Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-10-06
OLD WORLD ECHOES.
THINGS HERE AND THERE ON
THE gA>TERN SIDE.
Thoughts About Persons and OBJ
jects Claiming Prominence
or Enjoying Distinction.
Written for the REcoRD-UNIoN.I

or Enjoying Distinction.
Written for the RECORD UNIoN.J
The Phoenix Company is the name of
the latest British syndicate, to which his
Imperial Majesty, the Car, has just
granted most important trading privileges.
These include nothing less than the trade
for five years, under certain limitations,
of the auriferous and prairie land of
Northern Siberia. The great rivers, Ye-
nesei and Obi, have been declared open to
British commerce, the former for five
years and the latter for one, and there is
every prospect of these concessions being
greatly enlarged. To Sir Robert Morier,
British ambassador at the Court of ST. Pc
tersburg, is due the credit of gaining for
his countrymen these immense privileges
the importance of which it is impossible
TO exaggerate. The whole of the gold re-
gion of Northern Siberia is, by this indul-
gence, thrown open to British capitalists,
and when it is borne in mind that Siberia
yields an annual output of gold equal to
S25,000,000, all mined with the most prim-
tive appliances, the improved methods of
| the British will certainly double this
yield, and possibly quadruple it, Thus is
opened to England another Ell Dorado, Of
an opulence which can only be Judged by
| experience, but which it is believed will
not disappoint the most sanguine expecta-
! tions that have been formed of it. What
| between North Borneo Companies, Soudan
Companies, and this latest fledged Phe-
nix" the British are in a fair way to pos
sess the earth, or at any rate the richest
provinces, which amounts to pretty much
the same thing.
Trusts in England thrive apace. The
| beer trust of Guinness q Co. has recently
declared an annual dividend of fifteen
shillings, having made clear profit of
over million pounds in the short space of
a twelyemonth.
The lessons inculcated by the recent ma
val maneuvers off the British and Irish
coasts, point to the conclusion that speed
is more essential to the modern warship
than either weight of metal or thickness
OF armory. According to Admiral Baird,
blockading is doomed, because "steam has
rendered it impossible to prevent ships
from running the blockade any dark night
under the very noses of the blockaders"
The same maneuvers have demonstrated
the fact, long suspected, that England's
coast Notifications are weak, for, in theory,
all the principal British seaportS have
been destroyed, and their shipping cap
tured. Admiral Baird, who, with Admi-
rails Tryon and Bowley, were the principal
officers i'll command of the squadrons
made many friends in San Francisco dur
ing the time that his flagship was at an
Choir in the bay.
A rival to Jamrach's museum in the
London Ratcliff Highway, has sprung up
In the mansion of Lord Brassey, located in
the ultra fashionable thoroughfare of Park
Lane. In this museum are stored the
whole of the collection made by Lady
Brassey during the many and distant voy-
ages of her husbands yacht Sunbeam
These include curious prehistoric weap-
ons and tictile jugs and vases from every
land. Uttered about the place, in SEEM
ing confusion, but really in admirable or
der, are trophies, savage toys and models
of junks and canoes, the whole forming
collection which is absolutely unique in
character. By night the museum is lit up
by electric jets, issuing from shells sus-
pended from the ceiling, giving to the con-
servatory the appearance of barbaric
fairy grotto.
The London police have at length sue
ceeded in tracing the stolen American
bonds valued at $4,000 which were
snatched out of a lads hand, the latter
an office boy in the employ of Messrs.
Wilson & Sons, stock -jobbers of Cornhill.
Since the original theft of them, eight or
nine months ago, the bonds have travelled
backwards and forwards between the two
countries, the handlers of them being in
happy ignorance that they were stolen
property. The theft has al last been
traced to man named Casey, who has ad-
mitted his guilt and will probably expiate
it by short term in penal servitude. The
whole of the bonds have been recovered,
and will be restored to their rightful
owners.
The British railroad king, Sir Edward
Watkin, has been recently making trip
on the king of trains" as the flying nor
lance between London and Edinburgh
400 miles, in seven hours and half. On
the occasion of Sir Edwards ride, ninety
miles was logged in as many minutes,
while for short distances the speed was
even superior to this. Speaking of The
present rapidity of railroad transit, the
Baronet declares it to be his conviction
that there is practically no limit to speed.
" | don't see why you shouldn't go a hun
dred miles an hour if you had express
through lines-that is, without freight
and slow passenger trains crawling over
them" Sir Edward is Chairman of three
railroads, the father Of the channel tunnel
scheme, and is close Oh 20 years of age.
Speaking of the London and North
western Company's enterprise, the above
quoted NJ. P. said he admired the
company's experiment for the reason "that
it showed our railroad people and the pub
lie what could be done; had paved the
way for distance trains running two or
three hundred miles at stretch, and had
initiated valuable movement for saving
that which is all we have on this earth,
namely, time"
9he speed of present English express
trains, though extraordinary, is by no means
unprecedented, and so far back as forty years
was eclipsed by the performance Of the
Flying Dutchman" on the seven-foot
gauge of the Great Western Railroad. In
those times, and on BrunePs famous road,
seventy-five miles an hour was often ac-
| complished on the stage between London
and Exeter.
A Mrs. Mona Card has been causing a
great commotion in British society by a
series of articles she has been writing
for the London Telegraph, on the subject
of marriage. She would apply to that in
stitutiun set of reforms something anaIo-
gous to the leasehold system in land.
Free contract, not free marriage, is what
! Mrs. Card contends for, declaring that the
former should specify the grounds on
which either party might have it anulled.
[ The fair correspondent of Sir Levy Lawson's
news-sheet scouts the notion that marriage
is voluntary contract, "the essence of it
being seduously concealed from the woman,
whose whole training, educational and So
cial, is directed to keeping her in absolute
ignorance of the dominant factors in the
contract which she is supposed to enter
| into with intelligence