TOPICS OP THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11581, 12 May 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OP THE DAY.

Bird lovers, and all who The Passing cherish an affection for of the quaint old fancies of the Raven, the past, will ba sorry to hear that the raven is dying out in England. Probably no other bird has been so much abased throughout so many countries, and during no many ages. In former years he was dreaded as a prophet of evil, rejoicing over the red carnage which he presaged, and shaking pestilence from hie wings as lie hovered gleefully over the fi«ld of the slain. In these enlightened days he is still regarded by the iwiperstitious aa a thing uncanny, not to be destroyed with impunity. "To this, day, in England," states Mr R. Boeworth Smith in the "Nineteenth Century," '"the prosperity of many a great family is supposed to depend upon the safety of the raven which has deigned to make his domicile under its protection. If he meets a violent death, a member of the family is rare to die within the year." Only in Scandinavia hae the raven always been treated as a friend of man. There he was the eacred bird of Odin, the emblem of the Vikings , standard. If the Danish arms were destined to be defeated,- the raven hong his wings; if victory w&» to attend them, lid

stood erect or soared aloft, as if inciting the warriors to follow. Yet, apalt from all tradition*,' the raven has good qualities of his own, and poets and others who have maligned Limns a ''thing of evil" have been guilty of much injustice. Am a pet, declares Mr Bosworth Smith, probably no other bird can equal him, "whether vre look at his intense sociability, bis queer secretiveness, his powers of mimicry, his inexhaustible store of fun and mischief." One raven, the favourite of a regiment, used frequently to take his place demurely by the eide of tho commanding officer on the parade ground, and, in defiance of military discipline, repeat, with appropriate intonations, each, word of command. Another, kept at a -well-known hostelry, was wont regularly to take his place with all publicity in an outward-bound coach, beside a favourite driver, and return in a homeward bound vehicle which he met on the way, by the side of another coachman whom he honoured with his «steem. The writer before mentioned telle of a pet raven known to him, which essayed almost every human accomplishment except laughing, and though he never tried to laugh, "his eye showed that he knew all about it." There has always been a belief that the rayon lives to an immense age, some says a hundre i or even three hundred years. There is probably some truth in the idea, but, ac ilr Boeworth Smith suggests, the belief doubtless rests to v, very large degTee on the bird's intense attachment for one place. It is possibly aided, the non-naturalist cannot help feeling, by the similarity- of one raven to another. As a pet the bird exhibits at least one besetting sin, and it » a. bad one. He is a most mischievous thief. Of lib demerits, however, it would be untimely and ungenerous to speak: he is passing.

"The- grace of God and a big The Art loaf—sure that's all we want of Eating, in this world," says a genial

philosopher. But it eeems that the discussion of that big loaf or its equivalents, is growing more and more n complex proceeding. The' latest essay on "The art of eating" begins by the assertion that terrible effects of dyspepsia must follow if the. eater has nob fiist learnt how to stand and sit. Thie is the martial attitude in which a guest should approacli his dinner:—"Plant both feet firmly and squarely on the ground, so that the weight of the body is evenly dispersed; throw the shoulders back and the chest out; hold the waist well in, and don't forget the, poise of the-'head. In this way the alimentary canal w in its normal position, and hae some small chance of being able to fulfil its functions properly." We should mention that this is only the final effort of a group of exercises to be performed "six times before each meal," which vary from "rotating the whole trunk in as much of a circle aa possible"," to an acrobatio feat involving at first, it is confessed, "sensations resembling somewhat those of the sufferers from the medieval rack," lut warranted to be a rare digestive tonic. Having prepared for food by all this pain and labour, you are naturally ready for the next rule. "When eating, piy attention to the business in hand." Books or newspapers, of course, ore forbidden, and who could expect brilliant conversational openings from a neighbour fresh from the mysterious process of "rotating the trunk?" The attention is absorbed moreover in "masticating very slowly und thoroughly," as well an in renouncing the unnecessary dainties of a meal. A iav spoonfuls of soup, a slice or two from an under-done joint, with two vegetables, some cream and etewed fruit, is all that may reward the scientific diner. Nor on leaving the table may he so far forget digestion as to drop carelessly on a low chair beside the previously neglected companion of his repast. "What can be expected of a man or woman who treats the alimentary canal as though it were a folding-chair, and required doubling up after meals?" Thus' Bitting bolt upright for the remainder of the evening, the victim may exult in having fulfilled the last directions, and thoroughly acquired tlw greatest modern lesson on "How, when, and what to eat."

To commemorate the An Elizabethan tercentenary of the Exhibition. death of Queen Elisabeth the Royal Geographical Society recently held a special exhibition, designed to illustrate the progress, made in the sciences and in literature, and, more especially, in discovery, during the great Queen's reign. The collection of historical relics -which antiquaries and others readily contributed for the purpose, was even larger and more interesting than the Society expected. The exhibition included a number of printed hooks, either publishecT during the reign of Elizabeth, or containing accounts of voyages and. expeditions mapped out or undertaken by her mariners. A small library dealt with Dr. William Gilbert, the father of modern electrical science, and amongst the interesting illustrations of his work was shown tho earliest known map of the moon. Special interest must have centred in a series of photographs from contemporary sprints of Queen Elizabeth and the great eea captains, adventurers, and discoverers of her reign. In the space devoted to atlases, maps, and plane, was to bj seen the celebrated MoUineux globe, one of the two, illustrating the terrestrial and celestial spheres, which Air William Sanderson, a wealthy merchant, caused to be made and dedicated to the Queen. Amongst an excellent collection of old nautical instruments there was an astrolabe, said to have been presented to Drake by Queen Elizabeth before his first voyage to the West Indies in 1570. Another aetrolabe found in 1845 under a rock in the island of Valencia, off the Irish coast, was supposed to have been cast ushore there from one of three vessels of the Spanish Armada, which were wrecked on the island. Of peculiar interest was an ornately engraved ease of mathematical instruments of the finest workmanship, constructed for Queen Elizabeth by the Royal clockinaker, one Bartholemew Newaom, who, doubtless, was more advanced in the making of these tools than in that of clocks. Two medals included in the collection commemorated the most famous and glorious of all the great events which made illustrious those stirring days. They were the medal struck by Pope Sixtus V., to commemorate |he sailing of the Spanish Armada, and a specimen of the medal struck by Queen Elizabeth, after the valour of her sea-dogs, aided by providential storms, had wrought deliverance from that great peril. Among the other relics were the original seals of office of Sir Walter Raleigh, first of British colonsrts, as Governor of Virginia, 1584, Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, 1585, and Governor of Jersey, 1600, together with his private seal. It is understood that" these are destined to find a permanent and fitting resting place in the British Museum.