TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13547, 7 October 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

&n interesting account of Dr. Dr. Cook's early career was given Cook, to the New York "Herald" by the explorer's brother just after the news came of the reported discovery of the North Pole. Dr. Cook's father was a country doctor in the States, and died when his son was a small boy. The family subsequently went to New York, and young Cook determined to become a doctor. His first employment was selling vegetables in a market, and his earnings

went towards paying for a high school counse. Then he bousht a small milk business, and combined tho carrying round of milk with study at Columbia Medical School. Getting up at one in the morning, he went his round from that time until seven, and reported himself for study at Columbia at nine. His studies occupied him until four in the afternoon, and he slept in the evening. Saturdays and Sundays he spent studying and makins up for the sleep he had lost during the week. The growth of his milk business enabled'him to take his brother into partnership, and _ive more time to his medical course. About _ho time he graduated Lieutenant Peary was preparing for a trip to the Arctic, and went to the Columbia graduating class for a doctor for the expedition. Young Cook was selected, and thus be_an his acquaintance with tbe polar regions. Mr Bradley, who financed tho much-dis-cussed dash for the North Pole, tells a story to illustrate Dr. Cook's extraordinary patience. They were out hunting one day in a motor-boat, and just as they were starting back the motor broke down. Dr. Cook worked at tho engine for twelve hours without success (the party was in no danger), and at length the vessel was towed back by dories from the ship. They aid not- reach the shin until one in tho morning, but he set to work again then, and an hour later the sound of the working engine proclaimed that his patience had been rewarded. The arrest of tho men who A raided Mappin and Webb's Police shop in London was a triumph Trap, for the London detectives. It was Sunday afternoon, and the business world of London was dead. But through every week-end tho City detective force keeps the sharpest eye on the closed shops and the crowds that walk through the streets. So elaborate is the espionage (says a London paper) that nobody on a Sunday walk through the big thoroughfares is ever out of sight of a detective. Just before one o'clock on this particular afternoon, Detective-Inspector Lyon and Detective Sheward, looking anything but what they were, stood in the triangle before the Mansion House, with suspicious eyes for everything about them. Among tho crowd they noticed a man who every now and then looked furtively over the top of the newspaper he was reading. The detectives became convinced that the man was secretly watching some part of the triangle, and also keeping an eyo on them. Inspector Lyon walked away to investigate, Detective Sheward hung about and watched the man, and the clock moved on to half-past three. Then the inspector noticed a man wheeling a bicycle. In view of the triangle tho man stooped down and appeared to examine his bicycle. The keen-eyed officer noticed the direction of the man's eyes, and concluded that the bicycle was a blind, and that he was really furtively watching tho space before the Mansion House. A detective was set to watch the man. Mappin and.Webb's then camo into the inspector's mind. It was in view of the two suspected men, and tho most likely objective in the neighbourhood. Other detectives wero set to watch the shop. At length the denouement came with startling suddenness. Tho door of the shop opened, and two men, followed in a moment by a thiird, unlocked the iron gate, and camo through. Instantly the police trap closed on these three and the other two watched men. Tho inside of the shop told its tale. Show cases had been forced open, jewellery had been collected for removal, and the watchman was -found nearly dead from wounds inflicted by the robbers. The tragedy had •been enacted in broad daylight, within a few feet of passing crowds. Whilst some men hold Meat-eating the opinion that the inJapanese, creasing consumption T of meat amongst the Japanese is likely to prove the salvation of _he race as regards their physio no, it must be chronicled that the English vegetarians are wroth. The editor of the London "Vegetarian" disbelieves the assertion that the consumption of rice is a source of beri-beri. "It was- by no means necessary to add meat to the dietary, "lie says, "for the proteids it contains are all supplied by peas, beans, maize, cheese, milk, or even bananas.'lt is not rice that should bo banished from the Japanese dietary,, but dts other staple constituent, fish, which is full of impurities." This authority adds that the rice consumed by the Japanese at home is a very different article to that known to British consumers. *In fact, tho Japanese in London refuse to eat the polished nice, which, they say, is tasto- , less and lacking in nourishment, when it is deprived' of its delicate nitrogenous coating. But the general opinion of observers who have been amongst the people goes to show that the race has greatly improved since the adoption of a meat diet. Thirty years ago, when tho consumption of meat was very small, the people were under-sized and pallidlooking, but sine© meat has been adopted as an article of diet the people have become stronger, more healthy, and better developed. The general belief among the working-classes, and among the "kurumayas" (riksha-men), says a visitor, is crystallised in a saying which, translated, means, "It is impossible to work on a rice diet." It is stated that during the Japanese war a special meat ration was issued to supplement the customary ration of rice, dried fish, and pickled plums. The meat ration was small, and consisted of bully-beef, detestable to the English palate because of its overpowering spices. Staff officers—especially those of the First Army, upon which fell the brunt of the fighting—ate and drank like European officers, General Kuroki and other commanders. insisting that this diet was necessary to sustain them in their arduous work. The custom was welcomed and acknowledged to be satisfactory in every sense. Since the war all classes have taken kindly to the innovation, many of the better families even eating, like Europeans, with the fork. In a land of few cattio and small opportunities for pasturage, the progress towards a European dietary must necessarily bo slow. • =======