church, whither the old folk may resort if and when they can and are so disposed. When I think of my model almshouses-as I often do -I really quite envy those dear old people hobbling in and out of one another's houses, and gossiping, and peeping, and sunning themselves, and telling stories dreadful stories-and squabbling to their hearts' content; of course they will-and be all the better and happier for their little tiffs. And then I think, too, of other scenes; of how the light will fade and fade in the old eyes, and of the peaceful sleep in which the spirit will return to God who gave it, and the little house left empty for awhile till it is made sweet and neat and smiling for the next comer. And I cannot help saying to myself, as I think of all this and a great deal more, Oh, my dear old Biddy! we'll always do what we can for you in our small way we will try and smooth your pillow, and come and speak of the great hope, and make the best of what we have for you, and you won't doubt us? But I wishyes, I do so very much wish-you were in an almshouse such as we talk of and dream of sometimes. Such a one as should not be very far off, you know, where we could come and look at you, as we do now, and have our little talks and little secret communings, but a little home that might be just a trifle more bright and smiling than the one we wot of now, Biddy!"-Rev. Dr. Jessopp, in the Nineteenth Century."

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..

some

THE MARCH OF CHOLERA. When months ago the Turkish authorities asserted the extinction or non-existence of cholera in Syria, while Russian consular agents maintained that it was still hovering about on the borders of the Persian and Ottoman empires, we expressed our conviction that the subsidence of the epidemic was merely what might be expected at that season, and that it would reappear with the return of spring. And so it is; cholera is reported now as having broken out on the Imperial domains of Djedil and in the village of Bellek, near Bagdad, where six persons have died out of thirteen attacked. Bagdad was the headquarters of the epidemic last year, whence it was carried by the river boats, far up the Tigris. We believe that the Foreign Office received information of its occurrence as far north as Diabekr and Erzeroum, though in the latter case it was more probably conveyed by road from Tabruz. But, though it may thus appear to have receded, such a phenomenon

would be without precedent. When, in 1847, it seemed to invade India from Turkestan, or, in 1865, it appeared in Armenia after it had ravaged Constantinople and Salonki, it was not retreating but performing a flank movement, and doubling on its own advance, as we have seen in the spread of influenza to India and Australia after it had overrun all Europe. Cholera requires human intercourse for its conveyance, certain meteorological and local conditions for its development, and the ingestion of specifically infected water, etc., for its communication. Thus, while it will cross the Atlantic in a fortnight, it marches by slow stages through lands where railways are still unknown, retiring into winter quarters when traffic and travel are suspended, to reopen the campaign with the return of warm weather, which is naturally earlier in the south and the plains than in northern or mountainous regions. In the winter of 1846-47 it had reached precisely the same points as it did last autumn, and in like manner withdrew for a time to the lower valley of the Euphrates and Tigris, recrossing the mountains and plateau of Armenia in the spring, reaching Astrakhan and Jaganony in July, and Moscow and St. Petersburg in September, when, with the approach of winter, it disappeared only to break out with renewed intensity, and, as it had travelled with tenfold greater rapidity along the good military roads between the Caucasus and the capitals than it had previously done through Persia, so when once it touched the margin of the restless life and commercial activity of Europe it was drawn into the vortex, and there was not a country or large town but had been invaded before the summer was over. If we may venture to prophesy, we would say that it will not proceed farther up the Tigris Valley, but, travelling by the Euphrates, will be next heard of at Aleppo, and perhaps Beyroat, and it will enter Egypt via Yeddah and Suez, and then leave Alexandria for the Levantine and Mediterranean ports. From Tabruz it will take the route via Erzeroum and Trebizond to Constantinople, Odessa, and by Baku, Tiflis, Derbent, and Astrakhan over Russia.-British Medical Journal.

ercised by them, of removing to their own establishments bodies intended for burial. However convenient, this custom is not free from serious objection on sanitary grounds, as must be evident from the history of a case lately investigated by Mr. Hicks. The body of an infant, after examination by the coroner, was duly certified, and removed by an undertaker in a coffin to his shop in preparation for burial. Meanwhile, however, the certificate was mislaid or in some way disposed of, and could not be found. Burial was postponed from day to day in the hope of recovering the lost paper till nearly a month had elapsed. Finally, application had to be made for a second certificate, which again entailed a fresh inquiry for the purpose of identification, and this at a time when putrefaction was far advanced. We need not be surprised that the coroner commented strongly on the, incident, and proposed in future to forbid the removal of bodies from the mortuary before the day of burial. This, indeed, is the most natural and effectual mode of preventing the occurrence of such obvious neglect of health and decency as distinguished the case in question. The prohibition suggested could injure no one, since the liberty of removal allowed to undertakers is but little used, and is by no means necessary.-Lancet.

THE COCKNEY LANGUAGE.-The speech of Londoners, who are Londoners and nothing else, whose bones, which will never be old, were made in London, has attracted the notice of a philologist. Perhaps we should rather call the author of " Thenks Awf'lly" (Field & Tuer) a phonologist, for it is pronunciation, not words and idioms, that he studies. He is not himself a purist, though perhaps he is one of Mr. Henry James's young peers; for he says about his sketches that he " has often wished the beastly things at the bottom of the sea." They are what he calls them; for they are hideous illustrations of stupidity, cruelty, narrowness, and other vices which come naturally to idlers in an ugly and endless town. The typical Cockney of the sketches is a cowardly and brutal young ruffian, by no means always of the poorest class. Of youth he has nothing but the callousness and the love of fun, and his fun invariably takes the shape of hurting some inoffensive beast or person. His idea of sport in literature is an account of a rough-and-tumble prize fight; his diversion in practice is pushing people about in the street. Youth must have some

indulgence of the hunting instinct, and this young man, like many others of better education, hunts cats. What else can he pursue in London? How he lives is a mystery, though the mystery is partly explained by one of the characters. He does not beg, for he has neither the right physiognomy nor the professional appeal. He rather despises beggars, though their business is good, because they have neither the energy to work, the pluck to steal, nor the ingenuity to devise "sells" and swindles. Of these swindles the author describes one, in which he gives himself a ridiculous part. He meets a midshipman in the Metropolitan Railway. The midshipman has been on an old Dibdinian spree, and talks like this: "I'd a levlay watch the ether dy, a present from the guvner, sawlid gowld chronometer, with about 'arf a dezzen little fices which towld joo all sorts er things," and so forth. Surely no sane person could believe in a midshipman whose speech so readily bewrayed him; but the author believes, buys his pawn-tickets, and, of course, is swindled. The watch is of pinchbeck, the rings are paste. A citizen who can credit a naval officer of this description is born to be a victim. Another "lay" is to pretend gratitude for a loan to yourself. As a poor newspaper boy, you deposit a cheap chair of Austrian make as a specimen of your own skill in carpentry, and you raise a large loan on the evidence of your industry and gratitude. A much more innocent, and even touching, artifice is to gather shells from the new gravel in Kensington Gar dens, and present them to children accompanied by tender-hearted mothers. "Lor blesh you, there's undids o' wize uv earning a livin' in the streets." Here we find a trace of euphony. You say "o'" for "of" before a consonant, uv" for of " before a vowel, to avoid the elision.

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Laziness, that great cause of phonetic decay, is the chief element in making the Cockney dialect. To drop "r's," and "h's," and "g's" at the end of the participle is not peculiar to one town, or one set of society. Alcibiades, as we know, was too languid to sound his "r's," and substituted "l's." The ancient" W for "r" has gone out since the Crimean War; but the "g" is dropped in participles-as "shootin'," "rowin'," and so on-by persons ambitious of fashion. The other Cockney peculiarity is said to be derived from the Essex dialect; it consists in a whine, and in substituting the sharpest possible vowel sound for the right one. They

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all use ei" for the sharp "a"-as in "peiper." No newsboy, like the boy in Dickens, relieves the monotony of his labors by alternating Paper, pepper, piper, popper, and pupper. They invariably say piper," but if you ask them for the "piper," by way of being intelligible, they do not understand. When you cross the Border from Berwick-on-Tweed as far as Perth, they do not say news," but "nüse paper. Cockneys make "month"into" menth," "lady" into "lydee,' 'once" into " ,"oh" wence, into "ow," where the whine of the dialect is very audible, but we do not think that they turn "you" into "joo." The spelling of school-children proves that they pronounce "nice" as "nicet." By attending to these simple principles, and by cutting all words, in every possible way, anyone may become an expert in the lingo of Cockneydom. Probably the whine and the vowels are really old, and part, as we have said, of a local dialect. They are extremely catching, in children who hear a good deal of the talk of the streets, and, with the instinct of childhood, imitate every trick that least deserves imitation.

A more interesting study than that of Cockney accent would be Cockney language. This our author has, on second thoughts, declined to write about. Whence come the extraordinary slang terms which readers of some more or less sporting papers pick up? Why do we hear of "tarts" and of the "oof-bird," and all the rest of that dull and disreputable drivel? It seems to be born of mixed Semitic parentage in Houndsditch, and to well up in music-halls and minor theatres, whence it reaches the restaurants in the Strand and invades the Universities and military messes. This argot can hardly be called popular, and is as alien to the artisan as to the wife of the rural dean. It is believed to be accepted as a symptom of humor and of worldly wisdom. The slang "is always changing, and changing for the worse," says our author, who gives none of it in his Cockney conversations. They are really hard reading in the original, which is accompanied by a translation. Cockney character, as here set forth, is decidedly decadent, and testifies to the closing of an age. People cannot live forever on the pavement, with no views, except views of very ugly bricks, without becoming as degenerate in taste as in constitution. The nature of things is against it, and will somehow and some day end it, with the ending of that brief-lived world which steam-machinery and electricity have brought to be. The present

The

and future of Cocaigne are gloomy subjects, and may be wished, with the author's" beastly things," at the bottom of the Red Sea, And, by the way, what a lively place the bottom of the Red Sea must be, and how mixed the spiritual company which has been laid there since Pharaoh's time! Saturday Re

view.

Cus

HOW THE JEWISH SABBATH SHOULD BE KEPT. -In our observance of the Sabbath, we, for ourselves and our children, have to keep three objects in view. First, we desire to devote a portion of it to religious duties and to make it an aid to our moral and spiritual development; secondly, we wish to set the day apart and create a distinction between it and others; and, thirdly, it should be our aim to make it a day, not only of rest, but also of happiness. The generally prohibited occupations may be briefly catalogued as including all forms of manual occupation, such as writing, drawing, or needlework, all riding or driving, and all such amusements as theatres and dances. To these universal custom has added games of chance, such as cards, and almost equally universally the use of musical instruments. tom has also to a considerable extent vetoed outdoor amusements, such as cricket and other athletic sports. Personally I much regret that this should be the case, and I think there is so much to be said against their exclusion, that I cannot but hope that a change will erelong be made in this particular. One additional word as to not writing on Saturday, which many nowadays consider an unnecessary and undesirable restriction. It is, however, one which I should be very unwilling to see withdrawn, inasmuch as writing on the Sabbath tends to lessen the difference between that and other days. If we once begin it on the Sabbath it is most difficult to draw the line and say, this letter is for pleasure, that for business, this piece of writing is an amusement, that a labor. I therefore think it right to refrain from writing on Saturday, and to cause our children to refrain from it likewise, Books of all kinds, walks, many indoor and some outdoor games and sports, and the social and family intercourse, which has always been considered especially appropriate to Sabbath afternoons, ought to be enough to make the day enjoyable. It is much more necessary. for us to fence round our Sabbath and other ceremonial institutions with careful observances than it is for those whose day of rest is that of the whole country.-Mrs: Henry Lucas, in the "Jewish Quarterly Review.”

He

A DISTINGUISHED American economist has declared that the railroads of the United States have been the "prime factor" in enabling the people of that country" to overcome the losses of the Civil War, in enabling the Government to resume specie payments, and in establishing prosperity on a solid basis.''* might have gone much further, and added that to the same potent agency have been due the serious depression that has prevailed in the commercial and industrial world generally, outside of the United States, the revolution that has taken place in the sources of the food supplies of European countries, the general cheapening of the cost of commodities throughout the world, and the remarkable depreciation that has been witnessed in the value of

* The Railroad and the Farmer, by E. Atkin

son.

NEW SERIES.-VOL. LII., No. 5.

land and the products of agriculture in our own and other countries. Finally, it is not, perhaps, too much to affirm that there is no source of danger threatening her industrial supremacy and her commercial prestige, from which our country has so much to fear in the future.

own

As this has something of the appearance of a paradox, it is well that it should be more clearly demonstrated and better understood than it has hitherto been. The present time appears to be singularly ripe and opportune for such a demonstration. The traders of the United Kingdom have been much exercised during the last twelve months in reference to the future of their relations with the railway companies. An extremely costly and tracted Parliamentary inquiry into the existing statutory powers and the actual conditions of working of British railways has recently terminated. Both traders

37

pro

and railway companies are awaiting with impatience and apprehension the results of that inquiry, which will shortly be submitted to Parliament by the Board of Trade. Every class of the community is more or less interested in cheap transport, and naturally, therefore, the question of how American railways carry traffic so much more cheaply than English lines is one that is much more frequently put than satisfactorily answered. The conditions of the problem are, indeed, complex, and not a little obscure, as well as in some respects highly technical. The main facts are generally unquestionable, but their origin is not in all cases readily traced.

Broadly stated, the position of the railroads of the United States is simply this: The average rate charged and received per ton per mile for the transport of all descriptions of traffic has been reduced from 2.164 cents (1·082d.) in 1869, to 91 cent (455d.) in 1888. This amounts to a reduction of 627d. per ton per mile, or nearly sixty per cent., and it means that if the traffic carried on the railroads of the United States in 1888 had paid the same average ton-mile rate as they did twenty years before, the people of that country would have been charged for the transportation of the products of their fields, factories, and mines about 192,000,000l. sterling more than they actually did pay in that year.*

It is necessary to halt for a moment, in order to appreciate what is meant by a saving of this amount. It is difficult, indeed, to lay hold of it without a conscious effort. The sum in question is more than twice as much as the whole public income for State purposes of the United Kingdom, and about one-fourth part of the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland. It is, again, more than six times the annual net earnings of the railway system of the United Kingdom, and, what is still more remarkable, it is rather more than the present aggregate gross income of the railways of the United States. If we seek comparisons in Continental countries, we

*The railroad traffic returns show that the

movement of merchandise on the railways of the United States as a whole in 1888 amounted to 70,423 millions of ton-miles, on each one of which there was a reduction of 627d., as compared with the average ton-mile rate of 1869, giving the sum stated above as the total amount of the reduction of transportation

rates.

shall find that this amount is almost equal to the amount paid by France to Germany in the form of war indemnity.

Naturally enough, the first inquiry that these stupendous figures suggest is the question, Were not the rates of 1869 abnormally high? The second inquiry would probably be, How was the reduction of rates effected? And, most probably, the third subject upon which information would be desired, would be that of the results to the railway companies themselves.

If the remarkable fall of rates that has occurred on American railways had been a fall from an abnormally high level, the extent and the effects of the reduction would have been much less surprising than they actually are. But the rate of 1869 was not exceptionally high; on the contrary, it was considerably under the average ton-mile rate in England at the present time, and it was much under the average rate of ten years before in the United States. It has therefore been a fall from a relatively low level of rates, and it is from this point of view that the circumstance is chiefly important to the European railway world. It thereby demonstrates the fact that it is possible to give substantial abatements on rates already fairly low, with results that are proved to be beneficial alike to traders and to railway companies. This is a view of the case that English railways do not appear disposed to allow. Their policy has hitherto been to keep up rates to a point which they arbitrarily fix among themselves as being the amount that the traffic will bear. point, in the estimation of English railway managers, is not the irreducible minimum so generally adopted on American lines, but the practicable maximum-practicable, that is, in view of retaining, or, at any rate, not immediately destroying, the traffic. What has been the course of the traffic on the two systems as a consequence? The comparison, or rather the contrast, is remarkable. On British railways the goods traffic receipts have only increased from 26 millions in 1871 to 38 millions in 1888, while on American railways, during the same period, the goods traffic receipts have advanced from 294 to about 700 million dollars. To take a much shorter interval, it appears that while on American railways, between 1880 and 1888, the traffic has advanced

This