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rose and said, very sarcastically : " Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of privilege." " The gentle man will state his question of privilege," said the Speaker. " Mr. Speaker, I wish to inquire of our friends of the other side of the House which they think is preferable — to be hanged or talked to death? " The question was greeted by applause. Then suddenly some one with a very loud voice said : " Oh, well, if you're going to talk, we prefer to be hanged." WITH a piece of string and a little sand and grease some Hindu convicts recently sawed through an iron bar' two inches in diameter in five hours and escaped from jail, according to the "Pioneer Mail." THE sturdy incorruptibility of the Japanese policeman is said to work wonders among the Formosans. A Hongkong contemporary quotes a dispatch which states that " the Japanese gen darmerie and police have obtained a very great influence over the natives, who ' adore them like God.' A single word from a policeman will make a native debtor pay his bills." Our contem porary thinks that a few such policemen might improve the moral status of backward subscribers. — Literary Digest.

SOME years ago an Eastern farmer, in trying to repeat Webster's dying words, "I still live," gave an amusing rendering of the spirit, if not the exact letter of the phrase. A gentleman had re marked to him, " Life is very uncertain." " Ah, yes," replied the farmer, " that's true, every word of it; and, by the way, Captain, that makes me think of what one of your big Massachusetts men said when he died a spell ago." " Who was it?" inquired the Captain. "Well, I don't jist call his name now, but at any rate, he was a big politicianer, and lived near Boston somewhere. My newspaper said that when he died the Boston folks put his image in their windows and had a funeral for a whole day." " Perhaps it was Webster," suggested the Captain. " Yes, that's his name! Webster. General Webster. Strange I could not think on it afore. But he got off a good thing just before he died. He riz up in bed and says he, ' I ain't dead yet! '"

CARLYLE met our Webster at some breakfast, and has left this record of his impression : — "This American Webster I take to be one of the stiffest logic buffers and parliamentary ath letes anywhere to be met with in our world at present — a grim, tall, broad-bottomed, yellowskinned man, with brows like precipitous cliffs, and huge, black, dull, wearied yet unweariablelooking eyes under them; amorphous projecting nose, and the angriest shut mouth I have any where seen. A droop on the sides of the upper lip is quite mastiff-like — magnificent to look upon; it is so quiet withal. I guess I should like ill to be that man's nigger. However, he is a right clever man in his way, and has a husky sort of fun in him too; drawls in a handfast, didactic manner about ' our republican institutions," etc., and so plays his part."

CURRENT EVENTS. IT is not as well known to Americans as it might be that, when their Constitution was still forming, Jefferson happened, as he was pouring out a cup of hot tea into his saucer, to ask Washington abruptly "Of what use is the Senate?" " You have answered it, yourself," replied Washington, " the Senate is the saucer into which we pour our legislation to cool it."

THE sanitary congress held in Venice not only created a great deal of attention in Europe but also accomplished part of the work it set itself to do. The Sultan, replying to the representatives of the Foreign ministers, has consented to give orders to the governors to dissuade his subjects from proceed ing on the pilgrimage to Mecca. If these pilgrimages can be stopped or limited, there will be little or no danger of the spread of the plague.

OUGHT domestic servants to be entitled by law to receive written characters? This is a question which has been raised in parliament. It appears to be the habit of some mistresses and masters to refuse any character to sen-ants seeking "another place.'' This is evidently prejudicial to the servant's interests, but would they be better off if the written character were not of a laudatory kind? A written character un friendly to the owner might be a dangerous document for the writer. Many a master, to escape a possible action for slander, would be only too willing to make the character favorable if forced to write it in com pliance with the law.