St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-10-05
FOREIGN GOSSIP.


bloody duke of Alva who oppressed the
Netherlands. when he died in 1882 babe
his descendants erect a splendid tomb
to him. lie was laid away in the con-
vent of San Esteban in Salamanca for
awhile, and now after three hundred
years his family has finished the mOn-
ument and transferred his bones to it
by demanding that the ports of
Shoo- King and Wu-Choo on the west
of Ilsi-Kiang river shall be open to
foreign trade. Japan makes a new
highway for commerce into one of the
richest and most populous portions of
southern China. The river is naviga-
BILE for $50 niles. and has important
navigable affiuents. The trade will
undoubtedly flow to ong-KonR.
AT Long Sutton, between Cam
bridge and Boston. in England. q
farmers wife recently discovered that
an old woman in the neighborhood
had bewitched her. The only remedy
was to beat the witchcraft out of her.
which she and her husband at once
did, breaking the old womAn's wrist
before they were successful. As they
werc convinced that the spell was
broken they cheerfully paid . heavy
fine.
Russia has embarked seriously on
. course of parental government. The
state bank advances money at four
and one-half per cent. year on all
kinds of goods in amounts Ms high as
two-thirds of their value: 1t takes
money on deposit at one and one. half
per cent. A little while ago, to assist
the grain trade, the government
bought largely direct from the PRO-
ducers, and will soon be the largest
holder of grain in the country. 1t has
nearly completed the absorption Of
private railroad lines, has acquired the
monopoly of the manufacture OF
spirits and the control of the retail
trade, is about to take the wine and
sugar trade into its hands, and very
likely Ne coal trade as well.
Prot Max Muller asks for money
to photograph the inscriptions of the
Kutho Daw. near Mandalay in Bur-
nah, before they are destroyed. The
Kutho Daw is = collection OF over 700
Buddhist temples. each containing q
white marble slab on which part Of
the Tripitaka, the great Buddhist
Bible, is engraved; together they give
the entire work, which consists of
275, zoo stanzas, or S,sOs, 900 syllables,
nearly fifteen times the bulk of our
Old Testament. The language is the
Pail of the fifth century before Christ.
believed to have been spoken by
Butldha: the characters are Burmese
letters. and the text was revised by a
learned commission. The monument
was erected in 1876. by Mindonmin. the
predecessor of King Thebaw. but the
dampness of the climate is rapidly
effacing the inscriptions. 81
-China's foreign trade in 1894
amounted to 800. .2O7. 433 taels IS COM
pared with c6.. .995. $50 taels in 1893 and
es., ,6s., ,1a3 in 1892, according to the re-
cently-published report of the Chinese
maritime customs. the exchange value
OF the tael varying from 76X cents to
GA cents during the year. The i'm
ports were l62. TO-, oil taels, and the ex-
ports l.s, lO4. 80. A smaller quantity
Of opium was imported than in any of
the twenty past years, but its value
was higher. The chief causes OF dis
turbance. apart from the change in the
value of silver. were the serious drought
| in the south during the spring and the
plague in Hong Kong, the war with
Japan having had no appreciable
effect till this year. One hundred and
thirty-three million taels of the trade
| was with Hong Kong. ~ with Great
Britain direct. a6 with the United
States. % with the rest Of Europe. cx'
cept Russia. 81 with India and Is with
Japan. Wool is becoming an important
staple of export, while gold in bars
ranked next to tea and silk. The gov
crnment's revenue from customs was
| .. 5a3. GOO tacls.