NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 23, 28 January 1911, Page 14

NEWS AND NOTES.

[The following items of intelligence have been selected from files received by the latest mail.] .THE PERSIAN CARPET. Persia may stand • as a solemn warning to Portugal that a new heaven and a new earth do not necessarily follow when a monarch is removed, comments the St. James's Budget. All looked couleur de rose in Persia when Mohamed Ali Mirza was dethroned and tie pal«ce clique was scattered to the four winds. Some few, who remembered how the hopes raised by the grant of a_ Constitution had been disappointed, how the Persian Parliament had wasted its time in indiscriminate censures, indiscreet revelations, and the bandying of insulte, ventured to doubt the reality of this golden future. And now their doubts are only too well justified- If anything, the state of Persia is worse than i it was under the corrupt rule of the Shahs. An anaemic Ministry has shown itself utterly incapable of restraining the full-blooded brigands of the mountains, and commerce has been so harried that Manchester alone has lost £120,000 worth of business in a twelvemonth. So England has at last put down her foot and declared that if the Persians cannot govern themselves on these fringes of their empire, Anglo-Indian officers will do it for them. We already have a Political Resident at Busbire, who decides all disputes in the islands of the Pesian Gulf and the shores thereof. It is bufc'a small step from the shore to the mountains, but a highly significant one, only to be undertaken under extreme provocation. Switzerland, like other Continental nations, suffers from, a high Customs tariff, and one of the grounds assigned for the introduction of proportional representation by its supporters in the Bernese Oberland was that legislation would be more carefully considered if the minorities in the legislature were larger, the examples offered being Ihe convention for the purchase of the St. Gothard Railway, "which is now raising storms from every quarter," and "the new Customs tariff, which has set up an unbroken period of increase in the cost of living, and naturally affects the poorest people most." Another reason assigned was the stimulus that the change would give to political life. "In Canion Berne between 1869 and 1879 the electors polling were 50 per cent, of the electorate j between 1905 and 1909 36 per cent." — the explanation, of course, being that in the later period one party, the Radicals, had firmly established its preoonderance. Proportional representation is a terribly cumbrous term for controversial pur-, poses; Belgian disputants habitually abbreviate it into "C.R.P.," but the German-Swiss have found a neater appellation. The issue between it and the system of election by bare majority was briefly presented last week in the placards thus : "Majorz oder proporz." — Westminster Gazette. The newly constructed port of Zeebrugge, giving the ancient city of Bruges access to the sea and providing sunacient water for ocean steamers, is a confessed failure as a commercial port. Belgian and English capitalists are negotiating with the Belgian Government for the conversion of Zeebrugge into a fishing port on a large scale. The cost of the conver sion 'is estimated at £200,000. A new cinematograph camera for photographing the flight of bullets or any extremely rapid motion has been invented by Professor Marey, of Paris, and with it pictures can be taken in a ten-millionth - -part of a second. Remarkable animated photographs have been obtained, which show what hapI pens when a self-loading pistol is fired and the, exact effect of the explosion of the charge of powder. Five hundred pictures are taken pi the tenth part of a second, and the reeulte are so clearly defined that many valuable processes can be photographed in this brief time and investigated at leisure afterwards. The process has been kept secret until the present time, as it bas been in use for military experiments in Prance. The Aerated Bread Company, the "A.8.C." caterers of the London tearooms, has just declared a dividend of 25 per cent. Does this insap that we pay 20 per cent, too much for our cup of tea? asks one journal. The English Presbyterians are to start a new weekly paper in January, under the editorship of the Rev. J. Beid Howatt. Mr Stephen Reynolds, in hie remrak. able novel, "A Poor Man's House,' which give* so vivid a glimpse into the life of the fisherman, and of which Macmillans have just published a new edition, says :— r"My 'belief grows stronger that the poor have kept essentially what a schoolboy calls the better end of the stick ; not because their circumstances are better — materially their lives are often terrible enough but because they know better how .to make the most of the material circumstances they have. If they could improve their material circumstances and continue __making the best of themselves. '." . . That is the problem." "Our snobbery is more various and diffused than in Thackeray's day," says the Nation. "It goes out less to- rank and more to mere wealth and display. Not Dukes or Earls, but motor men, the gods in cars, who, clad in costly furs, dash along what once were public roads, are tho true modern objects of adoration. They are the true representatives of economic power and privilege, they symbolise, more thoroughly than any antiquated House of Lords, the modern cleavage between riches and poverty, leisure and toil. The Lords do not represent the real defence of modem economic privilege, now that rural land does not constitute a main source of wealth." The driver of a motor omnibus in Regent street, London, lost control of his vehicle through a collision with a private car, and the 'bus "bolted" on to the pavement, crashed into a jeweller's shop, smashed the plate glass window of a tailor's shop adjoining, and knocked down three pedestrians. One woman was killed instantly, a man subsequently died of his injuries, and the third person, a woman, was in a mokt critical condition when taken to the , hospital. The. danger of long hatpins has thoroughly roused the Vienna City Council. A municipal councillor inteipellated the Burgomaster (Dr. Neu-ma-yer) at length. He averred that the follies of fashion now went <so far aB to imperil the public safety. The immeasurable hatpins worn by ladies now endangered the eyes, as their hats had formerly, impeded the vision, of inoffensive citizens in the streets, on the tram cars, and in places of amusement. Steps to deal wi*h the nuisance had been taken in Bterlin and Budapest. What was to be done in Vienna, to protect the male sex? The burgomaster fully agreed with the councillor. "The hatpin nuisance," ha added, "was a danger to mankind." The substance of the interpellation was transmitted to the police, with a request to take vigorous- action againet this deplorable wd."

The British telegraph boys, on reaching sixteen, are dismissed at the rate of 4000 .annually, because there are no openings for them as clerks or in any other capacity in the General Post Office. Their hard lot in finding themselves, "thrown on the scrap heap" at such an early age has -excited popular sympathy throughout Britain; but little beyond that has been done to help them. They rise from 8s a week at thirteen years of age to 10s by the time they are discharged. Then they find their labour worth no more than 5s to 7s 6d, even if they can find other situations. The only practicable proposals so fathave been to draft 'them into the Navy or the Army, or to assist them to emigrate upon the lines of Mr. Sedgwick's contingent who have come to New Zealand. In giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Divorce, Dr. Adler, Chief Rabbi, said he did not plead for any alteration in the law as to the grounds on which persons were entitled ,to petition for dissolution of marriage. He was aware that great hardships were inflicted, but at the present day facilities for divorce did not tend to raise the moral standard of the community. ¦On the other hand, he believed it eminently desirable in the interests of both necessitous Jews and necessitous Christians that the procedure for obtaining divorce should be made less costly. In the case of the Jews, drunkenness was very rare, and great importance was attached to the duty of endeavouring to reconcile husband and wife. Lloyd's rate of insurance against the Coronation not taking place on 22nd June was 30 per cent, as on 12thT)ecember. Underwriters were not inclined to do much business even at that premium. Both Lloyds and the chief English insurance onaces expect to receive a large number of proposals for insurance from jusiness people for many weeks ''before the event j#kes place. Rates of 10 to 15 per cent, were quoted to pay a loss should the ceremony not take place before the end of June, <md ten guineas per cent, was quoted to pay actual losses incurred should the Coronation not be held in 1911. As underwriters have been badly hit in the past by the postponement of ' important events — the Coronation oi Edward VII., to wit — considerable caution, is now shown by them in \»».-iting this class of risk. Captain Guest was hunting in the heart of the Rocky Mountains *rhen the news of* the impending ¦ dissolution reached him. He immediately hurried to the nearest railway station, which was a hundred miles, distant, crossed the American* Continent, and took the first Steamer Home in order to arrive in time to contest the constituency. He I landed at Plymouth after a hurried journey of 6000 to contest the East Dorset seat. King Edward's fund for the London hospitals distributed £150,000 for the year 1910, among 106 hospitals, and £5000 to convalescent homes, including £1825 to consumptive sanatoria. The grants are to be applied to reduction of debts on buildings, additions to buildings. The individual grants ranged from £25 to £12,000. A Presidential decree has been issued in Brazil (says Reuter), directing that the clothing equipment of the military and naval forces and the police and firemen shall in future be made from material of the country's own manufacture. Blankets, boots, saddles, harness, and_ every kind of leather furniture destined for the troops must also be produced by Brazilian factories. The British and Irish elections appears to have suffered no lack of stirring incident. Donnybrook tactics were followed in England as well as in the green isle. At a meeting in midTipperary, after an address by John .union, a fierce free fight followed. Mr. Dwyer, the Independent candidate, was struck on the head With a bottle as he was entering a hotel to speak from the balcony. He stated his views, however, just the same, while blood streamed from his head and face. Brass bands and drumg enlivened the proceedings, and then followed more fights, more broken heads, and a general clearance by the police. A Belfast candidate had his motor car wrecked, and the occupants of it were stoned in the Nationalist quarter of the city. Twelve publichouses in Belfast were wrecked in one night. • The Unionist candidate for South Hackney had all but two of his party's motor cars wrecked, principally by children. Some of the people riding in the cars were injured, and others blinded for the time being. Brickbats, stones, rubbish, and filth of all description were hurled at the Unionistß* motor cars and those riding in them. At Barnstaple there was fighting with clubs and flaming torches. Several people were set on fire. The Sfc. Petersburg Retch announces the death of the convict Sasonoff in the Zerentui prison, Siberia. He was acciised of having thrown the bomb that killed M. de Plehve. Whether Sasonoff died after being flogged or whether he committed suicide is not clear. A despatch received by the Duma reads : — "In the Zerentui prison, as the result of corporal punishment, numerous suicides have begun. Sasonoff is already dead." At the Vologda gaol one hundred convicts, mostly politicals, were flogged in one Bay in December because they had complained of the food. The prison doctor, who resigned, said haff the prisoners were not fit to be flogged. On 12tb December an interpellation, signed by all the Opposition members of the Duma, was addressed to the Ministers of tha Interior and of Justice. Ifc dealt with both the Zerentui and Vologda affairs, and charged the Government with taking "a brutal revenge on its political adversaries and with disgracing not only iiussia, but the very name of man." The Duma refused to giant urgency for it by 121 votes to 111. The common dandelion is a reliable barometer. It is when the blooms have seeded, and are in the fluffy, feathery N condition that the weather-prophet faculties come to the fore. In fine weather the ball expands to the full, but when the rain approaches it shuts up like an umbrella. If the weather is inclined to ,be showery, it keeps shut all the time, only opening when the danger from the wet is passed. The ordinary clover, and all its varieties, including the shamrock, are also barometers. When rain is coming the leaves shut together like the shells of an oyster. For a day or two before rain comes their stems swell to an appreciable extent, and stiffen so that the leaver, are borne more uprightly than usual. This stem swelling when "rain is expected is a feature of many flowering grasses. The fingers of which the leaves ot the horse-chestnut are made up keep flat I and fanlike so long as the fine weather j is likely to continue. With the coming of rain, however, they dioop, as if to offer less resistance to the weather. The scariet pimpernel is known as the poor man's weather-glass, and opens its flowers only when it is fine. NO -DOUBT ABOUT IT. There is no doubt about ihe curative properties of Chamberlain's Cough Remejiy, which is the best, safest, and most reliable cough medicine you can tate. For harsh, hard, chronic coughs it is a splendid cure. Easily taken, and it quickly relieve* and cure* the tn©#t /wanate casM.—Advfc.