NEWS AMD NOTES,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 28, 2 February 1907, Page 12

NEWS AMD NOTES,

The Progressives (says - the Times) of tho London County Council have a mania for centralisation unsurpassed by that of tho War Office in, r^s worst days; and the results will be equally disastrous. A witness, who gave evidence recently at the meeting of the Select Committee on Postal Grievances on behalf of the assistant head postmen of London, said that Christinas boxes were, equivalent to an increase of 3s a week in wages. "In my experience nautical witnesses always stick to the story they tell," said Judge Lamley Smith, K.C., in the City of London Court, "and they are nevershaken on cross-examination. But it is generally very difficult to tell on which side the truth lies." Tha schoolboy "howler" sometimes shows signs of remarkable ingenuity. The following is worthy of a cabalist: — "Cabal" is a short name for th-j English Prime Minister. " 'Ca* stands for Campbell and 'ba' for Bannerman, and the T at the end means that he is a Liberal.' " . Lovers of costly subscription books may now obtain a work which costs. £200 net. This is the price of a fineart work, "Les Femmes do Versailles," which a Pans firm are issuing. It is in five parts, each of which contains ten places, io (jhe exact colours of the original pieturos. There are two and a half million cycles in use vn. the United Kingdom, or ono for every twenty of ' tho population, according to a statement by the Chairman of tho RndgerWhitworth Company at tho annual meeting o* tho company recently.. The London CUabo confesses, tliat it is unable to understand tha postal tariff that left big Christmas numbers, weighing over a pound, go through for a halfpenny, while trebli that sum had to be paid on tho small Christmas, issue of Punch. A memorial window to the memory of tho late Colonel John Hay has been unveiled in the Jewish Templo, at Philadelphia. This is tho first tiro© a Christian has been so nonoured by J ows. On the basis of a long series of. po§t mortem examinations, Sir Isambard Owen lately said that it may be assumed that tho lungs of one in every "'iree persons in Western Europe have en at sosae time attacked by tubercle , icilli, and have recovered without any i ajmptoms having appeared. '■ . I am. bonnd to say (said Mr. A'Beck- | ett at th.o Colonial Institute) that I believe £hat the best traditions of the [ British Pre«s aro sometimes in safer t-nJs in Australia, Canada, India and xlfrica th-n they are in Fleet-street. Lord Eigi?, speaking on 18th December, said that he hoped it might be foand possille to esablish in St. Helena irom Imperial funds the New Zealand flax industry, and promised to relieve any distress existing on the island. ! The following brief but pointed "edit torial" is from the New York Sun: — The Hon. ifall Came speaks with his habitual modesty and force. Shakespeare ought to bejigiled down, me world longs for iqEßphakespeare and more Hall Caino. '^Wte isn't room for both. Pekin, of all places, possesses one of the few women's, dailies in the world. This paper is interesting, cs being largely edited by women, and dais just now with such topics as popular astronomy, geography, physical geography, the care of infants, and the training of children. Australia now possesses the deepest gold mine in the world. Within the last few weeks, the shafts at tho New Chum Railway at Bendigo, Victoria, have been sunk to a depth of over 4300 feet, and the quartz there tapped has been sampled and crushed, with the result that a yield of gold ecjaal to an ounce per ton has been obtained. The operations, in the mine have been tested by Government officials in view of the fact that novor before in the world's history has gold been obtained from so low a depth as three-quarters, of a rails. \ Writing from Shanghai, on the 6th December, the correspondent of The Times mve: — Missionaries in certain provinces, notably Che-kiang, speak hopefully of the anti-opium movement. They believe that its affect is already noticeable in a decrease of consumption, especially among the upper classes." The Custom* returns, however, appear to prove that any improvement must be local, for a comparison of the qnantities actually taken into consumption during the firet nine months of 1905 with those for the came period of 1906 shows that foreign opium increased by 504 pieuls, while a considerably larger quantity of the native article was handled by the Maritime Customs. The increase of the Indian drug may be attributed to its reduced price, while the native opium returns doubtless indicate the heavier taxation on the land routes. The figures, however, prevent acceptance of the view that -the consumption is at present materially decreasing. Regarding certain recent utterances of Dr. R. J. Campbell, Dr. Eitchett, in, the Southern Cross, 6ays : — "Dr. Campbell is a theologian of absolutely so weight. Sia system it tv mere cobweb— a cobweb hung with the dew of poetry and shot through with tho sunlight ot imagination, but still only n cobweb. . . His church, the famous City Templo, curiously enough, is held on tho trust of that most definite of doctrinal formulae, the Westminster Confession- If the legal principles which disposaesscd the United Free Church were, applied to the City- Temple, Mr. Campbell would be dimissed from his pulpit with the velocity of a torpedo from its tube." Dr. Campbell is, apparently, as sceptical regarding thg Gopprf narratives as he is in respect of the Mosaic books, in proof of which on* of bin recent answers to a correspondent of Tha Young Man is quoted : "Of course, Jesus did not know, literally and actually, he woujd rise again." Tho Cologne Gazette draws attention to a publication by Dr. Semler, a member of the Ueichttag, entitled ''Observations in South-West Africa," in which stress, ia laid upon the question of the Boer element in the German colony.' The Boer population is represented as stronger tha* before the rebellion, and the author nqt«s that "the Boer is disposed to. regard tSouth Africa, including our cojony, as bis own special territory." Commenting upon this, the . Cologne Gazette declares tVt the Boer question ia the moat important i of all those relating to German South* West Africa. Recent events, it gays, have shown that a highly undesirable Bosr cje,- j merit has nee ted in the German colony, their presence is. superfluous, and the GoVenment is, urged not to make grants of Crown landp to Boers except in the, case of picked and wealthy settlers^ further, any Boer colonists shou[ *. be apprised that theip sons must become Germans and be liable for German nilifcary service. Everything, tho Gazette cpntends, should ■ be done to dnw th,e colony clo««r ii> tha I mqtber country. and loans are recom- ' I mended as a useful 'means of stimulating I 1 loyalty and of rendering the colony a J less desirable acquisition in the ppei of, jj>oth«r State*.

A London clergyman declared at Bristol that his Sunday collection was on some occasions not more than s£d. Sixty" years ago there were 160,000. children at school in India. Now there are over four millions. Ink is not usually reckoned among items ■ of farm produce, nor associated -with the-maiza-crop, but it may be in time to come. Ten years ago it occurred to Mr. David Anderson, a fanner of Joeltown, U.S.A., that it might be possible to obtain writing fluid from corn-stalks. After many experiments he believes he has sue-, ceeded. His methods are not stated. Ihe stalks of his ink-corn look aViffi they ■were covered with purple dye, and the Bap is of the same colour. Each stalk yields a pint and a half of fluid, which is alleged to make a permanent writing- ' ink of a rich purple. i The Harmsworth firm is about to Americanise still further Us group of newspapers, which already have more than a tinge of tho trans-Atlantic "yellow." Tho Newspaper Owner announces that Mr. Pqmeroy Burton, recently manager ' for Hearst's Evening Journal, has jeen appointed to take charge of _ the Hawnsworth papers at a salary of *500 Q., He is to assume, control early this year. It is expected that he will bring over a staff of reporters, as it is considered hopeless to attempt to "break in" London journalists. One paper suggests that when he goes to ring up the Bank of England and finds that the Old Lady "hasn't a 'phone' on the premises,' lie will get a genuine shock. A new. alioy called monel, which is expected to cause something of a sensatfop in the industrial world (bays the New York 'Commercial) is being produced in Canada. It consists of a ccinoound of'icoppcr, nickel, iron, and one* or two other minerals which are tound in the Sudbury district, 'and its importance lies in the fact that it is mucft less costly than nickel, is less liable to vusfc, and will serve, it io claimed, all the purposes now served by that metal in the industrial world. The now metal is said to be of equal ductile strength with ni.ck.el, and <o possess all its other essential qualities, but' H is not claimod tha' ! -fc would serve the purpose of nickel steel, used a$ armour pkuo. Lord RosebsTy is a man oi many gifts, but he has, like all other men, his limitations He is no poet. He is not able even to write two lines of English verse. He is deeply interested in the scheme to raise £10,000 for the preservation of the "Auld Brig" of Ayr', immortalised by the genius of Burns, and now threatened with destruction, and lately wont to Glasgow to address the citizens on the subject. "He charged tho Scots with "cant jmd want of patriotism" in the matteT. In the train, he said, he "mado the following couplet: — "O'er Buna wept Scotland with annual pang, Bui' would not ea.\c the sacred «tone» h» «aus." Traij- a Humiliating confession. Was there, ever, a worse disticli! Mr. Robert E. Park alleges in Everybody'o Magazine that King Leopold has sacrificed the lives of fifteen million natives during his twenty years' looting of the Congo Free State — a looting which gun continue* at the rate oi three millions sterling a year. "By the time the Powers have be3tiried tlien»elve&. to action, he," full-gorged, will fling tuo carcass at their feet and'eay: 'Take it— what is left is yours.' " American capital ia bw'g drawn "to the Congo as_ a result of a*' concession " made by King Leopold to Mr. Thomas F. Hyan. Sev- . eral American papers suggest that King Leppold'G scheme is to Block the way of outside interference and investigation, by involving American interests v; ith his own profitable operations. Some of the most diverting answers., received by the (savings Bank (says St. Jameo'a Budget) are called forth, by the official questions put in writing to depositors. One Gttch asked for particulars of an account from a man for whom, apparently, anpther person answered. Ip6tead of furnishing details as to figures, the answer raD : "He ia a tall man, deeply marked with small-pox, has one eye, weara a, billycock, and keeps a. booth at Lincoln F^ir." One question put to the depositor asks if his or her address i& permanent This interrogatory appears to bare a deeper meanicg then appears on the surface,' for the answers include such as : " Hero Ls no continuing city " } " This is ' not' our rest " ; " Heaven is oar home"; "Yes, D.V." One person, ill content with his dwelling, answered, " Xo, please God. for the place is beastly damp and unhealthy!" Tho latest, (and very simple) remedy lor grey hairt — whicn, honourable though, they niaye be, are usually unwelcome — is a hot flat-iron. A nev theory of the cause was lately submitted to tho French Academy of Sciences by Professor Metchinoff, of the Pasteur Institute. He holds th;it the pigment of hair k destroyed by a certain Bpecies of living cell, which h& has named a "chromophagus." The creature, it appearo, possesses "protoplasmic appendages," witfi which it seizes the colouring grams, and carries them away, presumably to feed upon them. The professor showed microscopic views of these i pigment-devouring cells. He has discovered thafc the chioinophagi object to heat, and recommends ironing the hair with as ordinary iron, heated to about l,4odeg. Fahrenheit, to preserve the colour. This kills the ch*omophaj{i. The professor says that ladies who tried the method found it successful. it is just a tlitle over fifty years since "Pop goes the Weasel" was the rage, and the origin or even the meaning (if any) of the phrase still remain unsettled. One jiuper lately asserted that "weasel" was introduced merely to rhyme with "eagle"* -which", a3 it does not rhyme, i» obviously, abaujd. A favourite explanation ja that a stump 'orator, enlarging on tbe subject of shams, help up a grain of wheat and. said, "This grain looks sound enough, but press >'t between thumb and finger— o — and pop ! goes the weevil 1 " — a{ierward3 perverted to "weasel ** The anecdote is very unconvincing. Certainly the "mustelidac" do not; 6° "P°P" a »d a weevil might. No\v, some one comes forward, to say that weaxlc '• was a cant term _ for silver ware and that the insinuation Was that the extravagant young gentleman described in tho ditty tound it necessary to pawn their spoons. If this be cprxect, how conies it- that the allusion was not recognised at the time? There was a very pathetic, and yet incentive touch (writes a Home correspon«^en|) in J^rofessor Flinders Petrie's, speech at the meeting of the Egyptian Research Association at University College pn 10th 'November^ He asked for. help for the work of Egyptian Research, but tqr ft fow years j 'For ihjon years the history will have vanished for ever." And thosp who know Egypt, and the fury to buy up Government and other lands at enprmouc rates that are yet profitable, \vill agi«e with Professor Petrie that the history now hid in these sites will soon be dost^pjed. \ and the Research student will soon go there in vain for verifying remains pf Egypt's marvellous past. As Professor Petrie well said, France, Germany, ' Italy, are officially supported in their work by their Governments, England leaves its workers to struggle for moans to carry on their studios. But right heartily has the Egyptian Research Association and British Scliool of Archaeology gone into the work, and alter a magnificent first