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 BORNEO PIRATES. I Thev Plied Their Mmderous Voca- ls tion in the Pifties. " -(gXBOl'ED AND THE PASSEWCEKS J*" PIT TO DEATH. ^rONTCLEAEEDOriBY J'" TEER. A BRITISH PMVA- r m Sin"apore, situated at the extreme ili the Malay peninsula, the China Se» ' '%iorth for four hundred miles is stad- •'f^ri* islands. They number, great and I *!i] a good hundred. Some are not mor^ In acre in extent, ai-l some are fifteen "fl long. A portion .i these islands are "' -jed by Ma,lays, and the remainder'by 'V-ij The first come from the penu^sula, "niie seeoiul from Borneo. There is but '-• c liirtevence between the two races, but ir there is favors the Dyak. He is clean- •1 his habits and has more mercy on Ms ,:tive. 18.50 these islands in the i-p to trie year â-  '4 e;' "sre *ne rendezvous of pirates. â-  e fe'lf" s lUiiue no secret of their trade, " iiactised it openly and boldly when- pra litv oifered. It was estimated Vuth ,vroppcrtuii: • ieiit. Caini of the English navy that •;.;^ immbered 15,000 able-bodied men. ith the women and children and slaves • umlier could not have been less than â-  iiiOf). I once saw a list of the ships cap- *j'erl and destroyed by these pirates be- â- Â«eu the years 1838 and 18.50, and the num- er was over a liundred. As a rule every- i',v was put to death, but if exception was 3ia'ie the captive was doomed to labor as a ciave.' In 1850 the English, with some as- .^:ance from Other nations, opened a eru- vJe o:i the pirates and cleared the islands. Those who got away fled to the northern r:,,l of Borneo and to the islands on the vth. and for seven or eight years remain- t veiv quiet. Then, under the leadership :,; livr.k called Riker. they made THKEE OR FOUR CAPTURES me VLar. Engxauti nact iier nnas pretty :.;Ihitti;e time, and the single man- of -war â- '.: o'.itto break up the new colony accom- :;ii:ed uotliing. There was at this time ri lie iateniiitional dispute about the islands, :: 1 .Jolni Bull fought shy of complicating ..i'.tiers by opening a war on people who tveii boasted that they were pirates. In this emergency the foreign traders on •â- ;v- peninsula, assisted by others in Siam ,jul along the China coast, bought the brig i.;mpa of lier Scotch owners and quietly :::ted her out as a man-of-war. She was a Iciige, stciut, and handsome craft, and she v.,is (jutfitted it Pahang. She was armed •.v;th nine guns on a side, with a "Long Tom " on a swivel, and when she left •'.ihang slie liad loO men aboard. This was x;(.\v(ling her somewhat, but as she was a jlean, new ship and well provisioneii there was no growling. Her crew had been picked .!p at half a dozen different points, and were .ill sailois and wliite men. I am quite sure that the Captain and Lieutenant and four- ;ttii English sailors aboard were quietly Irafted from H. M. S. Kiklai-e, but the dtheis were runaway sailors from various Frtiah, ierman, and Russian ships. When ;.;e iiiig went out of Pahang she was a match :i r anything of her size ever floated, anc! no .Ttw were ever under better discipline. She arried tliree extra boats, and, as I had ::tr!pl to stow her ammunition, I knew that -i;c had a gieat plenty. There were men on the peninsula who ve.'-e in communication with the pirates, .i:i! to befog them we i-an off up the Gulf of "iaiu until we sighted Cape Cambodia. Then •If iitadcd to the northeast, and at once be- fiau the work of disguising the brig. An 'lii set of sails were bent on, the paint pots ^•n.r.glit out, and in the course of twenty- 'â- "â- iv liours we made the Relief, as she was ailed, look like a tea barge or a trader. It •'•..s no use to hunt pirates with a man-of- â- '•'^r. Tln'V were altogetiier too sharp to be -.;i:ht r.nder her gams. W'r t-ruiseil up aiul do^vn the China Sea ' it '.veek. keeping well over toward the "Tnt'o e)ii-:t, br.t met with no adventure. !.â- â€¢!! Wf i;C't the 'rAir. iVN'n or a irrp-KTCAXE, â- ':.iri: wc rode or.t safely, aj.d after it sub- to t lie nortii with nv.V, torn f.nd rent. ficii:: a distance of e s.iid that we had of oiu- teeth. A a stoi-m in that ^tut'd V. e lini])ed along 'Ktiijninsts down and A sailor looking at us "alt a mile v.ov.ld hav piillt'd tliiongli by the skin i:i: l-ubil USUallv folloWS about three o'clock in the afternoon, we caught Bight of th eir fleet coining out. The see the craft almost as soon as they left shore. There' were five of tite native crait i:»]led prah]^8. These are ^clumsy-looking a£Bma to a fitorojiean,- bilC^lyijJter offact, arelight, buoy^j^, and* 4uit6 safe in a heavy sea. None, of thos^approaclting us had-masts or sails, but were ph^ielled 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. Arthey came nearer we could count about twenty men in front of each screen. Some had muskets and all had the 8word-Iike.,weap6n called a kns. While ogr guJ|8 were loaded and the ports ready be dro^q^, the most of our crew were out ot sighj behindthe bulwarks. The prahns caoB^ on in line imtil 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 thetn. 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, andt they probably hoped for a little shindy to make matters more 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. We let them come within a quarter of a mile before we dropped the ports and run out nine guns, loaded with short-fuse shell and grape. "Bang!" "bang!" "bang!" went gun after gun, the muzzle of each depressed 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. While we waited for the smoke to lift, some object dashed against the .brig, and next moment we were being boarded by about thirty Dyaks. Tliey be- longed to a prahn which had escaped injury, and you can judge what manner of men they were. While 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 merchantman, for she reached us un- der cover of the smoke, and no sooner had we felt the shock of contact than twenty- five or w. anil as v.c were oppc.site Opokonoke, or :;f v.ysternnibst island of the Phillipine imp, we were not surprised to find our- stives within live or six miles of the green ' last and without steerage way. This was "• le state of affairs at sunrise on a very sultry •Kirning, and as the tide set shoreward we •lifted in for a couple of miles and then let a' our anchor in forty feet of water. The Dyaks not only had as good marine frlasses is any ship carried, but they had erected platforms in the tops of tall trees, and. could s^te as far out over the ocean ao a man at our ^lasthead could see inland. We knew that "ney infested that island, and had no iloul)t we should soon be an object of scru- "my. For this reason all but a dozen men were sent below, and those remaining on deck were aressed as merchant sailors. There w^ a man or two in the rigging, apparently en- gaged in making repair^ b^it really to watch the coast, and at arout nboiii^vras repSrtetl^ tnat a sampan was approaching. The craft' is a sort of Indian canoe made of bark, and m this case there was but one occupant. He ^as doubtless coming as a scout to see how niatters stood. He came straight on until Within half a inile of vs^-aod.tUen halted and took a long survey. Our ports were up, yards i«kew, a lot of rafi^e hwiging over the Btfen|,-' and it did not take iilm long to detero^ne that we were a merchantman in distress. To further this idea we waved a white cloth at nim, as if inviti|jg him to come on board. Hecamenori^rtT,- HJthol^^e^'MSi^L^'^iM *aved his arms, as if saying that he would r«tiim to thesliore ajidbnng U8.1i*lp. Sat^ ne went, paddling wit^ all his' mightrand then we felt quite sure thfilt the game was in our hands. The erew were called to quarters shot, shell, and grape passed} up, an^ whei cutlasses and pist^bhad be«B8erved-*nt!we *ere ready. As the tide was setting inshore, the brig's «em was tdwarcl the Mand. We quiefly wled on to the spring T^liich had been set *nd brought her starboard to bear. This man *ivre m^fi(1!gv*'3U:iwr *«-«••*-»-â-  ^â- =' A M333i^3for ]C»aiaii in HeaYsn. joffice?" a cbUdub voioe Hie axy. As I noted the ^ckof my instroment. With its message from r away As it ceased I turned at imr elbow Stood the merest scrap of a boy. Whose childish ce was all aglow With the light of a hidden joy. The golden curk on his forehead Shaded eyes of .deepest blue. As if a bit of summer sky Had lost in them its hue They scanned my outfit rapidly From ceiling down to floor Then turned to me with eager gaze. As he asked the question o'er THE ILEGTBIO WOBLD. 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 ovei'come 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 kris 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 riiomentj 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 deatli at our hands. ^Ve had no sooner disposed of the ptahns 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 fathoms within musket- shot of the beach. Then we lay ofi'f or half an hour, while she plied the woods witli her shells and when welandedit was to meet with a scene 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. We 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 wc ilestroyed, and after the brig had turned her shells loose again as agood-bye we went on board. The forest was now on fiire in twenty places, and the flames were not extinguishei until they had burned every tree and bush over a space teca broRd, twenty-five miles long by fif- Parisian Kuffiaais at "Work. Considerable excitement and alarm pre- vails among the inhabitants of the Avenue dc Villiers, m Paris. The correspondent of a contemporary Says that for some time past a gang of rufiians has been amusing it- self by discharging revolvers at windows in which lights were to be seen during the small hours of the morning. The consterna- tion of the unfortunate victims of these dastardly outrages 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 peiople. at whose bedsides anxious relatives or friends have been watching, A night or two ago a bullet grazed gentleman as he was reading in his bed in a room situtvt^d on one of the lower storeys, and, but for the merest accident, he m^it have bieen killed outright. The Av^ue de Villiers, which lies to the north of the PatcMonceau, intersecting the Boule- vard Malesherbes at the square oi that name which is embllished with a statue of the Elder Dumas, is much patronised by paint- ers, and contains many a well-appointed and commodious studio. ♦ A Mammoth Bnilding. Buildings eight and ten stories, and some ev^twelVelllid fdtir66eir«orie«rhij^,-ape7io uneommoa f^ht in ^ur large citi^ And ami^ng ib»sf manmAotk structores is one wh^h is how being' erected in Chicago by Rand, Mc-5fally tQix, the well-known pub- lishers of that city. It is to be ten stories in to be entirely of stevl â€" a novelty m the way fit \tuUd\n^ It wi cont^ fi^een miles of ste^Juhi^/htwelfe milte~b{ istikm'^^ seven acr^ of floors^ the boards of which, if .«»fc-«(fh«Mat*«ic ABOVSED itiS SUSnCHOSS v J- r. ^^i^! Iyk8^ad Y^i^t^t^e^^so mw^ijainB *«? »gnedtiut{F\aaf6r'the'^hx^6fl^(^ "Is this the tel'graph oflBoe " "It is, my litfle man, " I said "pray tell me what you want. And I'll help you if I can." Then the blue eyes grew more eager. And the breath came thick and fast. And I saw within the chubby hands A folded paper grasped, "Nurse told me," he said, "that the lightn- ing Came down on the wires some day And my mamma has gone to Heaven, And I'm londy 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 printed it big so the angels Could read out quick the name, And carry it straight to my mamma 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 fuuder shower, And the lightning will take it along.' Ah what could I tell the darling For my eyes were filling ist I turned away to hide the tears. But I cheerfully spoke at last "I'll do the best I can, my child," 'Twas all that I could say "Thank you," he said,.and then scanned the sky "Do you think it wJl! funder to-day " 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. Won't let me cpme any more ^^ So good-bye, I'll come and see you^again Right after a funder shower." Seating her Ghild to Death- A woman stood before the Vienna' Coult of Justice charged with having beaten her little six -years -old daughter to death. The wretch- ed woman confessed to having repeatedly beaten the child, who, she says, wad rude and obstinate. The judge read extracts from the jiost-mortem examination, which, ac- cording to the Daily Neirs .correspondent) proved that the child's liver had burst in consequence of blows, that several ribs were broken and â-  that the body was covered M'ith bruiees. The child's schoolmaster declares her to have been tractable and obedient, aud says she looked very well when she first 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 tlie woman often beat the child, and hated her in a manner 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 creatiu'eall 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. A EUSSIAN SENSATION. d rwwh-froiaAllwipy to les.' If the cfltaieiitiiaed in barrels one upon an- bb two mik^'hi^h, and le building would cover 4i/oMinary street more, thi^ a ,mil)e^ ..In â- i^«NHiole atructnnlbheM willbe sbtabi! 3,9«) tons of steeL The fnilding, when flnished. laid end to end, 3o4:ba, s|^e in ^e bujp bg other, {fiepue 'wo th^laster used in 'iS^ -^iSuif h^ y^ Hvet liv«d vaa the ns tmest honrj: the hi|dMat leval, ao* alone xo bloB A Society Whoise Object is to Kill Ulegiti- mate ClUldreit. Some time ago a midwife of Warsaw, Skublinskaya by name, was brought to â- 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 "despatching 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 tiie 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. Those asylums keep the children only for a short time, and send them to villages to be raised in the families of peasants. There they die in large numbers. But the number of such chUdren as fire "despatched" directly by professional murderers like Skublinskfiya can hardly be estimated. Only about ^ree weeks ago a similar "Bociety of Ai^els" was discovered in Vilna. The te 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 stnctn^sA of the censor of tl^presb 'aS^s, that the cruel laws with referencje to waifs are kt the bottom of the whol4 troubUi An illegitimate child in Russia, if it e^er grows up, has no standing before tl^e law. No matter what his abilities or virtues, if by chance or by natural endowment he happens to be poesemedof any, there' ia no 'hope odd no prfcpect for him to do 4tny ^^xid in the world or for himself. The law wiH not re- cog^iizehim as a niember of socie^,' ,and. he is tossed abotit and buffeted uhM he finds his- way into some gang of crifiiitials passing their liyes \a a mine in the Und Moontiuq^ In view Afth^ facts it is no, .wonder ..tJ^t sinful mothers regar4 it -as a benefit ,{or their Children to b^ "despatch^ 'to bddW|f' befcce they grow vp to live in* ignon^ijy' afid aafferingonet^irtht.and that i^^Lsgda?, like Skubljiwkaya dioi^.^ £D99n4:'V#o ]^^ ,po scruples to b^ vtwallmpihen tiiefflB^^ of their emldi«k" f ' ' ^-^ " In the course of a recent speech Sir Henry Ptirkes, Premier d New SooMi Walea. ez- fiMJbd lis cobfid«ail4MK(f tecmtBh^«wo j«nn jautfttim*^ TPedmibkftmaikiJttiiVbamt- ^6m'hi f_T^~fj icBjtuf! #«s 1*4J fl*Mfw oy 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 com- pany. President Lewis says "It is the comingpower, and wepropose to utilize it. In all probability we shall have two power stations, so that we shall not be inconveni- enced if one blows up. I am very strongly in faver 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 O. T. Crosby of the Weems Rapid Transit Com- pany of N. Y. The subject of the paper is air-resistance at high speeds. A speed of 180 miles an hour by electric car is promised before long. At such high .speeds the ele- ment of air resistance becomes a most im- portant one, and any addition to the store of knowledge on the subject is of the utmost value. An arrangement for the prevention of accident by the electric current has been adopted at the works of the Morgan Engin- eering Companj- of Alliance, Ohio. A board is fixed on the wall facing the dynamo in the engine room. On this board are six hooks on the checks of the six men who are em- ployed in looking after the circuits. When a man is called on duty he removes his check from the hook and takes it with him. The engineer sees by a glance at the board that one hook is absent, |pd that, therefore, one man is engaged about the lines around the shop, and and the djmamo is not started nntil the check is replaced on the hook. 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 mechanical construction of the phono- graphic doll, and Mr. Edison says that several weeks of hard work will be required to set it right. The manufacture of the speaking dolls 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 explauied by theinven tor himself. What can be more lucid than the following "There 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 stream." There is nothing prosaic about thelifeofthe electrician in South America. A correspond- ent at Montevideo writes "We must watch lest the lamp lighters of the gas company, who are tbe 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 mischief makers. I and my official often range the streets by night, with loaded re- volvers in our pockets. The chiefs ofthe wire and lamp inspectors are on horseback as also myself and my chief official, and as soon as any mischief begins we gallop up from all sides." Saeeeasfial BxperUMBtt im Tel^MMMc 'n*tkâ€"S%x. mmmm9*m HUes*r Electric KaUwajr Belaicbdil la Br*^d[7aâ€" ir«i«e •r the KlcctHe Beavek 8I|^»-Slecrtelty ImFlrcJbtters. Mr. T. C. Martin, editor of the Sledrical Engineer, 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, adistantofabout400miles. Mr. Martin print- ed this story. The following week it was reprinted by another te chhical paper, which took occasion to amend the spelling of the word Bologoe, and made it Bologna. The week following Einother pa- per figured out that from Moscow to Bologna must oe more than 400 miles, and so made it 4,000. The week after that another pa- per concluded that Bologne 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 proverbially a long one, he is afraid that for ages 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." A new iron steamer left Newcastle, Eng- laiid, in the beginning of the month, for her first voyage across the Atlantic. In the course of the voyage she got into a heavy fog. The electric search light showed something whj.te a little distance ahead. It looked at first like a cloud, but immediately, afterward the form of a great iceberg loomed up- The helm was instantly put hard to starboard, uid just cleared the ice wall, crashing^ how- ever, into a huge ledge which jutt«4' out from, the berg^. There was a heavy .aval- anche â-  bf ice, â-  which ttoew this diip oil her beam ead», but she soon righted, and though leaking, got safely into New Ybrk. harbor. But for the f lectric light, nothk^ could have saved the vessel uid crew. Piral EHhu Thomson, in i^lctelfog^ ^llie ProUwiia) of the Future," says: "In the near future railway»«ill bexnn by electric- ity no^jthe ^maJl roa^^ I ma^ |hp|t really the li^ge ones 'connective citiflBJ and liiere ia^«T«£km'll^frf^ we O^S il ^^^ liigh- etwffeieabi iMtfWe can aitaih at jprWent with ear steHnlooajmotiTefl. \^ereiara have te- cl pr 6uatiiaywg|ii that must ' ne.liiit' in Motilai; WoMed and reyabi^a ' OMilpiindftr, ^».i â-  jM ifr 'g^ttji gf. |fl» fiiB^iM"" I^'^mW^^^^ J£' Jill m mimf y ocwy laamasm^ vsMn » wjrw nwo. steam locomotive has been very much im- ^^SByoFS^EidS^ enginto^' placed *^heie they can have an abundant water supply for condensing purposes. We can, therefore, by employing stationary engines and elec- tric reitds, do away with a- grtot deal of un- necessary weight, and the moving parts ' being symmetrical, we can attain a much- higher speed, say a hundred miles an hour.- This would be a grand step forward, whicli would save us a ereat deal of time. It- might even be possible to reach a speed of 160 miles an hour it simply depends upon finding the method of apply sufficient iower» and buildine the locomotives to suit, ar- ransements being adopted to keep the cars on the track. A Boston Fire Commissioner, speaking at a recent meetmc. said: "Electricity is very important in all fire matters. The question of getting an engine of the greatest water- throwing capacity to a fire with greatest celerity will, it seems to me, be solved by electricity. Substitute for the steam power of any modem engine stored electricity or electric power conveyed to each hydrant, making of your engine a pump on wheels, and you have lightness itself as regards weight, with almost unlimited power of throwing water. This will be the fire en- gine of the future; so say the prophets. " Some interesting experiments made last week are likely to lead to important modi- fications 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 tlie light is not prefcticable, but it is believed that by throwing the concentrated rays up vertical- ly against the clouds a reflection of the light can be seeiiAnd 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 js this fact that induces the belief of its being pos- sible to communicate the position of ap- proaching vessels by vertical rather tlian horizontal rays. In connectioa with tht search light there is also includetl in tlie cir- cuit an attachment to the steam whistle which can be worked simultaneously with the light, or independantly, 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 con- 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 material being ui' 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 lelts, one of which is to be 160 feet long and 7'i inches wide, and the other 48 inches in width and of much greater length. These will re- quire the hides of more than 600 head of cattle. There is now an excellent opportunity for an ingenious inventor to devise a cheap and trustworthy speed indicator for electric cars. An instrument of this kind, which could al- ways be relied upon to indicate to the driver the exact speed of his car, would meet with good success. Mr. W. 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 mamtainiug a pressure of 2,000 volts in underground con- 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 Lon- don as it has been in this city. No fewer than thirty-six petitioners have deposited petitions in the private bill office of the House of Commons, praying to be heard m opposition to the bill promoted by the Lon- don County Council for constructing sub- ways for pipes and wires under the streets of the metropolis, arid for the creation of a system of control over aerial wires and cables. A very complete and handy form of cabinet battery has been put upon the market. It has been specially designed to fill the want of a battery that sliall require practically no attention, and tiie manipulation of which can be effected with great facility. The various connections: and switches for placing any desired number of cells in pircuit 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 th^ circuit singly and -without shock. It requires no other attention than the re- newal of the zincs and sal ammoniac. Five hundred thousand dollars is to be fif vested in ele;trie street railroads in Spring- field, Mo., and the company which is now being organized for that purpose -will pur- chase all the rights and property of the old street railway company. The English Widow and Tt TUtiriaTi, the Sportin S' t "^A young {higlish widow, says a Vienna correspondent, sought tiie aid ot thepolice on Thursd^h^cauaeher fi«nceehaddi8ameared sinpe- Saturday, having tabea with nun her ' jewels, Worth £1000. The mim has spent several seasons in. yienna, and*^ was well' IbiA^ni'in'Bporting circles forHelivy betting on^'the ;ttin.- He nai beUoTedi.'tO' be a' Russian an|dL a, nukn, of. greaftr wealth. This' winter he nude the acquaintance of the lady ' inNio0^^AiidrimnM;tov'ViennB with her as: heraioea^tedisiiitBr. 'iMtweek lie looked at hk tMOoaa'a KanMwid»» aiidf aaid the moonlitag^ ini qajta bM*laaU«a0Ch-^ would havB them fa a hjoBa fchr mnint«4 fw her. 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