Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-16

aASAA tnio AcBiohs oha ~ acy w yA~4A ae knowledge of times far earlier than any that VIC yet know of.
 Few people have had e more varied career than Sir Henry Loch, who is now in supreme control of all the British forces and British territory in South Africa. He has been in turn midshipmAn, a cavalry officer in the British army and in the Turk ish army, member of Lord Elgin's special embassy to China, the tortured inmate of a Chinese prison. private secretary to an English cabinet minister, governor of the Isle of Man, 6 commissioner of land revenue and a governor of the Australian colony of Victoria, before becoming the qusen's high commissioner at the Cape.
 Photographers have lately introduced e pencil for use in retouehing negatives which is rapidly revolved by q small cleo tro motor, so that the point of the pencil spins and is rubbed on to any spot by sim ply moving the point gently over in any desired direction, thus doing away with the necessity of the tiresome, confined mo ton of the operstor's hand. A German idea ih this line which possesses merit con- sists in fixing the negative of the photo graph in frame, which is vibrated rap idly by an electromagnetic apparatus. Mention Is made also of a still later device of this kind of English origin, in which the pencil point is very rapidly vibratsd through an exceedingly small stroke by simple electromagnetic contact breaker, so that the pencil has only to be guided by the operator, while the electro-msgnet per forms the necessary rubbing at an exceed ing rapid rate-soms 2, 900 strokes per min ute.
 The Vorwsrts publishes from what 1t de- clares to be the official statistics of the re- cent elections for the Imperial Diet de- tailed list of the votes given throughout the German empire for candidates of the Social Democratic party. According to this statement, out of total of 7,702, ,265 recorded votes, Social Democratic csndi- dates received 1,7s6, ,73S, or 359. 40 more than at the election in February, 1890. The Social Democratic party therefore ob- tained more than 25 per cent. of all the votes recorded. The increase since 1870 amounted in Prussia to 205, ,895 votes Gin the capital alone to 14, ,S05), In Bavaria to 33, ,s52, in Ssxony to 29, ,4s7, In Wurtem- berg to 16, 14S, and in Alsace-Lorrsine to 27,O29. In only fifteen constituencies in the whole empire did the Social Democrats obtain no support. On the other hand. their influence has diminished since 1890 in about fifty electoral districts, though the decrease except in few cases is but trif1ing.
 The English spsrrows have proved e nuisance in the cotton country, for ss soon as the pods open they pick out the cotton and carry it eff, and some planters have lost, as they claim, hundreds of pounds in this way. There is one man, however, on the Mississippi that has not lost much. When he found the sparrows were com hitting depredations he procured 6 qusnh- ty of wheat, soaked 1t in syeetened whisky and strewsd it along the rows. The spar rows found 1t and thought they had a pie nio. So they had, but in fifteen or twenty minutes there was the tipsiest lot of Eng fish spsrrows ever seen on the face of this earth. They rolled about on the ground, falling on their sides and backs and kick ing their heels into the air like parcel of drunkards, all the while uttering the most comicsl squesbs. They did not have long to squeak, however, for the boys gathered them up and threw them into bags. The first day they gathered two bushels of drunken spsrrows. Three or four days later the experiment was repeated with almost equal success. and from time to time since. They made excellent potpie, but the survivors have evidently come 10 regard the plantation as hoodooed, for now very few come about 1t.
 One of the interesting questions of the day in Africa relates to the preservation of the elephant, which will become extinct there at no distant date unless means are taken to stop the indiscriminate slaughter now going on. There has been a prevalent notion that the African elephant is inferior to his Indian cousin in intelligence and do. eility, but it does not seem to be founded on solid observation. It is now pointed out that the Romans and Csrthaginians used the African beast to good purpose, and MT. P. L. Sclater of the London Geological society declares that they have had African elephants in their gar dens for more than twenty years and have found them quite as intelligent as those of the Asiatic species, although, per hsps, not quite as docile. A young male African, now about fourteen years of age, is daily engaged during the summer months in carrying children and other visitors about the gardens, and there has never been an accident with him. Mr. Sclater expresses the opinion that the African ele- phsnt should be preserved as the proper beast of burden to open out the trade routes in the interior of the African con- tinent, and suggests that a kheddah of Indian elephants and their attendants be transported to the East African coast, and that the Indian elephants be set to work to capture and tame their African brethren. It is noted. moreover, that General Gordon, just before the fall of Khsrtum, wrote 8 letter in which he strongly sdvocsted the domesticstion and use of the African ele- phant.
 FASHION NOTES.
 A Return to Primitive Methods.