The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-03-05
PRICE THREE CENTS.

aCIor, aitnouSl No TecelVeu some scat
tering votes for the rank Of greatest
humbug. Canon Siddon, not widely
known here. came out ahead as great.
est preacher, and Mr.. Mlllais received
the large vote of 8l4 as creates,
painter to 44S votes for Sir Frederick
Leighton. Huxley beats Tyndall about
two to one as the greatest man of
science. John Ruskin, as greatest
writer, gets the large vote of 500,
followed next by Tennyson with only
262. Wilkie Collins takes the prize as
greatest novelist, although he leads
William Black by but seventeen votes.
Sala distances John Morley and all the
Times, Punch and Saturday Recie,o
men as the greatest journalist. Alto
gether, it proves to be most interest
ing and instructive contention.
Cancer is so dreadful disease, and
medical science has hitherto had SO
little success in treating it, that when
ever new remedy for it is announced
deep and widespread interest is created.
For some time there has been sort OF
run on vegetable remedies for cancer,
and it was supposed by many that a
trustworthy therapeutic had been dis
covered in cundurango. Experiment,
however, did not sustain the original
reports of that drug, and it has almost
passed out of sight and recollection.
Another candidate for public favor
has now appeared in the form Bra
lillian plant called Alveloz. concerning
the curative virtues of which great
things are being written. Consul
Atherton, of Pernambuco, was request
ed by the State Department to send
some of the plant to Washington,
where it has been tested by Dr. Smith
Townshend, Health Officer of the Dis
trict of Columbia, on one patient, with
alleged good results. OF course, how
ever, this success, if as complete as
stated, does not prove the new remedy
to be what is claimed for it. Prolonged
experiment in a considerable number
of cases will be required to settle that
question, and the fate of cundurango
red clover blossom (Which was much
bepuffed not long ago. and many other
alleged remedies should warn the pub.
lie against premature confidence in
AlveloZ.
The town of Dongola on the Upper
Nile, lately made memorable by the
long and still unexplained delay Of
Gen. Wolseley's army in its advance
upon Khartoum. has another and
stronger claim to renown as the birth.
place Of the Mahdi himself. Situated
on low, fiat peninsula jutting out
into the river, it is decidedly pictures.
que at distance, with its tall, white
spear-pointed minaret; Standing up
against the deep blue sky and its
feathery palms overshadowing the
flat-roofed, narrow windowed, fortress.
like houses, which overlook the swift,
smooth, colfee-brown stream of the
Nile. But on entering the city the
filth and disorder characteristic of all
Arab towns become glaringly ap.
parent. while the high blank walls
that surround the numerous gardens
give to the whole place a sombre,
prison-like aspect. Many of the.
clumsy Arab boats and RATS used on
the Nile are built here, and among the.
native carpenters thus employed ths
selfstyled Mohammedan Messiah form
erly worked under his own name OF
Mamoud Ahmed, although it would
seem that nc toe, like O'Donovan Rosa
and company, has since found the pre-
tense of "a great public mission" more
profitable than honest everyday labor.
Immediately to the north of Dongola
lies the long, narrow, wedge-shaped
island of Argo, several miles in length.
venerated by tho Iatives as the scene
of one of those terms of prophetic
seclusiOn which the Mahd has copied
from his namesake and prototypS,
MohammGd.