TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12377, 16 December 1905, Page 9

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

. ■ Singers who musically . (The Deoline address tho "Swallow, V of *" swallow, flying South," .'*'■■■'■ ■', tho Swallow, may firiove to learn jV that this interesting •■ ~ epecieo seems in danger of flying away V altogether. It appears that there w . eteady falling off in tho number of ■■';•;* '■ swallows -which return with the English >; , epring. Fewer and fewer swallows aro .;•;■•'*■"'uDcn hawking after flies over rivers, ;' ponds, and other sheets of open water; •.V *nd in Kenfc and Sussex, tho two great ■t-,.,'hoy-erowjnK counties, there ie ,©on- ■ - eiderable anxiety about the future of ■ things, when each year- brinjse back oi } ;lcreor force of these helpful little Vi, guardians against the dreaded aphis■ fly. i. Bat, according to a Board of Agriculv -• "tnro leaflet, the swallow's migratory.

liabits are contributing to ite own dee-

y" ; truction. The British people may lovo ■h, ■.':*■ and protect thie "bird, and the British make verse upon it, but a foreign £>> ; gitblio discovere only a, commercial value. Vend tho journey to Southern Europe is ? - a journey at risk of death. The leaflet 'i* :'"•toJU how, great captures aro annually chiefly -by means of note, as the |nY- flighte pane to t-he South, of France; and f fi-.; iii|stead of falling on. gilded eaves, like

©one, these poor modern come to a sad ond of their :|C travels^,being "killed for food and purji;;fv!p>ses of fashion." Tha peisecution of |t;*;the- email l>irde ie very general in f%}J?rance. i It is reaping a right reward in |;: ! ineect plagues; but there should be some if^v'.protest made when they kill jnot only their own birds but those which, at I ; ;teaet for half the year, belong to their i| '/ .neighlouiß, and thus cause a like plaguo i! J, W the innocent hop-gardene of Kent. |; ':."'. An anfortunate thine is, however, that jfH- ewalloW' plumes from France form a %'!>.?• -■ foeiture'dn recent millinery, so tho- Lpn|l};;:, don eaopkeeper and-tho. English fino

||i; ilady, if not the hopgrower himself, have '■%%" ; , some eharo in Continental blame. And the 'French restaurant and ;|?;:i,the wearers of plumes are eatisstill tho unhappy swallow is beaet lojs by foes at home. Another reason for his U found in- the large inof our übiquitous, friend the ;'||& eparrovi "The places whero swallows |E-y|:have-been accustomed to build for yeare Ipli'iir© all occupied by eparrowe, whose Sa|u ;paßnnca'ty and overbearing»spirit will allow any other birds to como near Thne a leaflet -which beeine ftffV'with the gentlest humanitarian plea for ife^ti'bird oppressed, ende with a ruthless arms againet a sinner. "Let ;!jftf£ iafger»rcwards be offered lor every hansparrows' leads, and let boys be f|j to destroy every sparrow's they can lay hands on." A,nd ffphere acain there seems some inooneie'tenoy of sentiment rather hardtolexpf,; plain to a emall-birds-killine district of. |fe^.v ; -;"; .. '• ■ Paris has had under ||S' S The Doom offer for some time ||S" ■ of tho —and by now iney jf' Telephone Girl, liave accepted—en .^;f':>'• automatic invention ll'/iivtoeh entirely does »way with the telc-'pik"-phone girl. ..' This ie an automatio exsJi f J'change, end ie £h© "work of a> young l^?;;Caaadiah engineer, backed by a power|i< 'ful'American eyndioate. When it is || f desired to make & call on the Larimer ||i\l : telephone, tho number required is cdon a small glass epertuT©, a is turned, and in ft few seconds iK|?i tie user lifts tho receiver to_ his ear, vi presses a button to call the person 'wanted, end hears the beß ring at ttw 0$"-i other end. Tho operation of com}fa: munication, which, is naturally ft very | !&. complicated one—though quite simple to j ||iy the subscriber—takes only ton seconds j ||; at the outside, and ib seems ea if ell IV;; th* disadvantages of the present Ryutern have been eliminated. No inter- j !| J-' "ruption in a conversation is possible, nor i||i- ;can anyono but tho two persons conhear anything said. And el'though once a call is made, ib will allow !j£jj'--.<no other call to intrude, yet the ex- ;* change will store up another call until |iS;;'-"the required line is out of use. A It" tingle mechanic or electrician is suffe "• "fioient to look after an exchange of 6000 i||| •uhscribers, which, under the existing |3; - eyfitem in Paris, requiroat the very low- ||['-: eat, estimate a staff of 30 girls at a time, therefore 60 altogether. The estf+z mated cost of an automatic exchange |§V ; for 6000 subscribers is about £9000. Tho j| : " French Government lias had lo face tho ||, difficulty of providing occupation for tho !£;- : /3000- telephone girls, should th« autoii«tio system be introduced, and the presidemt of the company which is ex|;'t ploiting tho invention has como foarwerd with a startling suggestion. He is aej- dually prepared to offer to equip and H^..send, out to Canada ail'these young--1 women. " There are thousands of men in the North-West," he says, " who have put by sufficient money to set up o. house, and who , are anxious to find wives. Well, wo ere propaxod to pay all tho expenses of every young woman who likes to go out <to Canada. Wo wili pay her cost of board and lodging ond pocket money for six months, and do our utmost to provido her with a Mutable husband.' . It need hardiy bo Bftid that tho maiviger is a Canadku. Sooner or latex, he declares, tho auto-

matic system will bo adopted in all large cities, and the telephone girl will be abolished. But will many companies be found so generous towards the girls they displace- ac this one?

The extent to which The regular publishers of " Pirate's " music are fleeced by what ."Ways. are known as "pirates, bas been a matter of common knowledge for a long time, but the audacity of tlie infringers of tho copywright law has probably never been shown up co clearly ac in a recent prosecution in London. It may be mentioned that during the last two and a half years 300,000 copies of pirated music, of which Messrs Chappell and Co. hold the copyright, have been seized, and 2,000,000 copies of music in which other firms were concerned. In the caeo in question it was stated that tivo men had carried on the business or pirating in a highly methodical and daring manner, even going co far as to form the concern into a limited liability company, nominally as a, music-distri-buting agency. Eight depots wero established, and men employed to distributo the music to the hawkore, while great trouble' was taken to warn thare places of approaching raids. " lied lighte are up at the Bovril (one of tho depots), move everything," was the message, sent on one occasion, and action was immediately taken to prevent persons connected with tho business going near this place. Tho man who was said to bo the moving spirit in the concern, was an undischarged bankrupt without a farthing when he started, but when tho prosecution began he was living in comfort at W<s:cliff-on-Sea, pioud of the titlo of " King of the Pirates." At no time did the capital of this company, oven on paper, amount to more than £9, and the profits must havo been enormous, for one of tho witnesses, who wae employed to go to tho depots and check the music in stock, paid that as much as £70, a day was received in postal orders for music. He himself had dabbled'in tho business on his own account, and made a profit of about 75 per cent. "The Holy City," he explained, was" disrespectfully Known to the " profession " as " The 'Olies," and the " Star of Bethlehem " as "The Bets." Concrete oases were given of how the combination acted io the detriment of the publishers. In one instance Messrs Gould and Co. paid £5000 for the copywright of " For All Eternity." Directly the cong was published it was pirated, with the probable result that Meesrs Gould and Co. would ccc only a small portion—if any—-of their original outlay. The case had not been concluded when the last mail left, but the authorities hoped, that the • orcsecution would, paralyse the whole business.