TOPICS OF THE DAY

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14338, 25 April 1912, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

On the Pointe, de Per.Fatnl march in. Brittany, Fascination, there stands a lighthouse with a revolving light of 30-million candle power. During the'migration season thousands of birds, on their way to sunnier clin;<% becoming fascinated by tlio brilliant aura produced by- the electric light. hurl themselves n_ain?t the. structurr. and are killed. When the morning dawns tho bodies are collected and sent by rail to Paris, becoming a

lucrative source of profit to tho lighthouse keepers. But tho Pointc de Tenmarch lighthouse is not thc only ono that is responsible for this wholesale destruction: On the French coast alono there aro several others. The St. Hubert Club has interested itself in tho cause of the victims of these lights, and has offered a suLstautial reward to any person who can devise a means for preventing the slaughter of the birds. .Several Milieu i'.s have already been submitted, two at least.of which seem to bo quite practicable. It is a well-known fact that birds have a natural antipathy to unaccustomed noises, and in virtue of this it has been suggested that a firen should bo installed in each lighthouse, so that tho feathered migrants will givo tho death-traps a wido berth. Tho other suggestion is to have the ivalhi oi thc structures illuminated by means of acetylene lamps. This, it is thought, will havo the effect of preventing tho birds coming into contact with '.ho buildings. A correspondent of the ••Libcrto" and a champion of the victims of tho lighthouses has been busy collecting details of tho unremitting destruction that is taking place- For two consecutive mornings he was present at one. of tho lighthouses whilo the little corpses were being "bagged." On tho second day he took stock of tho spoils, and states that there were from COO to 1000 birds, among them being blackbirds, ducks, woodcock, thrushes and golden plovers- Tho sooner some satisfactory plan can be hit upon tho better it will bo, and any reasonable expense gono to in this connection will bo money well spent.

A report of tho London The Snare County Council makes

of reference to the tragedy Precocity. of tho backward child*

and the almost equal sadness of tlio lot of tho early genius. Sir James Crichton-Browno supplies tho most interesting contribution on this subject. Precocity, Jio says, is not a. thing to bo desired. The premature sharpness aud cunning of street arabs aro proverbial, and aro contrasted with tho obtuseness and simplicity of country children; but in the long run the country children havo the best of it in intelligence. The infant prodigies who aro brought in after dinner to astonish the guests with the feeblest of commonplaces, unless they die off. are instances of that kind of precocity that is really a symptom of disease. Many painful instances aro quoted of'gifted children who fell victims to tubercular diseaso just as they wore giving promise of marvellous achievement. Typical cases aro thoso of Lucretia and Margaret Davidson, whose genius was recognised by Washington Irving, and who died from tho disease in early girlhood, leaving poetical remains of no mean spirit. A typical case is also that of Pet Mar-, jorio, who repeated Constance's speech from "King John" to Sir Walter Scott, till he sobbed, and who died of tubercular meningitis when seven years old, after inditing letters and poems ■which would have done credit to a woman of forty. "The gods do hato these children," says ono writer in commonting on the report. Ho cites Chatterton,—who was a boy poet, and committed suicide at eighteen, and Poe, who diod early, and Raphael, who lived only to bo 37. But tho citing of cases appears to load no whither, as against such as those referred to aro set those of John Stuart Mill t who began Greek at three yea.rs of age, had read tho first six dialogues of Plato when ho was seven, and had mastered Robertson's Histories, Gibbony and Roilin before he was nine. His life, however, was not (says Sir James) a healthy or a happy one. At twenty ho suffered from au attack 'of melancholia with suicidal tendencies, aud was tho victim of brain troubles of ono kind and another to tho end of his days. Ruskin, again, was strangely precocious, and was sending to the circulating library for books when ho was five, but he, too, although he lived till within a few days of his eighty-first birthday, was subject to serious illness at every crisis of his life, while his later years wero clouded by mental trouble. Tho comment on tho reports ends with the obviously truthful statement that the child is happy who is neither backward nor forward, but slowly and steadily climbs to the summit of his powers.

Though excavations at Pompeii's Pompeii have been going Latest. on for many years, In-

terest in tho life of ancient times heightens rather than diminishes as more houses arc exposed after their long burial. Tho implements of the excavator uncovered the other day a drinking shop, which bears a curious resemblance to tho bar of to-day. A long row of bronze and glass jars containinr* various liquids wero found in perfect preservation, while a covered cauldron was still Idled with tho water which was probably boiling at the time of tho destruction of the city in A.D. 79. The cash till of tho bar, mnde of ivory, was found just as it was left by its panic-stricken owner, and contained a number of silver coins. Cavaliere Boni, tho Roman archajologist who is investigating the excavation, is quoted as saying that the only thing wanting in this bar of the ancients is the barmaid, but perhaps she was there and got away. This shop was excavated in what is known as the Street of Abundance, a newly-discovered thoroughfare leading from the city to tho amphitheatre. Tho discoveries in the street include a public fountain, a great fresco representing the twelve gods of Olympus, and a house with many fine rooms. But most terrible of all tho latest discoveries was found in a superb palace, the owner of which has been identified as one Obellius

r-irmus, a wealthy citizen of Pompeii. Before one of the gates were lyin_ <is [bodies. those of Obellius Firraus j himself. his wife, two little j children, and two other persons, pro- | bably slaves. The children were lying Jin one another's arms .is if embracing. while the parents had also crept j together am ] f.* asn ed each other's j ham:s. The authorities havo decided j not to remove the skeletons to tho ! museum, hm to leave them where they j are as evidence of the catastrophe. j Aud e,o<.- by, notices of political elecI tions -.till hang on the walls at tho : side «-,i the read, to remind tho tweni tieth century that life in tnose far-off | days resembled the life of to-day moro ' closely than i s rjenerally believed.