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I==â€"â€"â€"â€"'â€"â€"_â€"â€"â€"'â€"â€"_â€"â€"â€"â€"__,â€"â€"_â€"â€"â€"_â€"_ SK Str- UUlllllUS WILLS. ge Bequests Made by Death Bed Humorists. A Shilling IBuyIlazell Nuntsthhâ€"Enouzh Between Them to Buy it "ulcerâ€"Got a Valuable Estate Because She Married 3 fllrnster ‘Vhom She llenpecketlâ€" All Ills \Vullfll to n “In lipon (lurndl "on Tbs! II:- Blmunrl Always “’enr While Linenrllothes, etc, etc. When, in ‘rfit of passion, the author of the “ School for Scandal” threatened to cut his son off with the proverbial shilling, the imperturbable Thomas is said to have asked, “ But where will you get the shill- ing from sir '2” This all-important question of where the money was to come from, however, did not prevent 8. Norfolk gentleâ€" man from carryinga similar threat into execution against his Wife, for that was the sum he left her, after devoting several pages of his will to a list of her numerous delin- quencies. Neither did it trouble the mind ofa sailor of Bristol, when he directed in his will that his widow was to have ashilling to buy hazel-nuts with; “ for,” he wrote, “I know well that she hath always preferred cracking of them to mending the holes in my stockings.” About the same time,too, a Thames lightermau inserted the following curious clause in his wrllâ€"“ I. leave to my son John the sum of one shilling wherewith to hire a porter to carry sway the next badge and frame that he shallsteal.” Equal lysarcasti c is that of one l-loseph Swain. who bequeathed to John Abbot and his wife one shilling between them, with which theywere to buy a halter, should the Sher- iffs not happen to have one by them, WHEN IT WAS NEEDED. A bookseller in Bond street left the sum of £50 to a lo. iy whom he described as " Elizabeth Parker, whom in a moment of foolish fondness I made my wife without having any regard to rank, fortune or character, and who, in return, has accused me of every conceivable crime under the sun. A Doctor Dunlop, of Upper Canada, perpetuated his. eccentricity in a most lengthy will, from which we give a few extracts. To one sister he bequeathed a valuable estate, because she had married a minister whom she henpecked. The hus- band of one of his daughters received a penny to buy a whistle with Hand, in token of gratitude to a brother-in-law, “for marrying my sister Maggie, whom no one with the least sense, feeling, or taste would have taken,” he gave a big silver snuff box. Still another brother-in-law had an old and valuable china punch bowl “because he was very liable to do it credit ;’ whilst to one, John (isdell, whose inclina- tions were apparently opposite to those of’ the recipient of the punch bowl, he left a silver teapot, “out of which he might. drink tea, day and night, to comfort himself be- cause he had a. slatternly wife." The son of this gentleman had a heavy silver tan- kard left to him "which old John would have had, only he would have melted it down to make temperance medals of, and that would have been sacrilege.”Lreutenant General Hawley, it appears, after leavrng the WHOLE or HIS 'LARUl-I FORTUNE amongst his servants, ordered that “his carcase should be thrown anywhere,” but that if a. parson read the burial service over it, and claimed his fee, his executors “were to let the puppy have it.” A clause couched in such terms as these implies a con- tempt for tie clergy which is not altogether be coming ; buteven that is better than the hate which evidently prompted a German about forty ye rs ago to make a will by which he left all his wealth to a man h e thoroughly disliked upon condition that he should always wear thin white linen clothes and no extra underclothing. How- ever, the legatce got the better of it all, for, being quite free from family ties, he managed to keep within the terms of the will by retiring to one of the Pacific Islands. In 1814 Lady Frances Wilson received a letter from Archdeacon Potts, telling her that a. man, then lying deadln a miserably. furnished carret in lelico, had left her a. valuable estate in Hampshire. As she had never heard of the testator, Lady Frances naturally concluded that the thing was a hoax. However. she went to Pimlico, and there recognised the dead man as one who, at the opera, had constantly annoyed her by staring her out of countenance. Arch- deacon Potts started a theory that Lady Wilson must have resembled a lady With whom the dead man had been in love early in life; but this idea was pooh-poohed when it was discovared that he had left FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS to the Countess of Rosslyn, the same amount to the Speaker of the house of Commons, and a thousand pounds to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, all of whom were totally ignorant of his existence. But the dead man could not have been mad, at least, such was the opinion, of the Venerable Archdeacon, though perhaps this opinion was somewhat blessed by the fact that he himself was remembered to the extent of a thousand pounds “in appreciation of an excellent serrnon which I once heard him preach.” Perhaps, however, the bequest of a gentleman of Columbus, Ohio, beats all pre- vious records in its absurd eccentricity. The whole of his vast wealth was left in the hands of trustees, who were to build and maintain an infirmary for cats with it. A complete plan of the proposed building ao- companied this curious specimen of a. Will, and in it was provided that the cats who were to be its inmates were to have many rat-holesâ€"stocked with a proper quantity of rats, for sporting about iiiâ€"real areas with real railings, cistern lids, and steps, for exercise yards, and best of all, high walls and gently-sloging roofs, for amatory converse and FELIX]: rtrk'rwrroxs. Then, after a long rigmarole respecting kindness to dumb animals, more especially to catsâ€"the rats, apparently, which were to be provided for the rat-holes, werenotdumb animals in the estimation of the testatorâ€" he directed that his intestines should be re- , ‘ o. lmoved and manufactured into fiddle andl harp strings. These were to be sold and with the proceeds an accordion was to be purchased, which was to be played, night and day, in the auditorium of the institu- tion, former, by a staff of nurses specially appointed for that purpose, “in order that the cats may be perpetually delighted with the strains of an instrument the sounds of which is the nearest mechanical imitation of their voices which can be got." THERMOMETERS GOOD AND BAD. 0dr! Facts Aboul This llseful llnt “Tumor Friend and Guide. Now that the thermometer is beginning to play an important part in personal com- fort as the mercury climbs up among the nineties, attention is called to that little in- strument. A new thermometer has appear. ed on the market during the past few days, It hal previously been a patented article- controlled by foreign owners, who held the price up so that it was only purchased by observatories, hospitals and millionaires. The patent has now expired, and these in- struments are being madein large quantities in the United States. The peculiarity of this instrument is that the column ofglass is ground. It thus be- comes a magnifier, and the column of mer- cury is greatly enlarged. This enables you to read the state of the mercury across a room without the necessity of going up to the instrument and straining your eyes to see where it stands. The column of mer- cury in a good thermometer is always very fine, being smaller than the smallest needle. With the magnifying thermometer it is en- larged more than twenty times, and is easily read. The average man who buys s. thermo- meter knows nothing about such instru- ments. and usually purchases one that is practically worthless. Nine-tenths of the thermometers on the market are improperly made. The scale usually runs from forty degrees below zero to 120 degrees above. As the thermometer is usually used in a room there is no necessity for its registerv lug lower than the freezing point or higher than ninety. This gives a range of about sixty degrees. But thermometer-makers, who turn out instruments of one pattern for all countries, whether in the arctic or the tropics, make few thermometers of this kind. Many people imagine that, the electric fun. because it cools a room. lowers the temperature. The fallacy of this may be easily proved by putting a thermometer in front of an electric fun. A man is cooled by forming himself because his face throws orf heat, and this is carried away by new air. A thermometer throws off no heat and you may fan it for an hour without making the slightest change in its register' as long as no new cold air is admitted into the room. It is obvious that a thermometer to be accurate cannot be made by machinery. The scale must be made to fit the reading THE Wcstrs NEWS CANA DA. Fifty stone-cutters at work on the princi- pal buildings in Victoria, B. 0,, are on strike. The steamer Amarynthia outward bound from Montreal, with cattle, horses, and a general cargo, went ashore on the west side of St Helen’s island, and it is feared she will be a. total loss. A Shoal Lake, Mam, despatch says that the wheat and oats are headrng out in that district, and that the crops are atleast two weeks in advance of any previous year. The prospects are said to be splendid. The Cariboo stage, goinc south, about three miles south of the lSO-mile house, was stopped on Monday bya. masked man with a rifle, who compelled the driver to deliver the express. The provincial police have gone in pursuit of the robber. The death rate last week in Montreal was larger than that of any week of the heated term last year. The total number of deaths last week was 239, while the greatest num- ber in one week during the heated term last year was "222. In an interview regarding the proposed fast Atlantic service with Sir \Villssm Van Horne, he said that an Atlantic steamship service of the highest class was the very greatest need of the country, and he had no dout of its success if properly established and handled. Atu meeting of the Agricultural Gom- mlttee in Ottawa on Friday, it was decided to recommend that a veterinary staff should be organized in connection with the De- partment, of Agriculture to deal with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. and also for the inspection of live stock for export. GREAT BRITAIN. The Queen arrived at ‘.\'indsor Castle on Saturday, from Balmoral. The Earl of Dunmore is making plans fo a journey by land from New York to Paris by way of Alaska and Siberia. The strike of the Scotch coal miners be- gan Tuesday morning, when sixty thousand men quit work. The Duke of York was invested on \Vedv nesday with the honorary degree of LL. D. by the University of Cambridge. In the London Official Gazette appears so order revoking the Canadian cattle slaughter and examination order of 1894. The steamer Neath Abbey. of Swansea, England, has been wrecked off Nash Point. The captain and three sailors were drowned. Lord Randolph Churchill bade farewell to his friends in the House of Commons on Friday prior to starting on his tour of the world. The funeral of Lord ('oleridge was held at “'estminster Abbey on Friday, after which his body was taken to Otery Devon, for interment. The Queen has signed a royal warrant which authorizes the issue of medals for long ahd meritorious services in the local forces in the colonies. of the mercury, which differs in every in- strument. The “ in the shade” busrness 18 one of the curious superstitions about thermometers. No two “shades” are of the same degree of coolness, and to the average it is small comfort to know that it is ten degrees cooler in a cellar or on top of some tall building. The place where the! temperature should be taken is on the shady side of the street on a level with the side- ' walk. AN EX-EMPRESS’ LATER DAYS. ‘Vreck orrlw “as! successful All vcuturess the World llas Ever Known. The ex-Empress Eugenie, who was always the guest of the De Mouchys when she passed through Paris, has been on the occasions that she visits our Ville Lumiere forced to put up at the Hotel Continental like a simple cook’s tourist, where no one recognizes in the lame, old, broken woman, the once radiant Empress of the French,‘ says a Paris lettenwriter. The olden proph ecy that used to affright her so, that her fate would be sadder than that of Marie Antoinette, some people think has been realuced in her case, as she has outlived all that seemingly makes life worth living. However, luckily for herself,she does not agree with the Sentimental theories of the outer world, for to an intimate friend she said the other day, “Although Inow drift on a sea of sorrow between two coffins”â€"a royally bad metaphor~“still I would not change lots wrth any one, for I have been the most radiant and courted of sovereigns.” She lives in her past now, having alien- ated mos. of her friends by her temper and avarice. She was the curse of her dynasty, the instigator of the Franco-Prussia war, and the direct cause of the Prince Imperinl’s fatal expedition to Zululand, whither she drove him by her penurlousness and cease- less exsctions. That she is unconscious of her own share in the ruin of her family is much the better for her; still, when she crawled past us at the Continental the other day all those who recognized her looked with a. certain sorrow at the wreck of the most successful adventuress the world has ever known. Antelope Preserve in Africa. An effort is being made in England to form a society with the object of preserving many of the species of South African an- telopes. which are in danger of soon becom- ing extinct. The scheme, which is being promoted and supported by a number of well-known sportsmen and scientists, is to inclosca suitable tract of country in the district near Fort Salisbury with a wire fencing of, say, forty-five miles in circum- ference, and drive into this enclosure small herds of the still existing species of anti- lopes which it is desired to preserve. A: Certain seasons of the year, to prE\eutover- crowding, a number of specimens would be let loose or exported for the use of zoologi- cal societies. To carry out the plan acozn- paratrvely moderate capital would be re- quired :and it is said that the British South African Company will receive a petition be- fore long asking their consent to the fencing in of the proposed reserves, : The rumors are persistent in London political circles that Sir William Harcourt will not retain the leadership in the English Commons beyond the present ses. ston. The will of the late Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, disinheriting his eldest son, Bernard Coleridge, will be contested on the grounds of undue influence by his stepâ€" mother. Gen. Neal Dow,the prohibition champion, of Maine, says the police of Portland are more corrupt, in comparison to the wealth and population of the city, than the police of New York. 'Lhe Liberals of Midlothian have selected Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, Bart., as their candidate in the contest for the seat in Parliament for Midlothian which ex-I’re. mier Gladstone now holds. In the Leeds conference on Friday Mr. Labouchere introduced a motion favoring the abolition of the House of Lords. This was voted down, and inits stead a motion to curtail the veto power was carried. Mr. Henry Asquith, the English Home Secretary, announced in the House of Corn- mons Tuesday that the Government has decided to adopt the system of M. Bertillon, for the anthropometrical identification of prisoners. The visit ofthe Czarewitch to London has not created the furore in society that was expected. He is staying with Prince Louis, of Battenburg, and makes a formal call every day upon his fiancee, Princess Alix, at Windsor. UNITED STATES. Mrs. Greensteel, of Stewart s Ferry, Rutherford county. Tenn., has given birth to four children, two boys and two girls, and all are doing well. The United Irish societies of Chicago in annual convention on Sunday expressed their condemnation of the movement to raise funds for the Irish parliamentary party. A severe cyclone passed north of Perry, 0. T.. on Saturday night. A number of residences and barns were blown down and several head of cattle and horses were killed. After a lung shut-down, the Howard Plate Glass Works at Unquesne, 1a., began operations \Vednesdsy morning. The re- sumption gives employment to eight hunv dred men. Charles Switzer had a quarrel with his son at Albion, N. Y., and the latter left home. This affected the father so seriously that he went out to his orchard and hanged himself. Among the passengers on board the 'I eu- tcnic, which arrived at New York on Wed- nesday from Liverpool, was Miss Frances K. Willard, world’s president of the W. (I. T. U. Mrs. Halli'lay, who was convicted at Monticello, N. Y., on Thursday of a double murder was condemer to death in the electric chair durin:r the week beginning August (izh. Mr. 'i‘homss A. Edison, :he inventor, fell froms chair on Friday. Nothing was thought of the accident at the time, but serious complications have arisen, and at is cured he received intrrurd injuries. 7 Large quantities of grasshoppers have Asuddenly made their fipp‘ fiance sour Curl- , _. occpy itself with the Egyptian question, ton Minn, and in many places have totally destroyed gardens and are injuring mea- dows. They are aided to some extent by a four Weeks’ drouth. Miss Martha 1 ialvin, formerly of London, On'.., who for some months past has been living with her sister in Chicago, has been mysteriously missing for more than a week, the police failing to find any trace of her since she left her sister’s house. Adjutantâ€"General Tarsney, of the Color- ado State National Guards, who was stop- ping at Colorado Springs, was kidnapped from his hotel on Saturday, taken to the open prairie, stripped nude, and tarred and feathered. The outrage was committed by striking miners. George :\. Septenbnch, a former merchant of San Francisco, threw himself beneath the wheels of a train at Emerson, Neb., and was cut to pieces. He was on hrs way to San Francisco in charge of an officer, where he was Wanted for some crooked business transactions. A woman named Mrs. Annie Kapchowski started from the State house steps at Hos- ton at 11 a. in. Monday to make a trip around the world in fifteen months, start- ing without a cent and returning with a stipulated sum, the amount of which is not disclosed. A short time since there was trouble be- tween rhe employee of the Pullman Palace Car Company, in Pullman. Ill., and the employers, which the men wished to have referred to arbitration. The Pullmans re- fused, declaring it was a question between employer and employe, and must be settled by them. A strike was the result, and now the American liailway Union has interfered on behalf of the strikers, and ordered all railways where they have a controlling in~ thence to refuse to haul Pullman cars. The Chicago terminal lines are now tied up. I.‘ l-ZNERAL. The trial of Smto, the assassin of Presi- dent Carnot, has been fixed for July :13. Itis reported that Northern Peru has fallen into the hands of the revolutrorrists. The Khedive sailed from Alexandria on Saturday for Constantinople to visit the Sultan. Prince Bismarck‘s health is so precarious that his body physician will not allow him to receive deputations. Six- thousand bakers are on strike in Lls bon,and soldiers are baking bread to supply the wants of the citizens. The Khedive of Egypt has arrived at Constantinople. There were no special ceremonies of welcome. The Municipal Council of Lyons has voted two thousand dollars towards the cost of a statue of President Carnot. The vrneyards at and in the vicinity of Jerez, Andalusia, Spain, are infested with phylloxera, which threaten the total de- struction of the vines. A despatch from Buenos Ayres says that a. revolution under General Roach is upon the point of breaking out in the Province of Buenos Ayres. A strong force of Japanese troops has been landed at Corea, which action is great- ly straining the relations between China and Japan. The reported resignation of Sir Edward Malet, British Ambassador to Germany, on account of the Kaiser accusing the Euclish Cabinet of duplicity, is emphatically dedied- \Vednesday afternoon the electoral body formed of both Houses of the French Levis- lature assembled at Versailles and elecied M. Casimir-Perier President of the French Republic. Mme. Carnot was the recipient of thous- ands of messages of condolence, and amongst the senders were the Queen, Kaiser Wilhelm, Emperor Francis Joseph, and King Humbert. Owing to the fact of the assassin of Presi- dent Car'no: being an Italian, there were several anti-Italian demonstrations in Lyons and Paris, which were suppressed with great difficulty. A number of bombs and an infernal machine have been found in a. cellar near the Imperial palace at St. Petersburg. Several arrests have been made in connec- tion with the discovery. The Princess Galatro~Colonna (nee Mac- ksy) has entered an action for a judicial separation from her husband. The case will be tried in Naples, where the Princess will appear in person. The St. Petersburg police have discovered a plot to kill the Czar by blowing up the railway track over which he will pass short ly to attend the inaugural ceremonies of the church erected to commemorate the railway disaster at Borki. The Paris Temps publishes a. despatch from Berlin, which declares that to avoid an international conference, which would Great Britain has conceded Germany’s demand, and consented to renounce her claim to the stripof land between the Congo State and the German sphere of influencein Africa. During the past four years members of the highest aristocracy of Germany have been receiving anonymous letters, accusing members of their families of the vilest crimes and the police failed to trace the offender. The crime has at last been brought home to Count von Kotze, one of the Masters of Ceremonies of the Imperial Court, and it is believed that he is insane. At a conference of the members of the British and French Chambers of Com- merce in Paris, held on Saturday, the question of n general European disarma- ment was discussed, and it was pointed out that the sudden accession of nearly four million men, now supported by their respective Governments, to the ranks of labor, would vastly increase the army of the unemployed. ._ .+ .â€" Proven by Photography. A recent Ohio lawsuit, involving the ownership of 1,500 acres of valuable real estate, was Settled by the aid of pho- tography. The turning point of the suit was as to whether an old deed, executed seventy-five years ago, had five signatures or only four. There were spaces for five, but only traces of four were visible. The clerk of the court was ordered to have the deed photographed by an expert. He took it to Washington for that purpose. The negative developed some evidence of the missrug signature, but on enlarging it ten l n... ._..r..'. .4... .-.... -..~......:...y,‘ Inner. 13.x; THE SPREAD 0F ENGLlSH. If English Were Written on I’lmuetlc l'rlm-lplcs. lls Spread Would he More liuplll. The rapid spread of English is largely to be attributed to the simplicity of its gram- mar, which is less complicated than that of any other Western nation says Chambers’s Journal. Its marked poverty of inflections, as distinguished for example, from the German, is a great point in its favor, and thus it much easier for a Hermon to learn English than for an Eng- lishman or American to learn German. On the other hand, the extraordinary ortho- graphic inconsistency of the language is a decided drawback, and there is little doubt that if English were written on phonetic principles.as Spanish or German, its spread would be much more rapid, to say nothing of the great boon this would be to the Anglo-Saxons themselves, who spend years of unnecessary toll in learning to read and write their own language. Itisnot likely, however, thatany change will be made in this direction in the near future, atlesst in England, for the Eng- lish as anation, we'no:ed for their con- servative habits, and, although they recog- nize the great advantages of a phonetic system, are in no hurry to adopt it. Any change in this respect must probably be looked for to America, where a few innova- tions have been already introduced. Thus, the spelling “ vigor," “ favor,” “honor,” etc., are American innovahions, as are also “plow,” “traveler.” “ center,” "theater," etc. Other more recent forms, as”pro- ram." and “catalog” are already well established in America, but have found little favor in England. English speakers may be divided into four great branches, as follows: (1) The l‘uropean, (‘2) the American, (3) the South African, and (4) the Australasian. Each of these branches has its peculiarities, and the divergence between the four is becoming more marked every year. Of the extra-' European branches, American, although the oldest has diverged least from the bar- ent stem. It is surprising what a number of American words have been introduced 1 to England, many of which are now con- sidered indigenous to the soil. A large proportion of the slang spoken by the middle classes in England may also be said to have an American origin. On the other hand, the Americans have retained many good old English words which have long ago dropped out of our home vocabulary. â€"â€"â€"â€".â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" FANCIES 0F INVALIDS. A Gentleman: Who Longer! for a Dish of Grilled Elephants Font. About the manner of serving their food, says London Answers, patients sometimes have curious fancies. In one case a woman persistently refused to take her beef tea unless the bread which accompanied it was cut in the shape of diamonds, while in another it was always necessary to serve the food in a blue basin, for out of nothing else would she take nourishment. A boy who was attacked with scarlet fever shovVed great disinclination to take food, but finally agreed to swallow what Was necessary, provided he was fed in the following way: The beef tea, or whatever was to be given to him, was put into a silver teapot. The spout was placed in his mouth, andin this manner the food was poured down his throat. An elderly gentleman, who had passed much of his time hunting in Africa, on being asked if he fancied any particular dish, re- plied that he would like a bit of elephant’s loot ! Under certain circumstances, we. believe, this dish isa dainty and nourishing one, but the price of elephant in this coun- try being prohibitive, thrs elderly Nimrod was forced to content himself with a beef- steak instead. A clergyman with a. broken leg had, a great longing to be put one. pair of stilts a. pastime which he had never yet tried; while a man whose leg had been amputated, although admitting the impracticability of his wish, declared that a passion for skating had so seized him, since the loss of his limb, that he regretted being operated upon chiefly on that account. An English Oil Engine. The English papers describe a. new form of oil engine, designed for driving launches or small yachts. They are made by a firm at Portsmouth, England, and it is reported that one of them has developed sixteen horse-power by Wake measurement. The engine has four cylinders, looated in pairs 90 degrees apart, and riceived two impulses at every revolution. To make the engine start easier, three of the cylinders are thrown out of compression and the engine is started with a. single cylinder. As soon as the one cylinder causes an impulse, the others are thrown into gear. Another ad- vantage of the four cylinders which is pointed out, is that by shutting oi} the oil from one, the speed of the engine can be reduced about forty revolutions. The en- gine is fitted with two lamps, one to each pair of cylinders, each lamp heating its own vaporizer and ignition tube. The air is also heated by the same means by passing through a hollow cylinder forming the cus- iug to the lamp. The supply of oil is regu- lated by the size of grooves in the recipro- cating spindles of the supply mechanism, but for various grades of oil the air can be regulated. An improvement is considered to have been made in constructing the sides of the secondary tank of reservoirs for the oil supply attached to the engine of glass, as in this manner it can be seen at a. glance that the oil supply is all right. The exhaust valves are worked positively and drive their motion from the crank shaft by means of cams. The crank is encased and works in oil. The reversing is done by a set of helical wheels thrown in gear by a friction clutch, and this arrangement has been found to answer very well. The shaft when going ahead is coupled direct by means of the friction clutch, and it is only in going astern that the wheels have anything to do. As they run in a bath of oil. the wear and tear and noise are all said to be very small. The engine drives a 50- . . ' ( root steel gamut. of .1 feet ueau‘. __,_ fl