The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.

: 1848 - 1956) Saturday 26 August 1893

HERE AND THERE. Tho scientific world in Europe ia much excited by the successful construction of

asubmarine vessel, appropriately namedL'Audaoe, designed by DegliAbbati, a mari-time engineer in the Russian Bervice, whichwill enable its officers and crew to remain atthe bottom of the sea foran indefinite period,and to explore the bed of the ocean in theinterests of science as well na for the re-covery of the almost incalculable treasurewhich lies buried there. Were it not for theserious spirit in which the undertaking isdiscussed by the llussian papers one mightimagine the project to have originated in thefertile brain of Jules Verne.

The chief commissioner of France at theWorld's Fair in Chicago thinks it necessaryto assure exhibitors that their wares are notlegally liable to be distrained upon if thecreditors of the enterprise should be obligedto recover what is owing to them by processof law. He attributes the financial failureof the enterprise to the inexperience of itspromoters, the persistent hostility of thepress in othar American cities jealous ofChicago, the absence1 of attractive enter-tainments, and tile immense fatigue attend-ing the exploration of a show which coversasquaie mile of ground. Four thousand Mecklonburghers havewaited upon Prince Bismarck at Friedrichsrub, for the purpose of offering him theirhomage. Three addresses were delivered bythe delegates, to whioh the ex-Chancellorreplied in a speech of an hour and a half's duration. Its chief theme was the fact thatparticularism is lifting up its head in variousparts of the empire, and that tumult beremorselessly combated as an enemy tonational unity. The venerable statesmanseemed to be full of fire and energy, and isevidently under the impression that his ownreturn to power is essential to^ the stabilityof the empire he has assisted to erect. Tho publication of Docteur Ptmcal, whichcompletes the "Hongon-Macquart" scries ofromances, has been made the occasion of abanquet offered to M. Emile Zola, by hispublisher, M. Charpentier, to which 200gueBts, representing the celebrities of Paris,were invited. The guest of honour, in theeourseof his speech, 3aid that all his con-tracts "with his publisher had been verbalones, and that not so much as' a passingcloud had darkened their friendship. Thelast speech of the evening was the pith est."I wish, with all my soul," saidGeneral Young, "that my illustrioustrient!, after the Dbcle, will one daygive us the Triomphe." To which Zolareplied-" General, that depends on you ;"whereupon all the guests rose to their feet andcheered vehemently. Nothing excites the astonishment of foreignvisitors to Chicago so much as the lifts, bothas regards their variety and their velocity.They are divided into three classes-theomnibus lift, which stops and discharges itspassengers at each floor; the direct, whichonly halts once or twice on its way up anddown ; and the express, which jerks you inthirty seconds from the basement of a build-ing like the Masonic-hall to the top story,which is the eighteenth. In descending, itis said, the sensation is as if all the breathwere being driven out of your body. Lord Dnfferin, in the reply which he con-descended to make to tho pieposterous alle-gation of La Cocarde that documents hadbeen stolen from the British Embassy inParis and showing that he had boen entrustedwith three millions of francs wherewith tocorrupt French politicians and French news-papers to rupture the Franco-liusaianAlliance, proved that he still possesses thefine sense of humour manifested in hisLetters from High Latitudes. " It is need-less to tell you," Baid he, "that since I havebeen in France I have not spent sixpencewhich has not gone into the pookets of mybutoher or my baker, and into herswho avenges the sin of Adam-my wife's dressmaker." The robbery fiom the monastery ofTchondow, in the Kremlin, at Moscow,already reported by telegram, seems to havebeen a gigantic affair. The value of thejewels stolen is estimated at a million and aquarter of roubles. Crowns, mitres, andcrosses blazing with diamonds, many otthem the gifts of sovereigns to the shrinesor images they adorned, have disappeored,while the silver in which they were set wasdetached from them and hidden away underthe altar of one of the churches of the con-vent. The theft ia generally believed to havebeen perpetrated by one or more of themonkish inmates, and u3 the plunder wasvery portable and not easy of identificationthere is very little chance of its ecovery.

A revolution in civic hygiene has beeneffected, it is confidently stated, by a Frenchengineer, M. Eugene Hermite, no passes astrong electric current through a tank ofsea water, and not only decomposes this, butthe chloride of sodium whioh it holds in solu-tion also. At the positive pole is formed avery unstable compound of oxygen and ofchlorine, gifted with a great power of oxidation, while it the other pole another oxideis produced, having the property ot precipi-tating organic mutters. With this electrolyticsolution it has been found practicable todisinfect the filthiest sewage, and at the sametime to sterilise it of all organic life. Thesuccess of the process has been demonstratedby experiments made at Baupaume, near lioucn. No little stir has been occasioned in theprecincts of the Vatican by the fact that theFreemasons of that city have established theirheadquarters in the Palazzo Borghese, wherethe Grand Orient Lodge now holds it meet-ings. The creditors of the prince to whom itbelongs have leased the palace to that bodyfor n term of years. It is regarded as acurious exemplification of the irony of fatethat an edifice commenced by Cardinal Dezzaand finished by Pope Paul the Fifth, whowas himself a Borghese, should have passedinto the hands ot ti society which, both inFrance and Italy, is the uncompromisingenemy of the Papacy. According to the French papers, one of thelargest purchasers at the sale of the Spitzercollection in Paris was a native of Australin,a Mr. George Salting, who is the owner, inLondon, of a magnificent collection ofChinese porcelain, and of bronea andfaience ware of the Renaissance. He isstated to have expended 40,000 at the sale,where he acquired for 4,000 the two admirable faiences of Chaffagiolo, as also thefamous horseman of Riccio, the sideboardof Annecy, some exquisite carvings in i\ ory,the richest cabinet 'n the collection, thechoice pottery of St. Porchaire, andnumerous rarities in antique jewellery,cutlery, ic.