Interesting Items.

DAIRYING BY A d.u.c.h.eSS.--The d.u.c.h.ess of Hamilton has opened a shop in Ipswich for the sale of b.u.t.ter, and is crowded with orders, at 1s. 7d.

per pound.

TELEGRAPHING from a moving train has now become a practical success in America, and the messages have been successfully transmitted by induction through twenty feet of air.

A POWERFUL PNEUMATIC GUN.--A pneumatic gun, which is to throw a sh.e.l.l containing six hundred pounds of dynamite four miles, is being constructed for Italy in Philadelphia.

THE QUEEN has presented to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, a very handsome silver gilt altar cross, in commemoration of her Jubilee. The royal gift, which has, it is said, cost about 300, was displayed upon the table next the reredos for the first time on April 1st.

THE Brighton Hotel, on Coney Island, has been successfully moved one hundred and twenty feet further inland, in order to escape the encroachments of the sea. The building was raised in one ma.s.s and rested on trucks made to run on rails. Six locomotives were then attached to the cars, and dragged the hotel for the distance named. It is intended to move it still further.

A SPANISH Protestant clergyman, Senor Vila, has been condemned to imprisonment for two years four months and one day, and to a fine of two hundred and fifty francs and the costs, by the Criminal Court at Malaga, for having discussed and condemned the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church in a pamphlet which he published in answer to the attacks of a Catholic priest from Paris, who came to Malaga, and published a pamphlet against the Protestant religion.

THE OLDEST AND YOUNGEST.--The oldest Cabinet Minister is Viscount Cranbrook, Lord President of the Council, aged seventy-three; the youngest is Mr. Balfour, Chief Secretary for Ireland, aged thirty-nine.

The oldest member of the Privy Council is Viscount Eversley, aged ninety-three, who is also the oldest peer of the realm; the youngest member is the Duke of Portland, aged thirty. The youngest duke is H.R.H.

the Duke of Albany, aged three. The Right Hon. C. P. Villiers (South Wolverhampton), aged eighty-six, is the oldest member of the House of Commons; and the youngest is Lord H. Cavendish-Bentinck, aged twenty-four. Mr. Justice Manisty, aged seventy-eight, is the oldest English judge; and Mr. Justice Charles, aged forty-nine, is the youngest. The oldest bishop is Dr. Durnford, of Chichester, aged eighty-five; and the youngest is Dr. John Wordsworth, of Salisbury, aged forty-four.

A MILITARY HEROINE.--A handsome marble memorial has been erected in the cemetery at Southsea in honour of the late Mrs. Fox, whose death was, by special order of the Duke of Cambridge, signalized by a military funeral. The inscription on the memorial is as follows:--"Sacred to the memory of Mrs. George Fox, wife of Quartermaster George Fox, 2nd Connaught Rangers (94th Regiment), who died at Cambridge Barracks, Portsmouth, on January 22nd, 1888, from the effects of wounds received in the action of Bronker's Sprint, Transvaal. For her heroic and unselfish conduct on that occasion in nursing the wounded--desperately wounded though she was herself--she was decorated by Her Majesty with the Order of the Royal Cross. This monument is erected to her memory as a token of affection and esteem by the officers (past and present), non-commissioned officers, and men of the 2nd Connaught Rangers. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant' (Matt. xxv. 21)." The inscription is surmounted by the regimental crest--a crown, an elephant, the word "Seringapatam"--and "2nd Battalion the Connaught Rangers."

A RETURN, just prepared at the War Office, of the religious profession of non-commissioned officers and men of the British European troops and Colonial Corps (exclusive of Indian troops), shows that, at the beginning of the present year, there were 158,414 Protestants of various denominations on the roll books, of whom 132,537 belonged to the Church of England, 15,072 were Presbyterians, 9,437 Wesleyans, and 1,369 belonged to one or other of the smaller Protestant bodies. The total number of Roman Catholics was 40,775; and there were 274 who were either Mahometans, Hindoos, or Jews; while the religion of 1,044 was not reported. The proportion of Church of England soldiers per thousand (not reckoning the Colonial corps) was 668; of Roman Catholics, 205; of Presbyterians, 76; of Wesleyans, 46; of men of the smaller Protestant denominations, 5; there being thus in all 795 Protestants per 1,000, to 205 Roman Catholics. The inquiry has not been so complete in the line cavalry as in other branches of the service, there being 675 men out of 17,354 whose religious profession has not been reported; whilst amongst the 129,599 men of the line infantry, only 272 were not reported.

WATCH GLa.s.sES.--Of watch gla.s.ses, 50,000 gross, or 7,200,000, are sold annually in the United States. Most of these are imported from England.

A MEMORIAL window is to be placed in the Bristol Royal Infirmary to commemorate the heroic deed of a young surgeon, William Conner, medical officer, who lost his life in a n.o.ble and daring effort to save a poor patient who had undergone the operation of tracheotomy while suffering from diphtheria. A false membrane having formed in the throat, and the patient being in imminent danger of his life, young Conner applied his lips to the throat tube, and succeeded in removing the obstruction. The window is in three panels, representing incidents from the parable of the Good Samaritan, and healing the sick, and it will be inscribed, "To the glory of G.o.d, and in affectionate remembrance of William Conner, who was born May 7th, 1851, and died July 4th, 1887."

A GREAT LOG RAFT.--Not satisfied with the former experiment and catastrophe, the Nova Scotians are putting together another huge log raft, to be floated to New York in July or August of this year. This raft will be 650 feet long, and will have six masts, and a great spread of sail. Confidence seems to be placed in the usual fine weather of July and August; but storms are by no means unknown over the course that the raft will traverse; and should this huge area of floating timber encounter a storm, the chains which will hold the logs together will snap like packing-cord, and leave the crew to shift for their lives in their boats, or by endeavouring to cling to their logs. These experiments, like attempts to swim the rapids of Niagara, should be prevented by some law or regulations, since the common sense of those concerned is conspicuous by its absence. It is quite possible that the raft may be favoured by fine weather, and reach its destination successfully; but it is true, nevertheless, that the enterprise is hare-brained, and undertaken at great risk of life and property.

GREAT STORM AT MADAGASCAR.--Particulars have been received, _via_ the Cape of Good Hope, of a terrific hurricane which raged at Tamatave on February 22nd, which will long be remembered by the inhabitants as one of the most disastrous storms that have visited the island during this century. Eleven vessels at anchor in the harbour were totally wrecked.

Some of them foundered at their anchors, others parted their cables, and were driven on the reefs. The damage done to the town was very great.

Not a house escaped more or less destruction, numbers of them being utterly swept away. The British Consulate, a large new building, only erected some months ago by the British Government, was almost totally destroyed. Large fragments of this building were carried by the wind for hundreds of yards, and for acres around the ground presented an extraordinary and melancholy spectacle, being strewn with doors, windows, beams, and other pieces of twisted wood and iron, besides clothes and furniture. The Consul's wife, Mrs. Haggard (the Consul himself was at Mauritius), and those in the Consulate had a narrow escape with their lives. Most of the trees were blown down, and all were smashed to pieces. Several lives were lost on sh.o.r.e in addition to those drowned, but their numbers were few in comparison to the almost incredible damage done in so short a time, the hurricane only lasting seven hours. A remarkable circ.u.mstance in connection with the hurricane is, that it was not felt forty miles to the northward of Tamatave, nor its full strength sixty miles south.

THE CHINESE ALMANACK.--The great value which the Chinese attach to their almanack is shown in many ways. Recently the Chinese residents at Lha.s.sa, in Thibet, implored the Emperor to cause arrangements to be made which would enable them to receive their copies of the almanack at the earliest possible date in each year. A writer in a recent issue of the _Chinese Recorder_ says that the most important book to the Chinese is the almanack. Its s.p.a.ce is far too important to be occupied with the matter which fills Western almanacks. It contains astronomical information, which is useful; but its great mission is to give full and accurate information for selecting lucky places for performing all the acts, great and small, of every-day life. "And as every act of life, however trivial, depends for its success on the time in which, and the direction (_i.e._, the point of the compa.s.s) towards which it is done, it is of the utmost importance that every one should have correct information available at all times, to enable him to so order his life as to avoid bad luck and calamity, and secure good luck and prosperity.

Consequently, the almanack is perhaps the most universally circulated book in China." The writer speaks of it as a terrible yoke of bondage.

It is issued by the Government, and the sale of all almanacks but the authorized one is prohibited. Quite recently the new Chinese Minister to Germany refused to sail for his post on a day which the almanack declared to be unlucky, and the departure of the German mail steamer was consequently deferred at the request of the German minister to Pekin.--[What a pity but these poor deluded creatures were blessed with Bible truth and Jesus' grace!--ED.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A TROOP OF DRAGOONS CAME UP AT FULL GALLOP." (_See page 146._)]

THE COVENANTER'S ESCAPE AND DEATH.

On the 16th of April, 1685, Peden made a narrow escape. Being then at the house of John Nisbet, of Hardhill, a little before nine o'clock in the morning, a troop of dragoons were observed by the servants, who were working in the fields, coming up to the house at full gallop, upon which the servants ran to conceal themselves. Peden, and those who were with him in the house, had fled for shelter to a moss nearly two miles distant from the place where the servants were working.

The way to this moss was by a very steep ground, and at the edge of the moss there was a mora.s.s about seven or eight yards broad, and altogether the place was well adapted for concealment, as well as for protection from military on horseback. Here, however, Peden and his companions were discovered. James, the son of John Nisbet, a young man about sixteen years of age, had been with the servants in the field when the troop of dragoons came up, and in his flight, being chased by some of the party, made his way accidentally to where Peden and about twenty more were lurking, which occasioned their being discovered. The whole party of dragoons were quickly informed of the prize within their reach, and about three hours after, they were joined by another party who aided them in the pursuit. Peden and his friends, observing the enemy dismounting their horses to take the moss on their feet, for the purpose of securing them, after some firing on both sides without effect, drew off, and kept in the midst of the moss. When the dragoons, on seeing this, mounted their horses again, and pursued by the side of the moss, the Covenanters always kept themselves on such ground as the horses could not approach.

They were pursued during the whole of that day, and ran about thirty miles without receiving any refreshment but moss-water till night, when they got a little milk. Peden then left his friends, and went away by himself.

During this year, and especially the first part of it, great numbers of the persecuted witnesses were murdered in the fields. Peden, therefore, to escape the hands of the military, after this wandered from one lurking-place to another; and from his minute acquaintance with all the tracts and haunts of the desert, of which he may be said for years to have been an inhabitant, he succeeded in eluding the enemy.

In such circ.u.mstances, we need not wonder that he was sometimes weary of life, and envied his fellow-sufferers who had gone to death before him, and were eternally at rest. At length, Peden's bodily infirmities increasing so much as to render him unable to travel, being almost worn out with fatigue, and suffering from the many hardships he had undergone, he arrived at his native parish of Sorn. He came to his brother's house, in the neighbourhood of which he caused a cave to be dug, with a willow bush covering its mouth. His persecutors getting information where he was, searched every part of the house on many occasions.

At last, one day, early in the morning, leaving the cave, he came to the door of the house. His brother's wife warned him of his danger, advising him to return to his place of concealment. He told her it was needless to do that, since it was discovered.

"But," said he, "there is no matter, for within forty-eight hours I will be beyond the reach of all the devil's temptations, and his instruments in h.e.l.l and on earth, and they shall trouble me no more."

He had not been in the house above three hours when a party of soldiers visited the cave, and not finding him there, they searched first the barn, and next the house, stabbing the beds, but they did not enter the place where he lay.

Peden died on the 28th of January, 1686, being upwards of sixty years of age, and was privately buried in the church of Auchinleck, in the aisle of David Boswell, Esq., of Auchinleck. But his ashes were not allowed to repose in peace. Though he had never been condemned by any jury, yet the enemy, being informed of his death and burial, sent a troop of dragoons, who pulled his corpse out of the grave after it had lain about six weeks, and having first broken the chest, exposed his remains to contempt, and then carried them to the gallows foot at c.u.mnock, two miles distant, and there buried them. The design of the soldiers in lifting the body was to hang it in chains upon the gallows at c.u.mnock, but this they were prevented from doing. The Countess of Dumfries and the Lady Affleck, shocked at this barbarity, earnestly interceded that the body might be again buried; and when the savage commander of the dragoons, determined to have it hung in chains, proved unrelenting, they applied to the Earl of Dumfries, a Privy Councillor, then at home, who, yielding to their request, went to the gibbet and told Murray that it was erected for malefactors and murderers, and not for such men as Mr.

Peden. The corpse was accordingly reinterred at the foot of the gibbet, now within the wall of the common burial-ground of c.u.mnock parish, and a suitable memorial erected over the remains, on which was inscribed an appropriate epitaph.

A DAY'S WORK.

The amount of work some people get through is simply enormous. Few people are harder worked than a London physician in active practice. We know a doctor who seldom gets more than four hours' sleep out of the twenty-four. He says that it is not that he couldn't do with more, but it is as much as he can get. Many busy men are constantly at work of some kind or the other from eight in the morning till past twelve at night. Some, of course, break down, but others can do this year after year, apparently without any detriment to their health. Instances are known of professional men who have not slept for five days together, and who have not been in bed for three weeks at a time. These sound almost like travellers' tales, but they are true, although, of course, they are exceptional cases. It is astonishing what interest and energy will do in enabling a man to dispense with rest. It has been said that the twenty-four hours might be advantageously divided into three equal parts--eight hours for sleep, eight for meals, exercise, recreation, &c., and eight for mental work. Few men really require more than eight hours' sleep, but the majority of us have to do considerably more than eight hours' work in the day. It is not so much that a man wishes for the work, as that it is forced upon him. He, perhaps, is the only person who can perform a certain duty, and when, as is often the case, it is a question of life and death, it is almost impossible to refuse. Many people can never force themselves to do more than a certain amount of mental work; they get nervous and headachy, and then it is all over with them. Forced work, as a rule, tells on a man much more rapidly than purely voluntary work, for in the former case it is usually a.s.sociated with anxiety. Real overwork gives rise to loss of memory, a general sense of fatigue, and particularly of discomfort about the head, poorness of appet.i.te, lowness of spirits, and other similar symptoms. It is worry that injures more than real work. Some people are so happily const.i.tuted that they never worry much about anything, whilst others are in a fever of anxiety on every trivial occasion.--_The Family Physician._

JUVENILE GEMS.

(_Concluded from page 130._)

ANN JANE.

My dear Ann Jane was an affectionate child, but naturally timid, and frequently expressed a hope that she should not be taken ill. Yet she too was destined to be borne far, far away.