The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-29
Details of the Plans Pro- posed for Reorganizing the French Navy


 crimes passionnels." which are pre- crease. M. Puech. chairman of inc Parliamentary Committee appointed to consider the question, stated that the number of "crimes of bloodshed. had risen from 795 in 1905 to 1.3is In lsoe, and 1,4s6 in 1907. The year 1905 was, ne pointed out, that in which
 capital punishment was abolished do facto Moreover, if one went further Dack. the Increase of such crimes was still more remarkable, the figure for 1900 being only 400 in round num- befs.
 Votes for women is apparently not what Frenchwomen ask for. During the last few months, for the first time. women. as well as men employed In trade and business had by a new law a vote for the election of sConseiis de Prudhommes." which are special com . meroial courts The ballots closed on October 3ist last. The returns show that only twenty-four per thousand women availed themselves of their new privilege. Moreover, this small minor ity consists entirely of female clerks employed fin one or two large banks whose names in every case had been put down on the voters lists by their employers themselves. Not one single woman engaged in trade had taken the trouble even to enter her name in the registers. The same thing has happened before in a similar case, that of the election of judges on the trib- uralA of commerce. for which women established in business have the vote. The matter is an important one, as ali trade disputes are decided by that trib- unal Yet. up to date, exactly eight women have put their names down on the registers out of theSthousand who are principals or partners in business of their own in France, where there are probably more trade and indus trial undeFtakings in feminine hands than are to be found in any other country. Perhaps that is why they present sublime indifference towards the suffrage. Having so much of the business of the country in their own hands. or in their husbands, which for Frenchwoman Is. as a rule. exactly the same thing, they have the sub stance. and they as yet look upon the suffrage as the shadow.
 Disappointed in love. for the girl he had been counting gave him Up for another. and tired of life, though he was only 24, young mason, named Legrand resolved to commit suicide, but as he had not sufficient money to buy revolver to blow out his brains. he decided to burn off his head. An
 
 fered. Seeing in the street a rolling steam engine and boiler. under which a good fire had just been made, he stuck his head through the door into the blazing furnace. He was pulled out immediately by the workmen, but during the few seconds that he had held his head over the fire he was scorehed enough to obtain the effect he desired. He was taken to the hos pitaI dying,
 Anti-vivisectionists and other per- sons interested in the agitation against cruelty to animals are preparing an- other onslaught on existing legisia- ten concerning the subject. A bill has been drawn up. which they hope to carry through at the present ses- sion of Parliament. providing not only for the abolition of public and private vlvisection laboratories, but also for the prohibition of pigeon shooting. hull-nghting. eock-fighting, dog-dght ing the plucking of live fowls, and the use of dogs for drawing carts. Cock-hghting and dog-hghting are scarcely, if ever, practised in France. and even bull fighting is carried on in a very limited manner in the South. On the other hand, pigeon shooting is quite a favorite diversion in many places, and one of the most fashion able clubs Is the Tir- aux Pigeons, which has a house and traps in the Bois de Boulogne. Those who look upon pigeon-shooting as delightful sport are not in the least excited over the prospect of 6 prohibition, for the simple reason that they do not be- lieve that the bill as it stands will ever pass into law.
 M. Camille Flamlnarion has been dis cussing the question whether It IS real ly possible for doas to commit suicide like human beings. and concludes in the affirmative. His remarks were oc- casioned by the alleged suicide or a Saint Bernard dog, who threw himself under e motor-'hus in the Place saint Sulpice recently, an hour after his mistress died, as was mentioned at the time He argues that the dog may De assumed to have known as well as human being that a notorious coula crush him to death, and when he got in front of its wheels he probably di0 so as the quickest way to end nis grief at his mistress's demise. He re- lates another story, which he says, came under his own notice, or dog who threw himself into river and de- liberately held his head under the wat CT until he was drowned because his master. who did not wish to keep him any more. had driven him away from his home. From these and many other incidents which he recalls, he con- cludes that the stories of dogs having committed suicide are not so tncred- ible as they may seem at first sight, and he adds that they may even have borrowed the instinct from man.