THE executors of Dr. Holmes's will are having a good deal of trouble in proving that his famous "Autocrat of the breakfast Table " was copyrighted. It has already been decided by one court that the book was not so protected and an appeal to the Supreme Court has been taken. The book itself was copyrighted in November of 1858. Subsequent re newals were secured, extending the right of the copy right privilege to the year 1900. It appears, however, that the work was published in parts running through the "Atlantic Monthly " from October, 1857, to Octo ber, 1858, and that neither the magazine nor the sepa rate parts were copyrighted. This the court held was a fatal defect, the law requiring that a copy must be deposited before publication. The contention that the whole was something different from its parts and therefore entitled to a copyright, notwithstand ing the previous publications of theseparate chapters, the court said was a refinement of distinctions that the statutes did not warrant.
RECENT strikes and disturbances in Russian cities have brought about the enactment of a new labor law, which goes into effect January I, 1898. The work ing day is fixed at a maximum of eleven and a half hours; for Saturdays and the days preceeding holi days at ten hours; on Sundays and holidays there is to be no work. Workmen who are not Christians will not be compelled to work on the clays held sacred by their sects. For night work, eight hours is the limit. MACÓN, Georgia, sends out a lesson in convict labor. It had a large piece of ground near the city, which it had been leasing out for five dollars per acre. The authorities concluded to cultivate it, with the aid of the city convicts. They enrich the soil with the refuse from all the stables of the police and fire departments, and from other quarters, and the first year have harvested a crop worth, in clear gain, sixty dollars an acre, and with it all have benefited the prisoners, who were before kept in idleness.
THE discovery of petroleum is reported from Alaska. Several months ago some gold prospectors came across what seemed to be a lake of oil. It was fed by many springs and the surrounding mountains were full of coal. Samples of the oil were taken lo Seattle and tests proved it to be of as high grade as any ever taken out of the Pennsylvania wells. It is close to the ocean and the experts say the oil oozes out into the salt water. The owners have filed claims on 8,000 acres, and it is said have already received offers from the Standard Oil Company.
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PROFESSOR FORBES, the electrician who has just returned to Cairo from Wady Haifa, expresses a highly favorable opinion about using the power of the cataracts for generating electricity and considers the general circumstances of Egypt exceptionally well adapted for its use as motive power. Irrigation could be extended as well as cheapened by the saving in cattle and especially in coal which becomes very expensive in Upper Egypt owing to the expense of transport from Alexandria. He considers that the cataract would be available the entire year for work ing the railway, cotton-ginning mills, sugar factories, irrigation machines, etc., also that it could be sup plied at distances of several hundred miles at a cost much below that of coal. Professor Forbes is soon to make a complete survey and present the govern ment with a project for utili/ing the electricity to be generated at the N'ile cataracts.
AN announcement has been made that the famous old Milan opera house, La Scala, is to be torn down. It has long been a losing investment to the boxowners, who held their property under the munici pality, and they are now suing the municipal council for discharge from the terms of the lease. The municipal council has therefore voted for the de struction of the historic house. It has for years been one of the most famous of musical landmarks.
THE statistics of the Swiss saving banks show larger per capita deposits than those of almost any other country.
LIEUTENANT BEKSIEK of the French navy has in vented a compass which steers the vessels automat ically in a course set by the navigator.
LITERARY NOTES. THERE is more than a spice of adventure about the September CENTURY. " What stopped the Ship, by H. Phelps Whitmarsh, is a story setting torth a midocean mystery. A tale of peril in Alaska, called " An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier," is by John Muir, whose timely paper on "The Alaska Trip" was printed in the August CENTURY. A subject of current interest is treated in a paper on " Cruelty in the Congo Free State," with striking photographs and notes of travel made by the late E. J. Clave, in whom there is now an additional interest connected with his explorations in the Yukon region.
