TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14883, 24 January 1914, Page 10

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In an article on "Religious Guardian Beliefs of the Eskimo," Spirits. Stefansson declares, "We

count it as one of the chief triumphs of the four-year expedition of the American Museum of National History to the Eskimos that we discovered why it is that children are not punished." Most travellers who have visited the Arctic lands have marvelled over the happy fact—for the children—that small Eskimos are never punished, never forbidden anything, and one theory was that Arctic infants must bo so chastened by circumstances that they were naturally good, and might safely bo allowed their own way. Another idea was -that Eskimos were so particularly fond of their children that

' they conld not- bear to use the strap. Stefansson found these explanations insufficient. Except for the absence of discipline, there were no signs that parents were more devoted than in other lands; while the Eskimo child was at times quite normally ill-behaved. Of one eight-year-old girl, called Noashak, Stefansson formed the opinion "'that she was the worst child 1 had ever known," though, since she -was the child of his most faithful Eskimo servants, he had to take "her for granted, "as a sort of necessary evil, like mosquitoes." It was through this Noashak that enlightenment came as to the no-beating practice. Her obedient mamma has always addressed . this small girl as "mother." One day, when another Eskimo family came to call, the woman of this family also used the same name. The naughty girl suddenly became of more interest than many mosquitoes. "Why do you two grown women call this child your mother?" asked the investigator. "Simply because she is our mother," they explained; and by degrees the whole secret came out. When a child is born it comes into the world with a soul of its own, but this is only a feeble, inexperienced child soul. It is, therefore, supplemented during the first twelve years by a second soul, the spirit of the last person who died beforo the child's birth, which has beeu kindly waiting round to become the guardian of a new life. In Noashak's case, the last deceased person being that near relation, she practically became her own grandmother! How, then, could her parents treat her with anything but respect? Children, in fact, have all tho respect shown to them which is due to tho in-dwelling spirit, bay that a child cries for a knife or a pair of scissore, "it is not a foolish child that wants the knife, but tho soul of a wise old man that wants it, and it would be presumptuous of a young mother to suppose that she knows better what is good for the child." Then these guardians, if they were angered by any refusal or unkindness, might withdraw their protection—in which case the poor infant would have no acquired soul to assist it in learning to talk, and to walk, and to grow teeth, and generally to do all the things its own inexperienced soul cannot possibly know anything about. As the child grows up, this soul becomes more competent; and at about eleven or twelve it is safe to begin forbidding and punishing. Before then no risks should be run. Amongst the Mackenzie River Eskimos, if you see a man who is bow-legged or hump-backed, or whose ears are big, hunch-backed, or whose ears are big, and if you ask anyone the reasons' for such deformity, you will hear, "It is because his parents forbade him things when he was , young, and offended his guardian spirit." When Cervantes put into Stamp the mouth of the galCuriosities, lant knight of La Mancha * this rapturous exclamation ; , "Oh! happy era,, happy age when my glorious deeds shall be revealed to the world! Deeds worthy of being engraven on brass, sculptured in marble, and recorded by the pencil!" he was ptobably very far from dreaming of the world-wide renown his hero was destined to achieve; still less that one day that same hero's glorious exploits were to be carried to tho furthermost corners of the earth, engraved on postage-, stamps. This was precisely what happened, however, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the publication of the first edition of "Don Quixote, ,, , when the event was celebrated by a pictorial set of postage-stamps, showing various famous scenes from that work. History is often found thus writ in postagestamps, and sometimes curious incidents are connected with the issuing of them. Some are mentioned in an interesting article in tht- American "Bookman." The story is told of King Ferdinand of Sicily that on waking up; after fifteen years to the fact that his j kingdom was stamp-less, he sent for his noted ■" copper-plate engraver, Aloisio J Zuvara, to bavo one designed. The result was not a very .brilliant production, but the monarch was delighted with it. His delight, however, turned to wrath and indignation when he beheld his royal counterfeit hideously defaced and marred by a post-mark, and' the Minister of Posts, who formally mailed the first one to the King, came in, it is said, for a plentiful share of] the royal displeasure. Tho reverse occurred in connexion with the new Russian stamps, which bear the Czar'e portrait. These the Russian postmasters absolutely refused to deface by cancelling, foreseeing visions of Siberia for such an offence. The Czar let it bo known that the cancelling of tho stamps had his approval, more, his command, but still the cautious postmasters persisted, and there was an end of it—the stamps had, nerforce. to be withdrawn. Map stamps often havestories attached to them. The Dominican Republic issued a map stamp in which quite a considerable slice of Haytian territory was included. The Haytians insisted on its withdrawal under pain of reprisals, and the stamp was withdrawn accordingly. When Venezuela and Great Britain were having a dispute over territory, Venezuela issued' a map stamp indicating her boundaries as she proposed to maintain them. A fascinating stamp, which might well suggest a theme to the imaginative romancer, is the St. Lucia 2d issue. This represents "the Pitons," a dread mountain from which, it is said, no explorijr has ever returned. Half-way up there is supposed to be a zone of stinging vipers whose poison causes instantaneous death. Those who have insisted, in spite of warnings, in attempting the ascent, have been watched through glasses, and seen to drop, apparently dead, at a certain lino.

Some entertaining Thackerayana. and apparently new

anecdotes about Thackeray are contained in a recent book by Mr E. V. Lucas, "The Loiterer's Harvest." Mr Lucas goes for his material to a record of the "Punch" dinners attended by one of the editors, Henry Silver, who joined the staff in 1858, in place of Dougjas Jerrold. Thackeray, as is well known, was on the "Punch" staff from 1843 till 1851. and his contributions in general cover the period from 1842 to 1854, whilo long after this he- kept up his social connexion with the paper. When Silver joined the staff id 1858 Thackeray's quarrel with Edmund Tates, involving Dickens and the Garrick Club, was in progress. This quarrel did not quickly die out, as was shown by a comment made by Thackeray four years later at one of the dinners. Ho was referring to a coolness of attitude on the part of. Dickens's children. "Let fathers treat each other like he'll." he said, "but why

need their children quarrel?' , Thackeray called Tennyson "the greatest man of the age: has thrown the quoit farthest." "Would you change your reputation for his?" he was asked, and replied "Yes," but no one believed him. Scott, as a poet, was discussed and was praised for stirring tho blood. "But I don't want to have my blood stirred!" complained Thackeray. Of tho literary stylo of George Augustus Sala, lie uttered the oft-recorded "mot" that it resembled "Dickens and water." Once Sala received £100 for a trip to Genoa to make an article for tho "Cornhill." Thackeray's observation on this was that the article was for the "Genoawary number," which, we are told, was a fair sample of his atrocious punning capacity. At tho dinner of March 12th, 1562, Thackeray announced his resignation from the editorship of the '"Cornhill." Ho spoke of CVorge Smith, his colleague, as "a noble, generous fellow," but said that he wanted a co-editor, not a sub-editor. The fact was that Thackeray was not fitted for editorial work. Mark Lemon once suggested that it was Thackeray's name which made the "Cornhill," hut Thackeray insisted that it was niado by Anthony Trollopo's serial, "Framley Parsonage." It was lato in the evening of December 24th, 18G3," trr.t the news of Thackeraj's death was brought to tho "Punch" table. All joined in "The Mahogany Tree." "Thank God wo shan't have to go around with tho hat," said Leech, fervently, two weeks later. "His daughters will have a thousand pounds a year between them.' But Leech himself was to survive his old chum and schoolfellow only a few months. He died on October 2£>th, 18G1, and ten days later his successor, George dv Maurier, took his scat at the table.