Connecticut western news., 1883-10-03
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

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 misleading to sportsmen. It is shaped like ball and varies in size from one foot or less in diameter to five or six feet, some specimens being as tall as a man. It grows upon small stem, which is, however, stout enough to bear the mass till it has ripened and dried, when puff of wind will blow it over and snap the slender support. Then it is that every gust of wind sends 1t roll ing over the prairie, bounding over ] bushes and rocks with the greatest elas- ticity and lightness. When the wind is strong and high these tumbling weeds present Q most peculiar appearance as they bound from rock to rock, and in more than one instance hunters have mistaken them for bisons and felt con- siderable irritation at the impossibility of bringing them within range of their guns.
 SOME SIXTY YEARS SINCE Bank ot England G5 note was paid into @ Liver pool merchants office ill the ordinary course of business. On holding it up to the light to test its genuineness, the cashier saw some faint red marks upon it. Examining them closely, he traced some half-effaced words between the printed lines and upon the margin of the note, written apparently in blood. After long and minute scrunity he made out the words: eff this note should fall into the hands of John Dean, of Long hill, near Carlisle, he will learn hereby that his brother is languishing prisoner in Algiers." The merchant immediately communicated with MT. Dean, and he lost no time in bringing the matter before the Government. Inquiries were set on foot and the unfortunate man was dis covered and ransomed. He had been a slave to the Dey of Algiers for eleven years, when the message he had traced with a splinter of wood dipped in his own blood reached the Liverpool count ing house. Liberty, however, came too late; the privations and hardships of the galleys had sapped his strength, and d. though he was brought home to Eng land, it was but to die.
 JOSEPH MED111, EDITOR OF THE Chicago Tribune, testified before the Senate Committee as follows "The cause of the poor condition of our labor ing classes is their own improvidence Many laboring men are drinking men, and fail to save money on this account. The amount spent yearly for liquors in this country is $4OO, ,OO0, 900; for tobac- co, $1OO, 100000. The greater part of this comes from the laborers. No leels lation can improve this state of affairs. But Legislation can do something for the improvements of tenements. The habi- tation of the laboring man is unfit to live in. Commercial clerks" he added. "are the poorest paid class of men in Chicago. For the most part they are farmers and mechanics sons, who are too proud to do manual labor, and find their way to the cities. But the boy of to-day does not have chance. He can not learn trade because there are three influences at work to keep him out. First, he is not taught at home the true dignity of labor; second, the trades unions keep boy out of their organiza- tion, and hence out of the trade; third, proprietors of shops will not let their skilled workmen devote their time to teaching boys the trade."
 A REMARKABLE BATTLE OF BEES re- gently took place in an English aviary. It was noticed that there was great uproar in one of the hives. Closer in. spection showed the ground below the hive to be covered by several hundred dead drones, and hosts of them were still being brought to the entrance anG bundled out by the workers-generally by being seized behind the head an6 dragged along to the exit, where, as kind of farewell, sting was given te them. Examination of the slain re vealed the fact that they had been SC verely handled-many were headless others had lost legs or wings, or both and all bore evidence of rough usage That the bees were very much the su perior force was shown by the fact tha only about fifty of them had fallen il the fray. The battle had ragged iron about seven ill the morning to abou seven in the evening, and seemed thel to end only with the utter annihilatiol of the drones.
 A TOUGHER STORY EVEN THAN tha which came from Halifax few week ago about the wrecked bark Britanni being left to her fate by vessel whicl approached and then sailed away fror her while she was making signals of dis tress, is now told by the captain of tn wrecked bark Lizzie, who, with hi crew, was rescued from open boats at SC by 8 sailing vessel. He says that whil his vessel was in sinking condition and the crew were working for thei lives at the pumps, five steamers passe so close that they must have heard hi guns and seen his signals of distress, an yet took no notice of them. No write of sea yarns would have dared to tell s foul story, and the worst of this that it is true.
 A CORRESPONDENT OF THE Augusts Ga., COnstjtutionalist, writing fror Halifax, N. s., says: Halifax is dc lightfully situated on peninsula con posed almost wholly of rock. At tn waters edge along the harbor the groun is comparatively level. From the hal Dor the town is built on an ascent tht rises gradually to the citadel, 300 fee above mean tide. It is the stronges fortified town ill America. Besides th