FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

FROM FAR AND NEAR.

-mite recently the world was startled , learn that a syndicate had been ;° e( i__in America, it is needless to Sto utilise the full moon as an ad!EinK medium. There is, however, /rfher scheme, also of Yankee origin, "S is infinitely more full of terrify- ?" possibilities. Parrots are being I i-ned ia America to shriek in the ears -frnstomers such phrases as "Have you f-2 Cyrus B. Flint's chewing gum? If ' tvfhy The idea has "caught ;" *in this country, and bird fanciers °I'a amateurs will soon be spending I , r a every day impressing innocent *°S birds with the fact that "Blank's S* powder is the best." Bovril, r lited are enchanted with the idea, A are'now considering the advisability f offering handsome prizes for sagairnis birds who will rattle off the Bovril c . , phrases, as seen on the hoardings, Shout once descending to the usual t Sot flippancies. The birds will be Uttered among the retailers, and !L r lv ladies waiting to be served at Sp grocer's will be suddenly startled by * weird travesty of a voice, coming Lm nowhere in particular, exclaiming: fi hear they want more Bovril."

One of the Paris neAvspapers has been givinf an interesting list of the works of the late M. Zola, apropos of the forthImAtp sale of the author's country house 2 Medan, which is valued at £SOOO. The list includes the numbers sold of each work—a fair criterion of the popularity of the different subjects treated. '•Xa Debacle," Avliich reached by far the West number of sales of any one book, ra n to 207,000 copies, and brought the author in several thousand pounds; of "Kana," the second favourite according .0 the'publishers' figures, 103,000 copies were sold; "Lourdes" and "L'Assommoir" were bought to the extent of 154,000 and 151000 copies respectively. It is calculated that M. Zola's profits on his household books during the past thirty years reached £60,000, and in addition jie received as much as £1000 for each newspaper story contributed during the past decade, and nearly £40 weekly - from the "Figaro" for special articles. jjarpe sums AA-ere also derived from the 'dramatic Avorks and popular editions. Evcrv British regiment has its regimental march, though few people know what they are. Here is a list of some of them:— Boyal Scots Greys—"The Garb of Old Gaul" Bth Royal Irish Lancers _«,„,, "Let Erin Remember the Days of Ola 6th Inniskilling Dragoons "The Sprig of Shillelah" 19th Hussars "The Men of Harlech" Grenadier Guards "British Grenadiers Coldstream Guards "Minanolla March Scots Guards "Highland Laddie Buffs (Bast Kent Regiment) "The Men of Kent" Norfolk Regiment...--..."Rule Britannia" Lincoln Regiment "The Lincolnshire Poachers Suffolk Resinient.. "Speed the Plough" East Yorkshire Regiment "My Bonny Yorkshire Lass Boyal Irish Fusiliers -.."Garryoweu" South Wales Borderers "The Men of Harlech" (King's Own Scottish Borderers "Bonny Blue Bonnets Over the Border" Border Regiment "Do You Ken John Peel?" South Staffordshire Regiment "Come Lasses and Lads" Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment '"The Lass o' Gowrie" -King's Royal Rifle Corps..„„„„"rm 05" Cameron Highlanders "March of the Cameron Men" 'irsrll and Sutherland Highlanders "Highland Laddie" Royal Marines "A Life on the Ocean Wave" The law, .urning harsli looks upon all forms of gambling, particularly enacts that any person using a place for the purpose of betting with persons resorting thereto shall be liable to a deterrent penalty. _<bw what does this mean? Will .the mere fact that bets are made at au hotel with people coming there constitute the offence, or must it be shown that the 'defendant has some sort of interest in -he "place" before he can be said to be using it in the sense meant by the Legislature? These Avere the facts: One Seri,ven was the licensee of an inn in a picturesque part of England. Tromans Avas a professed bookmaker and Insull Avas his clerk. Tromans was in the habit of frequenting the bar, where he carried on the business of ready-money betting Avith anybody who chanced to be there. The circumstance of Tromans visiting the bar was known to the licensee; and there was some sort of understanding on the subject betAveen Scriven and Tromans and his clerk. It was not shown that Tromans, or the clerk, had any refreshment at the inn, or was a customer, or, Jpdeed, had any kind of interest in the »otel as such, or in the business carried on there, in any shape or form, nor did he occupy any specific part of the bar. Neither Avas there any proof that any of the persons who betted with Tromans took refreshment at the inn. Tlie court, however, held that the lack of proof on these points Avas not material, and that the offence aimed at by the statute was complete upon evidence that Tromans frequented 'the bar for the purpose of betting. It may be assumed that, the conviction of the defendant (Avh'ch the magistrate had entered) might not have stood if it had been shown that the licensee had not taci-ly or other r/ise allowed the "use" of the premises by Tromans and his clerk. (Tromans .v. Hodgkinson.)

"Do you want your likeness for family use?" asks a Sydney photographer, as he seats his victim, "or for reproduction in the newspapers?" The price is the same, but the likeness is not. „

In Ms parish magazine, the vicar of Islington invites young men to join the "Bell-ringers , Guild," on the ground that nell-ringing is a preferable pastime to the "brutal game of football/ , which has stolen some devotees from his belfry.

Modem enterprise! M. Giron, says tlic Geneva correspondent of the "New iYork Herald," has had many offers from people who were willing to make his fortune— and, incidentally, theirs. One energetic manager of a London music hall offered him an engagement at an enormous salary, while a gentleman from V 'New York suggested a series of lectures i* l the States, The princess in this case Was to accompany him on the stage, but ttould not be expected to speak. Another astute business man wanted him to write an advertisement eulogising a

...:."■ certain well-known patent medicine. The strangest offer of all came from < a circus proprietor, who offered to organise a gigantic outdoor fete, at which M. Giron would make an asceut in a balfe; toon, ...•-• —..»----

Over l,ooo,ooocwts. of apples were imported into England in 1902 in excess of the imports of 1901.

In the trade this great increase is attributed almost entirely to the shortage of the home crop, but the "Gardeners' Magazine" believes that the fact that England is every year becoming more and more a fruit-eating nation 13 not without an important bearing on these figures.

It points out as a proof the great advance which the banana has made, the number of bunches imported during 1002 being 2,805,700 (valued at £1,0(30,203), or more than double the number of the 1000 consignments.

One of tlie most remarkable contrasts betAveen society at the beginning of the nineteenth century and at the, dawn of the twentieth is to be found in the ball-room of the period. The arts aud graces of daily life, Avhich were cultivated to such perfection—an almost too elaborate perfection—by our Georgian ancestors, disappeared apparently Avith the swords and ruffles and satins and brocades which then made men and women picturesque. To-day Aye see them j only on the stage, divorced alike from ■ chamber and salon, and even then they : arc so obviously artificial that they make us blush for shame at our own physical delinquencies. What would the young men and maidens who danced the minuet, the gavotte, and those other quaint old measures of pre-Victorian days Avith such easy grace and precision (remarks A. S. Cook-Suggit in "Public Opinion") think of the wild horse scrambling to which the dancing of the present day has been degraded? What Avoutd they think of flic clumsiness of the aA'erage man's waltzing, of the riotous confusion evolved from hazy reminiscences of tlie lancers, of the contempt Avith which tlie quadrilles are thrust aside and ignored, or of the mad stampeding cultivated in the barn dance (so-called, perhaps, because the rough floors of village inn club rooms, and the hob-nailed boots of shock-headed rustics supply the conditions under which it is most advantageously performed) ? The astonishment and bewilderment with which the spectacle would fill them may be too easily conjectured. Mr William Ailing, a millionaire, jgavcller, is pondering sadly over the maxim that "no man is a hero to his valet"—or coachman, certainly if these be of British breed. Mr. Ailing Bent to England for a coachman aa-lio "must have driven one of the nobility." He engaged one Alexander Gordon. The sequel has been furnished in the Newark (U.S.A.) Police Court. "Because he's served the nobility in England," Mr. Ailing informed the court, "he is imbued with contempt for the democratic institutions and homes of this country. Ho presumes to dictate to my wife as to when she shall have the privilege of driving out in her oavti carriage. His haughty ways make our lives unbearable. I'paid him his wages last Monday and discharged him, but he refuses to be discharged, or to give up the rooms he occupies at my house." "I've not been discharged," Gordon told the Judge. "I have a contract until February 12, and I Avon't go till then. I'm too high priced for Ailing. He has not been used to a high-class coachman. That's all that's the matter with him.' 5 Judge Lambert informed Mr. Ailing that the case was one for the civil courts. There Avere many unfinished phrases in the maiden speech with which Mr Disraeli made his parliamentary debut, Diit one of them has become famous in the annals of oratory. "When the hurried Hudson rushed through the chambers of the Vatican, with the keys of Peter in one hand, and in the other—" the speaker began, and at this point the noise drowned his voice and the rest of the sentence was lost. Mr Disraeli, whose reference Avas to a King's messenger named Hudson Avho Avas pursuhfg Sir Robt. Peel with a letter from the King summoning Peel to form a GoA-ernmcnt, had no chance of informing the House \vhat Hudson had in his other hand, and the point has often been speculated upon. Even the Avell-informed Sir M. E- Grant Duff has ventured a theory on the subject, forgetting or not knowing that the matter was really cleared up in the lobby after had sat doAvn. Though the speech Avas a failure, it Avas at least a brilliant failure, and congratulations poured in upon the young member from all sides. One of those who encouraged him Avas the Attorney-General of the time, who, though he had never seen Disraeli before, spoke to him Avith great cordiality and asked him to fill in the missing word. "Could you tell me just how you finished one sentence in your speech," said the Minister —"in one hand the keys of St. Peter, and in the other ?" "In the other the cap of liberty, Sir John," replied Disraeli, and the Attorney - General confessed that it was "a good picture." "But your friends will not alloAV me to finish in the pictures," said Disraeli, Avhom Sir John promptly assured that "there was the liveliest desire to hear you from us. It Avas a party at the bar, over Avhom AA*e had no control; but you have nothing to be afraid of."

At' the conclusion of one of the recent seasons at Durban the stagemanager stepped before the curtain to make a few remarks appropriate to the occasion, and in the course of his speech intimated that the company "-vould be going away for four weeks and would return in about five." He secured by this "Irishism" the biggest laugh of the evening; and it so tickled the tamous comedian, Mr. Harry Nieholls, that before leaving- the company to return to England he presented Mi. Howitt with the following , effusion: In loving memory of a certain valedictory speech, delivered in Durban, South Africa, June 30, 1902.

We may part from a friend witli a smile or 1 a drioik at the bar, A fervent "God bless you, old fellow! Good l)ve'" Or an'offhand "So long!" or"Ta-ta." Bat what humour and pathos that man can In'thetevr farewell words that he speaks, When he says, "For a. month I am going An? shall Ue back again in five weeks."

An ideal condemned murderer from a reporter's point of view has turned up in America., Charles Grether, a condemned murderer in prison at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, has asked for a telephone to be fitted in his cell. Hβ is anxious to converse over it with his friends, and also to communicate with the newspapers. . .:> • ' ■ - - ■■■ -—