TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12603, 20 September 1906, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The late Louis Spitzel, A Romance who rose from being a of working jeweller in Millions. Melbourne to be ad-

viser to Li Hung Chang and left a fortune of £2,000,000, had en araaeing career. According to the "Argus" he was a native of Cracow, and there learnt tho trade of dia-mond-sotting. After wandering about South Africa as a hawker and travelling tinker, he came to Melbourne in the early eighties. There he got work in a jeweller's shop, and showed himself to be an exceptionally fine Workman. Before long he started in business for him_elf, bat though he seemed to prosper, he was obliged in a few years to file his petition, and left Australia, leaving debts behind him. Up to this time he had shown none of the money-making ability which afterwards made him a millionaire. Of his subsequent doings very little indeed ia known, but the shadowy outline drawn by the "Argus" is sufficient to indicate a story of great interest. He was noxt heard of in the Far East, where he came into closo touch with Li Hung Chang, who just then was keenly engaged in remodelling tho Chinese military forces. There is in that country a system of commissions known as "squeezing" to some purpose, and when Spitzel managed to get a share in the purchasing of guns for China, he "squeezed" to some purpose, co that when he returned to Europe at the end of tho war with Japan, he had a'large fortune, including £60,000 as his share of tho purchase-money of a ship built for the Chinese Government. But high play in tho intricate gamble of tho English, French, and German Stock Exchanges, against men more experienced then himself, ruined him. Ho played till he lost the last shilling of his fortune, and thoij set out to m_ke another one, which he did, though how he succeeded is not known. An Australian who knew him in Melbourne relates that he met him one foggy night in London, his face blue with cold, and seared by lines that told of the direst hardship. Spitzel confided in his friend that he had been reduced, as a means of livelihood, to collecting cigar-butts in the streets. Six months later the pair met again, and Spitzel drew from his perfectly fitting frock coat, a pocket-book containing a hundred £1000 Bank of England notes. Where and how he made the money was not divulged. of those who etajoyed intimacy with this remarkable man expound the theory that possibly the apparent destitution of six months earlier was only one of many parts played by a man who, with intrepid cunning and astounding astuteness had succeeded in forming some of the most powerful financial connections in Europe—all from an original basis of the most airy nature." Another Australian who met SpHzel at Shanghai recently described him as "a rather small man with a clear-cut face and a keen, resolute expression. He

was a dtiten of the world. If yon took him and dumped him down, in Timbnctoo, he'd get up, shako himself—end make money." Parisian duels are proA Comic verbially more humourOpora Duel, one than deadly, but one of the most recent, that between General Negriej end General Andre reached tho height of absurdity. Journalists dogged the Generals' footsteps day and night, and reported everything they said or did. Here is an extract from one reporter's account of his attendance on General Negrier: —"With my cab close m chase, he went down the Avenue YQlans, and got out at No. 2, the residence of General Duchesne. At 8.50 arrived cab No. 15.014, taken in the Place de la Madeleine, and containing General Lenglow. At 9.5 General de Negrier came out alone, and took a taximeter cab to the Hotel dee Leaving there at 9.20, and again taking a cab, the General wae driven to a jobmaster's in tibe Place Vauban, where he ordered a landau to be at General Duchesne's house at eleven o'clock. The landau is taken until 4.0 p.m. The order is thought to be a blind, and there are rumours of a rendezvous in the Pare Monoeau." Fancy columns of this sort of uninteresting detail! Evidently sub-editors in Paris have not yet learnt how to bo ruthless. Eventually the "fight" took place in tho gardens of Prince Murat's house, which are surrounded by a high iron fence, with spikes on the top. Some of the most active of the journalists climbed up and hung on to the spikes, in spite of a hostile demonstration by a gardener armed with a hose, while the public peered through holes in the fence. The preliminaries of the drama were solemnly performed. The seconds measured' out twenty-five paces, the adversaries, wearing tho regulation frock coats and top hats, were duly reminded of all the conditions, and the word of command was given. General Andre fired and nearly killed a journalist some distance on the right of his opponent, but General Negrier did not fire, conduct which so irritated General Andre that he loft the field without shaking hands. Tho "Standard's" correspondent in. Paris believes that one or two more such well-advertised farces will oause the French people to awake to the absurdity of duelling under modern conditions. There are already signs of it; several papers held the affair up to ridicule, and scattered widely the seeds of suspicion,, that people who fight duels make fools of themselves, and once fhat suspicion becomes a conviction in the public mind, duelling will scon be laughed out of fashion. A duel with pistols is a mere formal affair, in which even tho risk of an" accident ie reduced to a minimum. The pietols are old-fashioned muzelo-loading weapons, carrying a round bullet, and they may be so loaded that at twentyfive p3c3& 6 man might be hit without being hurt, wJiile the system of* firing !by word of command gives no time for any aim to be taken. Swords are more I dangerous, especially in inexperienced hamde, but with skilled fencers, a. duel generally ends in a mere scratch, with which honour is satisfied. On a day in the early " Genius part of Auguut there on paddled in the sea at The Beadh. Heme Bay, a seaside resort on the north coast of Kent, a small boy of ton. Suoh a thing ie not uncommon on the English coast in August, but this was no ordinary boy. He was unusually dark, slender, and foreign in look and gesture. In the afternoon he left hiie paddling and hie sand 1 building fox two hours and devoted himself to entertaining a than audience in the Pier Pavilion Theatre, a small wooden shanty wit<h a pretentious name. Heroic Bay is not * mueical place, especially under Bank Holiday conditions.. But between the afternoon and evening performances tihe prowess of this little foreign boy epread among the trippers, and in the evening the theatre was filled. A contributor to the "Standard ,, gives a picturesque account of the scene. Max Darewaki, for that was the boy's name, opened with a piano eoLo—a "Barcarole" composed by himealf. The playing woe wonderful, but for a inomunt appreciation was subordinated to fear lest tie tiny player should fall off the piano-stool. His logs could scarcely touch the pedale, and' when he leant over and played in vie neighbourhood of upper 0 with one foot on a pedal and tine other in mid-air, the- audience became quite nervous. When Chopin and other composers bad been splendidly interpreted- by this clip of a boy there came an item which made the auddenoo frantic with enthusiasm. Max Dareweki, by consent of tihe Wot Office, conducted the Royal Artillery Band. They were big men, and the boy Hooked , thinner than ever in the roddst of ihem. "Then the arms fell, the baton swept around, and tfiere crashed out tho etr&ine of the boy's own march, 'Nelson's Victory. , From that moment there was never a doubt that tho boy woe .master of mueic and master of his audience. The band shared this feeling. With eyes fastened on the tiny figure they played as military bands eekkim play. In, every movement of the ljtJje body, with its back to the audience, there was not a muscular nor nervous movement fab© to tho rhythm and harmony of the movement. Enthusiasm of gesture took player a-nd listener with it; but there was no mannerism, no suggestion of Sousa hypnotising hue audiionoe. The ohild was entirely unselfconscious in his wonderful conception of orchestration.. ,. Again and again the crowd made the boy appear before the cuttain, and when he stepped outside, carrying a bouquet presented to him by the band, he wae practically mobbed. Eventually bis mother succeeded 'in getting him tUirough. the yelling <;rowd to hie hotel, pursued by hundreds of admirers, and the demonstration bad scarcely died away before he was in> bed. Next morning he was conducting a whole-hearted campaign against tie sea.