The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

5:53: am" limo PIRATES. Plied Their Murderous Voca- L.on the Fifties. How Th .9. sums DISTBOYED AND THE PASSENGERH PIT TO DEATH. A COIIJSY CLEAREIJ (“'1' BY A ERITXSI! l'lilVA- 71551:. From Singapore, situated at the extreme end of the Malay peninsula, the China Sea. to the north for four hundred miles is stud- ded with islands. They number, great and small, a good hundred. Some are not more than an acre in extent, and some are fifteen miles long. A portion of these islands are Occupied by Malays, and the remainder by Dyaks. The first come from the peninsula, and the sec-rind from Borneo. There is but ' .- diilerence between the two races. but .. there is favors the llyak. He iSclean- er in his habits and has more mercy on his captive. L'p tothe year 1850 these islands in the China Sea Were the rendezvous of pirates. The fellows made no secret of their trade, but practised it openly and boldly when- ever opportunity offered. It was estimated __â€"_-._._â€"_.___â€"_._.__.__......_..___.-_.__..._... by “unit. Cairn of the English navy that they numbered 15,000 able-bodied men. “'ith the women and children and slaves the number could not have been less than 40,001 L I once saw a list of the ships "ap- tured and destroyed by these pirates be- tween the years 1838 and 1850, and the num- ber was overa hundred. As a rule every" body was put to death, but if exception was made, the captive was doomed to labor as a slave. In 1850 the English, with some as- sistance from other nations, opened a cru- sade on the pirates and cleared the islands. Those who got away fled to the northern end of Borneo and to the islands on the north, and for seven or eiglit‘years remain- ed very quiet. Then, under the leadership of a Dvnk called I-liker. they made 7 THREE oi: i‘oi‘i: L‘Al‘TL‘llES in one yiar. Engiano nau ner mums pretty full at the time, and the single niaii-of-war sent out to break up the new colony accom- plished nothing. There was at- tliis time some intcrncdional dispute about the islands, and John Bull fought shy of complicatint' thus by opening a war on people who even boasted that they were pirates. In this emergency the foreign tradch on the peninsula, assisted by others in Siam and along the China. coast, bought the brig Campa of her Scotch owners and quietly fitted her out as a niairof-war. She was a large, stout, and handsome craft, and she was outfitted 1t Pahaiig. She was armed with nine guns on a side, with a “Long Tom” on a swivel, and when she left I’ahang she had 130 men aboard. This \ ‘as crowding her somewhat, but as she was a clean, new ship and well provisioned there was no growling. Her crew had been picked up at. half a dozen different points, and were all sailors and white men. I am quite sure that the Captain and Lieutenant and four- teen English sailors aboard were quietly drafted from H. M. S. Kildare, but the others were runa'a‘ay sailors from various French, Herman, and Russian ships. “hen the brig \veut out of l’ahangshc was a match for anything of her size ever floated, and no crew were ever under better discipline. She carried three. extra boats, aiul, as I had helped to stow her ammunition, I knew that she had a great plenty. There were men on the peninsula who were in communication with the pirates, and to befog them we ran off up the Gulf of Siam until we sighted Cape Cambodia. Then we headed to the northeast, and at once be- gan the work of disguising the brig. An old set of sails were bent on, the paint pots brou rht out, and in the course of twenty- fourIiours we made the Relief, as she was called, look like a tea barge or a trader. It was no use to hunt pirates with a man-of- war. Thcv were altogether too sharp to be caught under her guns. 1 \\'c cruised up and down the China Sea for a week, keeping well over toward the lioi‘nci) coast, but met with no adventure. Then we ;_o1 the 'l‘.'.l‘:. END or .\ izi'iuiiu'xxn, which we rode out safely. and after it sub- sided \vc limped along to the north with f‘orctopniasts down and sail: torn and rent. A sailor looking at us from a distance of half a nilc would have said that we had pulled through by the skin of our teeth. A dad calm usually follows a storm in that sea, and as w-.- \\'v 'e opposite ()pokonokc. or the westernmost island of the l’hillipine group, we were not surprised to find our- selves within five or six miles of the green coast and without stceragc way. This was he state of affairs at sunrise on a very sultry morning, and as ilic tide set shoreward wc drifted in for a couple of miles and then let 'o our anchor in forty feet of watcr. The llyaks not only had as good inarinc classes as any ship carried, but they had erected platforms in the tops of tall trees. and could see as far out over the occan us a man at our masthead could scc- inland. \Vc knew that they infested that island, and had no doubt we should soon be an object of scru- tiny. For this reason all but a don-n men were sent bclm ', and those remaining on deck were dressed as merchant sailors. There was a man or two in the rigging, apparently en- gagcd in making repairs, but rca ly to watch the coast, and at about noon it was reported that a sampun was apprmiching. 'Ihc craft is a sort of Indian ‘anoc made of bark, and in this case there was but one occupant. He was doubtless coming as a Scout to see how matters stood. He came straight on until within half a mile of us, and then halted and took a longsurvey. Our ports \vcrc. up, yards askcw. a lot of rafllc hanging over thcstci'n, and it did not take him long to determine tint we were a mcrchaniman in distress. To further this idea we waved a \vhitccloih at him, as if inviting him to come on board. He came no nearer. although he stood and waved his arms. as if saying that he would return In the shore and biing us help. Back he went, paddling with all his might, and then we felt quite sure that the game was in our hands. The crew were called toquarteis shot. shell. and grape passed up, and when cutlasscs and pistols had been served out we were ready. As the tide was setting inshore. the brig's stern was toward the Island. We quietly i tailed on to the spring which had been set I and brought her starboard to bear. This man- i u-uvre might have .mot‘sizn nu: si'sricioxs of the llyaks had we not taken so much pains to disguise the brig. As it was. they doubt. less argued that it was for the purpose of , muting us in our repairs. Atany ,rate, at. .i. ____________________â€"â€"â€"â€"- 1 about three o‘clock in the afternoon, we caught sight of their fleet coming out. The sea was smooth and glassy, and we could see the craft almost as soon as they left shore. There were five of the native craft called prahns. These are clumsy-looking affairs to a European, but as a matter of fact. are light, buoyant, and quite safe in a heavy sea. None of those approaching us had masts 0r sails, but were propelled by rowers. Each had a small iron cannon mounted on the bows, and the rowing and steering was done from behind a screen or partition, which crossed the boat about a third of its length from the bow. As they came nearer we could count about twenty men in front of each screen. Some had inuskets and all had the sword-like weapon called a kris. “'hile our guns were loaded and the ports ready to be dropped, the most of our crew were out of sight behind the bulwarks. The prahns came on in line until about half a mile away, and then they formed in a line the other way. That is, each was now bow on to us, with an interval of not more than ten feet between them. You would have. thought they would play the hypocrite a bit and try and get aboard of us without any fighting or loss of life, but that isn’t Dyak nature. They didn‘t mean to spare a soul of us, and they probably hoped fora little shindy to make inattersmore exciting. They got it, sure enough. At a given signal each one of their howitzers sent a solid ball whiz- zing at us. Every man raised a yell, and five prahns dashed forward to board us. \Vc let them come within a quarter of a mile before we drop )ed the ports and run out nine guns, loaded with short-fuse shell and grape. " Bang 1” “bang !” “ bangr 3” went gun after gun, the muzzle of each ( epressed for the short range, and, although we could see nothing for the smoke, we heard enough to satisfy us that great havoc had been wrought. \Vhile we waited for the smoke to lift, some object dashed against the brig, and next moment we were being boarded by about thirty lilyaks. They be- longed to a prahn which had escaped injury, and you can judge what manner of men they were. “'hile they must have realized that they had caught a Tartar, and while our broadside had sunk or disabled the other craft, this solitary one hoped to carry us by a dash. She’d have done it, too, had we been a merchantnian, forshe reached us un- der cover of the smoke, and no sooner had we felt, the shock of contact than twenty- fivc or THIRTY SWARTHY FELLows were on the rail. We opened on them with our pistols and then sailed in with the steel, but before we had overcome them they had cut. down three men and Wounded two more. One fellow, who seemed to be a leader, kept six of us away from him for four or five min- utes, and the way he handled his {l‘lS would have done honor to a fencing master. When those left in the prahn saw how the fight was going they backed her off, but- a solid shot was clapped into one of the guns, the muzzle depressed at the right moment, and the shot sunk the craft as if she had been loaded with stone. Two of the prahns were sneaking shoreward, though badly battered, when Long Tom was turned loose on them and finished the job. A dozen sam- pans had come out at the opening of the fight, some carrying one and some two men, and these picked up a few stragglers and took them to shore. As was afterward known, the number of warriors who came out was 143. Of these only eleven escap- ed death at our hands. \Ye had no sooner disposed of the prahns than four boats Were dropped, each filled with well-armed men, and then we pulled for the beach. The anchor was lifted, and the brig drifted in after our soundings until she brought up in four fatlionis within musket- shot of the beach. Then we lay off for half an hour, while she plied the woods withhershells and when wclanded it. was to meet withascene of devastation. There had been a good-sized village just opposite the brig. and such of it as had not been knocked to pieces by her shells was now on fire. “'0 found about thirty dead bodies, men, women and children, and in the mouth of a small river were three prahns and about twenty sampans. These we destroyed, and after the brig had turned her shellsloose againas agood-bye we went on board. The forest was now on fire in twenty places. and the flames were not extinguished until they had burned every tree and bush over a space twenty-five miles long by fif- teen broad. _ Parisian Ruffians at- Work. . (,‘onsidcrablc excitement and alarm pre- vails among the inhabitants of me Avenue dc Villicrs, in Paris. The correspondent of a contemporary says that for some time past a gang of ruflians has been amusing it- self by discharging rcvolvcrs at windows in which lights were to be seen during the small hours of the morninU. The consterna- tion of the unfortunate victims of these dastardlyoutrages may well be imagined, the more so as. in not a few cases the rooms thus converted into targets have been oc- cupied by sick people. at whose bedsides anxious relatives or friends have been watching. A night or two (inn a bullet "razed a gentleman as he was reading in his bed in a room situated on one of the lower storeys. and, but for the niertst accident, he might have been killed outright. The Avenue dc Villicrs, which lies to the north of the Pure Monccau, intersecting the Roule- 'ard Malesherbcs at the Square of that name. which is ciubllishcd with a statue of the Elder Dumas, is much patronised by paintâ€" ers, and contains many a well-appointed and couuiimlious studio. 4 A Mammoth I311ilding. . Buildings eight and ten stories, and some I even twelve and fourteen stories high, are no uncommon sight in our large cities. And among these mammoth structures is one which is now being erected in Chicago byl Rand, McNally & L'o., the well-known pub. lishcrs of that city. It is to be ten stories in height above the basement, and the frame is ' to be entirely of steelâ€"on novelty in the way of building. It will contain fifteen miles of steel railway :twelve miles of steam pipe : sevcnacrcs of floois, the boards of which, if laid end to end, would reach from Albany to Boston, some 200 miles. If the cement used l in the building were in barrels one upon an- other, the pile would be two miles high, and ; the plaster used in the building would cover an ordinary street for more than a mile. In the whole structure there will be sonic-3,71!) tons of steel. The buildin r, when finished, will probably be unequaled in the west. The best hour truest. hour; the ighest level, not alone of man, but of God, for perfection in human- ity is grfection in godlinessâ€"[Philips Brooks, . D. you ever lived was the. i All! A M333133f01‘ Magma. in Heaven. “Is this the tel‘graph office ‘3" Asked a childish voice one day, As I noted the click of my instrument, “'ith its message from far away ; As it ceased I turned; at my elbow Stood the merest scrap of a boy, \Yhose childish face was all aglow With the light of a hidden joy. The golden curls on his forehead Shaded eyes of deepest blue, As if a bit of summer sky Had lost in them its line : They scanned my outfit rapidly From ceiling down to floor ; Then turned to me with eager gaze, As he asked the question o’er : “Is this the tel‘ raph office 2” “It is, my litt 6 man, I said ; “pray tell me what you want, And I'll help you if I can.” Then the blue eyes grew more on er, And the breath came thick am fast, And I saw within the chubby hands A folded paper grasped. “Nurse told me,” he said, “that the lightn- iii r Came down on the wires some day : And my momma has gone to Heaven, And I’m lonely since she is away ; For my papa is very busy And hasn’t much time for me, So I thought I’d write her a letter, And I’ve brought it for you to see. “I’ve rinted it big so the angels Cou (I read out quick the name, And carry it straight to my mainma And tell her how it came : And now won’t you please to take it, And throw it up good and strong Against the wires in a fiinder shower, And the lightning will take it along.’ Ah ! what could I tell the darling? For my eyes were filling fast ; I turned away to hide the tears, But I cheerfully spoke at last ; “I’ll do the best I can, my child,” ’Twas all thatI could so ' ; Successful Experiments in Telephone Workâ€"51x Hundred lilies of Bleetrle Railway Being lald In Brooklynâ€"Value or the Eleclrle Search Sightâ€"Bleclrlclly ln Fire Matters. Mr. T. C. Martin, editor of the Electrical Eugim'vr. recently told an amusing story. Five or six years ago he received a letter from Mr. John Crawford. and electric engi- neer. then engaged in telephone work in Russia, detailing some successful experi- ments over the line from Moscow to Bologoe, adistant of about 400 miles. Mr. Martin print - ed this story. The following week it was reprinted by another to clinical paper, which took occasion to amend the spelling of the word Bologoc, and made it Bologna. The week following another pa- per figured out that. from Moscow to Bologna must be more than 400 miles, and so made it 4,000. The week after that another pa- per concluded that Bologue in France was meant, and made the. necessary correction. The story was then ready for its travels, and has since been globe trotting at a ter- rific pace. Mr. Martin says that he has started several corrections of it, but, as a stern chase is proverbiallya long one, he is afraid that forages to come papers all round the world will be telling of the wonderful work of those Russian engineers in telephon- ing a distance of 4,000 miles when the sim- ple fact of the matter was that the distance was only 400, and that the work was done by an American, who sighed to get back to “God’s country,” and at last threw up his job in disgust because, as he humorously put it, “the telephone couldn’t stand the Russian language.” The application of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company for permission to substi- tute electric motors for horse cars on its lines is a significant step. Six hundred miles of track are controlled by this coin- pany. President Lewis says: “It is the coming power, and wcpropose to utilize it. In all probability we shall have two power I THE ELECTRIC WORLD. 1 “Thank you,” heqsflid’ and the“ scanned the stations, so that we shall not be inconveni- Sky ; “Do you think it will hinder to-day ‘2” But the blue sky smiled in ansWer, And the sun shone dazzling bright, And his face, as he slowly turned away, Lost some of its gladsome light ; “But, nurse,” he said, “if I stay so long, \Von’t let iue come any more ; 3L So good-bye, I'll come and see you :again Right after a fundei' shower.” _.._____..â€"â€"â€". Beating her Child to Death- A woman stood before the Vienna Court of puny of N_ y_ Justice charged with having beaten her little “{1- l-esismnce at, high Speeds. enced if one blows up. I am very strongly in favor of supplying power from one central station to all the roads that will use electric motors. That would reduce the cost to a minimum." A German scientist has discovered that trees, the trunks of which are covered with moss or lichen, are more liable to lightning strokes than others, and imputes to this the comparative immunity of the oak. A paper of great interest to electricians has just appeared from the pen of 0. T. Crosby of the \Veenis Rapid Transit Com- The subject of the paper is A speed of six-years -old daughter to death. The wretch- 130 miles an 1mm- b)? electric cm. is promised ed woman confessed to having repeatedly before long, At such high speeds the ele- lJefltcll the Child, \f'lIO, 3110 says, "115 rude ment of air resistance becomes a most im- “ml Obsulmte- 1110 Judge Feud “inlets from portaiit one, and any addition to the store the postmortem Cixamiglilt-lml, WlliCllyf 00‘ of knowledge on the subject is of the utmost cording to the Daily Acu's correspondent) valua proved that the child‘s liver liadburst in consequence of blows, that several ribs were broken and that tlicbody was covered with bruises. The child’s schoolmaster declares hrr came to Vienna. After a while cruel neglect was evident from her whole bearing, and she became subject to epileptic fits. The father was heard to say that the woman often beat the child, and hated her in a niauiier to make his hair stand on end. Some of the school children who were in the poor child’s confidence showed that the mother had beat- en her with a club, knelt upon her breast, struck her on the head with a hammer, and inflicted upon the little creature all the pain which her hate could invent. The little school- children’s despositions were so terrible in their truthful simplicity that the jury could never: for a moment have doubted the mother’s guilt and their verdict was unani- mous. The judge pronounced a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment with hard labour. ____.._..___‘..__â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" A RUSSIAN SENSATION. A Soclely “'llosc Object Is to Kill llleglll- male Children. Some time ago a midwife of “'arsaw, Skublinskaya by name, was brought to justice, with several of her coadjutors, for the crime of killing illegitimate children. The woman and her helpers called them- selves “The Society of Angels," and engaged in the atrocious work of “dcspatching the little ones to heaven,” of course for a cer- tain consideration paid them by the unfort- unate mothers or their friends. This fact aroused a discussion in all the Russian papers on the fate of illegitimate children in that country. The mortality of such waifs was found to be over eighty per cent. even among those in the Government asylums in St. Petersburg and Moscow. 'l'hosc asyluins kee ) the children oiily for a short time, and sent them to villages to be raised in the families of peasants. There they die in large numbers. But the number of such children as are “despatched” directly by professional murderers like. Skublinsl-zaya can hardly be estimated. Only about three weeks ago a similar “Society of Angels" was discovered in Vilna. The fate of the unfortunate infants has raised the question as to the causes for the prevalence of such a crime. The papers hint, as broadly as the strictness of the censor of the press allows, that the cruel laws with reference to waifs are at the bottom of the whole trouble. An The electric search light showed something illegitimate child in Russia, if it ever grows up. has no standing before the law. matter what his abilities or virtues, if by chance or by natural endowment he happens to be possessed of any, there is no hope and no prospect for him to do any good in the world or for himself. The law will not re- cognize him as a member of society. and he ianche of ice, which threw the. ship on her but she soon righted, and though is tossed about and buffeted until he finds his way into some gang of criminals passing their lives in a mine in the L'ral Mountains. In view of these facts it is no wonder that sinful mothers regard it as a benefit for their children to be “despatelied to heaven" before they grow up to live in ignoiuiuy and suffering on earth, and that “Angels” like i Skublinskaya should be found who have no scruples to help sinful mothers ridding themselves of their children. In the course of a recent speech Sir Henry bar-hes, Premier" of New: .‘il‘lllll'lyaltls, (ex-écipmcating pane that mus, be Pressed his L‘Qnmlgntbebc .iat Within “V0 motion, stopped and reversed continually, years tautmlm“ l'ed'imu” ' “111 be “‘1 “c' - while in the electric locomotive we have the Cgmpmhe‘l he“ . It ‘3. e""""led. “m .tl‘e simple rotary motion, which is all we need. ? Rational Convention Will be appomted With who}, makes “mime meow” 1‘ tom“ "i Although five or six months. to have been tractable and obedient, and ' , _ says she looked very well when she first \Leetl0f Allmn‘50v 01””- An arrangement for the prevention of accident by the electric current has been I adopted at the works of the Morgan Engin- ' A boai d is fixed on the wall facing the dynamo in the engine room. On this board are six books on the checks of the six men who are. em- ployed in looking after the circuits. \Vhen a man is called on duty he removes his check from the hook and takes it with him. The engineer secs by a glance at the board that one hook is absent, and that, therefore, one man is engaged about the lines around the shop, and and the dynamo is not started until the check is replaced on the book. The engineer then understands that the coast is clear, and turns on his current without fear of accident to any of the linemen. A defect is said to have declared itself in the mechani 'al construction of the phono- graphic doll, and Mr. Edison says that seve 'al weeks of hard work will be required to set it I‘l“lll’.. The manufacture of the speaking do] 8 has been giving employment to 300 young women, who are laid off until the required modifications in the anatomy of the dolls are effected. The whole secret of the Keely motor has been explained by theinventor himself. “'liat- can be more lucnl than the following :“Therc is a triple sympathetic order of vibration diverting the position and negative current to. one general polarized centre ;this rotary action is continuous when sympathetically associated with the polar strcauifl’ There is nothiugprosaical>out thelifeofthe electrician in South America. A correspond- ent at Montevideo writes 2 “\chust watch lest the lamp lighters of the gas Company, who are the sworn foes of the electric light, do some mischief. For half the town I have thirty men, as well as some secret inspectors, armed with knives, who look out for the inisidiief makers. I and my official often range the streets by night, with loaded re- volvers in our pockets. The chiefs ofthc wire and lamp inspectors are on horseback as also myself and my chief official, and as soon as any mischitf begins \vc gallop up from all sides." I A new iron steamer left Newcastle, ling- land, in the beginning of the month, for her first voyage across the Atlantic. In the course of tho- voyage she got into a heavy fog. while a little distance ahead. It looked at No first like a cloud, but immediately afterward , the form of a great icherg loomed up. The ihelm was instantly put hard to starboard, {and just cleared the ice wall, crashing, how- fever, into a huge ledge which jutted out ifroni the berg. There was a heavy aval- l lwam ends, zlcaking, got safely into New York harbor. lBut for the electric light, nothing could ‘ have saved the vessel and crew. Prof. Elihu Thomson, in speaking on “The the ' near future railwavs will be run oy electric- says: “In ') ll’roblenis of the Future,‘ u ity ; not the sniall'roads, I mean, but really , the large ones connectin . is no reason why we shou d not expect high- er speeds than we can attain a: present with re- in havi: [iiit ' our steam locomotives. There We a much higher rate of cities, and there steam locomotive has been verv much {ms proved. yet if can hardly coinim're with the- emnuniy of stationary engines placed where they can have an abundant water supply‘ for condensing purposes. We can. therefore, by employing stationary engines and elm- tric roads, do away with a great deal of un- nccessury weight. and the moving parts being syiinnetrical, we can attain a: much higher speed. say a hundred miles an hour. This would be a grand step forward, which would save us a great deal of time. It might even bcpossibleto reach a speed of 150 miles an hour : it simply depends upon finding the method of apply sufficient power, and building the locomotives to suit, 31‘- riuigcnieuts being adopted to keep the cars on the track. A Boston Fire t‘ommissioner. speaking at a recent meeting. said: “Electricity is very important in all iirc inuiiers. The question of getting an engine of thcgicatest water- thre-wing capacity to a fire with greatest celeriiy will, it seems to me. be solved by electricity. Substitute for the steam power of any modern engine stored electricity or electric power conveyed to each hydrant,. making of your engine a pinup on wheels, and you have ligiitiiess itself as regards: weight, with almost unlimited power of throwing water. This will be the fire en- gine of the futur ;so say the prophets." Some interesting experiments made last week are likely to lead to important modi- fiCilllollS in the use of the search light in marine work. The idea mainly illustrated was not so much the disclosure of the where- abouts of an approaching vessel as the indi- cation of the position of the ship on which the light was placed. The piercing of a thick fog by the horizontal rays of the light. is not practicable, but it is believed that by throwing the concentrated rays up vertical» 1y against the clouds a reflection of the light. can be seen and the danger of a collision avoided. Fog is generally much less dense at the height of the pilot house than nearer to the surface of the water, and. it is this fact that induces the. belief of its being pos~ sible to communicate the position of up- proaching vessels by vertical raihcr than horizontal rays. In connection with flit. search light there is also included in ilic cir- cuit an attachment to the. Sle‘lllil whistle which can be worked simultaneously with the light, or indcpcnduntly, as may be de- sired, the idea being to call attention by sound and by sight- at the. same moment. A system of blasts of various lengths is to be introduced. whereby two vessels passing may communicate with each other, very much in the same way that a telegraph operator reads a message by the ticks of the sounder One of the most interesting things in conâ€" nection with the growth and development of the electric light and power business is. its influence upon allied industries. the. de- mand for certain classes of inatciial being in some cases greater than has ever before arisen. This is well illustrated by an order which has just been placed by a Louisiana electric company for two new driving bells, one of which is to be 160 feet long land 7:! inches wide. and the other 48 inches in widf h and of much grcatcr length. These will re quire the hich of more than 600 head of cattle. There is now an excellent oppoifuiiity for an ingenious inventor to devise a cheap and trustworthy speed indicator for electric cars. An instrument of this kind, which could al- \ 'ays be relied upon to indicate to the driver the exact speed of his car, would meet with good success. Mr. \V. H. Peace, the head of the postal telegraph system in England, says : “There are several insulating materials in the mar- ket capable of insulating 2,000 volts. but my experience is chiefly with India-rubber. I see no difficulty whatever in maintaining a pressure of 12,000 volts in underground conâ€" duits. I know, however, no reason why high pressure currents cannot be safely dis. tributed by means of overhead conductors, which are certainly more economical than underground. Such overhead cables. have been in use in London for five years with complete success.” The subway promises to be productive of as much trouble in Loli- doii as it has been in this city. No fewer than thirty-six petitioners have deposited petitions in the pri 'aic bill ()lll('l: of the House of Commons, praying to be heard in opposition to the bill piomotcd by the Lon- don County Council for constructing sub- ways for pipes and wires under the streets of the metropolis, and for the creation of a system of control over aerial wires and cables. A very complete and handy form of L'illJlllttl‘ battery has been put upon the market. It has been specially designed to fill the want of a battery that shall require practically no attention, and the manipulation of which can be effected with great facility. The various connections and switches for placing any dcsiicd number of cells in circuit are placed on the top of the cabinet, and by means of a compound circle switch any number of cells can be thrown in and cut. out of the circuit singly and without shock. It rci'luires no other attention than the reâ€" ncwal of the zincs and sal ammoniac. Five hundred thousand dollars is to be in- vested in electric street railroads in Spring- field, Mo., and the company which is now being organized for that piirpnm- will pur- chaseallthcrigbisand property of the old street railway company. 9 The English Widow and the Sporting Russian. A young English widow. says .1 Vienna corrcsjmndent, sought the aid of the police on Thursdaybccauscher fiancee had dim qu-arcd since Saturday, having taken with him her jewels. Worth £100“. The man has spent several'suwons in Vienna, and was well known in sporting circles for heavy- betting on the turf. lie was believed. to be a Russian and a man of great wealth. This winter he made the acquaintance of the ladv in Nice. and came to Vienna with her ifs her iuzccpted suitor. Lari vat-i: he looked at his fiancce‘s diamonds, and said the mounting was quite old-fashioned: he would have them fashionably mounted for her. She was grateful, and on Saturday handed him the diamonds. He has not shown him- lelf since. The police have traced the the iswrlfi. which'he his-’Ipawned; fulfill).