TOPICS OF THE BAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9834, 17 September 1897, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE BAY.

The German military authoA German rities did rather a cool Invasion. thing some weeks ago. Two

thousand cat Her pigeons in crates arrived at Dover in charge of an agent of the German War Office, and, after being kept on the Admiralty pier for a day or two, were all liberated about five o'clock on the morning of July 20th. Six honra later the agent received a telegram stating that many of these pigeons had arrived at Diiaseldorf, in Germany, to which place they belonged. The matter attracted some public attention, and the Under-Secre-tary for War, replying to questions in the House of Commons, said it had not been lost sight of by the War Office. He admitted also that if the War Department wished to train carrier pigeons to fly

from Germany ifc would bo impossible to do so, as the laws of Germany did not allow the flying of foreign carrier pigeons in that country, a similar attitude to that adopted by France in regard to British pigeons. It was stated that a hundred of the German pigeons belonged to the Emperor. One of them fell into tho hands of Mr Ormonde, President of the Isle of Thanet Homing Pigeon Society. He described the bird as being of great strength and beauty, in the height of condition, and evidently of value. It was stamped with the Imperial Crown of Germany, with figures and letters, besides bearing an indiarubber folded band containing figures believed to be a cipher. Mr Ormonde was training a number of his own pigeons off Dunkirk, and they came back with three strange pigeons, one of them the bird described. Ho stated his belief that the greater part of the pigeons released from Dover only acted as an escort to other special birds which had been detained inland and liberated to catch up with the Dover flock, in which case the incident was of more importance than if the birds had simply been liberated from Dover. Many of tho pigeons never reached their home, for a large number were found on the cliffs between Dover and Deal, having been killed by hawks. But the experiment was sufficiently successful to warrant the British War Office requesting the German Department not to repeat it, at least until equal facilities were offered to England to train carrier pigeons from Germany for possible use in the event of war. At present the conditions of the game are altogether too one-sided. The Melbourne police Fortune-Telling having determined to in suppress the fortuneMelbourne, telling profession, which appears to be a busy and fairly profitable one in that city, two detectives set to work tho of hor day to collect evidcuco whereby they could convict the fortune-tellers of procuring money under false pretences. No sensible person requires to be told of the uttor folly of supposing that auy woman —or man either, for that matter, though fortune-telling appears to be a peculiarly feminine "industry" — can forecast the future by means of a pack of cards or a pinch of coffee grounds in the bottom of a cup. If there was any doubt about the question at all it would be set at rest by the fact of the prophets' unfortu. nate mistakes With regard to the detectives. Detective Macmanammy is a mairied man, witli a family, but the oracle not only did not discover this in hie past, but failed to find out that he was a detective. Shuffling the cards with his left hand he cut up the Queen of Diamonds. " That is your young lady," said the fortune teller. " She is fair and true to and is consumed with passion for you. But what is this ? A Queen of Club 3 ! There is a dark worn in here, and —yes, yes, yes—she is in the way. Sho has children, is much in love with you also, and would marry you if she could. I warn you against that .woman. Let her go. The other is the one who loves you best, and tho ono you ought to marry." Another shuffle of the cards showed thab the detective's mariiage with his " fair girl" was to occur almost immediately. Thus reduced to the condition of "a single man and an intending bigamist," the detective submitted with what grace he could to a further recital of coming events, which included a fortune out of the liquor traffic, a few enemies, many friends, litigation trials, and finally much happiness and prosperity." The other detective had not quite such a daiwliug prospect held up before him. A death iv his family and a serious illness had'to be undergone before he could hope to spend the rest of his life in fair health and prosperity. The future held, it is true, another interesting event for him, in the shape of his marriage to "a fair young lady" with a private income, but the pleasure which the seeker after truth naturally felt at this news was discounted by the necessity of being on his guard against the wiles of a dark woman j who was madly devoted to him, arid also by the fact that be already had a wife. Enter then to the witch's cave one Constable J Goodyer, in the guise of a farmer and requiring a chart showing what sorb of a man he was and what' was going to happen to him. His remark that he was just down for the show gave the fortune-teller her cue and she pronounced him to be a first-rate agriculturist and possessed of more virtues than most men can lay claim to. He was to get a good wife, and the conclusion of the average fairy tale—" they had a lob of children and lived happily ever after"— was to be his portion iv life. The constable, as it happens, is unmarried aud, as a Melbourne paper says, "anything may happen to a man in this country." The next incident in the fortune-teller's life was one she had herself beeu unable to forecast, for armed with the evidence they had I procured the detectives arrested her on a charge of obtaining 2s 6d upon the false pretence of being able to foretell the future. The result of the ease is looked forward to with interest in Melbourne, which seoms to I have been a happy hunting ground for these people. .

The Museum connected with Post Office the General Post Office ia Stories. London is dealt with in an

amusing fashiou by a recent writer iv the Strand Magazine. The Museum, We are told, is a collection of curiosities gathered and treasured up by the Poet Office officials, many of them being associated with anecdotes bearing upon the history of the Post Office service iv other days. Some of them prove what odd things are sometimes sent by po3b. The records of the Dead Letter Office show that such things as leeches, lizards, salamanders, frogs, tame rats and mice; tarantula spiders, weazels, young alligators, cats and dogs, tortoises, bees and pigeon 3 have been entrusted to the tender mercies of the Postal Department. " Once a dormouse turned up in a box. It was put aside until claimed. When the owner applied for it it was found to hays escaped. Three months later tho little animal was discovered by a clerk in the middle of a ball of string, enjoying its winter sleep." Official reports have yielded to the searcher after oddities some good stones. There was tremendous excitement some time ago among the foreign population of Eaet London. " They were popping in and out of the Post Offices all day long, making anxious enquiries. What was the matter with them? Why, they had heard grave rumours about the validity of Anglican orders, and they were therefore anxious not to run undue risks in buying the paper money of the British Post Office I" We also hear of an old woman who wanted to send a pair of trousers to her son by book post, claiming the right to do so since the parcel came under the heading of "articles and packets open at both ends." One of the most interesting of the old letters in the Museum records is that which notified to Benjamin franklin his dismissal from office as Deputy i Postmaster-General for the Colonies of North America. Probably, as the writer saye, few people know that that distinguished man was once a member of the British Civil Service. He was appointed to the post in 1761, and held it .until the outbreak of the war of Independence, but continued afterwards to correspond with the Department about his accounts. " Some of that correspondence wae peculiar. Oα March 24th, 1776. ho wrote to the JJri-

tish Postmaster-General in London. Then came the war. In 1785 the British Post Office replied to Franklin's seven-year-old letter, the reply stating apologetically fiat the writer had been out of town for a few days!" They were a busy and eventful " few days."