sixteen years of age without a signed order from an adult relative or employer. Even tourists who offer cigarettes to boys, render themselves liable to prosecution. The police are instructed to confiscate the pipes, cigars and cigarettes of lads who smoke in the public streets. A fine for the offense is also imposed, which may be anywhere between fifty cents and twenty-five dollars.
Offenses against Kaiser Wilhelm's dignity in the one year 1898 were punished, taken alto gether, with two thousand years of imprisonment, according to the " Nurnberger Zeitung."
The United States court of the northern dis trict of the Indian Territory is probably the only travelling court, including the court-room and all things and persons connected, in existence in the United States. United States Commissioner Harry Jennings, United States Marshal L. E. Bennett and a corps of assistants have adopted this novel plan of travelling over the district and holding court at several different places instead of at one place in the district, as heretofore. The northern district of the Indian Territory is large, and the towns are far apart, so that it is very hard for persons to travel to and from to attend court, as well as expensive. Commissioner Jennings has had a small house built on wheels, much re sembling a mover's outfit, in which they travel, and also in which they hold court in the various towns over the district. They carry cooking utensils with them and have an expert cook, who prepares their meals, and also a servant who keeps their house in order. They go from place to place, wherever they are wanted, and they claim that they have saved the people considerable money, as it is much less expensive for the court to travel than for the people to travel in that country. . Criminals can be reached more con veniently in this manner, as it is often dangerous to conduct criminals from town to town without a heavy guard, as their allies may attempt to rescue them. The travelling court of the Indian Territory is a success, and the people of that district are well pleased with it.
Recent figures submitted to the mayor of' Boston show that the cost of maintenance of those sentenced for drunkenness in the houses of correction of Suffolk County for the year end ing January, 1898, was $115,000. It is estimated that about three thousand were sentenced to jail for the same offense, which would add at least thirty-five per cent to the figures stated above.
The Court of Common Pleas, so late as the fifth W. and M., held that a man might have a property in a negro boy, and might bring an action of trover for him, " because negroes are heathens" (Ld. Raym. 147.) "A strange prin ciple to found a right of property upon! " ex claims Christian (1 Bl. Cowan. 425, note).
CURRENT EVENTS.
Water is a very good transmitter of sound. A scientist by the name of Calladon made some experi ments on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to demonstrate the power of sound to travel a long way in water. A clock was made to strike under the water, and was heard to a distance of twelve miles. In a second ex periment the striking of a clock was heard to a dis tance of twenty-seven miles. The Hessian Diet has passed a measure requiring bachelors to pay twenty-five per cent more income tax than married men. It has also placed a tax of about a dollar per annum on bicycles unless they are used for business purposes. A proposal to doubly tax female bicyclists was defeated by a narrow ma jority. The Sahara desert is three times as large as the Mediterranean. More men have died and are buried in the Isthmus of Panama, along the line of the proposed canal, than on any equal amount of territory in the world. In Denmark it is the law that all drunken persons shall be taken to their homes in carriages provided at the expense of the publican who sold them the last glass. The greatest depth to which a ship has been anchored is 2000 fathoms — considerably more than two miles. Coffee, the drink more highly regarded to-day than any other, was first used in Abyssinia in 785.
