, which swept along with it blinding clouds of snow from the ground, and whirled them about like •chaff. Deer were driven down from the forests in herds. One magnificent specimen was discovered in a garden at Blairgowrie, but it successfully ■evaded capture. In the Bannock Moor district the deer w 7 ere so tamed, however, that they could scarcely be kept out of the cottages, and for several days they gathered round the embedded engines on the West Highl.iud line seeking warmth.

At a recent gathering’ of colliery representatives in Glasgow the keynote was a depressed one. Speaker after speaker told the same tale. There was also unanimity in the view that the prolonged coal strike of last summer has seriously jeopardised the coal trade in the West of Scotland at least. Ominous hints of reduction in the wages were also thrown out, and the workmen were in an indirect way told that if employment was to be found for them they would require to assist the owners by sharing their losses. The competition between Scotch and Belgian and German ironmasters was also dealt with, and one speaker of authority asserted that the reason why the British ironmasters are unable to compete successfully with their Continental rivals is soleljl- - account of the lower wages paid on the Continent, the latter accepting sixteen shillings where the British workmen demanded twenty shillings.

The Bishop of Peterborough liars expressed his disapproval of the refusal of the Vicar of St. Martin’s, Stamford, to allow the burial service to be performed over the body of a parishioner, concerning whose death a coroner's jury had returned a verdict of ‘ Found drowned.’ His lordship has informed the Rev. Mr Jones that he was not justified in the course wdiich he adopted. Suicide is one of the three grounds which the law allows ‘ for deprivation of the prescribed rites of Christian burial,’the other tvvo being in .the case of ‘ the unbaptised ’ and the excommunicate.’ But with regard to suicide, it has been laid down, says the,bishop, ‘that it applies only to those upon whom a verdict of felo cle se has been returned by the coroner's jury, and that it is not for the minister to exercise his own judgment in such a matter.’ ,

E verything in . .Germany. .. is dbne with military precision, esveh playing on the piano. One is reminded of this by reading pf the; difficulty a London police magistrate experienced the other day in deciding how late a person may play the piano, and yet not be a nuisance to his neighbours. He;fixed it. at. ll p.m., the time of closing public-houses, so that if a harmonic ..meeting happen to, be on, there need,, be no , fear of being indicted. Ill's Worship was not called upon to decide how early one may begin to play. Perhaps the present weather puts out of question all thoughts of getting up in the small hours to practice in the dark and cold. In the time is fixed at 9 p.m., beyond which no citizen shall play, bub, per contra , playing is legalised as early as 6 a.m. There is no summons or appearance before the magistrate ; the policeman calls next day for a shilling at the house where he has heard the piano going after hours the night before. If. at an hotel, he calls ard gets it from the porter, who takes care the same shall figure in the bill of the culprit. Though the class of dog ,seen at the late show in the Agricultural Hall, London, was exceedingly good from the showman’s point, it yet afforded a national proof, if such proof were wanted, that most varieties of the dog are degenerating fast and shockingly under the evil influences of shows. This of course is most remarkable in the case of the collie, which has of late years lost size, strength, and beauty of markings. Mastiffs have fallen into such desperate decay that even dog show judges were shocked at the tottering animals brought for their inspection ;, and now an attempt is made to rehabilitate a beast which in his best days would at least have had a, chance with an unarmed tramp. One was glad to see otter hounds, quaint creatures who are too seldom seen at clog shows. I know that the Devonshire men swear by the fox hound for otter hunting, but the Cumberland men are still staunch believers in the ancient breed of special dogs for this sport.