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Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12763, 3 February 1910, Page 1

France lias N boon stirred by the discovery of two revolting crimes. At Marseilles a vineseller slew his whole family and killed himself. .He shot his mother and cut the throats of nis wife and their three children with a .razor. At a fa mi near Tonncne two awir.s cowherds bent on robbery lure/l a farmer, liis wife, and four domestic servants to a cowhouse, .vlipre all were slaughtered. The murderers escaped to a nearby forest. Kinking is still a popular pastime at Home. The profits of the undertakings have been almost incredibly large. One rink at Jirixton, with a. capital of £1200, has taken an average of £200 weekly. Another rink in London, paid an interim dividoiid of 10 per cent on account of thirty days' working. In Manchester the receipts in one establishment amounted in fourteen 'weeks to . £8768, and the received an average dividend for that time of 109 par cent. In Dublin preference shares in a popular rink improved upon even this record by earning a divideaid of 155 per cent. Over a million of money Jias been invested in the business in England alone during the past two years, and many rinks have earned profits more than equal to their 'capital expenditure. With a crowd of watchful countryfolk round his table at the Smithfield Show recently (says the "Daily Mail"), Mr Batdielor, malinger to Messrs Bellamy, of Jeimyn street, gave a wonderful exhibition of the art of trussing, boning, and preparing fowls for market. Mr Batchclor's experience . of poultry dressing extends over fwtj r years, and the long practice which has made him speedy, as well as perfect, gives his work more the appearance of jugglery than an effort within the scope of the ordinary poultry-keeper or cook. Ho t:iok a fat Surrey fowl, and with a few deft and rapid cuts, pulls, and tucks prepared it for roasting in less than a minute and a quarter. A wonderful torpedo which picks up sound and tracks it down is reported to be in the hands of the British Admiralty, by which it will be subjected very soon to exhaustive trials. The- principle of the microphone is utilised. The "torpedo with a brain," as the new weapon has been dubbed, is fitted with a delicate- mechanism which is controlled by a microphone attached to the torpedo's rudders. When the microphone picks up a sound it deflects the rudders in such a manner as to guide the torpedo straight to the sourcn of the sound waves. Properly aimed, the inventors claim that the torpedo will pick up unfailingly the noise made by the propellers of an enemy's vessel. Further than this, it is claimed that the mechanism is .such .that it can be so adjusted that the torpedo will strike not at the immediate origin of the sound, but 30 or 40 yards to the right or left of the propellors at the will of the manipulator. This feature, f proved, would make it possible to place the torpedo in the vital part of a ship that was steaming across the new weapon's track. Mr. Joseph Marsh, the farmer of Nova Scotia who put a- note in a barrel of apples saying lie wished to correspond "with some fair maid between tho ages of sixteen and' twenty-five," writes to the "Daily Express" to say 110 had 140 replies within a week. The note among the apples was discovered by Mr. J. O. Sims, fruit ami vegetable broker, who communicated it to iihe "Express," in which it was piihlir-shed on October 28th last. Mr. Marsh states tTiat he little thought when he wrote the note that he would recaive so many replies, and states that ho is now •"■happily married. "Many of the young ladies," hp adds "have . asked what tlie prospects would be if they came to Canada; Thciro are mills throughout •Canada where a great deal of women help is ■needed. Wages in a factory would be about £2 16s to £5 per month, while those for housework would be from £1 12s to £2. Canadian newspapers daily, contain advertisements for woinaQ workers." •