The defendants desired to be sworn by the god Kathiresan, so a piece of camphor was bought at a chemist's close by, lighted and placed in a saucer. Then the witness, holding his hands over the flames, swore by the god to " tell the whole truth," etc. The court was highly amused. It was remarked that the burning of the camphor had satisfactorily disinfected the room.
The population of Egypt has been gradually in creasing during the past hundred years. It is stated to have been about two and a half million in 1800, and is now estimated at nearly ten millions. There are about 112,000 foreigners, of whom 38,000 are Greeks; the remainder being chiefly Italians, 24,000; English, 19,000; French, 14,000; Austrians, 7,000; Russians, 3,000; and Persians and Germans about 1,000 each. Only about five per cent of the popula tion can read and write, and nearly two thirds are without any trade or profession.
Mr. Joseph H. Choate, in his address at Sar atoga before the Bar Association, defended warmly the jury system. He urged, however, The only Indian woman lawyer in the country is said to be Miss Laura Lykens, a half-breed Shawnee that there should be an able and pure judge, .in graduate of the Carlisle Indian School, who is prac telligent and incorruptible jurymen, and conscien ticing in Oklahoma. tious advocates : three very important conditions. He asserted, also, that he had never known a Scattered throughout the area of Great Britain are juryman to be bribed, or improperly influenced, j numerous towns and villages of a curious character, which is, certainly, contrary to common belief. says some writer in Tid-Bits. One large village Several years ago there was a case in this com monwealth where a widow was plaintiff for a large I actually consists of old railway carriages, even the little mission chapel being built out of four large amount against the estate of her deceased fatherhorse trucks. Another village, with a population of in-law, who had remembered her generously in eleven hundred, and a ratable value of $40,000, has his will, and where it did not seem probable that neither church, chapel nor school, the only public he could have given her the notes in question. edifice being a pillar letter-box. Villages with a There were three trials and as many disagree single inhabitant are not unknown. At Skiddaw, in ments. At the last trial a juror stated that the Cumberland, there is a solitary householder who cannot vote because there is no overseer to pre minds of the jurors varied from eleven to one for pare a voters' list, and no church or other public the plaintiff to eleven to one against her; the one building on which to publish one; while the only obstinate juror in her favor was from the same rate-payer, in a certain rural Northumberland parish, town, and asserted that under no circumstances has recently declined to bear the expense of repairing would he agree to a verdict against her. a road because he considers it quite good enough for himself. In the Isle of Ely there is a little parish which has been somewhat contemptuously described CURRENT EVENTS. as " a portion of land, with three or four houses, and In London they have just formed an Anti-Scandal perhaps twelve inhabitants." This place has no League. The members promise to combat, in every roads at all, and is, consequently, put to no expense way in their power, the " prevalent custom of talking in keeping them in repair. As a matter of fact, there scandal, the terrible and unending consequences of are no public expenses of any kind and no rates. which are not generally estimated."
Russ1a, with a population of 127,000,000, has only 18,334 physicians. In the United States, with a population of about 75,000.000, there are 120,000 physicians. By different nations every day in the week is set apart for public worship — Sunday by the Christians, Monday by the Greeks, Tuesday by the Persians, Wednesday by the Assyrians, Thursday by the Egyp tians, Friday by the Turks, and Saturday by the Jews.
The pure water distributed to the inhabitants of Blankenberge is that of the Bruges canal. After filter ing through beds of sand and then subjecting in ster ilizers to an electric current at a pressure of one thousand volts, all traces of microbes are destroyed. The electrical plant has a capacity of about fifty-five horse-power, and about thirty- five thousand cubic feet of water per day are treated in summer and ten thousand in winter. News from P>ance of the increasing popularity of kerosene as a beverage suggests the possibility of agi-
