46
Herr von Schuster to take the next in dignity to his right, placed his clerk on his left, waved aside the bewildered mandarin (who doubtless thought that this was the "mailed fist" in person) and called for the prisoners, whom, without hearing evidence, he promptly acquitted. He then rode off, followed by Herr von Schuster and the clerk, declaring that the order of the day was at end. Wolff will be prosecuted in Germany, as the Ger man government prefers to conduct its business without assistance from newspaper correspon dents. CURRENT EVENTS. Russ1a is going to abolish the difficulties of navi gation at the mouth of the Volga by cutting a canal directly from the river to the Caspian Sea. Work on it began this summer. One of the oldest maritime fict1ons has received its death-blow by the raising of the American flag over Guam, in the Ladrone Islands. According to sailors, thousands of vessels cleared for Guam from ports all over the world each year, but none ever ar rived there. Clearing for Guam was done by ships which wished to conceal their real destination. Ac cording to maritime law, when once a vessel has cleared for a port, it must proceed there by the most direct route or give a satisfactory explanation. Guam was a closed port under the Spanish rule, and ships could always give that as a reason for not going there after having cleared for the place.
The Japanese government has ordered the de struction of the city of Teckcham, Formosa, and removal of all its inhabitants to a new location. The city is situated on the northwest coast of the island, and has been frequently subject to pestilence. In 1896 and 1897 plagues visited Teckcham with enor mous fatality. This fact being called to the attention of the government, an investigation was ordered by sanitary experts, who reported that the city was built upon a swamp, whereupon an order was issued to the governor to select a new location as convenient to the old one as possible, where the natural conditions were healthful. A new city was laid out, and each property-holder in the old one was assigned a site that corresponded in area with that he occupied at Teckcham, and was given twelve months to remove his buildings and belongings. Sewers, railroads, and sidewalks, public buildings, water-works, and all other public improvements, were laid out by the gov ernment in the new city without expense to the peo ple, but they were required to pay the cost of the
removal of their own property. Most of the houses and other buildings in Teckcham are built of very light wooden material.
Cape Colony is almost treeless, its forests cover ing only 353,280 acres, or a little more than a quarter of one per cent of the total area of the country. Russia and Sweden each have forty-two per cent of their territory under forests; Germany, twenty-six per cent; France, sixteen per cent; and Great Britain and Ireland four per cent. The need of Cape Colony is emphasized by the heavy importa tion of wood, and the conservator of forests urges that tree plantations be formed wherever the annual rain fall exceeds fifteen inches. LITERARY NOTES. The L1v1ng Age for 1889. The long continued life of this veritable and valuable eclectic is another instance of the survival of the fittest, in that it, the best of all, has absorbed or survived every one of its numerous rivals or imitators. Its present vitality is evidenced by the announcement that The Eclect1c Magaz1ne of New York, its oldest and most impor tant competitor, will, with the issue of January, 1899, be consolidated with The L1v1ng Age, and be here after known as The Eclect1c Magaz1ne and Monthly Ed1t1on of the L1v1ng Age. One of the earliest numbers of the new year will contain an original translation of a striking lecture given recently by M. Ferdinand Brunetiere, the eminent French critic, on " Art and Morality," in which the modern tendencies toward excessive " realism " in art, and es pecially in fiction are caustically rebuked. Arrange ments are being made for strong serial stories from English, Italian and German sources, and the proba bility is that The L1v1ng Age will be as noteworthy for the best fiction in 1899 as it was in 1898, when it published Rene Bazin's "With All Her Heart," Neil Munro's "John Splendid," Pierre Loti's "Spanish Sketches," Paul Bourget's sketches and stories, and Mme. Blanc's "Constance." This magazine is well worthy the attention of every one who is making a selection of periodicals for the new year, and in no other way that we know of can a subscriber, for so small an outlay, only $6.00 a year, be put in posses sion of the best which the current literature of the world affords. Harper's Magaz1ne for January contains " A Glimpse at Nubia, Miscalled the Soudan," by Cap tain T. C. S. Speedy, an interesting account of the region in which the military forces of England and France are now in open rivalry; "Naval Lessons of the Spanish-American War," by H. W. Wilson;
