Topics Of The Times

A lkakned French scholar ismaking an effort to raise 3,000,000 francs for the purpose of dredging the Red Sea for the remains of Pharaoh's host, drowned there aecording to Bibical legend. This eminent scholar says the water of the Red Sea pos3esses sueh strong antisiptic proporties that the Esryptians vvere encrusted with a heavy layer of salt, and covered with mud. He is very coniident that the bodies may be found, but finds it very diflicult to make scientists believe in his scheme. A Champion fasting story comes from Indiana. It is gravely asserted that a few days ago, thTee turkeys wero taken out f rom behind a "ground niovv'' of hay, where they had been accidentally imprisoned last August. They had eaten nothing during all that time, except hay, of which they had consumed fully a ton. When freed from tlieir imprisonment one immediately, from joy, presumaWy died.and theothertwo, though reduoed to skeletons, persistently refused to eat anything. The incident is the topic of conversation among all the spring liars of the corner grocerie. The brick house on Lotitia st, Philadelphia, known as the Penn Mansion, has been purchased by a nuniberof gentlemen who propose to remove it and set it up again on some site where it will be free from future disturbance. The plan most in favor is to place it in the Zoologioal Gardens, where John Penn's house, still stands on its original site. It was so well built that thewalla can now be taken down in secl-tons several feet square. When the exterior has been rc'.r.ibilitated the interior nll bc restored as near as may be to the condiüon it was in when Penn oecupied it. An interesting fact about Russia is that in many of its coldest provinoes fruit-growing is an important branch of industry. In the province of Kazan, which is 350 miles fnrther north than Winnipeg, and where the mercury in winter sometimos falls as low as 60 degrees below zero, apples are grown in large quantities at a proiit. In the province of Vladimir, which Í3 almost as eold as Kazan, eherries of excellent quality are raised in great abundance. Both apples and cherries are shippe' from these provinces in large quantities. In these high latiutdes, fruit trees are usual ly small, being not over eight feet in height, and are planted in clumps like stalks of corn. Their low branching limbs are usually loaded with the most luscious fruit. If the Irish immigrants who are com - ng to our shores almost ♦reekly are enrprislng and industriüus, it wiïl not be i bad thing for our country, and of in;alculable benefit to the immigrants ,hemselves. An illustration of what jan be accomplished by honest effort is seen in the history of the Irish colony [ounded at Greeley, Nebraska, a few pears ago. In 1877 the colony was composed of 12 families, and the houses were all adobe huts. At the present fcirne there are nearly 300 Irish families, tnany of whom are in very comfortable eircumstances. They have had a hard struggle, but pluck and work have brought them through. In the early years of their struggle, the men worked in the mines, while the women put their hands to the plow, and cultivated their farms of forty and eighty acres. The climateof Greeley is soinvigoruting ana heallhful that the only people who die there are lawyers and doctors, and they starve out. If those who come to our hores with every stearner will "go and do likewise,1" there will be no need of legislation to keep them from coming for in the West, Southwest and great Northwest there are surely abundant opportunities tor those who are willing to work, and thus be spared the odious name of pauper. The impression has somehovv got abroad that the remains of Abraham Lincoln have beei disturbed since they were finally deposited in the vault at Springfield, HL, and that the body was petrifyiog. A number of letters have been addressed to Mr. J. C. Power, the custodian of the Lincoln monument, who has published a long statement in answer. He says that a few days vious to the dedication of the monument, October 15, 1874, President Lincoln's body was taken from an iron coffin and put in a lead one, and soldered perfectly air tight ; this was plaeed in a red eedar coiïln, and all put into a marble sarcophagus in the catacomb of the monument. There it has remained undisturbed, except at the time of the attempt to steal the body on the night of November 7, 1876, whcn the robbers removed the lid and end piece of the sarcophagus next the door, and drew the coffin containing tho body partly out, but being fnghtened by the United States Secret Service men, they ran away. An examination of the wood coflin showed that not a screw in it had been disturbed, andconsequently neithcr it nor the lead coflin had been opened. The remains have never since been removed from the monumeut and are absolutely safe. The statement that the air tight lead casket has never been opened since it was sealed answers the report that the body is petrifying, thal being impossible. There is no probability that another attempt to steal the body of the martyred President will ever bo made. The obstacles in the way are almost insurmountable, and would-be robbers must know that if anv attempt should be sucoessful the Government would never let them rest until the body was recovered and the ghouli punished. It could never be returned upon the no-questions-asked plan. The truc story of Gambetta's love aö'air is now published. The story that he had been shot by his mistress because he refused to marry her is positively denied. In 1870, at twenty yeara of age, Mlle. Leonie came to Paris cxpressly to be near Gambetta, for whom she entertained, without knowing him, a most unbounded admiration, believing him destined to a great career. At the end of the war she wrote letter after letter, begging for an interview , under the pretext that she had important Communications to make. Puzzled by the girl's persistence and struck by ber remarkable personal and politioal observations, mingrled with ber admiradon for him, Gambetta entered into correspondence with her. The letters were followed b}r interviews, which gradually ripened into frienc'ihip, and ttiat into a love which lasted uninterruptedly to his death. lt was he who wished that they should be married, hut she refused. Amidst the envy and jeulousy that surrounded him it would provokè attention aud attack, she said, and be a drawback in hls career. She had sacrificed herself voluntaiily to him and should continue to do so. But he insisted, and they were to be married ia April. His physicians having kept him in ignorance of his condition, Gambetta dieu without making a will, and, in spite of bis estáte being worth $200,000, Mlle. Leonie is penniless. Every night for ten vears Gambetta wrote a long letter, giving Leonie his opinión upon the political, parliamentary and foreign events of the day. She sent daily answers, in which she discust-pd the smallest political details, and g; T h:ai advice, which was often asked i.Ld follovred. ïhey had no ehildren, til wa asserted.