NEWS AND NOTES
M.Delcasse is in private life oneof the most retiring and reserved of men who sedulously cultivates Iris own fireside, and is totally "unknown in the world of fashion. AT story told oi him which dates back to his earliest days at the Foreign Office is characteristic. One of the most treasured possessions of the Quai d'Orsay is the legendary table which belonged to the famous Princebishop of Autun, and had during the Directory, Consulate, Empire, and Republic gathered so much history around it that Guizot said he never approached it without fear and trembling. Delcasse on his first day.relegated it to a lumberroom and ordered in its place an entirely modern substitute—infinitely more commonplace, , but vastly" more convenient.
Cardinal Gibbons, whose name has again come into prominence in the somewhat premature peace talk in the United States,-is one of the few prelates of the Boman. Catholic Church who have preached in a Protestant church., The fact is attested in the Cardinal's own words. In connection with the presence of Roman Catholic Bishops at the Parliament of Eeligions at Chicago some few years ago, the Cardinal wrote to a correspondent as follows:—"Following the example of the great Bishop England, I often preached, when on the North Caroline Mission, in courthouses and Protestant Churches to non-Catholic audiences." Later on, a story is to the effect that he was actually approached by a deputation from a Protestant church at a wellknown American seaside resort to fill the place of a New York minister who could not fulfil his engagements. Cardinal Gibbons willingly consented.
A soldier whose name figured on the French roll of. honour was Capt. Ismail de Lesseps, one of the sons of the originator of the Suez Canal. What' strikes one is the peculiarity of the Christian name. Why "Ismail," which has a heathenish twang about it? Has anyone forgotten that spendthrift Ismail who ruled • Egypt under the Sultan— Ismail Pasha, who, after the French Emperor's wife, and the Emperor Francis Joseph, and Frederick Crown Prince of Prussia, was head and shoulders above all others? It was after that Ismail that .gallant de Lesseps was named.
It is claimed that the suture (joining) of the severed spinal cord has been made for the first time in surgery by Dr. Emile Girou, of Paris. Describing his achievement in the Academy of Medicine, Dr. Girou said that the patient wag a soldier who had been hit by a shell splinter, which embedded itself in the whole breadth of the vertebral canal, completely severing the spinal cord. The operation, which was performed rapidly on a dying man, gave results far beyond hope. The man, it was said, is now able to move his lower limbs, and is gradually recovering his powers of feeling.
Ever since her independence in 1878 Bulgaria has paid great attention to edu-catkm,-and the organisation of a national system of schools appears to have served her well. The law of school attendance is so strictly enforced that not only are the parents severely ptmished in a bad case, but the teachers and chairman of local education committees as well. The teaching is of the "practical" type, being so outlined as to prepare the boys for husbandry and the girls for domestic duties. Boys are much better educated than girts, though 65 per cent of the schools a.re "mixed," and 70 per cent, of the teachers are men.
Great distress exists in the -town of Cambridge amongst people who bavo faithfully and conscientiously served the university for many years. fThere are some 1500 licensed lodgings untenanted, and walking through any of the streets chiefly occupied by the lodging-houses one passes one or two out of every three houses with the announcement, "This House to Let." Most of the landlords and landladies are, indeed, ruined, and it was sad to see a few days ago in a Cambridge paper a list of those who were summoned because they were totally unable to pay their rates.
The Italian flag was designed by Napoleon as the emblem of the short-lived •kingdom, Italy, which he created by the power of his sword; the tricolour of green, red, and white being intended to suggest connection with France. The Italian nationalists adopted the tricolour as their flag in 1848, and subsequently it was accepted by King Victor Emmanuel as the flag of United Italy. As Mexico, however, took a fancy to the same flag, and refused to change, the Italians found it necessary to make their national emblem distinctive by charging it with the arms of Savoy.
When Emma Jackinan was charged in London for the 39th time with being drunk and disorderly, Mr. Charles Lee, the Magistrate, said it seemed useless sending her to prison time after time. He was now going to try a totally different course. He discharged the prisoner with a caution and told her that if the missionary reported favourably on her conduct at the end of six months he would present her with a new dress and a complete outfit, and see she had a new start in life. Prisoner, who seemed quit© overcome by the kind offer, promised to do her best to reform and earn the reward.
Notwithstanding the horrors of war at her very doom; and the burden of caring for 300,000 helpless Belgian refugees, Holland has gone to the rescue of the bird species of her East India possessions that were being killed and sold for millinery purposes. It appears that throughout the whole of her vast island empire in the Malay Archipelago, 3000 miles long by 1000 miies wide, all bird species save three are now absolutely protected :<against.,the feather trade, with a probability that eventually no exceptions will be-made. •
,' Not much is heard of Gibraltar in. the press, but few places outside the battlefields have been so ■ much affected by the war. The ceaseless patrol of the Straits, the examining of all ships passing through the Straits, the arrangements for the removal of contraband, the internment of enemy reservists, and the institution of a Prize Court at Gibraltar have severely taxed the local naval-^and military establishments. At the same time, the work of the civilian officials has also, as was natural, been largely increased, especially in the case of the port, police, Customs, and law departments. From all sections of the community the Government has received loyal and enthusiastic assistance.
_ A surgeon lecturing to a class, of hospital nurses in ail English training school advised his hearers to persuade their fathers, brothers, 'husbands, or sweethearts to wear hygienic suspenders. It seems that:the customary braces, which are dual in front but single behind, bring the strain in the wrong place, and cause stooping and narrow ehestedness. These misguided suspenders are even theM-egu-lation pattern in the British Army .This isi one of the things they do tetter in Germany. German, army" braces are double at the back as well as the front. A separate' strap goes straight up and straight down oyer each shoulder, bringing the .strain fair and square on the top of the shoulder. These are the kind that, according to this medi'-^J authority, we all ought to wear.
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Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 147, 18 December 1915, Page 10
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1,196NEWS AND NOTES Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 147, 18 December 1915, Page 10
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