established such a tax. The petition further stated that the number of bachelors in Paris is nearly half a million, while the number of mar ried men is not more than 379,000; and "that such a tax ought to be doubly welcome in France : first, because it will increase the declin ing population of the state by inducing bachelors to marry; and, secondly, because it will help to make up a growing deficiency in the national budget." In Switzerland, in the assessment of an income tax and taxes on dwelling houses, cer tain deductions allowed to married persons with families are not allowed to bachelors or childless married people. John Pettit was one of the few eccentric men who have ever occupied judicial positions in In diana. He was elected judge of the Supreme Court of the State in 1870, and served six years. He had previously represented the State in the United States Senate for a short term. While on the bench his temper was sorely tried by imperfect transcripts prepared by incompetent clerks. In John v. John, 34 Ind. 336, the following appears in his opinion : —" It is impossible to conceive a more awkward, imperfect, irregular, disorderly and worthless transcript than this." In the case of Manlove v. Scarce, 34 Ind. 423, the transcript must have been still worse, for the old Judge in a burst of wrath commences his opinion in these words : — "This record is another blundering and worth less one from Wayne County, in comparison with which the darknesses of Erebus and Egypt were brilliant lights and the chaos that existed before the creation was perfect order. "We are, however, able to learn from it that the appellant brought suit against the appellee to re cover an assessment on a premium note given for a policy in an insurance company. There is only one paragraph of complaint, which at different times and places is called ' the complaint,' ' an amended complaint,' ' the second paragraph of complaint.' Which it is we do not know, but we hold it to be a good complaint and that it states a cause of action. The record shows that a de murrer was filed, but for what cause, or what was done with it, is not shown. Another demurrer
was filed, as shown by the record, but for what cause or what was done with it does not appear; and a third'one was filed because the complaint did not state facts sufficient, etc., which was over ruled; and since the defendant had got his hand in, and had become an adept in the art of de murring, he filed still a fourth one for the same cause, which was sustained, and this ruling was excepted to, and is assigned for error in this court. Perhaps the court thought that sustaining the de murrer of the appellee once out of four times that it was filed might be merited for his pertinacious adherence to that form or branch of pleading; but it was error in law to do so. "The judgment is reversed at the costs of the appellee, with instructions to the court to overrule all the demurrers to the complaint and for further proceedings." On page 555 of the same volume, in the case of Turnpike Co. v. Albin, he paid his respects to the clerk in this fashion : — "There are many blunders in the record and the clerk attempts to make it elegant and attrac tive by writing ' and ' up and down instead of horizontally." Many are the stories told of the eccentricities of this plain, blunt, old judge, but all agree that he was a good lawyer and an honest man. CURRENT EVENTS. The largest city of the world is London, lying in four counties and having a population of 4,250,000, equalling the combined population of Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Rome. To walk through all the streets, avenues, lanes and alleys of the city, never traversing the same one twice, would require a ten mile walk every day for nine years. The streets, placed in a row, would reach round the world, and leave a remnant that would stretch from London to San Francisco. The greatest naval disaster, remarks a writer in the "Illustrated American" on famous marine dis asters — if we except that which overtook the Maine — was the total loss of the British warship Victoria, which in July, 1893, was rammed and sunk in the Med iterranean by her consort, the Camperdown, during a series of evolutions by the British squadron, until that time unequaled in splendor. The Victoria went down with three hundred and fifty-two of her officers and men, including her commander, the admiral of the squadron. There is much in the history of this disaster that can never be made clear, owing to the
