BRIFLY TOLD.

Colonist, Volume XLI, Issue 9097, 15 February 1898, Page 4

BRIFLY TOLD.

(From oub Latest Exchanges).

A sad double drowning fatality occurred at Yarrawonga( Victoria) on January 24. Two little boys, James Joseph Butler, aged 11 years, and Bobert McCormick, aged eight yeara were playing on a steamer moored to the river bank, when McCormick slipped over the side into the river. There were only two other boys present. Little Butler, being a good swimmer, heroically plunged into the river, and swam towards McCormick, ! who was drifting down stream with j the current. Butler seized hold of the drowning boy. The latter threw his arms around tbe rescuer's neck, and both went down. On arising again Butler cried out. " Let go, let go," but McCormick held on, and both sank to rise no more alive. The ! bodies were recovered shortly afterwards with a boathook by a laborer named Howell Kyffin, who was attracted by the criei of the other two i

boys. At the magisterial enquiry the splendid heroism of the little Butler was eulogised. His father is an engine-driver at the Yarrawonga saw mill. One of the boldest of the heroes of 1 the Victorian biish fires was the Eev. George Cox, of Thorpdale, desoribed as " one of those poor struggling parsons of the bush on behalf of j whose work appeals are made now and then." It is stated that MrE. D. Hoben, formerly of the ' Evening Post ' staff, but lately assistant editor of the < Sydney Mail ', bas been appointed London correspondent of the ' Sydney Morning Herald.' ; The * leis ' tells an examination ' story. A candidate in the divinity viva voce was asked to translate portion of the Gospels- As he did not stop at the end of that portion, the examiner said, " Thank you, that will do. We are quite satisfied with your paper." "Oh I please," was the answer, •' do let me go on. I should so like to find out how this story ends." Here is a good story in oonneotion with the English Death Duties Act. On the introduction of the new scale of death duties an old titled widower made over his property to his eldest son. Not long after he [fell in. love with a young girl, proposed and was accepted. The old gentleman went to his eldest son, to whom he had transferred his property, acquainted him of his intentions, and asked for the re-transfer of his estate, in order that he might make the necessary settlements. But this the son steadfastly refused to do. The end of the matter was the engagement was broken off, and the father is still a widower in receipt of an allowance from his eldest son. In 1896, British exports to China and Japan amounted altogether to nearly fifteen millions sterling against Germany's total, eince largely reduced, of less than three and a half millions. The tracle of the United Kingdom with China is about onefifth of that country's total trade, and with Japan more than one-fifth. If the whole British empire is included it is at once seen that Great Britain has a tremendous lead of any other country; a London paper goe3 so far as to say that " oar commercial status in the far East is equal to that of all the rest of the world put together," In 1895 seven-ninths of i China's imports came from thei British Empire, and one-ha'f of her exports went thither. As the ' Finan- 1 cial News' remarks, neither the Chinese nor tbe Japanese can be compelled by "the mailed fist " al- ' luded to by the Kaiser in his recent speech to purchase German instead of British goods, and if British merchants are enterprising and British Btatemen ara vigilant British commercial interests need not suffer because of the presence in Cainese waters of a German squadron. A peculiar occurrence is reported to have happened at Orroroo, South Australia, at the end of last week. Several boys were playing "kangaroo hunting." One lad about 13 acted as hunter and the others represented kangaroos. Finding one of the lads too fleet of foot, the ambitious hunter determined to use other means for his capture, so he obtained a gun, which he charged with powder, and there being no shot available, he substituted a handful of pebbles. He then discharged the weapon by means of a lucifer match. The charge entered the arm of the fleet boy, who is named Davis, shattering it and causing such serious injuries as to render his recovery doubtful. The boy who fired the gun has been missing ever since. The British Parliament has met on Sunday eleven times. The fifst occasion was during the reign of Edward IH., and the last in George II reign. SANDERSONS '• BCOTCH ' Established 1846. O.igioal blenders of Whi3ky in bond. DIAD3M TOBACOO T, 0. William*' Finest Aromatic. Dr R. F. Horton, in his book entitled " Women of the Old Testament ; Studies in Womanhood," handles the subject at issue with vigorous vivacity in a striking chapter on Huldab, the prophetess. Dr Horton protests against what he calls the " perverting superstition " which dooms women to silence in the Church, " for," he aska, what are the facts ? What happens when a woman is able to burst tha bar of her invidious fate and to follow the dictates of the spirit ? It is found at once that the prophetic office is just one for which she has exceptional qualifications by nature ; and under the touch- of grace these qualifications become even more marked and indisputable Who could have listened to Mrs Booth (of the Salvation Army) without the sense of the authentic voice." Dr Horton, himself, remembers hearing Mrs Booth addressing a orowded and uproarious , meeting in Oxford to wbich dignified Dons had coma to criticise and sneer, and undignified undergraduates had come to hoot and shout her down. «• But Dons and undergraduates alike were impotest as the lions of Daniel's den. They were awed into silence, hushed into attention. No one could evade the the impression ; few will ever lose the effect. It was the voice of God, speaking through the lips of a mother and a wife, a prophetess of His own orda : ning."