NEW AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 12

NEW AND NOTES.

A French physician who has served •with the Japanese Red Cross, suggests that all Soldier should be supplied with jjenny whistles, -to prevent their being overlooked should they bo seriously wounded. . "A new smoke-iburning appliance draws, the 6rnoke out of\the chimney by an asgirator, and passes it -through a filter of ooke saturated wfth "petroleum. -The filter collects the solid carbon, while- the gjsses passing through are enriched with mtroleum vapour* and made combustible. There ia no loss," aid the 'coke of thti filter is an excellent fuel. a red.-h'4jred"b6y. M _;jt<> v ran an advertisemenb-hra- fiPoronto -paper -recently. When questioned as toais pre-" ference for office boys with ruddy locks, \ the advertiser said he found that redhaired boys were always quicker to learn; obarter, and more, trustworthy than boys with black, brown, or straw-coloured .hair. Civilisation advances. ' "Bacchus specials," to tollect and carry inebriated trippjers during Bank and other holidays, are t» be run on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Kailway, in England. ,The Government' of Tunis recently, ordered designs for. a set of new postage [stamps of the well-known painter Demoulin. He prepared five, four of which represented different epochs» in the country's history — the Punic, the Roman, the Arabic, the French. ■'The Dutch Government has offered a prize of 6000 florins for* .the most satisfactory substitute for the tin-lead alloy which 'is now used for holding" the dia« jnonds' during the process of cutting, and which often results in lead poisoning. The Sultan of _Turkey sleeps only two or three hours out of the twenty-four," and -. iheri when" someone is reading to him, or a musician, is performing in the adjoining, "room. This insomnia, which is chronic* has been brought about by long fear of assassination. A light is always burning in his room, and Ismet Bay, his faster-brotlier and Grand^ Master of- the Imperial' Wardrobe,' sleeps with him in the fiamo chamber. ;' .; . , ."■ .Togo is the inevitable name for Ameri«an dogs just now. Eighty per cent, of the dogs bc-rn in the (Jnited States in 'Ihe six months after the battle of Manilla were christened Dewey, but the Togos promise to be even more numerous. Rus. Jifan patronymics, even if in favour, would be less convenient. Names like Rozhdestvensky and Pobiedonostseff would not be found suitable for domestic pets. In the window of a hardware shop in Duhedin is an ingenious advertising display — the model of a battleship consisting fiolely of articles tsken from stock which being in no way injured, are still available for their business. The hull is made with two buck-saw bktdes bolted together at- both ends and expanded to the shape of a neat businesslike warship: For masts, two aug^ir bits have been screwed into the deck, the yards being gimlet bits, and so on to the smallest details that can conveniently be represented. The model has attracted much attention. To ward off cholera the young women «f the Russian village of Klimovsko, dad only in their nightdresses and with fcheir hair all loose, made the rounds barefooted of the village at midnight. One of them, carrying a small idol, marched in front. Immediately affer her Mother oh horseback, with an oven rake," carried bread and salt in her hand. Five paces behind there followed twelve girls pulling- a. plough. This is not unlike aome'. o£ the"M?qri,cerempnieß of the old leathen- days. - " ■ • Little attempt, "is longer made (saya the New York Evening Post) to conceal the fact that both political parties drew npon- that' mysterious 685,000-dollar Equitable "loan." A management that distributed its favours between Depew and Hill would naturally see to it that the treasuries of either party did not go ■empty. Treasurer Bliss of the Republican National Committee resents as "improper"- the question whether any Equitable money was turned over to him. But; hia sensitive delicacy must not aniT, mate the in^srtiga,ting7Cpmmitteer of the Xiegialature.-'Tfiey-must drive such ques- ~ lions homefaricl not be' too nice about ' ft. .. Many foreigners in these colonies -have -/ rAnglidsecT their names into forms more ■' or less jeseinbling,the 'original, 1 as for ;, instance, "Wilson" for "Olsen." A wit- * Bess* in the 'Arbitration Court (says the Ui Sydney Jlaily, Telegraph) who gave the flame _oi did not hail from the ■J land of cakes, and his English was more >- broken than the broadest Doric of his ■*-< great namesake.- In reply to questions, •I- he .said, .he used this name because it £ was. as. near, as he. could get to his real ~!name in. English. He was a Norwegian, -- tind his name was Bjornsen. Englishmen not "sky ""Bee^yOrren-sen," so, ex- ~ cegfc Tnr— important ' occasions, he gave •*» them— "Burns"- as - being more in their ~Binel . - • ■ "If -they statements of "A Parent" in a --SSydney paper are correct, some strange Z and., .unprofitable whims are being ex- .'.; plqited, in the schools of New South l\ Wales. He says: — ."The educational authonties appear to be introducing their *" new syllabus "with "a Vengeance. 'Last my little ' thirteen years --■ age, upon tieing asked what her home- .. lessons were replied that she had to \', depict Young Lochinvar as described in '• any of the .verses of Scott's famous »■-' poem, but after futile efforts and a <,' lasted night, so far as she was con- . cernedV Phad to complete the task. Not - content with, that, a .week later she is r asked to picture how Nelson died at ';' Trafalgar, and this time produced a '' work that baffles description, the -> memory of which even now convulses me :,' with laughter. Is it the intention of . the Department to export 'Phil Mays' in the future?" Enumerating some of the more famous modern '"prophets," the Australasian naya: — "A remarkable pretender to inluiired power was Thomas Lake Harri*, - an Englishman, who founded a SociaJ-Lstic-religious community at Brocton, or Balem-on-Erie. Harris, "who was a voluminous writer of verse, professed to cast out devils, and .formed magnetic circles among his disciples. Of these '_ the most famous was Laurence Oliphant, ' the brilliant writer, traveller,, and diplo-. matiat. Oliphant gave up a promising career in England to join Harris, whom he hailed as "the greatest poet, of the age." He made over his money to the ' community, and with bis mother worked like a slave at the bidding of Harris. A-_ Colorado girl,- whose parents died within" a few weeks of each other, found . herself, at the age. of twenty-three, the »ole owner of a well-stocked 'ranch and ■ several thousand dollars m cash.' Ar she could not manage tho', ranch, she advertised for a manager, offering him matrimony. In a short time »he had received nearly eight thousand offers of marriage, her suitors being from all «valks of life, from Congressmen to cowhoys, and of all ages, from bald heads to bald faces. Tlwy were, however, doomed to disappointment, one and all, for the girl, affrighted at having to shoose between so many, decided eventually to wed one of her own hired men, a • good-looking, stalwart young fellow, who had been born on the farm, and whom she bad known from childhood.

Sentenced to a month's, imprisonment at Timaru, a sailor asked the Court in very broken English, "What- about my clothes on board tho ship?" The chairman"of the Bench replied, "Oh, -he won't need any clothes up there; will he, Sergeant?". The accused looked very puzzled at this somewhat ambiguous remark. At the English Marylebone workhouse recntly rooms were set aside for tho use of married couples, but the authorities report that they are still "to let." Both wives and husbands said that to see each 'other daily taking exorcise in the grounds was quite enough for them. "An Old Farmer" writes to the Brisbane" Worker concerning "the great outcry about' the rabbit pest," and says: "I am one;of those who think that the rabbit- is-ablessing. They kept mo andmany thousands besides from starving, and to 00 and scatter poison through the country 'will cause untold misery. It is only because they benefit the poor that the rabbits nro a pest. They are more profitable than sheep, as a rabbit does not want water, the dew on the grass being suffiicient. Hundreds of fanners- during the drought, would have farid badly only for the rabbits. Settle people on the land, and that will solve the difficulty." There is no sweeter or more effectual deodoriser than ozone, but the Lancet complains how rarely ozone is employed for this purpose in practice. The peculiar and refreshing smell of ozone is infiniteljr preferable to the sickly smell of chlorine compounds and tar-acids, although these smells may serve to give the public some ■ confidence , that where such smells- prevail', there inusb necessarily, be no risk of ; infection. In many cases this confidence is undoubtedly misplaced, since the tar-oils in particular, which smell strongly, haye 1 practically little or no germicidal aotion, whereas the true tar-acids, such as carbolic acid and cresylic acid, have a comparatively feeble smell, but are very active disinfectants. Ozone does not merely mask a bad smell; in all probability it destroys it. Most public lavatories are provided with an installation of electricity for lighting purposes, and it -would be a very simple matter to utilise a fraction of. the current for actuating a battery of small ozo'ners.* The feeding ~of a test-match crowd (writes the Yorkshire Evening Post) is a work of some "anxiety. Enormous stocks of provisions' had to be got in, a large staff had to be engaged, and tons of food bad to be actually prepared for consumption. A jwef day 'would therefore have meant an enormous loss to the caterer. Amongst other things, some two or three hundred pounds of salmon and nearly a dozen lambs were consumed. Several hundred baskets of strawberries were eaten on the ground, while the crowd ate 64,800 bananas. At least fifty thousand bottles of beer were drunk, as well -as several thousand glasses of whisky and some scores of gallons of mineral waters. Tea also sold well ; about ten thousand pork-pies were sold. The breakages were distressing. Hundreds of cups and saucers and >a still greater number of glasses were smashed, while two or three wagons had to make a tour of the ground every evening to collect the beer-bottles that had been left on the ground. Some hundreds of teaspoons were missing. What is soot? (a Home paper asks). Most persons would answer, and in general correctly, unburnt carbon. But this reply would be inadequate for the rity of Manchester, which possesses a fatty description of soot quite special. Professor E. -Rnecht has founcMt to comprise fifty per cerif. of substances that are not carbon. Among them were "snow-white samples of amtmonium chloride, ammonium - sulphate, calcium sulphate, and a beautifully-crystallised parafin hydrocarbon, similar in properties to one that exists in beeswax. The amount of heavy hydrocarbon oils in household soot was to be found no less than thirteen per cent." From these strange components that float in the breathing mix- I t ur e — sometimes called fresh air — the professor manufactured a dye-stuff, which was capable of produoing absolutely fast shades of brown on cotton. London soot was much cleaner, though bad enough. Professor Knecht is of opinion that unless more efficient fire-grates are made compulsory we must 'continue to breathe our soot-and-air mixture. We read (says the Westminster Gazette) in a magazine article, published soon after the original cycle "boom," this: "The crowning event which gladdened the manufacturer's .heart in 1895-6 was the sudden passion of London Society for the machine" To-day tire "tTade activity owes little or nothing to Society ; it is the masses who are buying bicycles. There are two proofs: (1) the run on cheap machines ; and (2) the large resort there is to the monthly instalment plan of paying. So much has clerical work expanded that many cycle-making firms have had to add considerably to their staff of clerks of all grades, and in the case of one business the staff has been doubled this season. The railway companies which serve Coventry, too, have also had to increase the' number of their drays, draymen, and clerks. The fashionable craze for cycling soon died, and shows no signs of revival ; but the middleclasses and working men have "gone in" mightily for the "bike." . ' ' The revelations of the proceedings at the "Abode of Love," the headquarters of the Agepemonites (writes the Australasian) have caused a great sensatioD in England. This was to be expected, as there is nothing more revolting than immoral practices carried, on under the cloak oj religion. Tho doings, of Smythe Piggott, the head of the sect, as 1 related in tho cable messages, have been particularly nauseous. He is a fitting successor to Henry James Prince, who founded the Agapemone 60 years ago. Prince gained an unenviable notoriety, and more than once his. name was mentioned in the law courts. In 1860 a Mr. Nottidge recovered from the impostor nearly £6000, which had been fraudulently obtained by Prince from the plaintiff's sister. Remarkable disclosures were made at the trial. In the same year a Rev. Mr. Price succeeded in rescuing his wife from the Agapemone, of which both had been supporters. There is nothing like a congress of eminent doctors and specialists (says tho London Daily Telegraph) for making the flesh ot the comfortable to creep. We ought to be thankful, therefore, to Sir James Crichton-Browne for the, lighter side of his most admirable address, • in which ho "got home" again and again on some of his earnest colleagues. The most confident figure in tho soientific world of today is not the .pure mathematician, working among absolute certainties, but the surgeon with his knife. He is apt to •look at you with the critical eye of a butcher burveyTng a carcase, with the thumb on the edge of his blade. He would like to hustle you on to his opera-ting-table and, as Sir James said, remove your tonsils, appendix, spleen, and other portions of your anatomy which are now in ill-favour with the faculty. Relieved of these, you might then start in tho world without misgiving, certificated by the Royal College of Surgeons. Sir James preferred to bo old-fashioned, and give these obnoxious organs thoir fair chance of carrying him off by their con- • tiarincsx. And even so ho considered that each man ought deliberately to set himself to live a hundred years.

A boy at Stortford, six years old, in hospital with a broken leg, may probably claim to have made a "record," for it was his fifth experience of the kind. The Times Capetown correspondent, as the result of enquires made in official quarters with regard to the German Press allegations that the people of Cape Colony are aiding the natives against Germans, asserts that the Government regulations concerning the possession of arms are so stringent that therp are no stores from which runners, if there are any, could obtain supplies. The Tangier correspondent of The Times says that the news of the success of the Government troops near Ujda and of the flight of the Pretender causes general satisfaction. It is believed that most of the tribes near the Alegrian frontier will now join the Sultan, but tho Maghzen must follow up their success if any permanent benefits are to be looked for. The recent victory was due largely to the prosence with the Sultan's troops of an Algerian artillery officer. A novel device, the object of which is to remove the discomfort of steering an automobile in cold weather, owing to tho ■ hands becoming numbed by contact with tho metal of the wheel, has been patented. The steering wheel is warmed by the water after its passage through the., water jackets of the engine. This is done by means of a flexible tube connected to a hollow spoke; from which the water flows round the wheel, thence returning to the water- tank. It is 1 stated that in half a minute the wheel is rendered thoroughly warm. Search-parties were out on the hills on Wales,- near Llangollen, for some days in search of a girl aged thirteen, supposed to be lost in the mountains. At last she was found in a house eight miles away. She had been out with an aunt and lost a pair of scissors. She was sent to find them, with the parting injunction, "Now, don't you come back arithout! them." Taking this too literally, and failing in her quest, she wandered till she found a house among the mountains, where she was taken in. In his speech proroguing the Canadian Parliament on 20th July, Lord Grey, the Governor-General, said : — "Tho fair, prospect of an unusually abundant harvest, not only in the three prairie provinces, but also in the other parts of this wide Dominion, will, I trust, under kind Providence, be fully realised, justifying the hope that the stream of immigration now flowing into the Dominion will continue for many years to come, adding wealth to this highly-favoured land." There are two trade secrets that the outside world, it seems, will never learn. One is a Chinese secret — the making of the bright and beautiful colour called Chinese vermillion; the other is a Turkish secret — the inlaying of the hardest steel with gold and silver. Among the Chinese and among the Syrians these two secrets are guarded well. Apprentices, before they are taken for" either trade, must swear a strong oath to reveal nothing of what passes in. the workshop. Those apprentices, furthermore, must belong to families of standing, must pay a large sum by way of premium, and must furnish certificates of good character and honesty. The*e secrets have been handed down faithfully from one generation to another for hundreds of years. Every one (says the Westminster Gazette) has heard of the enterprising -Babu who, in advertising for a post as schoolmaster, described himself as "Failed 8.A." Apparently designations of this sort still have a commercial value in India. At any rate, the advertisement columns of the Calcutta Gazette contain yi announcement from the native district engineer of Khulna to the effect that "a plucked B. A., "strong in estimating and road projects, is required." Obviously, it is thought in local engineering circles that a man who has satisfied the examiners knows too much. The thesis that nothing is so unimportant but that a question may be asked about it' in the House of Commons is one (says the Westminster Gazette) that needs no proving, but from time to time proofs occur of it which are decidedly entertaining. Mr. Boland this week has asked Mr. Long whether he is aware that Michael O'Connor, of Gortfada, roported to tlie Sneem police, on sth February, that nine sheep hod been stolen from him ; and could he state what steps were taken by the police to recover those sheep. Here is Mr. Long's delightful reply:—"On 20th November lost O'Connor reported to the police that ten of his sheep were missing, and that he thought they might have strayed. Four of the missing bheep were, a few days later, found fctraying on an adjacent mountain. The police from two neighbouring stations wore out searching s for tho remaining sheep for many days, but without avail. The district is a mountainous one." The hist sentence is really a triumph. "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice" is a well-known tag (says the Westminster Gazette), but it ia odd when it is your own monument you are looking at. Yet a Scottish trooper, invalided home at the end of the war, whilst looking at the monument erected to the Scottish Horse on the Castle Esplanade, Edinburgh, was interested (to say tho least) to flee his own name and regimental number among those stated to havo died of disease! We wonder if he will live long enough to be able to convince the War Office that he i 8i 8 not dead? At a recent gathering of English gardeners, one of the assembly related an interesting experiment that' he had made He sowed three pots of soil with the same kind of flower seed, leaving one pot exposed to the full light of the sun, and covering the others with thin paper one> with blue, the other with yellow. Iho seeds sown under the blue paper came up several days before those in the pot in the full exposure of the sun • while the seeds covered with yellow paper never came up at all. tfhe cause of this singular result was thus explained: — The actinic rays of the sun's light are absolutely essential to the germination of seeds ; the blue paper admits these rays and excludes' the non-> actinic, thus giving a powerful stimulus to vegetation ; while the yellow colour excludes the whole of the rays, and thus prevents them from entering the soil. Tho Antwerp correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph writes, under date 20th July : — "All Belgium is in a state of feverish excitement over the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the nation's independence, which begins to-morrow. The preparations for the illumination of Brussels exceed anything ever seen before. At noon a procession of 25,000 people, comprising all the highest functionaries in Belgium, with representatives' of every civil and military body, the Diplomatic Corps, the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies, and including the whole of the Royal family, will proceed to an immense grand stand in front of the Palais do Justice, where a jubilee cantata will be sung by 2000 voices. The preparations for this and subsequent festivities have cost the Government many millions of francs. The great chivalric tournament is attracting tourists from all parts of Europe. Its historical exactness in the minutest details is causing much surprise and no little admiration."