General News.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5105, 28 May 1885, Page 2

General News.

The English Saltation Army authorities hare announced a new scheme of campaign for use in town and country villages where there are no public buildings. They are to be called forts, and manned by cadets and officers, who will perambulate the country in them. The Sayings Banks ia the British Em« pire have £90,000,000 of deposits, and about 5,550,000 of depositors. The amount though great is not extraordinary for so wide an empire, and compares unfavorably with the United States, where the sayings have risen to the enormous sum of £202,000,000.

The latest religious sect in Russia is that of the Jerusalemists. As a distinctive sign they wear on their chests a card with a priuted {dispensation given by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to all those who come to visit him. The members pledge themselves to make at least one pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Their meetings are held at night, in places which are lighted up by no other light than that of their faith. For two centuries the entire industry of Mittenwald, a town of Bavaria, shut in by snow-clad mountains and dense forests, has been violin-making, for which the surrounding forests furnish the best of material. Every yard is crossed by a labyrinth of ropes and poles, on which hundreds of violins are hung up to dry. Every kind of stringed instrument, from the finest violin to the cheapest banjo, is manufactured and shipped in large quantities to all parts of the civilised world.

" A portion of the war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles was imposed upon a tribe of Turkomans, who had fought against the expedition from Orenburgh. Kauffman sent for the elders of the tribe, and declared that a part of the indemnity must be paid by them within a fortnight. Instead of waiting the appointed time, he gent out a large detachment under Gene-* ral Golovatchaff to ascertain what chance there was of the payment being made. This General gave an order to his soldiery not to spare either sex or age. Men, women, and children at the breast were slain with ruthless barbarity ; houses with bedridden inma'es were given up to the fiery element—women, aye, and prattling babes, were burned alive smidst the flames, hell was let loose in Turkomania. And this, the Russians would hare us believe, was done to further Christianity and civilization. This is the sort of Christianity! which some people wish to ace established in Constantinople. Would they like to see this kind of civilization next our Indian frontier P"—Burnaby's " Ride to Khiva."

It appears to be no uncommon thing in the United States for men and women who have beeu divorced to re-marry their repudiated partners. A Vermont paper contains an account of a case in point A woman lately applied to the County Court at Island Pond for a divorce from her husband, on the ground of incompatibility of temperament. The decree was in due course announced, but instead of going away in opposite directions the emancipated pair left th« Court arui-iu-urm.'

The man iosisted upon seeing the woman first to the nearest railway station, and and then all the way to her house, thirty miles off'; and era he parted from her he had persuaded her to marry him once more. Still more curious is a story which is reported from Lewiston, Maine. A woman called to see a lawyer in that town, and having reminded him that twelve months before he had been instrumental in procuring a dirorce for her, explained that she bad since become engaged to her late husband, and that she wished to sue him for his broach of promise. to marry her a second time. ' - ■

The Tagblatl says :— ■■ It most not be supposed that India alone is in queition, or that Russia contemplates the immediate conquest or India. When once the Russians shall be established at Herat, they can easily seize Persia, and ft large portion of Turkey's Asiatic possessions will then fall into her hands Russia will thus slowly make her way to the Mediterranean and the Bosphorus. Hence it is eminently probable that Russia means shortly to place Persia under her domination. As a matter of fact, the question as to the pos« session of Herat is merely the Eastern question in a new form, and of far greater dimensions than formerly. The fight for the pearl of Asia may be regarded as a struggle for the supremacy of the world." Ireland is still greatly superior to other countries in its capacity for manufacturing linen. Her spindles number 875,788. France comes next with 5C0.C00. Then Austria and Hungary, 384,908; Germany, 318,467; Belgium, 316,040; Scotland, 265,263; England and Wales, 190,080; and .Russia, 160.0C0.

The death is announced of Mr John King," the first man who signed the teetotal pledge in England." He died at Ainsdaile, at the age of ninety. He signed the pledge in 1832, and was the only surviving member of the seven men who signed this pledge at Preston. At Hammersmith, on February 13th, a man named Andrews prosecuted his child, eleven years old, on a charge of picking his pocket of eighteenpence. The father was severely condemned by the Magistrate.

An experiment which seems (a contemporary says) to haTe interested the New York public, was recently made by a blind man, who undertook to walk as freely and easily by ear as any other person not deprived of sight could do. He told those who had assembled in the streeti to witness the experiment that the fine, glassy, open, brown eye» he boasted of were ornamental, not useful, and to convince certain incredulous newspaper reporters of the truth of his state, ments, he took a button-hook from his pocket, tapped his eyeballs with it, so that the tinkling sound, which proved that they were made of glass, might be heard. He had carefully educated his ear, and could tell by sound where to walk and how to govern his course, and in support of this assertion he started off, head erect, walking so rapidly and with such perfect ease, that no one meeting him could hare believed that he was blind. Now and then he stopped to listen i orery sound arrested his attention, and so fine was his sense of hearing that words uttered in a low tone inaudible to those near him, were distinctly audible to himself. He even detected the kind of boots some of the reporters wore, whether single or double soled, of a common or superior quality, and accomplished various other marvellous feats to the astonishment of the public, After walking with the utmost facility, and without the aid of a cane, for several hours, he needed refreshment, and guided by his ear—or perhaps in this instance by his nose—detected and entered a bar. Mr Webster, a recent traveller iv Asia, states that he has lived four months at the height of more than 15,000 ft. above the ocean, and that his pulse, which normally. only beats 63 per minute, seldom fell below 100 beats per minute during the time he lived at that altitude. A run of 140 yards would quicken both pulse and respiration more than a run »f 1000 at the sea level.

It would be scarcely proper to call San Francisco a moral city. Iv fact, a local journalist says it is " about as bad aa it can be." During the year 1884 there were ninety three suicides, of which twelve were women, and the murders averaged one a fortnight, while the Courts grafted 392 divorces, mostly for desertion, intern* perance and cruelty.