Negro Turning White.—A colored man named Antone Metoyer has been employed at the railroad works in this city (Sacramento) for some time, and his steadiness and industry have caused him to be esteemed by those acquainted with him. Seven or eight months ago his skin was black, but it commenced to turn white, and now his body, arms, legs and neck are as white as those of any Caucasian. The original color is now only upon his face, extending back of the ears, just beneath the chin, and across the upper portion of the forehead, making him appear to be wearing a close-fitting black or dark brown mask. On the chin and nose the dark color is beginning to wear away, and he thinks in a few weeks he will be perfectly white. His hair and whiskers are black and curly. Medical men have taken much interest in his case, and attribute the change in complexion to the effect upon his system of working constantly with potash and other material used in washing greasy waste. He has been advised that it may be dangerous for him to continue under this influence, but he declares that he will stay until the process he is undergoing is completed, if it kills him.—Record Union.
The Cure of Hydrophobia.—“The English committee appointed by the local government board in April, 1886, to inquire into Pasteur’s inoculation method for rabies, report that it may be deemed certain that M. Pasteur has discovered a method of protection from rabies comparable with that which vaccination affords against infection from smallpox.” As many think there is no protection at all, the question is not finally settled. It is only the stubborn ignorance of the medical profession which gives to Pasteur’s experiments their great celebrity and importance. Other methods have been far more successful than Pasteur’s. Xanthium, Scutellaria (Skull-cap), the vapor bath, and chloroform or nitrous oxide are more powerful and reliable than any morbid inoculation.
John Swinton’s paper, at New York, has come to an end. Swinton was a bold, eloquent, and fearless advocate of human rights as he understood them. His failure is an honor to him, and his name will be remembered. Perhaps if he had imitated the Boston dailies, by giving ten to eighteen columns to the record of base ball games, he might have put money in his purse, instead of losing it.
In marked contrast to John Swinton’s failure, observe the success of the New York Tribune, a newspaper founded by Horace Greeley, but which, since his death, has given, in its unscrupulous course, a good illustration of the Satanic press. The Boston Herald says: “The New York Tribune is perhaps as good an illustration of the old-fashioned partisan journal as there is in the country. There was an amusing reminiscence of the methods that used to be practised when the Tribune was found claiming the Legislature of Kentucky as having been carried by the Republicans in the late elections. The fact was that the Democratic majority in that body was about five to one, and there was really no excuse in a metropolitan journal for not knowing such to be the case.” The Tribune once complimented highly the Journal of Man, but that was when Horace Greeley was alive.
Women’s Rights and Progress.—The last legislature of Pennsylvania passed a very radical law, providing that marriage shall not impose any disability as to the acquisition or management of any kind of property, making any contracts, or engaging in any business. However, she is not authorized to mortgage her real estate without her husband’s co-operation, nor become endorser for another alone. As to making a will she has the same rights as a man.
Ohio has also advanced woman’s rights by enabling both husband and wife to dispose of property as if unmarried, and by giving each party one-third life interest in the other’s real estate.
In Kansas, women can vote in city and town affairs, and hold municipal and town offices. In one town they have a female mayor. The supreme court of Kansas has decided that when a woman marries she need not take her husband’s name unless she chooses.
Co-Education is successful, nearly every prominent college is beginning to admit women, and they often carry off the prizes from the men. Exclusive masculine colleges will soon rank among the barbarisms of the past.
Female education is advancing in Russia. The universities had 779 female students in 1886, 437 of whom were daughters of noblemen and official personages. On the other hand the Prussian Minister of Education refuses to admit women as regular students at any university or medical school.
Several Italian ladies have distinguished themselves in legal knowledge, and the propriety of their admission to the bar is extensively discussed. About nine-tenths of the newspapers favor their admission.