HERE AND THERE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1974, 29 June 1900, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

Since the recent lire at the Paris Exhibition smoking has been prohibited by order of the police, and nobody is now allowed under any circumstances to enter any of the roofed-in buildings with a lighted cigar or cigarette. The maintenance of this order in the colonial sections has been entrusted to the black African soldiers, and their inability to speak a word of French or any other comprehensible language often leads to comical incidents. In one instance a gigantic Dahomey soldier, after vainly trying to make a plump bourgeois understand by signs that he must not smoke, gravely took the offending citizen by the scruff of the neck, removed the cigar from his mouth, broke off the lighted half of it, and then returned the other portion in a somewhat dilapidated condition to the owner, whom he dismissed with a grave and ceremonious salute. The Frenchman was furious, the more so as on his eompLaining to a policeman he was told that the man had only done his duty. An extraordinary run on the Sheffield branch of the Yorkshire Penny Bank took place on April 30, and continued throughout the early days of the succeeding week. The Bank had 35,000 Sheffield depositors, with accounts approaching £1,000,000, and the panic was the outcome of a rumor that the institution was badly affected by the failure of DumbeH's Bank", in the Isle of Man. The rumor was without foundation, as no money had ever been invested in DumbeH's To re-establish confidence the Bank officials announced that they were fully prepared to meet all demands, and would suspend the rule as to notice of withdrawal until the excitement was over. This had a good influence upon depositors, and the run ended on May 2, when, in celebration of its elusion, a flag was hoisted over the headquarters at Leeds. After spending a week in prison in mistake for another person, James M'Coune'l was released, and returned to his home at Baltimore, U.S.A., to obtain compensation from the American Government. Upon lr* arrival at Queens town from America, he was arrested by detectives, who were iooking for a defaulting county treasurer named Ingersoll, who was reported to have''crossed under the name of M'Connell on the Montana, the ship by which M'Connell came over. News was "received by the American Embassy on May 1 that the real Ingersoll had been arrested at San Francisco, and M'Connell, who had been remanded on the charge of forgery and embezzlement, waft accordingly released. Sir F. Lushington, in ordering" his release, said the mistake was not the fault of anyone belonging to the English police. It is curious to note, in connection with the national designation of our present foes in South Africa (savs the 'Law Times') the survivance in Scottish legal and agricultural parlance of the closelv allied term " Bower (pronounced Booer). * The expression is properly applied to a person who hires, from the proprietor or principal tenant of* a farm, a stock of cows along with the right of grazing them on certain fields. The Bower makes in return a money payment of so much per cow, and trusts to making his profit out of the sale of the dairy produce. The precise legal position of a party who has a " bowing " lease is somewhat indeterminate, being 3 midway between that of a mere manager and that of a sub-tenant. Instances of this mixed contract of lease of land and hiring of labor are now rare, but it is still to be found in agricultural districts. An instance of it in Arran was the subject of judicial consideration in 1894. The word "bower" is allied to the Gaelic "bo, a cow, and among its numerous cognates in the Aryan languages is included the Dutch term " Boer." An extraordinary duel has been fought in the Paris Exhibition between two Chinas men Early one morning a man named ki-10-San"- was found lying in the grounds unconscious and bleeding profusely from the mouth, nose, and ears. As Pe-ki-10-Sang was known to have had a quarrel with an r other Celestial, Lon-si-Tuong, the latter was arrested and an inquiry beujun. It was ad, mitted by both men that they had fought a duel and at length it was discovered that the Sons of Heaven had fought their fight as these things are done in China. They had concealed themselves in the grounds until midnight, and had then come forth and vituperated one another for four solid hours, at the end of which time Pe-ki-10-Sang had fallen flat stricken with congestion of the brain, and bereft of further speech. The victor has been released, as there is no French law to tit his case. ] " There is no part of the world,' recently remarked an experienced traveller, "where luxury is carried to more fantastic lengths than in South America. In Rio, Monte Video, Santiago de Chile, Lima, Buenos Ayres, and a lot of other cities you will find people of immense wealth whose lives are devoted solely and singly to the pursuit of pleasure. Their whole round of existence is a feverish and unflagging pursuit of a new sensation. I was present some years ago at a bachelor dinner given by a young aristocrat of Santiago de Chile as a farewell to his cronies on the eve of his marriage. It was the most spectacular and extravagant function I ever attended. With every course the host introduced some surprise. For instance, when the fish was served a curtain was drawn at one end of the room, and we saw a stage set with a startlingly realistic sea scene—a lugger tossing on the waves and the men on board hauling in a net. It' was as good a piece of stagecraft as I ever saw in any theatre. A bear's head was brought in* by a crowd of servants dressed as wild Indian hunters, and the ices were served by girls costumed as Oriental dancers. As a finale there was a grand ballet on the stage which had been used for the sea scene. There is no telling how much the dinner cost, but it was got up without any regard for expense. One of the residents of Monte Video has a subterranean dancing hall which is famous in that part of the world, but which, strange to say, I have never seen described in print. It is fully sixty feet under the surface of the ground, and is reached by a great iron cage, similar to those used in mines. The sight of such a superbly decorated and brilliantly illuminated apartment, after a descent of the dark, grimy shaft, is indescribably startling. The owner of the estate is an eccentric nitrate millionaire, who spends most of his time in Paris." London firemen are often called upon to cope with extraordinary emergencies, but it is doubtful whether they have ever been more embarrassed than at a fire at some cold storage premises in Tooley street very recentlv. About 100 firemen and 40 salvage corps' men responded to an alarming call. Volumes of thick suffocating smoke were issuing from the building, and to facilitate the work of the men some of the steam fire engines had to be employed in pumping air to them while they threaded thear way among the windings of the warehouse. For a long time it was found impossible to discover 0 the seat of the fire, but eventually this was done by the second officer of i 1 e brigade, Mr S. *G. Gamble, who donned a sort of diving suit, and by its aid penetrated into the first floor. Here he found a pile of carcasses of sheep on fire, and when these were removed all danger was over. The appliance st> successfully employed by the second officer is a leather smoke-hood with glass eye-holes. The hood is so closed round the neck as to make it air-tight. Light tubes are screwed, on and. connected with the

nearest steam-engine, air being pumped as in the case of a diver's helmet. An odd name seems to be a good advertisement for a newspaper in the Far West, and probably that is why the 'Sedalia Bazoo,' the ' Texas Jimplecute,' and the ' Tombstone Epitaph' of other days have plenty of imitators or successors. Kansas and the new territory of Oklahoma are particularly prolific in newspaper titles of this type.' The 1 Shawnee Daily Dinner Bell' no doubt expected its name to have a welcome sound to the people of the region, but the founders of the ' Kingfisher Kicker,' of the ' Thomas County Cat,' or of the ' Western Cyclone' could not so expect. The ' Pottawatomie County Plain People' has a good sound, and so has the 'Hill City Lively Times.' The ' Kansas Cowboy,' the 'Comanche Chief,' and the ' Kiowa Chief' are picturesque, while singularity is the strong recommendation of the 'Ensign Razzoop.' the 'Jay Hawkeye,' the ' Prairie Dog,' the ' Prairie Owl,' the ' Whimwham,' the ' Open Eye,' the ' Fanatic,' and the ' Grigsby City Scorcher.' The opening days of the Paris Exhibition have been marred by a shocking accident. The foot-bridge, composed of wood and plaster, which was built by the Celestial Globe Company over the Avenue de Suffran, on the left bank of the river, to connect the Celestial Globe with the Exhibition proper, collapsed suddenly. During the morning the structure was examined by the DirectorGeneral of the Exhibition, who gave orders that no one was to be allowed on it, as he did not consider it safe. Notwithstanding its insecurity, however, no precautions were taken to prevent persons from passing underneath, and when the thoroughfare was thronged the structure gave way, falling almost without a moment's warning upon a, dense concourse of people. The height of the bridge above the roadway was about 20ft. Many of those caught ill the debris were terribly crushed. Ten deaths have resulted, and of the rescued many are very severely injured. Teetotallers throughout the world will hear with pride of the victory that their cause has just won in France. One of the last acts of the Minister of War (General Gallifet) was to issue an order prohibiting the sale of spirits inside barracks. Wine, beer, and cider may be sold in canteens, besides tea, coffee, and cocoa, but no liquor containing any added alcohol. This covers absinthe and'the long list of '•aperitifs," or so-called tonics and appetisers, which are the favorite poisons of the French nation. The prohibition to sell spirits extends not only to barracks, but to camps and manoeuvring grounds. Of course, soldiers will be free to spend their pocket-money in cafes and public-houses as before, but at any rate prohibition insdie barracks will remind young soldiers of the dangers of alcohol. General De Gallifet has now removed the reproach against the army that it was a school of drunkenness. So it was, only writers like M. Gohier, who said so. were called enemies of the army. The enemies once more have proved to be the army's truest friends. In a country like France", where military service is compulsory, the effect of the Minister's order cannot be over-estimated. Any stories about the relatives of the heroe's of the war are read with interest today. A prettv anecdoate is told of Sir George White's* little daughter, aged six. The girl was recently walking with her nurse near the borders of Windsor Great Park, when she met the cripple boys sent down by the Ragged School Union to Princess Christian's Holiday Home. Fixing her eyes on the most helpless one of the number, she said : " Poor little boy : poor little cripple boy." No rest would she give those around her until she was driven into Windsor to buy oranges and cakes for the little sufferers. When the news of the gallant relief of Ladysmith came she was allowed further to show her sympathy by inviting all the boys to tea, when a'beautiful repast was enjoyed by them, followed by fireworks. In all military toys there is a boom, but especially on tin soldiers is the run very pronounced. One toymaker on a large scale is doing a roaring trade in leaden troops, and it is worth noting that the buyers of these are not at, all exclusively children. Many boxes are sold to military men, who use the toys as dummies, in practically demonstrating manuiuvres and formations of troops. As much as £3O is sometimes given for a box of soldiers. The young King of Seryia owns a really magnificent set of toy soldiers. All the different regiments of the Russian Army are represented, in their correct uniforms, each soldier is 3in tall, and the bill totted up to over £IOO. The sons of the German Emperor all possess splendid toy soldiers likewise, but they are taught to look upon playing with " them as serious business rather than pleasure. Writing in the ' World' of Her Majesty's visit to the Emerald Isle, a correspondent says :—" I doubt if the Queen has done so much for years ; certainly it is a long time since Her Majesty has undertaken so much entertaining. In every way her visit to Ireland has been beyond question a real pleasure to her, and* those about her say that Her Majesty has never seemed so happy on any of her spring 'holidays' in recent years.' Even those who know her best have been astonished at the vitality and energy she has displayed. I hear that the Queen told one of he'r visitors the other day that she has so much enjoyed her Irish trip that she hopes to come back every year as long as she is able."