NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

& !An enterprising lady who lives in Kensington has hit upon a novelty in physical culture, and promises to make a fortune out of it. The cure" is her speciality. Nature had provided us with lungs,' but apparently has not endowed all of us with sufficient intellect to make proper use of them, and we suffer accordingly. The Kensington lady has opened a school to teach members of her own sex how to breathe themselves into upright, supple limbed, sound hearted damsels. Of course people are scoffing, but when you see a podgy lady of uncertain age fuming

down into quite a shapely woman, a skinny maiden of twenty filling- out into a plump, well developed candidate for matrimony, delicate people ■becoming capable of fatiguing work and slouching girls transforming into graceful damsels, it is calculated to give the mockers pause. The breathing1 cure is apparently simplicity itserf. You have no "Sandow developers" to buy, no dumbells to wield, but having1 dispensed with your stays, yon attire yourself in ]mickert>oefcer?> and a loose skirt, and either alone or in company you place your hands on your hips, throwing your shoulders well back, and you draw a great deep breafh which expands your lungs and imparts strength to the muscles of the body. Of course each case has to be treated differently, and the exercise you perform depends on the muscles'or organs you wish to develop. AH that is necessary is a Aoor to lie on and the necessary complement^ of arms and legs to move and kick. You feel supremely ridiculous and look it: but numbers who have been cured of Outward physical disfigurement and internal weakness testify to the beneficial effects of the treatment.

A somewhat similar innovation has been introduced by ultra, progressive teachers of voice production. There is-beyond question something particularly'ludicrous in the sight of a-room lull of mature and, in many cases, corpulent ladies, attired in black satin knickerbockers and white shirts lying flat on the floor kicking their legs in the air. Yet in, two years no less than four thousand British dames of undoubted respectability have so disported themselves under the supervision of the various people whose classes (for voice production) are the craze of the hour. Many well-known singers have undergone the treatment. We are inclined to ask could fatuity go further?

We have had occasion before to remark here or hereabouts that romance is not entirely dead, nor is it confined entirely to fiction. A remarkable case in support of this sapient truth burst on New Zealand this week. Another illustration may be obtained from a touching1 episode enacted in the little town of Witeb'ok, in Russia. A sad Jvas. .taken place there. The Sriaegrbom is a- clockmaker named ©bsehenski, who, immediately previous to his marriage was sentenced (to ten years in the Siberian mines for coining false money. The bride, a daughter4 of the local priest, was besought by her father to give up the idea of marriage, but she would not desert the man of her choice in his misfortune. Consequently the wedding was performed in the prison chapel, the bridegroom being- in chains tind handaifts, while the bride was dressed in mourning. After the ceremony the newly-married man went tack to his cell. His wile will follow lim to Siberia.

Professor Frederick Storr, of the tlepartinent of anthropology in the University of Chicago, has just made the announcement that all American people are becoming Indians, and they .will eventually revert to the abpriginal type. His theory is that racial differences are clue to physical and climatic conditions of the different .continents, and that the same conditions which influenced the earliest dwellers in America are producing a like result among the present \ inhabitants. The professor bases his theory upon careful investigation, having minutely . examined and measured the features of more than'sooo children of Pennsylvania Dutch parentage, and has found in Inost cases a distinct lengthening of the face and broadening1 of the cheek bones, in accordance with the characteristic features of the Indian races. He contends that everybody who goes to America must converge to the Indian type; some may resist the influence longer than others, but the result will be sure to follow in time.

; The English law of libel has its peculiarities, but the German law of libel is also curious. It is pointed out that an editor recently said in his paper that a certain man "was an-Unmannerly boor," in consequence of which a libel action was brought against the paper. The evidence given seemed to show that the only fault *ith the expression was that it was not strdng enough. The case was taken from court to court, until it reached the highest tribunal, when it was decided that the editor would lave been perfectly justified if he Sad said that the plaintiff had "acted like'an unmannerly boor," but as he had said that the plaintiff "was an TUunannerly boor" he had committed Wbel. In Germany it is libellous to call/a man #, pig or an ass, but perfectly safe to call, him a pig-ass or pig-dog, as no suchi animals exist.

Five wicked badmashes recently toftke into a gunpowder factory in ■ Peshawar, India, and stole three bags of- -gunpowder. When they had time 'Wpjmse and think the wisest of them leinembered that the last time he had *nade a similar attempt the bags which Hhad stolen had turned out to eonfcjin only dust and been especially laid jut for the benefit of intending burgf htts. They set to work to test the g^pptowder, and one of them removed from one bag- to what, seem- *¥ a safe,distance and set it alight, not m Noticing that he had dropped an un- ;; >W6ken train of gunpowder as he carV it along, the result of his action | Wing; tliat three charred corpses and : mp. Skinned invalids are all that the AJMi: authorities have left np'on which | «9 administer justice.

Here is an interesting dissertation on the discrepancies of wageearning: Fifty-five pounds odd per minute of working time. Such, is the pay offered to McGovern and, Beri Jordan for boxing- six rounds in Tattersail's Athletic Club, Chicago, and a contemporary thinks it extravagant. Paderewski gets a beggarly three guineas a minute at the piano, Santley £150 an hour in oratorio, Patti has "drawn" £8 a note in some of her songs, a jockey employed in riding a Derby winner makes from £10 a second upwards. Prize-fighting is not a higher art than singing, but one tight requires months of exhausting training, and cannot be repeated six days a week. A prize-fighter is often "too old at thirty," and incomes of "skilled labour" cannot be calculated on the so-much-an-hour system, as Mr. Whistler said when charging ,£IOO a day "for the experience of a lifetime." 15ut contrast the Spanish teacher now paid by his Government £L» a year (in arrear) and the Chinese soldier drawing 4/ a month, on which he keeps a horse.

In Germany it is the custom to advertise engagements, and columns are set apart for such announcements, just as our papers dedicate a corner in order to publish births, marriages, and deaths. If an engagement is bioken for some reason or other, this fact is also announced, and it is a deplorable Tact that during 1809 there were more of these announcements than has been the ease in any other year. An authority slates that German engagements and marriages are becomingl more anil more business-like. For this the mothers are chiefly responsible.

The Medical Society of Paris has expressed the opinion that it is necessary to adopt some measures against the alarming spread of petroleum drinking. At first it was thought that this habit had sprung up from the increased taxation on alcohol, imposed by the French (lovernment. but an investigation showed that tliis was not the case: the habit had been prevalent some time previously in certain districts, and had spread with great rapidity. The victim of the petroleum habit does not become brutal, only morose.

The grievances of the medical profession in New South Wales have long called aloud for redress, but the "duly qualified" practitioner has at last the quack under the whip, and is losing no time in making him feel it. The Medical Practitioners' Act came into operation with the century, and already an unlicensed healer has been fined £30 for arrogating to himself the prenomen of "Dr.." a distinction which even M.B."s and F.R.C.S's. dare not sport. New South' Wales has been for many years the happy huntingground of the medical humbug; she fs now a reformed country, and lias set about abolishing quacks by fine and imprisonment There seems, however, to be a little inequality in the penalties. The city spieler who tricks the Verdant Greens of the back blocks with three card monte expiates his cleverness when fairly collared by the alternative of £5 or a month. The sham medico caught swindling under the title of "doctor" has the option of taking out a £.30 fine by the same term of incarceration as the spieler, and that is. f>bvio»sly. unfair. The quack is surely entitled to as much gaol for his money as the nragsman.

The French Senate has voted, by a thumping majority, the right of lady barristers to plead in open court. The difficulty is not removed by ttiat measure of relief; it is the etiquette of the bar that intervenes. It says there is no law making it compulsory to admit ladies to speak in the public court, and they cannot be heard till admitted, and the ushers will not allow them to pass in. Of course the three ladies who have matriculated with their Sorbonne degrees, and graduated us Doctresses of Law in the Law School, are not objected to except on account of their sex. They have an excellent chamber practice, mostly judicial separations and divorces; but they have to hand over their briefs to a barrister of the other sex to expound the case before the judges. Feminism is making way all the same. If we had some New Zealand ladies (says a Paris correspondent), it is remarked, 1o help us we might go faster. French doctresses are now as common as blackberries.

One Jew and four reputed Christians were playing poker on an Atlantic liner. The pool was piled with fifty sovereigns. The Jew asked for two cards, and one of them was turned —the queen of diamonds. "I won't take it," he protested. "But you must," said the dealer. "I won't," repeated the Jew. The players all supported the dealer. "It's not fair," persisted the Jew. "I'll take my ten pounds out of the pool and leave the game." "You can leave the game, but you must leave your money," was the reply. So he gave in and took the card. Only two were betting, one of whom was the Jew, who raised and raised -his adversary. "But my dear fellow, I know your hand can't be worth much, it isn't fair," said the Christian. "Well, I'll see you," was the reply. The Christian laid down four knaves. The Jew showed four queens. "But what on earth—why did you refuse the queen of diamonds?" asked the loser. The Jew smiled pleasantly as he emptied the pool. "That is my business," he replied.

Two good stories are told of the late Professor Huxley. He had been lecturing at a certain institution esteemed to°represent the focus of a certain kind ;of metropolitan culture, on the brain, and at the close of his remarks the usual fussy lady, who likes at least to stamp discourses she cannot understand with the imprimatur of her approval, approached the professor. She was loud in her praise of the lecture, "It was so lucid, so clever, don't you know, and so convincing." But she had one little difficulty which the profcsor would doubtless dissipate. Th» professor was willing to do his best. "Then," said the dame, "tell me if the cerebellum you have been' talking about to-night is really inside the head or outside it!" The other story is a capital example of Huxley's caustic but genial wit. Speaking of the diffi< culty students experience in remembering the exact situation of the mitral and tricuspid valves of the heart, Huxley remarked that he remembered that the mitral (so called from its resemblance to the headgear of the church dignitary) must be on the left side, "Because a bishop could never be in the right."