Extravagant Sums Paid to the Old English Nobility.
London, Aug. 20, 1999.—The English government to-day purchased the title of Lord Algernon Percy Augustus Dunraven for a mere song, the consideration being £10,000. This removes one of the oldest titles existing in modern times and only about twenty remain in England. Since the law passed by Parliament providing for the purchase of old titles held by the descendants of the members of the peerage, as it existed under a monarchy, over £800,000,000 have been spent in buying up these remnants of a semi-civilized form of government. The highest price ever paid was that for the abolishment of the name borne by the duke of Argyle, £1,000,000.
Sir Tom Lipton, who will be henceforth known by the republican name of Thomas Timothy Tubbs, has been reduced to poverty by reckless expenditures entailed in his enthusiasm for air-yachting, and it is said that he has spent £40,000 in trying to increase the speed of his defective atmospheric racer, the Shamrock.
IT STILL INTOXICATES.
Colonel Washburn of Kentucky Prefers Death to Non-Alcoholic Liquor.
Frankfort, Ky., Aug. 20, 1999.—“Foh one I shall not vote to destroy my Gawd given ancestral privilege to consume liquor, sah. They may call us uncivilized barbarians, if they will, sah; they may call down upon our degenerate heads the unbottled wrath of the universe, but, as for me, sah, give me good old Kentucky bourbon, or give me death!”
With these words Colonel Henry Clay Washburn concluded his speech in the upper house of the legislature to-day on the bill to suppress the alcoholic liquor traffic in Kentucky. For years the annual legislative battle has centered on this issue.
Gradually state after state has abolished, what many considered an evil, and in most localities the effects of alcoholic drinks were destroyed by the chemical discovery which, when applied, made them non-intoxicating. But the Blue Grass state has remained firm as a rock, although in modern art and science it has no superior in advancement in the union. The bill under consideration to-day was defeated by an overwhelming vote.
The following advertisements, taken from Sidney Record, October 15, 1999, will interest our readers: