TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12498, 8 May 1906, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tho Irish in London oeleIrelay's bra ted St. Patrick's Day Fret-ival. this year with an enthusisiiiii which put into the shade all- previous celcbratior.lb, and evnn. h> ono is loci to believe, made Scotch and Wol.-lv exhibitions of patrio- ! t;Mii rcem quite tame. No less than 7000 Irish people attended a service at the Westminster Cathodral on the Siiniduy, conducted entirely in Gaelic, with tho exception of the .Benediction-. Further, the tunes of tho old GaeJio hymns \vori» all traditional, having been taken down fixnn tho singing of native Irish ifiingprs. On the Saturday Covont Garden Thoatre was '.lie scene of two great Irush demonstrations, at which the ! enthusiasm wan overwhelming. Every j vi*rse of every song wa-s applauded rapI tnroiisly, and at the end the enthusiasm ' excited by the skirl of fhe. Irish j-uar-pipEfl (or is it only the Scotch in- . Ktmments that skirl?) was so groat that ! nearly the whola audience formed itwlf ' into a prceewion and marched out into 1 the Strand and down Fleet .street to the time of "The Wearing of tho Green." Tho moving spirit in ail this was the Gaelic League, tho growth r>f wiioee work and influence of" late years is described as amazing. "Only ; those in truth," Rays a writer in tho j Daily Chronicle," "who hnve been, pre- ' e?nt at dome of the great G-aolie League, concerto that have l;een hitherto held ! in Queen's Hall, know the full heartij iioFR and homeliness, the fearless and overwhelming national spirit, the tensity, the sympathy, tho jollity of the dense throne of true Irifh folk who hay* gathered there on St. Patrick's Day." Ot course, tho brutal English are told (win.; heme truths on tlß*o occasion. Only recently tho heart of a very emij jv-r-t .«'.n.g?r of Irish tongs failod 'him I at, the Qiieeir7» Hal!, when he came to I tho lines ot th" old song: j "The West's awake! The West's awake! 1 Sing eh ! Hurrah! I/f" Kngland quake!" ■ Im-l-ad of triumphantly dwelling on ' th;> second l : n" he falU'ringly the firfr". wrfh th<' result that- ho hae Kiiicv Mint: for fh«< Gaelic Leaguo on St. Patrick's Day. But the league j >trn'.ijrly empha:-!f?i- t-he entire , übvnc' f ron; its propaganda ot I any ♦•ssontial Anglophobia. "Seine I tlvy f.ty. •imagine that we an< I only j-pviviiin thr Jrisii ;ancuag.-> out c.l j hatred of Xi Th,-y mi«lu as we!l ! arcu-o a man who is trying t-» '••ive his froul of doing {.;> spiti , his neiphlfoui." So intt'iiH- the patriotism of the leading spirit cf tho league that this year enormous niiantitk's oi .v.iutiircck were brought over from Ireland to oomI»?te acainst the- iiliptv larticl- , ir-j-in Paspx and Buckintr'ianu-hirv. Mr William Waldort An American Ant or. whnr>e to Eng!it?hmiaji. hw son of Uio beautitiil Cliveden perty on iJio Thames is chrouicls<l in tbf- cable, news this mcrning, hns brtm desDrrbcd as ih-o richest absentee lacd-

(<id in tho world. He is even more han that, for not only doets he draw enormous wealth from his American estates, but eaine years vgs he beeanw a. British subject, rather an unique step for a man to take who had been ,nn American Ambassador. Cliveden • bought from tho Duko of ; i:i 1893—is certainly a princely wedding pnwnt, even for an Axtor. Tiie boautiful grounds slope down to theT'namev. mid tho mansion a magnitk'ent Italian villa. Many interesting memories of various great perx>imges ot ;he 19th oent it ry are ec-nuKK'.od with Cliveden. The Latin inscription set round the main part of the house was compo*od by Mr Gladstone, and tho grout tit-at'.-snvan used to Ik» ;i freqiu»nfc visitor theiv. It was to Cliveden that the Duchess of Sutherland brought Garibaldi for a mvt from tho lionising of London, and tlie Queen and the Prince Condon wore oft<-n visitors thcTo.. Cliveden i.s not Mr AstorV onJy oonntry seat in England.' H« jilko owns tho historic aifitle of Hover, in Kent, the birth-place of Ai\r.& Boloyn, whore, ueeordviit; to tradition, llt-niry VIII. wooitl and won lum-, and afterwmrdu. with a refinement of cruelty, caused her to languish in the duryiotuie the<re> beforo sho went to her death. Tradition fllM) says diat the unquiet spirit. r;f the dfad Queen usod to cross the old bridge over tho River Eden> during Chi if-'. i::is wofk, but, alas, poor ghoust, Air Antor't* recent improvement/? *o the place inclndt'd tJi£> pulling down of t'ho and tho building of a new one,' with the result, so tho villagers h-ay, tliut the wiuiderinr? .spirit, has been effectively laid. At any rate if the tteel Lridge has not had thir. efiVrt, no doubt the electric light has. Mr Astor hiineelf ■occupies the. room in which Hen.ry VIII. us s;ii<l to Jiavo slept. The antiquaries of Kent are rtot altogether carry that Mr Astcall a-s taken over the castle. The lui.s suffers] greatly from the ravages of va.ndiil }wnd«, and Mr Astor has now excluded the fourust and promised that he will regsird tho Uattlo-eoarrod wialLs with veneration. Dr. Burbank's ruime may The Plant be added to the lust of I Magician, great Americans who j cLai.ni Scottish descent, j Though his fatJier was of English an-cest-n-, his mother, so wo learn from a roueirb biography, oanve of Scottish blood. Perhaps it was by inhe.rit.anco on that flido that the Oalifomian naturalist began in earliest youth to sluow the North Britisli aptitude for HtwiitLfio gardeming. "Even in his oradle he ■would hold a flower with especial tendormss, not squeezing and cnishing it as an ordinary baby will do ; onoe a petal dropped from a blossom in his hand, and ho tried , patiently to replace, it and mend the flowor." More appropriately still, his favourite. pJayi thing c year or two later was a. cactus plant, which he used to carry about with him in its pot for hours. Dr. Burbank rww played with the cactus to some puipw« fiinoo. California dad not begin i by treating him hospitaUy. Burbaivk arrived there «s a young man, in search of health, and kwnod what it was to bn ill, penniless, end starvinß. Only by immense resolution, and nfter a hard fight, lio established a small business as a nurseryman, and then his earliest experiments in hybridisation brought down on him the wra£h end opposition of the neighbourhood. ono quite recent memory ifi of a minister who invited him to hear a sermon on plants, and took the chance to condemn him from tho pulpit for "working in direct opposition to the will of God in thus creating; new forniß of life which never should have been created, or, if created, oivly by (Jorl Himself." The preacher entirely railed to sco that discovery was only working further on the same lines by which man l*ad created and maintained the material for his daily bread. Mockery grow hushed, however, before the wonderful results from that beautiful garden at Santa Rosa, and to-day it is tho Mecca of thousands of including the highest experts in science. The famous hybridifier is described as a mode a, j reverent, silent worker, only ambitious to bring more beauty ..v»jto tho world i and to increase the food-yielding power* in plant life. The cactu/J triumph most pleased him, because "the population of the world may be doubled, and yet, in the immediate food of the cactus itself, and in the food animals which m«y bo reused upon ft, there would be. enough for all." Tho Carnegie Institute at Washington ie so convinced of the national value in such experiments tjiat it has now allocated to Dr. Burbank a grant of 100,000 dollars, or ton thousand dollars a year for ten yeans—thai «•! may spread h« research 'in wider fields. One hopee N that the eartliquakoe at. Santa Rosa have not disturbed tilings that may "set the paou for the whole world."