Morning journal and courier., 1893-01-21
the city limits. From the sheepfolds they are not driven of by firing upon them.

1 A t6rman Watchmaker mas invented an
 apparatus which can be applied to the
 Mannlicher rife, now in use in the entire
 Austrian army, and which produces won | derful results. It is set for certain dis. l tance, which must be ascertained first of
 all. Then it is slowly raised, and the
 moment it reaches the proper elevation 1t
 fires with the greatest accuracy. No aim
 is necessary, only the raising of the gun in
 the direction of the object. The inven.
 ton discharges it automatically at the proper elevation.
 The ecclesiastical struggle in Hungary precipitsted by Premier Werkele is begin ming to attract general attention. The
 premier is endeavorinR to force the pa.sage of bill making civil marriage sufficient in law, and the bishops are united in oppos- ing him. The latter have issued manifes- toes protesting against the proposed law on the ground that it is contrary to the law of God, and they have called upon the repre- sentstives, whose official acts they are sup posed to greatly influence If not control, to vote against the measure. The fate of the bill Is uncertain. It will doubtless be passed in the lower branvR of the Iegisla- ture, but may be defeated by the upper branch. This struggle has called attention to the fact that in all other continental countries the civil marriage is recognized as legal, and that in France, where the Church fought so bitterly to preserve all of its rights and privileges, the civil mar riage is now the only legal one, the relig- ious ceremony being regarded only as @ profession of faith.
 Alexander R. Webb, who is about to be- gin the wsrk of converting the United States to Islamism, is native of New York and was jeweller by trade Many years ago he drifted West and started paper in Unionville, Putnam County, Missouri. In 1875 he became reporter on the St. Louis Journal and afterward on the Times, the Globe Democrat and the Republican. Personally" says one of his friends, "he is one of the most com panionable of men. Polite, affable, good natured and full of wit, he made friends everywhere, and was gifted with an amount of hope which even Mulberry Sellers might have envied. His first break from the established religion was a jump from the Presbyterian faith of his parents to materi- alism, thence into a2nosticism, thence into Buddhism, and finally into Islamism. But all the while he was and now is a Theoso- phist. He is a ready speaker, an amateur actor and gifted writer, and with these necessary qualities predict he will create 8 religious sensation when he opens his mission in New York, backed, as he will be, by many thousands of rupees and the prayers of millions of Mussulmans."
 A high prelate in Armenia has addressed letter to friend in Vienna, in which he gives an account of a strange sect in East ern Mesopotamia, called the Yedzidies. The members of this sect ara the direct sians. They are neither Mohammedans nor Christians, but have @ strange religion very much like that of the Parsees. The Mohammedsns say of them, however, that they pray to Satan. Some months ago the Sultan sent missionaries to the Yedzidies to convert them to Islam, and recently the Imperial commissioner arrived at Mossul, the Nineveh of the Bible, and called upon the Yedzidies to adopt the true faith, but they firmly refused. The Christians in Mossul now thought their chance had come, and sent missionary of their own to convert them. The Turkish commis sioner, however, was so angry at this that he arrested several Christian notables and put them in prison. He then proceeded to convert the Yedzidies with the help of armed soldiers, and several of them were killed and wounded. The prelate con- oludes his letter with the questions, "Has a Turkish commissioner the right to 'con- vert any one to Islam by force of armsa and has he any right to put Christians into prison because they attempt to convert the same people to their own faitha"