It is positively affirmed that physicians regard canned foods as dangerous. Many cases of poisoning occur from eating such foods, but chemical testimony is divided. Some chemists trace the poisoning to special conditions of the food used; in other words, the food was in an advanced state of decomposition when it was put into the can. This is the opinion recently expressed by an eminent English chemist. In this view, proper caution in examining the food will avert all danger. * * * * * What impressions would our chief cities make on those of us who do not live in them, if we received all our knowledge of them through the newsy papers? San Francisco, for example, is known in that way as the home of Sand Lot orators, astonishing divorce suits, fighting editors, and swearing preachers. The latest of these picturesque incidents is the shooting of an editor, Mr. De Young, who is the second man in his family to be shot by outraged and bloody-minded readers. Such incidents doubtless misrepresent the City of the Golden Gate; but many thousands of newspaper readers know only these miserable doings in San Francisco. * * * * * The sacred hen of Brahma has long been at home in American barn-yards; and now we learn that for several years the sacred cow of India has been establishing herself in the South. The Brahma cattle, judiciously crossed with English breeds, are becoming fashionable in New Mexico. * * * * * Perhaps the most unfortunate man in the late campaign was a distinguished one who ostensibly had nothing to do with politics. Ex-Senator Conkling is credited with depriving, by secret influence, Mr. Blaine of many votes. The misfortune is in the fact that good and bad politicians agree in despising a sneak. * * * * * The “roller-skating rink” is condemned in vigorous terms by one of the Methodist conferences. It is doubtless becoming a nuisance. The base-ball business is past praying for, so degraded and disreputable has it become. There seems to be no possibility of maintaining any form of athletics in a wholesome, moral condition. They are becoming a worse nuisance each year. * * * * * The outbreak of cholera in Paris has created almost a panic, in New York, in the middle of November. Cholera has always been a warm weather disease, and the apprehensions of New York were altogether unreasonable. The disease made very little headway in Paris. Perhaps we should provide for its reception in this country next summer; though it could be kept out by proper and sufficient quarantine measures. * * * * *