two hence perhaps we shall know what this apparition means; it did not come for nothing. But the gentlemen have been disturbed; I am sorry for it; it is my affair, not theirs; I will go to my little room. I beg the gentlemen's pardon; they must not be troubled, but go to sleep again; only I will have my lamp lighted and my Bible, the large one off the drawers. Think not of me. I will pass the night waking, but in silence. I will disturb no one any more." had placed his initials there, or it might be that these were numerals, instead of letters, intended to indicate the number 18. I had almost left off conjecturing what these marks could mean, when my eye fell upon the hearthstone at my feet, and it occurred to me that the outline of this stone was somewhat similar to that of the figure on the box; there was a crack across it, too, which corresponded with the irregular scratch above mentioned. This set me thinking once more. I compared the two outlines, and was confirmed in my impression as to their resemblance, but there was no mark to represent the J. S. or the 18, whichever it might be. The floor around the hearthstone was formed of narrow bricks placed on edge; I counted these, beginning at the crack in the stone, and found that the eighteenth was concealed by a large wicker basket moved. I moved it, however, and swept away the dust and dirt from underneath it. Again I counted the bricks, and a very short inspection of the eighteenth in order showed me that it was loose. I lifted it; dust and rubbish underneath; that too I removed, and was rewarded with the discovery of a small jar containing some papers and a bag of coin. I cannot describe my feelings, as, without lifting the jar from the place of its concealment, I replaced the brick, covered it again with the basket, and sat down before the fire to watch till morning. We begged her to come near the fire, and to sit in our company awhile, till she should have recovered from her alarm, but she refused. She had been too troublesome already, she said. The doctor persuaded her, however, to take a few drops of something good to compose her; and having done so, she went away to her little room and shut the door. The doctor murmured something about "his usual destiny-containing firewood, which apparently was seldom called up, of course; "and ascended yawning to his bed-chamber, and I was left alone. I stood by the fire pondering over what had occurred, and looking from time to time over my shoulder with a creeping sensation, expecting to see the chair occupied, as before, by the silent and mysterious figure. Whenever I moved or made any noise, I fancied the sound was echoed or repeated behind me; but that, of course, was only imagination. At length I turned briskly round, resolved to shake off this morbid state of nervousness, and looked about me; and now my attention was riveted instantly upon an object which had hitherto escaped my notice. There, upon the little round table close to where I was standing, lay the tin tobacco-box_which the phantom had taken from his pocket. I was quite certain that no such box had been there in the earlier part of the evening, and that it had been placed there, as I had seen with my own eyes, by the figure which the old woman had identified as the ghost of her husband. Was this the ghost of his tobaccobox, or was it a reality? I looked at it with a feeling almost of awe, and put out my hand two or three times before I could summon resolution to touch it. At last I did so. It was a very ordinary box, with the initials H. S. rudely engraved upon it. The late landlord's name was Heinrich Stoffel! This, then, had been his box, and here was tangible evidence of the strange visitation which I had witnessed. Had he come back from the grave on purpose to leave this box upon the table? It was empty; did he want it filled? Even that thought crossed my mind, for I was in a matter-of-fact humour, notwithstanding my nervousness; and I remembered the bread and sausage left by the widow for "anything" that might happen to come. The Kobold, too, had been particular about his milk-how about the tobacco? But no; graver thoughts returned quickly. Yet this box must have some meaning in it: the receipt for the rent-could it be in here? There might be a false bottom to the box! I examined it, and pushed and twisted it, but could discover nothing. I turned it over and over a dozen times, and searched carefully for some secret fastening, but in vain. The only thing I noticed was a kind of figure something like a gravestone, scratched as with the point of a penknife, upon the bottom of the box. The more I examined this the more I felt persuaded that it was no accidental scratch, but was intended to represent something. There was a mark across the middle, and at one side of this mark a sort of flourish like the letters J. S., as if another of the Stoffels Soon after daylight began to appear the doctor came down; but I said nothing to him, for I felt that this was a matter which concerned the widow only, and that the less it was talked about in the neighbourhood the better. He called up the old woman, spoke kindly to her about her indisposition, and departed, having, as he said, "sufferings" to visit, who would be wondering what had become of their "physic." When he was gone, I drew the widow to the fire-place, showed her the loosened brick in the pavement, took out the jar, and bade her examine its contents. She recognised the bag in a moment; it was one which she had made for her husband. In it, among other papers, the receipt for the rent was discovered, an 1 O U from a neighbour for a small debt, and three or four pieces of gold. I afterwards showed her the box, and explained by what steps I had been led to the discovery of the bag. "Ach weh!" she exclaimed; "my poor dear man! it was his box; he always carried it about with him; I found it in his pocket-his best coat pocket, after he was dead, but it was empty, and I left it there. And he came back last night because I was in trouble to show me where he had hidden the bag. Oh, may he rest well in his grave henceforth! I shall have a house over my head now, as long as I live. I hope he will have nothing more to trouble him, and bring him here again. Oh, it's an awful thing to have the dead coming to and fro in this way. But he'll never come again, I dare say, now his mind's at rest." Soon afterwards she called me upstairs into her chamber; there were her husband's coat and breeches, the same which I had seen worn by the apparition, lying upon the bed. "See," she said, "he went to his own box to get them out; he knew where to find them; he couldn't take them with him when he went away again, but he didn't stop to fold them up. I always used to do that for him, and it's like old times." I left the house that day under a full persuasion | out of London, and will always lift you out of it, that I had seen a ghost. But there was something for far away the view stretches over blue distances grotesque in the idea of a spirit coming from the to the ridge where Windsor stands." These fields, other world, going to his chest, and, with a marked Miss Hill tells us, "may be bought now, or they sense of propriety, putting on his clothes before may be built on;" and she asks, "Which is it to making his appearance in public, and then taking be?" We heartily hope this question will be anthem off, and not stopping to fold them up and put swered as Miss Hill would have it answered; meanthem away. And as I walked on I could not help while the answer should not be long delayed, because thinking whether the events of the past night were land in the outskirts of this great city increases in capable of any other and more natural interpreta- value even faster than do the finest vintages in the tion. I came to the following conclusion. The wine-vaults, and what is obtainable now on liberal doctor, after retiring to rest, felt cold; he had left terms may not be obtainable at all a year or two the greater part of his garments down below before hence. Some thousands of pounds, we learn, have the fire; he got up and searched his chamber for been already subscribed for the purchase of part of some extra covering; the box in which the old man's these fields, and there seems reason to hope that ere clothes were kept was unlocked, and he drew them long the question of Miss Hill will be decided favourforth to lay upon his bed. During the night the old ably, and Marylebone shall have its park. woman's story recurred to him in his dreams; he got up in his sleep (being perhaps a little under the influence of opium), which it was evident he carried with him, put on the old man's clothes as if they had been his own, and came downstairs. After a vain search in his pockets and about the room for something which he seemed to think had been mislaid, he went up to bed again, entirely unconscious of all that had occurred. The marks upon the tobacco-box were a kind of memoria technica which the old man had made for himself when he first deposited his treasure in the new hiding-place, and the production of the box itself was, of course, a mere accident arising out of the doctor's dream. The doctor was the "ghost." If this explanation is not satisfactory, I can think of no other. T. M. S. OPEN SPACES AND RESTING-PLACES. IN N an admirable letter which appeared in the "Times," the Rev. Harry Jones, pleading for the establishment of an open garden in St. George'sin-the-East, pointed attention to a long disused churchyard planted with trees, and only separated by a gaol-like wall, "high, spiked, and strong," from an old Wesleyan burying-ground, also disused; and he suggested the pulling down of the middle wall of partition between the dead Churchmen and the dead Nonconformists, and the conversion of the area (something more than an acre) which they now occupy into a well-ordered garden. He looks forward to seeing, in place of the mouldering memorials of the dead, a cheerful resort for the living, laid out in flower-beds and lawns, and dotted with shadowcasting trees, which shall afford a grateful retreat from the hot and gritty streets to a population who for the most part are situated some two miles distant from the nearest spot available for the enjoyment of fresh air and recreation. Almost synchronous with the appeal of the Rev. Mr. Jones, there was published another and kindred appeal from Miss Octavia Hill, recommending, on grounds equally politic and humane, the purchase of the Swiss Cottage Fields, a tract of land lying north of Marylebone, one of the largest parishes in London-land which, if it be not soon secured, will be certainly covered with acres of villas, and lost to the public for ever. They are the nearest fields to the heart of the capital to be found anywhere. "There the may still grows; there thousands of buttercups crown the slopes with gold; there, best of all, as you ascend, the hill lifts you These appeals, which we would heartily second, we shall venture to supplement with one of our own. What sufficient reason can any one adduce why Lincoln's Inn Fields should not be thrown open as a public breathing-ground? If a single acre is an object of importance in St. George's-in-the-East, and the Swiss Cottage Fields would be so great a boon to Marylebone, how important must it not be that the crowded denizens who inhabit the purlieus of Holborn, Clare Market, Fleet Street, and the Strand should be free to enjoy the advantages that would be afforded by the several acres of Lincoln's Inn's broad area. In this case there is nothing that stands in the way; all that is wanted is the concurrence of the lawyers, benchers, and others who inhabit the square. It was at their instigation exactly a hundred and forty years ago that this large space of ground, which up to 1735 had been the recreation-ground of the citizens, was enclosed. There was reason enough for enclosing it then, because it was the resort of roughs and rascals, and the almost nightly scenes of robbery, of mob-rioting, and brutalities of all sorts. But now that the people is no longer a mob, the necessity for their exclusion no longer exists. The Act of Parliament of 1735 should be repealed; the dwellers in the square should surrender their right to keep the public out of it; the care of the garden should be entrusted to a couple of wardens, and it should be thrown open to everybody. The advantage to the neighbourhood would be incalculable; the inconvenience to the residents would turn out to be nil, while if the square were crossed by diagonal pathways, the distance from Holborn to Clare Market, and by-and-by to the new Inns of Court, and also from Queen Street to the New Hall and Library, would be shortened more than a third, to the no small satisfaction of pedestrians. There are many other of the London squares which might be thrown open to the public, for the same reasons, and which would be thrown open were they situated in any other capital in Europe; but with us, so strong are the prejudices of class and the force of vested interests, that it is perhaps vain to expect to make head against them for years to come. Allied to the subject of Open Spaces is that of Seats and Resting-Places. Looking to the thousands of strangers who are always perambulating London for pleasure, and to the tens of thousands of natives who are everlastingly traversing both city and suburbs, it is astonishing to note the almost utter absence of seats on which a weary wanderer may rest himself. Save in the parks, there is hardly ono : to be found. You may walk for miles in any direc- | manner, saying that this was quite compatible tion countryward, and wander about the whole day with a keen interest in the study of disease, and without a chance of sitting down to rest your weary would be likely to win the confidence of the patient. limbs. We often see the poor penniless tramp from To the senior students Mr. Fairlie Clarke said:the country, footsore and staggering with fatigue,"To you more than to any other group among us is but we do not see him sitting down to rest. If we the welfare of this medical school committed. I do see him resting at all it is prostrate on the ground, not under-estimate the influence of your teachers, simply because there is literally no place for him to but our influence is only exercised occasionally, yours sit. In the place of seats we too commonly find is exercised constantly. It is scarcely too much to spikes. We pass long lines of handsome villas on say that what you are the younger students will be. the suburban high roads, and see the spaces of Remember the weight that your example must of garden ground in front of them railed off with iron necessity have, and let no light word thoughtlessly rails. The rails are inserted in stone slabs, and on spoken sully the purity of the young minds that are these there is room enough for a weary tramp to sit, joining us for the first time to-day. Let no word or but lest he should be tempted to do so, a row of act of yours cast ridicule upon the principles which sharp spikes, some three inches high, and about as have been learnt at a mother's knee and fostered far asunder, are ranged ready to receive him. It under a father's roof. Let nothing induce you to supwas not always so. We can recall the London of pose that idleness or dissipation is manly. There is fifty-nay, of nearly sixty-years ago, at which date no true manliness but in the diligent discharge of duty. not only were seats along the frequented thorough- I often think as I come within sight of Charing Cross fares generously provided, but also resting-places that the very situation of our hospital is a constant rewere constructed in convenient corners and recesses minder to us to do our duty faithfully and in a highsolely for the bearers of burdens, being so contrived minded way. We are here surrounded by monuments that the loaded bearer could, unaided, shift his of national grandeur. We are near the Houses of burden from his shoulders without stooping, and sit Parliament, the chief offices of State, and the abodes and rest beneath it until he had gathered strength to of royalty. The improvements which are now in resume his route. The London porters, who, by the progress in this neighbourhood are beautifying it way, gave their name to the cool brown beverage and making it more worthy of being the great centre they delight in, were much more numerous then than from which the influence of England goes forth over they are now; there was no parcels' delivery com- the whole world. Often when I have been coming pany, no railway vans, very little of intramural to my work here, I have bethought me of that bright goods carriage, and the strong back of the porter morning in October, 1805, when the English fleet was the general medium of delivery. No one then bore down upon the combined squadrons of France would have thought of treating a tired-out traveller and Spain off Cape Trafalgar. It scarcely needs the to a seat on sharp spikes. But then, you see, the inscription on the Nelson monument to remind us of fathers and grandfathers of the existing race of the watchword which was then signalled from the Londoners were not half so respectable as their masthead of the Victory, and which stimulated all to descendants. do their duty so gallantly. Or I have bethought me of Sir Charles Napier, the very soul of honour and rectitude, so independent in his bearing towards his equals, so free from all time-serving and tuft-hunting, so just and considerate to those who were under his THER HERE seems to be a wish in some quarters to command, so kind and humane to those who were in dispense with the Introductory Addresses de- trouble or distress. Or I have bethought me of livered at the opening of the session in the London Havelock, the very ideal of a soldier, an officer and Schools of Medicine. We should very much regret a the abandoning of so useful a custom-at least, if the addresses continue to be of the manly and practical kind of which that of Mr. Fairlie Clarke at Charing Cross Hospital was an example. We give a few extracts which contain advice suitable for young men of other occupations besides the study of medicine:"It is not too much to say that everything depends upon the use which you make of the hours which are under your own control. Temptation rarely comes in busy, working hours. It is in his leisure time that a man is made or marred. Make up your minds firmly to your line of conduct, and follow your own course with decision and resolution. It is oftentimes more really manly and courageous to dare to say No, than it is to fall in with the suggestions of those who may be older than yourselves in years or in academical standing." Referring to the responsible and even solemn nature of the profession, he said :"We seem to tread upon sacred ground while we accompany the hopeless sufferer to the very verge of this world, to that bourne from which no traveller returns, and this invests our profession with an interest and a solemnity entirely its own." He specially urged the cultivation of a thoughtful and considerate MEDICAL STUDENTS. : Christian, doing his work diligently and cheerfully, notwithstanding straitened circumstances and professional disappointment. It was not the stimulus of early success, nor the favour of princes, nor any lower motive, which carried him through the disappointing years which formed so large a portion of his military career. It was nothing short of strong Christian principle which sustained him. The monuments of these great men have been erected in our immediate neighbourhood, not merely to do honour to individuals, but to keep alive in the hearts of each succeeding generation the virtues for which theso heroes were distinguished. If there is any class of the community who are likely to be influenced by the recollection of their noble deeds, it is surely the young men of England before whom life is just opening. Duty, honour, and the fear of God were the mainsprings in the character of these three great men. If you, students of Charing Cross Hospital, are fired with the same principles, we need have no fears for the success of the session which opens to-day. It cannot fail to be happy and prosperous." While wise and kindly advice like this is given, we shall be sorry to lose the Introductory Addresses at the Medical Schools. Darieties. THE TELEGRAPHIC SERVICE.-The number of messages despatched by telegraph in 1874, not including newspaper telegrams, was more than 19,000,000, being ten per cent. more than in 1873. That the arrangements of the Head London Office have now reached a very high degree of efficiency is shown by the fact that on one occasion, when an important debate took place in Parliament, and there was an unusual number of interesting occurrences in different parts of the country, words sufficient to fill 220 columns of an ordinary daily newspaper were transmitted from the Central Station. There has been a large increase in the sum received as rental from private wires, it having risen from £47,000 to £53,000, or about twelve per cent. There is scarcely any kind of movement which does not give an impulse to the demand for telegraphic services. During the sitting of the Wesleyan Conference at the little Cornish town of Camborne, more than £350 was received there for telegrams, and the Thorpe accident occasioned the transmission of 900 ordinary telegrams through the Norwich office, and more than 5,200 newspaper press messages containing nearly 150,000 words. FLOATING FORTRESSES.-If fortresses were, as I think they should be, built of iron, and floated, with small steam power for moving them about if necessary, an error in the choice of their position would be easily remedied; but when military engineers deliberately take the trouble and go to the expense of building these constructions "aground"—for a mid-water fortification is in just the same position as an ironclad Popoffka would be if she got aground-their errors in choice of position are irreparable, and the country and the national exchequer are permanent sufferers from their blunders. But why should maritime nations expend their money at all on naval fortresses that cannot move? I fancy if, in their great war with France and England, and a few other Powers, in 1854-6, the Russians could have steamed Fort St. Michael, say, round to Balaklava occasionally, the fate of the war might have been very different; but all the time nations employ two totally different sets of defenders, naval and military, with separate interests and separate professional traditions, we shall continue to see our maritime fortresses deprived of that most valuable property-the power of locomotion.-E. J. Reed, M.P. goût Anglais.' English designers are, moreover, very largely employed in fields of labour formerly almost monopolised by foreigners. It must, I think, be allowed that the Kensington School of Science and Art has not laboured in vain, and that we are not far from proving-if, indeed, the proof be not already furnished-that, notwithstanding the stern nature of our cli mate, and the deadening effect, it is said, upon high authority, to have upon the powers of the imagination, English men and women are showing themselves well capable of producing works of an undoubtedly high imaginative order." TURKISH TYRANNY IN EUROPE.-I saw yesterday a surgeon who has been attending a boy of thirteen, wantonly shot in broad daylight while gathering grapes, by a Mussulman youth of about the same age. The young assassin was carried in triumph around the neighbourhood by his companions, and, in reply to the complaint, an inquiry was instituted and a report made, which ended the affair, the culprit not being molested. The wounded lad will recover, though the ball passed through him from one hip to the other, and the missile was a military refuse now to pay the doctor's bill. A sample of the justice rifle shot. As a faint shade of the injustice, the authorities served out in Herzegovina, and which, we are so often told, leaves no reason for insurrection, must finish my letter. I saw one of the victims of it before I left Ragusa, just released from three years' imprisonment in irons, and I heard his story; but I have also heard confirmation and additional details from an authoritative source, not to be charged with Sclave leanings. A certain young man from the neighbourhood of Trebinje had, in a quarrel, killed an Aga, and fled to Montenegro. His nearest male relations were, therefore, arrested, to the number of six, and thrown into prison, being tortured in various ways to compel confession of complicity, two being put in long wooden boxes, like coffins, and rolled downhill, others being stood upright with their heads in a hole in the floor of the prison, which allowed them to rest on their shoulders, having splinters of wood driven under their finger-nails (the boy I saw in Ragusa gave a minute account of the operation, sickening in its fidelity to detail). The father of the murderer died in prison, and ono of the cousins was taken out of the prison here in Mostar, just five days before the Consular Commission arrived, and hanged before one of the mosques, to calm the excitement of the Bashibazouks, the ruffians who, to show their sense of such occasional luxuries, had only six days ago planned a general massacre of the Christians of Mostar, and were only dissuaded from their scheme by being assured by one of the more prudent Agas that such a feat would only result in the Austrian army taking pos session of the country. This is the system on which Server Pasha is to base his reforms, and within which he hopes to find materials which will work harmoniously together for the consolidation of the Ottoman Government.-Times' Correspondent in the Herzegovina. MERCANTILE AFFAIRS IN THE United States. -The deplorable condition of mercantile affairs in the United States is strikingly illustrated by certain figures furnished by one of the mercantile agencies of New York. During the nine months ending September 30th last, there were in the whole of the United States 5,334 failures of mercantile houses, with liabilities amounting to £26,234,500. Of these failures, 546 were in New York City, with liabilities amounting to more than six millions sterling. In New York City and State together there were 1,022, with more than eight millions of liabilities. In Massachusetts there were 564 failures, with liabilities of more than three millions; in Penn KENSINGTON SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND ART.-Prince Leopold, in his speech on delivering the prizes at the School of Science and Art, at Oxford, gave an interesting report of the progress and influence of the parent institution at South Kensington. "The history of the Kensington School of Science and Art, of which the Oxford school is a branch, is a conspicuous illustration of the truth of the words I have just read. Through the kindness of Mr. Alan Cole, I have been furnished with some interesting statistics relating to the development of this central school. The Science and Art Department was first established in 1852, when the number of Art schools was 20, and the number of students 7,117. In the year 1874, by which time Art night schools had been organised, there were 132 Art schools, attended by 24,138 students; 653 Art night schools, attended by 21,851 students; and 23,735 elementary day schools, at which drawing was taught to 290,425 children. There were also 46 training colleges, in which 3,475 students were taught drawing. There were, therefore, last year 3,204 places where instruction in drawing was given under the rules of the Science and Art Department, and these places were attended by 339,889 individuals. With regard to the Science classes, they were first established in the year 1860. In the following year there were 38 classes, attended by 650 students, and this year the number amounts to 1,299, and the number of students to 62,314. Nor is this all. There now exists at the central school at Kensing-sylvania 419 failures, with liabilities of nearly two and a half ton a National Art Training School, established in 1852, and a Science Training School, established within the last three years. At both of these schools teachers destined to carry on instruction in the provinces receive an adequate training. Then as to the practical outcome of the vast machinery, I have also been furnished with valuable information. It appears that within the last fifteen years it was very much the custom of manufacturers of furniture, woven fabrics, pottery, and other goods in which tasteful decoration is an important feature, to obtain the greater part of their designs from France. Now, however, French manufacturers imitate many of the English designs, and offer their wares as specially attractive because they are selon le | millions. In the fourteen Southern States there were 964 failures; in the fifteen Western States there were 1,763. During the same period of the first nine months of 1872, there were in the whole country only 3,050 failures, with liabilities of £14,158,800. In 1873 there were 3,887 failures, with £34,266,800. In 1874 the failures numbered 4,371, with £23,285,800; and now they are 5,334, with £26,234,500 of liabilities. The average number for four years has been 4,160; so that in the past niñe months there has been an excess of 1,174 over the average, while the excess in liabilities is about £746,000. The worst of it is that there appears to be no prospect of an improvement in the situation. |