The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-28 00:00:00

ART AND LITERARY GOSSIP.

A new polar expedition is being got ready at Bremen.—
An attempt is being made to cultivate the Japanese tea-
plant in California. Twenty-seven thousand trees have
been imported.—The returns from the departments of
Eure et Loire and l'Yonne point to a dreadful prevalence
of infanticide. About 60 per cent. of the illegitimate
children are murdered.—Recent analyses shew that the
standard of the Pope's silver is inferior to that of France
by 'OO3. In consequence of this discovery, the Pattie
demands that public essays be made of the Belgian, Swiss,
and Italian coinage, in accordance with the convention of
1865.—We hear. tlAt a new work byMr. Matthew Arnold will
soon appear.—We hear of a curious specimen of a species
of literature that we had hopedwas extinct; Mrs. Beecher
Stowe is one of the authors of a new book intended to
teach the " proprieties " to young ladies !—A couple of
weeks ago we gave a story of the late Dr. Duncan, of
Edinburgh. A correspondent sends us another instance
of the worthyman's strange forgetfulness. He was engaged
to officiate one Sunday for the minister of Culter, near
Aberdeen ;. and left the latter place in good time, mounted
on a " sheltie." Being a great snuff-taker, he frequently
had recourse to his " mull " on the journey; and arriving
at a turn of the road where the wind blew right ahead, he
turned his nag about to enable him to take a pinch more
easily; having done so, he forgot to turn his " sheltie "
again, and rode into Aberdeen, discovering only when too
late that the people of Culter had had no service on that
day. —Athenceum.

The following laconic art-notes are from the columns of
the Philadelphia Evening Star
Tennyson likes venison.
Offenbach has three operas on tee..
Olive Lorgan is snorting. through the West.
Dickens is expected to give readings at Paris.
Kellog exhibits her pannier for 350 dollars a night.
There are nearly 15,000 lost women in this city.
Carlotta deigns to warble to New Orleans this week.
A Brunswick, Me., dentist, has an office over a hatter
named Toothtaker.
—The Era informs us that "there is a rumour that two
popular composers of music are to have the honour of
knighthood, viz., Mr. Brinley Richards, the composer
of the well known and popular piece `God bless the Prince
of Wales' and Mr. J. P. Clarke, a military composer, for
his new national chant ' Hail to the Duke.'" We are
further assured by the same authority that "the Germans
have showered great praises upon it (namely Mr. Clarke's
song) as one of the grandest national chants of modern
times," Perhaps it is in consequence of this shower that
the knighthood is to be conferred—a sort of heraldic um-
brella.—Mr. Strange, of the Alhambra, is said to have
taken the Folies-Bergeres in Paris, with the view of
establishing a palace on the model of that in Leicester
Square.—A new comedy, "M. P.," from the pen of Mr.
T. W. Robertson, has been read at the Prince of Wales's
Theatre. It will be produced immediately, all the old.
favourites appearing in it.— Orchestra.

A. RAILWAY TRAGEDY.— A fearful crime wa3
committed on Sunday night, on the Paris, Lyons, an I
Mediterranean Railway. In the train which left Lyons
at 10.45 p.m., and due at Marseilles at 6.33 a.m. on
Monday, a traveller entered a first class coupe. Either
at Lyons or some subsequent station, another person
must have entered the carriage, for on the arrival of
the train at Montelimart the door of an empty com-
partment was found to be open. Upon the officials
looking in they found that although there were then no
occupants, there were evidences of a dreadful struggle
of which it had recently been the scene—there
being splashes of blood on the cushions, and also
on the step of the carriage. A search was made along the
line, and at some twelve kilometres' distance from
Montelimart towards Valence there was found lying
on the line at the foot of a slope the dead body of a man,
apparently of about 30 years of age. A judicial investi-
gation was at once commenced, and it was evident that
robbery had been the motive of the murder, as the
corpse had been stripped of money, rings, and every
kind of valuable. A telegram to the Gaulois on Tuesday
announced that the murdered man had been identified as
a respected merchant of Lyons, named Alphonse
Lubanski. It was also stated that the presumed assassin
had been arrested near the Saulce station, he having been
injured by leaping from the train. This line of railway
has become somewhat noted for murderous attacks, the
case of Dr. Constantine James having heen followed
about a fortnight since by an attempt at assassination
painnirsyscteomme
tinuous girder,
and robbery, which, happily, was not, as in this last
Instance, completed.
A. new arrangement railways, says The Builder,
w,,,
shortly for
beAforseintghlee pruobwlicofunpdileersthcaerrititelse
aof.etllns.
*on which the train runs, the carriages
hanging
on each side to within a very short clis-
down
tance of ti:;.
inequality o;,S;g4nd. The carriages are so arranged that
will not affect
the
on one side to the extent of a ton
action. The small quantity of land re-
quired, cheapness of constructionf _mid speed, are advan-
tages claimed
for
inventing in h (tt-
an Alr. Samuel, C.E„ has taken the
, _ 7