County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser Abergavenny and Raglan Herald Usk and Pontypool Messenger and Chepstow Argus

The Government of the Congo State having made some preliminary experiments with car- rier pigeons between Boma and Banana, which have turned out very successfully, has decided tb introduce this mode of despatch-transmission into the interior of its territory. The pigeons imjuried from Europe have become thoroughly natised.

FIGHTING IN ROUMANIA. I FIGHTING I ltOUMANIA. A number of grave encounters between peasants and troops are reported from Rou- mania. At Crewdia, where a fierce battle took place, the peasants made six assaults on the town. The troops were relieved by artillery. and the guns turned on the attackers. Several hundred peasants were killed and wounded. In the Vlashca district the marauding peasants were brought to bay. On being sum- moned to -disperse they fired on the troops, who replied by firing three rounds from a field-gun, killing 70 peasants and wounding some 200. A large crowd of rioters in the Argesh district attempted to raid a large store of Martini- Henry rifles kept in the arsenal in the town of Tirgoviestea, but were repulsed by the troops. They then set fire to a number of houses. The disorders at Mzaoeni have been sup- pressed, twenty-five rioters being killed and wounded. Five hundred incendiaries were dis- persed by the troops, one of them being killed. A terrible and most sanguinary battle was fought between a great crowd of revolting peasants and a large body of troops in the village of Stanesti and the surrounding dis- trict. An army of peasants, numbering fully 6,000, after capturing and murdering an officer of troops, a senior lieutenant named Nitzu- lesco, attacked a considerable body of troops under Major Orescheanu. The troops were speedily reinforced by six companies of infantry, two squadrons of cavalry, and a battery of artillery, and a fierce battle took place, lasting for some hours. The peasants fought with the utmost ferocity, but they were no match for the trained troops, and when the fighting ceased it was discovered that the peasants' casualties numbered fully 600 killed and 400 wounded. The casualties amongst the troops were trifling. The battle waged over a wide area, and during the course of it three villages were almost totally destroyed by the cannonading of the troops. A large body of peasants who had devastated Bailesci marched to Giurgiu and attacked the troops. The artillery fired four shells, killing 35 rebels and wounding 126 others, whereupon the besiegers fled. The peasants at Romanatz fought with great ferocity, and the troops were so angered by the death of three of their offi- cers that they showed no mercy. Artillery was also employed near Cucujeshti, where 50 peasants were blown to pieces and more than 100 wounded. It is stated that two rebel leaders who treacherously assassinated a. cap- tain were blown from the mouth of a field gun. Railway passengers arriving at Bukharest re- port that the line beyond Berlitori is brightly illuminated for miles by burning villages. There is also great pillage in the Danube districts. The Roumanian magnate Grigoriu has gone mad because all his estates have been devas- tated by the pe sants. The latter also attacked the chateau of M. Cantacuzene, the former Premier of Roumania, but they were driven away by troops. It has been found necessary to guard the Royal palace at Bukharest with fnilitary cadets, as many soldiers of the regular army have shown themselves to be in sympathy with the peasants.

I HELPED BY THE PRINCE. I Tite Prinee of Wales was able to give practi- cal and timely help in a carriage mishap which occurred to a party of holiday-makers in Old Windsor. The carriage, containing two men and women, overturned, and the horse's legs became wedged under the debris. The occu- pants, who escaped uninjured, were vainly en- deavouring to lift the heavy vehicle to release the animal when the Prince of Wales happened to drive up in a motor-car. Showing excellent mechanical knowledge, the Prince pointed out that the carriage must be taken to pieces if the horse was to be got safely up, and sent to his car for tools. With these he himself set to work to unscrew various parts of the vehicle. It proved to be a tedious job, so he sent a man to Runnymede Lodge, where a (crowbar and an axe were borrowed. When they arrived he showed how the wheels and axle could be wrenched off, himself taking an active part in the process. The horse was ex- tricated after half an hour's work. The occupants of the carriage were unaware of the identity of their assistant until he gave half a sovereign to the driver, and told him it was a present from the Prince of Wales.

I DOUBLE FARM TRAGEDY, A double tragedy occurred at Rookery Farm, Preston Deanery, a hamlet four miles from Northampton, where a farm hand named Lewis Jones cut the throat of a servant-girl named Winifred Griffiths, who had rejected his suit, and then hanged himself from a tree. Jones was twenty-two years old, and the girl nine- teen. They both rose at 5.30, and when their mistress came downstairs half an hour later she was surprised to find neither of them about, and none of the housework done. The girl was lying outside the kitchen door, with her throat cut, and a little later a rail- wayman going to work found the body of the young man hanging from a. tree a mile away. He had previously tried to hang himself from a beam in the barn. The young couple were at chapel together on the previous night, and the jealousy of Jones was aroused by the girl walK- ing home with another young man. The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of Wilful murder and felo de se."

EX-AMBASSADOR'S DEATK, The death took place on Saturday, at Wan- tage, in his ninetieth year, of the Right Hon. Sir Henry George Elliot, who served as British Ambassador in Constantinople and in Vienna. Sir Henry sprang from an old Whig family, being the second son of the second Earl of Minto, and therefore an uncle of the Hon. Arthur Elliot. He entered the diplomatic service in 1841. He was British Minister at Naples when Gari- baldi, invading King Francis II.'s territory, took possession of it in the name of Victor Em- manuel. Sir Henry returned to Italy as Minis- ter to the newly-united kingdom in 1863. Four years later he was appointed Ambassador at Constantinople. In 1878 he was transferred to Vienna, where he served as Ambassador until his retirement in 1884. The present British Minister at Athens, Sir Francis Elliot, is a son of the deceased diplomat. )

I MAIL-BAG ROBBERY. It was reported by the Glasgow postal autho- rities that a robbery of parcel mails was dis- covered when the Caledonian express from Glasgow reached Ardrossan with the mails for the Belfast boat. All the parcel baskets were in- tact when the train left Glasgow, but at Ardros- san it was found that eight baskets had been ransacked, and a valuable registered parcel from Canada was missing. The parcels were in a van next the engine, and it is believed that the thief got in the car- riage next the van at Glasgow and clambered along the footboard into the van while the train was 111 motion. An Ardrossan signalman saw a man opening the door of the van as the train began to slow down, and the officials believe that the thief dropped from the train just before it entered the station.

Judge Willis at Southwark suggested to a woman debtor who hailed form Stamford-street that it was not a very bright street, and she at once replied: "Oh, it's all right." "Your cheerfulness is surprising," replied the judge. "Pay 2s. a month. I think that will do for Stamford-atreet." An inmate of the Middlesex County Asvlum, at Napsbury, Herts, has been living with a needle in her heart. On her death, at the age of 36, the needle was found. It was stated at the inquest that she had been attended for heart trouijle, and her case had greatly per- plexed the medical staff.

NEWS IN BRIEF. < Tragedies and Disasters. A girl named Montague, from Lower Ed- monton, while playing on the banks of the Lea on Monday, leant over to dip her hand- kerchief in the water, fell in, and was drowned. Robert Robson, a musician, of Silkworth, who was injured in the Leeds express acci- dent at Felling, died on Monday afternoon in Newcastle Infirmary. This is the second death, that of Mr. Watson, of Stockton, being the first. I Mr. James Beal, a solicitor, of Exeter, on Sunday night was found in his bath with his throat" cut and a gash in his leg severing an artery. He was 60 years of age, and had been very despondent since the death of his wife abo-iat three years ago. Mr. Sebastian W. Nolan, brother of Colonel Nolan, ex-M.P., died suddenly while walking on the golf links at Knockarry, about ten miles from Galway. He was about 70 years of age. A bov named Joseph Hassall, of Longton, Staffs, "died on Monday from injuries re- ceived in play. Another child threw a ginger- beer bottle which struck him on the head. Thomas Walker, a ferryman, fell over- board and was drowned on Sunday night while he was taking a load of passengers across the Trent at Stoke Bardolph, Notts. The passengers paddled the boat across with the floor boards. An elderly woman, named Ryall, of Cam- berwell, S.E., wm lighting a candle when the flame was blown against her chiffon scarf, and a celluloid comb which she was wearing caught fire. She died in hospital from shock. Mr. William Seatree, a J.P. for the coun- ties of Cumberland and Westmorland, was found hanging dead in his cellar at Penrith. David Smith, a master shifter, was acci- dentally electrocuted at a colliery at Fence Houses, Durham. He came into contact with a wire conveying a current of about 500 volts. Accidents. An omnibus containing a pleasure party for St. Anne's, near Blackpool, collided with a tramway-car at Lytham on Monday and three persons who were riding on the top of the omnibus, which was overturned, were severely bruised, the driver having his head cut. Several others were badly shaken. Over .£600 damage was done on Monday by a fire in the armoury of the Pontypridd de- tachment of the Glamorgan Imperial Yeo- manry. At Redhill a motor-car ran over an old voman named Bigley, who is lying in a dangerous condition. The driver of the car went off without offering any assistance, and the Redhill police are trying to trace the owner of the car. The Grimsby to Lincoln fish train collided at Brocklesby with the New Holland to Lin- coln goods train. The engines were over- turned, and the lines were blocked and strewn with wagons. Two men were injured. A serious moor fire, on the estate of the Duchy of Lancaster to the north of Clough- ton, near Scarborough, was caused by some hot clinkers, which were thrown out of a steam roller, setting fire to the hedge at the roadside. The only cotton spinning mill in Ireland has been burned to the ground in Belfast, The owners are the Springfield Spinning Company. The fire spread very rapidly, and the workers had to fly for their lives. The damage is estimated at < £ 15,000. Ardenconnel House, Gareloch, the Scottish headquarters of the Co operative Holidays Association, has been destroyed by fire. Told in the Courts. For using a trap to catch chaffinches in Epping Forest a man named Rose was fined Xl and costs at Epping on Monday. "Because of his advocacy of Socialism in season and out of season, he has been unable to get regular employment," said a solicitor at Skipton of a man named Sherwood, who was sent to prison for three months for neglecting his children. When a labourer was charged on Monday at the Stratford Police-court with intoxica- tion, a policeman said that the man offered him £ 5 to lock him up, but when they got to the police station he told the policeman that his "pal" would pay the money. The man who failed to keep his bargain was fined 2s. Gd. A woman who was fined for being drunk at Lambeth stated that she was thfe mother of seventeen children. Judge Woodfall, at Westminster, gave judgment with costs in favour of the Multi- Colour Painting Co., Ltd., who sued Mr. Sam Loates, racehorse trainer and owner, for £ 42 lis. lOd. for calls (with interest) on shares in the plaintiff company held by de- fendant. Notice of appeal was given. The World of Sport. Mr. J. B. Allison, the Irish Rugby inter- national footballer, has died of pneumonia at Ottawa. Owing to the fine weather the yachting season promises to commence earlier than usual this year. There has been great activity ia building yards. Mr. Jay Gould, the amateur tennis cham- pion of the United States, landed at Ply- mcuth from the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinz Wiihelm on Monday evening. Mr. Gould has come to England to compete for the championship of Great Britain, as he aid last year. He was successful a day or two before sailing in retaining the championship of America against Mr. Crane, who also comes to London this year to compete. Mr. Walter Winans, the champion re- volver shot of England, has won new laurels by carrying off all the prizes for rifle-shoot- ing during a two-days' competition on March 30 and 31 at the Gastrime Reunette range, in Paris. The trophies include two gold plaques and silver and bronze plaques. The score with which the two gold trophies were won has once only been equalled in the 70 years of the existence of the range. Mr. Thomas I'Anson, formerly handi- capper under the National Hunt Rules, died at his residence, Walton-on-the-Hill. He was a brother of Bobert I'Anson, the once famous cross-country jockey, and of Mrs. John Nightingall, widow of the late Mr. John Nightingall, trainer, of Epsom. In order to encourage the considerate driv- ing of motor-cars, the Motor Union has de- cided to issue a special car badge. The union has reserved the right to secure the return of the badge from any motorist whom it is con- vinced is guilty of reckless driving or neglect of the amenities of the road. Music and the Drama. The management of the Shaftesbury Theatre announces Saturday, April 27, for its first performance at that theatre of Her- bert Leonard and Walter Slaughter's roman- tic light opera, "Lady Tatters." "Compromising Martha," Mr. Keble Howard's now familiar little comedy, will serve as a curtain raiser to the "Palace of Puck" at the Haymarket Theatre. Military and Naval. Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Scott, inspector of target practice,, it is stated, is to command a sea-going squadron. Rear-Admiral Jellicoe succeeds him. The Prince and Princess of Wales, with Prince Edward and Prince Albert, were pre- sent at the final tie of the Army Football Cup competition at the athletic ground at Aldershot on Monday afternoon. The funeral of the late General Sir Alex- ander Robert Badcock, formerly Quarter- master-General in India, took place at King- ston, near Taunton. Lieut.-General Sir. Bruce Hamilton has been appointed to command the Aldershot Army Corps during the absence of General Sir John French on leave. National and Political. At the Shop Assistants' Conference, Mr. J. A. Seddon, M.P., was appointed Parlia- mentary representative of shop assistants. When Parliament reassembles, it is stated, the question of widening the scope of the Royal Commission to inquire into the duties of the Metropolitan Police will be considered. The selection sub-committe of the Scottish Modern Art Association, which has been formed to secure representative specimens of contemporary Scottish art for the benefit of the nation, have acquired by purchase the fine landscape by E. A. Walton, R.S.A., at present being shown at the Royal Glasgow Exhibition of Fine Art. The death is announced of Mr. William Curling Anderson, who was one of the founders of the City Liberal Club. He also helped to found the National Liberal Club, of which he was for long vice-chairman. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman states in a printed reply to a question of Mr. Parting- ton, M.P., that the number of magistrates appointed in Great Britain since February 1, 1906, was 3,213, and the number appointed in the preceding five years was 6,032. Mr. Bryce arrived at Ottowa on a visit to Earl Grey. Informal discussion of outstand- ing1 question between Washington and the Dominion is expected. No official negotia- tions are taking place, said Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has ac- knowledged the receipt of the memorial, organised by the Anti-Tea Duty League, and urging the removal of the duty, or a sub- stantial measure of relief being included in the Budget. From Other Lands. The dressmakers' strike in Vienna is at an end. Mr. Rockefeller has given the town of Cleve- land, his summer home, Forest Hill, as a, public park, with an endowment fund of Y,400,000. Dancing and the sale or use of tobacco or liquor aris to be barred. The Basuto chief Mothethi Letsie (a rela- tive of the late Lerothodi), who killed an elder brother during a quarrel in 1891, has been liberated after serving sixteen years as a convict at Capetown. A severe explosion occurred on board the French Torpedo-boat No. 147. The explosion was caused by the bursting of a boiler-tube. The steam penetrated to the machinery, and two sailors were badly burnt. The accident was due to negligence. The Servian anti-regicide paper "Za Otaz- zinu" the offices and printing presses of which were destroyed some months ago with the connivance of the Belgrade police, has begun to appear again under the editorship of Captain Milan Novakovitch, the leader of the military counter-conspiracy at Nisch. The new editor has organised the staff on a military basis. Canada would not be drawn into European militarism said Sir W. Laurier at Ottawa. He hoped to make a preferential arrange- ment with Mr. Deakin. He had no hope of much practical result from the Colonial Con- ference. The chief warder of the Lanstrasse Prison in Vienna received an unusual compliment on his birthday. The prisoners presented to him an illuminated address, in which his considerate treatment of them was extolled, and which ended with the words, "Three cheers and many happy returns to our dear chief warder." Other Interesting Items. In place of the horsed dogcarts which have been driven by constables with messages from Scotland Yard, motor-cars having the royal monogram on both sides' were used for the first time, on Monday. Considerable excitement was added to the holiday scene at Barnet on Monday by the appearance in the streets of a stag which was chased by about fifty motor-cyclists for seve- ral miles along the Hatfield-road. A disgraceful attack upon Jewish lads has occurred at Whitechapel. They were set upon by a large gang of hooligans. Sticks and belts were used, and one fighter was badly injured. In Oxfordshire and South Warwickshire a series of thefts of brass sundials from gentle- men's lawns have taken place. News of the Churches. Archdeacon Emery, of Ely, has resigned, and the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, Fellow of Trinity and Lecturer in Economics at Cam- bridge, has been appointed to succeed him. With a view to settling the religious diffi- culty, Mgr. Brown is promoting a conference among Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Non- conformist leaders. The Archbishop of Canterbury is willing to join in the confer- ence. Social. The Duchess of Portland on Monday at- tended a competition among girls' clubs in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, held at Mansfield, and in reply to a vote of thanks said she was very interested in physical drill, and would be pleased to give a silver shield for competition next year. The Princess Royal, the Duke of Fife, and the Princesses left Gibraltar on Monday afternoon for England on board the steam- ship Persia. The Princess appears, says a Reuter's telegram, to be enjoying very good health and to have benefited a great deal from her sojourn at Gibraltar. On behalf of the Westminster Hospital a special festival dinner is to be held on May 10 in the hall of the Inner Temple. The Lord Chancellor will preside, and titled ladies will act as hostesses. The Hon. Algernon Grosvenor, a brother of Lord E bury, has just died, aged sixty. He served in the Ashantee war. To celebrate the safe return from Jamaica of Sir Alfred Jones and his party, the Duke of Marlborough gave a dinner at the Consti- tutional Club. Sir Frederick Treves is to preside at the third annual dinner of the Society of Dorset Men in London, to be held on May 6 at the Holborn Restaurant. It was decided at a meeting of Belfast citizens to erect a memorial to the late Sir Daniel Dixon, M.P., who was Lord Mayor of the city for seven years. Commercial and Industrial. Particulars of the estimated duty paid by them during the last fiscal year has been issued by the Co-operative Wholesale Society. The total for seven specific articles, of which the trade value was X4,614,000, was < £ 1,334,000. At the Shop Assistants' Conference. at Leeds, which closed on Monday, resolutions were adopted in favour of compulsory closing and a sixty-hour week and a moment's notice. In view of the new Workmen's Comp'ensa- tion Act it would be necessary to insure the choir-boys and the church-cleaners, said the Rev. W. P. Jay, at the vestry meeting at St. Anne's, Eastbourne. Replying to a question, the vicar said they need not insure the f curate. Colonel Herbert promised to bring evi- dence before the Attorney-General of what he described as "tyrannical dismissal of workmen from the firm of Messrs. Guest, Keen, and Nettlefold in consequence of the recent municipal elections." At a meeting of the London unemployed at e Tower-hill, Mr. "Jack" Williams said they would have to go to Spring gardens in a ] large body and give the Municipal Re- jj formers no rest until they had agreed to | carry out the schemes commenced 'by the i Progressive Party. j At the annual meeting in Glasgow of the J United Collieries Company, which has a J capital of three and a half millions, it was announced that there would be no dividend j on any shares. A shareholder moved that j the accounts be not passed, but nobody seconded the motion, which accordingly dropped.

I TINNED WHkLE IN COURT. I A curious piece of evidence was produced in the Chancery Division. It was a specimen of the car- I case of a whale, and counsel, in submitting it, con- tended, amid laughter, that there was not the slightest unpleasantness from the sample. I The case, which was before Mr. Justice Parker, was a motion by the Cleethorpes Urban District j Council against Messrs. Foster Bros., to restrain them from exhibiting on the foreshore of the Hum- I ber the carcase of a whale which the plaintiffs I alleged was in an advanced state of decomposition. I An injunction was also applied for prohibiting the trespass, the district council being the lessee of the foreshore. Mr. Wright Taylor, on behalf of the council, stated that the whale had been found in a dying condition about 100 miles out from Cleethorpes in the North Sea. It was towed in, and realised the sum of £ 14 10s., that amount being paid by the defendants. The defendants, counsel proceeded, were now exhibiting the carease to the public at a charge. The whale weighed 100 tons. Mr. Owen, for the defendants, denied that they were trespassers, because the whale was on the foreshore when they bought it. It appeared that the whale was stranded on the beach during an ex- ceptionally high tide. Men, he said, were now removing it; it was being cut up. Counsel produced and opened a tin biscuit-box, containing samples of the whale, and declared that it was not in any way offensive but the learned judge did not ask for direct proof on this point. After a long argument the defendants agreed not to continue the exhibition of the earcase, and to remove it by the first tide that was sufficiently high to float it away, and in the meantime to continue to employ 16 men and carts in removing the carcase.

I RUSSIAN EDITOR SHOT. As Dr. Jollofi, editor of the "Russkiya Vyedo- mosti," who was a member of the first Duma, was leaving his residence, he was assassinated by an unknown young man, who fired several shots from a revolver at him, and then fled. Dr. Jollos was hit three times. Two bullets struck him in the mouth and jaw, knocking out three of his teeth, and a third pierced his breast. He leaves a widow, three sons and a daughter. The sensation created by the murder is all the more intense as the "Russkoe Znamya," the St. Petersburg organ of the Union of Russian People, appeared the same morning with a black cross at the head of its columns without any explanation. This is popularly associated with the murder, and the evening journal, u Legodnya," openly connects the two occurrences. Keen observers regard the whole story as a sign that political passions are becoming more inflamed than ever. The murder was committed by a man who rushed out of the courtyard of a house in which the offices of the Union of the Russian People and their organ, "Viech," are situated. Dr. Jollos was warned of his danger some time ago by an indignant workman to whom he gave three roubles. The Viech is the paper which announced the murder of M. Herzanstein, the Duma deputy, in Finland, before it was perpetrated.

I ATTACKED BY STRIKERS. More serious excesses on the part of the striking dockers at Hamburg are reported, and cases are numerous in which workers who are taking their places have been most grievously injured. Among those attacked were six English dockers, who on leaving a coffee-house in the free port were met by a crowd of strikers. The nature of the onslaught may be judged from the fact that injuries were inflicted on everyone of the Englishmen. One had a wound in his head an inch long, another's cheek and ears were cut, a third sustained severe injury to his skull and a deep cut, the fourth contusions of the right arm and shoulder, and the two others were seriously injured by blows from fists. The more severely wounded were taken to hospital, and all the strikers had disap- peared when the police arrived on the scene. Several of thei German workers were injured; by blows from life preservers, as well as cuts with knives. Some English dockers who were working on a lighter were approached by the strikers with pamphlets summoning them to desist from work- ing. As the Englishmen did not comply they bom- barded them with stones, and three were injured. The others refused to continue at work unless they were protected from further molestation. The shipowners have approached the Senate with a view to constructing dwellings for the dockers in the neighbourhood of their work.

f A PLUCKY GIRL. A story of a girl's bravery was told in the Glas- gow Police-court, when a man was charged with theft by means of housebreaking. It appears, from the story related in court by the police, that Miss Maggie Kinloch, a telephone operator, upon re- turning to her home in Waddell-street, Glasgow, discovered a man rifling a chest of drawers in one of the bedrooms. The man Red down the stairs into the kitchen, with the girl hot on his heels. In the kitchen she compelled him to relinquish the brooches, bracelets, &c., which he had in his pos- session. After this the girl attempted to leave the house in order to call the police, but received a violent blow in the face as she opened the door, the man thereupon making his escape. Nothing daunted, Miss Kinloch immediately gave chase, running for nearly a quarter of a mile, when the man disap- peared up an alley, where Miss Kinloch knew it would be extremely dangerous to follow him. The girl remained at the entrance to the alley until the man reappeared, whereupon she immediately seized him. The man made violent efforts to free him- self, but Miss Kinloch held him until the arrival of the police.

I CRUELTY TO A NEPHEW. ¡ A man named Manasseh Berkett was summoned at Bootle for cruelly ill-treating his nephew, aged thirteen. The boy, an orphan, was left suilicient money by his lather to maintain and educate him. He had lived for four years in his uncle's house, and for most of the time was brutally treated, being beaten and kicked until his body was covered with bruises. Neighbours deposed to hearing blows struck and the boy crying for mercy at all hours of the day and night. He was also made to do the work of the house, and was generally uncared for. Defendant admitted that he occasionally chastised the boy, but declared that he had never given him 1 what could be called a real good thrashing." Defendant was fined £10, or two months' imprisonment.

BOURNEMOUTH BEACH TRAGEDY. Attracted by the sound of a shot, a fisherman at Bournemouth found a man lying on the beach near Boscombe Pier, with blood oozing from a bullet wound in the temple. He died in hospital, and was afterwards identified as Henry Bruce Jones, thirty- nine, foreman in Messrs. Huntley and Palmer's factory at Reading. In a note addressed to his wife he wrote: My brain has turned no rest for ten nights; can't stand it any longer. Give my love to the kiddies, and do not tell them how daddy died." It is stated that he had purchased a revolver and taken out a license on the previous day.

"Kindly hang your men elsewhere, as it obstructs my view and is unsightly. I would much rather see the bare garden wall," was the notice which the neighboiirs of a Cleveland vicar, who have been in the habit of hanging their washing on his garden wall, found DinVed to the clothes. 1 Lieutenant-General John Sprot, colonel ot the Argyll Iand Sutherland Highlanders, who was buried with military honours at Riddell, Roxburghshire, joined the Army nearly 59 years ago,, at the age of 18, and shared in the Indian. Mutmy campaign. He retired in 1887, and died at Riddell, in his seventy-seventh year.

I LITERARY CHAT. Mr. Hilaire Belloe, M.P., though technically a British subject, served his time in the Frencfo army. Mr. Edwin Bale, R.I., has retired from the position of Art Director, which he has filled fof the last twenty-five years, with Messrs. Cassetf and Co. For two years Thackeray did all his writings with one pen, which also served him for writing two novels. Oliver Wendell Holmes used a gold-pointed pen for over thirty years, during which period he wrote over 12,000,000 words. Major-General Sir Henry Colvile, whose name, was prominent in one phase of the South Afri- can war, has written a book on the Anglo- Japanese Alliance. It is entitled "The Allies," and describes Japanese life and the Japanese army. Mr. H. G. Wells, the novelist, who was re- cently made a J,P., was once an assistant master in a Welsh school. In those days he was rather fond of football, at which game, by- the-bye, he received an injury which affected him for years. Miss Rhoda Broughton, the famous novelist, read the manuscript of her first book aloud to her uncle, Mr. Sheridan le Fanu, and Mr. Percy Fitzgerald. Of her limited audience she humor- ously declares, "One said nothing and the other fell asleep In Knutsford (otherwise Cranford," the early home of Mrs. Gaskell) a tower has been dedicated as a memorial of the renowned authoress. The tower is 70 feet high, is built of Portland stone, is 10ft. square, and has a castel- lated top. It stands in the chief street of the little town, contains three bells, and was built by Mr. R. H. Watt. Many guests were invited to the opening ceremony by Mr. Watt, among them being Mr. Brian Holland, a grandson of Mrs. Gaskell. At the time of her death the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Lyttelton had nearly completed the edit- ing of her seventeenth-century devotional book by Dr. Michel de ifolinos, called The Spirit- ual Guide, which disencumbers the Soul, and brings it by the Inward Wav to the Getting of perfect Contemplation and 'the Rich Treasure of Internal Peace." The work has now been finished by Miss Margaret Lyttelton, and Canoo Scott Holland has contributed a note concern- ing Mrs. Lyttelton. ■ Miss Braddon, who in private life is Mrs. John Maxwell, spends her time between her two,, homes, one in a charming part of the New Forest and the other an historic old mansion in Sheen-road, Richmond. Lichfield House, as it is called, was originally built by the Earl of Abergavenny, and was later the residence of the Bishop of Lichfield. It stands surrounded by beautiful gardens that are their owner's pride, for Miss Braddon spends a great deal of her leisure time in gardening. Among those who have broken records itif novel writing, R. L. Stevenson takes high rank, the first draft of his "Jekyll and Hyde" having been written in seven days. He is closely fol- lowed by Crockett, who penned the greater part of "The Stickit Minister" in a week, and com- pleted it at a forty-eight hours' sitting. The elder Dumas once completed a volume of 40,000 words in 66 consecutive hours for a wager, and' Beckford's romance, "Vathek," is said to have been written at a single sitting, which occupied three days and two nights, during which he never removed his clothes. 'I There seems to have been a little misunder- standing between Ltieas Cleeve nnfl Mr. Long concerning "Her Father's Soul.I''fIér author wrote to the Press that the work was not hers, but Mr. Long points out that he- bought it from her, through her London solici- tors, under the title of" Chrysalis; or, The Re- incarnation of the Maharajah," with a proviso that he had full permission to change the titlø- if he found it unsuitable. Mr. Long adds that he has already published fifteen novels by Lucas Cleeve, and that his relations with her are most cordial, consequently her present action is in- explicable. Mrs. L. T. Meade has several favourite' novelists. Charlotte Bronte, because she de- picts those emotions of the heart which must be felt by all human beings with the pen of a master; George Eliot, for Mrs. Meade admires her great intellectual qualities; and Thomas Hardy, especially in his early books, because he is the prophet of nature—nature in the field, nature on the moor, nature as regards animals, and, above all, nature—human nature in men and women. Of late years he has leant too much towards the sensual side; but he has the, great secret of unlocking the innermost recesses of our complex natures and telling us very start- ling truths. Lord Burghclere, who seems to have followed Lord Rosebery into political retirement, is turning his leisure to scholarly account by fol- lowing Sir Theodore Martin's example with a* new English version of the poems of Catullus. Three ytears ago he published an excellent trans- lation of the "Georgics of Virgil." Lady Burgh- clere, not to be outdone, has in preparation a biography of the great "Duke of Ormonde." Endowed with a picturesque pen and the genius for taking pains, Lady Burghclere has already written a most notable historical memoir, "The Life of George Villiers, Second Duke of Buck- ingham." It seems that the late Dr. George Mathesonf died almost literally pen in hand, for the elo- quent Edinburgh blind preacher left behind him the manuscript of a volume on "Represen- tative Women of the Bible." Dr. Mathesott was one of Queen Victoria's favourite preachers. Her Majesty, with that gracious consideration which always marked her, was accustomed to- give her portrait with autograph signature to the distinguished ministers who officiated at Balmoral. The Queen was greatly impressed with Dr. Matheson's sermons, but he was blind, and could not see her portrait. She gave him, therefore, with womanly tact, a bust of herself, which, needless to say, the distinguished preacher and scholar greatly prized. The secret of perpetual youth has apparently been discovered by Dr. Furnivall, who, notwith- standing his eighty-two years, may still be seen enjoying a morning on the river in the big: three-sculling boat which, it may be remem- bered, formed part of the gift with which hig; many admirers commemorated his severity-fifth birthday. He is also engaged upon a complete old-spelling Shakespeare, which he is editing for the new Shakespeare Library," to be pub- lished by Messrs. Chatto and Windus under the general editorship of Professor Gollancz. Nf one living has done more than Dr. Furnivall for the study, not only of Shakespeare, but of our language and early literature generally, and this he has done as much-if not more—by the societies which he has founded as by his, own writings. The most remarkable man of colour in the public life of the United States to-day-Dr- Bookcr Washington—has just written a, bio- graphy of Frederick A. Douglass," the negro orator who played so prominent a part in the long and dramatic struggle which culminated in the abolition of slavery. It is hoped that the movement which is oJ) foot, under the auspices of Lord Lytton, to raise a modest sum to buy Samuel Taylor cottage at Nether Stowey Somerset, in order to turn it into a Coleridge" Museum, will be suc~ cessful. It was whilst there he wrote The Ancient Mariner" in order to defray the expensed of a tour, and there both Lamb and Words-- vvo-th visited him.