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( meaugâ€" WW 3'0 TEv A ND COMMENTS. Some of the Bealgian newspapers have been bitterly opposed to their country’s taking the Congo Free State under its protectign, Many of their remarks are hysterical andinaccurate; but they cordially unite in their position, which is worth noticing, because .it belies the genius and destiny of the human race. They say, in substance, that tropical Africa was never made for civilized men ; and that, though nations should bankrupt themselves in the effort to reclaim it, the region will never ylold bene fits commensurate with the men and money it will cost. How do they know that this is true? He is a wise man indeed who is able to assign limits to human enterprise. What prophet among us can foretell the changes that human in- genuity and art may yet effect on this globe? A large part of our business today is to fit this world more perfectly for human use as a habitation. Thatis the reason why we dig Suez and Baltic canals, lay cables under the ocean, build railroads over the mountains, and irrigate the desert till it blossoms like the rose. By long experi- ment and study we have greatly improved the methods and accelerated the processes of taming wild nature. Two centuries elapsed before Europe began to turn America to much account; but a single century after Australia drew the world's notice, saw the full flower of civilization blooming there. The most of Africa is the discovery of the past. half century, and ye we know far more of that great continent in all its aspects to-day than was known of America three hundred years after Chris~ topher Columbus had discovered it. Are these critics aware that one of the great problems of the age is how to turn the tropical regions to best account for all mankind, and that enormous progress is making toward its solution? If the mor- tality statistics of the white race within the tropics prove anything, they show that we are learning to carry on our enterprises there, of every sort, under our own super- vision and without undue imperilment of life. In British India, for instance,the annual death rate among Europeans was 84 to the thousand in the early part of this century, but in 1890 it was reduced to 16 to the thou=and. In the Dutch East Indies the European mortality in 1828 was 170 to the thousand ; twenty years later it was 60; in 1868 it was 30, and in 1892, 16, much less than the native death rate, which then reached 23 to the thousand. In the Congo basin, which is so much decried by some of our Belgian friends, the death rate among white men in 1893 was 70 to the thousand, but this included many men who were Campaigning in the field,deprived of almost every comfort and convenience. At settle- ments like Home and Leopoldville, where the pioneers live in houses,underfairly good ianitary and alimentary conditions, the .leath rate, in the same year, was 32 to the thousand. In Algeria the death rate among the whites dropped from 77 to the thousand in 1848 toll in 1803 ; and in the Antilles, from 91 to 18. It is a very poor use of time and energy to argue that there is a single square mile of the earth’s surface which man will not some day, turn to his own advantage. . . The Blessing of Fame. Old Bondclippâ€"th ! You’d like to marry my daughter, eh? What business are you engaged in, may I ask? Young Odistleâ€"No business, sir. infinitely abovesordld trade, sir. poet. Yes, so I have heard. Merely a. poet. Merely, sir '2 My poems, sir, have brought me fame. Yes, so 1 have been told. Fume, eh? And what amount of income does that fame represent '.’ \Vell, sir, I have paid my board bills as they came diie, and I owe for only one suit of clothes, the one I have on. Exactly. Just whntI expected. Now, what good has your fame done you? An- swer me that: It made me acquainted with your daugh- ter, sir. If it had not been for my fame we never would have met, and if we had not met she never would have promised to marryme, willy nilly, by hook or by crook, whether you consenlcdpi‘ not. Umâ€"ahcmâ€"well, I consent. Iain I am a -â€"+â€"â€"â€" Small Soldiers. The Venezuelan people are of short staâ€" ture. A British functionary who was reâ€" cently captured by a body of Venezuelan sroops has sent an account of the incident to the Pall Mall Budget, in which he says: “You can imagine my feeling when, look- ing down from my height of 6 feet on some of the Venezuelan looters about 4 feet in height, I saw them puffing away at my cigars, while I, myself, could not get one of them to smoke." -â€"â€"â€"-â€"â€"â€"â€"9â€"â€"â€" English Coppers. Anew issue of copper coinage is being made in England to bring out Queen Vic- toria’s title of Empress of India. The reverse is the same as on the old coins, the figure of Britannia seated, but the ochrse is a. new head of the Queen, with the inâ€" scription Victoria Dei Gra. Britt. Regina Fid. Def. Ind. Imp., ” by the Grace of God, Queen of the Bi’iiains,defender of the faith, Empress of India." The inscription is already on the gold and silver coins. THE NEWS Ill A NUTSHELL THE VERY LATEST FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. Elliereslingltems About our 0w“ Country, Grout Brltnln, the llnlted Stairs, and All Paris of the Globe. (‘ondeusctl and Assorird [or Easy Rendlng. CANADA. During May 768 immigrants arrived at Winnipeg. Friends of John R. Hooper are petition- ing for his release. Hamilton firemen ask for an increase of $5 a month in their salaries. The taxes of the County of Middlesex this year will amount to $70,368. An operation for the purpose of removing a tumor will be performed on Mayor Stew- art of Hamilton. A beaver dam has been discovered in the line of the projected Hudson Bay road, north of Gladstone. Hamilton has received a tender from the Electric Light Company to light the city at $91.25 per lamp per year. The postal ruthorities intend taking action against a number of small traders in Winnipeg who retail postage stamps. The offer of the county to sell the jail building to Hamilton City for $40,000 was refused and a new jail will probably be built. Mr. F. R. Alley, a well-known real estate man, and promoter of Amherst Park, has entered an action for $500,000 against the Montreal Street Railway. The distributon of seeds at the Experi- mental farm, which closed on May 31st, was enormous. The total numl er of applications Was 31,145. Of these 26,033 have been supplied. The station agents along the lines of the Canadian PaCitic railway and Northern PaCific railway report in very encouraging terms as to the crop prospects in Manitoba and the Territories. The memorial monument to De Maison- neuve, the founder of Montreal, Will be un- veiled in that city on Dominion day. The Governor-General has been invited to perform the ceremony. An inquest was held on the body of an infant found dead at. Hamilton. The verdict was death from neglect and starva- iion,but the jury could not decule whether the child was alive or not when left on the mouniain side. It is officially announced that the bench‘ ers in convocation have struck off the roll of barristers the name of William Middle- ton Hall, who was mixed upin the Toronto civic boodling investigation. Mr. S. A. McCaw, Manager of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, is authori- ty for the statement that the Manitoba wheat crop, as it appears at present, is the best ever seen in the country. The City Council of Vancouver, B. 0., on Monday evening suspended the Chief of Police and the License Inspector asa result of the evidence given before the Police Committee, which is now investigating into the working of the police force. Jacob Barquie. aRussian Hebrew was arrested in Ta into on Friday night, charged with passing a forged cheque. When the detective arrested him, be en- deavoured to cut his throat with a pocket- knife, llarquie’s wound is not dangerous. In the Militia General Orders just issued, permission is granted to the Royal Scots, of Montreal, to wear the “red hackle” in their feather bonnets. It has been sup- posed that this honor is the peculiar distinction of the famous “Black Watch,” upon whom it was bestowed for special servxces in the field. GREAT BRITAIN. There has beena marked improvement in Mr. Gladstone’s health. William O’Brien has issued a farewell address to the electors of Cork City. The Duke and Duchess of York have received an invitation to visit Australia next winter. Eighteen thousand troops took part in the review at Aldershot in honor of the visit of Nasrnlla Khan. Maharujah Ahuhakar, Sultan of Johore, who recently arrived in London on a visit, died on Tuesday evening. ‘ Herbert Spencer, recently appointed by Emperor Willi-am a Knight of the Order of Merit, has declined the proffered honor. Dr. Murray of Edinburgh, promises to send the published report of the Challenger expedition, 50 volumes, as a gift to the London Public Library. Nasrulla Khan and his suite atteniledv religious services _ in the Mohammedan mosque at Waking on Tuesday in honor of the Moslem feast of Bairam. The Mayor of Southampton gave a luncheon in honor of the officers of the United States and Italian warships in the Southampton waters. It is reported in London that Oscar Wilde, who was recently sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in Pentonville prison at hard labor, has become insane, and is confined in a padded room of the prison. The London Daily News of Thursday had an article asking why the President of a Republic cannot go abroad, and suggest- ing that if the Presidents of France and the United States were to visit England it would tend to increase the friendly feeling between the respective countries. Thomas Don, son of a farmer living at Crieff, was arrested on his way to Balmoral to obtain an interview with the Queen. He had in his pouket a paper headed " To the Queen,” and a letter addressed to Mr. Gladstone, in which the writer said he was about to become King of Britain. Six chambers of his revolver were loaded, and he had besides 50 cartridges in a bag. Miss Eliza Wesley, for forty years organ- ist of St. Margaret l’uttens, Rood lane, London, has just died. She was the granddaughter of Charles Wesley, the hymn Writer, and daughter of the composer of the Cathedral Service in F. She was educated as a musician by her father and was a lady of many accomplishments. Mendelssohn, Braham, the poet Rogers. Dean Milman, and many others celebrities of the early Victorian period were among her friends. UNITED ETATES. Governor Morton has signed the bill making the term of imprisonment for arson in the first degree forty years. School teachers professing the Roman Catholic religion have been barred out of the public schools in Kansas City, Kansas. Archbishop Kcnrick, of St. Louis, Mo.» has been deposed by the Pope, and the Most Rev. John J. Kain has been appoint- ed in his stead. An explosion of dynamite occurred on a steam drill at Erie, Pa. Capt. Lnthrop and Driller Harritty were torn to pieces and four others badly hurt. It is stated that the United States Gov- ernment has decided to make a thorough investiga'lr‘n into the Colima disaster, Which cost so many lives. Professor William Gardner Hale, head professor of Latin in the University of Chicago. is to be director of the new Amer- ican (lchool of Classics in Rome for a year. Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and assistant entomologist of the Hatch Exper- iment station, under Prof. C. H. Fernald, has received a call to Cape Town, South Africa, as Government entomologist. The new national headquarters of the Salvation Army at New York was dedi- cafed by the leading officers of the army. The new building hasbeen erected at a cost of $150,000. Burglars on Monday night entered the vault of the State Treasury in Concord, N. H., and stole six thousand dollars. The burglars carried away the key of the vault, and it could not be opened till Tuesday night. Bishop Doane, one of the State Univer- sity regents, in an address to a graduating class at St. Agnes’ School in Albany on Thursday, denounced the movement in favour of woman suffrage in a very vigor- ous manner. He believed that conferring the franchise on woman would corrupt. her moral nature and imperil the existence of the nation. Telegraphic intelligence from the United States quite confirms previous advices. and add that the satisfactory statements of growing confidence and business are every- where becoming more general and decided. In fact the augmented movement is assum- ing here and there the aspect of a boom,and a few supei-conservative people even think that the pace towards greater prosperity is being made too fast to maintain. Au aver- age of the advices receiVed, however, indicate a steady, not a spasmodic, revival of trade all over the United States, not in a few industries but in all. Wheat is maintaining its advance, cotton is going up in price, wool sales are larger than for a long time past, iron is quoted better, hides are firmer, and leather is very strong. Labour is in better demand, money is plentiful and easy, speculation is rife, and Wages are advancing. All round the out- look is a satisfactory one. GENERAL. The Austrian estimates contain an item of 20,000,000 florins for rep eating rifles. It is thought probable that the trou- bles at Jeddah will culminate in a general Bedouin revolt. The Dax and Pau Districts of France are flooded by heavy rainstorms and overflow- ing streams. Paris bankers have concluded a Chines 4 per cent. gold loan of £16,000,000 guaranteed by Russia. The Government of Morocco declines to guarantee the safety of travellers, and foreigners going into the interior are warned of this statejof affairs. The International Miners’ Convention, meeting at Paris, has adopted a resolu- tion declaring in favor of an eight-hour day. M. Andree of Stockholm, will shortly go to Paris to oversee the making of the balloon in which he will attempt to reach the north pole. Germans have stormed four'forts belong ing to the rebellious Bakoka tribes, on the lower Sasage River. Two hundred natives were killed and many wounded. The Spanish Government has announced its intention of sending ten additional battalions of infantry to Cuba without delay to assist in quelling the insurrection. The Dowager Empress of Russia has summoned Prof. Leyden, of Berlin, the eminent specialist on pulmonary com- plainis,to examine her son,the Grand Duke George. Very favorable advices have been re- ceived in St. Petersburg regarding the prospects of a definite settlement of the questions remaining in dispute between the powers and Japan. Rioters have destroyed the French Catholic and the English and American Protestant missions at Chengtu Szechuan. The missionaries were given a safe refuge by the native officials. The Turkish Government has promised the representatives of the powors that full satisfaction will be given for the outrageous behaviour of the Turkish gendarmes at Moosh. In the presence of a typical gathering of students of all the German universities on Saturday the foundation of a monument of Prince Bismarck as a student was laid at Andelsburg, near Koren. There was a. tremendous cloud-burst over the VVurtemberg portion of the Black Forest on Wednesday. Many houses were swept away. Thirtyâ€"two persons were drowned, and nine are missing. The Republic of Formosa has collapsed, its President has escaped from the island, and the foreign residents there are in safety. The native and Chinese soldiers, however, are said to be looting in all directions. Advices received in Paris from Antan- Auarivo, Island of Madagascar, say that the French advance into the interior has been repulsed, and that the mortality among the invading troops from fever is increas- ing. The Duke of Anhalt, Germany, celebrat- ed his birthday recently by establishing a decoration for working men. Every labourer in his dominions who has been twenty-five- years in the employ of the same person or firm is to get a silver medal. ___+_. He Comes After You. Etiensâ€"Is it correct to precede the father of your fiancee downstairs? Guzzieusâ€"Very often you have to. IT CALMS SHYING HORSES. A Magic Nose lllt Patented by a Humane lnvenlol'. A really remarkable device for making any shying horse perfectly calm and tract- able is the new invention of Henry Small, of Hartford, Conn. Properly speaking it , u of. a “ bit,“ for it does not go into the mouth at all, but is only a simple horse’s misc-piece that race over the horse’s uppe ' lip, but does not necessarily draw on or even scarcely touch it unless the driver hasagentle pull on it; then it touches the end of the animal's nose or upper lip ; and that mere tOiIch, which should nw: be increased much, does the whole busi- ness. Mr. Small's contrivance consists of a simple head strap, properly braced and coming down between the horse’s eyes and nostrils, to its end in the shape of a sort of little metallic upper lip. This latter little piece of metal, only about two inches long and not half an inch wide, is humor- ously called a “ trolley bit.” Its curving side-ends, like an ordinary bit, are so de- vised that a very slight, gentle pull on the reins brings the ” trolley bit" against the tip of the horse's nose. In complete absorption in the study of a new experience the horse may be driven right up the side of a noisy locomotive, or of a gong-banging trolley car, that pre- sents to the horse,_under ordinary circum- stances, the sinister aspect of a moving, perhaps a living thing, going without any visible means of compulsion ; and in his strict attention to the new sensation at the tip of his nose he will take no notice of the car or of the locomotive. The queerâ€" est thing of all is the fact that no amount of use or familiarity with the nose-toucher arrangement seems to lessen the horse’s interest in it. .â€"â€"â€".â€"â€"â€"â€" IMPURE AIR AND INEBRIETY. ome Rather Remarkable Cases Cited by a Physlclan. ‘,‘A case was reported to me,”says Dr. T D. Crothers, “by an eminent New York physician, of a merchant who tried to abstain from all use of spirits at home without success. He worked steadily in his office and lived in a rich house up town, where,apparently,every condition of healthy living was present. After several inefi'ect- rial efforts to give up all use of spirits, h went out camping in the White Mountain region. In a few days all taste for the spirits left him, and for the first time in twenty years he became a total abstainer. “On return to the city he drank again and could not stop. The next season he moved out in the country, and all taste for spirits left him. Finally, he gave up hia city residence,and lived out in the country, coming to the city for a few hours at a time, and has become a total abstainer, not having any taste or desire for spirits. It seems most rational to suppose that poison- ed air and defective ventilation were the exciting causes of the drink craze in this case. No other condition of surroundings and living could explain his ability to stop drinking in the country and not in the city. Another incident, well verified, seemed to bring out the same fact : A delicate, nervous child of 6 years, supposed to be inclined to consumption, was guarded with extraordinary care against colds and the open air, in a rich city home. At 15 years of age a strong taste for spirits developed and at 20 he was an inebriate. His mother died and he was forced to go into the country to live. He became a total ab- stainer at once and is now, at 26 years, a strong temperance man. It would appear that in this case some condition of cell and tissue starvation began from defective aeration and continued until the surround- ings changed. I think the poison from the defective oxidation of the blood, together with im- perfect elimination of waste products, is a very active factor in inebriety. In all rational treatment efforts to remove these possible causes should precede all other means of treatment. The continual inhala- tion of impure and defective air is always followed by the accumulation of poisons which, in many ways unknown, cause reflex nerve disturbances and reactions. The heart contracts more frequently, res- piration is accolerated and elaboration of nutritive material is altered in all the cells of the body. Fatigue, depression and lowered vitality follow. Alcohol at this time is a grateful narcotic, which not only conceals the real condition, but brings increased degeneration with new bacteria formations and diminished resistance to disease. The brain and nervous system sufl'ers as much as any other part of the body, althouin this is not recognized. ~«-â€" -~_’-â€". Time for Reflection. Kittyâ€"Jack says he Will stop drinking if I will marry him. Janetâ€"Well, be careful, my dear. It’s easier for him to begin again than it is for you to get unmarried. EARLY PRINTING IN ENGLAND. The Pioneers or Typographyâ€"‘Vfls Caxton. the First l-fiiglisli Printer 1’ An interesting contribution to the early history of English printing is made by Mr. W. H. Allnutt in the latest number of Bibliographies. To this magazine Mr. Allnutt sends a brief review of the early provincial printing press in England which suggests a possible change in the records of printing, and at all events shows how rapid was the spread of the new art in that- country. The first press established in England outside of London was in Oxford, then as now a university town. The date when it was first used opens an interesting question in the general history of printing. The first book issued was “Exposicio in Simbolo Apostolorum.” The colophon, or inscrip- tion at the end of this first book bears plainly the date M.cccc.lxviii (1468). This is accepted generally by bibliographers as a misprint for 1478 ; but if it is correct it- means that William Caxton was not the- first English printer,inasmuch as he did not set up his press in Westminster until 1476» 77. Assuming that the date of the Oxford book is incorrect, and that 1478 is right, it- shows that the university town was not far behind the English capital. The name of the Oxford printer is not known certainly; but Mr. Allnutt considers it possible that he was Theodoric Rood of Cologne. St. Albans followed Oxford; for in 1480 “one sometyme scolemayster of Saynt Albons" published the “Elegancie” of Augustinus Dathus. The press was in operation for six years ; it ceased its work in 1486, the same year that the Oxford press did so, and its last book was the famous “noun or sun amass” to which Dame Juliana Berners contributed an essay on hunting, which has given her the credit of being the author of the entire- book. 1 York, the seat of the northern Arch- biehopric, received as a freeman in 1497 one- Frederick Freez, described some years later use “buke-prynter;” but the first book known to have been printed in the old capital of Britain was a “Directorium Sacerdotum,” printed in 1509 by Hugo Goez, whose press was in Steengate street. Ursyn Milner and Robert Whitinton, the latter printing in Blake street, published books in York in 1516. After a silence of thirty-one years, Or ford was honored with a second press in 1517 ; it issued books for two years, under the direction of John Scolar and Charles Kyrforth, and as the books bear the uni- versity arms, it is possible that the press was the first “ university press” recorded. Cambridge, the rival of Oxford, had no printing press until 1521, when John Sibergh set up one in the city. He main- tained it for two years, issuing nine books. Erasmus, writing on Christmas day, 1525, from Basel to Robert Aldrich, afterward Bishop of Carlisle, is quoted by Mr. Allnutt as saying 2 “ Saluta mibi veteres sodales ' ' ' ' Nicolaum et Ioannem Siburgum bibliopolas" (“Remember me to my old chums Nicholas and Iohn Siburg, the book- sellers”). The monastery of Tavistock printed a book in 1525. “Dan Thomas Rychard, Monke of the Sayd Monastery,” being the printer; and in 1534 it issued asecond book. The first was “ The Boke of Comfort, called in laten Boetius do consolatione Philosophie;" the second contained the statutes of the stannary, or the charters of the tinners in Devons'nire. In 1528 the abbey of Abingdon was honored by John Scolar's press from Oxford ; which was set up there long enough to print a breviary for the monks of the house; and in 1534 the St. Albans press again began to print. The “ Scolemayster” had gone, and John Herford was master of ' THE MONASTERY PRESS during most of the four \ ears that it was active. Six books were issued from it, all of them in English. Bristol,in the west of England, is said to have had a printing press in 1546; but no book or tract bearing a Bristol imprint approaching this date is known. In l534 Reginald Oliver sold books in Ipswich, where not very long before Cardinal Wol- sey had founded a school; but no press existed there until 1547. when no fewer than three printers were at work. They were Anthony-Scoloker, John Overton, and John Oswen. The first and the last named printed in English books by Luther, Me- lanchthon, Calvin, and other reformers, and must have been busy, as they left Ipswich in 1548. Oswell went to Worcester, where he had a monopoly of printing religious books for Wales, and there, between 1548 and 1553, he printed three additions of the Bible, and four editions of the “Boke of Common Praier," and seventeen other re- ligious and admonitory books. John Mychell print-ed Protestant as well as Roman Catholic books at Canterbury between 1549 and 1556, in which latter year he went to London. On May 4, 1556. Queen Mary granted a charter to the still existing Stationers’ Com- pany. which gave to it and to the universi- ties of Oxford and Cambridge a practical monopoly of all printing in England. After the grant of this charter printers bad to be freemenbf London and members of the company. In consequence, the provincial press of England became silent; and for many years no legitimate publications issu- ed from what had had so promising a be- ginning. leely- Expectation. A little boy of five years, who was very fond of stewed mushrooms, and who had the ideaâ€"which is commoner than it ought to lieâ€"that mushrooms are the work of toads, was found sitting on the lawn with his eyes fixed intently on the ground. What are you watching? his mother in- quired. The little fellow raised his finger to ensure silence. Sh ‘. he said, I saw a toad hop along here, and I’m Waiting to see a brushroom spring up. Hardly True. Fatherâ€"My son, no man ever accom- plished mucli who talked at his work, Sonwllow about a lawyer, did I