prepositional as in English, and possessives are formed by putting the adjectives after the noun as in Italian. Nouns are primitive and derivative, the derivations being formed by suffixes or prefixes, or both, and one's mastery of the language may be gauged by the idiomatic way in which he handles these Anhangsel. Adjectives are uninflected. — AppletotCs Popular Seienee Monthly.
Seven hundred of the three thousand miles of Japanese railways are owned by the government. All trains run at a speed of twenty miles an hour. Recently one hundred American locomotives were ordered. The fre1ght cars are of five to eight tons' capacity. The large American freight cars are to be introduced.
D1psoman1acs in Sweden, when put under re straint, are fed almost entirely on bread steeped in wine. In less than a fortnight they loathe the very look and smell of liquor, and when liberated gener ally become total abstainers. In Russia similar treat ment is followed with good results.
German science announces that everything needed to make a man weigh one hundred and fifty pounds can be found in the whites and yolks of twelve hundred hen's eggs. Reduced to a fluid, the average man would yield ninety-eight cubic metres of illuminating gas and hydrogen enough to fill a balloon capable of lifting 155 pounds. The normal human body has in it the iron needed to make seven large nails, the fat for fourteen pounds of candles, the carbon for sixty-five gross of crayons, and phosphorus enough for 820,000 matches. Out of it can be obtained besides twenty coffee-spoons of salt, fifty lumps of sugar and forty-two litres of water.
Terra-cotta sleepers are in use on Japanese rail ways. The increased cost is compensated for by the greater resistance to decay.
"Pall Mall" (pronounced pel mel), comes from Paile Maile, an ancient game supposed to have been played on the present site of Pall Mall by Norman monks, by whom it was introduced into England. The observant Pepys, in his famous Diary, makes mention of it thus: "April 2, 1 66 1. Into St. James' Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pelemele, the first time that I ever saw the sport."
The thickest coal seam in the world has been found at Cyferfontain, South Africa. It is 200 feet thick.
LITERARY NOTES. Scr1bner's Magaz1ne for June opens with a richly illustrated article by Cecilia Waern who describes the wonderful advance in art made by her fellowcountrymen, under the title of " The Modern Group of Scandinavian Painters." A typical fight in the Philippines is described by an eye-witness, under the title of '-The Battle of the Blockhouses." which is a most complete and stirring account of that curious campaign. The number is very strong in short stories. William Allen White, the Kansas editor, writes a tale of western political life. He calls it ••A Victory for the People." Another story by a new writer is •• A Burial by Friendless Post " by Robert Shackleton. Henry James contributes a short story in the field in which he won his first successes, entitled " Europe." Joel Chand'er Harris contributes another " Aunt Minervy Ann" story.
The first chapters of Miss Johnston's brilliant his torical romance "To Have and to Hold" form a most attractive opening for the June Atlant1c. Like her previous novel, "Prisoners of Hope," the scer.2 of the story is laid in early colonial Virginia. The foundation of the plot rests upon the well-known in stance of the sending a shipload of young women from England to the colony soon after its founding for the purpose of furnishing wives to the colonists. In Japan and the Philippines. Arthur May Knapp analyzes the salient features of Japanese character and policy. Frank Gaylord Cook, in "Politics and the Ju diciary," treats the history of judgeships in this coun try; showing how the method of creation has changed in many States from an appointive to an elective sys tem. From personal investigation and experience. Her bert Pelham Williams discusses the outlook in Cuba. Gilbert Parkers's brilliant Egyptian tale. " The Man at the Wheel," and other fiction, and a lively symposium of the Contributors' Club complete the number. Tun complete novel in the June issue of L1pp1ncott's is entitled " Green Withes." by Jeanette H. Walworth. This is a tale of strong human interest, touching, as it does, on one of the vital questions of to-day. A truly delightful article on "The Summer's Birds," by Dr. Charles C. Abbott, will be found entertaining, as well as useful in country walks this summer. '•Chemistry in the Kitchen," by Albert G. Evans; " The Samoan Feast of Pilaui," by Owen Hall : and " Fires in Metalliferous Mines," by John E. Bennett, are all excellent and timely papers. Shorter fiction is well represented by Dora Read Goodale in " The Opera-Glass," and by Rollo Ogden in " A Scientific Reader." Theodore Gallagher con tributes a story of life in a miner's camp, called "Father McGrath," and Alice Miriam Roundy writes of " King McDougal's Kitten."
