TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14473, 30 September 1912, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

„ Thero is an August wail in Weeds, tho "Nation" that a ruined

hay crop is not tho only evil left by a wet summer to perturb the farmer's soul. Ho has to meet now all the annoyaices that belong to "a year of weeds." "While- the ground was too wet for hoeing operations, ill weeds grew apace. By this essayist's testimony, they had risen in August high nbovo the clovers. Cultivated land of every kind was yellow with charlock. "Its golden blossoms fill tho air with the sweetest of floral scents, but they are worse than 'unprofitably gay.' They and tho purple kuautias, tho white moon-daisies, tho scarlet poppies, the crimson knapweeds, the blue corn cockle, the creeping thistle, corn buttercup, and black bindweed, are all 'dheate,' as the 'common name specifically declares Virgil's 'infelix lolium' to be." With weedy perversity, tho thistle particularly 1 ejoiccs in wet weather. Damp oven preserves in perfect health any specimens uprooted and thrown aside by tho wrath of man. Those lie cool and comfortablo under tho showers, until their roots have simply turned downward and laid hold on mother earth again. They fruit without sunshine, and rain only assists in dispersing their harvest of seeds. The "Nation" sadly anticipates that the "full effects of this season's 'dirty fields' will bo sec J in other years." Possibly they will bo seen also in very far-off places. "With tho English grasses there will come to. v strange lawns and fields sure tokens of England's "year of weeds." A new garden in Christehurch was lately surprised by tho appearance of a small fioAver unknown to tho strictly colonial owners, or their equally colonial clipper of grass plots, who promptly cut off its head as an intruding dandelion. But tho flower was jn fact a celandine, which had arrived, as quite a poetic and dosirntle immigrant, amongst th« English grass stusd. Less happy finds may bo expected now. Then, if Darwin, during an ordinary year, found tho seeds of five hundred and thirty-seven plants in tho cupful of mud which ho scraped from tho feet of migrant birds, how many words will they be distributing with the mud they carry on their autumn flight in 1912? Thoso "green fields of England," • turned golden but dolorous with tho false charms of charlock, may cause quite distant lands to regret "a year in which a man cannot frequently intervene with the hoo ''

Theatrical managers, Mascot — success or failuro of by whose enterprises deEngagement, pends so largely on the often unaccountable whims of the public, seem to have a more than average partiality for mascots. London theatre-goers who went recently to see "Tho Glad Eye" at tho Globe Theatre, , doubtless noticed a curi-ous-looking individual whoso hnbit it was to stand every night outside the theatre, smoking a cigar with a lordly air. This was Alf. Molony, who has now been promoted to tho post of mnscot-estraordinary of the dtrantl Theatre. Alf was formerly a tailor by profession, but a paralytic stroke unfitted him for sewing, and threw him helpless on tho world. Ho took to collecting cigarette and cigar stumpe, and a partiality for the theatro led to his becoming a familiar figure to the doorkeeper, and ultimately to the manager, of the Globe. "Tho Glad Eyo" was transferred to the Strand," and Alf, always smoking his picked-up cigar-stumps, followed it. Tho play prospered enormously, and tho management, associating its success with Alf Molony, became convinced that the man was nothing more nor less than a mascot. One night Alf was not in his usual place, and the next night and tho next, and many other nights he stayed away. The management be-

came alarmed. A black cat was tried as a substitute, but proved ineffectual. The good fortune of the last eight months began-to show signs of waning. Molony was searched for, and officially engaged by the theatre-management as mascot, tho terms of the agreement being that he should continue to stand outsido the theatre during the run of "Tho Glad Eye," and that in consideration of this ho should receive payment in the form of one cigar nightly, and wear while "on duty" , a pair of white gloves provided by tho management. No word was spoken of cash payment, doubtless tho management thought that thisjnight have the effect of breaking the charm, but Alf was content with the cigar, and every night lie presents himself at tho theatre door and claims his cigar, and puffs away at it with all tho dignity of ono fulfilling a -weighty and indispensable function.

For the last news of the Eden Garden of Eden, enquire in from the "Geographical JourFlood, nal," which now prints the full text of tho address by Sir William Willcocks, that not long back delighted all members of tho Royal Geographical Society. He belioves tho site of the garden will eventually be found just north of Ur, at tho ancient junction of the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates; though he remarks also that "every part of the Euphrates delta, from Hit to tho Persian Gulf, has at some time or another been called 'Eden,' the irrigated and cultivated plain, ad distinct from 'Kura,' tho linirrigablo hill or plain." Now tho desolation of Eden and ita surroundings has como chiefly from the bad behaviour of the rivers. "Every engineer beginning work in tho delta for a canal or a railway must always keep beforo him tho memory of Noah's flood." Ancient Babylonia, with all her wondrous water-works, contrived a way of escape for the spring floods of tho Euphrates, but even sho never mastered the Tigris. And if "silt" was found engraved upon tho heart of a deceased irrigation engineer in India, how much more must this word affect the m:m confronted with two streams which in flood time carry down between them five times as much deposit as the Nile? Sir William Willcocks has a great scheme, as every one knows, for taming theeo turbulent rivers. He sees Euphrates controlled by the construction of a massive canal and dyke, and her waste waters directed harm lessly into a depression. Two barrages and a canal for tho Tigris, with this cscapo for the Euphrates, will cost altogether about £6,000,000. Then a system of minor canals will conduct a manageable proportion of rich muddy water to the fields, and tho suntortured or flood-wasted lands of the present Babylonian Valley will become a safo and smiling Eden again. Such works will be a godsend to Baghdad, and every other town and village; and the delta of Euphrates and Tigris will not only bo richer than the delta of tho Nile,- but "a safer placo to invest capital in." Where now only the date-palm flourishes, according to a saying of the country, witli "its feet in water and its head in hell," tho fertile soil will return rich harvests, and paradisical fruits—and all because tho modern engineer, in place of weeping beside tho waters of Babj--lon, has there laid his schemes for controlling the Tigris and Euphrates, even in their muddiest moods.