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A Pest of Rabbits.
New Zealand lias suffered grievously
from these gentlest of furry foes
About twenty years ago a colonist
brought seven rabbits from the old
country to his new home at Invercar
gill, in the southern isle. It was
thought that to turn these adrift on
the bleak sandhills along the coast
could not fail to prove a benefit to
the colony. For some years this an-
joyed excellent shooting on thelinks(as
awered capitally, and the colonists en-
such a seaboard is called in Scotland).
But ere long the rabbits increased to
such an extent that they cropped
every blade of grass and even devoured
*the roots, which alone bound the
light sandhills and prevented them
from blowing over the better soil in
land. Very soon this evil occurred,
and the land was greatly injured.
Then the farmers on the seacoast be
gan shooting and trapping in earnest;
but by this time some more rabbits
had been imported to Ota<’0, and from
these two centres the mischief rapidly
spread. Considering that each rabbit
breeds eight times a year and pro
duces an average of six y«*ung at each
litter, it is easy to perceive how rapid
must be their increase. On the other
hand, their human foes are few, the
settlers in the interior living eight or
ten miles apart—a lonely life, in
truth, where perhaps half a dczm
men herd the flocks which ran je over
60.000 acres. It became evident that
these shepherds could ever check the
progress of the evil without assistance
so men were hired to ferret, trap,
shoot, or worry the invaders. These
men traveled with large packs of dt gs,
numbering from one to two dozen.
They were paid at the rate of 2d. a
• skin. It w r as, however, soon found
that the sale of skins fetched less than
they cost, while the presence of
strange dogs disturbed the sheep and
often resulted in their being worried.
The 3heep-runs being in general tracts
of Crown land, merely rented by the
farmer for a limited term of years for
the purpose of rearing stock, it was
found in many cases not to be worth
the expense ot attempting to cope with
the mischief. One cure after another
was tried, such as stopping the bur
rows with cotton-waste saturated in
bisulphide of carbon, butall were suc
cessively given up as useless efforts to
meet so wide-spread an evil. In many
cases it was found that the land could
no longer support one-fourth of its
former number of sheep, so the holders
were absolutely compelled to throw up
their leases and abandon their runs.
The extent of the ravages could hardly
be credited were it not for the cut-and-
dry statistics ef the Rabbit Nuisance
Committee. I may quote a few items
from the evidence of many gentlemen
owning laree sheep-runs in the Pro
vinces Otago and South Canterbury.
Many begin by stating how incredu
lous they were at first that rabbits
would even take to the new country
sufficiently to afford them sport. All
too quickly their eyes were opened.
For instance, in South Canterbury
Messrs. Cargill and Anderson killed
600.000 rabbits by poison a year ago,
but in the following spring their sheep
run was just as densely peopled by
them as though not one had perished.
Mr. Kitchen states that he kept nearly
a hundred men working as rabbit-
killers for four months, and succeeded
in clearing his land. Now they are
worse than ever. Mr. Rees say that
he killed 180,000 last year, and his em
ployer, Mr. R. Campbell, expended
£3000 in one year in attempting to keep
down the pest on his runs of 168,000
acres. Still the plague spreads, and
the whole land from Waitaki to
tFoveaux Strait is more or less infested
prith rabbits. Many districts are just
Lvast warren, on which it is impossi-
to keeD sheep at all. Mr. R. Camp-
^alone has been compelled to aban-
; 250,000 acres, chiefly in South
land Wallace counties, and on
>rth Marta Lake and Greenstone
several other sheep farmers
Iso been forced to abandon runs
16,000 to 16,000 acres. Many
though less seriously Injured
3e, have still suffered so greatly
sir value is immensely dete-
Eight runs, which formerly
a rental of £1000 per annum,
£170. The Burwood Run
one which used to carry
now barely provides
J878 the total num-
jlony was upward
reduced to
iis decrease,
checked.has
je^exports of
per
land upward of 5 000,000 rabbit skins—
value, £46,759—and in the following
year upward of 7,000,000 rabbit skins
sold for £66 976.
The Church Temporal.
It has been found desirable to ap
point a speoal committee of the Rt-
formed Clsssis of Illinois to assist the
large number of Hollanders who have
immigrated to Eastern Dakota, in
forming churches.
The Eastern Primitive Methodist
Conference of the United States re
ports an increase of 194 members dur
ing the year, the whole number being
2,157. The who <e value of its church
property is about $270,000.
It is proposed to erect a suitable
monument over the remains of Hester
Arm Rogers and of the Rev. Mr.
Thompson, the first president of the
Wedeyan Conference after Mr. Wes
ley's death, which lie in the church
yard of St. Mary’s, Birmingham.
The latest heretical tendency dis
covered in the Congregational denom
ination is one toward ritualism.
“Were there not candles on the
speaker’s table at the recent festival
in Faneuli Hall ?”—quietly remarks
The Congrcgationalist.
The 156th anniversary, on June 4th,
of the birth of Philip William Otter-
bein, the founder and first Bishop of
the United Brethren Church, was ap
propriately observed in all the
churches of that denomination.
The Presbyterian General Assembly,
recently in session at Springfield, had
among its members a Dr. Hornblower
and a Dr. Stillman. The :ormer was
rarely heard in the discussions, while
the latter made some of the longest
speeches.
A London paper says; “In the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland there are abo .t 40,000 places
of religious worship ; while it appears
to be a well ascertained fact that for
every 1,000 persons attending the
house of God above 2,000 are to be
found on Sunday in the public-house.”
St. John’s Episcopal Church,
Hagerstown, Md., was consecrated on
June 7th. In some respects it is con
sidered one of the finest church build
ings in Maryland. The corner-stone
of the edifice was laid in 1873, and the
building first occupied iu 1875. The
memorial tower and spire were erect
ed at a cost of upward of $20,000 by Mr.
C. C. Baldwin, of this city, in memory
of his wife, Sallie Roman Baldwin.
The Examiner recently offered The
New-York Christian Advocate $100 if
it would “prove to the satisfaction of
three scholarly men, standing in
Evangelical denominations, that the
Christians of the apostolic age under
stood the word baptizo to have any
other meaning than dip, plunge or
immerse.” The Advocate thought the
sum not big enough, and suggested
$20,000. The Christian Register takes
both papers to task for betting on the
meaning of the word, and thinks it
somewhat odd to decide a matter ot
scholarship after this method.
The Congrcgationalist regrets that
the Pilgrim Society at its late annual
meeting in Plymouth voted to return
to the use of the false date for its an
niversaries. A little persistence in
favor of the 21st of December as "Fore
fathers’ Day,” it thinks, would have
carried it, and secured a self-coneis
tent and honest arrangement for all
coming time. “With all respect to
the society, and its tenderness for the
error of the past and the fathers walk
ing therein, we think they have made
a mistake which, in its consequences,
will be a sad one. Truth iB always
best—and surely history furnishes no
exception to that rules.
The conflict between Cburch and
State in Baden has continued for
nearly thirty years. It arose from the
refusal of Mgr. Vicari, the then Arch
bishop of Freiburg, to celebrate a Re
quiem Mass in the cathedral for the
repoBe of the soul of the Grand Duke
Leopold, who had died a Protestant.
Upon the death of Archbishop Vicarl
In 1868 the Government interposed a
minus grains to the election of a suc
cessor. The suffragan bishop, was
compelled to reside outside his diocese
died last year, and the Government
have quietly acquiesced in the elec
tion of bis successor, Mgr. Obin, lately
vicar-capitular of Freiburg.
The assessed value of property In
Texas is $303,000,000, an increase of
$40,000,000 since 1880.
General Longstreet has luduced three
hundred Germans and Swiss to form a
ly near Gainesville, Ga.
Some New Hotel Rules,
Rates $3 a day.
Any hints about slop-coffee will be
charged at the rate of twenty- five cents
per hint.
No extra charge for damp sheets.
Rheumatism always on hand.
Our beefsteak is cast to order at one
of the largest foundries iu the couutry,
and can always be depended on as
fresh.
Our meat cook is an old, experienced
miner and sapper, and is provided
with picks, crowbars, torpedoes, fuses,
etc.
Guests who wash their shirts in the
waterbewl will be charged twenty-
five cents each. We cannot encour
age cleanliness in this hotel.
Children will not be allowed to play
in the hall. A beautiful mill pond
will be found two blocks below to
drown them in.
We call special attention to our beds.
The mattresses are made of the best
quality of scrap iron, and the pillows
are warranted to be of hard wood and
thoroughly seasoned.
The carpets in the bedrooms have
been use upwards of twenty-five years.
We can therefore recommend them
without reserve.
Parties who look as if they might
find fault with our particular brand o
butter will please pay in advance.
To call a servant—press the button
qu:ckly. If you don’t get one under
an hour and half you may know that
the bell is out of order.
The towels furnished guests are the
invention of a Wisconsin man. They
are warranted superior to any other
shingles in the market.
There Is a safe in the office for the
storage of money and valuables, bill
in case the night clerk skips with the
pile the hotel is not responsible.
Sour oranges, cheap raisins, am
wormy apples carried to rooms will be
charged extra!
Guests desiring hay seed mixed
with their tea will please give notice
at the office. Otherwise it will be all
hay seed.
Please report any inattention of set
vants. We expect you to fee the por
ter, steward, chambermaid and
waiters, to pay double for boot-black
ing and barbering, to put up with
flies, dust, dirt and other trifles, to pay
fifty cents to ride up and as muct
more to get back to the depot, but in
attention of servants is somethiug v>
can’t permit.
Tramps and Their Houses
in England.
All regular tramp-houses—there aie
irregular ones with peculiar and note
worthy features—are licensed taverns,
spirit houses, or, as the phrase goes on
the road, “ bingo kens ” (from Jftaiian
bianco, white, the color of gin ). Most of
these licenses are very old indeed, and
some are the oldest in the kingdom.
Every one of these houses is known
far and wide. No tramp, let him
come from where he may, ever enters
a town without very definite ideas as
to the house where he is to put up.
He has learned all about it—ay, a
hundred miles off; and he goes to it
as readily, and, when inside, conforms
as smoothly to all its ways, as thougft
he had been born whhin its precincts.
The custom cf such a house is con
stant. Tne tramp stream thither is
perennial, and maintains about the
sa ne level season after season and
year a ter year. This kind of people,
indeed, will halt here and nowhere
else so long as the house continues to
maintain its reputation among them ;
and they are a much more profitable
company than most people would
imagine. In a great many instances
the tramp-house is managed by the
same family for age after age. There
is one—the Goat, or, as the genuine
tramp prefers to term it, the Welsh
Buffalo—at W , which has been
held by the same people sinoe the
days of the Long Parliament, as re
cords in the possession of the landlord
show. They are just the sort to con
duct such a house successfully. In
stature the family has always been
gigantic; a little too stolid and surly,
perhaps, but in temper and tastes
tramp all over. For one thing, no
body ever heard of a regular marriage
taking place among them. The eldest
son takes over the house during the
“ old man’s ” life. The younger sons,
as a rule, join the police in their native
town or elsewhere, but by preference
in London. Wherever they settle,
however—and the fact is worthy of
notice—they remain to the last lu^he
ull confidence of the fraternity among
which they have been brought up.
It is the landlords of these tramp-
houses who keep up the vagabond
organiz itlon, and who renew and cir
culate its signs and passwords from j
time to time. The vagabonds them
selves could not do it, and never
think of doing it. It is difficult to
give an idea of the beggar password
and sign system ; but we will do the
best we can. It has no confmon cen
tre and uo uniformity. There may
be, and probal ly there are, fifty differ
ent sets of them in use in England.
Each has its own domain, and these
domains intersect one another in curi
ous fashion. These landlords form small
circles among themselves according to
contiguity ; and a dozen to twenty of
these small circles will form one great
one. A great circle of tramp land
lords—perhaps it were better to call it
oval—may spread fifty miles along
one of the great highways and ten to
fifteen miles on each side of it. And
so far the set of signs and passwords
in use therein are good for three
months, when they are regularly
changed. A free tramp pays three
pence for the sign and password every
t me they are renewed. All he has to
do on these occasions is to go to any
landlord of the right sort, give in the
old sign and password in due form,
and pay his pence. And he has to
pay again eve y time he enters a new
circle. Experience teaches him very
well the precise bounds of each. How
ever, when he manifests ignorance on
this point, he is very toon set right by
the landlord, and must purchase the
freedom of the new circle in the usual
way. He meets with little difficulty
here, provided the pence are forth
coming. For the tramp landlord can
tell in an instant, by the word and
sign given by the tramp, whether the
latter is one of the right sort or not.
Password and sign, indeed, serve,
among other things, as a means
whereby tramp landlords levy a tax
upon vagabonds all over the country.
The uses of this vagabond free
masonry are manifold. It teaches the
vagabond whom he may safely con
sort and traffic with every wheie. The
man who gives the right response to
mystic word and sign is invariably
the one in whom confidence may be
safely reposed. On the roadside the
exchange of these tokens is immedi
ately followed by a free exchange
of recent experiences, to the benefit
of both parties. Nor is this all
The vagrant out of luck is entitled
to all the assistance his more fortun
ate brother can render, and invari
ably receives it. A fortunate vagrant
never objects to picking up a brother
in bad plight and treating him to sup
per, bed and breakfast, besides start
ing him on his mxt day’s journey
with a few pence in his pocket. The
uninitiated vagrant Dotices, as he can
not help noticing, the constant use o
the,.e signs and countersigns on the
road, and the effects that follow them
in numerous instances. He often sees
a fellow as bauly off as himself picked
up and made much of by a perfect
stranger, and for no reason on earth
tha 1 ; he can see, except that one ad
dresses another with an apparently
unmeaning catchword. He picks up
tbe word and employs it on all occa
sions, in the h»pe that some time or
other it may bring the like fortune to
himself. Other silly ones catch it
from him, and use it, for no reason at
all that they can give, a3 a salutation.
Thus spread over the country such
phrases as; “ Have you seen Simp
son?” “ Is Murphy right?” “ Is your
father working ?”
The Causes and Cure of Old
Age.
L. Langer has recently been en
gaged iq the comparative analysis of
human fat at different ages. He finds
that infants fat is harder than that of
adults or old men, that there are oil
globules in our fat but none in that of
babies ; the microscope shows one or
two oil globules in every fat cell of the
adult, while very few have fat crystals.
The fat cells of the infant contain no
oil globules, and nearly every cell con
tains fat crystals. “Infant fat forms a
homogeneous white, solid, tallow-like
mass, and melts at 45° C.,” while
adult fat standing in a warm room sep
arates into two layers ; the lighter and
larger is a transparent yellow liquid
which solidifies below the freezing
point of water, the lower layer is a
granular crystalline mass melting at
36° C. Infant fat contains 67 75 per
cent of oleic acid, adult fat 89 80. In
fant fat contains 28 97 per cent of
palmitic acid, against 8 16 in the
adult, aud 3 28 of stearic acid against
2.04. These latter, the palmitis and
stearic acids are the harder and less
fusible, while the oleic acid is the
softer and more fusible constituent of
fats.
No attempt is made to explain the
reason of these differences, or to sug-
gist any means by which we may
reharden or repalmitlze our fat, and
thus regain our infant chubbiness,
Old age is evidently due to changes
of this kind, not only of the fat, but
also of the other materials of the bo ly.
The first step toward the discovery of
the elixir of life, the “aurum potabile”
of tbe alchemist, is to determine the
nature of these changes,the next to as
certain their causes, and then to re
move them. If, as we are so often told,
there can be no effect without a cause,
there must be causes for the organic
changes constituting decay and old
age. Remove these, and we live for
ever. The theory is beautifully
simple.
Marshes and Malaiia.
The opinion formerly so prevalent,
that malaria exists only, or chiefly,
in marshy soil, appears to be success
fully combatted by Professor Tom
massi, who sites as evidence not only
th at the Cam pagn a of Rome is not really
marshy, but that, speaking roughly,
two- thirds of the malaria-stricken dis
tricts of Italy are situated on heights.
He refers to the well-known fact, that
sometimes the surface of these dis
tricts is completely dry during the
surnmea, but the production of mala
ria in them goes on just the same, pro
vided they are kept moist below the
surface by special conditions of the
subsoil, and the air can reach the
moist strata by pores or crevices in the
surface. The investigations made by
M Tomtnassi and others further
show, that the direct action of the
oxygen of the air is so neoessary to
the development of the mlcrosoopic
plant to which the malaria is due,
that the most pestilential marshes be
come innocuous when the soil is com
pletely covered by water; pavements,
buildinge and the like, may act in the
same way, and arrest the development
of the plant by cutting ofl the neces
sary supply of oxygou- but if, even
after the lapse of yours or of centuries,
communication with the outer air is
restored, while the o'.h< r conditions
remain the ea i.r, the soil recover Us
noxious pioperilcs.
The Pleasant Mozo.
The “Mozo” is a personal servant
or valet, and a very useful appendage
to have in traveling around over the
country away from the main lines of
travel. He takes all the care of the
camp, taking care of the animals,
cooking, etc., off his master’s mind,
and in passing through the settle
ments he can save the price of his
wag‘s (which is generally four bits a
a day) in buying eggs, chickens, etc.,
for food, and feed for the animals at
the regular rates where the ignorant
foreigner accustomed to American
ways would get cheated and worried
on all occasions.
Then Mexico is a country in which
appearances go a long way toward se
curing consideration and comfort.
The man with a mozo is supposed to
be a man ot business, who understands
the ways of the country, and can’t be
imposed on with impunity. All
mozos are supposed to be honest and
trusty to a certain extent; of course,
all Mexicans of the lower class have a
limit to their pride of honor, though
one can generally be sure of those
qualities (with a limit) if the mozo
has been secured by a responsible
business man, who has lived some
time in the country, it spoils a mozo
to treat him as an equal, and it is
much better for both master and ser
vant if the man cannot speak half a
dozen words of English. No mau
should go rambling around over the
country without a knowledge of tbe
Spanish language.
Some Americans in traveling with
their mozo give him all the money
they take on the trip, and let him so
understand it that he may be put
more on his professional pride, and at
the same time, if he is not to be
trusted, it saves him the disagreeable
necessity of killing his master while
he sleeps, if he intends to rob him, as
he can leave with the funds at any
time. We know of cases where it was
made a rule, when a party of two or
three Americans was traveling with
a trusty mozo, that at no time should
all the Americans go to sleep at once,
especially at the midday siesta. While
they trusted they didn’t intend to
tempt. It was only last October that
an Amerioan and his wife, traveling
from Inde to Durango, with a mozo
they had brought with them from
El Paso, were both murdered by the
trusty mozo while they slept aud that
was the end of it. The mozu took all
the money they had and escaped. The
authorities took, but little interest in
the matter. No reward was offered,
and he has not yet been captured.