A NEW CURE FOR PULMONARY DISEASE.

The old belief, still lingering in many parts •of England, that the only remedy for consump tion is to take lodgings above a butcher’s shop is just now receiving a strange confirmation in America, Active-minded New Yorkers, on the alert for a novelty, have invented a new cure for pulmonary disease. Very dissimilar natural productions have, from lime to time, been recommended by the medical faculty to patients afflicted with diseases impregnable to drugs; for instance, the milk cure, the whey cure, the grape cure, the water cure ; but none of these is so curious as the blood cure, now practised at the abattoirs of New York. Starting from the position that butchers are rarely attacked by phthisis, it has l>oeu supposed that the vitality of expiring animals unites with the atmosphere, and is absorbed by those people who are im mediately about the body at the time of death. This vitality is supposed to exist in the blood, mid many persons daily visit the abattoirs to catch the hot blood of the bullock, and by drinking it nourish and sustain their own ex hausted vitality. Numerous instances are cited •of cures effected by this method, said, at first, to be very repugnant to patients, who in time, however, take their dose of hot bullock’s blood as easily as any of the other curious drinks .fashionable in Manhattan. It is, of course, inevitable that stories of the blood-drinkers are invested with a halo of romance which inter feres not a little with a clear perception of actual facts. There is, of course, the pale .young damsel of the “upper ten,” who drives •down to the abattoir, to take her turn, in her chariot, and receives her hideous draught in a silver cup tendered by a tall young man with r moustache ; hut she is hardly more interesting than the youth who, after being cured of con sumption by draughts of blood, is consumed •ever after by a thirst for that beverage, and on being denied it springs like a vampire on his brother. When these thrilling incidents are ■dismissed, the residue of fact appears to he that butchers and slaughtermen do not themselves ‘drink the blood of the animals they slaughter, being quite content with the atmosphere sur rounding them, and that the blood-drinking ■enthusiasts are pursuing the treatment in de fiance of their medical advisers, who look with sail evil eye upon the blood-cure. This antago nism on.the part of the faculty is attributed & by “the enthusiasts to mere professional jealousy.

SHOOTING A SWEETHEART.

I he Home News gives the following account *of a shocking murder at Cassington, near •Oxford:—llarry Rolls, a young farmer, has been charged on remand, at Woodstock, with ■shooting his former sweetheart, Miss Allen, of Cassington. Mr. SmaUhorn, surgeon, of Eyn -sham, stated he was called in to see Miss Allen, when he found her on the floor covered with blood. He examined her body and found, three bullet wounds—viz., one in the arm, one in the left fore-arm, breaking it in two places, and one in the back of the right side. The wounds were, in his opinion, dangerous, espe cially the one in the back, the bullet being still there; in fact, he was afraid she was sinking. A labourer, living at Cassington, said he was at home, when a little girl named Hall came to him and told him that Harry Rolls was down at Mr. Putts’, and using Miss Allen very ill. On going to the house he found the door of the parlor fastened, and heard Miss Allen cry for help. He kicked in ■a panel of the door and saw her lying on the floor. The prisoner was in the room with a pistol in his hand, and saying if anyone came to protect her he would shoot them. The prisoner said he had clone what he wanted to -do, and she was sure to die, but he had plenty, •of time to repent. A police-constable said that prisoner came to his house and said he had ■come to give himself into custody for shooting Miss Allen. The constable said lie must be joking, and the prisoner said, “ I’m not, for here is the revolver I did it with.” (The're volver was produced, and was a six-chambeied ■one of large size.) “I fired three or four times at her—once in the back, and she fell in the chair with her back towards me.” He said she had treated him very cruelly, for he had spent over R3OO on her, and she had been •deceiving him for a long time. Fie also said the devil must have tempted him, for he loved her as his life. As the lady has since died, the jury, at an adjourned inquest, returned a verdict of “ Wilful Murder ” against the prisoner.

A Singular Marriage Story.— A Scotch gentleman, long resident in England, while living at an inn in Edinburgh, was startled by n. fine-looking youthful Scot calling upon him, and claiming him as his father. Having a fair supply of sons, he denied his claim to the honour of being the stranger’s parent, but was then shown a contract of marriage between himself and the young man’s mother some years before he left Scotland. The young man was told it was a boyish bargain, and so on, but for “auld king sync,” he was asked to he the guest of his mother’s old lover. The stranger fell in love with the gentleman’s daughter, and by the week’s end asked her in marriage, saying if he were refused he would conclude it was because she was his half-sister. In vain the father protested and the daughter refused. Ihe stranger lover threatened a scene, which meant exposing the wife and family to an imputation which would shock them, of course. At last the father told his daughter how he was in her lover’s power, and she con sented to have him in three years, and signed a Scotch agreement to that effect, only in the present tense. He then gave up his mother’s document and departed, after a scene which need not be further named. Several years have passed, and his death in New York has been announced in the newspapers, but now that the young lady wishes to be married no proof of the death can be found, and the lawyers warn her against another Enoch Arden case. _ Advertisements are now appearing in the New \ ork papers offering a reward for a certificate of his death.

A CLEVER SWINDLE.

What at present seems, to be an impudent systematic fraud on an extensive scale has just been exposed through the action of the Bir mingham police. Some six weeks ago a firm calling themselves “Bentley, Kemp, & Co., wine merchants,” opened a shop at 325 Broad Street, London, premises which had recently been constructed. The shop was taken for a period of six weeks only, the rent, at the rate of Rioo a-year, l>eing paid in advance, and preparations were made to carry on business in an ostensibly bona fide manner. The name and calling of the firm were painted conspicuously on the window, and the place had quite a sub stantial business-like appearance. A similar aspect was imparted to the interior of the shop. 1 hree or four clerks, who had been engaged through advertisements, were to be seen busily occupied, and everything was in the orthodox style of a commercial establishment. Within three weeks, however, certain circumstances transpired which necessitated inquiries by the police. Tt was ascertained that “ Messrs Bentley, Kemp, & Co.” had advertised exten sively in all the principal newspapers in Eng land, parts of Scotland, and Dublin. Column advertisements werej inserted at their request, announcing that “ Messrs Bentley, Kemp, & Co.” made Christmas hampers their specialty, and expatiating on the excellent qualities of the wines and spirits contained in their “re nowned one-guinea hamper.” As a further inducement to purchasers the advertisement set forth that with each double Christmas hamper, the price of which was £l, would be presented a small casket, containing samples of three choice liqueurs in cut glass "models of ordinary decanters. The hampers were to be sent, carriage paid, to all parts of the kingdom, on receipt of a post office order, payable in favor of James Bentley. So skilfully were the arrangements carried out that in nearly every instance the newspapers gave credit to the firm for those extensive advertisements, and in the course of a few days Messrs Bentley, Kemp, & Co. began to reap a rich harvest. Confid ing people from all parts of the country trans mitted post-office orders and cheques, and it is stated that as many as 40 and 50 a-day were received. Subsequently, with a view to facili tate negotiation of crossed cheques and the changing of the money orders, and to give the advertisers a more respectable standing, an account was opened with one of the banks in Birmingham. The applicants for the Christ mas hampers at length became troublesome, and would not any longer be put off with assurances that “ the articles have been sent,” and that “ our carman has just been despatched with them to the station.” Complaints and also communications about the firm were being daily received by the police, who set a watch on the premises, and on Christmas Day the bubble burst with the apprehension, on a charge or fraud, of the leader, who gave the name of James Bentley. He had evidently made himself acquainted with what the police were doing, for when Detective Floare went to arrest him at his lodgings he had made preparations to leave the town with his wife; and he attempted to draw a considerable sum of money from the bank that had accumulated there, but he did not succeed. The premises of the firm were afterwards searched. There was not a trace of any wines, spirits, or other goods in the place, and neither could an excise wine dealer’s license be found. Amongst the papers seized were a list containing the names of upwards of 200 evening and daily newspapers, including many of the largest London and provincial papers, in which the “ Christmas hampers” had been advertised, and some dozens of letters written on elaborately prepared memoranda requesting the insertions of announcements, and adding that “this is definite, and if not approved of you will then please consider present order cancelled. We may add that if the advertise ment is well displayed, and given a prominent position in your columns, it will lead to other advertisments of ours appearing in your journal.” A large number of manuscript copies of lengthy advertisements were also found. The fraud is said to be only too successful, the perpetrators having netted a large sum, exclusive of the money detained by the bank. Unfortunately the confederates of Bentlv, of whom there are believed to be two, are unknown, and all efforts of the police to trace them have hitherto failed.

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA.

This world is not the merry place it used to be. Old fashions and old festivals are dying out altogether. The glory of the ancient New England Thanksgiving has passed away; the Governor, to be sure, still issues the customary religious proclamation in November, nay, more, the President puts one forth too, and so gives the Puritan feast a national character; the parson still preaches his annual sermon in the hideous village meeting-house; the brown turkey still steams and sput ters impatiently before the fire, waiting for the benediction ; but no longer does a whole family, down to the latest generation, gather around the paternal board, sons and grandsons coming from distant states to keep this Yankee Saint’s day at the old homestead, and to taste again “ mother’s mince pies,”

which, it is the firm belief of every New England farmer’s son. are superior to all other pies in the world. It was a pleasant and wholesome festival, but the country has grown too large for it, families are too much scattered, the sermon and the good cheer remain without the domestic gathering. New Year’s Day, too, has lost its lustre. Half a century ago every gentleman put on spotless apparel and made a briet call upon all the ladies with whom he had any acquaintance. Cake and wine and sometimes more substantial fare stood j'eady on the parlour table. Fair dames in ravishing attire sat patient and cheerful from eleven in the morn ing till eleven at night to receive the hurrying guests, and small chat and laughter flowed on with a never ceasing ripple. All ranks, from the lady of quality to the butcher’s wife in her lodgings over the shop, and Bridget, the cook in the back kitchen, followed the fashion. But the city grows too big for such customs. To travel so many miles to ring at a thousand doors, to wish a thousand ladies the compli ments of the season is a task beyond the powers of the average man ; com pliments are getting to be distributed by messengers with cards, and ladies are learning to hang little baskets on the bell pull to receive the paper sub stitutes. Even the greatest of all purely American feasts—the fourth of July—is but a pale and silent spectre of its former self, and is fast becoming a mere play-day for the boys. The militia in these degenerate times often neglect to parade, the village orator is much tamer than of yore, the gun powder is not as loud nor as villainous smelling as it used to be; nay, the Chinese cracker has now been forbidden and the 'racket and ruin heretofore wrought annually by that cheerful pro duct of oriental ingenuity in honour of the eagle of liberty, will be known here no more for ever. But Christmas is jollier every year. This is the one feast, the feast of all feasts, that America keeps more and more religiously, heart ily, and joyously as time runs on. It

is one of the pleasant results of the strange mixture of races in this cosmo politan capital of the new world that the Christmas customs of many a far coun try arc merrily combined in the univer sal popular rejoicings. Here at Christmas time the English man, the German, the Hollander, the Frenchman, and every Christian per son who has kept this blessed season in his own land may feel himself at home. The children shall have their dances and old-fashioned games, the elders shall romp at blind-man’s buff; the dining-room shall lie bright with green branches and sparkling eyes, and the master of the feast shall look upon the double row of happy faces over the toothsome barriers of majestic sirloin and blazing plum pudding. For love of English associations Americans have' taught the holly, neglected frequenter of the seacoast and the wild lands of the south, to flourish around New York; and the Liverpool steamers bring in English mistletoe, of which as good use is made here as in the old country. The German Christmas tree is set up in almost every American home where there are children to enjoy it; it is decked with toys and candles, and little twinkling wax lights, and innocent voices make music around it till the night is far spent. There is not an orphan asylum nor a ragged school where this same beneficent tree is not planted by the hands of generous women, and its bright fruit falls into the lap of the poor and the mother less. The charming Dutch supersti tion of Santa Claus, the rubicund little fur-clad, white-bearded friend of chil dren who drives over the house-tops on Christmas Eve, with his sleigh full of toys drawn by reindeer, and dropping down the chimneys, stuffs every little stocking with presents, still lingers in the customs of domestic life if not in its beliefs. We hope it may be many an age before the little stocking ceases to be hung at Christmas Eve near the chimneypiece, where Santa Claus will be sure to see it, and to be taken down at daylight full freighted with gifts.

THE EVENING ECHO, MONDAY, MARCH it, 1878,

Printed and Published by Smith James Furness and Charles Dixon, at their Printing Office, East Street, Ashburton, Monday, nth March, IS7S.



ALTERATIONS I ALTERATIONS I I SELLING OFF FOR A FEW DAYS LONGER. -A. O. A.ITICEIsr & Co., Are now making EXTENSIVE INTERNAL ALTERATIONS in PREMISES, until the completion of which they intend holding a CLEARHSTG- SALE AT GREATLY REDUCED PRICES. REMEMBER— A Few Days Only. G-ZRZEHRT CHEAP SALE AT AY- O- -A-ITKZEdsr <fc CO.’S, HAVELOCK STREET, ASHBURTON.



TO FARMERS. WE are to prepared to make Liberal CASH Advances on Stacked GRAIN. A few splendid Samples of SEED WHEAT and OATS for Sale. SAUNDERS BROTHERS, Ashburton and Christchurch. CHARLES REID, ASHBURTON SHOEING FORGE, CORNKR OK . EAST AND DODSON STREETS. A LARGE and varied experience in the Manufacture and Repair of Agricul tural IMPLEMENTS and MACHINERY warrants C. R. in guaranteeing Sound and Satisfactory Material and Workmanship. HORSES safely and scientifically SHOD on the Spot. STORAGE. GRAIN and other PRODUCE STORED on Account of Farmers, at Lowest Rates. SAUNDERS BROTHERS, Ashburton and Christchurch. LO TTO, Draughts and Draught Boards, Dominoes, Cards and Cribbage Boards, &c., at FURNESS AND DIXON’S, East-street, Ashburton.



A LPJIABET CARDS and Boxes, Mayor’s Spelling, Royal Readers, Slates, Pencils, Copy Books, Drawing Books, and other school Requisites to be obtained at our premises, East-street, Ashburton. FURNESS AND DIXON, Stationers’ Hall. G. G. ANSTEE, BUILDER AND CONTRACTOR, EAST STREET, ASHBURTON. Every description or Carpentering, and all. kinds of Jobbing’ Work, Shop Fittings, &c., done on the most reasonable terms. Pictures Mounted and Framed! TO FARMERS. WE are Buyers of all descriptions of G RAIN, at highest cash prices. SAUNDERS BROTHERS, Ashburton and Christchurch. PLAN of ASHBURTON, on Sale at the office of the “Evening Echo.”