Before Mr. Carnegie's recent departure to Scotland, he transferred to a commission $5,000,000 in Steel Corporation bonds, the interest of which is to be used for the benefit of "the dependents of those losing their lives in heroic effort to save their fellowmen, or for the heroes themselves if injured only."

Mr. Carnegie said:

"First-To place those following peaceful vocations, who have been injured in heroic effort to save life, in somewhat better positions pecuniarily than before, until again able to work. In case of death, the widow and children or other dependents to be provided for until she remarries, and the children until they reach a self-supporting age. For exceptional children, exceptional grants may be made for exceptional education. Grants of sums of money may also be made to heroes or heroines as the commission thinks advisable, each case to be judged on its merits.

"Second-No grant is to be continued unless it be soberly and properly used, and the recipients remain respectable, well-behaved members of the community; but the heroes and heroines are to be given a fair trial, no matter what their antecedents. Heroes deserve pardon and a fresh start.

"Third-A medal shall be given to the hero or widow or next of kin, which shall cite the heroic deed it commemorates, that descendants may know and be proud of their descent. The medal shall be given for the heroic act, even if the doer be uninjured, and also a sum of money, should the commission deem such gift desirable.

"The field that will be embraced by the fund is Canada and the United States and the waters thereof. The sea is the scene of many heroic acts. No action is more heroic than that of doctors and nurses volunteering their services in epidemics. Railroad employees are remarkable for heroism. All these and similar cases are embraced. Whenever heroism is displayed by man or woman in saving human life the fund applies."

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The New York Republican Convention elected Governor Odell as the chairman of the party State Committee. The convention instructed the delegates at large to use all honorable means to bring about the nomination of President. Roosevelt.

BOOKS ARE THIRD-CLASS MAIL.

A recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has excluded from second-class mail matter the socalled serial libraries. The issues of these "libraries" were complete books, and were carried at the rate for magazine and other periodicais, which is 1 cent per pound, while the actual cost to the Post-Office Department was 5 cents, and they have frequently asked that a law might be passed placing these publications in the third class, for which the rate is 8 cents per pound. During the year 1901 the cost of carrying and handling these books was $12,000,000, for which the publishers paid in postage only $2,000,000. By the decision of the Supreme Court there will be a gain to the Post-Office of $4,000,000 instead of a loss of $10,000,000 a year.

THE

TRAGEDY ON THE "MISSOURI" BATTLESHIP. The shocking accident of the killing of thirty-two men by an explosion in the 12-inch gun turret occurred on board the battleship Missouri during a target practice off Pensacola. The fire spread below, threatening the magazine, but the ship was saved through the presence of mind and the heroism of two or three officers, who flooded the compartment. Capt. W. S. Cowles prevented the ship from grounding on the beach, and also distinguished himself in the work of rescue.

The palace of the Emperor of Korea at Seoul was completely destroyed by fire on the evening of April 14th. The loss of the property is estimated at $1,000,000.

Courtesy of Funk & Wagnalls.

WILLIAM S. COWLES, Captain of the Missouri, who personally aided in the work of rescue at the peril of his life.

THE TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

The alliance between Great Britain and France is said to have been brought about by King Edward. The points of agreement involved the settlement of disputes relating to Egypt and Morocco, the delimitation of the frontier between the Niger and Lake Chad, the tortuous boundary in Siam, fishing rights in Newfoundland and the status of the New Hebrides.

TORONTO'S LOSS $13,000,000. TORONTO, Ontario, April 1.-The total sum of Toronto's loss in Tuesday night's great fire increases rather than decreases, as experts reduce the figures to something like accurate amounts. Tonight the loss is placed at $13,000,000 with an insurance of $10,000,000.

The loss of the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk on April 13th in striking a floating mine laid by the Japanese, and of her officers and crew, was a terrible disaster. The flagship is said to have cost $6,000,000. On April 12th the Japanese mining ship Korio Maru went boldly up to the mouth of the harbor of Port Arthur and laid a' series of mines across it while "the concerted flashes of four searchlights showed up spar and rail and a merciless fire swept around her." At daybreak a squadron of six

Japanese cruisers appeared off the port to entice the Russians out, while Admiral Togo and the main Japanese squadron lay along the coast hid by fog. The Russian squadron (three battleships and three cruisers) came out through ambuscade of mines safely and were beginning the pursuit of the decoy squadron, when the fog lifted and revealed the main Japanese fleet. Admiral Makaroff at once put back, and was about to enter the harbor when his flagship struck one of the hidden