FEOM FAR AND NEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 304, 22 December 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

FEOM FAR AND NEAR.

A movement has been started iw France to put to practical use the illustrated post-card cr:vze. Sympathiser! are invited to send such cards to poor vilSage schools, where they are hung on the walls to give the youth, therl an idea what the cities "and "ahow places" of the world are like.

Mr Edison announces that after years of experiment he has successfully com. pleted a commercial phonograph. The new machine is capable of taking testimony in a court of justice, and will record from dictation. It is said that with' a pair of machines, one for recording and the other for reproducing, a single typist can do the work of eight under the present system.

In "Harper's Magazine" far October Dr. H. C. McCook tells of a species of kidnapping ants which make organised attacks on other ant villages for the purpose of capturing slaves. Here is an account of the attack: "At last the muster is complete. Mysteriously but effectively the signal 'Forward! , \% given, and the column moves from the hill. There is no regular alignment, but a show of solidarity, a holding of the ranks within close compass and touch & 'rout step,' in fact. There is no general ; there are no subordinate officers , but such is the sympathetic unity that they seem to move in response to one will and command. If every warrior is a law unto himself, the law so binds .md animates and compels all alike that the end of an organised cohort are served.

Mr Ellery H. Clark, a lawyer, is the all-round athletic champion of America. In an interview 'he has said: "That which does a man the most good is some active game out of doors. One hour oa nature's playground is •worth two hours in the gymnasium. The great thing is to get outdoors and have fun while you breathe deep draughts of clean air and Tet the invigorating sun shine on you. Refrain from overdoing <the exercise, and you ■wall find that each day's amusement adds wonderfully to your working power and endurance at business or professional labour. Kpealrin" of overdoing reminds mc of the wav schoolboys of to-day are overtrained. It is a shame to put soft-framed youngsters into hard training in order to develop schoolboy champions. I«t is like racing horses to pieces as two-year-olds. They are never so good again. Boys ought to play hard out of doors every day, but hard athletic training and competition, should be reservrttl until they are at least twenty years old." "What training have you had?" the visitor asked. "None at all as a boy," Mr Clark replied. "That is, none that I was conscious of training. I was a lanky youngster, all legs and arms. I played baseball and stram, and walked a great deal. I guess I developed a lot of endurance duck shooting at Cohasse-t. You paddle down the wind a quarter of a mile to retrieve a dead duck, and then row back against strong tide and wind in a heavy boat, and you're getting a lot of exercise. Repeat this a score of time or more in one morning and you're doing as much work aa a fellow in a 'Varsity crew. And the best of it is, the exercise is all incidental, a mere part of the sport. Therefore it's twice as beneficial as the hard, staling work of strict training."

"All coons," says the song, "look aliki to mc." In San Francisco the great difficulty is to distinguish one ChinamaH from another. Queer frauds frequently result. Not long ago a police officer, who had arrested several Chinamen, and managed to lose one on the way to the station, calmly restored the» original number by seizing the first "Chink" he came across, with a calm assurance equal to that of Handy Andy in his adventure at the post office. Fortunately for the ill-used Mongolian, circumstances enabled him to establish his captor's levity and his own innocence, from which, it may be seen that schemes based on these yellow resemblances are occasionally pushed too far. This has been the cas« in an affair which has recently stimulated San Franciscan interest and risibility. Six young Chinese offenders were ordered to be sent out of the country, and were sorely reluctant to go. Presently it was found that their places had been mysteriously taken on board ship by half a dozen decrepit old Chinamen, presumably anxious to return to the Flowery Land to lay their bones in a Chinese grave. The extraordinary cmtrast between the ages of the two sets of prisoners led in this instance to. the detection of a trick which is believed to have been frequently practised with impunity. Bribery, of course, had been resorted to, and the leading Californian newspaper announces that "at least one white attorney" has helped to divide » sum of five hundred pounds. In n»°« ways than one the story is curiously illustrative of the variegated life that ffltn lead in the Golden West.

The eastern portion of a chnrchyaij is always regarded as the mortfavou£ ed; next comes the south, then the and lastly the north. According to popular belief, the bodies will rise in t» foregoing order. On this account tro faithful dead are buried with then i« towards the east to meet the Savionr when he appears a second time. Wales the east wind i= know as -t wind of the dead men's feet." The n«tt was thi part assigned to those *p suffered at the hands of the puthcexeor tioner, those who had committed *» ride, the poor and friendless. Here ra weeds and nettles grew, and here ru bish was deposited. Not afew BOtaow people have chosen this side of graveyard to try and put an end to w> belief" in their own particular o Southcy, foT example, is buried in a gr» on the north side of Croathwaite dnß«£ yard in a spot selected by tnnße break down the old superstitions IW»J thnt this side of the church was onr? for the ontcasrt and the wicked. J* , the poet rests with several members his family, and a plain gravestone raised to their memory. It 1S m .{\- mony with the simple life of J OO who'desired neither pomp nor Bh0 I W '_ «fl passed his days as a prolific worker the charming Lakeland which he lorea well, and even the offered editorsMP the Times" could not induce hn " leave Greta Hall with its literary : Btrree and peaceful life. In ma r?JLts J villages of Yorkshire the w ££Tr on ! have a superstitious dislike to bn "*Lj the north side of a church. In J"*~m. churehvards the plot of oTmd JT^ , i ately in the shadow of the A™"*"!** wall is not used for burial, but; Jβ* eraHy rank with nettles and rnW»*