CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8598, 27 September 1893, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

" It is curious to notice," saya our London correspondent, ** the increasing prevalence of specfaclss and eyeglasses among the young people of London. I may mention one specially odd instance in point. At a gay wedding recently the bride and bridegroom and five bridesmaids formed a group of seven, and were subsequently photographed. Of those seven no less than six wore glasses, including a nine-year-old bridesmaid. Indeed, none of the a&e3 exceeded twenty-four. The effect was decidedly peculiar.

Several new photographic portraits of the Princess of Wale 3 have lately been taken by various photographers. They are most excellent, and show the marvellous preservation of her rare beauty through all the changes that the passage of years necessarily makes in its character—Princess Alexandra of 1393 differs as greatly from Princess Alexandra of 1880 as she did from the Princess of 1863. Yet all were and are strangely lovely, and the oddest thing is that the Princess looks very little older, if at all, than she did thirty years ago.

"I am sorry to say that that other wonderful evergreen, the diviue Patti, is beginning to look decidedly middle-aged and matronly. She has become 'a plump and pleasing persoa,' especially 'plump. . But she still sings incomparably—absolutely so. Yet there is one rival who runs her very close, and that is a boy. He is the principal treble soloist in the choir of St. Andrew's Church, Wells street, London—a little fair-faced lad of twelve or thirteen. I never heard his equal, and I have heard all the best. The beauty, fulness, and compass of his voice are simply amazing, and his artistic singing is no less remarkable. He interprets the most difficult songs, including those terribly exacting airs of Sebastian Bach, with consummate perfection. His ' C in alt' is one of the loveliest things I ever listened to—almost superhuman in its ethereal beauty and sweetness. It is sad to think that that glorious voice will break in a year or two. But he may be a future Edward Lloyd or Joseph Maas, both of whom were choir boys in their time."

A correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says that large numbers of cattle about Rangiriri and other low-lyiog districts, are seized with an affection in the legs like rheumatism or cramps, which renders them unable to stand; they then lie down, and even when fed as they lie, they invariably succumb. One settler there has lost all his stock, many of them in this way, and at a time too when there is a large unsatisfied demand for stock of all sorts in the Lower Waikato.

The prophecy that within ten years a vessel will be able to leave New York at noon, and on the fourth day out steam up Southampton Water, ought not to be a mere effort of the imagination, since it is made by an experienced engineer like Mr J. H. Biles, the designer of the Paris and the New York. This means thirty knots an hour, and Mr Biles obtains his extra speed by no new factors, but by developing the present ones. A knot an hour is to be gained by making the engines of nickel steel instead of mild steel, and so lightening them; one-and-a-half knot by increasing the power of the machinery in proportion to the tonnage ; boilers capable of a better performance, with decreased weight, are to be found in the development ot the light " tubulous " boilers, which differ from the "tubular" locomotive boilers in that the tubes contain the water, and not the fire. The combustion is to be improved by forced draught, and if coal is replaced by oil as a heat generator, the weight of the fuel will be reduced by one - half, and a gain of one-and-a-half knot will be effected. Ships will be made larger, and increased length and draught mean increased speed. Three and-a-half knots an hour extra would reduce the run from five days fifteen hours to four days sixteen hours, and Mrßile3 finds his thirty knot speed in a boat a iOOOft long, 100 ft wide, and with 30ft draught of water. Since our cousins have decided on running steamers across the Atlantic, they, doubtless, intend to wake us up from our jog-trot British ways, but we must be allowed (saye the Echo), as yet, to regard the four-day boat as a remote possibility. Financial considerations stand in the way of sacrificing cargo space to " increased machinery. Nickel steel, though about half as strong again, is much dearer than mild steel. Oil is dearer than coal, and far more dangerous, and JJIr Biles will have to persuade his passengers into a sense of security, which will not be easy. " Tubuloua" boilers have yet to be tried, and harbour accommodation must be found for vessels drawing 30f fc of water.

As showing that the American reporter sometimes has considerable temptation put in his way, Mr W. T. Smedley, in an article in Scribner's on journalism in America, says that in 1885 a corps of newspaper men were co-operating "to expose the lobby and defeat crooked legislation. Evidently their success annoyed the thieves (if I may so characterise the men who take a practical view of legislation as the • business ' of getting the right to make laws and then selling them at a profit), and one of them made bold to discuss with mc the . question whether the course of correspondents was wise from a worldly point of view. He began by offering mc a cigar, and then putting this question, ' Which, would you rather do, take cigars from men or have cigars to give to others ?' 'I do both, 5 said 1; ' I take a cigar when I want one, and I give cigars to others when they want them. , • Well, which would you prefer, to take a carriage ride or own your own carriage ? Very well, then, why don't you own your carriage, buy cigars by the box, and live aa well as any man in Albany, with money to spare?' 'I wish I could,' said I. ' Very well, then ; I like you and I can do you a service. Now, there's so-and-so's Bill affecting the price of gas. You are favouring ifc and making a fuss about the efforts of the lobby to kill it, and all that sort of thing. Stop that. Either I change your tone or drop the whole matter j and say nothing, and I will get you 1500 dollars to-morrow morning—ihe price that is paid to all who help to defeat the Bill. That is only a drop in the bucket to the money I can get for you as the session wears along. I will put you in the way to own a carriage and live as a man of your ability ought to live. What do you say? I thanked him and said, in few words, that I preferred to buy cigars one at a time for many years to come rather than drown myself at once, as I certainly would have to do after taking the money; * because, , I said, ' I couldn't live to let an infernal rascal like you point mc out as one of your kind.' ' Oh, well, , said he, ' every man to his liking. Go ahead and be* poor as you please.'" ■ .