FROM THE MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 14

FROM THE MAGAZINES.

A PICTURE OF CHICAGO. Mr Charles Whibley draws this picture of Chicago in his "American Sketches" (Blackwood): — "The nearer the train approaches Chicago the drearier becomes the aspect. You are hauled through mile after mile of rubbish and scrap-heap. You receive an impression of sharp-edged flints and broken bottles. . . . The first impression of Chicago and the last is of an unfinished monstrosity. It might be a vast railway station built for men and women 20ft. high. ... In its suggestion of horror, Chicago is democratic. The rich and poor alike suffer from the prevailing lack of taste. The proud "residences" on the Lake Shore are no pleasanter to j gaze upon than the sulky skyscrapers. Some of them are prison-houses; others make a sad attempt at gaiety; all are amazingly unlike the dwelling-houses of men and women. Yet their owners are very -wealthy. . . . The streets are as untidy as the houses; garbage is dumped in the unfinished roadways; and in or out of your hotel you will seek comfort ■•.. vain. . .' . There will be ! nothing to show the wandering New Zealander but a broken city, which was a scrap-heap before it was built; and the I wandering New Zealander may be forgiven if he proclaim the usefulness of size and progress, if he ask how it has I profited a city to buy and sell all the I corn in the world, and in its destruction to leave not a wrack of comeliness I behind."

THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS.

This is a survival of the time when ' I the people were very jealous of the Crown, and were constantly in fear that the Throne would destroy the independence of the Commons by corrupting members with offices, a use of patronage not I entirely unknown in present-day AmerI ica. To prevent that it was wisely required that a member must give his constituents an opportunity to approve or [disapprove of h'ts course by expressing ! their confidence by a re-election to Parliament or showing their displeasure by defeating him. Of course, nowadays a seat in the Cabinet is not at the disposal of the Sovereign, but is solely the I gift of the Prime Minister, the party chief, so that no question of bribery can enter into the acceptance of a place under the Government; but the electorate still reserves to itself the right of approval, and the new Minister, after he has accepted office, but before he can take his seat in the House of Commons as a Minister of the Crown, must have the assent of his constituents. Curiously enough, and this is interesting as showing how tho English people cling to tradition —there is no provision made for the resignation of a member of Parliament, and the only way in which he can resign is for him to accept an office of profit and trust under tbe Government and decline re-election. There is a nominal and fictitious past known as the Stewardship of the Cbiltern Hundreds, a district in Buckinghamshire, whose steward some centuries ago was charged with the duty of suppressing robbers, and who was, of course, compensated for his services. A member who desires to retire to seek reelection because he has entered the Government applies to the Prime Minister to be appointed steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, which vacates his seat. Tbe appointment is dul}- published in the official gazette, and the vacancy in the House of Commons is thus created. Thero is. of course, no limit to tbe number of persons who may be appointed Stewards 'of the Chiltern Hundreds, although it is ! the unwritten law that the appointment \ must not be conferred twice on the same day. If there were a dozen men who wanted to resign at the same time they would have "to take ithejir 'tu-rn. —A. Maurice Low, in the July "Forum."

SCIENCE ATTACKING THE STRAWBERRY.

! The strawberry must go. at least so say the bygienists, who find their greatest j pleasure in raising alarms against popuj lar foods. The innocent-looking littio I fruit, with its soft blushing cheek and j delicate perfumed breath, is now accused { of dreadful things, and to think that we have been eating it all this time and I never knew what we were up against, •jsays a writer in "he "Steward." I The deceitful, innocent looking little [berry that has fooled us for so long has | at. last been found out. It produces bad | temper in those who cat it. It must be I so. for the scientists, who are up on such 'things, have said so! But, shades of our grandmothers! let us whisper it low! — the scientists also say that the ladies arc I particularly susceptible in this respect. Who'd have thought it? It is true that Iwe have seen some ladies that have called ito mind peaches and cream, and those Who outrivalled the strawberry in their ! delicate blushes, but bad tempered? — ■ perish the thought. ! The scientists tell us that some ladies : -will cat a pound or more of strawberries 'at a time and then become so morose that [people are glad to avoid them. No, we ! really cannot believe it of the fair sex! | Yet the learned ones tell us that the dear I creatures are really ill and do not know 'it: they are suffering from the straw- ! berry disease, the symptoms of which are slight dirtiness, a desire to be alone, great irritability. I The trouble is ascribed to the strawi berry acids, of which there are said to be j three, phosphoric, sulphuric, and saliey- ! lie, and it is the last-named which is J believed to cause all the trouble. The I berries which produce the worst effect I are the large ones; the small berries are usually quite harmless. The fruit, if taken nt all, should be eaten without cream cr sugar, and nobody should eat more than a dozen at a time. The wise ones tell us that in addition to irritability, sufferers have strawberry rash and strawberry headache, and thus the luscious, luxurious, much-loved strawberry—the festive, ever-sought-for strawberry of church-festival fame—goes to its doom. But after all it has served the world well. What a relief to lay all our troubles and bad tempers at its door! We used, perhaps, to feel a little conscious stricken ■ when we had been out rather late the 'night before, got up with a bad taste in jour mouth, and managed to worry down a dish of strawberries, feeling as we set forth to our daily toil that every man's hand was against us. I say in the days gone by we used to feci that the bad tern was of our own choosing, but we were ; wrong, all wrong; we had nothing at all to do with it; it was all the fault of those strawberries. We might have stayed up all night if w-e had wanted to, and felt none the worse, if we had let I that dish of strawberries alone. No more tempting, soul-destroying berries for us; j no, not, at least, until the price goes I down.