TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9991, 22 March 1898, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In a recently published Authors' magazine article we are " Pen "-names, let into some of the secrets of anonymity and are told the motives which have led to the adoption of this, that, or the other penname of Borne of the most widely known anchors. It was hardly necessary to. assume that many people believed the choice of a signatnre to be a matter of chance, bat as the writer, with the object of removing this misapprehension, leads us into a hitherto almoat untrodden by-path of literary research, one need not complain. There is first of all the half-hearted way of concealing one's identity by using the initials of one'e name. It is a disguise so long as the writer is unknown to fame, bat if he secures recognition he might as well sign his full name. It must be admitted, however, that even after a man has achieved celebrity his initials sometimes hide hie identity. It is told, for instance, that long after "A.K.H.8." had become the most transparent disguise for the Rev. Andrew Kennedy Hatchinson Boyd, one of hie countrymen, in reply to a, question from another as to what the initials meant, hazarded the suggestion that they stood for " A Kind o* Haverin' Body." Calverley's " C.S.C." and Sala'e " G.A.S." were signatures which were used long after they lost their quality of anonymity. Another method of selecting a fancy signature has been to alter one's real name. Imperfect anagrams of Bryan Waller Proctor and Ada Ellen Bayly produced such well-

known names as "Barry Cornwall" and " Edna Lyall." Mr F. Austey Gathrie and Mr Anthony Hope Hawkins are better known to half the world without their earnames, and "Onida" represents a small child's attempt to pronounce the Chriati&n name of her sister Louisa de la Ram6e. To the latter class belong two other famous pseudonyms, "Boz," a nursery corruption of Moses, and " Bab," which had its origin in Mr W. S. Gilbert's nuraery dsjrt.

Finally there are • the Fantastic authors who have chosen Pseudonyms, names which are in most cases entirely false, or else only connected with them in some fantastic way. To these belong Hesba Stretton and Outhberb Bede, the author of " Verdant Green." Hesba Stretton's first name is made out of the initials of herself and her brothers and sisters, while •'Stretton" is a pretty little village in Shropshire. Mr Bradley took his title from Cubhberb and Bede, the patron saints of Durham, where he was educated. "Mark Twain," as probably most people know, is a reminiscence of the days when Mr Clemens was on a Mississippi steamer and heard the men call out "By the mark twain" as they took soundings. "Hugh Conway" waa Mr Fargus'a way of honouring the training ship Conway, on which he spent part of his youth. "Elia"wasthe name of a fellow clerk of Charles Lamb, who has therefore a vicarious immortality conferred upon him. " Luke Sharp " may be assumed to be Mr Robert Barr'a version of " Look sharp." Other authors, again, have selected names out of their early writings. To this class belong " John Strange Winter," " Josh Billings" and "Hans Breifcmann." The author of "Komola" chose to appear in print as " George Eliot" for no other reason apparently than because it was an easy name to pronounce, and there appears to be a suspicion that " Lewis Carroll" owed its existence to the same cause. Many other names are quoted and explained by the writer of the article, but he confesses his complete inability to say why Olive Schreiner should masquerade as " Ralph Irons," or to give any reason for the adoption by well known lady writers of suoh titles as "Lucas Malet," "Maxwell Gray," "Rita," and "Carmen Sylva." It ia just as well, perhaps, that even in this matter something should be left to one' 3 curiosity and imagination. Whenever a murder takes A place which attraots such Strange widespread attention ac did Story. that of Mr Terries, the actor, it is impossible to say for how lonsr its effect may last on the minds o* criminally inclined people, or for how much crime it may be the more or less direct cause. It has been noticed that ever since Mr Terriss was stabbed to the heart outside the door of hie own theatre by a man who thought the actor had done him a bad turn, a number of cases have ocourred in London where men have attempted to extort money by threats of doing as the murderer Aroher did. It is perfectly easy to trace in these cases the effect which the murder io question had upon the minds of Archer's would-be imitators. Bub a strange story which was told to a coroner, at JTinohley shows another side of the matter. A young married man in the employ of a dairy company left hia home one evening to take a walk, but staggered back in a few minutes, shot through the neck, and before his wife could do anything he had died on his own doorstep. The wife's evidence at the inquest showed that the unfortunate man had lived for months in daily dread of meeting such a death. He was reading one night, she said, about the murder of Terriss, and looking up remarked, "Ah, Sophie, I've never told you before, but I've a strong presentiment that some night when I am looking round some one will suddenly come along and shoot mc." She tried to talk him out of such an idea, bub he asserted that he oould not get the thought out of his mind. He could nob account for it, as "nobody on the face of the earth" had a grudge against him. He further said that he had gone out at night in fear before the Terries murder, but the presentiment cook a stronger hold upon him after that occurrence. The wife admitted that she had told several people of her husband's words before his death. The other evidence waa negative, proving, so far as it went, that no one was knowri to bear ill-will to the dead man, while two doctors deposed... that it would have been very nearly impossible for the man to have committed suicide. There the case at present rests, and from the complete absence of any evidence to connect anyone with, the perpetration of the deed it seems not unlikely that it will go to swell the number of unpunished crimes. Its remarkable accordance with the presentiment held by, the deceased lends it, however, a flavour of sensationalism and mystery lacking in many of London's sombre tragedies. The recent eclipse of the The Eclipse sun amply compensated the of British astronomers who The Sun. went out to Indi* to observe it for their disappointment in Norway two yeara previously, when thick clouds and rain prevented observations being taken. The weather in India was perfect, and all along the line of observation, which reached right across the country, the various parties of astronomers were able to watch the splendid phenomenon from beginning to end with entire success. The darkness was not so intense as that of other eclipses, and instead of stars being seen for a lengthened period they were only observable at the time of total eclipse. Except just for those two minutes, the acene is said to have resembled a" landscape under a wintry English eun. The temperature fell rapidly, and an earthy smell pervaded the air. "Crows flew from tree to tree or circled in flights, while sparrows twittered preparatory to roosting. Kites descended, and cooks crowed." The weird sense of approaching disaster which, it is said, "always accompanies an ellipse, oppressed the nerves," bub apparently disappeared when totality set in and all the earth lay deadly still. As might be expected the eclipse woe not without its effect upon the natives. The astrologers had predicted all sorts of disasters, and in some parts the natives looked upon the event as forecasting the downfall of the' British Raj. Immense crowds bathed in the waters of the Ganges, and there was general fasting. " Religious Hindus eat down and counted their beads at the moment of contact, at the same time reciting prayers and hymns. Here and there on the foreshore stood Parsees, Zend-Avaeta in hand, with their faces turned towards the sun. The Brahmin priests, who are ever ready to receive alms, ceased their solicitations dnring the eclipse. Beggars, however, swarmed nearly everywhere, and the Hindu etreeta were alive with the cry, ' Give alma for the recovery of the •tut from the jaws of fche dragon Babn !' " It mast be left to the astronomers to say how much more knowledge of the sun they gained from the accurate observation* they were enabled to make. Bat it needed no astronomical tnunin'g to appreciate the almost appalling splendour of the great ray, estimated to be two million miles long, or the marvellous corona of pale silver blue which were visible while the black shadow of night lay on the earth. It hardly seems right that such a phenomenon should be put to the indignity ol being made the subject of an " animated photograph, , ' though tbU was done by an agent of Mr Maskelyue. The latest effort of science—a kinematograph show of a total eclipse !