Current Topics

A kew years ago, says the Lando n Standard, the young people oí Eagland becaino imbued with the roller skating craze, and rinks were built ali over the country. The f ever, ho wever, was as brief as any other vagaries of fashion; the enthusiasm died away; the rinks were deserted, the investors lost their money, and roller skatos disappoared in the land." The bill which was passed tho other afternoon, will prove a terror to crimináis. Mr. Boynton is its author. Tho bill provldes that any man convicted the second time of either of the offences of burglary, grand larceny, horse stealing, robbery or forgery, shall be imprisoned for the full term provided by law. Upon the third conviction for either of the offences named ho is sent to the penitentiary for a period not less than 16 years. The editions of The Century Magazine are now so large that it has become necessary either to . go to press at an earlier date or to postpone the day of issue. The latter alternativa has been accepted. The April number, the edition of which was 225,000, was delayed until the 25th of March. The May number-edition,250,000 - will be issued on the lst day of May, thus inaugurating with the first numbsr of the thirtieth volume a chango which bas long been considered desirable by the publishers, and which it is believed will bo heartily commended by tho public. Future numb3rs of The Century Magazine will bs issued on the lst day of the month of which each bears date. In accordance with the recommendations of the trustees of the Binghampton state asylum for chronic insane, the New York state board of charities and state commissionors of lunacy have decided to próvido tentaccommodations for temporary shelter of 200 palients for the coming season The measure was adopted in view of the crowded condition of the asylum, and for the purpose of seouring better curativo agents in the treatment and care of certain classes of patiënte. Tents will bo erected on the asylum gronnds according to the plan of a well appointed hospital camp. The grounds will be pleasantly laid out, properly drained and piaoed ia the highest sanitary condition. The tents will ba appropriated to the use of f eeble and infirm patients only; of which class there are many in the a?ylum. A Utica, New York, dentist, who went through a car of emigrants the other day while they were engaged in eating their dinners, declared that they all had sets of sound, whLte teeth, evenly grown and well planted, and not a tooth brush among them. Ho attributed it to iheir eating only coarse food foregoing sweets, whereby they avoid the acids generated thereby, This is an excellent theory, but is contradicted by tho fact that Negroes eat any quantity of sugar and have excellent teeth. The truo reason is that the general physical health and constitution of those who live out of doors and live simply have botter physical developments than those who do not. Their bones, their muscles, and all the organs and parts depending upon nutrition are sounder and stronger. All law-abiding citizens join in hearty commendation of the swift jusíce meted out to Halstead, who was reently sentenced to imprisonment for life or the murder of HenrySmitb. It may e that Halstead did not, as he claims, ;rike the fatal blow, but the probabilty is that, despite his assertions, he is he guiltyman. Atallevents ommunity is well rid of him, and the safer for iris incarceration. Had the same diligence been shown in the Crouch murder case, there might be more than tho seven murdered innocents, and not one convicted. If the authorities in all places and at all times were as prompt in. action as in the ase of Halstead, there is no doubt bat that it would have a restraining effect upon the murderers, and do away with the necessity for the restoring of that relie of barbarism- capital punishment. _ Within the past few days two fearful accidents have occurred, eah of whioh was attended with loss of life. We re fer to the falling in of the walls of ft partially completed - building in New York city, and the caviüg in of the brick work of a mili in Ü3coda, when six inen lost their lives. In each of these cases, as the investigations show, the accident is directly traceable to the builders, who used cheap material in the constructicn of the work, and made thoroughness subordínate to haste. It is a groas libel to cali such cases as these accidents. It is nothing more nor less than manslaughter, and if no provisión is made in the law as it now stands for the punishment of greedy buildera, whose desire to make money predominates over every other motiye, then the law shoald be amended in the interest of the people whose lives are in jeopardy throughthe criminal carelessness of conscienceless builders. A ehemical analysis of Alpine air shows that au entirely pure condition is not found until an altitude is reached of from 6.000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea- a result by no means m accordanee with common opinión. A bell [boy with nearly a dollar in him is being mined by physicians in Portland, Me., where he was empioyed in a hotel. Ho was running upstairs with 78 cents in his mouth, when, suddenly sloDpingfor something, he gulpod the entirê amount - two 25 cent pieces, two dimes, and the rest in pennies. Strange to say there has been no chango in his interna! arrangements since.