1884 ***




[Illustration:

CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART

Fifth Series

ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832

CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)

NO. 13.—VOL. I.      SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1884.      PRICE 1½_d._]




INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY EXHIBITION, EDINBURGH, 1884.


In this age of International Exhibitions, which, when usefully
directed, form what the newspapers pleasantly call ‘a wholesome mania,’
it is well to inquire into the causes, more or less urgent, which call
these undertakings into being—the good they are expected by their
promoters to effect not only to the towns or countries in which they
are held, but to all the nationalities who take part in them; and the
probable results of their success, if they are successful. It is of
course open to objectors to deny the soundness of all these premises,
and to question the logical deduction of their usefulness, in the case
of all the projected Exhibitions which are brought under their notice.
And when—as is almost necessarily the case—an appeal is made to the
pockets of the public in the initiatory stage of the undertaking,
objectors are not few in number, and not particularly partial, or even
moderate, in the nature of their criticisms. Within due bounds, indeed,
it is well that it should be so. Exhibitions got up mainly or entirely
for the purpose of advertising any particular branch of trade, may be
advantageous to that trade individually; but the end and object is not
so much an harmonious and wholesome impetus to trade and manufacture
generally, as a rivalry more or less rancorously conducted amongst the
exhibitors.

The prospectus, classification, and other papers relating to the
proposed Forestry Exhibition to be held in Edinburgh in the months of
July, August, and September 1884 are now before the public; and it may
be useful to inquire how the idea was suggested, and whether or not it
is likely to be worked out with advantage to the community at large.

The primary cause which appears to have called forth the project
has been no sudden or ephemeral one. To grasp it rightly, we must go
back for at least a score of years, and carry our readers with us to
the government of our Eastern Empire. There we shall find that a long
course of unrestricted spoliation and waste had denuded the banks of
rivers in proximity to the seaboard of all their protecting vegetation.
The river-sources, far up in the inaccessible hills, had indeed been
safe from the inroads of the timber merchants, and had been preserved
from too rapid evaporation by the virgin forests which surrounded
them. But in the low country the trees could be easily cut and floated
down to the coast during the annual floods. A country deprived of its
trees is doomed to drought; and India soon began to suffer from the
reckless destruction of its forests. The officials of the government,
while fully aware of the vast waste of capital and revenue going on
under their eyes, were quite unable successfully to cope with it.
They therefore delegated their duties to subordinates, who in many
ways winked at, if they did not countenance the continuance of the
evils which they were supposed to counteract and uproot. The absolute
necessity of a higher-paid and more capable class of officials, whose
duty should be confined to the conservancy and replanting of the
forests, forced upon the government of India the formation of a Forest
Department.

But when it was sought to construct this Department from the resources
of Great Britain—the natural nursery for Anglo-Indian officials—these
were found wholly inadequate; and more humiliating still, there was
not even the means necessary to train efficient forest officers. It
was decided by the government, and tacitly conceded by the public,
that Great Britain could not supply finished cadets for the Forest
Department of India. And from that day to this, young men with a
smattering of botany have been packed off to the Forest seminaries of
France and Germany for the peculiar education required.

It is not now our object to show how the government of India has
suffered in the interval by the want of a proper system of forest
training in Great Britain. Waste and spoliation went on, of course,
uncontrolled. But we think that the _raison d’être_ of a Forestry
Exhibition will now be tolerably apparent to at least the majority
of our readers. Indeed, the wonder is that Great Britain has so long
remained quiescent under the implied reproach of neglecting what is
not only a useful but a profitable branch of estate management. This
reproach, which had long weighed on the minds of all those who had the
good of the country at heart, at length found public expression at
the meetings of the principal Societies of Scotland who represent the
landed interest of the country, and resolutions were passed pledging
their members to the support of a Forestry Exhibition.

Meanwhile, the great success of the Fisheries Exhibition in London had
induced the executive Committee there to try and achieve for other
industries similar benefits to what they had conferred on the fishermen
of England. And they, too, pitched upon forestry as a branch of science
well worthy of encouragement. But when it was represented to them that
the same idea, first mooted in Scotland, had already assumed practical
shape there, they courteously gave way, and conceded to Scotland the
well-deserved right of holding in her capital the first Forestry
Exhibition of Great Britain.

Nearly all the foreign powers and the representatives of our colonial
and Indian empire are to be found in the list of those who have joined
the undertaking as members. And the following letter, which has been
sent to our diplomatic representatives abroad, rightly expresses
the consensus of official and public opinion on the merit of the
undertaking:


(CIRCULAR-COMMERCIAL.)

            FOREIGN OFFICE, _October 27, 1883._

    The attention of Her Majesty’s government has been directed
    to a project for an International Exhibition of Forestry to
    be held in Edinburgh in the summer of 1884, the organisers of
    which are desirous of securing the co-operation therein of
    such foreign countries as the matter may concern. There is
    reason to believe that the proposed Exhibition, for which the
    necessary funds have been guaranteed, will be influentially and
    ably supported. The object is one which in the opinion of Her
    Majesty’s government deserves every encouragement, scientific
    forestry having hitherto been much neglected in this country;
    and I have therefore to request that you will bring the
    Exhibition in question to the notice of the government to which
    you are accredited, as being one in which their participation
    might be attended with advantage to both countries. I inclose
    for communication to the proper quarters copies of programme
    and other documents connected with the proposed Exhibition,
    which have been supplied by the Committee.

    I am, with great truth, your most obedient humble servant,

    _Signed_ (for Earl Granville)

            EDMOND FITZMAURICE.

With this letter, we may fitly close the contemplation of the causes
which have led to the idea of a Forestry Exhibition being held in
Great Britain. They are, in fact, briefly summed up in the short
but comprehensive dictum, which, we fear, cannot be contradicted or
gainsayed, ‘scientific forestry having hitherto been much neglected
in this country.’ And the inverse of this proposition leads us by no
indirect steps to the consideration of the good results which may be
expected to accrue from the Exhibition, if it is successfully conducted.

To the capital of Scotland, a country lying between the two great
fields of the ‘lumbering’ interest of the world—the one in Northern
Europe, and the other on the continent of America, the results, if
only from the influx of visitors, whether these are scientifically
disposed or otherwise, can hardly fail to be beneficial. But there are
wider interests involved. The landed proprietor anxious to utilise
his present wastes and to make up for deficient rents by profitable
planting—the political economist inquiring into new sources of
revenue—the botanist uncertain of the right names and uses of some of
his specimens of timber or of flowers—the geologist, the sportsman,
and the naturalist, will find here a common ground of instruction
and amusement. For we may hope to see gathered together the forest
products of the world, carefully examined and authentically named;
the various descriptions of machines used in different countries for
preparing timber for constructive purposes; the timber slips placed on
the hills, the sluices, dams, and embankments formed on the rivers for
the transporting of wood by land or by water; the mechanical appliances
used for moving growing trees, and the saw-mills for cutting them
into sections when felled. Here, too, will be exhibited the various
textile fabrics manufactured from bark; materials for the making of
paper; tanning and dyeing substances; drugs and spices; gums, resins,
wood-oils and varnishes. Another section will embrace botanical
specimens, fungi and lichens, forest entomology and natural history;
with fossil plants and the various trees found in bogs.

The literature of the subject will be illustrated by the Reports of
Forest schools, the working plans of plantations, which show the age
of the various woods on an estate, and the stage of growth at which
they may most profitably be thinned or felled. Remarkable or historical
trees will be represented by paintings, photographs, and drawings; and
there will be sketches of the usual forest operations.

Collections of forest produce, specially illustrating the sources of
supply, and the methods of manufacture in different provinces, with
accompanying Reports, are solicited by the Committee. And essays on all
subjects touching on the value of growing trees or timber are invited
to competition for prizes. Here, again, is opened a very wide field
of useful inquiry for all those interested in the planting of woods
in our own or foreign countries; for the cultivators of cinchona and
other barks in our Crown colonies; for wood-engravers, whose supply
of hard wood for the purposes of their trade is now very limited; for
ship-builders, anxious to get a substitute for teak, or to obtain an
increased supply of that most useful timber; and for all who use wood
or forest produce in any of the many forms of manufacture in which they
are applied.

We may not enter into any further categorical enumeration of the
purposes and objects of the Forestry Exhibition of 1884; for, if the
contemplation of the great cause which primarily led to the idea of
the undertaking has brought us insensibly to the enumeration of the
good that may be expected to accrue from its successful issue, it seems
needless to insist that the probable results of that success will
benefit the commercial interests and the scientific knowledge of the
world at large. [Particulars of the Exhibition may be obtained from Mr
George Cadell, secretary, 3 George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh.]




BY MEAD AND STREAM.


CHAPTER XX.—PAVED WITH GOLD.

It was not probable that Mr Hadleigh would object to his son being
endowed with a fortune by a wealthy uncle, whatever might be his
feelings towards the donor. He would no doubt have been ready with
congratulations if the endowment had come from any other quarter. As
the case stood, Philip anticipated some difficulty in reconciling him
to the arrangement, unless he should succeed in making the two men
forget and forgive that old feud. However, there would be time enough
to consider these details after the consultation with the solicitors.

He found Mr Hawkins and Mr Jackson together in the senior partner’s
room—a rare circumstance for any client to find them so, for acting
separately, they might cancel or amend opinions after private
conference without loss of prestige. On the present occasion Philip’s
affairs had been the subject of discussion.

‘Let me offer you my best congratulations, sir,’ said Mr Hawkins, a
thin, grave-looking old gentleman in speckless black broadcloth, and
with gold-mounted glasses on his prominent nose.

‘Accept the same from me, Mr Hadleigh,’ interjected Jackson. He was
a sharp gentleman of middle age, with small mutton-chop whiskers,
and dressed in the latest City fashion—for there is a City fashion,
designed apparently to combine the elegance of the west end with a
suggestion of superhuman ‘cuteness.’

‘Thank you, both. I must be a lucky fellow when you say so.’

‘In the course of my experience,’ said Mr Hawkins solemnly, ‘I have
never known a young man start in life under such favourable auspices.
We wish you success, and we believe you will find it difficult to fail.’

‘It is wonderful what a fool can do,’ said Philip, laughing; ‘but I
will try not to fail. At present, I am a little in the dark as to the
terms of the proposed arrangement, and Mr Shield referred me to you for
the particulars.’

‘The particulars are simple,’ the lawyer proceeded slowly, as he turned
over a number of papers on which various notes were written. ‘In the
first place, I have great—very great—pleasure in informing you that
a sum of fifty thousand pounds has been paid into your credit at the
Universal Bank; and a second sum of the same amount will be at your
command whenever you may have occasion for it, provided Mr Shield is
satisfied with the manner in which you have disposed of the first sum.’

‘This is scarcely the kind of arrangement I expected. I had a notion
that it was to be a partnership,’ said Philip.

‘The arrangement is so simple and so complete, Mr Hadleigh, that you
will have no difficulty in comprehending every detail presently.’ Mr
Hawkins went on leisurely, as if he enjoyed prolonging the agreeable
statement he had to make. Mr Jackson nodded his head at the close
of every sentence, as if thereby indorsing it. ‘We have often read
in story-books of rich uncles coming home to make all their friends
comfortable. You have the exceptional experience of finding a rich
uncle in reality—one who is resolved to pave your way with gold, as I
may express it.’

‘But what does he want me to do with all this money?’ asked Philip,
desirous of bringing the loquacious old gentleman to the point.

Mr Hawkins was not to be hurried. Like a connoisseur with a glass
of rare wine, he was bent on making the most of it. Every symptom
of eagerness on Philip’s part added zest to the palate; and he was
graciously tolerant of his client’s impatience.

‘As regards the partnership, that will come afterwards. In the
meantime, he desires you to consider this handsome fortune as
absolutely at your own disposal. He imposes no conditions. You are
free to give up all thought of profession or trade, and to live as you
please on the income of this capital, or on the capital itself, if you
are so inclined.’

‘That, of course, is nonsense. He must wish me to do something.’

‘Certainly; and although he imposes no conditions, he has expressed two
wishes.’

‘And what are they?’

Mr Hawkins polished his eye-glasses and consulted his notes. Mr Jackson
nodded his head pleasantly, as if he were saying: ‘Now it is coming,
you lucky dog.’

‘The first is,’ Mr Hawkins went on, ‘that you should enter into
commerce: the second is, that you should take time to consider well in
what direction you will employ your capital and energy—time to travel,
if you are inclined, before deciding. Then, when you have decided,
he will find whatever capital you may require beyond that already at
your command. But there is to be no deed of partnership. You are to be
prepared to take the full responsibility of your own transactions.’

Philip was silent. It required time for the mind to grasp the full
meaning of this proposal. That it was a magnificent one, he felt;
indeed it was the magnificence of it which perplexed him. He was to
be hoisted at once into a prominent position in the commercial world,
although he was without experience of business, and was not conscious
of possessing any special aptitude for it. His father knew him better
than his uncle did, and had declared him unfitted for commercial
pursuits.

He mentioned these objections to his uncle’s plan; but the lawyers only
smiled at the idea of a man even thinking of such disqualifications as
obstacles to his own immediate gain.

‘I have known many men who were slow enough to give away a fortune,’
said Mr Hawkins, emphasising his words by rubbing his bald head with
the eye-glasses, as he gazed almost reproachfully at this singular
young man; ‘but I never before met a person who was slow to accept one.’

‘I daresay; but this position is a little curious. You may set aside at
once the project that I should take the money and do nothing for it. Mr
Shield’s wish is sufficient to bind me to go into trade of some sort;
but in doing so, I may make ducks and drakes of his gift in no time.’

‘My dear sir, money always makes money if it be guided with even
moderate prudence; and I give you credit for possessing that quality to
a sufficient degree.’

Philip bowed in acknowledgment of this good opinion.

‘Besides, Mr Shield does not mean that you should be set adrift without
rudder or compass. He will be always ready to advise; and I need not
say that you may always command our best attention. Also he would
expect you to appoint some competent person as your manager, who would
be capable of directing the course of your affairs.’

‘Ah—Wrentham would be the man, if we could only make it worth his while
to join me.’

‘We have no doubt, from what we know of Mr Wrentham, that he would
consider it much to his advantage to undertake any charge with which
you may be disposed to intrust him.’

‘I must have time to think over it all,’ said Philip, whilst a thousand
visions were dancing before his mind’s eye, like the dazzling spray of
sparks struck from iron at white-heat by a blacksmith’s sledge-hammer.

‘Certainly, certainly. It is especially mentioned that you are to take
whatever time you may require to settle how you shall proceed. Mr
Shield is anxious to see you begin operations, but he has no desire to
hurry you.’

‘I will write to him as soon as I see my way. I suppose this is all you
have to tell me?’

‘There is only one other trifling matter. I hope we have made you
clearly understand that Mr Shield does not insist upon anything. He
merely expresses a wish.’

‘And I have told you how I regard his wishes—as fixed conditions of my
being thought worthy of all this generosity.’

‘He is emphatic in desiring that you shall not regard them as
conditions, but as mere indications of what he would be most pleased to
see you do.’

‘Well, what is the remaining wish or condition? It is all the same what
we call it.’

‘It is, that in the event of your entering into business, he would like
you to remember how much more freely and independently a man may act
when unshackled by domestic ties. In short, he would like you to remain
a bachelor for the first two or three years, until you have firmly
established your position.’

‘Oh!’ exclaimed Philip in a soft crescendo scale; whilst Mr Jackson
nodded and grinned, as if there were a good joke somewhere. ‘I cannot
promise that.’

‘No promise is required; and Mr Shield would not consider it binding if
you made it.’

‘I am not likely to make it,’ was the reply, with a hesitating laugh;
‘but this may seriously affect my decision.’

Mr Hawkins was unable to conceive any possible decision except one,
and was again gravely effusive in his congratulations. Mr Jackson,
shaking hands with Philip at the door, expressed his unqualified
approval of the whole scheme in one short phrase: ‘You _are_ a lucky
dog.’

Philip was not sure whether he was a lucky dog or not. His uncle’s
proposal was liberal and generous beyond all expectation; but there was
something—he did not know what—about it that was perplexing. Probably,
it was the fact that for the first time he was brought face to face
with the necessity of deciding promptly in what course his whole future
was to be directed. Hitherto there had been no hurry; and at the time
when thoughts of Madge had brought him to serious consideration of how
he could most rapidly win a position for her, the invitation from his
uncle had arrived. The final decision was again postponed, as it was
his duty to obey that call for his mother’s sake.

Now his future had been decided for him; and the prospect was in every
way a tempting one. There would have been no hesitation on his part,
but for the strange position which his father and Mr Shield occupied
towards each other. The question Philip had first to settle with
himself was, how he should act in order to bring about a reconciliation
between them. He knew that if he could accomplish this, he would fulfil
his mother’s dearest wish—an object nearer his heart than even the
possession of a fortune.

As for business, although he had no special inclination for it, he did
not dislike it. He had heard and read of millionaires—their struggles
and victories, as desperate and as glorious as any recorded in the
history of battlefields. Life and honour were as much at stake in doing
the daily work of the world as in shooting down the foes of the nation
or the foes of the nation’s policy. Our merchants, our inventors, our
educators, our labourers, were the true soldiers, and their victories
were the enduring ones. There was the great enemy of mankind, Poverty,
with his attendant demons Ignorance and Laziness, still to conquer;
and there were legions of starving people crying out to be led against
him. Vast territories lay untilled, vast resources of earth, air, and
water still unused, to be called forth to content and enrich the hungry
and poor. What noble work there was for men to do who had sufficient
capital at command!

He had never before speculated upon such a career. Now that it was
presented to him, his imagination was stirred by thoughts of the great
deeds that were yet to be done to bless humanity and ennoble life.

(_To be continued._)




SUAKIM.


The intense interest with which all eyes have been turned upon the
Soudan—that is, Country of the Blacks, or Negroland—gives a special
value now to any information about that region, particularly if it
refer to such towns as Khartoum, or that named at the head of this
paper. The former place has been pretty fully described of late in the
newspapers, while little has been told us of the latter beyond actual
war-news. This is the greater pity, as Suakim possesses a good deal of
historical interest, and Khartoum does not.

Suakim—the word is spelt in a variety of ways—is not only one of the
most important towns of Nubia, but the chief port of the Soudan and of
the whole western coast of the Red Sea. It came into the possession of
Egypt in 1865 by cession or purchase from Turkey—along with Massowah
and one or two other towns and the districts around them—and now
appears to be regarded by the British government and every one else
as an integral part of the Egyptian dominions. Similar subjection of
Suakim to Egypt, as we shall presently see, existed in very remote
times. The town proper lies on a small island about eight miles and
three-quarters in diameter—almost as long as the little bay in which it
is placed, a mere tongue of water separating it from the mainland.

Crossing the inlet southwards to the mainland, we step into the large
suburb called El Gêf, with a much larger population than the insular
town, very irregular streets, and the houses mere native (Bishareen)
huts. There is also a very lively bazaar, and, in the north-west of the
place, the barracks, one section of which, a few years ago, was armed
with three pieces of cannon. In the outskirts are the wells—surrounded
by gardens and date plantations—which supply the people with
drinking-water, although, from the nearness of the wells to the sea,
this is brackish, and would scarcely be considered palatable by foreign
troops. El Gêf is really an oasis; all round it, save seawards, extend
many miles of salt and arid wilderness. Indeed, the whole distance from
Suakim to Berber—two hundred and eighty miles inland—is for the most
part desert, the route garnished here and there with wells of water
and encampments of the wandering Bishareen, who, with the Haddendowa,
a similar set of people, possess the whole wilderness from east of
the first cataract of the Nile up to Kassala and the boundaries of
Abyssinia. These tribes, though sometimes called Bedouin, whom in many
respects they resemble, are really a very different people. Bedouin
proper are Arabs of the Semitic, while the Bishareen are of the Hamitic
family.

The chief articles of export are cotton, gum-arabic, cattle, hides,
butter, tamarinds, senna leaves, and ivory. The imports consist of
cotton goods, iron, wood, carpets, weapons, steel, and fancy wares.
Berber in the east, and Kassala in the south, are the great centres
for all the caravan traffic of Suakim, which is also the port on the
one side for the whole Soudan—an inland country as large as India—and
on the other side, for Arabia. Hence it is much visited by Mohammedan
pilgrims to Mecca, their port of Jeddah occupying a corresponding
position on the Arabian to that which Suakim does on the African coast.
Twenty years ago, from three to four thousand slaves per annum were
shipped from here to Jeddah, and though this monstrous traffic has been
much crippled of late years by the Egyptian government, out of regard
for English feeling, it is to be feared that it is not yet extinct.
Oddly enough, Hassan Mousa Akad, one of the ringleaders in Arabi’s
recent rebellion, and the greatest slave-merchant in Egypt, was exiled
to this very slave-port of Suakim, hence his complicity in the Soudan
disturbances is not unnaturally suspected. The total population of
the town and suburb is estimated by Schweinfurth—one of our greatest
authorities—at from eleven to thirteen thousand. The port is now in
regular communication with Suez by steamer—four days’ journey—and with
Europe by telegraph. The Egyptian governor (Mudeer) and vice-governor
(Wakeel) live at Suakim, and the budget for the district in 1882
was—income, £25,945; expenditure, £20,492—thus being one of the few
districts of the Soudan which yielded a surplus.

In ancient times, the whole of what we may call the Suakim
seaboard—extending northwards along the coast as far as a line
drawn from the first cataract, and southwards as far even as
Bab-el-Mandeb—was known as the Troglodyte country. The Troglodytes,
as the name implies, dwelt in caves, were by occupation herdsmen,
and often uncivilised and wretched in the extreme. A graphic picture
of the hard life of another Troglodyte people, dwelling in the rocky
fastnesses east of Jordan, is preserved for us in the thirtieth chapter
of the book of Job. ‘For want and famine,’ it says, ‘they are solitary;
fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut
up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. They were
driven forth of men (who cried after them as after a thief), to dwell
in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.’

Perhaps the Troglodytes of the Nubian shore were a superior stock of
their kind; at anyrate, they appear to have been impressed into the
army of the ancient Pharaohs, and to have shared in the first invasion
of the kingdom of Judah, and the first spoliation of Solomon’s Temple.
The name of the Pharaoh of that time was Shishak, and two accounts of
his expedition have come down to us: one is in the historical books
of Scripture (2 Chronicles, xii., also 1 Kings, xiv.); and the other,
remarkably enough, is by Shishak himself. That of the Egyptian king
is contained in the famous hieroglyphic inscription on the walls of
the temple of Karnak at Thebes, in Upper Egypt, a great part of which
is still legible, after the lapse of nearly three thousand years! The
book of Chronicles tells us with what an immense army of charioteers,
cavalry, and infantry, Shishak overran Judea. He marched against it
‘with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and
the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the
Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.’ Of these three allies, the
first are probably the Libyans (as in Daniel, xi. 43), and the last
the same as the modern Abyssinians. For the middle name of ‘Sukkiims,’
the old Greek translation of the Bible—made by Jews a century or two
before the birth of Christ—substitutes the word _Troglodytes_, the
very people of the Nubian coast whom we have been considering, and
who are now known as Bishareen. But yet more, Pliny the elder, an old
Latin writer, who died A.D. 79, mentions, in his enumeration of places
on this Troglodyte coast, a town called Suche, which, according to
the general opinion of scholars, is identical with the modern port of
Suakim, at present (while we write) governed by an English admiral, and
its fortifications manned by British sailors and marines.




MISS MARRABLE’S ELOPEMENT.


IN TWO CHAPTERS—CHAPTER II.

Miss Marrable, who, when she received this love-letter, was sitting
in her bedroom, was thunderstruck. At first, she thought of going to
Amy and charging her with baseness and ingratitude; but after some
reflection, she decided to let matters, for the time at least, take
their course, and to confound the schemes of the rash couple by means
of a grand stroke at the final moment. She went, however, at once to
Lucy, in whom, as I have said, she had great confidence, and told her
all.

‘How foolish of her,’ said Lucy.

‘Yes, my dear! how foolish, and how wicked!’ assented Miss Marrable.
‘I feel it my duty to prevent the carrying out of this mad plan, and
also to make Amy suffer for her folly. I shall therefore send her this
letter; and allow the hare-brained pair to mature their schemes.—And
what, Lucy dear, do you think that I propose to do? You will never
guess. Listen! Amy and I are of much the same height. I shall personate
her by concealing—ahem—my face, and drive away with this vile young
man; and then, when he believes that he has left me far behind, I shall
overwhelm him with shame and confusion.’

Lucy could not help laughing. ‘That would really be good fun, aunt,’
she said. ‘Yes, send the letter to Amy; and by all means let matters
take their course for the present.’

Miss Marrable did send the letter; and Amy duly received it,
unsuspectingly; but five minutes later, Lucy revealed the whole plot to
her, and threw her into the deepest trepidation.

Here, however, Lucy’s superior coolness came in most usefully. ‘You
need not despair,’ said the elder cousin. ‘If aunt thinks of having fun
with you and Mr Jellicoe, why not turn the tables, and have fun with
her? You must find some other way of carrying on your correspondence;
but at the same time answer this letter by the old medium. Your answer
will of course fall into aunt’s hands. You must mislead her, and then’——

‘But,’ objected Amy, ‘how am I to make matters turn out properly?’

‘Listen!’ said Lucy. ‘Aunt proposes to personate you. Very well. Put
off the time of your elopement, say, for half an hour; and meantime Mr
Jellicoe must find some one to personate him. My idea is for aunt to
elope with the billiard-marker, and so give you time to get away. Do
you see?’

Amy could not at first grasp the significance of this bold proposition;
but when she succeeded in doing so, she was delighted with it.

‘I shall tell Mr Rhodes,’ said Lucy, when she had sufficiently
explained the plan; ‘for I know that he will gladly help you; and Mr
Jellicoe can talk it all over with him and have the benefit of his
advice.’

‘But what will aunt say when she discovers how we—how you—have
deceived her?’ asked Amy.

‘Ah!’ said Lucy slily, ‘I must talk about that too with Mr Rhodes. But
never fear!’ And she went off to rejoin Miss Marrable, who was still
much flurried.

Later in the day, Lucy met Robert on the beach, and told him what had
happened. ‘And now,’ she said in conclusion, ‘I am going to make a
dreadful proposition to you. We must also elope together!’

‘I am sure I don’t mind,’ said Mr Rhodes. ‘After hearing your news, I
was going to propose as much myself. It would take you out of the reach
of your aunt’s reproaches, when she finds out the trick that has been
played upon her.’

‘You are a dear old love!’ cried Lucy with enthusiasm. ‘I wouldn’t
for the world have Amy made unhappy; and I feel that I must help her,
although I don’t approve of elopements. Now go and talk to Mr Jellicoe;
and don’t forget to have the licenses ready. Perhaps Mr Jellicoe can
arrange for both Amy and me to sleep that night with the Joneses,
whoever they may be; or perhaps, after all, we had better not go there,
since aunt knows of that part of the scheme.’

‘I daresay,’ said Robert, ‘that I can arrange for both of you to sleep
at the Browns at Llanyltid. They have a large house, and, curiously
enough, my sister Dora, whom you have often met in town, is staying
there with them; so you will have a companion and sympathiser. And now
I will go and talk to Jellicoe.’

I need not follow in detail the progress of the new scheme of double
elopement. Suffice it to say that the bogus correspondence destined
to mislead Miss Marrable, was steadily kept up; that Amy and Vivian
found other means of safely communicating with one another; that the
Browns were written to; that the licenses were obtained; that three
carriages-and-pairs were engaged, one to call at the hotel at nine
o’clock P.M., and two at half-past; that coachmen were liberally feed;
and finally, that the billiard-marker at the _Cors-y-Gedol_, a spruce
young fellow of some education, was bribed, at considerable cost, to
personate Vivian Jellicoe and to run away with Miss Marrable.

At length, Wednesday morning arrived; and with it came the last of the
billet-doux that were to fall into the cunning spinster’s hands. One of
them had been composed by Vivian and Robert, and written by the former
on pink paper, folded billet-doux-wise. It ran as follows:

    MY OWN AMY—I have satisfactorily arranged everything. The
    carriage will be at the door of the hotel at nine o’clock. I
    shall not show myself, for your aunt may be about. Be careful,
    therefore, to avoid her; and enter the carriage as quickly as
    possible. In order that there may be no mistake, I have told
    the driver to wear a white choker round his neck. I hope that
    you will be punctual. Everything depends upon punctuality. Till
    nine o’clock, good-bye.—Your most devoted

            VIVIAN.

Miss Marrable, after reading this note, refolded it as usual, and
took care that it reached Amy. Then, with the consciousness that she
was about to perpetrate a great and good action, she sat down in her
own room, and waited for Amy’s reply to be brought to her by the
treacherous maid. The note, which was very brief, came to Miss Marrable
in less than half an hour. ‘DEAR VIV,’ wrote Amy, ‘I will be ready, and
will look out for the white choker.—Your loving A.’

In spite of the ordeal which was before her, the good old spinster was
perfectly calm and unflurried. At one o’clock she made a very hearty
luncheon; at half-past two she took her nieces for a walk, and talked
to them with extraordinary affability about the emancipation of women;
and at half-past six she appeared at the _table d’hôte_, and, just as
if the occasion were an ordinary one, complained of the soup being too
peppery, the fish too cold, and the mutton too underdone. Her coolness
was admirable. Lucy and Amy, on the other hand, could scarcely conceal
their excitement and agitation. They each looked at least a hundred
times during dinner at the clock upon the mantel-piece; and they each
started and turned red whenever the noise of carriage-wheels without
was heard. After dinner, Miss Marrable went again to her room and began
to make her preparations.

‘How sad it will be,’ she thought to herself, ‘for poor young Jellicoe
when I discover myself and overwhelm him with reproaches. Men are
but poor creatures. Perhaps he will faint. Yes; I will take my
salts-bottle.’ She wrapped herself in an ulster belonging to Amy, and
having shrouded her face in a thick veil, took a seat at her window,
which happened to be immediately above the front-door of the hotel.

Meantime, Edward Griffiths the billiard-marker was ill at ease. He knew
Miss Marrable by sight, and looked forward with terror to the prospect
of an encounter with her at close quarters. Nevertheless, he had Vivian
Jellicoe’s five-pound note in his pocket, and he was determined to
see the affair bravely through. He felt, however, that his natural
bravery would not be sufficient to support him; and he therefore,
at about six o’clock, began to swallow a succession of potent doses
of whisky-and-water, with the object of laying in a stock of Dutch
courage. Whether the whisky was bad or the water was too powerful, I
cannot say; but at ten minutes to nine, when Vivian Jellicoe arrived to
give final directions and counsel to his substitute, he found Edward
Griffiths decidedly the worse for liquor. Fortunately the young fellow
was neither quarrelsome nor noisy in his cups. His main ambition
seemed to be to go to sleep in peace; and no sooner had Vivian bundled
him into one corner of the carriage, which was in waiting in the
stable-yard, than Mr Griffiths incontinently slumbered. The carriage
was then driven round to the front-door of the hotel. Miss Marrable,
from her post of vantage, saw it, and, remarking that the coachman wore
a white choker, descended at once, and listened, as she went, outside
Amy’s room, to satisfy herself that that young lady had not forestalled
her. The porter with alacrity opened the carriage-door. In the dark
shadows of the interior, Miss Marrable caught sight of the figure of
a man; and making sure that all was right, she entered at once. An
instant later she was being whirled northward along the lonely Harlech
Road.

Half an hour afterwards, two other carriages left the hotel, but in
the opposite direction. In one of them were Lucy and Mr Rhodes; and in
the other, Amy and Mr Jellicoe. It was nearly midnight ere they arrived
at the Browns’ house at Llanyltid; but the Browns were all up and
waiting for them, and the two runaway couples were warmly welcomed, and
hospitably taken care of.

Miss Marrable was less fortunate. As soon as the carriage in which she
sat had been driven beyond the lights of the town, she threw aside her
veil, and gazed with magnificent scorn towards the dim form upon the
seat in front of her. The look eliciting no response of any kind, Miss
Marrable ventured to cough, at first gently, and then with considerable
violence; but still the figure took no notice.

‘This is exceedingly strange,’ thought the spinster lady. ‘I must
adopt more active measures.’ And with great tenderness, she prodded Mr
Griffiths with the point of her umbrella. The billiard-marker groaned
in his sleep. ‘Mr Jellicoe!’ she exclaimed in her deepest and most
threatening tones. She had counted upon this exclamation producing an
instantaneous and astonishing effect upon her companion; and she was
wofully disappointed when he merely groaned again.

‘Gracious!’ she said to herself: ‘he is ill. He would never go on like
that, if he were not ill. The fright has been too much for him. Oh,
how sorry I am! These men are such weak creatures. I must stop the
carriage!’ And, throwing down the sash of the window, she put out her
head and cried to the driver to pull up his horses. But the driver,
like the billiard-marker, had been very liberally feed; and he was
determined that nothing should stop him until he reached Harlech; he
therefore cracked his whip, to drown Miss Marrable’s voice, and drove
down the next hill at a pace which threatened to shake the carriage to
pieces.

‘Stop, stop! For goodness’ sake, stop!’ shouted Miss Marrable; but
finding that her words were not listened to, she drew in her head,
and strove to revive the wretched man in front of her. She held her
salts-bottle to his nose; she chafed his hands; she fanned his brow;
and she allowed his feverish head to rest upon her shoulder; but she
could not awaken him.

‘If he should die!’ she thought. ‘I intended to frighten him; but not
so much as this. Oh! this is terrible!’ And once more she tried to
prevail upon the driver to stop; but in vain. The sight of distant
lights, however, gave her at length some satisfaction. The carriage
entered a long avenue, the gate of which lay ready opened for it; and
about an hour and a quarter after leaving Abermaw, it drew up before
the Joneses’ house near Harlech.

With a sigh of relief, Miss Marrable threw open the door and sprang
out, to find herself in the presence of half-a-dozen people who were
congregated upon the steps.

‘Quick!’ she cried; ‘don’t ask questions! He is ill; he is dying. Take
him out!’

The Joneses, who had not been prepared for the apparition of a
middle-aged spinster, and who were expecting Mr Jellicoe and Miss
Allerton, were somewhat astonished.

‘Who is inside?’ asked Mr Tom Jones, the son and heir of the family.

‘Oh! Mr Jellicoe! Be quick! For mercy’s sake, be quick!’

‘You don’t mean it!’ cried Tom, rushing to the carriage to succour his
friend. But an instant later he burst into a violent fit of laughter.
‘Why, it’s not Jellicoe at all!’ he said. ‘It’s Griffiths, the
billiard-marker from the _Cors-y-Gedol_; and he is hopelessly drunk.
Nice companion, indeed!’

Miss Marrable is, as I have already said, a woman without weaknesses.
On hearing this announcement, however, she fainted away. When, thanks
to the kind attentions of the female members of the Joneses’ family,
she revived, she indignantly charged those estimable people with having
deliberately plotted her discomfiture; and she insisted upon at once
returning to Abermaw; but the carriage (and Griffiths) had gone; so Mr
Jones, senior, who grasped the situation, volunteered to drive Miss
Marrable back to the _Cors-y-Gedol Hotel_; and by twelve o’clock, or
shortly afterwards, she was again in her own room. It was then that
she learned of the desertion of Lucy and Amy. I need not describe how
she received the news, and how she declared that her abandoned nieces
should never again behold her face; nor that, although she is a woman
without weaknesses, she passed the greater part of the remainder of the
night in violent hysterics. She telegraphed next day to Mr Larkspur and
Mr Allerton; and repairing to the _Red Cow_, furiously denounced Sir
Thomas Jellicoe as the basest and most heartless of men!

Three weeks afterwards, however, the edge of her anger had worn off.
Lucy and Amy were married. It was foolish, but, perhaps, it was not
wholly inexcusable; and thus reasoning, Miss Marrable, in the goodness
of her heart, determined to gradually receive them back into her
favour. But she has never wholly forgiven Lucy for suggesting the
substitution of the billiard-marker for Vivian Jellicoe.

‘My dear,’ she says, when she retells the story of her drive to
Harlech, ‘the wretched man was perfectly saturated with whisky, and I
really don’t know what he might not have done if I hadn’t kept my eye
steadily on him. But beneath my gaze he cowered, my dear, positively
cowered! I never saw a savage brute so completely tamed.’

And to this day Miss Marrable believes that but for her Eye, the
billiard-marker might—horrid thought!—have run away with her too.




A CURIOSITY IN JOURNALISM.


In the case of such a curiosity in official journalism as the _Police
Gazette_, formerly known as the _Hue and Cry_, the public will be
interested to learn a little more than the newspapers have briefly
announced about the changes made in it by government authority. The
paper itself, which was commenced shortly after the formation of the
metropolitan police force in 1828, is not allowed to circulate beyond
constabulary circles; but its efficiency of management unquestionably
concerns the general community. Previous to the year 1828, the
metropolis, like other centres of population, was under the care of the
old parochial Watch, who, as corrupt as they were feeble, became an
absolute street nuisance. Far from being a terror to evil-doers, their
notorious negligence and inefficiency enabled the midnight burglar
or daring footpad to pursue his criminal avocation with comparative
impunity. Peel’s Act introduced a greatly improved _régime_; and the
new police, nicknamed after their originator, were for a long time
popularly known as ‘Peelers.’ The newly established force required new
methods of working, and one of these was the starting of an official
newspaper which, though it is perhaps the only one the public never
see, has nevertheless often done them good service, and is now to be
made of still more value.

It is probably known to few that there exists in connection with the
Detective department at Scotland Yard a regular printing establishment,
from which sheets are issued four times a day containing information
as to persons ‘wanted,’ current offences, property stolen, lost,
or found. A daily list of property stolen is also printed, and
distributed to all licensed pawnbrokers. Particulars received from
country constabulary forces are inserted in these publications, which
are carefully read at parades and studied by the detectives. This,
however, only applies to the metropolis; and a strong desire has long
prevailed at headquarters to make that larger medium of publicity, the
_Police Gazette_, more useful as a means of intercommunication between
the whole of the two hundred and ninety police forces of the kingdom.
Until the beginning of the present year, that wretched print had shown
scarcely any progress or improvement since it was commenced. Its
direction has hitherto been nominally in the hands of the chief clerk
at Bow Street police court. In the past, much of its space has been
wasted by the frequent repetition of details as to trifling cases; and
no systematic arrangements were made for the widespread circulation of
the paper among those for whom it is specially intended. The editorship
has now been committed to Mr Howard Vincent, director of criminal
investigations, who will be assisted by Chief-inspector Cutbush of the
executive department at Scotland Yard. It is to the initiation of Mr
Vincent that the improvements now made are chiefly due; and it may be
remembered that in his presidential address to the Repression of Crime
Section of the recent Social Congress at Huddersfield, that gentleman
explained his intentions. The proposals he made were so favourably
received, that subscriptions amounting to nearly one thousand pounds
were placed at his disposal. These, however, have not been needed, as
it happens that the improvements have been accompanied by an actual
reduction of expense; and the Home Secretary has determined that the
costs, limited within a certain moderate sum, shall still be borne
entirely by the public funds.

In addition to being much better printed, the new _Gazette_ already
shows decided improvement both in the selection and arrangement of its
contents. For convenient reference, particulars are not only grouped
according to the usual categories of crime, but are now classified
under special headings for the various districts to which cases
belong. Illustrations have also been introduced as a new feature.
These take the form of woodcuts from photographs of persons ‘wanted’
on various charges, or of valuable articles stolen. The first number
of the _Gazette_ contains the likeness of several criminals of
whom the authorities are in pursuit. In one instance, so as to aid
identification, the subject is shown not only with beard and moustache,
but also as he would appear when clean shaved. Some of these faces, it
is true, seem decent and commonplace enough, such as one sees almost
every hour of the day in the public streets; but others, ‘an index of
all villainy,’ are unmistakably those of dangerous characters whom
none of us would like to meet alone in a quiet road on a dark night.
But it is in the police album[1] that we can best study the variety of
expression by which the human countenance can betray every shade of
criminal depravity.

Meantime our business is only with the _Gazette_, which, among
other changes, has altered its days of publication. Hitherto it has
been issued three times every week; but now that the space is more
carefully utilised, twice a week is found sufficient. The War Office
and Admiralty have always had the privilege of inserting in its pages
a list and description of deserters from the army and navy. In future,
the Tuesday’s issue will be entirely devoted to these matters; and when
it is known that last year the total number of deserters was only one
short of six thousand, it may be inferred that the weekly list does
not leave much space to spare in a small four-page paper. The Friday’s
issue extends to eight pages, and is reserved exclusively for police
information, with the exception of two pages now set apart by contract
for advertising purposes. As far as increased circulation is concerned,
arrangements have been made to send supplies of the _Gazette_ not
only to every police force in the United Kingdom, but also, through
the government offices, to the guardians of the peace in the British
colonies and India. From the public generally, the _Gazette_ is
withheld.

The early issues of the _Gazette_, especially between 1829 and 1831,
bear significant testimony to the labour disturbances and political
excitement which immediately preceded the passing of the great Reform
Bill. Every number was then largely occupied with royal proclamations
in the cause of order, and offers in Lord Melbourne’s name of
government rewards for the arrest of incendiaries and disturbers of
the public peace. Again we are on the eve of parliamentary reform, but
without any symptoms of rioting; and the improved columns of the _Hue
and Cry_ are now left more free for ordinary police information as to
the appearance and lawless doings of the ‘incorrigible’ class.

[1] For an account of this interesting repository of crime, see ‘The
National Album’ in _Chambers’s Journal_ for October 18, 1879.




THE MONTH:

SCIENCE AND ARTS.


From the Report issued by the Committee appointed to consider the
best way of rebuilding the houses at Casamicciola destroyed in the
recent earthquake, we learn that that terrible catastrophe occasioned
the deaths of no fewer than two thousand three hundred and thirteen
persons, and injury to seven hundred and sixty-two more. Although these
unfortunates did not all actually belong to the island, there were
among them only fifty-four who could be called foreigners. It will
probably be found advisable to rebuild the ruined habitations on the
pattern adopted in certain places of Central America, where earthquakes
are common. The houses there are built of such light materials, that
when a shock comes, they rattle down like a veritable house of cards,
and can almost be rattled together again as easily when the danger
has for the time passed. In London and some other of our cities and
towns, the houses are so shamefully run up that a very mild shock of
earthquake would suffice to shake them to pieces.

We are apt to look upon these jerry-built houses as the result of
competition and the continual cry for cheap houses. On the other hand,
we regard our cathedrals as solid monuments to the more honest work
of former times. But this notion must be dispelled. The Peterborough
Cathedral architect has been examining the foundations and piers of
the tower of that fabric, which it will be remembered he some time
ago reported to be in a dangerous condition, and they turn out to be
as perfect an example of jerry-building as could be found in our own
enlightened times. The piers were found to consist of a thin facing of
stone, the interior being filled in with small rubble-stone and sandy
earth. He tells us that ‘it is impossible to conceive a worse piece of
construction, and it is equally impossible to understand how it is that
these piers have stood so long.’ The piers have simply been enabled to
hold together by the strength of their exterior clothing. It is some
small satisfaction to the modern householder that dishonest building
has not been invented for his especial torment, but was practised as
long ago as the fourteenth century.

Another far more valuable relic of the past is, as we recently
indicated, exciting attention on account of its decaying condition.
Westminster Abbey, which may justly be regarded as the most important
ecclesiastical building in the kingdom, is wasting away piecemeal under
the effects of London smoke and atmospheric agencies generally. The sum
required for its restoration is estimated at eighty thousand pounds,
and this is probably short of the real amount which will be required to
do the work effectually. For such a national purpose, the purse of the
nation ought undoubtedly to be responsible.

The complete Report of Professor Hull’s labours, as chief of the
little band of scientific explorers who have just returned from a
geological survey of Palestine, will be looked forward to with unusual
interest, for he brings back with him materials for constructing a
far more complete map than has ever before been possible. The ancient
sea-margins of the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah have been traced at a
height of two hundred feet above their present surfaces—indicating
that the Mediterranean and Red Seas have been at one time in natural
connection with one another. Professor Hull believes that this was
the case at the time of the Exodus. The terraces of the Jordan have
also been examined, the most important of these ancient margins being
six hundred feet above the present level of the Dead Sea. Besides his
scientific Report, the learned Professor is preparing a popular account
of his pilgrimage, which will duly appear in the Transactions of the
Geological Society. His journeyings will cover much of the same ground
traversed nearly fifty years ago by David Roberts, whose drawings of
the places visited aroused so much interest at the time, and which have
never since been surpassed.

Not very many years ago, a map of Africa presented in its centre a
blank space, which was explained to inquiring children as indicating
a country so hot that nobody had been there or could live there. This
benighted region has now an atlas all to itself. Under the auspices of
the Geographical Society, Mr Ravenstein has just completed their map of
Eastern Equatorial Africa; it is of large size, and contains altogether
twenty-five sheets. He will now commence a similar work for Western
Africa, and has proceeded to Portugal in order to take advantage of
the materials in the possession of that government bearing upon the
subject. This work is also undertaken for and at the expense of the
Geographical Society.

The official Report of the late census in British Burmah is not without
interest to dwellers in Britain. Only two languages had to be used in
the process of enumeration—namely, Burmese and English. The people at
first thought that the strange proceedings heralded the advent of a new
tax, and one tribe fled across the frontier so as to be out of the way.
Another idea that occurred to the people was that the English made use
of human heads for inquiring into the future. But these difficulties
having been smoothed over, the census was taken satisfactorily. British
Burmah is, roughly speaking, of the same area as Great Britain and
Ireland, with a population less than that of London. This population,
under British rule, has doubled in twenty years, and there is every
sign of its continued increase. The males are far in excess of
the females, and what seems a very important key to the wonderful
prosperity of the country is the fact that there are ten acres of
cultivated land for every eight persons living in it.

It is reported that Baron Nordenskïold, whose recent explorations in
and around Greenland aroused so much interest in scientific circles, is
contemplating a voyage next year to the south polar regions. The cost
of the projected expedition is nearly two hundred thousand pounds, but
this seemingly large sum will include the expense of building a ship of
special construction, to meet the requirements of the explorers.

International courtesies are so very few and far between, that when
one occurs it is worthy of the most honourable mention. Many years
ago, a band of English Arctic explorers abandoned their ship, the
_Resolute_, for it was hopelessly frozen into the ice-pack. The ship,
however, at last floated free, and was taken by an American whaler to
New York. The gallant Americans thereupon put the vessel into splendid
order, and presented her to Queen Victoria. It was but the other day
that the old ship was broken up, when a desk was made from her timbers
and presented to the American President. The British government have
now presented the _Alert_, which has also seen Arctic service, to the
United States government for the use of the Greeley relief expedition.
The ship has long ago been strengthened with teak for protection
against the ice, and is thus well fitted for the purpose in view.

The recent experiments at Folkestone once more proved the value of
throwing oil on troubled waters, the efficacy of which operation in
stormy weather we described last month. In addition to the oil-shell
there mentioned, another invention falls to be noticed, by which the
same gun from which the oil-shell is discharged may be also employed
for projecting a heavy solid cylindrical shot, to which is attached
a flexible tubing. Upon firing the gun, the shot is carried a long
distance out to sea, pulling the tube after it. The shot sinks to the
bottom, and the tube thus anchored can be used with a pump for forcing
the oil to any spot in the neighbourhood. This contrivance, like that
of the oil-shell, is the invention of Mr Gordon.

The preparations for the International Health Exhibition to be opened
in London in May next, proceed very rapidly. The eight water-companies
which supply London, and which just now are being so roundly abused on
the score of overcharges, will exhibit the various apparatus employed
by them for the supply, filtration, &c., of water. They will also
combine in erecting an immense fountain in the grounds, the jets of
which will be brilliantly illuminated at night by electricity.

An American paper gives an interesting account of the manufacture of
‘Yankee sardines,’ which may be explained to the uninitiated to mean
small herrings preserved in oil and flavoured with spices, to imitate
the sardines of French preparation. To begin with, the fish are laid in
heaps on long tables, where they are rapidly cleaned and decapitated
by children. The herrings are then pickled for one hour, to remove a
certain tell-tale flavour which they possess, after which they are
dried. The next operation is to thoroughly cook them in boiling oil;
and finally, they are packed in the familiar square tins, and duly
furnished with a French label, such as, ‘Sardines à la Francaise,’ or,
‘A l’huile d’olive.’ The free, or rather the true translation of this
latter inscription would be, ‘cotton-seed oil,’ and, sad to say, not
always of the first quality.

A paper dealing with an outbreak in a German town of that terrible
disease known as trichinosis was recently read before the French
Academy of Medicine. It is worthy of attention as going far to prove
that this disease, usually contracted by the consumption of unwholesome
pork, is avoidable, if the ordinary precaution of thoroughly cooking
the food be resorted to. In the case in question, more than three
hundred persons were attacked with the disease, and of these nearly
one-sixth died. It was proved beyond question that all the victims
ate the meat absolutely raw, it being the custom to chop it fine
and to spread it like butter on slices of bread. One single family,
which consumed some of the same meat in the form of cooked sausages,
exhibited no trace of the disease. It may be mentioned that a certain
dose of alcohol exercised a most favourable effect in diminishing the
virulence of the complaint.

A new system of railway signals which is worked by electricity,
instead of by mechanical leverage, has lately been experimented upon
with great success, but like most other things of an electrical kind,
its ready adoption must depend upon its expense as compared with that
of the older-fashioned plant. Hitherto, the ordinary electric magnet
has been found unequal to this class of work, principally because its
power of attraction is only great when very near the object to be
attracted, and also because its impact on its armature is so violent
as to lead to risk of deranging the apparatus employed. By use of
what is known as the long-pull electro-magnet, recently invented by
Mr Stanley Currie, these difficulties have been obviated, and signals
of every kind can be worked most perfectly through the medium of
conducting wires. The system has been at work for the past two months
at Gloucester, and is being adopted experimentally in other directions.

The volcano at Krakatoa will long be remembered, if only on account
of the wide area over which its products have been distributed. To
say nothing of the dust particles which are supposed to have found
their origin there, and which are credited with having been the active
cause of our late gorgeous sunsets, undoubted volcanic particles have
lately been found at Philadelphia. By melting and evaporating the
snow upon which these tiny fragments were found, a residue of solid
particles was apparent, which the microscope at once pronounced to be
of a volcanic nature. It seems difficult to believe that solid matter
could thus be carried in the air for four months, during which it must,
if it came from Krakatoa, have covered the enormous distance of ten
thousand miles. Another supposition is that the volcanic particles
found at Philadelphia may have been wafted thither from Alaska, in
the north-west corner of North America, where a great eruption has
occurred. According to our authority, a submarine volcano shot up there
last summer, and has already formed an island in the Behring Sea, from
eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high. It is therefore possible
that volcanic dust may have found its way, from this source, to the
southern states of America, and even to Great Britain. The enormous
distances traversed by these glassy particles may be thus accounted
for: when steam is forced through a mass of glassy lava, the molten
material is shot up with it in the form of thin filaments, just like
spun glass. These, like so many pieces of spider web, would be borne
aloft by the air for a very long period.

It seems only yesterday that iron furnace slag was looked upon as a
waste product, for which no possible use could be found. It is now made
into bricks, into cement, into wool-packing for steam-boilers, and
more recently it has been found a most effective material for making
all kinds of vases and other things of an ornamental nature. For this
purpose, the slag is freed of its coarser particles, mixed with a
certain quantity of glass and colouring matter, and when in a molten
condition, is stirred about so as to present a veined appearance. It is
then moulded into various forms, and is ready for sale.

We lately had an opportunity of visiting the Fine Art Loan Exhibition
at Cardiff, which has been opened for three months, for the purpose
of collecting funds in aid of the projected Cambrian Academy. The
Exhibition includes works by some of our most eminent artists, both
living and deceased, as well as a collection of such articles as can be
grouped under the head of Art. But a novel feature of the Exhibition
is its complete array of telephonic and telegraphic apparatus. By the
co-operation of the telegraphic authorities, communication has been
opened up by telephone between the Exhibition and Swansea, a distance
of fifty-two miles. Not only is speech quite easy over this distance,
but the voices of those acquainted with one another are readily
recognised. At the time of our visit, the apparatus was connected with
the theatre at Swansea, and we had the curious experience of listening
to chorus, band, and solo voices, which were rendering a popular opera
more than half a hundred miles away.

Mr J. C. Robinson, in the course of an interesting article contributed
to the _Times_ on the conservation of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pictures,
concludes with a recommendation which all owners of valuable
oil-paintings should take note of. He strongly advocates the use of
glass as a covering for such pictures, and is glad to see that the
practice of thus framing them is on the increase. ‘This plan,’ he says,
‘almost entirely obviates the necessity for the periodical rubbing up
and cleaning the surface of pictures with the silk handkerchief or
cotton-wool, inasmuch as the protecting glass, and not the painted
surface of the picture, receives the rapidly accumulating deposit of
dust and dirt.’ But even this he considers to be only a half-measure.
The back of the picture should be stretched over with a damp-resisting
sheet of india-rubber or American cloth, for it requires protection
only second to the painted face of the canvas.

In presenting the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Mr
A. Common for his wonderful photographs of celestial objects, the
President of that honourable body gave a most interesting history of
the medallist’s gradual progress in the difficult work in which he
so much excels. Mr Common commenced work with a modest reflecting
telescope of five and a half inches; but he was not satisfied until he
had obtained one measuring no less than three feet across its mirror.
He has also turned his earnest attention to the clockwork for driving
the instrument, so that as the busy world turns on its axis, the
objects focused remain stationary. This is highly necessary, when it is
remembered that sometimes a star photograph occupies as much as an hour
and a half in the taking, even with the most sensitive plates. This
long duration of the action of the feeble light from stars so remote
that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, has the effect of impressing
the chemical surface so that the invisible is pictured! It is evident
that a new field of research is thus opened out; and the President did
well in pointing out what great services can be rendered to knowledge
by the amateur worker who, like Mr Common, has the means and the
ability to employ his time so well.

In these days of oleomargarine, bosch butter, and other mixtures which
are supposed to furnish excellent substitutes for the genuine article,
it becomes highly necessary to have some means of distinguishing the
true from the false. A contribution to microscopical science towards
this end is a test discovered by Dr Belfield of Chicago, which will
at once identify a fat if it consist either of lard or tallow. Pure
lard crystals exhibit thin rhomboidal plates, while those of tallow
are quite different, and are of a curved form somewhat resembling the
italic letter _f_.

A paper on the Ventilation of Theatres was lately read by Mr Seddon at
the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, London. In some crowded theatres, the air
has been said by a competent authority to be more foul than that of the
street sewers. The intensely heated air would seem to act as a kind
of pump, and to extract the vitiated atmosphere from the drains below
the building. The successful introduction of the electric incandescent
system of lighting to more than one metropolitan theatre has done
much to mitigate the evil complained of; but it is quite certain that
the ventilation of public buildings generally does not receive the
attention which it so imperatively demands.

Another important consideration that is too often neglected is the
acoustic properties of public buildings. Even in the last great work
which has, after years of labour, been finished in London—we refer to
the new law-courts—complaints are constant from those who have to work
in them, of the great difficulty both in making their voices heard
and in appreciating what is said by others. Public speakers whose
duties carry them to various towns and cities throughout the kingdom,
know very well that it is the exception, and not the rule, to find a
room which is comfortable to speak in. Either the voice falls dead
and flat, as if absorbed by a screen of wool; or it reverberates from
every wall with such confusing echoes, that the syllables must be
uttered with painful deliberation. A Committee appointed by one of our
learned Societies to inquire into the reason why some rooms should be
acoustically perfect, while others are quite the reverse, would do a
vast amount of good. Until such an inquiry is set on foot, architects
will continue to design buildings in which this necessary property is
quite neglected.




OCCASIONAL NOTES.


INTERESTING NOTES ON TROUT-LIFE.

At a recent meeting of the Scotch Fisheries Improvement Association,
held at Edinburgh, Mr Harvie-Brown communicated some notes on
trout-life, which the Association considered of so much scientific
interest, that it was resolved to engross them in the minutes. The
notes are as follow:

‘The subject of coloration of flesh of trout is a much more intricate
one than at first appears. I know of trout holding largely developed
spawn in June and July in a loch in Sutherland, whose flesh is not pink
only, but bright red like a salmon’s, and yet are not fit to be eaten.
I know, also, in a limestone burn the very finest trout, which on the
table are perfectly white in the flesh, whatever size they grow to;
but in another limestone burn from the same sources, or nearly so, the
trout are quite different in appearance externally, but equally white
in flesh and equally delicious for eating.

‘I put a quarter-pound trout, along with others, into a previously
barren loch. In two years some of these trout attained to four and
a quarter pound-weight, developed huge fins and square or rounded
tails, lost all spots, took on a coat of dark slime, grew huge teeth,
and became _feroces_ in that short time. The common burn trout, taken
from a very high rocky burn up in the hills, in two years became
indistinguishable from _Salmo ferox_. The first year they grew to
about a pound, or a pound and a half, took on a bright silvery sheen
of scales, were deep and high shouldered, lusty and powerful, more
resembling Loch Leven trout than any others. This was when their
feeding and condition were at their best; but as food decreased,
and the trout rapidly increased in number, spawning in innumerable
quantities, and with no enemies, the larger fish began to prey on the
smaller, grew big teeth, swam deep, and lost colour, grew large fins
and a big head, and became _Salmo ferox_ so called. In two years more
the food-supply became exhausted; and now the chain of lochs holds
nothing but huge, lanky, kelty-looking fish and swarms of diminutive
“black nebs,” neither of the sorts deserving of the angler’s notice.
The first year they were splendid fish—rich and fat. Now they are dry
and tasteless.’


LABOUR AND WAGES IN AUSTRALIA.

It would appear from the latest statistics that during the past few
years wages have risen in some trades, and in a few only, have fallen.
In the skilled branches of labour especially the tendency has been
upwards, and the same thing is also noticeable in agricultural labour.
For example, the rates for married couples on stations have risen from
fifty-five to sixty-five pounds in 1876 to sixty or eighty pounds
in 1883. The wages of farm-labourers have risen to fifty pounds or
thereabouts, while only in the case of country blacksmiths have wages
declined, the rates for such being now seventy-five to eighty pounds
per annum. The colony is stated to be capable of readily absorbing any
amount of skilled agricultural labour, especially that of the handy
kind, without affecting the current rates of wages. Agricultural labour
is in more demand than artisan labour, and good industrious hands would
do excellently, as compared with the same class in England, both in
regard to food and pay. With regard to other occupations, the following
rates are paid on the New South Wales railways: clerks, two hundred
to one hundred and fifty pounds per annum; foremen, five pounds ten
shillings to three pounds seven shillings per week; draftsmen, four
pounds fifteen shillings per week; timekeepers, three to two pounds per
week; fitters, 12s. 4d. to 8s. per day; blacksmiths, 12s. 8d. to 10s.
4d. per day; turners, 12s. 2d. to 10s. 2d. per day; pattern makers,
11s. 10d. per day; brass-moulders, 11s. 4d. per day; plumbers, 11s. to
10s. per day; tinsmiths, 11s. to 10s. per day; brass-finishers, 9s. 6d.
to 9s. per day; carpenters, 11s. 6d. to 8s. per day; painters, 11s. to
9s. 8d. per day; strikers, 7s. 4d. to 7s. per day; and cleaners, 7s.
per day. The working day in the case of many trades does not exceed
eight hours.


THE RUSSIAN CROWN ESTATES.

While so much is written of the internal economy of Russia, many
will be surprised to hear of the extraordinary extent of the lands
which form the estates of the Crown. The extent of the possessions
of the Russian emperor may be gathered from the fact that the Altai
estates alone cover an area of over one hundred and seventy thousand
square miles, being about three times the size of England and Wales.
The Nertchinsk estates, in Eastern Siberia, are estimated at about
seventy-six thousand six hundred square miles, or more than twice the
size of Scotland and Wales put together. In the Altai estates are
situated the gold and silver mines of Barnaul, Paulov, Smijov, and
Loktjepp, the copper foundry at Sasoum, and the great iron-works of
Gavrilov, in the Salagirov district. The receipts from these enormous
estates are in a ridiculously pitiful ratio to their extent. In the
year 1882 they amounted to nine hundred and fifty thousand roubles,
or a little more than ninety-five thousand pounds; while for 1883
the revenue was estimated at less than half this sum, or about four
hundred thousand roubles. The rents, &c., gave a surplus over expense
of administration of about a million and a half of roubles, or about
one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. On the other hand, the working
of the mines showed a deficit of over a million; hence the result just
indicated. A partial explanation of this very unsatisfactory state
of things is to be found in the situation of the mines, which are
generally in places quite destitute of wood, while the smelting-works
were naturally located in districts where wood abounds, sometimes as
much as three hundred and four hundred miles distant from the mines.
The cost of transport of raw materials became considerable in this
way. By degrees, all the wood available in the neighbourhood of the
smelting-works became used up, and it was necessary to fetch wood from
distances of even over one hundred kilometres. Formerly, the mines were
really penal settlements, worked by convicts, who were partly helped
by immigrants, whose sons were exempted from military service on the
condition of working in the mines. But since the abolition of serfdom
this system has been quite altered, and there is now a great deal of
free labour on the ordinary conditions.


HYDROPHOBIA—IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS.

M. Pasteur, who has already made so many valuable discoveries in
connection with diseases that are propagated by germs, has, in his own
name and that of his assistants, MM. Chamberlan and Roux, communicated
to the French Academies of Sciences and Medicine the results of his
experimental inoculations with the virus of rabies. He finds that the
virus may remain in the nervous tissues without manifestation for
three weeks, even during the summer months. Virulence is manifested
not merely in the nervous tissues, but in the parotid and sub-lingual
glands. The granulations observed in the fourth ventricle, when in
a state of virulence, are finer than the granulations in the fourth
ventricle when in a healthy state, and they can be coloured by means
of aniline derivatives. The virus of rabies injected into the veins or
beneath the skin produces paralytic rabies, while inoculations into
the spinal cord or the brain produce the paroxysmal form. Inoculations
with quantities of the virus too small to be effective, have no
preservative influence against subsequent inoculations. Whether the
virus is propagated by means of the nervous tissues or by absorption
through the surfaces of the wound, has not been ascertained. Finally,
the experiments have shown that the protective ‘attenuation’ of the
virus is possible. The energy or the nature of the virus varies in
each species of animals. By passing the virus through different
animals, ‘cultures,’ or varying qualities of virus, are obtained, whose
precise effects can be predicted. Thus a ‘culture’ has been obtained
which certainly kills a rabbit in five or six days, and another
which certainly kills a guinea-pig in the same time. Other things
being equal, the virulence varies inversely with the duration of the
incubation. M. Pasteur and his assistants have good reason to believe
that by means of a special culture they have succeeded in making twenty
dogs absolutely proof against rabid inoculations. M. Pasteur, with his
usual caution, asks for a little longer time before finally pronouncing
on the condition of the dogs in question. To devise a means of making
the dog proof against rabies is, of course, to devise a means of almost
certainly preserving man (including children) from this frightful
disorder; for hydrophobia is almost invariably communicated to man and
other animals by the bites of rabid dogs.


THE ELECTRIC LIGHT IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES.

An interesting experiment was commenced just after Christmas last by
the District Railway Company, on the short branch line which connects
Kensington and Fulham, passing through Earl’s Court and Walham Green.
On the 2d of January last, the carriages running on this short line
were lighted for the first time, each with a small Swan burner,
inclosed in a little glass globe; and although only a very small coil
of fine wire, thin as a hair, shaped something like a letter U, was
employed, the light was so brilliant and steady that the smallest print
could be read by it easily. The experiment lasted about a fortnight
or three weeks, and was worked from a luggage van attached to the
rear of the train, and fitted up for the purpose. This experiment is
interesting, and the result has been most successful, not a slip, nor a
hitch of any kind, having occurred; while the reports as to cost are,
it is understood, perfectly satisfactory.

Let us hope that this beautiful system of lighting may speedily be
introduced on the different railways throughout the country; and
especially on the District line of the Metropolitan Railway, where the
bad blinking gas is so terribly trying to those who have to make two
journeys a day by it, and who desire to employ the time of transit with
their book or their paper, which becomes a work of difficulty under the
present gas arrangements, but which may possibly be explained by one
word, ‘economy;’ for it is a well-established fact, patent to all, that
gas is light and brilliant enough for most purposes, provided a proper
and sufficient _quantity_ is used.


DISSECTION AFTER DEATH.

Amongst the strange institutions which have been started within the
last few years is that of ‘The Society for Mutual Autopsy,’ which
commenced its existence in Paris in the year 1876. No balloting or any
elaborate system is necessary to become a member. A proper introduction
with a fee of five francs suffices, and an engagement to will your body
to the Society for the purpose of dissection after death. In order to
prevent the friends and relatives of the dead from frustrating the
intentions of the testator, by disposing of the corpse in the usual
manner, a proper legal form has been drawn up and inscribed in the
Rules. This Society, which consists of about two hundred members, a
dozen of whom are ladies, contains amongst its members many men eminent
in the medical world in Paris, as well as distinguished in science
and art. The theory of the founders is, that in consequence of the
difficulty of obtaining for post-mortem examinations any other subjects
but those of the lowest classes, whose faculties are naturally warped
or otherwise undeveloped, much benefit must accrue to science by an
opportunity being given for the dissection of persons of cultivated
understanding, and particularly by making observations on the brain.
Between twenty and thirty of the members of this Society generally
dine together once a month at a restaurant near the Halles, where they
pass a congenial evening, although there is a touch of ghastliness in
the gathering. When one of their community is missing at the banquet,
instead of lamenting over his departure, every one listens with rapt
interest to the surgeon’s explanation of the post-mortem examination he
has made.


PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS IN INFANCY.

The Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association recently issued a
paper, based upon the directions of the Society for the Prevention of
Blindness. From it we learn that one of the most frequent causes of
blindness is the inflammation of the eyes of new-born babies. Yet this
is a disease which can be entirely prevented by cleanliness, and always
cured if taken in time. The essential precautions against the disease
are: (1) Immediately after the birth of the baby, and before anything
else is done, wipe the eyelids and all parts surrounding the eyes with
a soft dry linen rag; soon afterwards wash these parts with tepid water
before any other part is touched. (2) Avoid exposing the baby to cold
air; do not take it into the open air in cold weather; dress the infant
warmly, and cover its head, because cold is also one of the causes of
this eye-disease. When the disease appears, it is easily and at once
recognised by the redness, swelling, and heat of the eyelids, and by
the discharge of yellowish white matter from the eye. Immediately on
the appearance of these signs, seek the advice of a medical man; but
in the meantime, proceed at once to keep the eyes as clean as possible
by very frequently cleansing away the discharge. It is the discharge
which does the mischief. The cleansing of the eye is best done in this
way: (1) Separate the eyelids with the finger and thumb, and wash out
the matter by allowing a gentle stream of lukewarm water to run between
them from a piece of rag or cotton-wool held two or three inches
above the eyes. (2) Then move the eyelids up and down and from side
to side in a gentle rubbing way, to bring out the matter from below
them; then wipe it or wash it off in the same manner. This cleansing
will take three or four minutes, and it is to be repeated regularly
every half-hour at first, and later, if there is less discharge, every
hour. (3) The saving of the sight depends entirely on the greatest
care and attention to cleanliness. Small pieces of clean rag are
better than a sponge, as each rag is to be used once only, and then
burnt immediately; sponges should never be used, except they are burnt
after each washing. (4) A little washed lard should be smeared along
the edges of the eyelids occasionally, to prevent them from sticking.
Of all the mistaken practices which ignorance is apt to resort to,
none is more ruinous than the use of poultices. Let them be dreaded
and shunned as the destroyers of a new-born baby’s sight. Tea-leaves
and sugar-of-lead lotion are equally conducive to terrible mischief,
stopping the way, as they do, to the only right and proper course to be
taken.


CARD-TELEGRAMS.

Great as have been recent improvements in our postal service, we
have yet to learn something from the Parisians, whose system of
Card-telegrams is worthy of notice. The cards are of two kinds—namely,
yellow similar to our own, and blue, which, when secrecy is desired,
may be closed. By dropping the card into the Card Telegram Box at the
nearest telegraph office, it is shot through one of the pneumatic tubes
which are now being extended all over Paris, and is delivered at its
destination within half an hour. Fifty to seventy words can be written
on the card, the cost of which is threepence. It is further intended
to permit of cards being dropped into the boxes up to fifteen minutes
of the departure of the mail-trains, a boon which merchants in Great
Britain may well envy.


HOW AND WHERE THE HERRING SPAWNS.

According to a contemporary, we learn that Professor Cossar Ewart,
Edinburgh University, convener of the Scientific Investigation
Committee of the Board of Fisheries, was at the beginning of March at
the well-known fishing-ground off the coast of Ayrshire known as the
banks of Ballantrae, when some interesting investigations were made
into the nature of the sea-bottom and spawn deposited on that famous
herring-bed. The banks were dredged from a depth of eight to twenty-two
fathoms. At a depth of eight to eleven fathoms the bottom was composed
of clean gravel, with very little seaweed; beyond the eleven fathoms,
clay, mud, and shell. On the stones lifted by the dredge, portions of
herring spawn were found firmly attached to the surface of the stones
in different stages of development, the more advanced manifesting,
in lively action, the embryo herring. Spawn was also taken from the
living herring and placed on glasses in hatching-boxes, and these also
showed the eggs in progress of development. From a small stone of a
few inches of surface as many eggs were found as, if allowed to arrive
at maturity, would have yielded crans of herrings. The information
obtained by Professor Cossar Ewart, during his recent dredgings, will
be of the greatest importance in throwing light upon a hitherto but
imperfectly understood question in natural history.

The banks in the evening presented a scene of lively interest, for as
the sun began to set, a school of at least forty whales and porpoises
began to play, and, circling around the margin of the fishing-banks,
rose and fell in graceful plunges, their black fins and backs rising
in curves for a moment, and then disappearing, while the porpoises
made wild leaps many feet clear out of the water. Their presence was
accounted for next morning, when a good many of the seine trawlers
entered Loch Ryan and Girvan with from one to three hundred baskets of
herrings each.

Professor Cossar Ewart has since had some more successful dredgings.
He has also made some important discoveries regarding natural and
artificial spawning, and deposited live herring and a quantity of spawn
in the aquarium at Rothesay.


A FLOURISHING FRUIT-FARM.

At Toddington, in Gloucestershire, there has been going on for a few
years the cultivation of fruit on a very large scale; a fruit-farm of
five hundred acres having been planted by Lord Sudeley, and which, we
are glad to know, has proved so successful, that its area is about
to be enlarged to the extent of other two hundred acres. An enormous
number of fruit-trees of many kinds has been planted, along with
thousands of currant-bushes, whilst upwards of a hundred acres of the
land are devoted to the growth of strawberries. A noteworthy feature
of the scheme consists of a market being found for the smaller fruits
on the ground on which they have been grown. In other words, Lord
Sudeley has, with great foresight, erected a suite of boiling-houses
and packing-rooms, which have been let to an enterprising person,
who manufactures genuine jams and jellies from the fruit grown at
Toddington. In fruit-preserving, the English and Scotch boilers—and
the latter class have largely increased during the last few years—have
a great advantage over their brethren of the continent and the United
States, because of the greater cheapness of the sugar, which is
required in large quantities. It is to be hoped that the example set
by Lord Sudeley will be speedily followed by some of his territorial
brethren. As a nation, we could manage to consume much more fruit than
we do at present, if we could obtain it at a moderate price. In the
orchards at Toddington have been planted as many as thirty-two thousand
plum-trees, nine thousand damson trees, and three thousand nine hundred
pear and apple trees, while there are no fewer than two hundred and
twenty-eight thousand black-currant bushes.


THE GRAPE AND PEACH IN AMERICA.

The old saying about the inutility of carrying coals to Newcastle
receives a new rendering in the fact that vine plants are being brought
from America to replenish the vineyards of France, which have been in
some instances devastated by the phylloxera. Grapes are now extensively
grown in the United States both for dessert and wine-making. A lady
who has recently been travelling in California, where the grape family
is wonderfully numerous, and many of the vines exceptionally prolific,
sometimes obtaining a ‘luxuriance which sounds almost incredible’—this
lady—C. F. Gordon-Cumming—tells us, among other facts, of bunches of
grapes which have been found to weigh as high as fifty pounds! The
vineyards of Colonel Wilson, in the neighbourhood of the garden-city
of Los Angeles, cover two hundred and fifty acres of ground, and the
grapes yield one thousand gallons of wine to the acre. In another
vineyard, there grow upwards of two hundred varieties of grapes; and in
the cellars of its proprietor are stored two hundred thousand gallons
of grape-juice, ripening into wine, of which many kinds are made in
the state of California. Need it be said that grapes in these regions
are cheap—a hatful can be purchased for a few cents! Only think of the
above-named Colonel Wilson having ‘two and a half million pounds of
grapes, hung up by their stalks, to keep them fresh for the market’!
That fine fruit, the peach, is equally cheap in the peach-growing
districts of the United States. The annual value of the American
peach-crop is estimated at eleven and a half million pounds sterling.
In some seasons, peaches are so abundant, that, to prevent their being
lost, they are used in immense quantities for the feeding of pigs.
Cannot this fruit be utilised for consumption in Europe? Supplies of
the fresh fruit might be sent to us in the refrigerated chambers of the
steamboats.




BOOK GOSSIP.


One of the most interesting books of travel issued of late years is
that entitled, _Arminius Vambery: His Life and Adventures_ (London:
T. Fisher Unwin), which is now in the third edition. This Hungarian
traveller is a man of rare courage and will, and possessed of high
literary accomplishments; and the narrative of his wanderings in
various capacities in Asia and Europe is told with a graphic and
picturesque power which is extremely captivating.

Vambery, who was born in 1832, had a singularly hard up-bringing,
and the story of his early years is quite as interesting as his later
adventures in foreign lands. His father died a few months after the
birth of the boy, leaving the family in extremely poor circumstances.
When he was twelve years of age—up to which time, from lameness, he
could only walk with the help of a crutch—his mother thought him old
enough to shift for himself. He had previously been three years at
school, where he had drawn attention upon himself by his precocity.
But the inexorable poverty of his parent stood in the way of further
education, and at twelve he was apprenticed to a ladies’ dressmaker,
but only stayed long enough in this employment to learn to stitch two
pieces of muslin together. He left the shop of the ‘dress-artist,’ and
did a little teaching in the family of an innkeeper, ‘occasionally
waiting on thirsty guests.’ When he had saved up eight florins, he
hastened from the Island of Schütt, where he had spent his years, to
a gymnasium in the vicinity of Pressburg, and here began a strange
struggle for existence and education. His money was just sufficient
to buy the necessary books, and he had to depend on the kindness and
charity of others for his food. Seven different families each gave him
one day in the week a free meal, adding to it something for breakfast
and luncheon; and he got the cast-off clothes of the wealthier
school-boys. Notwithstanding all drawbacks, he made great progress in
his studies, and took a high place in the Latin class—he was indeed
able at fourteen years of age to speak Latin with considerable fluency.
We cannot follow his career further, but can with confidence commend
the singular story of his life and adventures to all readers, both
young and old.

⁂

Literature and angling would seem to have something in common. The
number of books that have been written on the ‘gentle art,’ and that
by men of striking ability, is too well known to require enumeration.
To this list we must now add _Sprigs of Heather, or the Rambles of
‘Mayfly’ with old Friends_, by the Rev. John Anderson, D.D., Minister
of Kinnoull. Mr Anderson is a veteran angler, and is able to look back
to days spent by the river-side with the great Christopher North, and
with others who, though of less note in the angling and literary world,
were still such as to afford to the author the opportunity of telling
many amusing and characteristic stories regarding them. He is, as many,
perhaps most, anglers are, delighted with the scenes of rural beauty
into which his pursuits have led him, and he describes them with the
pen of a ready and accomplished writer, and with somewhat of poetic
fervour. Mr Anderson is a strong advocate of fly-fishing, and almost
scornfully speaks of those who use bait, as ‘ground-fishers,’ and the
like. We are not sure but his indignation on this point is misplaced,
as all bait-fishing is not done in muddy or discoloured water, and
perhaps as much skill is required to fish successfully a small clear
stream with worm as with fly. Stewart and other well-known anglers have
long since acknowledged this. In other respects, however, Mr Anderson’s
little volume is such that lovers of the rod and line will find it
entertaining reading.

⁂

Those who love Scottish music and Scottish dances will hail with
pleasure the appearance of two handsome volumes entitled, _The Athole
Collection of Dance Music of Scotland_ (Edinburgh: Maclachlan and
Stewart). These volumes have been compiled and arranged by Mr James
Stewart Robertson (Edradynate), who has done his work in a most
efficient manner. He, as an unprofessional musician, apologises for
having undertaken such a work, which, he says, was only done by him
because he did not expect, from the disfavour into which, for the
present, Scottish music and dances have unfortunately fallen, that
any professional musician, competent for the task, ‘could be induced
to devote the time, and to run the chances attending the production
of such a work.’ So far as Mr Robertson’s execution of the work is
concerned, no such apology was required; while his devotion to the task
which he has so satisfactorily accomplished renders his services to
his country almost patriotic. He has selected his airs with admirable
taste and skill, and the two volumes contain within them specimens of
almost every characteristic of Scottish dance music. No better or more
acceptable present could be sent from Scotch folks at home to Scotch
folks abroad than this _Athole Collection_.




AMONG THE DAISIES.


    Lay her down among the daisies,
      With the fringes of her eyes,
    Softer than their silver petals,
      Closed for blissful reveries.
    Fold her little hands in whiteness
      As in prayer on her breast;
    Fear not for their folded lightness
      On the heart unmoving pressed,
    For that heart of angel brightness,
      Tired so early, lies at rest.

    Tired so early!—when the dawning
      Glimmered white-winged through the room,
    And the skies were half awaking,
      Half in fading starlit gloom,
    From the heaven of the starlight
      Came the angels of the dawn;
    And the morning winds were sighing,
      And the curtains eastward drawn,
    And her sleeping face looked brighter,
      And a whispering sob said—‘Gone!’

    All the daisies were unfolding
      In the fields, where never more
    Shall the rapture of her child-life
      Run in shout and laughter o’er.
    Tired so early!—she has gathered
      All her gladness in swift space,
    She has sung her song and ended,
      Childlike turning pleading face
    Back to home when joys are weary—
      Toward the one familiar place.

    Lay her low among the daisies:
      Angels knew her more than we;
    They have led her home from wandering,
      Tired with earthly revelry.
    And above her daisied pillow
      Let her simple tale be told:
    Here the Lover of the lilies
      Bade a little blossom fold;
    He that wakes the flowers shall wake her,
      White as snow, with heart of gold.

            HELEN ATTERIDGE.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Conductor of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of
CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:

_1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
    High Street, Edinburgh.’

_2d._ For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps
    should accompany every manuscript.

_3d._ MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author’s full _Christian_ name,
    Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on
    white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.

_4th._ Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a
    stamped and directed envelope.

_If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to
insure the safe return of ineligible papers._

       *       *       *       *       *

Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.

       *       *       *       *       *

_All Rights Reserved._

       *       *       *       *       *

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:

Page 207: Angelos to Angeles—“Los Angeles”.]