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 Mventnre with Firati i:i iPf ^â- â- ^â- ^^1 il â- 'â- !•# jt: ' li.- ^1 /! i£t;i IN THE CHINA 8EA. Twenty years igo, piracy wan more oom- inon in l^na seas than now, and every yes- ael leaving Hong-kong with opium aa a part of her cargo â€" a tact duly intimated to the pirates on the coaat, previous to tlie shipi's sailing, by their agents at that portâ€" ^ran k very good chance of being boarded by pi- rates within forty- eight hours of leaving' harbor. In the case of such an attack, if the chests were handed over to the pirates, or they were allowed to help themselves to them unresisted, they would generally de- part peaceably, or with perhaps merely a playful attempt to set the ship on fire. But in the event of any endeavor oh the part of the poor captain to defend his ship and car- go, in most cases sanguinary scenes were enacted, and whole crews massacred, and ships scuttled or burnt. Some five-and-twenty years ago, the writer, who had previously been chief-officer of an opium-receiving ship at Kong-kong, had subsequently joined the English govern- ment service as chief warder of the convict prison on the island, and in that capacity had seen a good deal of the seamy side of the Chinese character the comparatively lenient punishments of ianqui (barbarian or European) criminal law, as in force in a British colony, attracting the scum of the Chinese population of the mainland of Kwangtnng, making the island of Hong- kons; a perfect Alsatia for Chinese thieves, pirates, and criminals of every description, who found the diet and treatment of an English coavict prison a heavenly contrast to the drastic and Draconic remedies ap-. plied by the Chinese mandarins to the dis- ease of criminality, the number and nature of their punishments exhausting human in- genuity for refinement and excess of torture, even for trivial offences. Among the prisoners in the Hf^ng-kong convict jail, there was an English able sea,- man named Kelly, who had been convicted of mutiny and murder of the captain on board an English ship. The captain, it appeared, from the evidence of the loyal of the crew, was a great tyrant, and bullied and half starved his men and this fact being con- sidered as somewhat extenuating his crime â€" Kelly having not actually been the commit- ter of the crime, but accessory before the fact, he keeping watch at the cabin door while his comrade drew a harpoon through the captain while lying asleep in his bunk â€" Kelly himself was respited when the rope was round Ms neck and he was on the scaf- fold, the extreme sentence of the law being carried out in the case of his guUtier com- rade. Kelly's, punishment was remitted, therefore, to penal servitude for life, and in this way he came under the writer's notice as one of the English convicts of Victoria Jail, Hong-kong. This fearful experience seemed to, have tamed down Kelly into a very quiet, willinjg, and useful prisoner, and he was accordingly well treated by the prison staff, and was placed, under an armed guard, in a small way of authority over a gang of Chinese prisoners, working on tie roads, receiving the privilege of smoking tobacco, and earn- ing a fair number of good-conduct marks towards the remission of a portion of his life-sentence. By his daily contact with Chinese, and being a quick fellow, he soon picked up the Cantonese dialect, andpioved useful to the warders as an interpreter. These particulars of Kelly's history are im- portant, as we shall meet him further on in this true narrative' of events, takin? an im- portant part in its principal scene. Having been ailing for some time, the duties of my post being very arduous, I procured three months' leave, which I pro- posed to spend in a trip to the north of China by sea. To the end, I was therefore looking out for a vessel to procure a pas- sage to one of the northern treaty ports, and strolling down the Queen's Road, I came across the shroff or cashier of a Chinese friend of mine, a large merchant on the Praya or seafront, whom I had been able to do several kindnesses to, in the shape of chartering suitable vessels f or con veyance of hij goods to the north, in return being a welcome guest to his house, and receiving the present of many valuable Chinese and Japanese -cvj-ios. Tripping gingerly along with his snow-white jacket, full pantaloons, and handsome silk-embroidered pacer-soled shoes, with a palm-leaf fan in one hand, and a dandy English silk umbrella over his head, the shroff, who was quite a Chinese exquisite in his way, greeted me "Ay yah, taipinc; (gentleman), I chin-chin you. My piecee master wantshee look see you too muchee he wantshee one piecee number one ship six thousand piculs, go Tien-tsin side chop-chop." (In English): "Oh, good- morning, sir. My master would much like to see you he wants to charter a vessel of sis thousand piculs"' (a picul is one hundred and thirty-three pounds) "capacity to go to Tien-tsin load immediately." "AlLright, Cupid," I replied. (Cupid was a nickname given the dandy cashier by one of the English captains frequently his master's hong or warehouse). "We will take a chair (palanquin), and. see him at once." We engaged a bamboo chair and I«oon completed the business to Akow's (the mer- chant's) satisfaction, by chartering for him a Hamburg barque called the Etienne at a reasonable figure and in return, he arrang- ed with the captain to give me a free pas- sage to Tien-tsm tmd bawsk. The Captain I found a hearty, good-tem- pered Hamburger, looking a thorough sa'lor, and proving it, and, as I afterwards found, a plucky fellow to boot in our tussle with the pirates later on. I went on board with him to see my berth and have a glass (A grog with him and the mate. " Did Akow tell you that he had six chests of opium for you to take " I asked the skipper, when we were !=^-*ated under the poop awning refreshing ourst ves. " No," said the captain, wno spoke Eng- lish fluently " he did not. I shaU be sorry tf I have to take it. You remember only last month the attack on the Fiery Crosi in the Lyee Moon Pass, and the poor captain shot before his wife's eyes " " Too well, I do, captain and the gun- boats havea't n)t tbe lorcha yet tiiat did it, either, worse luck but that lieat^ifuit in the Baccoon is a splendid f^Uow, and has donb a lot to tiiin tiiem oat. |n twei, the Jews in l£e Qneen'a Ro^have tieeapretfy near deaced oat oi vaisheB, 4^ jSiccooa^ men have baS^ao madi liead^nrtiMy'to spend •d»d».-»it, m*m," I pimmt^ « ih» 2aeatM» la amply this if we are attacked, I It to be fight, orgiTethem tiie opium r* Ff|^t I Tbit iunnanoe does not ctfvar rfii^ by~ptnltes; and I mask ii( ray datf to my owners and charterer. " " It is alm^s wae-to kaov o^'« miad.-;: and TOO ateai to haif« a fine cMwjgl re- Titie^ g}akciag at tbe men rattliilg dpvn the Mwer riggiag. •I hav^^ said Captain, Re/^tmi, "» first rate crbw. Msay of them have been with me in different ship* for years. ^^ There are eighteen of thenl able aeamtita, tiro Qui- nary sesinen, four stoat aippreaoA, taro. mates and a boatswain and' myself make twenty-eight all told. I have that twelve- founder carronade there, two dozen^ mus- ets and cntlasaes plenty of ammnnition grape, round-shot, and canister for the car- aonade aad a revolver each for mpwlf and two officers. You see, my owners fitted our magazine for the China Sea." "And I have a short Eufield and two hundred rounds, and a Lefaucheux revolver with same amount of ammunition and three hundred hard Mexican dollars in my cash-box, which latter I intend to take to Tientsin with me ,if messieenrs our friends the long-tails don't get the better of us. If we can carry a good working breeze up to and through Mirs Bay, I think none of their craft are fast enough to overhaul you but if we get becalmed, which I am Job's- comforter enough to sfiy is very probable at this time of year, we shall very likely re- ceive an uninvited visit of an rmpleaiant and somewhat exciting character. It is the stinkpots, as they are called, which are the worst feature of piratical attacks." Stinkpots are round earthenwaie pots with a ud, filled with a sort of Greek-fire, which, slung with small cords or lanyards, the pirates carry at the mastheads of their craft. When longside the vessel they are attacting, they throw them on to the deck the pots break, and a suffocating sulphurous liquid and vapour break forth, burning into the flesh if touching it, and suffocating all near it. After demoralising the crew of the vessel attacked by this contrivance, they board with speirs and short swords, and endeavour to complete their work. By this time it was five o'clock, the usual hour for the crew's supper an* the captain took the opportunity of m wering his men, and acquainting them with the fact of its being very probable that having opium on board, the ship might be attacked on her voyage, and asking them if they intended standing by him and his officers in such case. The men, through their spokesman the boatswain, said they of course would, and would like to have a brush with the pirates but as regs|,rds those of the crew who were married, if any of them werie killed, they hoped the owner would remem- ber their wives and families. This was tbe only thing they had to ask. The captain having fully satisfied them on this point, I called my sampan and went ashore. Stepping from the boat on landing, I met Mr. Farquar, the governor of the prison, and my immediate superior there. " Here's a case, M " said the governor "Kelly iiray-^^on ^reserve, ndl neyond k/^«a had c)»rra of pow- t»d tbe Ion has escaped from the chain-gang in Wynd- ham Road, wrenched the musket from the sepoy guard's hands, shot him, and disabled the warder with a heavy bio wfrom the butt, ran off, and is supposed to be in hiding somewhere on the island." " He speaks Chinese so well, and is such a clever fellow," I replied, "that I shouldn't be at' all surprised if he isn't somewhere in Taipingshan " (a low quarter of the town), "among some of his Chinese friends, old convicts, disguised as a Chinaman if, in- deed, he isn't already away in one of the Chinese passenger boats, to land somewhere among the islands and join a pirate lorcha. I expect we shall hear something more of Mr. Kelly's exploits before long. He has been a naval- reserve n.an, and can handle big guns, and is likely to prove useful to some Macao pirate firm." " I wish Macao was blown out of the water," said Mr. Farquhar. "It is a den of pirates and men-stealers, and costs this go\ternment thousands yearly in deal ing with the criminals it manufactures and encourages â€" Well so you have got a ship," continued he, when I had mentioned my having se- cured a passage. " I wish you luck and re- covery of your health. Keep clear of the pilongs [pirates] if you can, and get back safe." A few days afterwards the Etienne was loaded and ready for sea, with six chests of Benares opium in the after-cabin some crates of fowls and du .-ks, sundry potted meats, and three casks of English bottled beer and sent on board very thoughtfully by Akow for my and the captain's benefit. With a fine leading wind, with royal and all plain sail set, as the £'/ie7i7ie passed Green Island on her northward voyage. Captain Hermann, rubbing his hands, said gleefully to me " It will puzzle any iorcha to catch her if she keeps this wind. â€" Heave the log, Mr. Schmidt " (to the chief -mate, who was standing by), " and see what she is doing." " Nine and a half, sir," said the mate, when the glass had run out and he stopped the line. " She is in capital trim, just four inches by the stern, and a lively cargo." " The breeze held steadily all that day, during the night, and the forepart of the next but shortly after mid-day the wind gradually dropped, and at five p. m., we were nearly becalmed, with topmast and topgallant studding-sails and everything set that would draw, stealing alone abont a mile an hour only, with the dreaded Mirs Bay on our beam, distant about a mile. I had a very powerful pair of marine glasses on board with me, and I stood on the poop looking at some suspicious craft drawn up on. the beach, with some dark circular objects at their mastheads, showing out clear under the bright evening skylime. " They may be only trading craft," I said to the captain, " as tiey all carry guns and stinkpots for their own protection against pirates and if what is alleged is true, when trade is dull and freights low, they turn pirates themselves on occasion, displa3ing a versatity and power of adaptation to circum- stances peculiarly Chinese." Whilst I had been conversing with the captain, the wind had fallen entirely, and the EtienvA lay " like a painted ship on a painted ocean," lifting lazily to a slight swell, her sails slatting against the masts, with the slow pitching of the vesseL "By Jove 1" I exchumed, with my glass levelled again over the poop rail, and direct- ed^ to the shore, where some vessels were lyiog, " there is no mistake this time we are in for it. That blaek patch yon see be- tween the craft and tiie hats vf tiiera con- sists of about a hnndred Chinamen coming down to the Ibaadu I con aw what looks likespean aad gingala in thsir Wiyif, and parties of two are oartying long sweq is. ^^ M* gpingto sweep out to ps, and we ahaU Imtb all teae oftttoae Tands altar u. both sides, and with one Ihope«g«.^f the gnnb«ifl ^e h-niiirg of our or' Iwtfeer lead it with a doi 4er and»beayy wad an( TluMHwacoordingly don^^ seport rang oat over thedit^ wa^i*-' The captain, his mateii^ and myself now oonsulted together a plaa-siitef^Bcei whilst the men were sntttng tsg thf!|.a;noinnition forthe4»rronadeand small arms, wiokhng on dieir cutlasses, and xailiftffliig the gun with grape-shot. It was dodded that the carronade should be nsed dirtetly the vessels cams within range and that, when nearly alongside, all hands dioald take to the fore, main, and mizwi^tops, told off in divisions to each top â€" the second mate at the tdire, the chief at the main, and the captain and myselt in the.miziSfln, with the crew divided eqnatty amoog th« three tops. 1 then got up from «ha after-hold the three casks oi bottled beer sent on board by Akow, and started the baor from the bottles into the wash-deck tub, and smashing up the bottles, laid the broken glass in a large heap ready for a certain use described later on. The men were then ordered to put on their long sea-boots. By this time the pirates had not been idle, and were perceived coming out to us with three lorchas, using their long sweeps or oars, and .yelling so loudly we could hear them though half a mile off at least. Their next move was to let drive three shots at us from their broadside guns, evidently fired with very bad powder, as they fell very short and were badly aimed. The crew of the Etinne were ranged along the port bidwarks, that to which the pir- ates were approaching, and instructed to divide themselves, and half to man the star- boBhrd side at word of command. As the pirates approached, they fired again with better luck, as a twelve-pounder shot struck the mainmast about twelve feet from the deck, but only slightly wounded it, the shot diverging, passing over to leeward. When at about a hundred yards distant, we fired our carronade with grape at the foremost pirate and the effect was to make the splinters fly from their bulwarks, and make very apparent gaps in the crowd of Chinamen who literally thronged the decks. Asthey approached nearer, one of her con- sorts pulled out from under her stern, so as to cross our bows and board US simultan- eously on both sides. Being now within musket-range, the crew were ordered to commence firing, which they did with good effect, my short Enfield doing considerable execution in picking off men who were at the long tiller steering the first lorcha. The first lorcha being now close alongside, the carronade was fired slap into her bows, the broken glass was strewed over the Etierme'a decks, and " All hands aloft " was the order given. The deck was therefore left vacant and the pirates perceiving we were all aloft, ran alongside without hsing their stinkpots, thinking they had an, easy prey. Now the scheme of the broken bottles proved its utility. The Chinamen jumped from their vessel's bulwarks on to the Etienne's, and in their fury and excitement, clean on to the broken glass with their bare feet, to stagger about with howls of anguish. The man in command of the lorcha had been driving his men by voice and handâ€" the latter with a spear in it â€" to board us, as they seemed to hold back, after so many of them had gone down under our musket- fire and he now headed a party, who werig evidently bent upon coming up the rigging and overpowering our parvy in the mizzen- top by numbers, the same stratagem evi- dently taking place at the fore and main. As the pirates came crowding up the rst- lines, they were picked off by revob er and musket, and fell like over-ripe fruit from a tree but, to my dismay, we were now at- tacked by another crowd coming up the starboard rigging from the second lorcha. They seemed simply insensible to fear, and as one after another was shot down, two or more would take his place. In spite of all our efforts to prevent them, the leader with two more got into the miz- zen-top, and a hand-to-hand, fight â€" cutlass versus China sword â€" took place. W ith my revolver in my left and cutlass in the ri'ht hauid, I parried a cut at my head from the pirate leader, when, suddenly starting back, so that the grasp of his left hand on the rig- ging seemed almost gone, and he was in danger of falling backward, he exclaimed in good English " Good heavens, is it you, Mr. M f«tanMa~%o1ui^nffeii at :Hong-kmg,, ^(^ _i" it was Kelly Shin down the death, I'll shoot his ha^thM4MtKlAiUhBd, and aiVhHdT noal' lectiaiL,«^ hjp /f:^d99ntnfee m ihidCaiiiw Sea." liEtiMfOS. to R^tna after a shorVtid^to \f' The first«teamship of the(Vn.?T| '• â-  left Hong KoaglS** At a flash I recognized him in Chinese dress. " I will save your life, sir, if I can," he said gaspingly, being apparently wounded in the throat " but the men must have the opium." " Npver Stand back backstay, or, as true as you, Kelly " I cried. Calling in Chinese to his men, he sprang on to the topmast backstay, and slid like lightning to the deck, and disappeared down the cabin skylight, evidently to search for the opium. " I wish one of the gunboats would come up " I said hurriedly to the Captain, as we were loading and firing our revolvers. ' ' This won't last long." I had hardly said this, when the sound of a heavy piece of ordnance fired at a distance came booming over the water and shortly after, the peculiar sound which a high-pres- sure steamer makes when- under steam was faintly heard, and round the point of limd astern, steaining at full speed, caine Her Majesty's gunbmit Raccoon, with her men at quarters, and her sixty-eight pounder trained and manned. The pirates on this scrambled back into their craft, cast off the lashings, and pulled vigorously for the shove. As the Jiaccoon came under our stem in chase of them, she fired her long ((un at one of the lorchas, smashing her stem into smithweens and her commander hailed ns " Many of yon killed Or hnrt " "Nol" I hailed back; "none seii- ouriy." " W ill com^e haxk. to yon by-and-by," re- plied he, and steamed on after the Ifnohas. The Baccoon sncceeded in capturing, die whole of the remaining crews of the three lorchas, and sending a party ashore, bnimt their hnts. One lorcha was set fire to, the otiier two being towedto Hong-koiw and condemned in the Vice- Admiralty Oonrt, Kelly's wound proved fatal to »ft », when he waa OB luB Mai lor the several ctimes murder, iffison-1»eakin|^ iod' ftimafihs- having been takam bic ktaaoa g^BOs^Aths gold chromoineter wafea s!h^ diaihrt ftwM ft^ ownera jsfet Mtf ^tft"" ^««^^iaHl tiia Jriswuo, aad a sstistaiitial tUMafe fram tlis nndor- writan. ""^^'T^ "" '"" Sona thrca Bontiw aftarwaids, tiia writar An Unglishman once asked a son of Erm if the roads in Ireland were good. Pat re- 5 lied " Yes ' tfaey are tt fine that I woo- er you do nvt import some of them into England. Let se«-rtbere's the road to love, strewed with roses.; to matrimony, through nettles to honour, through the camp to prison, tluroagh the law and to the undertaker's, thnm^ physio. " "Have yon any road to preferment T" asked the Englishman. " Yes, faith, we have but that is the dirtiest rocMi in the kingdom." The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is not without humour and instraction. Ves- pasian asked him " What catised Nero's overthrow I" He answered " Nero could touch and tone the harp well bat in gov- ernment, sometimes he lued to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low." And certain it 4s that nothing de- stroys authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far and relaxed too much. George Stephenson was once asked by a scientific lady what he considered the most powerful force in nature. " Oh," said he in a gallant spirit, " I will soon answer that question it is the eye of the woman for the man who loves her for if a woman look with affection on a young man, and he should go to the uttermost ends of the earth, the recollection of that look will bring him back. There is no other force in nature that could do that." Equally ready with a similitude was the negro who, when giving evidence in court, was asked about the honesty of a neighbour. "I know nothing against him," was the re- ply; "but if I was a chicken, I would roost high when he was hanging around." A thoughtful writer describes one-eyed travellers, who see a great deal of some par- ticular class of objects and are blind to all others, and adds " The Irish jaunting car, in which the passengers sit back to back, is a sort of type of what befalls many tourists in Ireland. Each sees a great deal, and re- ports faithfully wbat he has seen on one side of the road, and the other on the other. One will have seen all that is green, and the other, all that is orange." "A cunning knave can form no notion of a nobler nature," says the same writer. " He is like the coats on Robinson Crusoe's island, which saw clearly everything below them, but very imperfectly what was above them so that Robinson could never get at them from the valleys but when he came upon them from the hilltop^ he took them quite by surprise." Ridicule, says a German critic, is like a blow with the fist wit, like the prick of a needle irony, like the sting of a thorn and humour, the plaster which heals all these wounds. All of these qualities may be found in some metaphors. Man is said to be an animal that has a mania for getting up societies and making himself president If the presidency has been already claimed, he contents himself with the position of treasurer. In the cyn- ical old bachelor's opinion, ideas are like beards â€" men only get them when they are grown up, and women never have any. It was probably another old bachelor who said " Nature shudders when she sees a woman throw a stone but when a woman attempts to split wood, nature coVers her head and retires to a dark and mouldering cave in temporary despair." A spinster says old bachelors are frozen-out old gardeners in the flower-bed of love. To say that a coquette is a rosebush from which each young beau plucks a leaf, and the thorns are left for the husband, is not very complimentary. Complimtikts are the coin that people pay a man to his face sarcasm, what they pay him out with be- hind his back. A farmer said " One thing I don't like about city folks â€" they be either so stuck up that yer can't reach 'em with a haystack pole, or so blamed friendly that they forget to pay their board." A rural poet said of his lady-love " She is graceful as a water-lily, while her breath is like an armful of clover." An American poet wrote a eulogy of Washington, whose glorious life should compose a volume as Alps immortal, spotless as its snows. The stars should belts type, its press ttie age, the earth its binding, and the sky its page. Truly, some American poets go in for marvels of metaphor. The Chinese call overdoing a thing, a hunch-back making a bow. When a man values himself overmuch, they compare him to a rat falling into a scale ani weighing it- self. A fanatical Sabbatarian writes: "The Sunday newspaper is a crayfish in the dikes of misrule, a crayfish that undermines the banks, behind which the racecourse, the theatres, the saloon, the gambling dens, c., are roaring for $xit." Another newspaper described a fire by saying that the red tmes danced in the heavens, and flung their fiery arms about like a black f unerad pallj until Sam Jones got on the roof and doused them out with a pail of water. Gordon Cumming likened an African jungle to a forest of fishhooks relieved by an occasiontd patch of penknives. "You look," said an Irishman to a pale haggard smokc^ " as if you had got out of your grave to light your cigar, and oonldn't find yonr way back again." '.M s mu^j;, ;. HOME AHD GENEEALlSI lAeutw-i^ovemor Dewdi A Jinssian Beyolutionaiy GoBspiiitcy For some time there have been rumours of a revolationary coo^mracy widespread among the aristocracy of Rusda, having for its object the ramovalof Czar Alexander IIL and the creaming in his stead of the eld- est son of Alexander U. by his morganatic wife, the Princess DolgoronkL FaUing In that, the efforts would be centred on putting Ae young Doloorouki in succeeuon to the CBarinsteadof^presentOwrevitch,aeIast named prince bains both an hnvalid aiid an imbecile. Yoong I»oIgqrenki is a tad of splendid char*eler aaa attainments, wbo woold at once give Bunia a liberal constita- wnal government. Ijitha rmm nf f he n^i â- ^^"â- â- â€¢^S'Bsue' uf ur ""tibih aannipar- «ntafl^. The Dolgorooki family is one of^e ol^ and noUflst in Bnada, ita members wvbg been great priooea baton the Bom- •Boffii were beard ol The prssisit Catr is a Hdstein-6ottorp» far nota Oennaa than fie line has Columbia. Owing to grave charges al\^^ *« ^^^ city poUce paWs, has been disbanded â„¢H Fire the other morning in a*. suburb of Quebec.city. destroveii' to the value of $70,000. ' 1 Ten thousand Belgian coal nun«, disturbanoa ;. /* *i strike, and as a disturbance if»ti\ troops are ready for an emergency By the buming of the Roys Boissevan, Man., Duncan G. McfcZi EroDunent grain merchant of WinntT^I amed to death. '"wip^J will not Intelligence has been received in i that the Batoche half-breeds have i loan of seed grain and their land this year. Mr. William O'Brien has been without opposition momber for the V east division of Cork, made vacant wl resignation of Mr. Edmund Leamy. ' The miners at the Reserve mij. Sydney, C. B., are out on strike forij crease of three cents per ton, and fetoJ felt of a general strike at Cape Bretonj " The inquest on the body of an i found in a girl's trunk in the Albion 1 in Toronto, resulted in a verdict of i murder against Fanny Smith, who it arrest. In the new convention between the 1 and Great Britain it is agreed thati period of the British oocupation of En shall be not less than two and notmoteS five years. Mr. McNeil has given notice of a bill] amend the Civil Service Act, so that pm tion shall not depend upon passing ajj amination, but upon technical adapUlj for the service. O. Rochette's tannery W. J. Brown'jlJ ber yard, and several buildings on St 1 inique street, Quebec, were destroyed!] fire on Saturday loss $12a,000. Very Ij insurance. David Lnssier and Jos. Lambert, two a riers of provisions to the lumber camp J Messrs. Hall, were drowned in the RiJ Chaudiere a day or two ago by the npi ting of a canoe. It is rumoured that Mr. McShane i shortly resign from the Quebec Cabinet,! that Mr. Hall, the Conservative member^ Montreal West, will be asked to taketi vacant portfolio. A company with a capital of five mill dollars has been organized in Kingston ll New York capitalists for the developoJ of the iron mines along the Kingaton i Pembroke railway. The United States consul at Kingston b forwarded a letter to Washington pointii out the^ injurious effect of the Inter Sti Commerce bill upon the trade of the Uniti States with the Dominion. The English mint is hard at work on ti new coinage to be issued on June 22. very fine profile of anelderly queen, mo( ed by Mr. Bcehm, will be used, with nr ing crowns for the several coins. Patrick Glynn, a C. P. R. yardsman, i run over by a freight train while shnnti cars at the Queen's wharf, Toronto, i both of his legs were cut off. He was t to the hospital. Were he died. Speaking editorially of the project i commercial union between Canada andti United States, the New York Sun saysti nothing short of a political union under^ United States constitution is the niaDifaj destiny of Canada and the only means I which perfect free trade can be securei Between fifty thousand and sixty tii(«| sand men are out of work at Chicago, «f result of the building trades, trouble. combined funds of all the unions involve^ will not support the members for the I week and trouble is feared. The Anarclu are, ready to take advantage of the situation Michael Doyle, an oiler at the waterworn pump house, Ottawa, was caught in t\ machinery and had his left leg so erustel that it had to be amputated at the this| He remained in the grip of the cog whee for an hour and a half before the muraerosl machinery could be raised sufSciendy to ri lease him. The strike of Pictou, N. S., coal raineBj which began at the beginning of the yef and has been mutually disastrous, hasiD«-| ly ended in a compromise, the men agreeiiT to accept a reduction of six cents per ton J wide working places and thirteen centsfl narrow ones. Work in all mines will resumed to-day. The old toll bridge spanning the Ri'^?| Avon between Windsor and Falmouth,.! S., was burned on Sunday night. This'*! the last toll bridge in the province. It J*! 820 feet long and was built in 1836. I'l local Government made it free last year « were preparing to rebuild it. The vK believed to be incendiary. The sealing schooner " Favorite " am« at New Westminster, B. C, on SatunUM and reports that the hull of the stesmq "Stephen" was washed ashore at Clazaqi»l Sound also the bodies, ciuoes, speanj washed up below Cape Flattery, supF* to be of theschooner "Active," long tboug" wrecked. All on board perished. A child named Herny Sims, eigW J^l old, was drowned at the foot o^ "^.'z^\ locks, Ottawa, Friday afternoon, n»"^| company with two others fallen » I playing on the edge of the water, ^t taker Allston, of the Rowing clubs i^ honse, which is near by, saved the tffo. did not hear that there was a third nnf" late. jj A sreat swindling scheme, """"p^gi the pTedgihg of sugtur chiefly of ""^^i^ as refinery, an imaginary concern, iiWj^ carri^ on at Havana fc* ^^^-X^^m^I The swindle was conducted in H»^ j^ the storekeeper and it is »^^^ ^Z^ fmndulently obtained from different!^ indnding a bank, from 8350,000 U*^ At a conference of citizens in Montr«^ disoossthe (Jnestion of protection from" ^^^^ i^Hadatlfln urging the city to'^rani the fl7^00afor tte construction oi • P«r»i7 dj]f» was adopted, and an m» ^t- de«(itaiion was appomted to proow" ««w» t© lay befoS^the Governffl«" r^aolatfens adopted by the meetug batter protection oi the eity. longs, are mu ' than in Se^ ^*. ;•,;, -It