TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10866, 16 January 1901, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Mr. Clement Wragge is not Hail-storms the only observer who at and once recognised the advanCannons. tfages of the cannonading

treatment for hail-storms, since the 'practice has spread from the experiment of a single vinegrower in Austria, to its very genenil adoption first in his own district, then in Italy, and lately on the vineclad hills of South-era France. The sharp continen al hail-s'.orm has long 'been reckoned " one -at the most terrifying scourges with which the Trine-grower has to contend." Falling <as an accompaniment to a ihot-wea-ther thunderstorm, it breaks upon the hillsids vineyard! to leave the ground strewn with grapes, the fruit remaining on the vines 'bruised and spoilt, and owners of nerhaps hundreds of. acres mourning over the devastation, in a few fatal minutes, of their W'liol-e crop. It was only in 1896 that this clevei l Austrian, callai 'Stigcr, reflecting that cannon-fir:. , , if it brings down showers, might tend to prevent the formation of hail, mvdia such tests as proved tliis a possible scheme for protecting the vineyard's. Now, tha fantastic apparition of tlxe sky cannon will have a place on all descriptive records of ■wine-growing country. "Th-e cannon," says the " Leisure Hour," on a recent note on this new departure, " can best be compared to a small mortar fixed to a tripod, but th' 3 piece itself is hidden from view by what looks like an immense funnel, six feet or more long, the -wide *nd pointing up■vr«,:>ds to the sky. It is of sheetiion, and i-3 placed ortr the gun to increase the atmosphere vibration." This strange weapon is thus made ready to be fired, not at the approaching cloud, -which, tlireatens the miscliosf, but " directly at the zenith, and during the period of quiet that almost invariably precs-d£3 an outburst of electric energy." Tbe p oportion cf four cannons to every fifty or sixty acres, is judg:d ths right one. The eh , *" is about our.ccs of blasting powder, and the atmospheric commotion produced is estimated to reach an altitude of over 6000 feet. In Franc? the Government assists the J scheme by sTii^plying , pow-dar at a low price, ( ! and it is believed that by a neighbouring co-op-i-afien the vinej-ard-s of a district may be safeguarded at a cost of only about four Shillings an acre. Since Australian hail con-

trives annually to work a good share of destruction, it may very well happen that the Queensland agriculturists and vine-growers will take Mr Wragge's advice, and show crops ripened safely to tie sound of cannons. An interesting paper in Liverpool. the "Contemporary" deals Child-traders, with the results, during fifteen months, of the Liverpool Corporation's experiment in regulating the child-traders, whose number lias ! long made a regrettable feature of Liverpool streets. Since parents' necessities or vices made it inevitable that children should take to this way of living, it was thought they might work with happier effects as to man-

ners and morals, if the city licensed "tiwjn, under strict rule as to hours, with certain by-laws, and a compulsory.- ,- amount of school attendance. Between, April, 1899, and July, 1900, 1146 made application for the belts which tire licensed trader. "Only 167 of these,"' says the writer of the article, Mr Th«*«t Burke, himself one of the Watch Committee charged with supervising these matters, .'*?-. presented the troublesome sex." indeed have harassed the souls of the Cto ra * mittee, for he continues, "one may regale the boys, but the street-trading girl neVe.r, except by regulating her off the streets alto* gether." As to the ages of these small business people, we are told that one was i» llfe years old, 26 reached the age of ten, 196 were eleven, and the rest, ranged from twelve to the highest-permitted age of sixteen for girls, fourteen for boys. Newspapers* matches, small wares of various kinds. Were the most usual stock-in-trade, and any child showing that, its earnings were necessary at home, and having the consent of parents and guardians, if fit and proper persons to give such consent, might receive the badge, and bs entitled to trade outside school time— the badge worn showing in each case whether a child was still bound to school attendance—up to the hour of nine at night' in summer, and seveA during tho months from October to March. Besides?, a personal-ap-plication, from the child, the licensing involved a visitation by a School Board otKcer, and reports of the home circumstances —the last, it is remarked, "furnish interesting but .sad reading, and throw a lurid light on the need for drastic social reform." Mi Burke

decides that the licensing regulations have ' .made some small difference for the better ia ; the streets in the evening. A rule forbidding j uh Id-traders to enter a public-house, or place, of entertainment, lms done- good, and the sense of working xind'sr discipline appears, in some cases, to have exercised a salutary influence. However, Mr Burke is evidently convinced Unit all regulation can only make the best of a bad business —that the street trading acts thoroughly for harm in the case of girls, wliile for boys it can but give a taste for what they - think freedom and no future but that of the casual labourer. The result of the Liverpool effort is chiefly to impress upon corporations that they should "make it as hard as possible for children to take to the streets^." It is not given, to everyone Charlotte to be a brilliant talker. Bronte as a Many men and women who Talker. have made themselves fam- " ous by writing stirringbooks have proved sadly. disappointing in this respect in society.. That Charlotte Bronte was one oi these is shown by numerous stories, and these are confirmed in an interesting papei by her publisher, Mr Gsorge M. Smith, in the "<Jornhill Magazine." Thackeray oould not keep up a conversation with Charlotte Bronte, wliile the verdict of the clever Mrs Bi'ookfield, who was at home in any society, was that she was " tihe most difficult woman to talk to she had ever met." On one occasion Mrs Brookfkild opened a conversa* tion with her by saying, " I hope you like London." to which &be replied, " I <10, and I don't," Naturally (continues Mr Smith) '. Mrs Brcokfiekl's audience used to wait for more ; '• but," said Mrs Brookfield, " that is all." Nevertheless the autlhor of "Jane ' .Eyre" could be very outspoken on occasions, as she was, for instance, when she startled her publisher, after tflisy had 'both, met Adelaide Proctor, by her comment, "She would make you a very nice wife." "Whom do you mean," lye asked. " Oh! you know who I mean," she replied, and relapsed into silence. On another occasion she displayed some powers of speech in the severe scolding she gave Thackeray for his breach, of literary etiquette when .lie thoughtlessly introduced her to his mother before a roomful of people as " Jane Eyre." This greatly disconcerted Miss Bronte, and when Thackeray calkd next • afternoon, a scene followed, wihich Mr SmitTi describes -. —" Only these two were in the room. Thackeray was m standing on the hearthrug, looking anything but happy. Charlotte Bronte stood close to him, with .head thrown e back, and faco whiito wit>b angsr. 'Flue fiTst words I heard were, ' No, Sir! If you had come to our pai'b of the country in Yorkshire, what would you 'have thought of mc if I had introduced you to vaj father, before a mixed company o"i strangers, as "Mr Waddingtem?' , ' Thackeray replied, ' No, you mean " Arthur Pendennis." ' ' No, I don't mean Arthur Pendennis!' retorted Miss Bronte; ' I mean Mr V/addington, and Mr Waddington would not have behaved as you behaved to mc yesterday.' The spectacle of this little woman, hardly α-eacbiiig to Thackeray's elb:>w, but, somehow, looking stronger and fiercer than himself, and 1 casting her incisiv-9 words at ibis 'head, resembled the , dropping of shells into a fortress." However, when the interposed, Thackeray made apologies, lialf-liumorously, and the parting was a friendly an*. The first meeting of Charlotte Bronte and her publisher, who up till that time was quite unaware that' ' 'Messrs Currer and Acton. BsU" -Wicire two sisters, is also related. The Bronte sisters cams up to London from tlieir Yorksihire- 'home in order to prove thedl ' j separate identity, which, had been denied , j by some American correspondent. As Mr Smith sat in his office, very busy with his correspondence, & clerk reported that two ladies, who declined to g,ve their names, wished to see him. After . a moment's hesitation he told the clerk to show titaeni in. " Two rather quaintly dressad little lad:«s, pale-faced, and anxiouslooking, walked into my room," writes 3ie. " One of tliem came forward and presented mc with .a letter addressed, in my own handwriting, to 'Currer Bell, Es<j.' I noticed that the letter had been opened, and said, with some sharpness, ' Where did you g£* this from? , ' Prom the post-office,' was the ~ reply; 'it was addressed to mc. We have b:th come that you might have ocular proo/ tfiat there are at least two of us.'"