TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11752, 28 November 1903, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It is only a few weeks ago The Railway that. European electrical of the engineers—outside of GerFutore. many'— declared themselves not greatly impressed with the sensational speed put up by the electrical railway between Zosscn tnd Marierielde, in Germany. Since then we have hod news of further achievements, sod it seems pretty certain now that the speed limit of rail transport has been very materially extended. Tlie new trolly cars find no difficulty in. putting up 120 miW sa hour. Tlie only obstacle a few weeks ago wa* the flimsy character of the permanent way, which was unable to sustain the strain of a car passing over it at such a speed. This ha* been remedied by the substitution of 90 pound rails, which are 20 pounds heavier than th* heaviest rails on the New Zealand lines. The chief obstacle to high speed now is the shortness of the linoIt to unsafe to run at tlie maximum »peed rear the stations, and, consequently, the 126* mile record was put up over a distance of 5 kilometres. Considering that the "fine is only fourteen miles long, the average speed of 109.37 miles an hour reveal* a great possibility. Apart from this drawback, everytlung is now favourable for the attainment of great speeds. The original track was knocked to piece* by a car going at 100 miles en hour, and the heavier rails have been placed upon rock-embedded pillars, so as to stand the strain better. The cars which made the latest record we>re probably tho aime that were uaed in the 125 mile record, established two months ago. They were constructed on the Siemene-Haltko system. The current wai between 13,000 and 14,000 volts, cupable ot driving at a rate sf over 200 miles, but the power wae reduced by transformers' to 450 volt*. Tlie ear used had four motors, having together about 1100 horse-power. A curious phenomenon accompanying the trial was the continuous sparkling of electricity from the six trolley arms. The appearance of tbe car running at such a speed was extraordinary. It is described as having lunged past the onlookers with the roar of a Niagara, made by "the fearful vibration of its tnefal parts." Almost before th* eye could comprehend its approach, it thundered by —"a ha*y» iridktinguisbable, confusing, sbinrmering vision of wood, glas», brass, and dust—and was lost to the naked eye as quickly aa it had flashed upon it." A camera primed to the hundredth of a «e----•ond caught only a long black streak.

The dissemination of New* news i* not complete Ruining when the paper leasee Extwrdfoary. the printer** hands. There is still the feverish work of a number ol men to place the printed paper "before tlie reader in the different part* of the' country. Tbe "World's Work" describes the process of distribution from the offices of the well known railway bookstall contractors In England, Messn* W. H. Smith and Son. ?*w person* h*Y* » letter appreciation of the taste of the casual English reader than those who guide the destinies of this firm. The man who read* in tbe railway oar does no* generally spend many shillings on his book. He buya something cheap and "casual," awrpenoe worth for preference | a paper, a magazine ot a paper.covered edition of a light book. And, the thinkers of the firm of Smith and Son in "* London have to gauge tlie quality and the ■ quantity required by the thousands of railway traveller* throughout the country, "Tbe promoter of a new paper or magazine must enter the presence of tba bead* of fhi* firm with some deference, and perhaps VfifcUdaw*. Smith and Son do nob pretend to.criticise or advise. ' They merely judge for themselves whether the production as it stand* . would persuade the traveller to part with tbe nimble •iaqpenee, and then they either order, a hundred thousand copies ot make a cour. teoua offer to supply *ny customer who ssWl for the publication. Th* distribution offlco is like a beehive, and a revelation of order and mechanical dispato- There ai» thousands of copias of hundred* «f publication*, and scenes of pigeonholes representing bookstalls' in ohseare part* of the country. There ia a man for each periodical, and he has- a 'iheai of addresses and instruction* to which he must subject tba' paper* from' tba gradually diminishing heap. Bj a sort of general port the heap* of papers of one description are replaced by heaps of all dwfiripUan* mixed; and then the bundles are made ready for dispatch. Out of the grey dawn,, when even in the Strand 1 .everyone but the street scavengers ia wdeep, th* trucks come up to tbe windows, and the weeklies are sent off. Then comes the turn ot the morning papers. Bales .of them are dumped down where the men have just finished mopping up. the weeklies. The tables ar* arranged on the basis of railway systems, here the Midland, there the South Eastern, and so forth; and each man with feverish haste, but deadly accuracy, piles up the right number of hid paper for a certain line or a certain bookstall. The haste increases as the time for tbe train's draws nearer, until tbe trolleys and carts trot oft in a swirl of excitement. . But the excitement is all on the part of the looker-on. The men who make all this funs and whirl are the calmest in tho world. They have been at It all their lives', and they are no more excited at the dispatch of hundreds of thousands' of papers than is tbe man on the train when be buys alapennyworth at a bookstall the same afternoon away down in Devon.

Right-minded admirers of No "Loma Doone" must not Badgwortby mis* th* pamphlet on "Tbe Doone*. Doones of Exmoor," by Edwin J. Rawle, himself of old Devon race. But there are sorrowful things to be discovered in it. From parochial records and district archives, we are told, from tlie researches of local antiquarians and the gossip of those who live in tbe land, he lias arrived at tho conclusion that Blackmore'* imaginative fiction.had no foundation whatever in historical fact as regards either Jan Ridd or the Exmoor band of Doones. No trace of that large-sired h«ro who wrestled for , bis country i» to be found "in any of the Subsidy Rolls, or other records of taxation levied upon the inhabitants of Oaro," nor rloes hi* nam* appear in tba Register* of

''■'■ !" II"'lli ' .»■ ii ■ 'I. M .'■■ "II »'« Baptism or Burials. " The Ridd family are not uncommon in other moorland parishes," says a local historian, but in these cases they show no wish to claim a distinguished relative; they repudiate what "Master Blackmote had zed about 'em." John Ridd, "of the parish of Oare, in tbe county of Somerset, yeoman and churchwarden," ia no more historical a figure than Robinson Crusoe. Worse ertill, the relentless investigator declares there it no warrant for any belief in the traditional Doones. The Doone Valley itself only became known by that name because Blackmore had made it famous. The Minehead horror, when " no man nor woman waa left in tho morning, nor house for any to dwell in, only a chad with its reeeon gone," had certainly no right to Blackmore'a footnote, '"This vile deed was done, betond all doubt," and there is nothing but a vague tradition that has long outlived its original reference in that rhyme, "If any man asketh who killeth thee, Say twas the Doones of Badgworthy.'*' Mr Rawle, in fact, assigns its origin to times wlwn the far-away ancestors of our present gracious Queen were making them•elves tather unpopular in Devonshire. The "Doones" are, he believes, the "Danes," and the legend illustrate* that disease of language by which a high authority tells us so many legends burgeon and grow. The marauding outlaws of the seventeenth century, whose misdeeds are told in "Loma Doone," are, at any rate, as little to be traced in actual history as Robin Hood and Maid Marian and the outlaws of Sherwood Forest. Yet there is truth in tho traditions of a people, and notwithstanding Mr Rawle'a research, romance-lovers aro still cherishing the hopo that theso may have some substantial baai— " But even if the hope be foolish," says one critic, "the glamour of 'Lorna Doone' will live as long as the language, and travellers will not cease to visit, as they fondly believe, the places it ha 9 made history."