TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A good deal of the amusem-A Sweet to be obtained at a railway - Partings, station is to be derived fro-» watching the farewells. The • sweetness of the sorrow of parting is neraf so thoroughly exemplified as when regardless of the alleged fact that time, tide, entrains wait for no man, a fain* ily party exchange the last good*, byes for perhaps a whole week' through the window of a railway carriage."Linked sweetness long drawn out" dwells in each embrace, and the moving of the" train from the platform, delayed by -J* difficulty experienced by the porter*-n» keeping the travellers in the carriage and the stay-at-homes from getting under th- . wheels, does not stop the process of "fate. welling," which only ceases when the t___i • is out of mc station. In America on* railway company has come to the concro* sion that this business of saying good-by* nrast be cut short, so the directors _**• issued an instruction to the official, at J*-*,, sey City that all persons are to be stopp»_ from exchanging kisses upon the arrival tM departure of trains at the station. I* might have been imagined that this ofd*? was due to the company's belief in t_» unhealthfulness of the practice of ___&_. - so fully explained in medical journals. « is, however, due to the fact that the tra__ in and out of Jersey City are delayed be- ■ cans© of the prolonged and strenuous fara* wells and greetings of passengers and that relatives. Other American railway co»* ponies pour scorn upon this _estr_ctt*» regulation- One manager remarked tn*» •trains don't wait, for kisses to be exchanged, and the station men can alwaft" keep the crowd moving." While anothel manager, more sympathetic with hasu*weaknes.es. exclaimed, "What, cut off tM kissing! Not «a your life! There isn enough of ii in the world, anyway. E 3 * scngers on our line can hug and k** ** much as they pWse; no one will ever awf „ them at the* Dearborn street station. W . have never found any trouble from tfc»sort of thing, and never expect to fi»*r any." The unpopularity of the order w_t no doubt, lead to its speedy « ToC "**£ There is no more dismal and proceeding ia thi_ world than ,< a_a_aj f^|

gib off," but the discomfort and embarrass--gjit of which _uch experience* aw so full never lead* to their diminution, and so long M people travel and tears flow, man and especially woman, will indulge ia. fa tad enjoyment. Norfolk Ulaod, "the Para.jl; .reflected disc _f the Paoaflc," is Colony. languishing for want of an effective administration, goch is the conclusion arrived at by Mr frank Farnell, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, after a recent YJgjt to the little island in his capacity of vittting magistrate, and it will be seen by ft gable message this morning that as a of his representations a Special Comjaiarioner ia to be sent to Norfolk Island to make a thorough investigation. Mr s J*r»fl, on his 'return to Sydney the other ■day. «ppKed the "Daily Telegraph" with , *tb» «_ult» of his own tour of inspection. ! The laws of the island, which have been }_ force since 1856, are, he says, "not sptfating in a way that has brought prowler development to the island." The .Council of Elders appointed by the injjbitants is supposed to advise the Chief 3d|istrat« with regard to matters conoern_g the welfare of the island. But in ti».p*»t there have been disagreements between the Elders and the Magistrate, and the administration lias suffered. Progress j* «_o retarded by the want of a regular ■ et*«n service. "I hare not the-lightest Mr Farnell told the interviewer, j "that if proper facilities were afforded for j getting the products to the Australian mar- , fcets, the productiveness of the island could be made a hundredfold greater than it is to-day." The operation of the Federal tariff has hampered the Norfolk Islanders ceotidsrably, and th* majority are said to favour annexation with Australia or New Zealand, in order to gain free ports for their produce. The educational arrangeffjsots on the island are described as very tod. "The haphazard way in which the jchool '» conducted," said Mr Farnell, "is a disgrace to the Imperial Government or Jo those who are charged with the ad-ffii»«U-tkm of affairs." He found the ■dbool-O-se in a filthy condition, and there yiim a total lack of system in the teaching. 'A &w achoolhoase and an efficient teacher are evidently needed. The public buildingjr, on which the Imperial Government in the early days of the colony spent tltoUO-dsof pounds, are falling into decay, *__ Co provision has been made to save tad xestore them. The moral condition oi the island, in the opinion of the -visitor, <_3 not justify the wholesale charges which have eametimes been made; but he adBiits that unless the present evil of intern_rryi_g ia counteracted Norfolk Island will be settlement under th© British Crown where degeneration in the human ssee is exwnplifled to a very great ex—tftta There is something tragically Via One ironicaE in the fact that the Sttttivor. one human' being to survive the obliteration of St. Pierre by the eruption oi Moat Pelee should be a prisoner in tha town gaol, a brutal negro, with little mot- mind than an .animal. * No ■> one of finer te_.pera_ne_t, of mental fibre •oa* coarse, or strength less stubborn, would probably have outlived the four terrible days which this man, Raoull Sartout, spent in an xj-derground dungeon, terrified at first by the appalling sounds of the exploding mountain, and the crashing and quaking of the earth and later by the deathlike silence and stillness that lay over the wrecked city. Sartout owes his life to his bad behaviour. He was serving onty a ' ibort sentence, but had been so .turbulent that he had been confined in a cell under tha gaol, Almost under t_e street that ran outside the walls, and next to a cell to which a grating in tihe roof (gave light and 'tit from the street. The tremblings and Kanblingß that preceded the igreat eruption . canted Sartout no alarm, but the eruption itself terrified him, and his fear was inemwed when, on breaking into the next «t_, he found it half full of red-hot ashes HU- dust, which poured in through the {jftfeting. Hia brief excursion cost him WHjy severe burns, aad he was glad to iswten back into tHe dark safety of.his own «•_, into which the dust from the burning BWantain did not penetrate. There for tm days he stayed, ,shriek_tg for help to a town stricken with sudden death, beating -_2_a<kr until they were bruised and torn, egKinst the door that led to the rest of the g»ol Finally, a party of searchers, the fttt to land from the French warship Sachet, heard his feeble cries, and, more 4-ut than alive, he was dragged from his 4_L to team that he had survived judge tt~ goaiera, and all Ms townsfolk. Sartout teems hardly tho man to fully realisa his KWarltable position; certainly it is sad that if flnly one was to be saved from all tho inW&Mrta of St. Pierre it shoufd not have ba* tttta whose life was of more value to t-roommimity than that of this half savage W|SO»