The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-01-06 00:00:00

judiciously bumped, and a third so-sad-so balm shut M.
But no one consplains.or at least rarely; sod though we may
return to the subject over the dinner-tsble in Ike evening,
no further notice Is taken unless the cam Is one so gross
and B urrant that the tardy stewards are compelled blab.
It up Ido not accuse one jockey more than another. It
the popular and sucomdul one bumps his friend one day,
his friend returnli the compliment, if he can, on Ike next.
—Bats DI FEL in the World
SHADOWS OP IIiBIiBNIT-NINI4

A black border is the framework within which the
▪ at story of 'esventy-nine should be written. The
'onion' have come and eon.; the trees have donned and
d .ffed their foliage; but spring and summer have been to
us no ro than phrases of the calendar. Its mid-winter
now, and, with the exception of • few brief intervals, it
has been mid-winter for about the space of fifteen months.
The state of the a•mosphere on Christmu Day was
symbolical of the weather that has now been with to
almost cmtinumuly since October. WS
For • long time all the news which the papers gave us
was uninterruptedly had, and there was nothing to relieve
the gloom of disaster and war. There were collisions at
sea, massacres on land, explosions beneath the earth. Now
threescore lives were lost in a Welsh colliery; now the
Thunderer was within an ace of aanihilation, and forty
men were killed or wounded. Presently the news arrived
that • British regiment had been cut up in South Africa.
A little later we heard theta troop of hussars had been
drowned in crossing the Cabot river. The next thing was
the announcement that the catastrophe of Isandula hd
been nearly rope ited on the banks of the 'atonal& Her
Majesty'. Ministers began to think that It was time to do
something, and determined to send out the only general
we have who can command both troops and encase. The
battle of Ulundi, however, was fought without Sir Garnet
Wolseley's assistance. July was almost over before the.,
tidings cam.; and though they served to remove • heavy
load of despondency, the dejection and the shame which
were occasioned by the slaughter of the Prince Impanel
remained. Theo !sentiments were productive of some-
thing more than • momentary shock. Troy lasted with
us for several week.; and they were not quite dispelled
when, in the mouth of August, Lard Cealmsford and
Captain Carey were welcomed with frantic demonstrations
of joy at Plymouth. Maanwhi's. more hot rible casualties
' were spreading desolation in Zeeland and abroad. The
midlaod counties were ravaged by a series of the most
destructive thunderstorms known for years. A large part
I of Hungary was flooded. Ten thousand persons died from
famine in Zapf,. There ware earthquakes in Catania—
the heralds of the more appalling vistlatinos which were
to come upon Murcia a few weeks later. The slaughter of
Sir Louis Cavagnari and his comrades at C abut added
completeness to the sickening 10014 of calamity that had
taken possession of the public mind. The victory of
Ulundi was the only moderately bright spot which p a.
slanted itself in the national picture,. As the year began,
so it closer; and imagination recoils in horror from the
attempt to realise the appalling agonies of the Tay Brilge
disaster.