THE BEST FROM CURRENT MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 149, 23 June 1906, Page 9

THE BEST FROM CURRENT MAGAZINES.

f. —~ »_" OUR STUPID CRIMINALS. ('luminals, if they will portion mo for I saying so, show a strange Wiint of (originality (writes Lieut.-Colonel Sir I Henry Smith, X.C.8., in "Blackwood's"). j The "streets of London" have thousands of pickpockets: they begin to pick pockets, and they continue to pick I pockets. The omnibus thief remains the omnibus thief; and the stealer of milkcans steals milk-cans and nothing else. The stealer of clogs might surely di- 1 versify his programme by occasionally • stealing a cat; but no. the feline, race concerns him not: with a pocketful of liver, rendered additionally attractive by an admixture of aniseed, he prowls about annexing everything canine, from ! the lordly St. Bernard to the pitiful pug. With strange stupidity they frequent the* same line of omnibuses; return to : the some streets, and, till Nemesis overtakes them, steal the same articles. In the higher walks of the profession ! these peculiarities are still more strik- ■ 1 ing. The bank robber and the forger ■ arc fascinated by their own style of , | business. They never have an idea in ! their heads beyond bank robbery and ; ! forgery. The coiner is always severely j dealt with; but who ever saw him take I to a less dangerous pursuit? I The ruffian who robs with violence ' j uniformly knocks his victim down as the (slaughterer pole-axes an ox; the good j old-fashioned "stand and deliver" would • I in the vast majority of cases be quite ' | sufficient, entailing possibly only six weeks or two months instead of five <■ years or tan. The murderer, should he > escape capital punishment, immediately 1 on the. expiry of his sentence commits I another desperate crime, and sgain puts i his neck in jeopardy. Women have less scope for the cxer- , cisc of their talents, and have fewer s openings to choose from—baby-fanning • and decoying their younger sisters to s ruin being the most common, and with a good clientele far ihe most lucrative. ; TO AVOID SEA-SICKNESS. A German, Dr. Eugen Wolf, has found . a cure for seasickness, which will be t welcomed by those who dread a voyage because they are not "good sailors." [ The cure is very simple, as all the ; appliances necessary are a basin of hot . water at eighty degrees and a couple of ! handkerchiefs. Whenever the traveller f feels that he is becoming giddy, he must > lie fiat on his back on the cabin sofa or T a deck-chair. The clothes are ttnbutT toned so that there is nothing to hinder , breathing. .Then the handkerchiefs are > wrung out in the hot water and bound 1 round the forehead. 1 This bandage must be made very tight, [ which can be done by using a penholder, r or something of the kind as a lever when twistingr it- During the first minute or ,' tyro the sensation is not particularly i pleasant, but those who bear it are ; completely cured, which is surely suffi- . eient reward for any temporary inconvenience. When the bandage begins to i . get cold, another must be put on and I ; the process continued, each time with a j - hotter bandage, if possible, until the pa- ■ ■ tient is relieved of the squeamish feeli ing. This should be accomplished in > about half-an hour. In the very obstin- ; ate eases it may take an hour. While under treatment the patient must not cat, drink, or smoke. Ono of the symptoms ol soa-sickneuH ia excessive thirst, which must not be assuaged. If

the patient has a, craving fpr r food he may be given a little dry toast and •Weak tea. • . : Tyro hours after the cure the patient need not' fear a hearty meal,- smoking, or 4rinking. Those who undergo this treatment at the beginning of a voyage are never, troubled ■• with. , sea-sickness, even when the sea runs beys' Journal/ , ... \ ~ '■ ' ■■■' A DOG THAT SEES , ' GHOSTS." A friend of mine was staying at tbo riverside home of a foreign gentleman living in England. After dinner, on the first night of his arrival, he was silting with iiia host in the library, smoking I eofinforiably before The fire, when of a j sudden the great German boar-hound ilying outstretched between the two men 1 o'i the heurth got upon his legs with A j snarl, swung off into the middle of the ] room, and i-tood there barking furiously 'vxt nothing. My friend looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a servant enter the room, and then, turning to his host, he askixl with a smile what it was the dog made such an alarming fuss about. Hii host, who was also smiling, put a linger to his lips, signifying silence. And then my friend saw wlrat held him fascinated till the scene ended. He saw a huge dog barking at Nothing, making little furious rushes at Nothing, and. getting angrier and angrier, driving this said Nothing nearer and nearer to the curtained windows. The ■ hound's eyes btezed with fury, his frothing lips disclosed teeth that drip--ped with the very violence of hate, an 4 the whole lithe body, with tho coat roughened by rage, wat; tense with, enmity. To doubt that there was no Thing in front of him, was impossible. As soon as the hound .had driven hie enemy to the curtains he'returned to the hearth, laid himself down again before the fire, but this time kept hie head erect, with uneasy eyes fixed upon the curtains. "He does that nearly evei-y night, ,, said the host of my friend. "But what does he see?" , "A £host. Well; if you do not like l:he word. lei. us say an apparition.- Yea, he sees an apparition. I have tried to i see it many times, but"—shrugging his I shoulders-—"I do not fast sufficiently, perhaps! 2vo; 1 have,never seen it." It came, out that the house had long "njoyel the reputation of being hauhtecL ' The new owner had no belief in the legend till the hound sprang up (from the hearth, almost night after night, and always at about the same time, and went through the tetffcrftordiuary passion of anger Magazine." PLUNDERING MILLIONAIRES. \ '' The boldness with which painting;* are forged and sold may be judged from the fact that not. many months ago .■* I commissary of police in Paris seized; I mow than twenty * "faked" pictures bearing forged signatures. For years American dollars have supported regular factories for the production of "faked" pictures. A wealthy Califomian. after much' negotiation and favourable, opinion of "experts," many of whom received fees jof £ 100 for their advice, purchased an entire collection "of paintings, four Constables and two Turners-, "the property, of a private. gentleman;%M never before exhibited?' for j£:Sß,opO. He kept them a few months, andv.tneh instructed , his agents to sell them.. On the da.y of the sale a crowd of art lovers, amy c6u'no'is?«tri l s* gathered. -There could JrV . no doubt that the paintings were works of great genius. Yet there was a- jarringnote somewhere. Presently someone discovered a curious kinship between them —certain peculiarities -of touch and colouring, jusu as if Turner had worked on Constable's canvases, and Constable on Turner's! Then a dealer from Florence fWMerl out after close inspection that t" pictures were largely painted, with vrry modern pigments. A critic took up this, clue, and after certain tests permitted by the auctioneers declared he was in the presence of fashionable, up-to-date and newly-invented colours entirely ■unknown in the days of Turner and Constable! But there was'yet another teat, ihis time offered by a Venetian dealer. "Take a pin," said he, "and" trr and stick it into the fattest and most unctuously impasted part of the picture. If it sticks in, then it's new, paint, but if it's old you might as well try to stick a pin into! a china plate." , • Amid great excitement some one menactd one of the Constables with a pin. Ihe paint received the point like, a pin-cushion!—<W. G. Fitz-Gerald,. in, "The 'Woman's Home Companion." GAMBLING STORIES. Having lost every cent of his ready, money at tiie gambling tables, an English visiter at Monto Carlo wired a pathetic, appeal for "Help to a friend in England. Two dayp later he received a letter addressed ill the friend's handwriting, which on being opened revealed a, five-pound note. * .^; Without pausing to read the letlWj our plunger hastened to Giro's, the famous] restaurant in the Galerios Charles 111., and changed his liver into French money. From Ciro r s he Went straight into the Casino, whe\-e, experiencing an extraordinary run of luck, he not merely retrieved all bis previous losses, but gained a substantial increase.into the bargain. , Weary of play, he with a few cronies to Giro's agarti to celebrate the occasion. The usually genial M. Giro met him at the door of his'establishment with a flood oi reproaches' and upbraidings. The five-pound note was bad! He waved I it angrily in the plungeifs face—mais out, jit was false, this fiye-potnid note! The plunger took the "guilty" fiver," and scrutinised it carefully. It wa3 one of the sham bank-notes issued by the late Kir Augustus Harris, and bearing on their face an advertisement of the Drury Lane pantomime. The Ebglish friend, himself as "'broke 7 ' as the }Vlonte Carlo plunger, had posted him tUe flagrantly worthless note as a joke —a which, had the plunger taken £he trouble to examine the "fiver" or read its covering let- . ter. he would hava seen only ioo clearly himself. It was fortunate that he did : not do so. He merely paid Ciri> his five pounds, and. inviting the pacified restaurateur to share in the champagne, pre-, tended that the whole affair was an intentional witticism. . * - The conceit of a croupier, who fondly imagined that he understood the Englißh • language, was instrumental in presenting; <f. another and far less experienced British-: er with one thousand francs. TMe gen- • t-leman. handing a thousand-franc billed tc- the croupier in question, asked for X plaquee in exchange for itV: Plaques Are \'. the large five-louis gold pieces peculiar to; ■ Monaco. The croupier, fancying that the* player had said "blaolc/* and* was requeßt-> ing him to place the nOtoon/iiHo "black" compartment of the cloth, did'so unob-' Black duly turned Aip; and tW* croupier politely handed two thousand* franc* to the surprised; * Ward Muir in "Ohaaib«!W.'« tTonrail." . ?