TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9515, 7 September 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Therk was recently inGas augurated at Blackpool, in Tram Cars. Lancashire, with every appearance of success, the first tramway line in England on which gas motor cars are used. The system was introduced from Germany, where it has proved very successful in the places in which it has been adopted, especially in Dresden and Dessau. The right to work the patent in England was acquired by a London Company, who have made several improvements in it. Thenars worked by these gas motors are self-contained, and of the ordinary type of tramcar. All the machinery is enclosed and hidden from sight, and it is claimed that there is no nuisance arising from heat or smell. The motor is a double cylinder gas engino of the well-known " Otto " type, and the gas supply can be taken from the street mains, compressed, and then stored in a reservoir under the car. This reservoir, when full, contains some 300 cubic feet of gas, which is ample to allow of the car covering eight miles. The receiver can be re-filled in about two minutes, and this, it is said, can be arranged for at any convenient point on the line where a plant for compressing the gas can be erected. It was feared, it seems, when these gas-driven tramcars wero first used in Germany, that the public might be endangered by the storage of tho compressed ga3, which might possibly explode, but so far such feai*s have not been justified. The engine is stated to bo completely under the control of the driver, who can reduce the speed from eight miles an hour—the limit for such cars in England—to a mile an hour or even less if by. the crowded state of the street. The line at Blackpool is about six and a half miles long, and it is estimated that each car will be able to cover the double journey at a les3 cost than Is, the Company paying the Blackpool Corporation only 3s per 1000 ft for the gas. The trial trip was a great success, the cars running in the smoothest possible manner, with a complete absence of vibration or smell. It remains to be seen how the system works in every day practice ; in the meantime, what with bicycles, auto-cars, electric trams, and now gas motors, the emancipation of the horse from anything like hard work seems to be within approachable distance.

It seems jusfc possible that in The spite of his acquittal in Belgium Stokes Major Lothaire, the Belgian Case, officer connected Avith what haß become known as the Stokes case, will yet be brought to justice. It will be remembered that, having arre3ted Stokes, ah English trader in the Congo Free State, on a charge of supplying arms to the natives, he hanged him without a trial and without having authority to do such a thing. Facts are now coming to light, it is said, which tend to show ( that Stokes was innocent of the charge laid against him, and if these are proved it will go hard if the murderer, for in any case he was little better, does not pay for his action. According to a contributor to the Argus, who was an intimate friend of Stokes in East' Africa, and knew Lothaire, Stokes was a big-boned, tall, well-built Irishman, a typical " bhoy," a trifle coarse, but good-hearted and kind, and apparently possessed of all the average Celt's quickly-varyingmoods. He was fond of practical joking, of which the writer givosan instance. He was once sitting with Stokes and some other men at the house of a mutual friend in Africa. The furniture was of a make-shift packing-case character, and suddenly Stokes, while quietly talking to his neighbour, lifted his foot without the least warning and sent the table flying. " Crash went bottles, glasses, and cigars, bang went the heavy 'hurricane , lamp. Each man made for the door with a vengeance, and slid, rather than ran, down the verandah stair. Most of us knew what was coming, and it wasn't long of coming either. Smash ! Stokes's foot had broken off one verandah shutter. Every man made for 'cover.' Off went the other two shutters, and the deluge began. Bottlee and glassware of all kinds, filtere, rifles, packing-boxes, and, lastly, the table itself, were shot into the street amid shrieks of terror from the natives in the neighbouring huts and shouts of laughter from ourselves." The only man who did not seem to recognise the humour of the aflUir was the owner of the furniture, to whom Stokes apologised, " but upon mc soul, he added, " when I saw us all sitting there so quiet I couldn't help it." However, he had all the necessary repairs effected at his own expense, and apparently thought that particular game was worth the cost. He was generoue in the extreme to those —either European or native—who might be in need, but when it came to bargaining lie could hold his own with the Arabs, which is apparently reckoned a good te3t of a man's business ability in that part of the world.

Op Lothaire, the writer reRelations f erred to says he was of good with family and a " decent enough Lothaire. fellow socially," though rather morose and taciturn. His worst feature was his cruelty. " He was a terrible martinet. I have heard his fellowofficers even remonstrate with him for hie cruelty in the enforcement of discipline, but it was no good. He would have hie own way. He was also abnormally eager for promotion, and not very particular how he got it. He was certainly a most inde< fatigable officer." The writer (who says that for the past five year* he has held an important official position in British East

Africa) evidently does not take it fe| granted that Stokes did not import arms anfl ammunition into the Congo State. Of his own knowledge he knows nothing about it, but he adde, "he (Stokes) wasn't very scrupulous." At all events Lothaire end the other Belgian officers thoroughly believed that Stokes was carrying o»an illegal trade and they were novor v/eary of frying to detect him at it. There wae » very strong animosity between Btokes and Lothaire, cither would cheerfully havo shot the other if he could havo got half an excuse, in fact neither scrupled to say so and it ecems to have been generally agreed among the other Englishmen in tho country that this deep enmity was due to something personal between the two men, entirely apart from Stokes's alleged smuggling o{ arms. In the end Major Lothaire did hi m . self the pleasure of hanging his old euemv but whether time will not bring about'a revenge for this cowardly and utterly mj. justifiable act has yet to be seen.