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m DEATH-BED GDNFESSIDN. THE STOLEN TREASURE OF THE KING OF BURMAH. 1 Romantic Story orthe llldden Wealth at Mandalay-Description or the lung's Palace. Public interest has been direct! d to the almost forgotten subject of Burmah by the sensational story of alleged theft of a large portion of the royal treasure by British soldiers. The dying statement of the priv- ate of the \Vest Surrey Regiment that he and a comrade, Private “'illiam White, had made away with a portion of the regalia is startling enough, but has not taken the authorities so much by surprise as might have been expected. All who were engaged in the campaign of 1885 knew that an immense quantity of valuables had been abstracted from the palace either im- mediately before or after the British Occupation. At the time suspicion largely rested on the Burman ministers and the maids of honor, and every effort was made to trace the jewels without avail. Now we hear of them after the lapse of nine years through a death-bed confession. From particulars given by a correspondent who was with General Prendergast’s force, and who entered the royal palace with the troops, it appears that the keenest interest is being shown by the Indian Government in the matter, and the result of Private White’s journey to Burmah, where he has gone to recover the treasures, is anx- iously awaited. At the time of the British occupation the orders given by the govern- ment were that the annexation of Burinah should be carried out peacefully and without bloodshed, and every endeavor was made by gthe authorities to obtain the King’s submission. For some time Theebaw refused to comply with the demands of the British, and eventually the troops were marched from the flotilla to the palace walls, the guards at the gates were overpowered, the palace was occupied, and shortly afterwards Theean abdicated, he and his two wives being subsequently sent 03' by steamer. As soon as the King had given his sub- mission, guards were hurriedly placed in the royal rooms to protect the jewels of ' countless worth which were known to be there: Great, therefore, was the disap- pointment expressed by all the officers at thecomparatively small amount of valuables afterwards found in the palace, and grave suspicions were aroused. Among the miss- ing 'treasures was a several hundrcdweight, as well as a portion of the regaha and quantities of precious stones. The crown is studded with rubies and diamonds and is surmounted by -a peacock. The palace occupies the centre of the city. It is a beautifully carved wooden structure, magnificently gilded, and sur- mounted by aspire of great height. At the top of the latter is the “ Hie,” an emblem of royalty and religion. This emblem is said to be adorned \vith precious stones and metals worth 9 fabulous sum. This impos- ing building is literally reared abovedea‘d men's bones. as at the time of its erection over fifty persons of both sexes, and of all ages and ranks, were sacrificed, their bodies being afterwards buried under the founda- tions of the city and the palace. Four of the victims were even buried under the throne itself. A'palisadc and moat surround the palace, behind which the missing treasure is said to have been buried by the two soldiers, assisted by Burmese women. The moat is thirty feet broad and very deep : next to this comes a strip of grass, and then the palace wall, which is eighteen feet high. As the re- sult of statements made ly natives at the time, portions of this incat were dragged for the purpo=e of recovering the jewels,but without surccss. Cireful search was also liizulc in the royal swimming bath. Some natives informed the auihorities that the jewels were hidden in this tank. The bath which is attached to the royal palace, is thirty feet broad and sixty feet long, and varies in depth from five to ten feet. Nothing resulted from the dragging opera- tions. The structure in the bath is a iingniflccnt floating throne containingabed on which the King reclined after perform- ing E“: customary ablutions. .- “saneâ€"«mâ€" ...._. Luck in War. ulspcudently of Napoleon’s failure to dcszroy his eucmy after the battle at Dres- dcu he made several mistakes this year (lslll). llut there were more mistakes of diplomacy than in the practice of wal‘. . . . lint the more closely we study the proceedings of Napoleon in lSlS, notwith- standing the mistakes he made, the greater appeals his remarkable indiviluality, and the more inciinel we are to say With the Duke of Wellington about him, “ How much the fate of the world depends upon the temper and passions of one man ! ” As l,have said of his campaign in Russia I say of this in (Eermsny: Napoleon in 1513 was not the man he was in 1706 or in 1805. His conceptions were as great, the grandeur of his undertakings was as striking, but his execution was not asof yore. . . . Over and over we find luck ran against him. In the war-game we now play so gener- ally in our garrison towns the dice have to be thrown in certain cases when squadrons of equal strength charge one another. Men sometimes say that, as war is a science, the introduction of this element of chance into the same robs it of much of its instructional value. But those who know what real war is smile at this criticism. They know that an accidental pain in the stomach, or a clad in the eye of either leader at the critial moment just before a charge. may always decide the result. The accidents which influenced that result in real war render it often quite as much a matter of chance as in lll'.‘ throw of the dice in the Kriegspiei of pram. A: :..:~ as anyone now can judge of what might. what ought to have happened after the battle of Dresden, it seems veryevidriit to me that, had not hapolcon withdrawn. as he did, from the personal direction 0. the pursuit, roiliing could have saved ll‘.‘ AlitcfAruy from (instruction or capitu‘a» Les. 1 L11: on]; ilud one explaxauon n thuvfi'mirn fl audit istliesuldencnilansc. a gold calf, weighing - l l l } through illness at that moment, of Napo- leon’s mental and physical powers. The ball was at his foot: but he turned back instead of making a goal, and his subordin- ates could not make it for him-{Lord Wolsely. .______+_____. A PHA CENTAURI. A Double Star that Welghs as Bloch as the Sun. Let us consider the latest news from Alpha Centauri which is 25,000,000,000,000 miles away. It is a double-star, and is the nearest in the universe. It weighs twice as much as the sun. To the naked eye it appears as a single bright star, but. with a telescope one can see the two stars composing it. One of them is seven or eight times as bright as the other. But the little star is evidently as heavy as the big one, for they slowly circle, keeping one another at arm’s-length, around a point half-way between them. Astronomers have long known these facts, but lately they have extended and rectified their knowledge about Alpha ,Centauri. It now appears that the period in which those twin stars revolve around one another is eighty-one yearsâ€"half the time required by the planet Neptune to go around the sun. Their orbit is very eccentric ; they close to within a distance of 1,000,000,000 miles apart, and then swing away from one another until they are separated by 3,340,. 000,000 miles. It must be remembered that this is the extraordinary conduct not of a pair of celestial sparks, but of two im- mense suns. When a. little planet like the earth goes round a. gigantic orb like the sun the thing is quite simple ; the planet does the travelling, and the sun, hardly feeling the tinyopull of its prisoner, stands practically still with respect to it. But when, as with Alpha Centauri, it is a. case‘ of sun swinging sun, things are very dif- ferent. There is no standing still, nor anything resembling it, with this bright pair. , It is possible that those two suns, whose gyrations command the admiration and test the skill of astronomers gazing upon them from a distant quarter of the universe, may once have been strangers, moving, as it is known that our sun is doing, each along its own track through space. Having approached too closely, they might in such circumstances become irrevocably bound together by their mutual attractions. But it is far more probable that they were formed from one original mass of primeval matter, as the four stars grouped in the middle of the Orion nebula have evidently been shaped by 'the creative forces still in action around ithem. In either case, what of the world’s be‘ longing to the suns of Alpha. Centauri? Astronomy furnishes no direct proof that worlds, planets like ours, exist there, and it furnishes no proof that they do not exist ; but it does prove that the law of gravitation is obeyed there, and that consequently on a. world having the same'mass as the earth has a man would weigh just as much in the Alpha Centauri system as he does in the solar system. Astronomy proves also that the light of Alpha Centauri resembles the light of the sun. Has it not the same vivific force also? We know how the sun- beums clothe the earth with life. What a picture is presented to the imag- ination if we choose to suppose that such worlds exist! Under the dominion of two equally powerful suns the orbit that such a world would travel in could not be a smoo th elliptical track, but it might be a labyrin- thine marvel. Now around one of the twin suns, and new around the other, it might go whirling. Suppose it to be situated so close to one of the suns that its centre of rev- olution was never changed to the other, and imagine the alteration of conditions affecting its inhabitants. as, in company with its solar master, it first retreats more than three thousand million miles from their blazing neighbor, and then, turning, rushes back, until the glare and gush of the light and heat of that other sun pouring upon it are increased to a tenfold intensity. But even if one cannot reconcile the situation of things in the system of Alpha Centauri with his conceptions of the re- quirementsofhabitable worlds,hismindmust be impressed with the spectacle presented by so vast an expcditure of physical cuei» gy as those coupled suns displayâ€"an expen- diture periodic lly intensified, it may be, by their tidal reaction as they strain in the leash of gravitation. Our own sun, imper- turbed by the presence of an enormous neighbor. is very differently occupied, mak- ing the grass grow and all life flourish con- tentedly on its little family of worlds. But perhaps we flatter ourselves when we com- placently conclude that the sun is in better business than Alpha Centauri. .â€"â€"-â€".â€" Wolseley on the Militia. The Masons of Prince Rupert’s Lodge: Winnipeg. who were also members of the “'olseley Red River expedition in 1870, some weeks ago commemorated the latter event by special services. and afterwards corresponded with Lord Wolseley, inviting him to revisit the province. The followin reply was read at the last meeting of the lodgeâ€"“Dublin, 10th March, lSQl.â€"\Vor- shipful Master and Brother,â€"Yonr letter has duly reached me. and Ibeg that you and the brethren of' yourlodge will kindly accept. my best thanks for having remembered me at your late meeting. I shall always look back with the deepest pride to having been associated with those gallant Canadians who contributed in 1870 to the creation of your splendid province. I should indeed enjoy a visit to your city were that possible at present, but whether I can or cannot ever do so, it will always be a real pleasure to hear of its progress, its prosperity. and its loyalty, and that our ancient craft flourishes there. The Red River expedition was in first independent command,and I gratefully remember the fine spirit that animated the Canadian soldiers that took part in it. I should very much like a photograph of those brethren who helped me so effectively in ISTD. \Vishing your lodge peace. love, and harmony, and its members all happiness, I have the honour to retrain, \Vorshipful blaster. your obedient servant and brother. (Signed), “’olsclizy. General, and Worship- ful Masterof the Military Lodge of In.» land." The photograph has bern prepared an requested, and will be forwarded ina few davs ; v I i l l TELEPHONIN G T0 MARS. Skilllnz Across Space Without the As' slstanee of [nerve-In: Wires. W.‘B. Preece, engineer to the telegraphs department of the British post office, read a paper on “ Electric Signaling Without Wires ” before the Society of Arts in Lou~ don, his purpose being to show how we are gradually approaching the time when We shall be able to make practical use of the electric waves. For ten years Mr. Preece has been steadily invostigating the subject of signaling through space, which he finds very fascinating. His experiments have proved the effects he subsequently describes to be due primarily to radiation and not to conduction. When the royal commission to inquire into electric communication between the shore and the lighthouses was appointed in June, 180:2, the opportunity arose, says the Blackburn (England) Times, for testing the theory of signaling without wires. The Bristol channel proved a very convenient locality to test the practicability of com- municating across a distance of three and five miles. Two islands, the Flatholm and the Steepholm, lying near Cardifl", the former having a lighthouse upon it, were used for the experiments. The object of the experiments was not only to test the practicability of signaling between the shore and the lighthouse, but to dil’erentiate the effects due to earth conduction from those due to electro-magnetic induction, and to determine the effects in water. There was no difficulty in communicating between the shore and the Flatholm. The distance be- tween the two places was three miles. The attempt to speak between Lavernock and the Steepholm was not so successful; the distance was five miles, but the signals were perceptible. It is something to be able to report, Mr. Preece observes, that we have now acquired a practical system of. signaling across space without using Wires. ' . Speaking of the possibilities of the future the lecturer remarked that though he had confined himself to a description ofa simple practical system of communicating across the terrestrialZspace, “one cannot help spec- ulating as to what may occur through planetary space. Strange, mysterious sounds are heard on all long telephone lines when the earth is used as a return, espe- cially in the calm stillness of the night. Earth currents are found in telegraph cirâ€" cuits, and the aurora borealis lights up our northern sky when the sun’s photosphere is disturbed by spots. The sun’s surface must at such times be violently disturbed by electric storms, and, if oscillations are set up and radiated through space in sym- pathy with those required to affect tele- phones, it is not a. wild dream to say that we may hear on this earth a thunder storm in the sun. If any of the planets be pop- ulated with beings like ourselves, having the gift of language and the knowledge to adopt the great forces of nature to their wants, then, if they could oscillate immense stores of electrical energy to and fro in tel- egraphic order, it would be possible for us to hold commune by telephone with the people of Mars.” â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"-¢.â€"â€"â€"â€"_ Homemade Ice Chest. The convenience of a refrigerator or lot chest is too apparent to need mention, bue many who would like to avail themselves of the advantage of thus preserving and mak- ing palatable the food that comes to their tables in the hot weather are deterred by the expensivencss of the factory-made articles. A very satisfactory substitute can be made at home by procuring a large dry- gocds box and fitting c. smaller box inside it directly upon the bottom, but with a. space four or five inches all around it, which is to be filled with sawdust or other similar material. The inner box should project an inch above the outer one. A box cover should be made to fit the outer box, so that there maybe a non-conducting space above SERVICEABLE REFRIGERATOR . the inner box as well as around it. On the bottom of this cover let inch strips be nail- ed along the sides aud ends so that they may fit closely around the upper edge of the inner box when the whole chest is closed which will make the ice chamber air. tight. An iron pan with a bit of pipe lead- ing down through the bottom can be made to place the ice in, or if the chest is to be placed in a shed, a hole may be bored through the bottom and the ice set directly on the. boards. It will “spend” better if wrapped in burlap or some closer cloth. Movable slat shelves are fitted into the other end of the inner chamber to place food upon. The funds should be shellacked before using, or the pine wood may give a flavor to some articles of food particularly butter. It must be kept clean, and occa- sionally thoroughly sup-dried to kill the mold. . “A Boy's Quicker Than Elms. Dr.J.A. G.lbert of the Yale psychological laboratory has completed some tests regard- ing the mental and physical developments of the pupils of the New Haven Public school. Many of the tests are entirely new. The tests were made on 1,200 boys and girls varying from 6 to 17 years of age. He has made a series of charts which show that boys are more sensitive to weight discrimination, that girls can tell the difference in color shades better than the boys, and that boys think quicker than the other sex. Al- together the charts show that boys are more susceptible to suggestion than girls. The charts show also that both boys and girls between the ages of 1:3 and 14 years are not so bright, quick. or strong in proportion, nor do they develop as fast as they do before and after those years. The object of the test is to tnable teachers to better under. I i HOMESTEADING IN AUSTRALIA. _ 'WHiT urns SAM Is AT. The nanner ofOpentnz the Pabllc Lands There to Settlement. There yet remain in Australia many thousands of acres of public land owned by the Government to be thrown open for set- tlement as the growth of the country may warrant. Portions of this public domain are settled every year, and the whole coun- j try is being gradually and systematically ‘ occupied. The Australian method ef open- ing land for public occupancy has some points of excellence and many of interest. There is no weary waiting and wasting of resources, no camping out on the border, no wild dash and scramble for possession and fight for retention, and the weak have equal chance with the strong. . The land is surveyed and mapped out in allotments, varying in size with the char- acter of the land, but rarely exceeding 600 acres. It is allotted to settlers first on a system of lease, at a nominal rental, usual~ ly about twelve cents an acre per annum. The lessee is required to cultivatehnd l prove the land, and if these requirements are properly complied with he may acqtlire a clear title to the land at the expiration of the lease. Persons desiring to settle on the land are required to file an applica- tion with the Government Land Office. These applications are considered by a local Land Board presided over by a mag- istrate, which investigates as to the suit- ability of the applicant, with the especial object of finding out if he is a bona fide settler and likely to prove a suitable one- W hen all the applications are passed upon, or, if there is a rush for theland, at an appointed time every allotment is ballot- ted for separately. Each suitable applicant is entitled to a chance in the ballot or lot drawing for every allotment, provrded, of course, he has not already been successful in a previous drawing. Not more than one allotment is granted to one person, and no person is eligible to participate in the bal- lot who already has an area of public land amounting to 640 acres. He may,however, make up his holdings to this limit. In the colony of Victoria the Govern- ment found work for many of the unemploy- ed during the hard times of the last Australian winter in clearing public land. Some of the lands thus cleared were thrown open for occupation a few weeks ago, and successful applicants were required to pay five shillings an acre on their allotments to recoup the Government for its outlay in be- half of the unemployed. . The tenure of the lease on these partic- ular lands was set at nine years and five months, and lessees were required to “ cultivate and otherwise improve their land, and also to destroy all vermin there- on.” The latter provision referred mainly to the ineradicable plague of rabbits that afflicts Australia. JEWS DEBARRED IN AUSTRIA. Excluded From Government Employment of any Kind Because of Their ltell- glen. ' A few days ago a discussion took place in the Polish Club of the Austrian Reichsrath on the disqualification of Jews, eligible in other respects, for any public oflice in Cis- leithaniaâ€"unless they are privately convert- ed, in which case they are at once nominat- ed. It is notorious that Jews who adhere to their faith have been, for several years, practically excluded in this country from employment in any branch of the adminis- l tration, including the local governing bodies. . I One instance among others given in a weekly paper reminds me of one of the stories from Russia. A non-commissioned officer who had served eighteen years in the army was dcbarred from obtaining one of the small posts reserved by law for soldiers of his rank who have served twelve years or lopger. He solicited an audience of the Emperor, and, having told his Ma- jesty,who went carefully through his papers, that his Jewish faith was the only impedi- ment, succeeded in obtaining the Imperial signature to his petition. The document had to go to the \Var Ollice,whence it came, back with the answer, “ The War Depart- ment has no influencewithother Ministries, on which the man’s employment depends.” He is still in the army, as he has no other means of livelihood, and, in short, the Ein- peror’s signature was not enough to override the official prejudice. The Constitution of 1807 sets forth that all subjects have equal rights. In Vienna the Jews form 10 per cent.of the population, and contribute to the taxes in at least the same ratio, but there is not a single Jewish employee in the service of the town. . The petition of a medical man to be appornted assistant veterinary surgeon in the muni-I cipnl service, a post with a salary of about $2.30 a year, was rejected by Dr. ['rix, the late Burgomaster, because the applicant refused to abjure his religion. RARE “ GOLIATH " BEETLE. Remarkable Addition Recently Made to. the London Zoological Gardens. » A unique addition, and one of uncommon interest, has just been made to the insect, house in the London Zoological gardens. The I new arrival is a specimen of the Goliath beetle from west Africa -â€"a giant even among its own kind. There is little to! appreciate in the too familiar specter of our , own household beetle, but visitors to the. Zoo will not fail to admire the splendid! proportions and beauty of color of the ; Goliath. I Specimens of this genus are exceedingly, rare, and are in consequedce much prized by collectors. The newcomer at the Zoo is the first of its kind to make its home there, and is believed to be the only living speci- men ssessed by a public society in the. world:0 It measures between five and six‘ inches across the body. and if the legs were extended totheir full the total measure- ment would be some nine or ten inches. The home of the genus Goliathus is in tropical'snd central Africa. Related gen- era also occur in South America and tropio cal Asia. One of thelspecies in South Ameri» ca is roasted and eaten by the natives, who , are said to regard it as a great dainty. The new beetle at the Zoo, which, by the way, is a male specimen of the largest form, (loliathus Drnyri, has been placed appro. I priately enough next to the giant spider. from South America. It is supplied with, stand the mental requirements of the pupils, food chiefly in the form of melon. ITEMS OF INTEREST ABOUT THE BUSY YANKEE. Neighborly Interest In Ills Doingsâ€"Matters of .lloment and mun Gathered mm III. Daily Record. . The industrial revival in Alabama con- tinues. Over 90 per cent. of Tennessee labor in native born. Natives of the Adirondack region name all visitors “sports.” There are 3,000,000 bachelors in the United States over 30. Organization of labor has $500,000 a year in Boston. A man in Detroit was fined $55 for cutting a tree on one of the boulevards. A Bangor man has invented an adjustable broom for the easy sweeping of corners. The New York Central east bound freight track will be relaid with 80 pound steel rails this year. The name of the man who lights the statue of libert in “’ashin ton ni htl ‘ Mr. America. y g g y 13 Mrs. Culbertson, the librarian of the New Orleans State Library,has held the position for eighteen years. Burt Peterson, Canton, Pa., in a fit- of jealousy, seriously wounded his sweetheart and committed suicide. Georgia’s superior criminal court has dis- continued the kissing of the Bible in the administration of oaths. A general shut-off of silver mines i5 feared in Colorado, owing to the continued decline in the market price. Chicggo pickpockets took $500 in cash and $20,000 in securities from a Wabash avenue car passenger the other day. In New York tenements the crowding of from seven to twelve persons in two small rooms is a common occurrence. A rattlesnake killed by James Graham of Columbus, Ind. measured nine feet in length, and had thirty-nine rattles. Next to the Bible, Moody and Sankey’s hymns have had a larger circulation than any other work in twenty-five years. \‘ _ A number of independent oil companies of Pennsylvania have combined for the purpose of fighting the Standard Oil Com- pany. ~ The average weight of twenty thousand men and women weighed at Boston, was men 141% pounds, women 12411.- pounds. Twenty-three Pittsburg firms manufac- ture flint and lime glass. The annual production exceeds 24,000, pieces of table- ware alone. , As there were just thirteen marriages in Henniker, N. Ii, last year, the brides are all the objects of superstitious solicitude. V The oldest newspaper in America is the hewport (R.I.) Mercury. It was estab- lished by Benjamin Franklin in the year 1758. Cardinal Gibbons has sent his portrait of ex-President Harrison and President Cleve- land to the Pope at the latter’s special re- quest. Out of forty-two cities in America, with population srunging from 200,000 to 500 000, all but one are using the electric railway system. . Dupont’s power mills, in 'Wilmington, Del., are furnished with hinged roofs, so that in case of an explosion the damage will be minimized. Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, wife of the standard oil magnate, teaches a. class of young men, of which her son, John 1)., jr., is a member. Loring says that during 33 years in one western State the number of mortgages executed was 200,000, and their nominal value is $lS0,000,000. Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, has literary gifts. She is a niece of Emily Huntingdon Miller, at one time the well-known editicss of several juvenile publications. Only four men in the world understand how to operate the geometric lathe, with which the Gavernment’s paper money is so delicately engraved in diamond point. The killing of any bison, buffalo, quail or Chinese pheasant is forbidden by law in Montana for ten years, and the killing of any moose, elk, otter or beaver for six. it, Electricity is to be the motive powsr on the system of elevated roads to be built in Chicago; it will be the most complete system in the world and will cost $l5,000,000. Chief Arthur, of the Brotherhood of Loco- motive Engineers is the owner of real estate in Cleveland valued at about $85,000. A burning mountain is visible neat Con- cord, Ky. lt is supposed to be fed with of that oozes from a crevice in the mountain. Charles Barney, 13 years old, of South Camden, was badly burned by some boys who tied him to a stake and set fire to his clothing while playing Indians. Andrew Carnegie will have to give 'l’itts- burg $195,170,72 to make good his promise raised wages l to duplicate every dollar raised from other sources during January and February. Commissioners appointed to investigate the Norwegian and Swedish system of liquor selling report that the plan is a good one and ought to be introducer in Massachu- setts. \Vashiugton has salmon fisheries worth $1,500,000 a year, and catches l0,000 fur seals. It exports $8,000,000 worth of lum- her and coal and raises 15,000,600 bushels of wheat. A bill has been introduced at Albany, limiting telephone charges to $78 per annum in cities of over l,000,000 population, and grading down to 827, according to the size of the city. By the will of Mrs. Kate Johnson, of San Francisco, widow of It. C. Johnson, that city,under direction of the Catholic church, gets nearly $l,000,000 for a free hospital. The cave animals of North America, ac- cording to Prof. A. S. Packard, of Brown University, comprise 172 species of blind creatures, nearly all of which are mostly white in color. By s. remarkable piece of engineering nearly 1,500 acres of salt meadows at Bridgeport, Conn., have beenditched, diked against the tide. and are rapidly being get into upland grass.