The Washington times., 1901-09-27
FOREIGN TOPICS.

| ioo"uou anu conditfon of hotel. reStau-
rant, and other kitchens induced the i'm
perial Minister of TIE Interior to order a
| close investigation in various parts of the
German Empire. Many kitchens were
found located in such low. da:k, and filthy
cellars as to be utterly unfit for human
hapitation. In view. however, of the
great diversity of local conditions the
Minister decided to leave the issuance of
reguiations governing. the ills to the Fed
eral states, merely pointing out the ne
cessity OF immediate action and urging
radical steps to be taken. The commenda-
| Bile suggestions of the Minister seem to
| nave had wholesome effect; for in quite
a number of cities and towns in Prussia
| and Saxony improvements have been
made; at some places, it is true, not until
| the owners of the kitchens had to be
| compelled by the police to have more re-
gard for the health of their emplofes.
| Lord Norton is among the Oldest MEM
bers of the British House of Lords, for
he is in his eighty-eighth year. He is
among the most active also. His attend
ance last session was perhaps not quite
! so constant as formerly, but he still took
| keen interest in the debates, and for
! the last twenty years his speeches must
| have been more numerous than those of
| any except the leaders of the House. In
| fact. there seemed to be friendly com
| petition between him and that other vet
| eran-whO is, however, four years young
| er-Lord Wemyss, to which should
| contribute more often to the lucidity OF
| debate. Lord Norton, until his illness less
than fortnight ago. was still to be seen
on horseback daily.
| In Montenegro there are but two pris-
ons-one in Cettinje and the other the
| more important one. in Podgoritza, on the
Albanian frontier. At Podgoritza the prin-
cipal criminals and political offenders are
| incarcerated, and further buildings are in
course of construction for the female pris-
| oners, who, at present, are all imprison-
ed at Cettinje. Crime is, however, very
rare and ridiculously small force of
police is required to keep order. Petty
theft is hardly known, robbery with vio-
| lence still less, but, on the other hand,
shooting affairs which end fatally are
of more common occurrence, though these
affairs are only among themselves, or In
blood feuds with their hereditary enemies
| the Albanians. A stranger can go un-
armed in nearly every part of the country.
To Kill a man is not looked upon as MUIR
der in the American sense of the word
and is considered no particular disgrace
The prison Is an unobtrusive building
| and the walls are but ten feet in height
The front is of plain stone, with primi-
tive wooden gate; to the left are the war.
ders' quarters and the female prisoners
outward. The remaining two sides face
| into a courtyard and are occupied Dy the
male prisoners and one warder, VINO
sleeps with them. In front OF the main
| entrance is a slightly raised piece OF
ground about fifty yards square. which Is
In no other way. distinguishable from the
surrounding country. Neither is theIs
any kind of fence or barrier shutting on
the ground facing the female prisoners
quarters, yet all this is actually part Oh
the prison.
There are but four warders, who are
well armed, but they are not formidable
indiyiduals. They treat the prisoners
almost as boarders are treated In notei;
Only murderers of the worst type ana
Government officials convicted OF swind,
ling are chained. There is no capitai
punishment in Montenegro. A man con.
victed of killing receives twenty years
Imprisonment. If he kills his man in
fair fight and has right on his side he
is not chained and the, sentence Is re-
duced considerably on good oehavior.
Indeed, the imprisonment lasts but q year
or two In some cases, when the prisoner
disappears unofficially, on the understand
ing that he is no more seen In places
where he is known.
Officials have very short sentence In
chains. lasting generally from -FOUR 10
six weeks Political offenders are. how
ever, treated very differently, being kept
in solitary confinement In Podgcritza:
Each man brings with him to the prison
his own bed or bedding, and even little
knick-knacks to adorn the space over
his bed. The food, with which the PRISON
ers are supplied Is often better than that
to which they are used to at home on
Sundays and feast days extra rations OF
food and tobacco, and even wine, are
given them. The result is that prisoners
who have undergone long term OF I'm,
prisonment become quite corpuient ana
afford a striking contrast to their 1.-THE
and lean brothers outside.
The French now have. 1t is stated, thir
ty-seven submersjble boats of two classes,
namely, those that are fitted for pro-
pulsion exclusively by electricity and
those which go by steam ordinarily when
on the surface of the water and by cleo
tricity only when submerged BY 1905. ac-
cording to the official programme, France
will have altogether ffty-eight submarine
vessels The English, not believing much
In underwater navigation. are building
but five submarines for experiment. Their
energies are given chiefly to devices for
destroying submarines. One of these de-
vices is an arrangement for blowing up
an approaching submarine by means of
dirigibie torpedo. A young English cleo
trician, Mr. Cecil Varicas, has perfected,
1t is said, an apparatus by which he can
steer a Whitehead or other torpedo by
means of wireless telegraphy. TIL now
dirigible torpedoes have been steered by
means of gyroscopc. But its action has
been uncertain beyond a short distance.
Mr.. Nsricas proposes to control the rud-
der Of the torpedo by means of electrical
impulses that act upon it from great
distance.
A socialist and an anarchist hat dis
cussion at Arcona, italy, about a lecture
given by the socialistic deputy, Ferry
From words they passed to blows and
then to the ultima ratio of the knife
The anarchist inflicted a mortal stab and
ran, but hts wounded antagonist overlook
him and short, fearful struggle ensued.
They stabbed and stabbed until covered
with blood, they both fell, the socialist
stone dead, the anarchist in his last gasps
and minus his nose, which was found in
the dead mans mouth.
The burgess ticket" enrolling Lord
Mount Stephen free citizen of Aberdeen
was enclosed in magnificent casket of
solid silver. The casket was surmounted
by representation of the Aberdeen coat
of arms with heraldic shield enameled
in colors. On the frontal slope of the lid
were Lord Mount Stephens arms, and on
the other slope beaver colony, repre-
sentative of Canada, the two ends being
set on with Celtic ornamentations. The
end panels bore representation of a
train on the Canadian Pacific Railway
passing Mount Stephen. At the corners
of the casket were columns surmounted
by figures representing agriculture and
commerce: while running round the base
was the inscription: Presented to Lord
Mount Stephen on the occasion of his re-
ceiving the freedom of the city of Aber-
deem"
At a recent dinner in Tokyo Director
Wada, of the Japanese Imperial Steel
Works at Wakamatsu. gave the follow
ing interesting sketch OF this important
Government enterprise:
iad in An ri1
menced partially in February of this year
tlno i1fn ,f rie irop md In,