TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14293, 2 March 1912, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A writer in the London f A "Evening News" draws Writer's attention to tho fact that Romance. 3l_ssra Ihickworth, tho publishers, issued recently the twenty-ninth edition of a remarkable book. "It is not a story," he saj., "or a book of devotion, or a series of character sketches, or a volume of essay, or a picture of a quiet life led in quiet places; and yet it is each of these and all of these within tho .ompass of a hundred and fifty pages. Tho title of this strange book is -The Roadmender,' and the authorship is ascribed to 'Michael Fairless.' " There was no "Michael Fairless," he says. The author was a woman; sho died ten .oars ago, and apart from a few who may never discloso it, the secret behind the pseudonym is unknown. From all over tho world demands come that readers who have liked, tho book may bo told something of its writer. But those wfio know have accepted a sacred charge >f silence; the real identity of "Michael Fairless" is not to be disclosed. Mr Machon declares that he has learnt a little of the mystery, as much as can honourably be told touching tho dead writer. Her literary executrix says that she died at tho age. of thirry-thro. of a combination of painful internal disorders, and the book was written during her long death agony. Ho had known her for somo timoj sho was staying with him when the first serious symptoms of her illness appeared, and so it was no surprise to him when she &aid suddenly, as she lay on her couch, "I'm a .cadmender."' She then asked for pencil and paper, and began to write her book. An abscess in the right lung prevented her using her right hand, and she was too weak to sit up, so she wrote with her left hand, the pad of paper supported on her breast. In that way she WTOte "The Roadmender" in nine days, during all which time sho could,take no nourishment. All she could bear was a little iced water now and again. Sho lived twelve days after, still wilhout any nourishment. Tho last chapter wa. dictated, as sho had grown blind, and too weak to hold the pencil. It is. called ""The White Grate"; a Trill.

gate, which was tho last think, her dini eyes' had seen through tho windows of her sick-room, bad suggested the doors of the Grc-.t Kingdom. "But beyond the white gate and the trail of woodbine" she wrote, falls the eilcnco greater than ..peer-h, darkness greater than light, a pause ot 'a littlo while,' and then tho touch of that healing garment as we pass to the King in His beauty in a land from which there is no return. 'At the gateway, then, I cry you farewell.' '' And she died, but her book, which was tho story of her own soul, lives lon. Her identity has been kept a close secret because she hated publicity, and because her friends blow that the tale she had written was her own. It is surely one of tlio most astonishing ca6es of fortitude in literary annals. j

In the | advertising camBeneficent paign | that attracts Cold. thousands of immigrants to Canada, naturalsnothing is said about the rigours of the Canadian winter.' The Englishman who settles on tho land in tho West finds it out for himself, and from what one reads from time to time, his hardships in the winter aro among tho severest that the Empire's pioneers havo endured. Canadians are sensitive even about j allusions to their whito winters.i Probably, Mr Kipling is still receiving protests against "Our Lady of the Snows," and reminders that Canada produces splendid fruit. But | thero is a great deal to be said for the Canadian cold, and at least two prominent Canadians havo said some of it. In one of his eloquent speeches, Sir Wilfrid Laurior, declared that Canada owed much of the health and hardihood of heir sons and daughters to tho cold of her winter. 'Dr. G. R. Parkin, well-known for his connection with tho Rhodes Scholarship, at a meeting of tho Geographical Society a few weeks ago, claimed that the Canadian winter wa.% one of the country's greatest assets. An occasional 3ddeg. below zero, - ho said, ruled out tho black population altogether. It kept out tho immenso Mediterranean flow, which was sweeping across Central America, and, therefore, tho population consisted of tho strong Northern races. Canada, accordingly, must bo "ono of tho strong Northern races of tho world. Moro important still was the effect of tho climate on tho Englishman in the submerged tenth of Canada. Nature thero took such a man as it wero t.y tho scuff of the neck, and said: "If you don't have industry, foresight, and prudenco, you will dio." Tho ro suit was that a man of this type got his backbone strengthened, and in a generation bo became a strong citizen. Dr. Parkin had also a good word to say for tho English climate, which Is ono of tho most abused in all the world. Ho declared that tho Englishman, brought up in tho "raw and rough" atmospheric conditions so often prevalent in tho Old Country, stood extremes of heat and cold better than any other man.

'Tis tho hard grey weather Breeds hard Jiuglishinen. The Englishman settling in Canada, should, if Dr. Parkin is right, produce tho hardiest stock in tho world. What, then, of Australia and parts of our own country? Is Australia doomed to play second fiddle to Canada among the Dominions, becauso her winters arc mild?

The story we published Below a few weeks ago of an Stairs. elaborate gambling den conducted by a number of servants in a nobleman's town house in London, without the nobleman knowing anything about it, haa drawn from a West End detective some interesting stories of strango doings of servants behind their masters' backs. He used to know a valet who made quite a lot of money selling "racing information which he described as "let out by his lordship while ho was shaving him or brushing his lordship's hair." He charged ton shillings for a weekly advisory letter of 50 words or so, and 5s for a telegram, and all the letters connected with bis large business were addressed from the nobleman's house. Tho business was quietly knocked on tho head by tho detective; he and his kind aro more concerned with putting on end to scandals than with exposing them. Very amusing is his account of the way certain servants wore wont to use their masters and mistresses' clothes. The cook or tho maid going out in the mistress's hat is a common subject of jokes, and apparently, occurs not infrequently in real .life. These p.?rti-Vlar servants belonged to a c]ub which gave dances during tho season. Tho sudden entrance of 3 few of tho employers into this scene, of revelry would have produced an inimitable situation. Ladies' maids, housemaids, and kitchen maids, wore the finest gowns in the mistresses' wardrobes, and often their jewels. The detective saw a jolly old cook in a duchess's coronet at ono of these balls, and at Joast a dozen maids in tiaras. Butlers and footmen wore tho sashes and stars of Orders of Knighthood belonging to their masters. Jeames with tho remains of his usual dose of hair-powder clinging to his locks would wear the ribbon of the Victorian Order or the Indian Empire across his shirt front. Stars were worn freely by tho moro elderly servants. Occasionally tho younger men appeared in naval and military uniforms with rows of medals, while full Court dress, Windsor uniform, and even the heavily gold-laced coats and white satin breeches of high Court officials were not uncommon. The best of the joke was that the servants who borrowed these things without leave, actually hired detectives to watch over them, lest a butlor, a footman, or maid should make off with gome of them to a pawnshop. The game went on merrily until one night last year Lord X , on returning from the House late at night, found his butler, wearing two stars of Orders, and a broad ribbon across his chest, fast asleep on a sofa.