FROM THE MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 191, 12 August 1911, Page 15

FROM THE MAGAZINES.

THE KEY TO CONTENTMENT. They stood before the Angel at the gate. The Angel asked: "Why should yon enter One said: "On earth my place was high and great." And one: "I warned my fellow man from ein." Another: "I was teacher of the faith; I scorned my life and lived in lore with death," And one stood silent. "Speak," the Angel said; "What earthly deed has sent yon here to-day?" "Alas! I did not follow where they led," He answered sadly; "I had lost my way— So new the country, and so strange my flight; I only sought for guidance and for light." "You have no passport?" "None," the answer came. "I loved the earth, though lowly was my lot, I strove to keep my record free from blame. And make a heaven about my humble spot.

''A narrow life;- I see It now, too late; So, Angel, drive me from the heavenly gate." The Angel swnng the -portal wide and free. And took the sorrowing stranger by the hand, "Nay, you alone," he said, "shall come with me, Of all this waiting and insistent band. Of what life gave, you built your paradise; Behold your mansion waiting in the skies. —ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. QUEER MOUNTAIN SHADOWS. The peak of Teneriffe projects a huge shadow stretching upwards of fifty miles across the deep, and partly eclipsing the adjoining islands. Exaggerated shadows of immense size are commonly seen in many other places. On the Hartz mountains the so-called Spectre of the Brocken throws gigantic shadows of mountain climbers into the sky, repeating every movement made by them. The same occurs on the summit of Pam'bamarca, in Peru. On the tops of Alpine peaks, and on the summit of Ben Lomond, in Scotland, mists in one case and rarefied air in the other explain these optical illusions. The same causes produce also coloured shadows, varying at each hour of the day, and traceable to the dispersion of the solar rays. A VOLCANO LIGHTHOUSE. " What do you think of a perpetual lighthouse, needing no keeper and yet as regular in its flashes of light as one maintained by the Government?" "This natural light never fails, and that means much for navigation. It is a volcano on the Island of San Salvador. This volcanic lighthouse is about eight miles inland from the port or Acajuila. It is a veritable pillar of cloud by day and the flash of its light by night has been valuable to mariners for years. It can be seen far out ait sea and a burst of flame has gone upward every seven minutes without the variation of a second for many years. A lighthouse fee Is collected of all vessels that put In at the harbour nearest the volcano and no skipper objects. He knows that the volcano is more reliable than the lighthouses kept by human beings on other coasts and the novelty of the light is wort! the price charged by the Government." A UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. I believe that the races are on the road to mutual understanding, which is a road that leads away from mutual superiority. In these day of vrareless communication, aven the Chinese can hardly consider the British as barbarians, still less should the British consider colour as a clear brand of inferiority. Of all countries, England can least afford the pleasures of prejudice, for there is none which rules over so vast a variety of fankind, and it is on the rock of racial problems that the British Empire may split. The attempt to run an Empire of Freemen, which at the same time' ds to hold inferior races, who are to be debarred from the franchise and freedom of entry is an attempt which must end either in the rebellion of the coloured races or in the enslavement of the white masters themselves under a regime of blood and iron. The British genius for muddling through without underlying concepts cannot serve England for ever. The only enduring salvation for the British Empire, as for mankind at large, lies in brotherly love and in that equality of opportunity which is the real criterion of inequality. May the coming Congress of Races foster this spirit of the future.—lsrael Zangwill on "Raca Undertaking," in the Coronation Symposium of "T.P.'s Magazine" for June.

BIG PYTHON CAUGHT IN PHILIPPINES.

I was visiting the gaol at Thayet-Myo. A python twenty-two feet long and about twenty-eight dnches in girth was lying dead in a cabbage patch of the gaol garden. It had been shot by the prison guard under the following circumstances:—The prison had a sentryposted on the roof at each comer of the square building. His duty waa to give the alarm to the prison guard if any prisoner tried to escape or any unusual occurrence took place.

On the morning of my visit there had undoubtedly been an unusual occurrence. A python, dimensions as a'bove, had entered the vegetable garden and crossed it to the fowl pen. Besides the fowls there were some fine ducks in the pen. Now the front of the pen was fenced with diamond mesh galvanised wire netting of a strong type. The snake could not resist a fat duck, so putting its head and neck through the stout diamond frame it seized and swallowed one. I have no doubt whatever that it would have "mopped up the bunch" inside the house, but that in adjusting number one to make room for number two it became aware of an uneasy feeling owing to the wire around its waist.

Being now unable either to disgorge or to get away it tore off the whole section of netting six by eight ieet and returned with the necklace or waistband through the cabbages. Not unnaturally, I think, the sentry seeing a six by eight wire section of fencing marching through the wibbage patch without any visible means of support gave the alarm and then opened fire.

The prison guard also rushed out and also opened fire, and very shortly our hero lay dead in has frame. He wa* skinned and his skin cured and dressed in the gaol, where they are noted for this kind of work.—Forest and Stream. THE METRIC SYSTEM. Sir Hiram S. Maxim, in reply to an invitation to join the Advisory Board of the Decimal Association, writes the honorary secretary:— been in England about thirty years, still I do not understand English weights and measures. I do not think there was ever but one man in the world that did, and this gentleman was in the employ of the United States Government. When he was about fifty years of age he claimed that he,had mastered the whole subject, but the strain on his nerves was so great that he soon went out of his mind, and died shortly after.