turned and rode straight off to Gravesend. He was obliged to wait there an hour for a boat, and he made the best use of this time by baiting his mare. Then, crossing the water, he dashed across Essex full tilt to Chelmsford, where he rested half an hour and gave his horse some balls. Then he mounted again and dashed on to Bramborough, Bocking, and Wetherfield; fast across the downs to Cambridge; quick by roads and across country he slipped past Godmanchester and Huntingdon to Fenny Stratford, where he baited the good mare and took a quick half-hour's sleep. Then once more along the north road until the cathedral grew up over the horizon larger, larger, and whizz❘ he darted through York gate. In a moment he had led the jaded mare into an inn stable, snapped up some food, and in a fresh green velvet dress and gold lace strolled out gay and calm to the Bowling Green, then full of company. The Lord Mayor of the city happened to be there; Nicks sauntered up to him and asked him the hour. "A quarter to eight," said the Lord Mayor, graciously. "Your most obedient," returned Nicks, with a profound bow.

Later, when Nicks was apprehended and tried for the Gadshill robbery, the prosecutor swore to the man, the horse, the place, and the hour, but Nicks brought the Lord Mayor of York to prove an alibi, and the jury promptly acquitted the resolute and sagacious thief.

JOURNALISTIC enterprise has led to a curious insurance case in Paris. M. Henri Martin, chief editor of the "Courier de Lyon," was found dead in his room, hanging from a cord passed over a hook in the ceiling and attached to a dog-collar round his neck. His life was insured for 30,000 francs, which the insurance company refuses to pay on the ground that he committed suicide. He had, however, been publishing articles on the scientific side of hanging, and was preparing one describing the sensations of a hanged man. The counsel for his family will contend that he was making experiments on himself, and that his death was accidental.

ONE day, while dining together, the French ambassador and a Grand Duke of Russia were discussing the cleverness of the pickpockets of their respective countries.

The Grand Duke claimed that the Russian pick

pocket was the more skillful. Seeing the ambassador incredulous, he told him he would, without knowing it, be relieved of his watch before leaving the table:

He then telephoned to the head of the police to send at once the cleverest pickpocket he could lay his hands on.

The man came and was put into livery, and was told to wait at the table with the other servants. He was to give the Grand Duke a sign directly he had done the trick.

But this was not given very soon, for the ambassador was very wary, and always kept on the alert, and held his hand on his fob, even when conversing with the most distinguished guests.

At last the Grand Duke received the preconcerted signal. He at once requested the ambassador to tell him the time. The latter triumphantly put his hand to his pocket, and pulled out a potato instead of his watch.

To conceal his feelings he would take a pinch of snuff his snuff-box was gone. Then he missed his ring from his finger, and his gold toothpick, which he had been holding in his hand in its little

case.

Amid the hilarity of the guests the sham lackey was requested to restore the articles; but the Grand Duke's merriment was changed into alarm and surprise when the thief produced two watches, two rings, two snuff-boxes, etc.

His Imperial Highness then made the discovery that he himself had been robbed at the same time that the French ambassador had been despoiled so craftily.

CURRENT EVENTS.

THE city of Birmingham now builds and runs its street railways, gas works, electric-light plant, watersupply plant and Turkish baths. It buys the food that is sold in the market of Birmingham and owns the market, selling the food itself. It builds houses for artisans and rents them. It owns and operates a farm, a printing establishment and a woolen mill. It is in the egg business and runs pawnshops. In 1871 the city had the reputation of being one of the dirtiest cities in Great Britain. To-day it is the cleanest and one of the best governed cities in the world.

OF fifty-six cases of typhoid fever about one-third were said to be traceable to the eating of shell fish.

THE executors of Dr. Holmes's will are having a good deal of trouble in proving that his famous "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" was copyrighted. It has already been decided by one court that the book was not so protected and an appeal to the Supreme Court has been taken. The book itself was copyrighted in November of 1858. Subsequent renewals were secured, extending the right of the copyright privilege to the year 1900. It appears, however, that the work was published in parts running through the "Atlantic Monthly " from October, 1857, to October, 1858, and that neither the magazine nor the separate parts were copyrighted. This the court held was a fatal defect, the law requiring that a copy must be deposited before publication. The contention that the whole was something different from its parts and therefore entitled to a copyright, notwithstanding the previous publications of the separate chapters, the court said was a refinement of distinctions that the statutes did not warrant.

RECENT strikes and disturbances in Russian cities have brought about the enactment of a new labor law, which goes into effect January 1, 1898. The working day is fixed at a maximum of eleven and a half hours; for Saturdays and the days preceeding holidays at ten hours; on Sundays and holidays there is to be no work. Workmen who are not Christians will not be compelled to work on the days held sacred by their sects. For night work, eight hours is the limit.

MACON, Georgia, sends out a lesson in convict labor. It had a large piece of ground near the city, which it had been leasing out for five dollars per acre. The authorities concluded to cultivate it, with the aid of the city convicts. They enrich the soil with the refuse from all the stables of the police and fire departments, and from other quarters, and the first year have harvested a crop worth, in clear gain, sixty dollars an acre, and with it all have benefited the prisoners, who were before kept in idleness.

THE discovery of petroleum is reported from Alaska. Several months ago some gold prospectors came across what seemed to be a lake of oil. It was fed by many springs and the surrounding mountains were full of coal. Samples of the oil were taken to Seattle and tests proved it to be of as high grade as any ever taken out of the Pennsylvania wells. It is close to the ocean and the experts say the oil oozes out into the salt water. The owners have filed claims on 8,000 acres, and it is said have already received offers from the Standard Oil Company.

PROFESSOR FORBES, the electrician who has just returned to Cairo from Wady Halfa, expresses a highly favorable opinion about using the power of the cataracts for generating electricity and considers the general circumstances of Egypt exceptionally well. adapted for its use as motive power. Irrigation could be extended as well as cheapened by the saving in cattle and especially in coal which becomes very expensive in Upper Egypt owing to the expense of transport from Alexandria. He considers that the cataract would be available the entire year for working the railway, cotton-ginning mills, sugar factories, irrigation machines, etc., also that it could be supplied at distances of several hundred miles at a cost much below that of coal. Professor Forbes is soon to make a complete survey and present the government with a project for utilizing the electricity to be generated at the Nile cataracts.

AN announcement has been made that the famous old Milan opera house, La Scala, is to be torn down. It has long been a losing investment to the boxowners, who held their property under the municipality, and they are now suing the municipal council for discharge from the terms of the lease. The municipal council has therefore voted for the destruction of the historic house. It has for years been one of the most famous of musical landmarks.

THE statistics of the Swiss saving banks show larger per capita deposits than those of almost any other country.

LIEUTENANT BERSIER of the French navy has invented a compass which steers the vessels automatically in a course set by the navigator.

LITERARY NOTES.

THERE is more than a spice of adventure about the September CENTURY. "What stopped the Ship," by H. Phelps Whitmarsh, is a story setting forth a midocean mystery. A tale of peril in Alaska, called "An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier," is by John Muir, whose timely paper on "The Alaska Trip " was printed in the August CENTURY. A subject of current interest is treated in a paper on Cruelty in the Congo Free State," with striking photographs and notes of travel made by the late E. J. Glave, in whom there is now an additional interest connected with his explorations in the Yukon region.

THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEWS OF REVIEWS for September has a good deal to say about the Andrews incident and Brown University not so much on account of the personal interests involved in the case as because of the far-reaching principles affecting academic life and liberty which have become matters at issue. Among the contributed articles are sketches of the three members of the new Nicaragua Canal Commission - Admiral Walker, Capt. O. M. Carter, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and Prof. Lewis M. Haupt. These sketches are illustrated with portraits. The Hon. J. L. M. Curry, formerly our Minister to Spain, contributes an estimate of the murdered Premier of Spain, Señor Canovas del Castillo, and his relations to modern Spanish politics.

THE editorial matter of the September number of CURRENT LITERATURE is able and interesting, and the selections well chosen and abundant. The verse departments are this month enriched by the addition of two pages of love songs selected from the poems of the late Jean Ingelow. There is also an appreciative sketch of her life and work taken from the London Academy, and a portrait of Miss Ingelow in the department “Gossip of Authors," where also amongst others appears a very interesting account of Maurus Jokai, the Hungarian novelist.

MRS. ELLEN M. HENROTIN, President of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in the United States, contributes to the October NATIONAL MAGAZINE a strong article on "Women in Finance." Mr. Hayden Carruth begins in this number a short serial entitled "Starting The Burntwood Breeze.'" And there is a very clever article, "From Out the Purple Grape," by Mr. Henry Haynie.

THE September SCRIBNER'S has a number of outing articles suited to the dog days. William Henry Bishop describes picturesquely the famous wateringplace in northern Spain, San Sebastian. The fashion and gayety of the place lead him to call it "the Spanish Newport." Frederic Irland describes "a lazy cruise" in a schooner along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, east of Tadousac, with excursions up some of its wonderful salmon streams. It is a wild and beautiful region, absolutely divorced from the tyranny of the railway or steamers. "The Durket Sperret," a novelette by Miss Sarah Barnwell Elliott, will run through the fall numbers of this magazine.

HARPER'S MAGAZINE for October opens with the first installment of "Spanish John," by William McLennan, a novel of adventure dealing with the fortunes of the Scotch Pretenders to the throne of England. The action takes place partly in the army of the King of Spain operating in Italy, and partly in Scotland. The unprecedented popularity of golf in all parts of the United States is celebrated by Casper Whitney in THE GOLFER'S CONQUEST OF AMERICA. A. B. Frost contributes a series of character studies of the humors of bad form in golfing, and a series of illustrations of correct form of using various clubs. The leading clubhouses and links of the country are illustrated by E. C. Peixotto and Henry McCarter, and the portraits of the leading golfers are engraved by Schladitz. The short stories are: Mrs. Upton's Device," a tale of match-making, by John Kendrick Bangs; Psyche," a story in dialogue, by George Hibbard; and There and Here," a story by Alice Brown.

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NEW LAW-BOOKS.

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THE FEDERAL COURTS, their organization, jurisdiction and procedure. By CHARLES H. SIMONTON, U. S. Circuit Judge. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co., Richmond, Va. Cloth, $1.50.

Judge Simonton in this little volume gives the legal profession an exceedingly interesting and useful work. All lawyers practicing in the United States Courts will find it of great value as a guide as to the best manner of handling their cases. The work should find a place in every law library.

NEW LAW-BOOKS RECEIVED. THE LAW OF SALES OF PERSONAL PROPERTY. By FRANCIS M. BURDICK. Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

PROBATE REPORTS ANNOTATED. Vol. I. Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York.

A SELECTION OF CASES ON DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND THE LAW OF PERSONS. By EDWIN H. WOODRUFF. Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York.

THE CODIFIED NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Matthew Bender, Albany, N. Y.

THE LAW OF TAXABLE TRANSFERS, STATE OF NEW YORK. Matthew Bender, Albany, N. Y. AMERICAN

STATE REPORTS. Vol. LV. croft-Whitney Co., San Francisco.

Ban