OCR Text |
Show OUR EUROPEAN LETTER. (From our regular correspondent.) Berlin, Germany, January 16, 1882. THE exhibition which is to be held here in the Spring under the special patronage of the Empress and the Crown Prince will include all scientific modern appliances for the preservation of health and the saving of life. Though not strictly speaking, international, the gathering is one to which foreign inventors are solicited to contribute, so that as many useful articles as possible may be brought before the German people. Among the forty groups of exhibits may be named, ground, foundation, and atmosphere; streets, ways, and open thoroughfares; water supply projects; baths; schools, dwelling places and public institutions; manufacturies liable to danger and ??, laborers' dwellings; ??; railways; river and sea traffic; wearing apparel; infectious diseases; saving life from fire; protection against inundations, explosions, &c.; and assistance to sick and wounded persons, whether suffering from the accidents of peace or the casualties of war. MARRIAGES, according to an old proverb, are made in heaven, but, admitting the correctness of this proposition, it cannot be denied that the celestial arrangements with respect to matrimony are subject to considerable delays and impediments in the case of young Continental military men. In the Austrian, French, German, Italian, and other European armies, regimental officers may not wed the subjects of their affections until they deposit a certain sum of money, varying between $1,000 and $5,000, with the State Exchequer, the interest of which, in addition to their pay, is considered a sufficient income to keep them financially unembarrassed as actual husbands and potential fathers of families. Many hundreds of marriages are annually averted by a prohibition, which is justified on the ground that it violates the liberty of the subject for the subjects good. FOR some time past negotiations have been carried on between the governments of Germany, France and Russia respecting the surrender of a man named Hollander, who was arrested at Berlin at the request of the Russian Government on suspicion that he was the individual who threw the first bomb on the occasion of the assassination of the Czar. Since his arrest Hollander has been kept in close confinement, and little has been said about his case. It appears that according to the statement of the Russian authorities, Hollander, after the assassination, made his way through Silesian Prussia into France and from thence was decoyed by some skillful operations on the part of the Russian politic into Prussia, where he was arrested. It is now understood that the Prussian Government, after arriving at an understanding with France respecting this man, has decided to surrender him to the Russian authorities. Hollander claims to be a French citizen, but M. Gambetta's foreign minister states that France will interpose no objection to his surrender. A VERY important diplomatic movement has been initiated by Prince Bismarck. His purpose is to make Germany take the initiative in bringing about a concert of action among the European powers so as to prevent their conflicting interests from reopening the Eastern question. If a military outbreak occurs in Egypt, the immediate interference of France and England, under the existing circumstances, would, of course, follow, and this would lead to the increase of English and French influence in Egypt, the very thing that Germany in common with the other powers, is most unwilling should happen. Prince Bismarck is therefore anxious that Germany, Russia, Austria and Italy should unite in taking measures to oppose the increase of English and French influence in Egypt. ALL the astounding feats performed by the strong men of antiquity, including Hercules, Samson and Milo of ??, have been capped by the recent performances of a French athlete, Joigneray by name, who is at present fulfilling an engagement to crowded houses in the Vaudeville Theatre. Tossing about huge cannon balls with sportive grace, this person appears nightly on a raised platform in the body of a theatre, above which platform is suspended an ordinary trapeze. His ankles are then fastened to the trapeze, so that he swings head downwards a few feet above the surface of the central stage, and in full view of every one in the house. A horse ?? with a surcingle, to which two loops are attached, is then conveyed to the stage, and there mounted by a full grown man. Joigneray seizes the loop in both hands, and by mere muscular strength lifts the "Horse and his Rider" some inches off the stage, sustaining their combined weight in the air for several minutes and letting them down again as slowly and evenly as he had raised them. All Berlin is flocking to Mr. Joigneray's entertainment, which would appear to be the chief attraction of the German capital just now, for while the managers of the leading theatres are complaining of scanty houses, the Vaudeville is compelled, night after night, to turn hundreds of curious Berliners away from its door. August. |