TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12484, 21 April 1906, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

R. li. Stevenson has Two Views dcroribod in unforgefcof'Frisco, table style the manner of his own first journey to Ran Francisco, dropping "down the long slope" towards a far sea-level, and through tho "good country" that train of immigrants had been dreaming of so long. Finally, the day was breaking as they crossed the ferry. "Tlie fog was rising over tho citied hills of San Francisco ; everything was waiting, breatbless/'for the sun. A spot of cloudy gold lit first upon the head of Tamalpai.--, and then widened downward on its shapely shoulder; tho air seemed to awaken, and began to sparkle; and suddenly The tall hills Titan discovered/ and tho City of San Francisco, and tho bay of and corn, were lit from end to end with summer daylight." In "The Wrecker" he makes use again of _uch an experience, in the person of Loudon Dodd, and has much further, both bad and good, to say of this "city singularly picturesque," this "draughty, rowdy city," the city "tightly packed and growling with traffic," and whatever her faults might be, always with an enthralling grace for the vagrant skctcher delighting in ships and in slums. "San Francisco is not only the most interesting city in the Union, and the hugest smelting-pot of races and tho precious metal. She keeps, besides, tho doors of the Pacific. Nowhere else shall you observe, in ancient phrase, so many tall ships." Within tho town, he comments on the "dives' and warehouses" of the water-front, and the variety of etrections comprisclrl in a single street. "The endless streets of any American city pass through strange degrees and vicissitudes of splendour and distress, running under the same name between monumental ,w«rehou>es, th© dens and taverns of tihfar_,, and tho sward and shrubberies of "villas. In San Francisco the sharp inequalities or tho ground and the sea bordering on so many 6ides greatly oxaggenat© the contrasts." G. W. Stoevens, however, in the "Land of the Dollar," denied tho picturesque quality to the city itself. H© declared this great metropolis of an empire .roughly a dozen times th© size of England would havo on aspect almost tame and suburban, but for tho ground on which.it was built: 'Standing on a stretch of billowing sandhills, it everywhere exposes a panorama of roofs. You seem to have a more intimate knowledge of it than of cities where you can only see a few walls at a time. At night, too, the long dipping linos of lights give an impression of distance, and size, air, and freedom." Mournful to think of tho change in that panorama of roofs; and of tho parky renowned as being, if not tho largest in the world, "tho most completely equipped for pleasure without overmuch profit," now baking up tho serious uses of a harbour for earthquake refugees. A recent act of the i Tho Kaiser has once more Versatile drawn • attention to the Kaiser, character of tho Emperor | whom some people call a j genius and some a mere mediocre dilletantc. This was an address delivered in Berlin to five sculptors who brought to him modclrfor statues of tho five Princes of Orange which his Majesty contemplates having j erected on the terrace of one of his | castles. The Kaiser told the five j artists that he had made a special study I of mod'asval armour in order to judge j of the historical accuracy of th© attire j of the models, and then proceeded to talk to them for a solid hour and a half on the origin, development, and gradual disuse of tho armour ef the old knights. Ho had himself tried on a I suit of armour to see how tho men of those days moved and walKed in it, and he had found that it wa6 incorrect to suppose that tho men of tho middle ages were moro powerfully built than thoc«o of tho present generation. No j doubt tho sculptors were edified and ' impressed by the address. "Diplomat," in the "Daily Express," draws attention to. the extraordinary variety ! of the subject*, with which the Kaiser I has dealt in his speeches. Ho lias spoken on Socialism, labour legislation, agriculture, taxation, naval policy, tho construction of canals, municipal enterprise, military utratogy, shipbuilding, engineering, architecture, education, yachting, theology, sculpture and I painting, science and philosophy, music, I horse and cattle breeding, the duties of j housewives, literature, and tho drama. | According to "Diplomat," tho Kaiser's greatest enemy is his tongue. "With all his genius and wonderful talent," ho cannot restrain himself from talking—generally injudiciously—at every conceivable opportunity. No monarch in history has ever approached his jocord of orations. During the laat

| twelve months ho has delivered lf&fK j speeches. "Diplomat" recalls some off^S '■ the occasions on which the Kaiser hM*^_n [ put his foot in it; his references to the "Je| Boer War, which ouended England, hi« \ _■& plea for 'subscriptions for the relief of v_l sufferers in the Indian famine, which ' .*Ui offended the Germans, hit-; speeches on V* religion, which h'tve alternately annoy-" j.'-; ©d Catholics and Protestants, his de- . V ■ claratioii that tho Japanese wero the - -' : Yellow Peril, which Germany would have to crush by force, his denuncia,- /' tion of Russian officers as drunken, dis-.' * sipated rogues, and his address to Ins I Grenadier Guards, in which he told": ** them to apply the point of the bayonet ' •.o tli© Berlin citizens should they have, "* the wicked audacity to rebel against - him. "Diplomat" puts thes© indU,' -'--. cretions down to th© Kaiser's epeaidnV * ■ without preparation, and to his £}'- carried away by his feelings. Ottoa, *Vmoroover, after ho has prepared ' _u_. J^j speeches carefully with the help of his '£ Chancellor, ho has been carried be- $M yond the point agreed upon, and de- »% livered a speech which surprised the '•*«s I world, the Chancellor no doubt in- •?. %' eluded. It is n_tisfactory to learn-? j that although tli© Kaiser's love of "il*. j speaking ou all subjects shows no _*> j diminution, he has quieted down some- V.v what with advancing years, and is less '* ;. I impulfivo and Joss easily irritated than 'ho was fifteen years ago.

Spiritualism has reHow Ghosts ooived another severe - aro Made, blow by tho exposure of a Nottingham medium, who;-© production ot " ghosta'* was so sensational that people came from the Continent to witness the mani.©stations. Scientists wero mystitiod. for some time by the extraordinary a*> • parjtioi- produced by Eldred, tho medium. When he took his seat at - a eeauc© hymns wero sung, nnd he'i worked himself up into a groat state of --j__ excitement. Th© gas waa then lower- ,t' ©d, a light flickered across th© top of ■**_" th© medium's cabinet, tho curtains sui- *' rounding the cabinet were drawn, and fl"----a head was seen, which loped into a body, and came into tti* room among the visitons. There M'/si*. alwnys a suspicion about curtains anon*"*-* 1 i cabinets, and the iscientitio mindß of Dr. ,%a* Alfred Itussel Wallace and Mr John J ' Lobb, both of whom aro ardent spiritualistfi, demanded a Httlo investigation before they accepted th© "ghosts" genuine. The chair used by __dro4"Sf was examined in. his absence, .andfound' %] to contain <a secret compartment at the jf|' back, th© lock of which was well con- ,».■££] cealed by flush covering. So' at next seance Dr. Wallace and his friend*-.'"fe 1 opened the compartment at the back of'- -$& 1 the chair, and found that it was J pletely filled with articles necessary for ._,'*■*) j "faking spirits." Tho articles found | included a collapsiblo dummy head,-",►*?_ I mado of pink stockinet, with flesh-col--.**»*[ 'oured mask (with pieces of stockinet ''j'*", - ---! gummed over the holes), tho lc_e''/|7 ■ stockinet being doubtless used to rep're* r Jft ! sent tho shrunken skin at th© neck; 'jr- ! six pieces of fin© white __ma silk, conj taining in all thirteen yards; two pieces * jS jof rino black cloth ".doubtless used in the Ojjj. so-called dematerialisations); threo • & beards of various shades ,* two wigs, one -Js white' and on© grey; an extending'4§ metal ooat-hanger for suspending dra*"*l|| pery to represent the oecond form, wita M an iron hook on which to hang tlio'M form, and a small flash electric lamp "* with four yardß of wiro with switch, \% which could be used when tho medium. *aj was away from the cabinet to produce -iff so-called spirit lights within. Elui-cd 'M owned up to his trickery when con- «£ fronted with this overwhelming cvi- WM I dence, and returned the tnohey charged |P| for admission. Ho had been chargingjp|f 7e%& for th© privilege of seeing t°««|f&ri fraudulent materialisations, and gulled hundreds of people. In C-po-iA||g&' the business in "Light," the sofbcialiM: organ of spiritualists, Dr. Wa_ao9''(M hopes that this discovery will prevenCJK, any further attempts ''to prey upon t_«'|i| most sacred feelings of their felloWrM mortals, many of whom havt hithert_>.SJ| been their unsuspecting dupes," a hopo'W which shows that tho distinguktoed"f|j( scientist is an optimist of rare faith. \*M