Thirty-five years ago electricity as a mechanical power was unknown. A Russian wolf in the New Brighton Tower menagerie has given birth to eight cubs. "What's the gloaming, Uncle Tom - '" "Well, befoVe a man is married it is the time to take a walk with the girl he loves; but after he is married- it is the time he falls over rocking horses and building bricks on the parlour floor." A startling statement as: to the aggregate loss sustained by .employees who fail to keep regular time'at; their work -was made by Mr F. D. Docker at the meeting of the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon, and Finance Company at Birmingham. Leaving out all question of overtime or illness, said Mr- Docker, he found that two-thirds of the men at one of their works habitually -'■ lost time. Working out. at ian average of Is 9d a -week amongst the men who lost it, it amounted to an enormous ,sum yearly. Many of the men were content to take home, week after Svcck, two and three shillings less than the rates paid by the firm. At another works half of the men lost time regularly, and the av-. erago there was 2s 6d a "Week. The time lost was equal to ten full working days in the year, and amounted to upwards of £II,OOO a'year at two of their works alone. This sum, which was voluntarily lost, w.is a serious thing in itself, but the loss was not confined to the wnges sacrificed. The firm's expenses for rates, taxes, depreciation, lighting, management, and so forth ran on day by day regardless of an individual's inconvenience. Their men were a splendid body of workers, and if a really serious attempt, supported by the leaders, were made to grapple with this" failing, the firm would be only, too l\appy r tp stimulate and suppcrt ;& reform by ..'giving . a special bonus if -a 1 ! -tlre"men kept full time. ' f .