E very body (says a correspondent of a Home paper) is busy iv the North except the relieving officers. The Clyde shipbuilders have some 150 vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 300,000, in him.l, and yet tho output of new work during the past few weeks has been considerably less than the contracts secured. A similar story comes from tho Mersey, while a Stockton cor-

respondent writes that " the good old times, when a beggar on Tee-side was almost us rare as a dodo," are rapidly returning. On the banks of the Tyne there are 80 vessels, while at Sun derland some 60 or 70 are in course of construc tion. Perhaps the most striking way in which to show the extent of the shipbuilding industry at the present time is to state that there are on the stocks ships representing about 80,000 tons for Germany, 17,000 for Portugal, 10,000 each for France, Norway, and the British colonies, 9000 for South America, 7000 for Belgium, and

Much excitement has been caused (says a London correspondent of tho Birmingham Post) by tho introduction of a new kind of cigar into the high-class clubs of London. The ingre dients of which it is composed remain a secret with the soi-dhant inventors, but the effect pro duced upon tho consumers is said to bo magical. Tho softness of perfume, the aromatic flavour] and, above all, the soothing qualities of this new cigar are unrivalled. The one thing certain is that there enters not an atom of tobacco iv the composition. At present it is manufactured only in Scotland. It is supposed by more than " one who knows " that it was brought over by the Mute Indians of Colonel Cody's troupe, and that it is nothing more than the killikillick smokod by that tribe—the secret of which has

long been preserved among them. Dr Oolniache, who had dwelt among them for many years fancied that it whs made from the thin s'haviugs of the willow. The medicine men alone are

entrusted with its preparation. The doctor describes it in the memoir he has left as the panacea for all ills—calming the nerves and

procuring the most placid sleep oven iv the midst of a raging fever. Ho never could ascer tain whether any other ingredients save the

willow shavings were employed in the manufac ture of the killikillick.
