Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/394

 Rh CURRENT EVENTS. A correspondent of the ' ' Nation " points out that in an article on Rufford Abbey (a fine old Notting hamshire country-seat), by Lord Saville, presumably its present owner, in the " Pall Mall Magazine " for April, it is stated that " George IV., when Prince of Wales, paid a visit to Rufford. During this visit, Charles Dibdin, the poet, who had accompanied his Royal Highness as master of the ceremonies, wrote his celebrated song, ' Woodman, Spare that Tree,' after having witnessed the felling of an oak in the park.'' Not only, however, was the song notoriously written by George P. Morris, a native of Philadelphia, but the tree was spared.

In the big rooms of the criminal office in Paris, known as the tomb, where all the documents re lating to secret trials are stowed away, a whole regiment of cats is quartered by order of the Government to protect the papers from rats. These cats live in clover, and are commanded by a splendid tomcat called Joseph, who is dead on rats. This place contains 109,800 dossiers of various trials, and the other day the last spare receptacle was occupied by the papers relating to the famous Panama case. The mass of docu ments are enormous and measure several yards in height. They were all bound together with strong cords and sealed carefully, and several men were required to carry the heavy load to its pigeon-hole. The Chinese dictionary, compiled by Pa-cutshee, 1100 years, B. C, is the most ancient of any recorded in literary history.

The largest room in the world under one roof and unbroken by pillars is at St. Petersburg. It is six hundred and twenty feet long by one hundred and twenty feet in breadth.

On the walls of Paris to-day are official placards announcing that an inquiry is to be held concern ing the proposed new reservoir at Charonne, " in accordance with a royal decree dated August 23, 1835." The decree was made by Louis Philippe in the early part of his reign, and after lying in abeyance for more than three-score years, is now about to be executed. Since it was made, France has been a kingdom, an empire, and twice a re

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public, and has passed through two revolutions and a coup d'etat. Yet the old decree is honored and held to be in force by the very government that has exiled the family of the king who made it. There could scarcely be a more striking ex ample at once of the permanence and the mutability of government.

Any dishonest contractor, whose wealth accu mulates while his work decays, ought to read, with a blush of shame, of a new bridge across the Danube. Pillars of a bridge built at the same place by the Emperor Trajan are to form a part of the structure. The engineers attest the strength of the Roman work under an emperor whose reign began exactly eighteen hundred years ago. To do as the Romans did may sometimes mean a descent to the lowest vices, but it may also signify a noble integrity in building as in being.

LITERARY NOTES. The complete novel in the July issue of LippinCOtt'sis " Harold Bradley, Playwright," by Edward S. Van Zile. "A Limit of Wealth," by Frank H. Sweet, deals with a returned Klondiker of modest views. Mary Agnes Tincker's "An Evening in Rome" introduces the Abbe Liszt. "Their Great Crisis," as recounted by Nathaniel Stephenson, is that of three young lawyers. "John C. Calhoun" is painted, from a southern stand-point and in his private life, by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D.D. Anne Stuart Bailey furnishes an interesting account of ''An Old Virginia Resort," the Sweet Springs. Sundry hints on " Cheap Tramping in Switzerland," are given by Alvan F. Sanborn. Lillie Barr Morgan writes pleasantly of her " Feathered Friends." Dr. Charles C. Abbott, praises the " L'nlettered Learned." The war leads the July number of ScrIBNER'S Magazine. Richard Harding Davis's account of "The First Shot of the War " and '' The F'irst Bom bardment " is the graphic picture of what an eye wit ness saw when the " Buen Ventura" was taken and Matanzas was bombarded. " Manila and the Phil ippines" are described by Isaac M. Elliott, for three years United States consul at Manila. Captain Mahan writes of the most popular naval hero of the Revolu tion, "John Paul Jones." "Undergraduate Life at Smith College" is written by a recent graduate, Miss Alice Katherine Fallows.