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mands five hundred francs, the suppression of the passage in future editions, and fifty thousand francs damages. This is probably the only case of the kind on record, and the first instance of a novelist plunged into mourning by the enormous sales of her books. A prom1nent lawyer of Switzerland has called attention to some very peculiar tariff laws exist ing in this country. As an example he gives the one of October 23, 1894, which provides that duty is to be paid on the full weight of goods, including the packing, according to which an ordinary wooden box may be taxed, on the basis of its contents, as high as thirty cents a pound. The law also provides that if the goods enter the country without the packing, an estimate of the weight of the case should be made, and added to the weight of goods. A c1rcular addressed to the bishops by the Spanish minister of justice has revealed a curious fact. In accordance with a certain law promul gated in 1837, a pension of one franc per day was to be paid to all the nuns in certain con vents. According to the statements furnished to the government by the religious authorities, not a single death has taken place among these particular nuns since 1851. It follows, therefore, that many of them are centenarians, and one must have reached the age of one hundred and twenty-seven. The minister, astonished at this remarkable longevity, has decided to withhold the pension from any religieuse who cannot fur nish a certificate to the effect that she is alive. The following "ad." appears regularly in a Missouri newspaper : — CAUTION. If you have conveyances to make or wish a marriage solemnized, be cautious about the prices you pay. REMEMBER THAT
at the Probate office you can get a deed made for 25 cents, an acknowledgment taken for 25 cents or a marriage solemnized for $1. C. A. Sk1dmore, Probate Judge. P. S. I keep an assortment of fine lithograph (very large) marriage certificates. c. a. s.
When convicts in the Colorado State Prison become unruly, instead of being confined to bread-and-water solitary confinement, they are spanked, the instrument used being a paddle a little more than two feet long, three inches wide, and weighing fifteen and a quarter ounces. Ac cording to the chief of the institution, this method is entirely satisfactory, and is free from the per nicious effects that often follow the ordinary treat ment. " During the spanking process," says the warden, " the prisoner has no time to brood, — to store away in his mind vicious thoughts, and grow mentally one-sided as he grows physically weaker; for all of his time and thoughts are con centrated into one spot for a minute or two, and when it is over he goes back to his work none the worse for the treatment." In England a ship in dock is a factory, accord ing to an important legal decision made in the first instance by Judge French in the London Bow County Court, and unanimously upheld by three judges in the Court of Appeal. The case arose out of the explosion of percussion caps during the unloading of the " Manitoba " in the Royal Albert Dock. To the relatives of the two men killed Judge French gave two sums of three hundred pounds each, and to five injured men an allowance of one pound a week for life, under provisions of the British Workmen's Compensa tion Act of 1897. The decision was resisted by the Atlantic Transport Company. The Court of Appeal was obdurate, and unless the House of lx>rds reverses the decision, a British sailor in dock has the protective privileges of the work men upon shore. A juror in Worcester, Mass., recently asked to be excused on account of deafness. The judge refused to excuse him and he sat patiently through a trial lasting several hours. At its close the other eleven jurors were for conviction, but he voted persistently for acquittal, on the ground that as he could not hear the testimony, he could not vote for conviction. Mr. Just1ce Day is the English flogging judge, he having sentenced 137 criminals to 3766 strokes of the cat in fourteen years. Five other judges have used the discretion given them by statute in greater moderation, their combined record being 1776 strokes to 89 criminals. A
