TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14093, 12 July 1911, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

5 London papers to hand by i Some this week's mail contain "• Gilbert many gcod stories of the 1 Stories, late Sir William Gilbert. * Early in life he suffered a 1 rebuff at the bands of " Punch," which < rejected hie "Bab Ballads," because -I

i they were deemed to bo blood-thirsty. Hβ had his revenge one evening later on, when he sat nest to a former editor of the journal. "I suppose you often have funny things 6ent in from outsiders?" Gilbert suggested. "Heaps," eaid the editor. " Then why do you not put them inP" was Gilbert's query. When, a play of his was in rehearsal &t St. James's Theatre, the leading lady persisted in saying "Stay! Stay! let mo speak!" instead of "Stay! let mc speak!" She thought the longer version was an improvement. Gilbert got his way by saying, " No, Miss , you are wrong again; it isn't ' stay, stay!' it's ' 6tay!' one stay, not a pair of stays."' One morning, at a rehearsal of " The Mikado," Gilbert suddenly called out from the stalls, " There is a gentleman in the left group not holding his fan correctly." The stage-manager promptly explained, " There is one gentleman absent through illness." "Ah," replied Gilbert, sympathetically, " that is not the gentleman I am referring to." Delightful is the story of tho leading lady in "Pinafore," who declined to stand anyv. re but in the middle of the! stage, stating that she had always oocu- '< pied that position when singing in Italian opera. Gilbert disarmed her with: "Unfortunately this is not Italian | opera. It is only a low burlesque of the worst possible kind." The drama--1 tist belonged to a club, membership of which was confined to "noblemen and I gentlemen." Someone in the club hay- , ing taken his umbrella, Gilbert put up j a notico requesting the nobleman who j had taken it to return it. On being j , remonstrated with, he explained that 1 as no gentleman could have done such 1 a thing, it must have been done by a nobleman. He was witty to tho end. , Shortly before he died ho went to see ; a farce called "Baby Mine" at the Criterion- He had a bad box at the , side, and ,-b.en after tho performance -, ho was asked what he thought of the . piece he said, " Tho half that I've seen is all right. I must come again, sit in , the box on the other side, and see the other half. I suppose those boxe s are 1 intended to make you see a play twice." This year's Derby had a The touch of "Tho Whip" about , Derby, it. Before the race rumours 1 were flying about that Mr Joel's Sunstar, the favourite, was going to be prevented from winning, by foul means- The owner received a large number of lettere from the public asking him if he knew of the plot, and warning him to be careful. One of the most prominent sporting . writers advised the stewards of tho Jockey Club to watch the race carefully, "It would be idle to blink the fact that for reasons which need not be gone into, many people pray fervently that Sunstar may be- defeated. There is a lot of illfeeling at the bottom of this, apart from mere prejudice, and I would not mention the subject if there did nob seem to mc to be real danger of trouble, as to which the market position of Sunstar serves as a sfcormy petrel." This writer referred to a St. Leger race in which a horse was prevented, by crooked work, from winning, and pointed out that, as in Sunstar's case, the state of the betting market had been ominous. He also stated that he had been told by a jockey, who rode one- of the* favourites in a Derby, that two or three of the jockeys took care that his horse had j no chance of winning. What gave colour to tho talk of a plot was the fact that although Sunstar, in form, should have been a warm favourite, the bookmakers were laying 6 to 4, and 7 to 4 against him almost on the eve of the race. Instead of hardening tho price receded. Mr Joel scouted the idea of sinister influences being at work against his horse, but he took elaborate precautions to prevent Sunstar being tampered with. Tho horse was carefully guarded day and night. Sunstar, however, won easily. In view of the statement that there was a lot of ill-feeling about the probability that Sunstar would win, it is. interesting to note that the victory was not very popular. The cheering was only moderate in volume, and it was noticed that no cheers came from the members' s£and. This Derby is said to have put up a record in the amount of money that changed hands. One authority estimated it at between two and three millions.

It is said that a "hustTelephones ling" American journalat ist -who went over to Home. London a few years ago to show the natives how a paper should be run, was dumbfounded to find that the Bank of England had no telephone. England, however, is now waking up to the value of that convenience, and the liberal policy of the Postmaster-General will no doubt hasten the process. The concession to farmers of a telephone service for £8 per annum if five people combine to use one wire, ehould do much to popularise the telephone. The "Daily Mail" hae an interesting article on the results of an experiment of this kind made at the Yorkshire village of Brandsby. "I can assure you," said the squire, "that the farmers of Brandsby -would not be -without it now that they hare once learnt its value. The Farmers' Co-operative Society here, of which all the farmers are members, gets through its work in half the time, and the saving of expense, labour, and trouble is incalculable. Five minutes' talk over the telephone and we can do more than i could be done in two or three letters passing to and fro. I know that the enb-committee of our Agricultural Organisation Society, and our local society, contrive to cet through their ! work in days' less time than it used to take." By means of the telephone the farmers of Brandsby are becoming as highly organised in co-operation as the Danes, who are a model to the world in this respect. It is also reported that the telephone has begun to revolutionise the fruit-growing industry in the Evesham district. It is anticipated that the increased use of the telephone -which the Postmaster-General hopes to see, : will lead to the introduction of auto- . matic exchanges, the abolition of the ''flat rate," and the substitution of < a system by which payment depends on • the number of calls made. Communi- ' cation with other countries may also • increase, for every year it is becoming < easier. It is now possible to talk from i tho General Post Office, London, to Mar- i seilles, and telephonic communication ] with Germany and Italy is being tried. ] The Old Country, however, has a long , wav to go before it can compare -with , America as a user of the telephone. 1 There are 650,000 telephones in use in < Great Britain, and 7,000,000 in ] America. - . ■ . . (