The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-05-28
TIMELY TOPICS.

In China, where the opium habit
ruins and destroys many men annually
the efforts of the government to abolish
or diminish the use of opium have re-
Gently been more energetic than ever.
All these efforts have been in vain, ,as were
those of many years previous. The Pekin
government have at last determined to
take the final step in the business, and
an edict has been issued, which goes into
effect next year, making the use or sale
of opium punishable by death. 1t is
hard to say how the edict will be met by
the ten million opium eaters of the 'Ce.,
lestial Empire, or what proportion OF
them will come to this country to enjoy
their fascinating custom.
There was buried in the cemetery of
81. James the Less, in Philadelphia, re-
Gently, the man who was known as the
Man of Roots-not Greek roots, but ma
lures own. Joseph Smith was born in
the mining districts of England eighty
one years ago, and coming to this coun-
try located at Ashland, Schuylkill coun-
ty, Pa. While he was living at Ashland
lie CHANGED to find curious root in
the woods one day. He whitfield aim
lesslv on the root for few minutes
when, 10! it became perfect owls head.
,Joseph's interest in roots was at. once
excited and he began to collect all the
curious ones lie could find. Hesoon had
his house filled with hundreds of shapes
that were conjured out of laurel root,
pine knot or stone, his strange fancy
growing by what it fed on.
It is a sign of the growing interest
among women in regard to the
ways and means of industrial education
that petition is being circulated and
numcrously signed by women in all the
States of the Union, which will be pre-
sented to the next Congress, asking its
favorable consideration Of a plan for th'.
establishment of national schools of de-
sign. A Washington paper thinks that
thorough training in schools of art and
design will make the women and men
who receive it seli-sustaining. Skilled
labor always commands its price, and
technical education underlies the sue
cess of many branches of industry, and
will help to solve the labor question. 1t
is in this belief that the petition has been
circulated and signed by professors in
schools throughout the country, and by
list of women's names from all the
States, including several hundred in this
district, and also in the hope that Con-
gress will take such action in the matter
us the Importance of the subject de-
mands."
While no new cases of the plague are
reported in Russia. European medical
Journals show that there exists, and not
without reason, the greatest fears that
with the return of warm weather it will
break out again with unabated virulence,
and that its ravages will then not be con-
fined to one distant district. but spread
all over the empire and infest as well
adjoining countries There is now
known to exist in St. Petersburg, Vitefsk,
Odessa, Warsaw and in other districts in
Russia a buboni" affection, with which
Russian physicians are unfamiliar, (which
is very similar to. if not identical with,
u bubonic disease which preceded the re-
cent outbreak ofthe plaque in Astrachan
and previous ones in Persia and Meso-
potamia. By some, indeed, this dis
ease is considered mild form of the
plague itself. While each new case OF
the plague causes the greatest alarm
among the people, as the probable fore
runner of renewed devastations,. the
medical fraternity see in this seemingly
trivial bubonic affection cause for the
gravest apprehension in the near future.
! At any rate, danger ofrecurrence will not
be passed for more than q year.
At the fifth anniversary OF the Wo-
mans Christian Temperance Union. OF
New York city, Hon. William f. Dodge
presided, and in an address he told the
story of q lady, belonging to one OF the
best families in New York, whose hus-
banda leading citizen-was so much
the slave of intoXication that he would
leave his business often and remain at
home on drunken debauch for weeks:
The wife withdrew from society, of
which she was bri ght ornament, and
exerted herself to redeem her husband
if possible, or to prevent his vice from
becoming known. At length, when the
truth could no longer be concealed, she
confded in the speaker and his wife,
and through their efforts the husband
WIS induced to sign the pledge, which
lie kept for several years. This day."
said MIR. Dodge, "he is occupying q very
high position in this city, though fear
lie is not entirely temperate. While
none suffer more, none can labor more
cfectually than women; and l rejoice in
the work which the ladies of this Chris
tian Union are doing for the cause of
importance"
Newspaper readers will remember the
trial of ngland's criminal phenomenon,
Charles Peace, who figured so much in
type and on tongue few months ago.
Just before his execution this notorious
outlaw made it known that he had muir
dered Cock, . Manchester policeman,
for which crime William Habron, a
young Irishman, was soon to be hung.
A clever dodge on the part of Peace, the
public thought, to provoke investiga-
tion and thus gain respite: So Peace was
hung. Shortly afterward the Cock muir
der was again looked into in accordance
with the suggestion of Peace. 1twas found
that the bullet which killed the police
man fitted the executed mans revolver,
and that it did not fit young Habron's
weapon. Otherpoints were revived and
Habron was released from the Portland
prison. He was not informed of the
pardon, but supposed he was soon to be
hung. His neck had been measured a
few days before. At last it dawned upon
him gradually that he was not to die.
The reliet affected his nervous system,
but under good treatment he rallied and
is now a happy man. Thus after an i'm
prisonment Of three years and when