RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 82, 31 December 1929, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS

LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) According to the Russian idea, Xmas is spelt “Ex-mas.” After making New Year resolutions for over 30 years, the average man is inclined to think that the world in essentials has changed very little. New Year’s Day is described by Lord Chesterfield as “a time when the kindest and warmest wishes are exchanged without the least meaning and the most lying day in the year." Whatever amount of truth may underlie this cynical assertion, the universal interchange of good wishes on the threshold of another year can at least boast of a hoary antiquity. The ancient Romans spent the day in paying visits to wish one another “A Happy New Year.” The bestowing of New Year’s gifts waa also a popular observance. As the Magistrates entered upon their office on this day, they were accustomed to receive presents in token of congratulation.

In course of time, however, such presents were not only regularly looked for, but even demanded as a right by those in high places. Each New Year’s Day the Emperor -exacted a tribute from his subjects of a pound of gold as Strena. In China and Japan the people set out to pay visits and make presents to their friends with the dawn. Even the poorest in Scotland exchange sips of hot spiced ale, and make offerings of cakes, buns, and shortbread to their neighbours when ushering in #he New Year on the stroke of midnight. On New Year’s Eve the children in France place their shoes in the fender before going to bed, fully expecting them to be filled with dainties by the morning- New Year’s Day is in Paris a great day of gift-making for young and old. There was a time, too, when New Year’s gifts were much more common in England than they are now, but that was when the year commenced on March 25, instead of January 1.

The usual New Year’s gifts in former times were gloves. At Queen’s College, Oxford, the bursar of the college presents each and all the members with a threaded needle, saying, “Take this and use thrift.” The meaning of this old custom lies in the fact that the Latin words for needle and thread (aiguille et fll) form a sort of pun upon the name of Robert de Eglesfield, the founder of the college in the year 1340. It was called Queen’s College in compliment to Queen Phillipa, consort of Edward 111, whose confessor he was.

The fact that Leon Daudet is to be permitted to celebrate the New Year in Paris cannot but cause a smile amongst even ardent supporters of the French Government For Leon Daudet took a leading part In one of the biggest practical jokes ever perpetrated on any Government. Always a violent Royalist and a most, active member of his paper “L’Action Francaise,” Daudet was always getting himself into trouble. Eventually in 1927 fie was arrested on a libel charge in connection with the mysterious death of his own son, brought forward by a taxi driver. In spite of the fact that as a bereaved father public opinion was very much with him, Daudet was fined 25,000 francs and sent to prison for live months. “L’Action Francaise” was turned into a fort. Guarded by over a thousand Royalist followers, Daudet set out to resist'the sentence. The rest of France looked on and laughed over their aperitifs. But they were to laugh louder yet

After parleying with the Prefect of the Police Daudet, out of chivalry, walked to the gaol and surrendered himself. He was soon the best of friends with the gaolers. Next day the lunch of the prison director was interrupted by a telephone message. A voice from the Minister of the Interior himself was ringing up from his office. The prison director was politeness itself. “Please release Daudet. Delest, and the Communist Semard,” said the telephone, “under the same procedure under which the hunger striker Girardin was set free last week.” Daudet was called at once, congratulated, given his discharge, and bundled into a taxi at a side door. Then for a whele hour the prison director was unable to get on to the Ministerial oflices. Perhaps this was not unnatural, for taking advantage of the dinner hour, when the Ministerial offices were left not out empty, but open, a friend of Daudet’s had casually strolled in, rung up the prison, and ordered his comrade’s release. Next day not only France but the whole world was laughing at the French Government. So angry did the Tardieu Government become, they rearrested Daudet, despite the fact that he had been given an official discharge, and he was exiled to Belgium for three years.

The White House, the home of the United States Presidents, where a fire has occurred, was first occupied in November, 1800. by President and Mrs. John Adams. The site for the building was selected by President Washington and Major Peter Charles L’Enfant, when they laid out Washington in 1791. The architect was James Hoban, of Dublin. The building was burnt by the British in 1814, and Mr. Hoban superintended the restoration. It was first heated by gas in 1848. The principal apartments to the White House are officially designated th? East ’loom, Rid Room, Blue Room, Green Room, State Dining .Room, an’d Usher’s Lobby. There are a family floor, a main stairway, and a private staircase and ele-vatoi’-s. The dimensions of Lie White House in 18-10 Were: Length of ijontage, 170 feet; deptli or width, 86 feet. The mansion was built of grey sandstone, which was painted white after the fire, hence the mime “White House.” The architect, Mr. Hoban, had modelled the structure after the palace of the Duke of Leinster. The original cost was defrayed out of the sale of lands donated bv Maryland and Virginia. The President’s Office Building (where the recent fire occurred) is located at the west of the White House. It was built and occupied in 1902, and was enlarged later. The building contains the President’s Room, the Cabinet Room, a room for the President’s secretary, a telegraph room, a Press room, and rooms for the clerical staff.