until nearly four centuries after the sanctioning of alienation inter vivos, did alienation by will become fully established.

There is another kind of alienation which is established still more tardily, namely, that which is designated as involuntary. It has had wide prevalence as an incident of conquest; but in its legal forms it usually pre-supposes voluntary alienation, and appears as a modification of or complement to this. Not at once does it present itself as a just or feasible means of redress. The earlier law is that a debtor's person may be seized and subjected to slavery or imprisonment, but his lands may not be taken to satisfy the debt. Others besides himself, his kinsmen and his lord perhaps, are interested in these; and to subject these to execution would require formal proceeding difficult to devise. Claims to be satisfied are so multifarious, interests to be reached are so varied and sometimes so refined, and the legal machinery required is consequently so intricate and nicely adjusted, that involuntary alienation ever advances little by little. To some extent furthered by writ of elegit, and by statutes Merchant and Staple, at about the time when alienation by voluntary sale was fully authorized by law, it made headway slowly. It has progressed most within a very recent period; and its improvement is a matter of present concern and future accomplishment.-4 Lacey's Kent (Published by Blackstone Pub. Co., Phila).

DR. POTTER, who was surgeon in charge of the First Division Field Hospital, Second Army Corps, relates, in the course of an interesting communication to the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, that the lives of Gov. Beaver, of Pa., and Gen. Sickles, were undoubtedly saved by the immediate carrying of these officers from the field hospital. Gov. Beaver was wounded at Reams Station, and, after having his leg amputated, was carried on a stretcher, by a detail of sixteen men, to the Corps Hospital, a distance of over eight miles. Gen. Sickles was carried on a stretcher, from the field at Gettysburg, the night of the amputation, to Westminster, by a detail of forty men: the distance was twenty-five miles.

A SOMETIMES Correspondent of the Miscellany, sends us the following poem as appropriate to the quoted portion of the remarks of Hon. M. RusSELL THAYER, and Hon. Richard Vaux, at the Bar Meeting held in memory to the late Lewis C. Cassidy. Judge THAYER said: "We do well, therefore, and it is appropriate in the highest sense of the word that this Bar should give expression to their admiration of such traits of character as this gentleman possessed. Philadelphia, I say it to her shame, is too little inclined to give a just appreciation to her great and strong men while they are living; but when they are dead, when they have passed from the sphere of private envy, when they have taken their positions in that immortal and unchangeable future which nothing can alter, then we suddenly open our eyes to the greatness and the usefulness of the men who have gone. We are always ready to build the

tombs of the prophets. I do not mean to say that there ever was wanting among the friends of Mr. Cassidy a just appreciation of his talents or his excellence, but I do mean to say that this community never justly appreciated his weight in the community, his usefulness in public affairs, the public services which he rendered to this Commonwealth, or the beauty with which he adorned his profession and all the charities of private life, until he lay there cold and speechless in his coffin. Let us do him honor now."

Hon. Richard Vaux said: "I glory to agree, in words of strongest approval, of that eloquent sentence of Judge THAYER, when he so truthfully said, that the people of Philadelphia only pay homage and respect to those of their fellow-citizens who are in the grave."

While this poem is inscribed to those faithful and heroic servants of the public, "Railroad men," from the highest to the lowest, and read by the author, Thomas B. Appleget, Esq., at an "Evening with Railroad Men," it seems none the less suitable and appropriate to an occasion of this character, when so many learned and eloquent men bear witness to such traits as this mourned and lamented advocate possessed in such full measure.

WHO ARE THE HEROES?

Let others sing of Bludsoe, Bradley, Guild—
Well they deserve kind memory and a tear-
But he who holds his manhood undefiled,
Loyal to lowly duty, is their peer.

Are there no living heroes? Must men die
To be accounted noble, true and brave?
Are all the laurel wreaths woven to lie

On pale, unconscious brows, cold in the grave?

Is there no meed of praise to him who stands
True at his humble post, whose eye unclosed
Foresees the danger, and whose faithful hand
Holds free from harm the sacred trust imposei?

To go when duty calls from fireside warm,

To walk the track with ever watchful eye,
To bear the red-light, through the driving storm,
Or stand to brakes when sleety crystals fly;

To hold a lever and to watch a gauge,

To set a switch, or give a signal true,
To tap a wheel, or drive a spike-a sage
Might call these trifles-but do you?

Let one of these be slighted, only one

These daily duties of ten thousand men-
And somewhere comes the crash, the shriek, the groan,
Somewhere the roll of death is called again.

I cannot think the smoke of martyrdom
From burning wrecks of human life will rise
The sweetest incense that shall ever come
From off the altars of our sacrifice.

I cannot think that He who said "well done
Unto the one who in "few things" was true,
Will lightly hold us, if, from sun to sun

We faithful prove in that we have to do.

Give honor to the martyrs-those who fall,
And, falling, have their crown of glory won;
But honor, too, the living heroes, all

Who, living, lay no duty down undone.

All reverence for the dead. Let anthems ring
Above their graves, and peaceful be their rest.
This honest tribute of respect I bring

To every man who does his level best.

THOMAS B. APPLEGET.

A COURSE IN SHORT-HAND.-We take pleasure in announcing that with the January number THE Current ComMENT will commence the publication of a course of study in Stenography.

Some of our subscribers may be disinclined to view such a departure with favor, but we believe that the younger members of the profession, whose briefs have not yet become so numerous as to claim all their waking hours, will welcome the announcement and embrace with alacrity, the opportunity afforded of acquiring so useful a branch of knowledge, by utilizing moments which would otherwise be unemployed.

Since steam and electricity have aided man's effort to annihilate time and space, there is a growing tendency current in the age to pop. ularize everything which promises to promote activity and speed. This tendency, so far as writing is concerned, will be met by making the study of Short-hand, as necessary and important a part of the curriculum of our schools and academies as that of Long-hand.

Though this demand is here, our educators have not yet become alive to its importance.

Because it is a necessity-felt yet unsupplied, we have undertaken to bring it in a simple way, which is easy and inexpensive, to the hands of our readers, believing that many will learn with pleasure the following facts:

Prof. Eldon Moran, of St. Louis, was formerly Stenographer in Judge Gresham's Court. He was reporter for President Harrison-has edited and published a text-book on Stenography which ranks as the ablest work on the subject ever published. The Phonographic World says: "Mr. Moran is unquestionably one of the best Short-hand instructors in America."

The CURRENT COMMENT has completed arrangements with Prof. Moran to conduct a course of study which will consist of ten lessons. The intelligent, earnest student can, by spending a few hours of careful study and faithful practice on each lesson, be able, at the end of the course to write Short-hand with a fair degree of accurracy and speed. The lessons will be short and simple and will teach the Pitman system in a nut-shell.

Every subscriber to THE CURRent Comment will have the privilege of studying from the course as published. It is very important, however, that every student should have the benefit of criticism, correction and suggestion from a competent instructor.

We have therefore arranged with Prof. Moran for the formation of a Special Class of 200, who, by the payment of a tuition fee of two dollars each, will become entitled to direct, personal correction of each exercise. At the end of the third lesson the student will be able to write a letter mostly in characters.

As this course will begin with the next issue, we suggest that those who desire to connect themselves with the special class of The CurRENT COMMENT, should send on their names, address and tuition fee at

once.

We look for a hearty response on the part of our friends.

Address-Short-hand, CURRENT Comment, Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Pa.

THE GIRARD ESTATE in Philadelphia will not lease any property to be used for bar-room purposes. This is a wise conclusion, and, taken in conjunction with the increased provision for industrial education at the College, as shown by supplying additional and improved workshops and appliances for the orphans, indicates that the trustees are endeavoring to keep abreast of enlightened public opinion.

The secretary of the Jayne estate said recently, that he leases no properties for the sale of intoxicating liquors. He has unity with that annual query of the Friends as to whether they are not only personally clear of the use of intoxicants as a beverage, but also as to whether they "hand them out to others for that purpose."

Printed leases containing the following clause, which is the form regularly used by an agent having charge of many city properties, are now becoming common: "That the sale, or exposure to sale, or storage of intoxicating liquors upon the premises, or the use of said premises for any other purpose than above specified, shall invalidate this lease without prejudice to the rights of the lessor under this lease for collection of rent or for damages."- The Friends' Review.

CASE LAW is thus unfairly attacked by Hon. Henry C. Caldwell: “If you read fifty pages every day in the year, including Sundays, Christmas, New Year's, and the Fourth of July, for 230 years, you will have read this judge-made law down to the time you began your course of reading. But during your long course of reading, the judges have been engaged in making this kind of law at the rate of 16,000 cases a year, so that, after you have read 230 years, you will find the volumes of reports that have accumulated since you began to read exceed by many times the number you have read. This is not the end of your embarrassment. If this judge-made law was harmonious and consistent with itself, you would know, at the end of your 230 years' course of reading, how the law stood at the time you began it. But as you read the reports you will discover that the same questions are differently decided by different courts, and by the same court."

TARRING AND FEATHERING.-The practice of inflicting the loathsome mode of punishment known as "tarring and feathering," is commonly attributed to the Americans, together with many other customs, which, being forgotten in the land of their birth, but retained to some degree in this country, have come to be stamped as "Americanisms." There is no way of determining the exact date at which this species of torture was invented for the suffering and humiliation of its victims, but we have ample evidence that it is an institution of very many years' standing, being at least seven hundred years old.

We find in Rymer's "Fœdera," and in "Annales Rerum Anglicarum" of the old English historian Hovenden (time of Henry III)— the latter of whom is quoted by Hook in his "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury "—that the earliest known instance in which this particular sort of punishment is recorded, occurs in Statute 1 of Richard I, 1189. It seems that the prudent Lion-heart, before embarking on the third crusade, laid down certain laws for the regulation of his fleet on its way to the Holy Land.

Among others, it was enacted, that "A robber who shall be convicted of theft shall have his head cropped after the manner of a champion, and boiling pitch shall be poured thereon, and then the feathers of a cushion shall be shaken out upon him, so that he may be known, and at the first land at which the ship shall touch, he shall be set on shore." From the minuteness with which the directions are given for the execution of this process, people have been led to suppose that the valiant Richard was the original deviser or reviver of this plan for reconstructing "Plato's man ;" but it is wisely urged, if this be the fact, it seems singular that such a piece of barbarity should have taken its rise on so solemn an occasion as the preparation for a crusade.

In 1623, while in Spain, whither he had gone to accompany Lord Digby's embassy, and settle some dispute about the unlawful seizure of an English vessel, James Howell, the famous letter-writer, records the strange behavior of a man whom he calls "that boisterious Bishop of Halverstatt." This is doubtless a nom de guerre, but whoever he may have been, he at one time rented a place in Spain near which there were two monasteries of nuns and friars.

These establishments he entered, and having "caused divers feather beds to be ripped up, and the feathers to be thrown into a great hall, the nuns and friars, with their bodies oiled and pitched, were thrust into their midst, and tumbled about among the feathers." It is not surprising to learn that for this act the people "presaged the bishop an ill death," which he richly deserved, if he had it.

Jesse, in his "Memorials of London " (2d S. ii, 373), records another case of tarring and feathering, which occurred in London in 1696, when the inhabitants of the Savoy (a hospital for poor persons) thus dealt with one who had presumed to enter the precinct to demand a debt from a person who had taken sanctuary there. It is stated to have been their usual custom, and after the tarring and feathering process was