The Washington times., 1901-10-14

spired number of essays in biography.
There is Roberts of Pretoria also
| Roberts of Kandahar." His Life and
! Deeds are chronicled by one writer, a
| second depicts him I'm War" while a
third: wishing to be thorough. presents
| him both In Peace and War
The King. among other rearrangements
| at Balmoral, has converted into very
fine billiard room the apartment under the
tower which Queen Victoria used as a
sort of improvised chapel No such beau
! tiful billiard table as the new
one now set up ever found its
| way to one of her late Majesty $
residences. For all that. the King
| is little OF a player himself. his in
| door amusement becoming more and more
confined to various games of cards. The
| oblteration of cairns and other meTor-
| ials to John Brown. has been the subject
| of much amused rumor, but of no aston
! ishment- 1t was not to be supposed that
| his statue would be allowed to remain
| close to the castles and 1t is now being
| removed.
A case recently tried before a court
martial IN Nantes has caused consider
able comment in the French press, as in
! it. as in the Dreyfus affair, the military
and civil jurisdictions were at variance.
An artillery bombardier, named Cogis,
was charged with having set fire to
| farm granary in which he and about
| forty other soldiers were billeted. while
on their way to gunnery practice The
| civil authorities made an investigation of
| the cause of the fire. in which nine artil-
| lerymen lost their lives. and came TO the
| conclusion that the fire had been caused
! by the imprudence on the part Of one OF
| the soldiers, who had thrown a lighted
| cigarette on the straw Uttered about the
granary.
ha a
/ hand and arrested Cogis, who was
| pardoned deserter. His principal aecuser
! was a soldier named Pigree, who testified
to his having thrown down two lighted
matches in the granary. Cogls vehement
! ly repudiated the charge, and said that
he had not been in the granary at all, as
there was room for him in the canton
ments, and that he had received the
burns visible on his person in an attempt
TO rescue his comrades from the burning
building. Several civil witnesses testified
in a way tending toward a confirmation
of his aIibi. while two sous-officers came
forward and stated that despite what
was said to the contrary by other mill
tary witnesses. the prisoner was good
soldier; that he had been under their
orders for some time. and had always
acquitted himself of mis- duties in salts
factory manner.
In spite of the overwhelming evidence
in the prisoners behalf, the prosecuting
advocate, Colonel Lsmolne. asked for
conviction on the ground that, as there
had been serious discrepancies between
the civil and military witnesses, IL was
only necessary to believe the latter The
Nantes barrister who defended Cogis,
having successfully refuted the charges
brought against his client. remarked that,
while the method OF repudiating the tes-
timOny Of civilians for the benefit of
those of the military might prevail in a
certain foreign country. where a notori-
Gus trial had just been held and the
prisoner found guilty on questionable
military testimony alone, he did not be-
lieve that a court-martial of the French
army would resort to such a system
Ultimately the court declared Cogis not
guilty by vote of against 2.
Modern civilization has not killed all
the quaint old superstitions in Japan.
According to native Japanese news
paper. which does not. it will be seen,
conceal its contempt for the old-fash-
ioned folk or its appreciation of the pre-
cocious schoolboy of modern Japan, "a
gigantic tortoise, about five feet lon;;
and weighing more than AGO pounds, was
recently caught by party OF fishermen
in the sea Off Osaka. Notwithstanding
the wise suggestion OF some of the local
school children that IL should be sent TO
the aquarium at Nanchi, the superstiticus
fishermen insisted on restoring the
monster to its watery abode. firmly be-
heYing that a tortoise of its size and age
was no less sacred than deity. The
and was then allowed to depart amid
much pomp and ceremony, a boat being
specially sent out with il on what seemed
to the simple and ignorant men sacred
mission" This will at once remind such
readers as take an interest in Japanese
folklore of the tale OF 'Urashima the
Fisher" Urashima released an aged and
gigantic tortoise in the same way as the
aforementioned fishermen. and the ami
NAL, which was really a sea gods only
daughter in disguise. afterward returned
in a more attractive form and rewarded
the pious youth in the usual way
The Bulgarians are the equals in mod
ern civilization of any nation of Eastern
Europe, They are not savages, as some
of the most excited of our people seem to
imagine. They are a Christian folk whose
good will toward Americans in general
and American missionaries in particular
has been too often displayed to leave
room for any doubt of its existence. AL
though the Greek Church is the national
religion of Bulgaria many Bulgarian pub
lie men are graduates of or have been
students at Robert College in CONSTANT
nople, an institution affiliated with our
missionary enterprises. Indeed Bulgaria's
political and social development has been |
in no small degree stimulated by tht. cul-
ture spread by our missionary efforts ,
There is not the slightest ground for the |
many sIurs and Sneers at Bulgaria which !
since Miss Stone was taken captive 1T |
may be added that the Bulgarians have |
what many persons well deem the ma (
tional virtue of hating the Turks in |
tensely.
The Czar has decorated with the St |
George Cross Captain Yeletz, of the Hus- |
sars of the Guard, who distinguished him
self as one of the heroes of the Chinese
war Captain Yeletz was stationed In |
Eastern Mongolia and with eighty men
rescued the Roman Catholic Mission with |
several hundred converts and several |
French missionaries. lighting for hours |
against 1000 Chinese who besieged the |
mission and though seriously wounded
only leaving his command on the arrival |
of General Zeipitzki with re-enforce-