( Concluded in our next.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 3, 17 October 1890, Page 7

( Concluded in our next .)

Sunday observance is steadily gaining ground in Paris. In the west end the great majority of the shops are closed and the railway companies have lately agreed not to reckon Sundays in charging for the warehousing of goods. The post offices, too, are to close after September 1, at 6 p.m.. instead of eight, and the two evening letter deliveries are to be abolished. The Clarendon press has brought out for Mr. Stokes " Anecdota Oxonifnzia-hives of Saints from tbe Book of Lismore. " The Book of Lismore isa manuscript wntien between the years 1450 and 1500 for Finghin MacCarthargh Riaghach, an Irish chief, who had married a daughter of tbe eighth Earl of Desmond. It was found in 1814 at the Duke of Devonshire's Castle of Lismore in a passage which had been walled up. A remarkable Bwimming feat baa been accomplished by Davis Dalton, an American " back swimmer." He has succeeded in Hwimming from Gris Nez to Dover in twenty three hours and a half. Dallon, however, has not beaten the record. Fifteen years ago Captain Webb swam across the channel in about the same space of time, and later Mr. (Jovil got over it in twelve hours, Swimming is an excellent art, and too much cannot be said in favour of its cultivation, but in this as in all other matters sensationalism and excess are to be deprecated. Dalton has undergone a degree of suffering which will probably tell upon him for the rest of his life, whilst, the success of his risky feat is no fresh revelation of the powers of human endurance. — Liverpool Catholic Tivws. Flushed with the success at the last elections, the Socialists of Germany aie perfecting their organisation and endeavouring to strengthen their forces. They have just published a manifesto which traces ths lines of future organisation. After October next a general convention of the German Socialist will be held each year, «nd from amongst the Socialist members of the Reichstag will be appointed a committee to guide and direct all Sk-cialistic operations in and out of Parliament. The new programme emanates from Herr Bebel and his friends. It must certainly be admitted that for energy in the propagation of their doctrines, they set those who differ from them an example worthy of imitation. The future will belong to men of action. Jußt now they are celebrating the Jubilee of the Abbe Simon, an old military chaplain. The Abbe was a man of extraordinary courage, and in one battle was the first to mount the earthworks of the enemy at the head of his battalion. He won euch distinction on other occasions as to obtain numerous decorations. One would imagine that such facts would have saved the Abbe from the persecution of Bismarck. On the contrary, he was imprisoned for six months at Frankenstein for having carried eway the Blessed Sacrament from a church the moment the apostate pastor, installed by the government, arrived. From 1873 to 1878 it was a penal law in Prussia to celebrate Mass, administer the Sacraments to the Bick or baptise infants. Ttey had a curious way in Germany for rewarding their heroes.