RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 15, 12 October 1928, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) In a political campaign one paiiy never cares how the other goes down in history—so long as it goes down. Scientists have produced a more permanent finish for motor-cars, but nothing yet invented beats a locomotive. • • • Life-insurance policies have now been prepared to cover airmen. It seems that aviators are not safe from anything. * The American Express Company, referred to in to-day’s cables, has been associated with some of the most colourful days in American history. It was founded in 185 S by the consolidation of a number of smaller companies, including the famous Wells-Fargo Express Company, which thrived in the days of the Californian goldfields. The celebrated Pony Express, which first’ brought Buffalo Bill into prominence, was organised in 1860 by the American Express Company to carry mails between San Francisco and St. Joseph, Missouri. This service covered the distance in eight days, a change of mount being made at stations 25 miles apart.

Fifty years ago to-day—October 12, 1878 —the barque Felixstowe was wrecked on Otaki beach. Captain Piggott, the mate (Lamont) and two seamen (Patrick Farrell and Quiliam) were drowned. Mrs. Piggott and some of the crew got ashore safely. The mate’s body was washed ashore some days later and was buried on Sunday, October 20. Captain Piggott’s body was never found. He was known to have had a large sum of money on him, two watches and other valuables, and suspicions were entertained at the time as to whether the body had come ashore, been rifled and quietly disposed of. 1878 was a truly disastrous year on Otaki beach, the 1350-ton sailing ship Hyderabad being wrecked south of Foxton, and the City of Auckland wrecked near the mouth of the Otaki River, where her iron mast is still to be seen embedded in the sand. It is estimated that over £llO,OOO was paid in marine insurance on these three vessels wrecked in the one year, and this gave rise to an active agitation for a light on Kapiti Island.

The Germans gave England a martyrsaint when they executed Edith Cavell, the heroic British Red Cross nurse, at Brussels, thirteen years ago to-day. The story of her arrest on August 5, 1915, and execution on October 12, for assisting British prisoners of war to escape into Holland, is still fresh in the minds of all who recall the Great War. The reason why Edith Cavell’ has been called a saint, is perhaps not so generally known, but it is sufficiently demonstrated, in the opinion of at least one writer, by the production in facsimile of the copy of “The Imitation of Christ,” which she kept with her to the last. In an edition of Thomas A. Kempis’s famous book of devotion, published by the Oxford University Press in 1920. Miss Cavell’s notes and markings of passages made during the days just before her death are reproduced. The book is a repliea of the one from which she derived so much help aiid- comfort in her extremity. Her own copy she desired should be sent to her cousin, but he did not receive it until three years after her death.

Some of the passages marked by Edith Cavell are indicative of her noble character. “If thou canst be silent and suffer, without doubt thou shalt see the Lord,” “It is more just that thou shouldst accuse thyself and excuse thy brother,” “Display Thy wonderful works, I beseech Thee, and let Thy right hand be glorified; for there is no other hope or refuge for me, save in Thee, O Lord my God,” are typical examples. During the lonely period of her imprisonment she used this little book, and at different times noted the most helpful passages, adding St. Gilles, her prison, and the date. It should also be recalled that at the court martial her entire truthfulness and the frank admission of what she had done for her countrymen furnished the German Military authorities with the most serious charges against her. * * *

All eyes are turned towards the very latest high-speed aeroplane with which it is hoped that Britain will smash all world’s records at the unheard of speed of nearly 400 miles an hour. Whilst man makes these puny efforts with costly and special aeroplanes, it is somewhat humbling to think that the world is jogging along all the time through the mysteries of interstellar space at a mere 1000 miles a minute. At this rate a trip to Australia and back would take three or four minutes. In addition to the world’s effort at speeding, it is astounding to realise that the world, the sun and all its other satellites, are speeding off as one family through the chartless emptiness of space at the rate of 4800 miles a minute to an unknown destination. When, however, it comes to going slow, our world can show the way to even the most enterprising of the slackers brigade. One of the minor wobbles of this long-suffering world requires just 21,000 years in which to turn round once.

As an evangelist of Spiritualism, rather than as the creator of “Sherlock Holmes,” does Sir Arthur Conan Dovle owe his prominence in the news of the day. Since the author of popular fiction has become an ardent spiritualist his literary output has suffered, but no doubt Sir Arthur finds satisfaction in his belief that within fifty vears Spiritualism “will sweep the world and take the place of the religion of to-day.” To-day he calls to the Spiritualists of England to fight for political freedom and thereby remove the Government ban on the use of mediums. Sir Arthur is satisfied that through the agencies of the departed he has proved immortality and a paradise beyond. In proof of his Spiritualistic theory, he declares that he has seen and communicated with his dead mother and a son killed in the war, while he has also heard an angel voice joining in the singing of “Onward Christian Soldiers” in the Doyle home.

Other evidences include, he says, photographs of the “etheric” or astral body, a substance called ecloplasm, which is supposed to issue from the body of the medium and take on the shape of a departed one, and the familiar rappings and knockings which he regards as signals from the next world. Heaven is described by Conan Doyle as the land of fulfilled ideals, and the place where the disharmony and worry of life do not exist. The old resume youth and maidenhood and buildings and cities are there, but everything is on a higher plane, and there is neither unhappiness nor wrong. In his creed there is no hell.