NEWS, VIEWS, and OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 13

NEWS, VIEWS, and OPINIONS.

1 The pleasant and commendable custom , ..escaange oi domicile practised by I JLrtjaa schoolboys and gins and their I CoW-menwJ lelioiv-siudenis, the British voutns ibaving the advantage oi a holi- • iiv IB a French -or German household, lith tie reciprocal arrangement of the r t) un< r pe°P le of tilEte aliu olher nationL u y domesticating -themselves for a Site to England, has for seme time been am ie a successtul enterprise in Liverpool Lya the "Liverpool Post"). In one !^ S e however, tihe plain chain of intexouisei l3 'been temporarily snapped, and for a very sinister reason. A well-known ! family hi the Gateaere district arranging house party only wanted the presence _ „o Bavarian 'young ladies to comj .j e te a list, of guests, when yesterday jj on ,ing came, a letter from Fraulein | . raying, "We are greatly concerned \ at not being able to co.iie to you. We t and nw st y oun g "-omen of -our age have j to en' er the national hospitals for trainin ambulante work, and n which we I hare to .pass a very exacting examination hy the end of March. The decree is 1 q U ite a sudden one."

Two Berlin publishers have devised a scheme lor a combined telephonic news ,wimusical service to he supplied to telephone subscriber.; for a monthly payment Jf fiye shillings. The idea of connecting 0 p private telephones with theatres, operas, and concert halls is an old one. Ihe novel part of tihe plan is the news service. Subscribers will be rung up at lemilar intervals throughout the day (presumably a night service is not intended) and a voice will tell them the sere of the hour from all parts of the wrld, stock exchange prices, sporting remits—whatever may be of interest at the moment.

U In order to give his scholars a firm if grip of original composition, a Monfi mouthshire schoolmaster believes in the value of what he calls "an exercise in framing definitions." After illustrating what was wanted, he set the little "boys to write one-sentence definitions of "boy" and "girl." Here are a few of the ideas evoked: "A boy is made of a lot of bones with flesh put round them." "A girl is nearly the same, but we do not cut her w hair." "A boy is born a baby." "A girl is only Tibs ont of a man's body." "A girl is God's sheep.' "A "boy is a ordin- : ary creature made out of dust, and so is a girl." A curious old law, which dates from 1779, has, says the "Express," been used *.o sentence the owner of a vineyard at Capestaug, near Beziers, to a 20/ fine and costs for picking her own grapes. She i tras picking the grapes which had been left on the vines .in her vineyard after the autumn gathering, when the local policeman -told her that she was committing an offence against the law, as all grapes left on the vines after the harvest were the property of the poor. The ! Conrt at Beziers confirmed the police- ! man's opinion, and the woman incurred a fine and heavy costs for picking grapes which grew on her own property, the Romajis of classic times seem, on tie-whole, to have had a very tolerable time of it. They changed their emperors . rien they "faired of them; they had plenty of public sensations and private l goings-on to entertain them; and they 3 _ a delightful climate. The Commeaiatore.Boni has now, in the course of his excavations among the Palace of the Caesars, come across three shafts which 1b declares to have been lifts, and anoilier of our- boasted modern luxuries 16 found to be a mere revival after all. Where we gain a point is in the use of a hydraulics and the facile button; and "I There our visions of the past grow vivid sin imagining the Imperial wrath when uy of the fateful ropes broke.

4 resident of Holvoke, in Massachusetts, John R. Gibbs" by name, has retartly become the father of two girls ™eh in many ways are like the famous tamese twins. They are attached to Mh. other at the hips, but, says the btandard" New York correspondent, in «rery other way are perfectly normal, ud.are splendidly developed. Where wey grow together it seems to be just a %c mass of ligaments, but the surgeons declare it .would be dangerous -to try and separate them by an operation until they men the age of sis years at least. It tas been noted that the Gibbs twins are MerentV a great many ways. Often Wen one desires to sleep the other is RES" ™ 6Ws a 6tron * desire to cpiy-idl They never seem to agree Moating hour, for while one cries way" the ° ther one P uts the b(rtt 'e

neuMber of smoking-rooms now disS OTC T Wind6or CasUe ™«W c°nESi ?, ni6h Queeu vi <*oria could By Tr hem ' ea - vs a writer in the «_' n ; Gazrt te." Her late Majesty Ste th bm «, herself t0 d 0 more than TOgte the weed in any form, and the ? -roorn was always relegated to a d L v Dt Part of her vari °u* resitoS »? r WeTG the vests Permitted ggkM themselves with a quiet smoke **Wown apartments, as on their ar»U they were specially warned not to SSLI #f?H Was I,cr dismlTrf ! ? Kit , Slndri after King mm nf ]e f t,Dn t0 tobacco, to say the SLi '*' h d P rac tically rebuilt the ftkt JT d d fJ ° f alarm was Mt as W*t she would say to the number of Jtag-roorns. At last someone hit i" he w£ D ° f la ' be » in S '-hem "bathis &LIX J rU ? e suc ceeded admirably m <tepeltog -her Majesty's suspicions.

&tW gh , ?,* P*s*™ g er in a bi«tt_™ f \ lMely> Ur ' Solf ' German m£2J°l * h « Cotonl «. expressed his fc that «yin'g machines wiU fill |™ "*« in the colonies. For ce t u had ' been s^ia! Z Sdb J wt for «-c time RS aWaitin g a favourable moC *L" ny,B « hift ™to execnWoa.be a?i.r? e!n *,' h « beli « v «i. -would an , d '« ndplall6 "specting the th ° C » ] Secretary a . eM Pl*nes would render Ck M - 6 • n tran& ™tting instrucin'tW_ j ? S " lg6 aßd insu rTections; Wets _ mial P o6^l Be ™» in dis- «?™ a m»«tion, and in the P'S Cc , 6 ™' te "ded to employ aero- •*«£,■ W T ln Germa "y on leave *M_£' P ,acc ;<"rnpl"ane S at their dis-

It is significant throughout the course of recent events in the Balkans the Mussulman .population of India has shown not the slightest signs of unrest. Until even twelve months ago there were croakers abroad who declared that if ever Great Britain sided with a Christian nation against the followers of the Prophet, the..result would be mutiny in the Mussulman portion of the Indian Army. These forebodings have been strikingly falsified, and the Indian Army as a whole was never more loyal than it is to-day.

It is no longer essential, as it was during 'the last a-eign, bo include several expert bridge-players in the guests to meet ■the King in country houses, for E.ing George, though he plays a remarkably good game, is by no means devoted to bridge. His Majesty likes a rubber after dinner, for low stakes, but never plays in the aft-arnoon. Cards did not appear at- all during the recent stay of the Court at Windsor, the King and Queen and their guests spending the af.ter-dinnex hours simply in conversation.

If a London tailor wants to advertise the excellence of his wares he endeavours to intimate that they are intended only for the select few. If he is in New York he sets about it like this:—"Seven million smart young chaps are wearing our Ten-Dollar, Ready-to-Wear, Tuxedo Suitings. Follow the Crowd." They do, too. No true New Yorker would think of putting on a pair of trousers until he was quite sure that at least a million others had preceded him in them. The reason is the fierce desire to be American. It is the same in politics and patriotism and morals generally. "Follow the crowd," e-ays the native-born New Yorker, "and you can't go wrong."

Tooth-prints are the latest aid to the detection of criminals. A burglar who broke into a house in Paris regaled himself on all the dainty things he could find in the place, and having then secured all the valuables j>n which he could lay his hands, quitted the premises without leaving any apparent clue to his identity. The police, however, arrested a man whom they had reason to connect with the robbery, and the prisoner was astounded when, at his trial, a pat of butter, off which he had bitten a piece, was produced in Court. The tooth-marks tallied exactly with those that would he made by the prisoner, and the Bench was so satisfied of his guilt that the suspect was ordered to be imprisoned.

The annals of gastronomy are rich in eccentricity, from the indiscriminate methods of Dr. Johnson to the highest form of eclecticism. But the peripatetic dinner seems to have distinctive touches of its own. The "Daily Mail" has unearthed a connoisseur in aliment who makes the tour of five restaurants during one dinner, and takes a course at each. This is specialisation- with a vengeance, and may be welcomed by the waiters as promising five "tips" instead of one. Again, the renewal of appetite by the walk from place to place may have its advantage for the caterer by running up the total bilL But if the habit spreads, the prospect for the sedentary client is disconcerting; he will think he is dining on a railway platform.

The United -States Navy Department has taken official notice of the "bunny hug." the "Gaby glide," the "turkey trot," and other new forms of dancing, and has forbidden their exercise by the naval cadets at Annapolis, the training school for American navaV officers. Department officials had a difficult time' drawing up the new order, for they desired to include in the prohibition all dances, regardless of their names, analogous to the now. form of revelry. The instructions as finally issued declare, says the ''Express 7 ' correspondent, that in every dance except square dances, like the lancers, the cadet must hold his left arm straight at all times, and his partner must be kept at a distance of at least three inches. Under these conditions, bunny-hugging and turkey-trotting and Gaby-gliding are physuoally impossible.

The tradesman who is always_"selling off" is, the "Christian World." to have a rough time at Berlin.. New police regulations come into force on April Ist benevolently designed to restrain perpetual "alarming sacrifices." Every sale is to be announced to the police and at the shop a full week beforehand, with particulars as to the reasons for the sale and the number of days it is to last. The altered price marks are to be attached four days before the sale begins for police inspection. Only two sales are allowed yearly, and these are to be held either before February loth or between •Tune 15th and August Ist. No single sale is to last more than three weeks. •Two season-clearance sales, one stocktaking sale, and one season clearance sale are allowed. The penalty for infringement of -these regulations is a fine not "exceeding £7 10/ or imprisonment.

Professor Flinders Petri© rails at the believer in luck. He does not believe in throwing salt over the left shoulder when the salt cellar has been upset; he would, .presumably, walk under a ladder even .when a man -with a brush and paint pot stood thereon. He tells us we must not turn our money over (if we have any to turn) when we first see the slim bow of the new moon; he is against luck and its signs and symbols in every shape and form. Perhaps there is no such thing as luck, but there is such a thing as coincidence, and the twain are close related —perilously close. So let us continue to buy lucky charms for the wife, those dainty knick-knacks she secures to her chain or bangle; not that the wife needs more charms, for she is bountifully endowed therewith, but merely that we may spend our sovereigns in ascertaining how art may vie .with nature. Among many others, a story is told in the " Romance of the Rothschilds" that on one occasion when Heine was dining with Baron James Rothschild en famille, as he often did, the poet was very chary of his speech. Rothschild desired to unlock his tongue at any cost, and he ordered his finest wines to be served. But to no purpose. At last "Rothschild produced a bottle of his finest Lacrima Christi, and handed Heine a glass of it. The poet lifted the delicate glass to his lips, sipped it, and said nothing. Then Rothschild asked him how he liked the wine. 'Well, thank you,' he said. ' Perhaps you do. not know what you have been drinking,' said the •baron. "That is Lacrima Christi, the noblest and best wine in the world. Every drop of it costs a ducait. And you have not a word to say about this heavenly drink.' ' Do you know, baron,' 1 Heine asked, ' why it is called Lacrima Christi, or the Tears of Christ?' ' Why?' ' These are Christ's tears,' said Heine, ' because Christ weeps at the sight of two wicked Jews like us drinking so precious a wine while there are thousands of poor devils in Paris without a bit of bread.'"