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A REGULARLY organized system of relieving pov erty has been in vogue in China for more than two thousand years. It is said that an organized system of charity prevailed among the Egyptians twenty-five hundred years B. C.

The greatest bay on the face of the earth is that of Bengal. Measured in a straight line from the two in closing peninsulas, its extent is about four hundred and twenty thousand square miles.

A famous brigand was lately shot in public execu tion at Belgrade, Servia, but the firing party and the spectators were horrified, when the smoke lifted, to see a second body beside the brigand's. "A/on Dieu! there are two of them! " exclaimed the Black Mousquetaire. The second man proved to be a newspaper correspondent who had approached too near in order to obtain a realistic account for his paper. He was successful in increasing its circula tion. A recent report issued in Germany says that 3,574,501 hectolitres of beer were absorbed in Berlin in 1897, "so that each inhabitant drank 206 litres." In 1892 the average consumption was 169 litres.

"Imprisonment for life is the extreme punish ment that can be given the assassin of the Empress of Austria, according to the laws of Switzerland. There is not yet a federal penal code in Switzerland,"' the Swiss minister says.

It seems that it is beneath the dignity of an Indian prince to sleep, or to be, in fact, at any time under one of lower rank. In Amsterdam, at the lime of the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina, the hotel proprie tors were much put out on learning that the top of the house was the part which the Indian princes in sisted upon lodging in, and that all the gorgeous decoration and furnishing of the lower floor were use less from an Oriental point of view. The prince of higher rank would never occupy an apartment under one of lower.

LITERARY NOTES. Thf. complete novel in the September issue of Lh'PINCOTT'S is " The Touch of a Vanished Hand," by the late Miss M. G. McClelland. " The Crom well Case," by James Raymond Perry deals with the unravelling of a supposed murder. Henry Holcomb Bennett, in "A Charge in the Dark," describes an experience of the National Guard which resembles

actual war. Felix L. Oswald writes of " War Hys terics," and Frances M. Butler of "War Songs." "Monarchies and Republic," are considered by Fred eric M. Bird, with special reference to our relations with England. " New York in the Seventies," is a previously unpublished chapter from M. E. W. Sher wood's recollections.

The Atlantic Monthly for October contains an article by Mr. Dicey on '' England and the United States." Carl Schurz contributes a paper on " Eng lish Friendliness to Us"; and there is an important article on " Our Duty to Lands taken from Spain." There are also statements by school superintendents called " Confessions," which, as they are written anonymously, set forth the interesting problems of public-school life very candidly and vividly.

In the September Century, Prof. Dean C. Worces ter writes of " The Malay Pirates of the Philippines." Theodore S. Woolsey contributes a study of " Spain and Her American Colonies." Emile Ollivier is rep resented by an important paper on " America, Spain, and France." The problem of the retention and ad ministration of Island territory is discussed from opposite points of view by Hon. Carl Schurz, in "Thoughts on American Imperialism," and by Hon. Whitelaw Reid, in " The Territory with which we are Threatened." Edward Emerson, Jr., tells of his adventures " Alone in Porto Rico," and Walter Russell recounts " Incidents of the Cuban blockade." President Daniel C. Oilman contributes a paper on " Alexis de Tocqueville and his Book on America — Sixty Years After." Dr. Daniel G. Hrinton's paper on " Popular Superstitions of Europe," and the final article by Prof. Benjamin Ide Wheeler on " The Seven Wonders of the World," have characteristic illustrations by Andre Castaigne. There are two stories, " His Version of It," by Paul Leicester Ford, in which the leading characters are horses, and " His Word of Honor," a character sketch by Bliss Perry.

The American Monthly Review of Reviews, for 'September, presents the usually timely features. The various events connected with the end of the war with Spain are fully discussed by the editor, while the Porto Rican campaign, from start to finish, is described by John A. Church. Henry Macfarland, a Washington journalist, contributes a character sketch of William R. Day, the Secretary of State. Charles Lowe, the English biographer of Bismarck, and W. T. Stead, furnish a rich fund of anecdotes re garding the late ex-chancellor.