FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 9

FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Iα an article in '•Photography,' , i> editor irrefutably dispels the supposition ohcriihed in certain , circles mat the sjiinis of the departed can be photographed. \vua infinite care he haw "treated" v large number tit' photographs alleged lo represent the vpiril.s' of dead person--, and he shuw.s them all to be "uu-n. fake*.' , '•The allegations of the spiritualists," he sjvs, "are euiliciently atriKing lo ju-.-tify an inquiry, and that inquiry ue Have pursued lor several years.' . Among the points to wuieh he dra-.v= particular attention .ire tiie following: — ""The 'spirit form' in many eases < = "lit , from Che opposite side to ihc sut'-r. "The peculiar degradation of tor.c valuptf, well known and easily recognised by photographer* a a resulting from copying a photograph, characterises tho 'spiritual" pan of nearly all 'spirit photoprophs. , " 'Spirit portraits' of persons who difd before Ihe introduction of photography take the form of copies of paintings, or even crude engravings or line drawing-*. "A notable case was shcrsvn ot the actor Kean, in which the 'spirit , was ele.irly a copy of an early Victorian engravinp. 'Tn nt> instance of a 'spirit, portrait' of .1 ■wpll-ktioTvn or eminent, p.Tson is ihe 'spirit' represented as looking nt. or welcoming rho material person, as suggested by -the medium, bnfc is in one of the wellknown ariirndes in which he w;is photographed in life. '"Many 'spirit faces' bear unmistakable j evidence of the in! erposit.ion at some stajre of the process of a half-tone ! screen. "Somewhere or other, in the produe- ! lion of these photographs." ho adds, '■'whore or by whom we are not called upon to show, there has been deliberate. intentional, and. as we hope we have made plain, very clumsy trickery." Mr 11. C. Barkley. in his book "Be-1 tween the Danub* and the Black Sea."; says of the Turkish horseman: —"All bis movements are so quiet and collrcf-j ed ihat a lior«=e soon forgets all fear; of him, nnd to find a restive horse is! rare indeed. Pullers arc very common, and most- Turkish horses have bad mouth.-?, owing to rheir beinff ridden with severe bits from the time they are first tnoViril'erl. This wilt always ba so. for it is 'the cu«toni.' and it is a* hard To jret a Turk to chanjye :i custom a.<' mi Englishman. A Turk never rides fast", and hi? favourite pace on a long journey is either a jo? or n tripple; the | latter is preferred, as it is faster and ! much easier to the rider. Whenever he pastes water, winter or summer, he Met* hi.s hor.«e drink as much as it wants; but when he has done so. he rides it on fast at once: he never lets it stand st ill after drinking. If possible, he gives his horse its fill of water half an hour before the end of its journey. Directly he dismounts, he loosens the girtns and leads the horse about till he is quite cool; he is then put in the stable with the saddle on, and this is not taken off for an hour or more. When this is done, and when he has had water on his way home, he never "breaks out,' and never refuses his feed of barley."'

Much of the rigour and endurance distinguishing the Japanese people is doubtless due to the. national passion for wrestling , . WresT-liny in Japan is what cricket is in England, or bullfighting in Spain. At a Japanese wrestling match the spectators have an odd wuv of showing t.hrir appreciation of the skill of the winner. They pelt him with their hats, which are gathered up by tlie attendants and handed to the champion. Eventually the owner* corr.r J forward and redeem their hats with presents? of various kinds. The eus.toni in question is. it is explained, due to a recognition of the fact that e.nthusi-. asm is apt to tool down shortly after the event which excited it i« passed. So jto ptove the genuineness of his admiraj tion. the Jap gives his hat as a pledge. 110 be redeemed in his cooler moments. For the benefit of tho?e who may feel i "exelttßivc,' , or "stuck up.' , or who prate j about blue blood, etc.. it. will be well to i remember that if we go back but 20 I "■pTiera.tioTis. or TOO years, each one of us I has 1,(184.576 ancestors, and is related ! more or less closely U> at least 270,000 000 lof our fellows. i Going back but a couple of hundred I years further, and tracing down our i genealogy, vre should find that we have I more couhiis than there are people in 1 the world, and that cm the basis of but j two children per family. The discrepI aucy is accounted for by the fact that there have been so many inter-marriages I that we have not only a* many cousins as there are people in the world to-day, hut are related to a great number many time. , ; over. "• Vladivostok"' me;in? "Ruler of the F.irt." and it was so called, when it was J founded in 1861. because Russia drter- | mined it should dominate t'ne Pacific. It is well located on flu , Hay of Peter the <irciit. «>n the south-eastern eoa!>L <>t feihuriu. Its hnrhour i - one of the finest in I lie world, but it has- one serious drawback, n- it N R-ebouud for several months in the winter. Although it is in the same latitude as Marseilles in France, it is much cold- ' cr. Russia planned to make it her chief naval station on the Pacific shore, and she established most extensive naval workshops there. There are larsre plants for building and repairing ve*scU. When the Trans-Siberian railroad wns planned by f'znr Alexander lIT.. ii \v:i? iiiad' , ihc Pacific terminus. It iibout fiiMKI miles distant from St. Petersburg, bul not moro than one day'? 'jail from the roast of J.ip.an. It connected by cable with Shanghai nnd .Nagasaki. V ladivosboek is a,n important frade centre, and has 30,000 i people. These are of many nationali- ; ties, so that its merchants must kuww ; i many languages and dialects.