TOPICS of the DAY.

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 9

TOPICS of the DAY.

IT'jii Our Epeeiai CorresponSeat) LONDON, September 9." AIT EMFEXOB TS MOTLEY. His Sublime Impotence the Czar of AH the Rnssians must have a poorer idea oi the mental powers of the unhappy conscripts he has sent to the Far East to meet the Mikado's troops than even that entertained by tbe majority of travellers wbo have had to deal with the crassly ignorant peasantry of Rossi*. On the conclusion oi peace the Gjar sent his soldiers at the front a message which constitutes a flagrant msnit to tie intelligence of his army, and parades before the whole world the utter rofciennness of his Court and the system under which he attempts to rule his vast dominions. The message reads—as it is intended to—as though Japan had sought peace on bended knees, and that but for the magnanimity of i;he Czar and his greae lave for his soldiers the enemy would have been swept into the se*. u After further negotiations," he adds, '•'Japan, on Angust 29, yielded to all onr conditions, but asked for the return of the portion of Saghalipn occupied by Japanese troops, which part was heid by Japan until 1875, and ceded by tre»ty in 1575 to Russia. a 'ExnexiMiee has shown us that the Czar is not a man of much mental calibre, but surely even he cannot hope or believe that his soldiers are such utter fools as to swallow this fearful rubbish- Tbe monjik-soldiers. who will presently return to their homes in western" Rnssia fall oi the horrors of war and defeat, must know, even if their brains are no better than those of a ring- tailed monkey, that the Japanese proved themselves the masters at every point in the bloody game played in Manchuria. They "will have their own stories to tell—-and they will not be "nrrtvy" ones—'-of privation, misery, and defeat brought about through the inconyeteace and roguery of those in high places. Erary returned soldier will be a, rev uit to the aati-Court party in Rnsria. an«[ all the signs of the times point ie the eeseation oi hostilities in tbe Irar Bast as being the starting point of a fresh and more virulent outbreak of internal strife. The spectacle of the Crar trying at such a time to pose before his stricken army as the magaanimous eenqaerar of the natfan whose troops uaVe beaten the Russians in every serious enwaater really beggars one's descriptive powers. It is farce and tragedy in eae—-PvuSmMTlo clown-

«nz iif -wiSefs.pxro.

A VERY " CHEAP-TBrPFER." To pose as a railway inspector and travel day aftor day on engines, ot with the gnard. as fancy or prudence dictated, is probably tbe most impudent plan yet devised of obtaining free railage. The reward of tbe inventor of this brilliant idea is not yefc decided upon, hut his aime is John Ki<rhardsou. and his iaane will live long among the enginedrivers, guards and minor otSViaJs of the London and Ndrtlt-Western Railway. That eorpara.tkm has for quite a long time been the richer for an unpaid rolling-stock inspector, but ha* lost, it is computed, something over a hundred pounds in fares, even reckoning Eichardson's trips ou a third-class basis. For months Richardson has been in tbe habit of taking leugEhy trips a.s '•'lnspector Hunter," and, indeed, explored the j length and breadth of the company's . system under one disguise or another. jHe would bo*rd an engine, and by a j surprising display of officialism, coupled 1 with an amazing knowledge of the inI ncr workings of the company, and a I suggestion of engineering knowledge, he j completely hoodwinked not only dxiv-ers and stokers, but guards, staf.iomnasters and the general run of & Tittle-big men" lin tbe company's service. On one occaI sion be brought the driver of a London express off his engine, and ordered him jto examine several intricate parts ot I his engine before allowing him to proceed. Ax«*tber time he. threatened to j "sack" a driv*r because his engine was I not clean, and ordered others to pail I certain paxts of their locomotives to pieces to satisfy his doubts. To minor j officials he dis-fcribnted orders wholesale. For several weeks he played this game 1 with impunity, bat then the real Inspector Hmtter's correspondence began jto puzzle that worthy. He received inI timation that orders he had never given had been fulfilled, polite suggestions from stationmastess and others that j half-sovereigns, mackintoshes, etc, he I didn't' remember borrowing would be j welcome if returned, and so forth. Then, [ also, the bigger authorities in the comii pany began to find traces of 'Inspector Hunter 5 in places where his duties should not have taken him and doinar things were quite outside his timate pra-vmcc They desiaaded eiplanxtitms, and the genuine inspector, jof coarse, eaaly prrved iAat he 1 l>een attending stricily to his proper I duties. So a hunt was organised for his j dooble, aad Richardson was qrriekly run jto earth. He was caught fa the act of i giving orders to an engine-driver at Leeds. Brought before the magistrate, his excuse for his cheap tripping was that tte was in search «f work. Richardson, it appears, is •Tranced*" by other companies for similar lcataHs, and he } has apparently lived on the- railwaiys fox j ur.inr months.

A LIFE FOB A BOOK. One of the most extraordinary reasons for counnittir;;: suicide I ever re-! member to have read "sriis that given in a letter written by Hiss Edith Allanby, a Lancaster schoolmistress, who ended her life with a dose of carbolic acid a few days ago. At the inquest her sister produceo. the letter in question, from which the following passages may be quo red: "I have done whas; I have done, not with a snieidal wish, but because I truly and. reverently believe it to be the wisest and most honourable course left open to mc. I wrote a book, entitled The Fulfilment.' four years since. It contains one of two things — either truth, or page upon pajr? of blasphemy. I know it to be the truth, but so simple that tire world can hardly recognise it, "Whilst I stand in the light, I'm afraid the truth cannot he seen at, all, but when I'm gone and tie bcok has a fair chance of being ro>ad and discussed, as it deserves to be, it will appear different from what it ever cun do with mc living. ""No book was evsr written by human hand more reverently and with greater parity or thought- I tried to publish it at the time it was written, but failed, and -since then have gone on writing patiently and spending money willingly with the one aim of making an openrag for it. but 1 a.m as near to-day as four years siace. "If the book: had been tes near to God and less sacred to mc, I would have fousht for it well with earthly weapons, but it was given to mc out of the great silence, and I am giving it to the world the same. X I have tried to give GodTs gift to the world with as little a stumbling block as possible. If alive, many who, while reading the book, would scarcely take mc seriously, but otherwise they must, of necessity, do so when dead." The work for wbieh Miss Allanby has laid down her life is, it appears, on the eve of publication by a London firm, who have already published two oi her works, the ''Jewel Sowers"' and '"iarigold." Her publishers believe that Miss ADanby ''might have become another Cored." and aver that she possessed that distinguished author's "fine frenzy and brilliant descriptive power." They tell is that "The "is | an allegory of a most remark able kind." It is apparently biographical, even to the point oi tragedy, for it teiis the story i of a young schoolmistress who finds herself impelled by Divine power to i write a book. She writes it, and then! she takes her own life. There the tale, as it were, ends. The second part is as | extraordlnaTy picture of the infernal re-! gions, and the third an allegory oi

heaven, equally extraordinary, and con-1 tains "a reference to the Deity -which I might shock religious people.'* The author wanted the book published just as she had written it, but it was apparently "too strong-"' in some respects for publication in its original form, and certain emendations were sug<»estedU The author's answer was suicide!