NOTES FROM ABROAD.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 775, 26 March 1910, Page 11

NOTES FROM ABROAD.

Such a chapter of accidents, or, rather, sadly fatal results, as wo have heard of this very week, all connected with the recent elections, and all to do with quite young children (says an English writer). In; two cases, singularly enough, one connected with a representative of the Peers: the other with the Labour party. First of all, great general sympathy was shown on all sides with the noted Labour member, whose little son, aged nearly twelve years, I [ am told, succumbed to illness, contracted during his election touring with his father, when "Vote for Daddy" was tho motto which he carried about with him the wholo time. Then only .to-day, and as I writo, comes the dreadfully sad news that Lord and Lady Ninian Crichton Stuart have.lost their, tiny three-year-old boy, his death being entirely duo to a chill brought _on during his motor drives whilst his father was busy canvassing, and when, as in the other case, the little lad carried the attractive banner emblazoned with "Tote for Daddy." It is all too pathetic, and it is easy to be wise after the eront; but, putting the danger of catching cold or illness in such vast assemblies as canvassing orowds involve, one would have thought the wild excitement of the surroundings highly unsuitable for young children; ' At last the famous "Chanticleer" has been played .(says the Paris correspondent of the "Queen"), and the verdict has been gfven. At the repetition generale' on. Sunday evening it was in-

teresting to watch how the feeling of tho very chosen, 'audience expressed itself. After the first act there was great enthusiasm, after the second still warm applause; but after this the interest began-to die down slowly until'at the end,' when the curtain fell, there was unquestioned disappointments. As to the' criticisms, spoken ones I mean, they .were.Very much alike.': ''High art allied to' the 1 most, puerile of puns,- magnificently played, ■ wonderfully staged, and intensely Parisian." If. Guitry's 'invocation to'the dawn is a stupendous piece of work, .which tests both author 'and actor to the top of. their skill, and, they .both 'come•"-'out splendidly.. The prologue 1 spoken' l by ■' M. ■ Coqueliri. l is ' clever to the last degree, and Mme. Simone is '; the daintiest of pheasants. The make-ups'.; are/.;'quite wonderful, especially "'Mme. Simone's. "M. Guitry's. _dress. vis! carried out' on the. same lines, and all the.rest of the farm-' yard inhabitants are as well conceived, even to the, little chickens, .which scratch and. run about in. lively fashion. Everyone will ■go to. see this remarkable piece of work, although, to be quite frank, I think'the serious problems the city has had .to face during the, last week or .two have somewhat taken away .tho, zest pf the Parisians in criticising what is more of a succes d<y curiosite than a great work of art. •Moreover, the long' waiting, the gossip, the'advertisement, whether meant or not, have all combined to annoy even the lenient public of the Paris theatres!

The Home papers are still writing of Selma Lagerlof, tho writer who was practically unknown in England till sho. secured the Nobel .prize; She' is one of the most hard-working women writers (says a writer. in the ' 'Lady's Realm''). She is at work from eight'.in ths morning till midnight. She was a school teacher, and it was very many years before her first book.' was published. She made a name by writing: a-story for a prize offered'by a Swedish- magazine. .She worked day and night at this story for two weeks, and managed to send it off by the last-post by which it could reach the prize committee in time. Then came a period of anxious waiting, and at 'last, when she had ceased to hope,- a telegram of -congratulation reached her from some school teacher friends. She'was then-nearly thirtytwo. But the story was still not published, for the magazine asked her to expand it and make a novel instead of a tale of 100 pages. A wealthy baroness kindly interested herself in the writer, and enabled her to give' up teaching and devote herself to her literary work. Ultimately the book came out under the title, "Gosta.BcTling's Saga," and she has become Sweden's national heroine.

"Elephants' Tracks", ihthe "National Review," is a sketch by Miss Mary Bridson of Nyasaland and of big game shooting there. The writer rejoices that once for two days she got quite away from tho ordinary, comforts and necessaries of civilised . life in . her attempt (which was unsuccessful)'to kill an elephant. In the course of the narrativo she, describes the great vigour and industry ,of the women of that country.- "Native women," she says, "are very strong and well set up, even as compared with the men, perhaps owing to the largo amount of heavy work-which 1 falls to their share. "I 'seldom saw a man work, except for a European, while as for the women, when they havo nothing else to do there is always the seemingly unending job of, pounding corn with a heavy pole and a wooden mortar; and wherever thoy are, and whatever they are doing, their backs are never free from the inevitable haby. Under theso conditions, however, they seem happy and •healthy, and wore always willing to help our boys, on tho chance perhaps of getting an empty tin or a scrap of meat."