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J.- nov nu Wis lllSTBKED. t ‘H Soswift thy hand. I could not feel The progress of the cutting steel, never undeer an operation without be- Thg Introduction to Practical Use of An. ing blanched, and experiencing a sensation mating. of anxiety that was like a seizure, which all his moral courage could scarcely con- A Veteran Surgeon Tells orlhe Great Ins- trol." _ 1f the introduction of anzesthetics made “"H" “on” may “'3” Ag°4"' this change for the operators, what did it gery Before Ether nail Become Known. do to the patients 3 Speaking generally, we So busy with new discoveries in every know that it put them beyond the reach of branch of science has been this latter half pain. Dr. Richardson says that the p3- of the nineteenth century, that to turn back tients approached the table sometimes in a to the time when our familiar things did not sort of trance, always served up for their exist. almost dislocates our memoriesâ€"it is ordeal. The women faced the operations like going back to older centuries. One of BETTER Tn.“- Tufi M33, the most common occurrences of to-day is as a rule, and two facts impressed them. the use of “ lau hing gas,” or of some other . . anaesthetic; yeg surgeons now living and selves on'g’“ m’ildé that hedmrely k“: 3' practising can remember the time when person “ 05¢.mm ‘7” m“ e ,“P to “n 9'" operations were performed on persons abso- go the Opel-anon skunk from it at the 1553‘ lately and entirely conscious of each stroke through fear 0f Pam’ and that he nlre’y’ if of the laucct; for it is not yet fifty years 3:252: 8- Esifliii;prgdptfgzsngpggigytlég since Horace \\ oils of Hartford experinient- the ordeal was followed by a so“ of holy d ' ‘ “ ' ” . . . zlehgr::’gtj£k whgzggsgge “8336 (12?): courage, 'whicb lasted until the operation began. Then came an almost certain change surgeons and chemists of to-duy to complete . . . . the mastery of Pain. of View, and msistauce that the operation Dr. Benjamin “yard Richardson of Lon. should be stopped at. all risks ; and then a. don who was present at the introduction reqllest' for ate Proceedings. to finial] as toG’reat Britain of practical anaesthetics, “puny as Mable“ These diaerent plead. has contributed his recollections of the won- ings’ “ya r' R’Chardson’ “frequently: r9: derful event, indicated for centuries, yet Wted’ became stereotyped on the mum” . . . . f the observers so distinct-l that the stunnin in its effect when finall it occur- 0 . 3’ red, and8 momentous in its powery to change actual “age of any operation m’ght be 081' the destiny of human life. Before the in- cummd from them by those accustomed to . . . the roceedin " troduction of anaesthetics operations were P . g‘ . sim le, comparatively few plastic operations Beanies few cases 0f weepmg there were . . few fuintin s durin those old 0 erations cou d be performed - but the introduction of g g P ’ ether, chloroform, nitrous oxide, and cocaine unless from 1058 Of blood‘ The patients were has broadened the powers of the surgeon too much occupied in mind to faint, and the . . . . . pain seemed to be a stimulating antidote. 2:3:52da:$:;::21:§?2§: gisl::::$:inhns This fact actually stood in the way of the In the oldest days of medicine. says Dr. pro ress of anaesthetics; for some surgeons Richardson, mandragom was used as a pm dec ared that it was bad practice to nunul tion to reduce or remove the pain of surgi- pain’ because it was 3’ gOOd Stimulant and . . . . kept. the atient u to the mark cal operations,and Pliny gave a prescription . P . P ' . a for a Wine of mandragom_a prescription To nitrous oxxde succeeded almost imme- which Dr. Richardson himself followed diately chloric ether, and then chloroform ; . . . after that came methylene introduced by :22: “giftssa'to1;?)SEgé’efootzlthfnfilflegfi Dr. Richardson ; and now,’to produce local . . anaesthesia, coca and its products are used. :23 aggrexfiilapggwigfigfszn gfirazfi’g Meanwhile has sprung up a new school of surgery. In J anuar , 1847. Dr. (afterward Others Sir James) Simpsonyadministercd ether in a confinement. case : and since then have oc- curred thoso wonderful achievements of abdominal surgery,” so common nowadays that the ignorant know not how wonderful they are. One objection ofi'ered by a surgeon to the use of anaesthetics has been mentioned. An- other objection was that man was born to suffer, that pain was a part of the course of Adam, and that the annulment of pain was sinful and opposed to the divine decree. In answer to this,Dr. Simpson showed that the first operation performed on man was the ex- cision of a rib from Adam, out of which to make man, and that before beginning to operate God Himself cast the man into a. deep sleep. \Ve can laugh now at the ob- jection and the argument; but fifty years ago it was on such objections and arguments that hung the question of the continuation or cessation of the conquest of pain. A Dakota Pioneer- “ Winter pretty cold?” “ Winter? Don’t have any winter here, stran er." “ ow’s that '3” “ Only have three seasonsâ€"spring, sum- mer, and early fall.” He was a. Dakota pioneer, and lived, as he said, “ fifty miles from any place.” “ What do you do for a doctor when you’re sick ‘3” “ Never get sick.” “ But you can’t help it sometimes, can you '2” “ Certainly. ’Taint possible. We won’t get sick, and there’s no two ways about it.” “ How far is it to your nearest neigh- bour’s 2'” “ Fifty miles.” “ You don’t have much society, then, do you '2” ' “ Don’t need it. There’s five of usâ€" motlier ’n me ’n the kids. That’s society enough, ain’t it ‘2” “ How far must you go to church '3” “Have it right in the shack every Sunday. Got an organette, Joe has, and he turns a crank and grinds out any hymn you ever heard tell of just as nice as you please. Then Murtliy and all the rest of us sing, then I read something from the Bible, then we sing again, an’ pruyâ€"au’ church is out.” There was something pathetic in this, and it went to my heart. “ How about crops?” “ They're big, I tell yeâ€"that is, when we get ’cm. Three years ago had every prom- ise of a splendid crop. Had lots of snow that winterâ€"ground was plenty wet an’ the wheat was lookin’ fine when, all at once, we had a hot. south wind that burnt every~ tliin’ up slick un’ clean." " And the next year ‘3” “ Things looked just as promisin’. “‘heat was waist high, yeller as gold, an’ I was going to cut it in a few days when along came a hailstorm and beat the whole field down.” “ Then the next year ‘3” “ Got. nipped by the frost.” “ And the next 'I” “ That's this year, stran er, and just look at the wheat around ye. Nothing could be finer than the outlook. Guess I ll have a good crop this year, but if I don’tâ€"” He paused. “ “'ell 3" “ Well, if I don’t,” be said with a quiet smile, “ I'll mortgage my horses to get; seed and try again. It’ll be hard pinchin’, but I didn’t have anything when I came here, and I'll stick to the country as long as I can live in it. A man can‘t have hard luck al- ways, you know. Things are bound to turn. It's a long lane that hasn’t a crook some- where.” I wrung his hand warmly and rode away. 'ro LESSEN PAIN. In 1799 Huniphry Davy discovered that nitrous oxide as rendered him who inhaled it obvious of tie common sensibilities. But after Davy came a delay of over forty years until Wells of Hartford experimented with that same gas; and, treading on one another’s heels, came after him Morton, Jackson, and Bigelow of Boston, with their discovery of the pro erties of sulphuric other. The rst operation in England in which other was given occurred on Dec. 19, 1846, when Dr. Booth and M r. Robinson extract- ed a tooth from the jaw of a Miss Lonsdale. On Dec. 21 or 22 the great surgeon Liston administered ether for the first time in the theatre of the University College Hospital. “Amon those present on that occasion,” writes r. Richardson, “was my old friend, Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Forbes. He de- scribed to me that he never felt so near to falling on the floor in all his life as he did when he witnessed the great surgeon Lis- ton nmputating a thigh while the patient was in deep sleep. In those days, in order to save pain, the surgeon cultivated rapid- ity of action, and such on adept was Liston that be completed the removal of the limb Within the minute. This, combined With momentous result of the annihilation of pain, was the cause of the sensation experi- enced by Forbes. It was not fear, it was not fuintness; it was an emotion painful, as he expressed it, from its overwhelming surprise and pleasure. Everybody seemed pale and silent except Liston, who was flushed, and so breathless that. when he broke the silence with the word ‘Gentlemen’ he almost choked.” - “'0 who take everything for granted simply because we are accustomed to it do not understand readily what the introduc- tion of anmstlietics meant both to operator and patient. Dr. Richardson indicates to some extent the changes produced outhe minds as well as the actions of men ; and a. history of surgical operations, could one be made, would show the effect more clearly. Says the doctor : “ I remember, still even with pain, what operating day meant as each week came round. Vheii I asked my first practical teacher how he thought I should get through the ordeal of seeing and taking part in an operation, he replied that, us in learning to smoke, time brought tolerance, but that a. man must keep his hand in if he meant to retain his firmness and i'nusnxcs or MIND. I recall that when I had to witness the first capital operation I sought the companion- ship of a student much older than myself; but it turned out that he was more nervous than I was, and prudently left the operat- ing theatre us the patient entered it. I made up my mind to face the ordeal brave- ly, and for a time I was quite taken out of myself by seeing the consummate calmness and dexterity with which the operatorâ€"the late l’rof. Lawrie of Glasgow, ‘ one of the most splendid operators’ (I am using his dis- tinguished rival. Sir \Villinm Fergusson’s own word) ‘ this century, or any century, ever knew ’â€"-procceded in his painful task. ‘ The quicker the surgeon, the greater the surgeon, was then the order of the day, and such was the rapidity in this case the opera- tion was actually over, in so for as the ma- jor part of it Was concerned, béfore the patient uttered a single cry. If all had stopped there, all had been well : but just at that. moment, as if giving vent to a long suppressed agony, the patient uttered a scream that went through me, and, in spite of the tenderness and firmness with which the nurses assured him it was all over, con- tinued to scream and struggle, so that he had to be held while the final steps of the operation were performed. Some of my new comrades became faint and some left the theatre. I turned over, but kept my legs. saw in a kind of hue the man being carried away. and came back to thorough conscious- ness listening to the short lecture which Dr. Lawric was delivering in relation to the reasons for the operation. the manner in which it had been conducted, and the chances for and against recovery. “ Unless a man kept at work in the oper- ating theatre, he never, in those days, be- came hardened to the business. Even then the hardening was not permanent, and Dr. IAwrie told me that he never woke on op- erating day without feelings load of care and anxiety that would not wear off until the labors of his day were ended. " In this he was nrt alone, for C‘neselden, the leading surgeon of the reign of Queen Anne, and the first to restore sight to the blind by an operation, to whom one of his grateful patients adduced the couplet, A Modern Husband. He had married well, extremely well, yet there were times when he would have pre~ ferrcd paying his own expenses and remain- ed ut home. This night she wanted to drag him to the theatre and he was stubborn. “ What's the play 2" he inquired. "-‘A Modern Husband,” she told him curtly. " What's it like?" “ I don't know," she replied, putting on her gloves; “but if it is anything like its titlel presume the women constitute the leading support." Then it was the iron entered into his soul and he entered a solemn vow that if ever he married again he’d et a woman so poor that she would even ave to borrow trouble of him. ACROSS THE CONTIR ENT. ~â€" Proin Tldcwny to Tldewny. Rudyard Kipling, who took a run across the continent in the early spring, thus de- scribes the trip :â€" There is considerable snow as we go north, but nature is hard at work breaking up the ground for the spring. The thaw hasfilled everydepression with a sullen gray- black spate, and out of the levels the water lies six inches deep in stretch upon stretch as far as the eye can reach. Every culvert is full, and the broken ice cliuks against the wooden pier guards of the bridges. Someâ€" where in this flatness there is a refreshing jingle of spurs along the cars, and a man of the Canadian mounted police swaggers throu li with his black fur cap and the yel~ low ta aside, his well-fitting overalls and his better set up back. One wants to shake hands with him because he is clean and does not slouch or spit, trims his hair, and walks as a man should. Then 'a Custom House officer wants to know too much about cigars, whiskey, and Florida water. Her Majesty the Queen of England audthe Empress of India has us in her keeping. Nothing has happened to the landscape, and Winnipeg, which is, as it were, a ceno tre of distribution for emigrants, stands up to her knees in the water of the thaw. The year has turned in earnest, and somebody is talking about the “ first ice shove” at Montreal. They will not run trains on Sunday at Montreal, and this is Wednesday. There- fore the Canadian Pacific makes up a train toVancouver at. Winnipeg. This is worth remembering, because few people travel in that train, and you escape any rush of tour ists running westward to catch the Yoko- hama boat. The caris your own, and With it the services of the porter. Our porter see- ing things were slack, beguiled himself with a guitar, which gave a triumphal and festive touch to the journey ridiculously OUT OF KEEPING with the view. For eight and' twenty long hours did the bored locomotive trail as throu ha flat and hairy laud, powdered, ribbc , and speckled with snow, small snow that drives like dust shot in the windâ€"the land of Assinaboia. Now and again, for no obvious reason to the outside mind, there was a. towu. Then the towns gave place to Section So and So ; then there were trails of the buffalo, where he ends walked in his pride : then there was a mound of white bones supposed to belong to the said bufi‘ulo and then the wilderness took up the tale. Some of it was good groundâ€"very good groundâ€"but; most of it seemed to have fall- en by the wayside, and the tedium of it was eternal. At twilightâ€"an unearthly sort of twilight â€"there came another curious picture. Thus : A wooden town shut in among low treeless rolling ground ; a. calling river that run unseen between scarped banks; bur- racks of a. detachment of mounted police ; a little cemetery where ex-troopcrs rested ; a painfully formal public garden with peb- ble paths and foot-hiin fir trees; a. few lines of railway buildings; white, women walking up and down in the bitter cold with their nonnets off : some Indians in red blanketing with buffalo horns for sale treil- _ ing along the platform, and, not ten yards from the track, a. cinnamon bear and a young grizzly standing up with extended arms in their pens begging for food. It was strange beyond anything that this bald tell- ing can suggest ; opening a door into a. new world. The only commonplace thing about the spot was its nameâ€"Medicine Hutâ€"â€" which struck one instantly as the only pos- sible name such a town could carry. The next morning brought us the Cuna- (lian Pacific Railway us one reads about it. No pen of man could do justice to the scenery there. The guide books struggle desperately with descriptions adapted for summer reading of rushing cascades, lichen- ed rock, waving pines, and snow-capped mountains ; but in April these things are not there. The place is locked upâ€"deud as a. frozen corpse. The mountain torrent is a boss of palest emerald ice against; the dazzle of the snow; the pine stumps are capped and hooded with gigantic mushrooms of snow ; the rocks are overlaid five feet deep, the rock, the fallen trees, and the lichens together, and the dumb white lips curl up to the truck cut; in the side of the mountain and grin there, fauglcd with gigantic ictcles. You may listen in vain when the train stops for the least sign of breath or power among the hills. The snow has smothered the rivers, and the great looping trastles run over what might be u lather of suds in a. huge wash tub. The old snow near by is blackened and smerched with the SMOKE OF THE LOCOMOTIVES, and dullness is grateful to aching eyes. But the men who live upon the line have no con. siderution for these things. At a halting place in agigantic gorge walled in by the snows, one of them reels from a tiny saloon into the middle of the track, where half a dozen dogs are chasing a. pig off the metals. He is beautifully and eloquently drunk. He sings, waves his hands, and collapses bo- hiiid the shunting engine, while four of the loveliestpeaks that the Almightyevcr mould- ed look down upon him. The landslide that should have wiped that saloon into kindlings has missed its mark and has struck a few miles down the line. One of the hillsides moved a little in dreaming of the spring and caught a passing freight train. Our cars grind cautiously by, for the wrecking engine has only just come through. The deceased locomotive is standing on its head in soft earth thirty or forty feet down the slide, and two long curs loaded with shingles are dropped carelessly atop of it. It looks so marvelloust like a. toy train flung aside by a child that one cannot realize what it means till its voice cries : “ Any one killed '3” The answer comes back : “ No; alljumped,” and you perceiveâ€"with a sense of personal insultâ€"that this slovenliucsss of the moun- tain is an aiIair which may touch your own sacred self. In which case the train is out on a trestle, into a tunnel, and out on a trestle again. It was here that every one began to de- spair of the line when it was under construc- tion because there seemed to be no outlet. But a man came, as a man always will, and put a descent thus, and a curve in this man- ner, and a trestle so; and behold the line went on. It is in this lace that we heard the story of the C. P. . told, as men tell a'i'nany times repeated tale, with exaggera‘ tions and ommissions, but an imposing tale none the less. In the beginning, when they would federate the Dominion of Canada, it was British Columbia that saw objections to coming in, and the Prime Minister of thosedays promised it for a bribe an iron hand between the tidewater that should not. break. Then everybody laughed,__ which seems necessary to the health 0 most 316 £5me and while they were lau hing, things were being done. The C. P. It. got a bit of line here and a hitof line there, and almost as much land asit wanted, and the laughter was still going on when the last spike was driven between East and West at the very place where the drunken man sprawled be- hind the engine, and the iron baud ran from tideway to tidewsy, as the Premier said, and poople in England said, “How in. terestin l" and proceeded to talk about the “blasts army estimates.” Incidentally the man who told usâ€"he had nothing to do with the C. P. R.â€"â€"cxplained how it paid the line to encouraggl immigra- tion, and told of the arrival at innipeg of a train load of Scotch crofters on a Sunday. They wanted to stop then and there for the Sabbath, they and all the little stock they had brought with them. It was the Win- nipeg agent who had to go among them arguing (he was Scotch, too, and they couldn’t quite understand it) on the impro- priety of dislocating the company’s traffic. So their own minister held service in the station and the agent ve them a good din- ner, cheering them in aelic, at which they wept, and they went on to settle at Moose- min, where they lived happily ever after- ward. Of the managerâ€"the head of the line from Montreal to Vancouverâ€"our com- pauion spoke with reverence that was al. most awe. The manager lived in a palace at Montreal, but from time to time he would sally forth in his special car and whirl over his 3,000 miles at fifty miles an hour. The regulation pace is twenty-two, but he sells his neck with his head. Few drivers cared for the honor of taking him over the road. A mysterious man he was, " who carried the profile of the line in his head,” and, more than that, knew intimate- ly the possibilities of back country which he had never seen or travelled over. There is always one such man on every line. You can hear similar tales from drivers on the Great Western in England or Eurasian sta- tion masters on the big Northwestern in India. Then A FELLOW TRAVELLER spoke, as many others had done, on the ppssibilities of Canadian union with the nited States; and his language was not the language of Mr. Goldwin Smith. It was brutal in places. Summarized, it came to a. pronounced objection 10 having any- thing to do with a land rotten before it is ripe, a land with 7,000,000 negroes yet un- welded into the population," their race type unevolved, and rather more than crude no- tions on murder, marriage, and honesty. “We’ve picked up their ways of politics,” he said mournfully. “That comes of living next door to them, but I don’t think we’re anxious to mix up with their other messes. They say they don’t want us. They keep .on saying it. There’s a nigger in the fence somewhere, or they wouldn’t lie about it.” "But does it follow that they are lying?” “Sure. I’ve lived among ’em. They can’t go straight. There’s some damn fraud at the back of it.” ' From this belief he could notbe shaken. He had lived among themâ€"perhaps had been beaten in trade. Let them keep them- selves and their manners and customs to their owu side of the line. This is very sad and chilling. It. seemed quite otherwise in New York, where Can- ada. Was represented as a ripe plum ready to fall into Uncle Sam’s mouth when he should open it. The Canadian has no spe- cial love for Englandâ€"é-the Mother of Col- onies has a. wonderful gift for alienating the affections of her own household by neglect â€"but perhaps he loves his own country. \Ve run out of the snow through mile upon mile of snow sheds, braced with twelve-inch beams and plunked with two-inch planking. In one place a snowslide had caught just the edge of a shed and scooped it away as a knife scoopscheese. Highupthehillsmenhad built diverting barriers to turn the drifts, but the drifts lmd swept over everything, and lay five feet. deep on the top' of the sheds. When we woke it was on the banks of the muddy Fraser River, and the spring was hurrying to meet us. The snow, had gone; the pink blossoms of the wild current were open, the budding elders stood misty green against the blue-black pines, the brambles on the burned stumps were in the tenderest leaf and every moss on every stone was this year‘s work fresh from the hand of the Maker. The land opened into clearings of soft black earth. At one station one lien had laid one eggI and was telling the world about it. The world answered with a breath of the real springâ€"spring that flooded the stuffy car and drove us out on the platform to sand and sing and rejoice and pluck squashy green marsh-flags and throw them at the colts, and shout at the wild duck that rose from a jewel-green lakelet. God be thanked that in travel one can follow the year. This, my spring, I lost lust Novem- ber in New Zealand. N ow I shall hold her fast through Japan and the summer into New Zealnnd again. Here are the waters of the Pacific, and Vancouver (completely destitute of any de~ cent. defences) grown out of all knowledge in the last three years. At the railway, wharf, with never a gun to protect her lies the Empress of Indiaâ€"the J span boat- and what more auspicious name could you wish to find at. the end of one of the strong chains of Empire? "9â€".â€" Tlie Pedlar's Courtship. A pedlar, well known in the Scotch High- land districts, lately buried his second wife. Being one of those who think it no part of Wisdom to embitter the present with the recollections of the past, he soon turned from bewailing the dead to addressing the living. He picked out a neighbouring spinster as well suited for being his third mistress, and lost no time in making his desires known. Jenny, it seems, turned up her nose at the offer; and John, leaving her to her fancy, departed, saying, “ eel, weel, a’ the warld does not think like you," which was ( uite true. Before reaching home, the pcdlar meta more compliant fair one. Jenny, in the meantime, reflected on the dangerous con- sequence which would probably result from her ruse, and resolved in future to be more kind ;alas! in vain. Next day, as the pcdlar was assing by, Jenn called him in, and state her contri- tion or the hard words of yesterday. John heard her through, then replied. “Weel, wee], I'm owre far on wi’ anither ane now to think 0’ gaen back, but if she happens to be use lung liver, I'll no forget to make you my fourt wife." PU§IO US WITH JEALOUSI. Warsaw ls Shocked by the Cruse-tr 3 Woman of Noble Birth. Aracent despatch from Warsaw, as t «A terrible murder has been commit in this city by a woman of noble family named Boguslawa Cresicka. The victim wu a ballet dancer named Josephine Gerlach, and the motive, as might be surmised, was {iii-ions 'ealousy on the part of the high-born crimin Josephine Gerlach had the reputation of being the most beautiful ballet girl in \Var- saw, and ever since her advent on the stage here she has been the craze among the Polish nobility. J osephiue encouraged and profited by these attentions and seemed to enjoy the unhappiness of the noble young ladies who found themselves deserted for the star of the ballet. A few days ago the town was shocked by the announcement that Josephine Gerlach had been found murdered in her lodgings. The condition of her room showed that she had been taken by surprise by some visitor. Her skull was beaten in, evidently with some blunt instru- ment, and her hair was matted with blood and brains. There were evidences of a struggle and the showed the clutch of bloody hands. The finger marks left by the murderer were slight and indicated totbe olice that a woman had done the deed. T e apartment had been ransacked and jewels and money were missing. This was taken as evidence girl’s disordered attire that robbery had also been a motive. The police ascertained that a lady, finely attired and apparently somewhat disguised, had called upon Josephine. In uiry brought out the fact that Bogus- lawa rezicka had been heard to utter threats against the ballet girl. She was jealous of Josephine, and this fact was well known throughout Warsaw. The police took her by surprise, and were astonished to find u on her conclusive evidences of her guilt. he still carried with her a hammer and a dag- ger. On the hammer was blood and hair, and the dagger was stained with fresh blood. The lady confessed both the crime and the motive. Josephine Gerlach, she said, had ruined lier happiness and she resolved upon re- venge. She went to the irl's room as if upon a friendly 'visit an chance struck her with the hammer. The girl attempted resistance, but Boguslawa struck her again, this time breakin her skull and braiuing her. She then sta bed her repeatedly with the do. ger. After com- mitting the deed she rob ed the room of the jewelry and money she found there. The news of the urreht caused extreme ex- citement among flocked to the magistrate’s court to see Boguslawa arraigned for her crime. It is {iglieved that she will be sent to Siberia for i e. watching her all classes, and crowds Two WARS 0N ruinous HANDS. Sumory niid neunnzln are lelurz llcr a” Hand ml of African Trouble. The French have two little wars on theii hands in West Africa. We have heard re- cently of the purpose of the King of Dahomey to force the French again into hostili- ties. The French have accepted the chal- lenge, but it is not likely that we shall hear of hard fighting for some time yet, as this is the rainy season along that coast and the time is not auspicious for military move- ments. A month or two from now we may hear of some very lively doings in Dahomey and King Behanziu is likely to learn a. les- son hc will never forget. The other war is now going on further northwest. The French are making a great“ effort to dispose finally of the Sultan Sam- ory, their enemy in the upper Niger region. Samory has been fighting the French a. good deal of the time since 1882. ~ A few weeks ago The Sun reported that the French had driven him from his capital, Bissandagu, and they thou lit then that Samory was nearing the on of his rope. But he does not relinquish the game so easily, and the French career of success has not been un- broken. Since he lost his capital Samory has been in the hill country south of his former strong- hold. The French sent a. force after him to insure his defeat, but he has lately scored at least one little victory over his pursuers, and he took a. few French prisoners. It is hoped that he has not such faith in his ulti- mate success as will lead him to treat his prisoners with the terrible cruelty to which he is said often to have subjected other pris- oners of war. Gen. Faidherbc, who fought; Samory for years in the western Soudan, describes him its a monster of cruelty. Faid- herbe says he owed the rapidity of his con- quests to the terror produced by his prac- tice of burning his prisoners of war by the hundred in fiery trenches filled with blazing wood and oil. We have not had Samory’s side of this story. One reason why he is now able to offe formidable resistance to the French is be- csuse he has quite a quantity of repeating rifles in his army. The French say he has 2,000 repeating rifles, and they blame the English for rmitting him to purchase these improve weapons through agents in British territory on the coast. It is probable that the French will not put an end to their troubles with Samory until they succeed in killing him. Nearly all the troops Senegal can muster are needed in the war with this prophet of the western Soudan, and so France is likely to have her hands very full when King liehauzin of Dahomc assumes the offensive, as he is cer- tain to ( o as soon as the west-her permits. In the end, however, it is quite certain that Samory will be defeated and his mum try turned intoa French protectorate. Advancing Backwards. “Come here, Pat, you truant, and tell 11‘ why you come to school so late this mom ing,” said an Irish schoolmaster to are. get! and shoelcss urchin, whose “young i e1,” he had undertaken for a penny a week to teach “ how to shoot.” “ Please, your honour,” replied the ready-witted scholar, “ the frost made the way so slippery, that for every step forward I took two steps backward.” “ Don’t you see, Pat,” was the rejoinder of the pcdagoguc, “that at that rate yo would never have reached school at all.” “Just what I thought to myself. your honor,” replied the boy, “so I turned to go home, and after a time I found myself at school." In Indiana and New York the statutes take no account of the extra day in Feb“. cry in leap year. ' -. M_.._ c»- --_~‘_ .