Current Topics

The editor of the Quincy Ilerald asks, "Have we a right to think ?" and bis brother editor of the Elgin Frank answers: "No, you have no right to hink thoughts abhorrent to the universal feeling3 of reflned humanity." General Annenkoff, who constructed he railroad across the ïurcoman steppe, is publishing his designs for continuing the line to Afghanistan, and thence to the Punjaub, where it would connect with the English system. The road is already built from Miehaelovsk to Kizie Arvat, in the Turcoman country. Extending to Candahar, it would give Russia a road to India and reduce the distance from Paris to Singapore by more than 2,000 miles. This is wliat the advance on Mery means, if Annenkoft' is to be trusted. American beef is winning its way to favor rapidly even in set and staid old Scotland. At a recent meeting of the Edinburgh Parochial Board a committee was appointed to test it beside Scotch beef. Two quarters weighing 70 1-4 pounds each were selected. Both were boiled.meat and bone and weighed separately with the following results American meat 53 1-4 lbs., bone 8 8-4 lbs; Scotch, 53 lbs, meat and 8 1-3 lbs. bone. Plates of soup from each were tasted, but no difference could be detected. It was unanimously decided to recommend the house committee to take a contract for American hppf A few days ago a man named Ilarvey, of Damariscotta, Me., declared in the presence of the Rev. Moses J. Kelley of that place, that he hoped the President WOHld die. The clergyman, who is a muscular Christian, thereupon gave the scoundrel a good thrashing, f or which he was af terward summoned beí'ore a magistrate and flned $5. Several citizens of Piscataquis County, where the venomous Harvey used to live, sent to the clergyman the amount of nis fine, and have received from him the following reply: "The undersigned grat.ef ully acknowledges the receipt of an interesting letter from 'Loyal Citizens,' of Dover and Foxcroft, inclosing $5 toward paying the costs of a recent trial. White I claim no special credit for having rebuked base and treftsonable words, I am deeply affected by their kind and generous assistance and their earnest sympathy is most cordially appreciated. ïhe arrival in England of a steamer frorn Australia with 120 tons of meat in good cocdition, indicates that our cattle raisers must henceforth expect competition from that quarter. ïhe distance traversed is, however, so great as to give our producers important adVcintiiges in the matter o f less freight, greater security and quicker returns. Oflicial reports from the City of Mexico state that seventy-five miles of the Central railroad of Mexico have been completed, and that 14,000 men are employed in the work of its construction, ad the peace of timid and superstitious souls. At 5 o'clock, the sky presented the appearance of an orange dome of extraerdinary beauty. As sunset approached, the orange hue deepened over sky and city, and the streets were Qlled with people gazing at the weird spectacle. In every place where the unusual phenomenon was conspicuous, people reealled the stories of the famous "dark day," about one hundred years ago, when business was suspended, candles made only a slight impression on the universal gloom, and unreasoning roosters announcsd at noon-day a üctitious dawn. Even the advanced knowledge of to-day, while it laughs at superstitious fears, and rightly attributes to natural conditions such strange appearances as those of Tuesday, cannot give a very satisfactory account of the causes which produce thein. The Springfield Union thinks that one of the lessons taught by the recent massacre in Arizona is that the Indians "ougbt to be removed from the tracts with which they are familiar. This would render them comparatively powerless, for they cannot intelligently retreat after an attack, which they will not make unless they know where the obscure hiding places and 'water holes' are located. it is because the Indian knows all these now, while the army offleers and men do not know them, that he maintains his audacity. With their fine horses they can in anightput themselves beyond the danger of pur'suit by any organized troops and they only fear the superior skill and equal knowledge of trails possessed by tne white settlers." The Japanese authoiities have a troublesome question to face. It is the custom in Kiukiu to disinter and wash the skeletons of the dead on the third anni versary of their decease, but Kiukiu was decimated by the cholera in 1879, and it is feared that opening the graves of the victims will produce another epidemie. "Yet," says the Japan Muil, " to forbid the thing by edict would live pretty much the same effect as to make waking corpses a criminal act in Ireland." Oddly enough, the steamer bringing the issae of the Japanese Mail in which the observation was made brought also a late number of The St. James Gazette containing the following paragraph : "A statement made at the meeting of the Toxteth Board of Guardians the otlier day once more shows hovv desirable it is that some steps should b3 taken to put a stop deciel vely to the very objectionable gatherings among the Irish, known as 'wakes.' The clerk to the guardians reportedthat one of the parish oflicers, whila searehing for a man who liad deserted his wife and family, went to a house where a 'w.ike' was going on. On opening the door of a room only six feet by tvvelve in size a horrible spectacle met his eyes. A number of persons were lying on the i floor of the gloomy and narrow den dead drunk while others not yet reduced to this condition were 'waking' the body, which was propped upright between two chairs. The spectacle, said the offieer, was one of the most dreadful he had ever witnessed. Such scènes are, howevef, it is feared, but too common in districts inhabited by the Irish poorer classes ; and the sooner 'wakes,' with all their attendant horrors, are suppressod the better." The William has just received from his grandson, Prince Ilenry, a letter conveyed to him in a curious fashion. It was brought to Klitmullen on the west coast of Jutland by a tiuy boat two and one-half feet long and one foot broad. The boat is called the "Sea-Messenger" and was dispatched by the Duke of Edinburgh f rom the Scottish coast on July 24. Unaided by any human or machine power, it made its ways alone across the water and was pickecl up on August 19. The two men of Gloucestt r, Mas?., wlio went aciOoS the ocean to ugland lastyear in a twenty-foot boat ave returned in the same craft. The extreme idiocy of the whole prooeeding ia only equaled by tiie good luck that attended it. This boat caused no less than four ocean steamers to leave their course under the supposition that it ontained shipwrecked men, and the oss of time thus occasioned, when ïgured from a commercial standpoint, amounts to a veiy considerable fueq. In case any more i'oolhardy adventurersdislre to imperill their lives in a similar manner the olliiera of the law should interfere.- Chicayo Tribune. An ingenions railway caterer who has been in the restaurant business seventeen years, has invented a sandwich made of bread and ineat. People who haveeaten itsay itisinallrespects equal to the old-established bass-vvood and leather article, and is even considerecl more palatable and wholesome It has not yet coine irito general use. A wriler in ;i Freriuh horticultural journal relates this suggestive experience: "After.sunset I place in the centre of my orcnard an oíd barrel, the insideof which 1 have previously tarred. At the bottom of the barrel I placed a lighted lamp. In secta of many kinds, attracted by the light, make fr th? lamp, and while ei reling aron ': strike against the sides of tlit) baiwl, where, meeting with the tar, their wings and lega become so closged that they fall helpless to the böttom. In the morning I examine the barrel, and frequently take out of it ten or twelve quarts of cockchaferj, whicb. I at once destroy." A few per.ee' worth of tar employedin this way vvill, without any further trouble, be tUe means of destroying innumerable n imbers of these insects, whose larvio ai j amongst the most destruetive pests t!ie gárdener or farmer has to contend againat.