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dignant tone : " I fail to see, Mr. Choate, the purpose of your question about the Briggs heresy trial." " Oh," answered Choate, carelessly, but loud enough for the jury to hear, " I thought perhaps you were trying to break up the Presby terian church so as to get a chance to reorganize it."

This was too much for the judge and the as sembled bar, and the courtroom echoed with prompt and unrestrained hilarity. There was not a lawyer present who had not more than once seen a specimen of what one of Mr. Choate's friends called his "wildcat's tracks," and the joke needed no explanation.

NOTES.

A modified prohibition law is in force in manysmall places in Germany, where its regulations can be carried out better than in the large cities. Persons who neglect their families on account of drink, or who have been arrested repeatedly as "drunk and disorderly," are denied the privilege of purchasing liquor. Their names are printed on the " drunkards' list," published periodically by the police, copies of which are forwarded to the saloon-keepers, who are liable to heavy fines if they sell liquor to those mentioned on the list. The list must be placed on the wall, in view of everyone, and reads something like this : — To whom it may concern : It is not permitted to furnish spirituous liquor to the following persons : Tailor J. Ruppig; Cooper K. Schuffel; Farrier E. Pichler : Miss Timpel; Laborer F. Gluckel. The Governor. A simple-minded woman recently thought the governor was included among the drunkards, be cause his name was on the list, and refused to serve him.

The report that the hulk of the "Osprey" has been found, if it be true, affords the solution of what has been a mystery of the sea for more than twenty years. The " Osprey," it will be remem bered, was the strangely-rigged three-masted bark on which the Australian Tichborne claimant de clared he had been rescued from the wreck of the " Bella." History of his career, up to the time of that wreck and from the time he left the "Osprey," made a narrative which would have established his claim to the Tichborne estate if he could have proved that he had been rescued from the " Bella " by the crew ef the " Osprey." This one missing link in his chain, however, made his entire story worthless. The "Osprey" disap peared in the latter part of the year 1875, and was not heard of again until a few days ago, when the well-known wrecker, Whitelaw, discovered on the coast of Vancouver Island the hull of a vessel on which could be made out the name "Osprey." It seems that this is the bark which ran into and sent to the bottom the steamship " Pacific," with all but three of her three hundred and odd souls, in the latter part of 1875, a short distance below Cape Flattery. Many stories are told relative to the illegibility of the penmanship of Rufus Choate, the famous lawyer. It is said that he once openly congrat ulated himself on the fact that " if he failed to get a living at the bar he could still go to China and support himself by his pen; that is, by dec orating tea-chests!" He once asked that a case might be postponed, owing to his engagement in another court. The judge replied that the case was one in which he might write out his argument. With a mock solemnity of countenance which he knew so well how to assume at a moment's notice, he said : — "I write well, your honor, but slowly!"

About the middle of July last several boys were arrested in Iowa for breaking into a car and stealing watermelons. The following entry appears on the docket of the justice of the peace who issued the warrant : State of Iowa v. Anderson et al. After formal entries showing filing of information, issuance of warrant and return, etc., "Now on this 12th day of July, 1897, the prosecuting witness failing to appear, and the court, being desirous of stop ping these depredations, discharges the defendants and taxes the costs to the State. J. P."

American newspaper readers are excusable if they have received of late an impression that next to the wheat crop the most notable product of this country this year has been homicide. The country is big, and it accords with reasonable ex pectation that in one part or another of it killing