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John Burns, the English labor leader, has made a will that no court can break. He leaves his best love to his wife, a sound constitution to his son, his books to the parish, and his debts to his country. It costs fifty cents, in Mankato, Kansas, to sing, hum, or whistle a certain popular song, between the hours of six in the morning and ten at night. The town council has so decreed, on the ground that the song has become an intoler able nuisance. Perhaps the moral is that the person with " an ear for music " should adjust it, at frequent intervals, to new tunes. CURRENT EVENTS. Sakuma Teiichi, who owns and operates the largest printing establishment in Japan, is an advo cate of labor unions, and has put a system of profitsharing in operation, and provided for pensions for such of his eight hundred employees as complete a certain service. Whatever net profit over twelve per cent on capital invested the business brings in is divided among the hands in proportion to the amount of wages earned, and each five years of con tinuous service entitles the employee, on retirement because of age or disability, to an annuity of five yen a month. Annual vacations of a week, not only with full pay, but with free entertainment, if desired, at Mr. Sakuma's country house, are also given to every worker in the establishment. The pig as a swimmer was the subject of one of Stevenson's most delightful passages, which a recent happening in the South Seas proves to have been well founded. A steamer running from Eden to Sydney struck on a rock a hundred and fifty yards from shore. In the absence of rockets, lines were attached to the hind legs of several pigs, which promptly swam ashore; and then every passenger got ashore, also, by means of a traveling cage. Perhaps the pig is awaking to the injustice which pronounces him more useful dead than alive, and is preparing to "score even" with the historic goose that rescued Rome. Already he can claim, that, even if he has never saved a city, he had greatly ad vanced the interests of several cities. Two items in the budget of the bank at Monte Carlo, for the year ending October 31; " Payments to ruined gamblers, 100,000 francs; for the pre vention of suicides, 100,000 francs." Here is a ser mon, "writ large," on the question. Does gambling pay?
The first historical record of a Christmas in New York is to be found in the yellow leaves of a volume in the City Hall, where pale ink, faded by years, makes this note : — "December 14, 1654. As the winter and the holidays are at hand there should be no more ordinary meetings of this board (the corporation) between this date and three weeks after Christmas. The court messenger is ordered not to summon anyone in the meantime." — The Ar. Y. ATail and Express, A highly interesting exhibit at a conversazione of the Royal Society (London), was Kamms Zerograph or telegraphic typewriter. This instrument has the appearance of an ordinary typewriter, and can be worked by anyone who knows how to spell, the message being automatically printed at a distant station, so that the attendance there of an operator is not required for receiving telegrams. The advan tages claimed for the instrument comprise the ab sence of clockwork and the substitution of electric energy as the local motive power, the use of the in strument either as transmitter or receiver of mes sages, the possibility of converting it at a moment's notice into a sounder or needle instrument, the fa cility of operating on it by persons without any knowledge of electricity, and the fact that in time of warfare the messages cannot be picked up by an enemy ' tapping' the line.
The last report from the British Consul at Rouen contains an interesting account of a bridge of pecu liar construction which is to cross the Seine near that city. This novel engineering work is called a " Pont Transbordeur," and is designed to fulfil all the purposes of a bridge, while it will offer no ob struction to the passage of ships with towering masts. On each side of the river will be erected a small Eiffel tower, about 170 feet in height, and these towers will be joined at the top by a lattice-work bridge upon which lines of rails will be laid. On these rails will run a skeleton platform, which can be pulled from side to side by the agency of steam or electricity. From this platform, which will be 160 feet above the quays, will depend steel wireropes which will support at the level of the riverbanks a slung carriage, large enough to accommodate a tram car full of passengers, besides other vehicles. It is intended that this novel form of a bridge shall be in connection with the tram system at both sides of the river, so that passengers can be carried across the river without leaving their seats in the cars. The work of building the towers has already been commenced, and it is expected that the bridge will be open for traffic in eighteen months' time. It is
