Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-10-25
Contemporary Notes.


Contemporary Notes
1t is seldom that cat is decently
buried Dead cats are always to be
seen on commons, close to garden walls,
over which they have been thrown and
in the streets, carefully laid out for re.
moval by the early dustman. In Japan
the rich owners of cats apparently have
a higher respect for detunet pussy.
The report of a regal cats funeral
comes from Nedo. The coffin was GOV
cred with white silk pail, and body
of chanting priests followed the cortegt
to the grave Later on a handsome
monument was erected, on which was
described the many virtues OF the cat
Rev W. S Gleig, now almost a non
agenarian, is the oldest living author
who still wields a pen. Mr.. Gleig was
present at the Battle of New Orleans
in 1915, and saw General Pakenham
killed, and some of the picked rcgi-
ments of the British Army defeated by
Andrew Jackson and few American
backwoodsmen. Mr.. Gleig, who sub
sequcntly took orders, and became
chaplin-general, wrote a spirited de
scription in his Subatern," of the
engagement at New Orleans, and having
started as an author in 1915, he Las
quite lately contributed an article to
Blackwood's Magazine. His mind and
memory are still entirely mistaken
He was a great favorite with the Iron
| Duke.
y New York paper says athletic
sports in America are taking on much
of the pleasureable excitment which at
tends free fight or a Democratic pri
mary in the lower wards, or let US say
meeting of the commissioners of
emigration In late game of la
| crosse at Toronto, one player had his
head cut open, another his arm broken,
and third'was SO generally thumped
home. The causalties Of baseball are al
most equal IN season to those OF
many battle And now the captain
of the Sophomore football team Of
Brown University is obliged to leave
college because of fractured rib OBJ
tanned in the contest of last Saturday.
'Fo see our young barbarians all at
play, a stranger might well imagine
them all at war
Two prominent divines of different
persuasions have taken uponthemselves
to explain prevalence of suicide. The
Rev. DR.. Talmage, with that positivism
of knowledge which is one of his most
captivating traits, roundly Charges the
whole thing upon the inidelity and ag-
nosticism abroad" and asserts, with
equal certainty, that Sin every case Of
suicide that has ever been recorded, or
ever will be recorded, the perpetrator
was either demented, and hence not
responsible, or inhdel." 1t is character
istic, ii not exactly material, that the
reverend gentleman then proceeds "to
challenge the universe, and to challenge
the ages for even single exception" I"
Monslgnor Capel, on the other hand,
thinks the impelling causes of suicide
are chiefly three First, love OF
money" which he considers dis
tinguishing mark of this country "sec-
ond, the over-education of the young 4;
third, the lack of moral control over
the passions" The New York Hour,
which reports the egist of the two views,
does not venture to decide where two
such doctors disagree, further than to
point out to the Rev. Mr. 1almage thai
the prevailing judicial doctrine now is,
that suicide affords no presumption ,oi
insanity, and that religious excitemen,
leads to selfdestruction probably quite
as often as agnosticism
One OF the most curious instances oi
how matters, apparently most remote,
react upon each other, is found in the
distress occasioned in the rural popula-
ton of West Virginia by the Franco
Chinese war, owing to the facts tina, the
market tor ginseng is closed, or dulled,
and the price has fallen by large per
centage. The mountain people of the
Allegheny highlands, from Pennsyl-
yania to oTennessee, have long been ac-
customed, in early spring and late
autumn, to dig the root OF this plant,
and prepare il for sale by scalding and
cleaning. II was then sold to the
country merchants, and served as al
most the only means by which the rude
dwellers in the interior OF the mount
aims got any ready money or its equiva-
lent in the few "store goods they con
sumed. Twenty-Five years and more
ago, the root was worth only about thirty
cents a pouad, and every little trading
centre would export -four or FIVE thou
sand pounds annually. I.atterly, however,
the mountains became SO depleted that
the root rose to a dollar a pound in
value With the exception of triae
used in our pharmacy, the whole de-
mand for this herb comes from the
Chinese, in whose medical arts il stands
almost first in importance. II is not
only regarded as panacea, and pre-
pared Tor use in nearly every way q
physician can contrive; but takes a
superstilious rank, chiefly through the
iancied resemblences seen in the gnar'
led pieces OF root to human faces, and
a variety OF other forms earthly and
celestial.