TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13005, 6 January 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Druce case conExhumation tributes to legal an<in nals ono moro instance Fiction, of an exhumed corpse being found to give satisfactory, if silent, evidence, and cremation advocates will regret an episode which tends to strengthen one of tho stock arguments against their side. For, take it that this enquiry had concerned a person cremated in 1864, what assurance of identity could havo been gained ? Novel readers must havo been, disappointed, though, ot. this tame end to tho theory of a mock funeral in 1861, after tho pattern set forth in what was then a new •sensation novel, the "Tale of Two Cities," by diaries Dickens. Hero »vas introduced tho funeral of Roger Oly, an unpopular person, who took this means of getting away from an individuality crown too anuch of a burden to be pleasant. Here there was exhumation, too, but at a much earlier stage; in fact, the night after tho burial, and by that honest tradesar.iaf:i' an scien,tnfijo 'fpoods, Jerry Cruncher, the resurrection-man. As a result, he was very well able to declare at a critical moment, "I toll you that you buried paving-atones and earth in that there coffini," and we aro happy to find that tho experience h«d its weight in his final resolve to "go' into the line of tho reg'lar diggin''," and make amends for whet he would liave un-dug, "by diggin' of 'em in with a will, 3nd with convictions respectin' tho futur' kecpin' of 'em safe." This Hiighgato grave seems to have been dug with convictions, judging by the remarkably unchanged state of the shrouded remains. Thus the incident, if not sustaining a modern romance of real life to class with tho 'Glenara" .mystery, the Cly funeral, nnd other distinguished impositions, bos at least had tho practical value desired when, the serious step is taken of opening up i tomb. Wo only trust tliat it may not lead to a serious epidemic of tomb-opening in contemporary literature. High imaginations have'worked quite sufficiently on this line, from Juliet's a 111-starred awakening to that of Tennyson's Camilla:— "Down in the dreadful dust that one© was man," or to R. L. Stevenson's most gruesome page in ''Tho Master of Ballantree." It is a dreary look out to think of tracing disguised Druce, coffined, alive, impersonated, or in trance, through all the English magazine stories for the next six months 1

It is now claimed that The tho thirteen superThirteon stition is based ou Superstition, fact. Professor Sherman Davis, of the University of Indiana, declared recently that thirteen ie the ago at which 85 per cent, of boys begin to learn evil. Actuarial statistics aro eaid to dhow that of any thirteen people assembled accidentally, the chances are that ono will be dead -within tho year. "T.P.'s Weekly" points out, however, in tho course of a discussion on the superstition, that this cannot he true of all countries, with their different death rates, co tho nervous may take heart. The journal quotes some interesting evidenoo of the survival of the superstition. Many hotels have no rooms bearing tho number. In Berlin the number is omitted from all new streets, and in Berne, Paris, and other European cities 13 in house numbering has nearly always been changed to 12a or 12.. Tho Turks have almost expunged tho word '' thirteenth " from their vocabulary, tbe Italians never u*e it in their lotteries, and in some cities there are men whoso recognised business it is to bo ready to go to any houso to dinner in order to mako up fourteen at table. Bismarck had the superstition in an acute form, and. it is said that when the French Cabinet was reorganised in 1900 the official announcement was de-

laved for a day so as to avoid the thirteenth" of the month. The Pope is said to have smiled at the nervousness of his French enemies, and remarked that evidently being a Freethinker did not prevent a man being superstitious. The Church tried once to extirpate the superstition. In tho chapel of the Tridinium Pauperum, adjoining the Church of St. Gregory, in Rome, is a marble table with an inscription recounting that Pope Gregory the Great was in the habit of entertaining twelve poor men at breakfast every morning, and that on one occasion Christ appeared and shared their meal, making thirteen at table, and that, therefore, henceforth thirteen was a lucky number. If this had any effect that effect has quite passed away. The commonly held belief is that the superstition originated from tho Last Supper, but it is found in the Norse mythology and in the ancient Hindu myths. Similarly, the Friday superstition, traced by Christians to the Crucifixion, was current long before the time of Christ.

"First on the right. Some second on the left," Hibernicisms. the curt form of police direction said to be familiar to ears of Londonors, perhaps changes when one gets to Dublin, One hears something like this: "Well, Miss, d'ye see that turning to the left ? Well, yell take no notice of that, but if yell walk up a piece yell see another turning, and that'll bring ye right." The contrast is mado by a writer in the "Pall Mall Gazette" to illustrate the volubility of the Irish. No doubt such superfluity of advice is rather rare, like the reply of a country policeman drafted to tho town, to a cyclist anxious to reach a certain rood. "Well, sorr, first ye cross that bridge, and when ye come to the "other side yell ask another policeman, for I.m from Caturcivcen meself." Tho writer emphasises tho point that the Irishman, when amusing English people by his drolleries of speech, is speaking in an alien tongue. He ni<iy never even have heard Irish spoken,. but ho will reproduce Celtic idioms in Saxon with surprising results. Somo expressions of the lower clnsses are unintelligible to the ordinary Englishman. "To lay the blame on" becomes "to leave it on," so when a transplanted Englishwoman asks her servant about a missing piece of food and Bridget replies "I don't know whero it's gone, ma'am; I left it on the catj" an explanation is required. "Would ye trail your coat-tails foment mc? I've a right to hit yel" says one man to another, meaning, not that he has a right to break his opponent's head, but "I've no right to hit you, but I'm going to institute that right." By the way, an Irislunan does not say, as ho does in English fiction and on tho English stage, "Will ye he after tellin' mc the time?" but he would say, "Suro, I'm just after bidding Mick tho time of day," The expression is used only of past events. The writer notes the imagery of common expressions, such aa "She has an eye like a ooorjin' hawk," and the natural piety of tho Irish peasant. "He refers everything to his Maker with absolute simplicity, a strong contrast to the awkward solf-oonsciousness of tho Britisher faoed with the necessity of mentioning his Creator on rare occasions. 'A fine day, thanks be to God,' or 'A great little lad, God Mess him!' are matters of every-doy speech, and no praise is bestowed 09, man or beast without invoking a blessing to redeem the prido of ownership." '♦