NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 108, 8 May 1909, Page 12

NEWS AND NOTES

A HUMANE SCHEME. At the suggestion of the Classical Association (England), a committee of twenty educational experts has been formed to draw up a scheme for a simplified and consistent grammatical terminology, so that there may be uniformity in all the languages taught in schools. The idea is explained in the following statements by members of the committee : — Dr. W. H. D. Rouse, headmaster of the Perse School, Cambridge : English, French, German, Spanish, Greek, and Latin, each has its own terminology. Different names are employed in different languages for the same part of speech ; sometimes in one language the same name is used in a sense entirely different from that in which it is employed in another. The genitive case is known in English as the possessive ; this is very inaccurate. A circular to teachers will be issued, asking them to mention terms which they have found to be misleading or difficult to learn, and on the basis of these returns a constructive policy will bo mapped out. 'It is hoped to bring about the use of the same set of terms in the grammar of every language, so that a child passing to the study of a new language will find himself among familiar terms." Professor R. S. (Jonway, honorary secretary of the committee : The scheme owes its__ineeption to Professor Sonnenschein. At present a boy learning several languages finds that in each one the grammatical tools put into his hands have different and unfamiliar handles. There is a lighthouse to every 14 miles of coast in England, to every thirtyfour miles in Ireland, and to every thirty-nine miles in Scotland. A rug, said to be worth more than £10,000, and the finest in the world, has been presented to the White House as a gift to the nation, and accepted by President Roosevelt. It will be placed in the parlors^)f the President's home. The donor ispl. H. Topakyan, a rich Armenian of New York. The rug is of Imperial silk, heavily jewelled with rich pearls, tm'quoise, rubies, and other Oriental stones, and will be framed as a screen. The Treasury officials sent to Ireland to investigate the validity of old age pension claims have completed their labours, and it is reported that the result is that some fifty thousand persons now in receipt of pensions are to be struck off the list, as the proper verification of ages according to the census returns is not available. An explosion recently occurred in the danger building at Woolwich Arsenal, owing to the combustion of an ounce of cordite. No one was injured, but a large and expensive machine in which the cordite was being treated was blown to pieces. During February 3894 cases were investigated in Britain by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The warnings of the society's inspectors were enough to remedy the lot of the children in 34G7 cases. in only 167 cases was it found necessary to prosecute. No fewer than 20,072 visits of supervision were made by the inspectors of the society. A creditor, referring to the debtor in a judgment summons at Lambeth, said he was a very difficult man to catch, and he had to adopt a "ruse" to serve the summons. Judge Emden : Well, what did you do? — I telephoned him an invitation to lunch, and then served the summons. Judge Emdeu : That is very unkind. You call that a "ruse." It is rather an unfair advantage. Some years ago the Chinese Government ordered a census of the whole Empire. It has been taken, and the results are made known. According to the statistics, the population of the Celestial Empire is 438,214,000 individuals ; of these, foreigners are very few — only 69,852. The Chinese represent about a third of the population of the earth. The latest estimates of the amount of work necessary to complete the Panama Canal show that the work is over one third finished. The total excavation required ' when the Americans assumed control was 174,666,595 cubic yards, of which 62,751,925 cubic yards' had been taken out up to the end of January, leaving 111,904,671 cubic yards still to be removed. Dnder the present plan there will be necessary 29,387,000 cubic yards of filling for locks and dams, and 5,015,400 cubic yards of concrete. San Francisco never misses anything that's going. Now, in imitation of other cities East and West, it has acquired an "army of unemployed," the Argonaut complains. It is no great shakes as to numbers, and is largely made up of ne'er-do-weels, who, while nominally looking for work, are really praying God they may not find it. Many of them smell of liquor, most of them smell of tobacco, and all of them smell of something. Men (it adds) who don't smell of anything, who know how to vrork, and who really want to work,' don't have serious trouble in finding work in San Francisco. Much ~>i the treasure recovered irom the ruins of Messina still remains unclaimed, and no doubt there is much of it which can never be identified. As the work of excavation progressed, the more valuable objects — coin, jewels, statues, etc. — were taken on board the Italian ironclad Dandolo, where they were carefully guarded and sorted out, the more precious being forwarded _ to Naples for identification. Recent estimates put the value of this melancholy salvage at £240,000, of which £40,000 is in the form of coins, mostly old, showing that the inhabitants of Messina put little trust in banks. A sale of butterflies took place recently at a London auction room. It consisted of more than 300 lots, and included a, number of rare varieties, especially of the currant moth (Abraxas grossulariata). The following are among the best prices made: — Subrosea (fin© female), £1 Is; Alniaria (melanic pair and hybrid pair), £1 12s 6d ; Grossulariata (var. chalcol zona, with brownish orange bands, taken at Colchester, 1906), £2 ; a curious asymmetrical variety, £1 Is; another ' variety (foro wings, with broad orange ■ a-nd 'black bands), £1 8s ; a very fine vnriety (disc of foro wings orange bordered with black), £3 ; var. nigrosparsata (heavily speckled and clouded with black), £1 15s ; and a similar I /ariety, but with the fore wings .blacker, i and the hinder pair roughly irrorated, . £1 10*. ' The Daylight Saving BUI ie likely to receive the cordial approval of the Lon- ' don County Council Education ■Qommit- ' tee. Asked by the Parliamentary , ' Committee whether they had any obser- } rations to offer upon the measure, tho committee referred the matter to the ' General Purposes Sub-Committee, who i jiow declare that the object of the Bill, i from the point of view of a local cdu'cation authority, is worthy of all \ commendation. It is admitted that theie i are certain objections to the proposal in '. regard to the practical teaching of ,• geography and physiography, but the » advantages of the .Bill, it is contended, £ \ outweigh its di^advantagee..

That the tide of immigration to the United States is again on the flood was apparently indicated recently, when 1500 immigrants arrived in Boston on the steamer Romanic "from the Mediterranean ports. This (states an American authority) is the largest number landing from any steamer at Boston for sixteen months. To promote trade with the Philippines President Taft recommends a romoval of customs iaxei against Philippine trade ; but to promote trade with South America he recommends not this but only subsidised steamship lines. This is not what one could call a very consistent attitude. If removal of taxes against trade would be effective in the one case, why not in the other? asks the Springfield Republican. For the first time on record foreigners have participated in Norway's great Derby, the ski contest at Halmenkollen. The Norwegians vindicated their reputation as champions at the sport, but the results show that ski-ing a* a sport has made great progress on the Continent. A representative of the Swiss Ski Association cleared a good standing jump, and a German from Munich earned a storm of applause for a splendid jump of 25 yards A Frenchman also did a good performance. N The best Norwegian jumps were from 29 to 31 yards. In the long-distance race through the forests the foreigners were outdistanced, although somo of them made respectable runs. While wireless telegraph has been accomplishing wonders at sea, it should not be overlooked that the wires have been making some new records, too. The recent opening of communication between London and Karachi, India, means a direct working over 5532 miles of wire, aU of it by land excepting 200 miles of cable between Germany and England. The landjine between Teheran and Karachi in itself extends over 1584 miles.. With so many centenaries falling m this year it has almost escaped notice that this is the tercentenary of the invention of the telescope as well as of the birth of John Milton. It is a far cry from the first crude magnifiers to the presenj,-day giant reflecting and refracting instruments which ieveal hundreds of millions of stars where the unaided eye sees but a few thousands, and there is talk of new wonders to come from the simple device of a pool of mercury made to revolve till it takes the form of a flashless concave mirror. Yet no modern telescope can have so sensational an effect upon the world as that primitive spyglass which showed that Jupiter has moons and that Venus has phases like that of the Earth's satellite. Andrei Nikolaievitscb Schmidt, who is aged one hundred and twenty, and fought in the Russian army during the Napoleonic wars, recently arrived in St. Petersburg with the object of seeing „the Tsar, and was granted a private audience. Schmidt was extremely proud, and despite his age he bore himself with a martial air. He was introduced into the Tsar's study, and his Majesty received the veteran with extreme kindness. Schmidt answered several questions,, but finally, overwhelmed with emotion, he broke down and burst into tears. The Tsar made the old soldier s6me valuable presents, and presented him to the Tsarewitch and the Uttle grand duchess. King Alfonso is, perhaps, the youngest monarch v.ho was ever selected to arbitrate on an international dispute, which iv the present case is the difference between England and Germany with regard to the Walfisch Bay territory. Doubtless the Kaiser wished tp pay him a special compliment. The late King of Sweden — by reason of his age, his philosophic mind, and his aloofness from the wrangle of international politics — was repeatedly called upon to act as arbitrator, but, of course (remarks the London Chronicle), it was his Majesty's jurists who did the judicial work for him. No one will expect King Alfonso himself to study the question now submitted to him with a pot of strong tea at his tide and cold bandages round I his head. The late Baron Grruenzburg, who died lately at St. Petersburg, was one of the most important Jews in Europe. Very wealthy — he was reckoned with Bleichroder and Rothschild — he devoted much, of his possessions to the founding of Jewish colonies in Argentina and the furthering of the education of his race in Russia and elsewhere. He "failed" in 1892 — it was said because he chose to withdraw his interests from Russia, where, notwithstanding his importace, and much service to the government, he had been snubbed by the grand dukes, who were often his guests while he was in Paris, but who would not notice him in St. Petersburg. He secured in the reign of Alexander 11. a number of measures favorable to the Jews, often endangering his fortune and his liberty. The Duke of Connangnt (the King's brother Arthur) has offered the village of Ba.gsb.ot, Surrey, a playing field. He was moved to do it by watching the dangers the children ran in playing in the road, from the almost unceasing stream of motor traffic on a main highway in and out of London. The playground is a good old English idea, as native there as anything that's "AngloSaxon." But one regrets to see the good old English sports spoken of in the Spectator as forgotten, such as "prisoner's base," and even "blindmaji's buff." The Spectator asks "Eome kindly person with a bent for playing with children" to undertake to "organise games" in this Surrey village field. American children (the Springfield Republican remarks), never need to be taught or organised — the old games serve as regularly as the seasons. What can be done to increase the supply of British eggs and to make us less dependent upon the ■ millions of foreign eggs chipped to our ports from nearly every Continental country (says The Times,), is shown in the sixth annual report of the Framlingham Agricultural Co-operative Society (Limited;, a Suffolk organisation with the share capital of £1300. It has from its institution been bteadily increasing the quantity of eggs produced, until last year, it despatched to various markets 2,190,097 eggs, the' value of which, was close upon £10,000, and the society was able to pay its senders at least £2000 more than they used to obtain in the old way when they dealt individually ■with egg dealers. The profit earned on its capital was 18^ per cent. It is often faid that clergymen are bad business men, but this fwiety has as its head Canon Abbay, to whom much of its success is clue. Among the new arrivals at the Empire Theatre, London, are Signor Caro's troupe of Sicilian singers who \vere performing at the Memna Opera House at the time of the receni earthquake. Although there are eight in the company only four are vocalists ; the rest gather oranges and provide a picturesque grouping in their quainl Sicilian costumes. The soprano and ton or have voices of exceptional merit, which the audience were not slow to recognise. Their success was unmistakable, and the vigour of their .reception sent the earthquuke survivors to their dreasingrooms vvreathed in smiles..