Owe of the most amusing stories connected with railways is the account of Baron Hirsch's Railway in the Fortnightly Review far July. The author says it is as near an approach to a romance as anything can be in this unromantic age. The railway owed its existence to the treaty of Berlin which obliged the Turkish authorities to construct an iron road into the Balkans, a duty they were very unwilling to, perform. But Baron Hirsch, a clever' Austrian Jew, appeared, very anxious te secure a lucrative job, spent £40,000 on baksheesh—anost of which found its way into the pockets of the Minister of of Finance—and before the contract was signed, or a clod turned, had spent in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.