TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9815, 26 August 1897, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Some time ago considerable The excitement waa caused in Airship various parts of the United Mystery. States by the alleged appear-

ance in the sky of a queerlyshaped balloon, which was capable of being steered. At Chicago hundreds of people declared that they saw the signal lights of this airship passing over the city. A pyrotechnic expert, Capb. O'Donnell, an assistant of Pain, the great firework maker, has now come forward and explained that the airship existed only in the imaginations of the beholders, and that what were believed to be her signal lights were merely a new patent firework he had invented. People might rest assured, he said, that they saw nothing in the sky that night stranger than two balls of red and green fire, which he hung out at recurring intervals some 800 feet above the earth. Captain O'Donnell has invented, it appears, a machine which sends up small balls, which enlarge and become illuminated only when they have mounted to a great distance in the air. " There they suddenly become a vivid green and red and float off slowly and horizontally into the darkness, glowing steadily .and appearing exactly as one would expect signal lanterns to look. The lights die out after some minutes of burning, and when this would happen on the night of the te3ts the captain would touch the trigger of his machine and send up two more balls which, when they had reached the required height, would burst into a glow like their predecessors." The apparatus which discharges these fire balls it; absolutely noisele s, and the lights, when glowing at their brightest, can be seen for a distance of nearly thirty-five miles. This is the explanation of a phenomenon which set half Chicago staring up into the midnight sky, and made the people clamour for astronomers and scientific, men generally to explain what the unusual lights were, if they were not those of an airship. Captain O'Donnell seems to be under the impression that he has exploded the airship theory, but his explanation does not affoot the daylight appearance of an alleged airship in California at the beginning of the year, and subsequently in other parts of the States.

Tjte visit now being paid by Royalty the Duke and Duchess of York

in to Ireland will, it is to be Ireland, hoped, be the precursor of

other similvv visits. Certainly, J f the heartiest of welcomes is any iuducemenb to Royalties to spend a few days, or even weeks, in a place, Ireland should see more of such guests in the future than it has done in the past. The Duke and Duchess are 3aid to have experienced surprise at the warmth and spontaneity of their reception, but whatever may have been the feelings of the Irish people towards England, they hare always accorded the most oordial and loyal welcomes to the Queen or her representatives. Her Majesty's first visit to Ireland was paid in 1849, and in her published "Diary" she has recorded how she was almost deafened by the enthusiastic shouts of the people as she landed at Cove, which was lieucefoith known as Queenstown. The Queen on ' that; occasion opened' the Dublin Exhibition, and on the following day held a great military review in Phoenix Park. Nothing, says one who waa present ou that ocear.ion, could exceed the outburst of Irish loyalty from all classee which hailed her arrival on the ground. She was accompanied by the Pfiuce Consort and her two eldest children, and an amusing incident is said to have occurred. An Irish favnier, not satisfied with joining in the cheering, bub determined on taking a more prominent part in the proceedinge, pushed his way through the crowd until he got as close ac he could to the Royal carriage. "Then, taking off his hat, he shouted at the top of his voice, 'May it pleaso yer Majesty, call the next one Patrick.' The Queen turned in the direction of the voice, and, recognising Pftddy as the speaker, laughingly nodded her head two or three times ; as much as to say, 'Your petition shall be granted." . The story may or may not bo true, though the narrator -vouches for its authenticity, but at all events the Queen's next son, now the popular Duke of Conmiught, was christened Arthur William Patrick Albert, which was evidently meant as a national compliment. The Queen's subsequent visits to Ireland, in 1853 and in 1861, when she went to the Lakes of Killarney, were made the occasions of expressions of enthusiastic loyalty, similar to that wliich had greeted her first appearance in the country. The Prince and Princess of Wales went to Ireland in the eighties, and though their reception was at first a qniee one, they experienced later on welcomes of almost riotous warmth. The present visit of the Duke and Duchess of York will last, according to the official statements, three weeks, and they will tour through many of the country parts of the island, but it was expected that, if the visit proved as pleasant as was anticipated, the Royal stay would be prolonged. Pew of the minor proceedings Jubilee in connection with the Jubilee Bonfires, celebration seem to have been carried out with greater general success than the lighting of the bonfirea. The Committee, largely composed of members of the House of Commons, which originated the scheme and pushed forward its development, communicated with the Lord LieuteDanta, the Chairmen of County Councils, the Mayors of cities and boroughs, and the Cathedral authorities, asking their co-operation in carrying out a national scheme of bonfires, to be lighted simultaneously. The proposal, ac we already know, was very heartily taken up. The British Isles were lighted up on that eventful night with the unwonted glare of between 2500 and 3000 bonfiree. Those " officially " recognised included 1981 in England, 305 iv Scotland, 93 j in Ireland, 162 in Wales, 6 in the Channel Islands, and 1 in France, the exact whereabouts of this last not being given. The Dight was, generally sneaking, most favour-

able, being very dark and still, and «. disaster of the Jubilee bonfirea o f vun\. to the construction of the bonfires of M ■ year on scientific lines, 80 that the maximum of blaze and the minimum of 9 moke» obtained Some of theae gigantic boustl wore built up to 40ft and 50ft ttn d tamed ovor a hundred tons of 'materia" lhe report by the Bonfires 0 mittee states that the largest numb*! tires couuted from any one point was f ro the Mendip Hills, where more than 200 w"* seen, the tire, i Q South Wales b e i DR W JJ ally beautiful. From Broadway, m £*' coster, 142 were counted, and'from umnv place, 70 to 100 were reported to hwbeenseen. A light, low-lying cloud oh. soured the Scotch hills, so that only 70 fi r " were visible from Skiddaw, but the fires of the Pittoral plain of Cumberland M seen from Skiddaw were ino3t beautiful As many as 65 were counted from Danburv'hUl Essex, and there were many fires lighted which were not in the ofticial list. Th pleasing fact is mentioned that 50 were seen from a hill in county Fermanagh. Xhe were besides a larsje number "of bonfires which were not reported to the Committee including at least. 50 in Cornwall. Thi* was a form of rejoicing in which all parts of the Empire were enabled to join, and apparently the fullest advantage was takes of the opportunity.