The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-07

the negroes oslebrate with funeral pomp the
burial Of 23.17 per thousand. In Richmond the
blacks, while in New Orleans it is 25 45 for the
former and 80 60 for the latter. The greatest
mortality among the whites In reached In
Charleston, whore tho rate 10 "a 81 per thou
sand, while the District of Columbia furnishes
the largest death roll for the blacks. viz: AZ go
per thousand. IL 10 q curious fact thst Mobile,
within forty miles of the Calf of Mexico, sp-
pears to be the healthest of Southern cities
for the whites aud pext to the bealthiest for
| the blacks, Selma alone owing lower death
rate among its oolored people.
hrs. Pickering was for about six mouths the
wonder of spiritualism iu New England. Her
as genuine by spiritnalists, and ss at least
very remarkable by skeptios. Bat her expo
sure, when IL did come, was thorough. She
visited . wealthy believer in Lowell by invi
tation, and gave seances, using q cabinet in
the usual manner. One evening, after several
different forms had been shown in the din
gorgeous In feathers and tinsel. and decidedly
frisky, dancing nimbly to the music of piano.
Suddenly skeptio darted forward and grab
bed her; She struggled hard, bat did not de-
Mrs. Piokering's husband. He knocked the
skeptio down. A Newspaper reporter then
mixed in the melee, and held to the princess
lists. who had been told that any interference
with the spirit forms would surely kill the
medium The princess escaped to the cabinet,
where subst quently Mrs. Pickering was found
in q pretended faint. Hidden in her clothing
were masks and other thinRs for the persona
tion Of q variety Of characters. Her host oom-
petfed her to return to the assembly the money
taken for admission, aud to quit the house
within an hour.
The Captain Of aGerman steamer, Just ar
rived at Hong Kong. reports a singular condi-
tion OF things in the island of Nav Britain, in
the South seas. He found the whole Of the
northeast coast nveloped 10 dense smoke, and
he experienced great difficulty in proceeding
up the channel between it and New ireland,
as fields of pumce stone, several feet in thick
nesss covered the surface of the water. On
February he reached Max ada, Duke of York
group, and fonnd that three craters had broken
ont in the New Britain peninsular, from which
dense m asses of pumice stone were continually
being thrown up The passage between Duke
of York leland and Blanche bay had been COM
pletely closed by compact field Of pumice
stone, about five feet in thickness, according
Kong paper. A tidal wave swept over Blanche
bay on February 10, and soon afterward o naw
Island appeared, about three q q arters of mile
in dismeter. This island is situated to the
south of Henderson Island, and where ig now
is no bottom was previously obtained at seven
teen fathoms. It 10 probable that other alter.
ationa have occurred which could not be OBJ
eerv ed at the time, owing to the masses of
floating pumice stone. The Captain of the
vessel mentioned further says that the water
in Blanche bay was scalding hot for two days,
and that immense quantities of boiled 6sh and
turtle were thrown on shore and eagerly de-
voured by the natives, who wore starving in
consequence of the unusual dryness of the sea-
son.