HERE AND THERE.

Evening Star, Issue 11675, 6 February 1902, Page 3

HERE AND THERE.

A curious scene was witnessed in Bow street, London, on December 14. One of the local tradesmen advertised for a porter at £1 a week. At 7.30, the shop was surrounded by men aAxious to secure the appointment." At 8.50 the number had increased to about 100. In fact the number kept on increasing, some of the, candidates coming up at the double rather than be too late. At ten o'clock there were at least 250 men in the neighborhood of the shop where £1 a week was waiting for one of them able and willing to work. Of course the presence of such a large number of men—most of them respectable-looking fellows—caused other people to assemble ; and several extra policemen had to be put on duty to range the candidates in single file, some of them in Bow street and others in Martlett court adjoining. At eleven o'clock it was announced that a selection had been made, and the men reluctantly dispersed. More continued to arrive, however, at intervals during the day, and seemed bitterly disappointed when they found they were too late.

A peculiar romance is related by the passengers by the mail steamer Oruba, which arrived at Perth recently. Among the third-class, passengers starting from England were a married couple, but the husband left the boat at Marseilles. On board the boat was an old gentleman of about seventy, who undertook the task of consoling the bereaved lady. On reaching Colombo the agent of the company received a cable stating that it was reported from Marseilles that the husband was dead. The old, gentleman then proceeded to lay the balance of his_eartbly existence at the disposal of the supposed widow. After being accepted, the chaplain was asked to unite them in the bonds of wedlock, but the rev. gentleman declined. When the couple returned from Fremnntle their fellow-pas-sengers lined top and gave them a most unfriendly demonstration.

The English telegraphic authorities made great preparations for overtaking Lord Rosebery's famous Chesterfield deliverance on December 16. The local town hall was fitted up with a complete installation of Wheatstone transmitters, which allowed the speech to be sent over the wires at the rate of nearly 500 words per minute. The telegraphic work was done by thirty-five expert operators sent specially to Chesterfield for the purpose. It is estimated that they telegraphed in round numbers 100,000 words that day. Practically all the trains which ran into the town were duplicated, and at the close of the meeting special trains conveyed visitors to all the neighboring towns, as all the accommodation in Chesterfield itself had been bespoken weeks before.

The late Mr Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, when he died in 1896 left the residue of an immense fortune, estimated at £2,000,000, to provide for the foundation of five prizes of the value <f 8,000 guineas each, to be awarded annually for the most important discoveries in (1) physics, (2) chemistry, (3) physiology or medicine, (4) for the most remarkable literary work of an idealist tendency, and (5) for the greatest service rendered to the cause of peace. Men and women of any nationality are eligible as competitors for the awards known as the Nobel Prizes, which are made by a committee consisting of five members of the Norwegian Parliament sitting at Christiaaia. The recipients of the awarSs for 1901 have been declared to be:—ln physics, Professor W. Rontgen, Munich; in chemistry, Professor J. H. Van Hoff, Berlin; in medicine, Professor E. Behring, Halle; in literature, M. Sully Prudhomme, Paris; and in peace, M. Frederic Passy (Paris) and'M. Henri Dunant (Geneva). Universal satisfaction is felt at the award of 4,000 guineas to M. Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross Society. As a young man he ■was greatly impressed by the selfsacrificing zeal «of Florence Nightingale in the Crimea, and after witnessing the carnage at the battle of Solferino, in which 40,000 men were killed and wounded, he made it his life work to obtain an agreement among the .nations as to the neutrality of the wounded on the field of

battle, and of the medical and musing staffs, military and civil, assisting them. He furthermore set himself to work to secure more aid for, the soldiers stricken; in war, and the outcome of his efforts was the formation of the Bed Cross Society. While working to secure the neutrality of the wounded and their helpers M. vDonant had' the powerful add of the late Empress Augusta of Germany and Of Napoleon TTT. In 1864 he-had the satisfaction of seeing the famous Convention of Geneva called by the Swiss Government and attended by the representatives' of sixteen States, all of whom signed the agreement as. to the treatment of the wounded, any breach of which is now regarded by tihe whole civilised world as an outrage on humanity. To-day thirty-eight nations have declared themselves wilting to observe, and if necessary enforce, the terms of the Geneva Convention in time of war. M. Dunant spttn; half his fortune in the accomplishment cf his great aim, and lost the remainder by an unfortunate business speculation in Al-, geria. For years he has lived almost for-' gotten m ohscurty and poverty in Switzerland. He is sewnty-three years old.

In ' Behind the Scenes in the Transvaal' Mr W. Wilson, for years a Goldfields Commissioner in that country, relates a suggestive episode showing Mr Kruger's true attitude to England during the years of peace. It is told on the authority of the Rev. Du Tort, who acted as interpreter to Kruger and his colleagues on their mission to London to secure the amended Convention of 1884:—"At one of the formal iV terviews with Lord Derby (Colonial Secretary) that gentleman held out firmly for a certain point. Mr Kruger lost his temper, and, taking up his hat, proceeded to leavc the room, saying to Dn Toit: ' Teil him that we have hammered the British out of the Transvaal once, and we will do it again.' Mr Du Toit hesitated, when Lord Derby asked what Mr Kruger had said. Mr Du Toit apologised for the rudeness of the President, begging Lord Derby not lo notice the outburst, as it was merely a mannerism. Mr Du Toit, in telling me the story, remarked that he had always .%e----greted not having interpreted the President correctly on that occasion. 'lf I had done so,' he said, 'that Convention would nev«?r have been made. "

"In the recently-issued 'Diaries of the Late Emperor Frederick' (the Noble) it is clearly shown that at the very time that Jules Fanre was (1871) dramatically declaring "Not an inch of our territory, not a stone of our fortresses," he was in reality quite prepared to cede Alsace to the Germans if that would hare sufficed. For another thing, there ifc an authoritative statement concerning the double-faced behaviour of Napoleon 111. "Napoleon (writes the Emperor Frederick) is quietly trying to approach us; moderation of the condition peace, in return for promises of a common war against England." This at a time (observes "Literature') when the starvation population of Paris had just been fed oy British charity. One wonders if Queen Victoria know the stoiy when she cultivated the friendship of the Empress Eugenie. The Emperor Frederick tells it without comment.

M. Bertillon, of anthropometrics! fani", is greatly impressed (says the 'Daily Express') with the French population statistics, and the decrease of births moves him 'to prophecy. Slowly but surely, he says, France is moving towards a period when she must disappear as a nation from the map of Europe. The depopulation is a phenomenon peculiar to France. The birtorate has been declining since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the diminution will become greater in the course of time. The birUi-rato was 33 per 1,000 at the beginning of last centurv; it is no>v only 21. Until 1870 the births, although decreasing, were still in excess of deaths. From 1870 to 1890 births and deaths were equal. Since 1890 the deaths have exceeded the births. M. Bertillon says that French families ire interested financiaJly in limiting their offspring, and he proposes to tax childless unions, and to give special exemptions—military and fiscal—to those belonging to large families.

The Viennese have a curious way r.f municipalising their tram services. It seems that the tram companies are not disposed' to part with their ''franchises," except at fancy prices, and there are no means of haling them before the ordinary courts and obliging :hem t;> accept reasonable complication. So the companies are Iting put through a harrying process, which is likely to prove very costly to tbein, if the muirc:pal authorities find themselves on the safe side of the legal hedge. During the past few months the Vienna tram companies have been fined various sums, aggregating £20,000, for some seventy-two .Hikers, which include " faulty tram management," " insufficient cars," and "neglect to build certain projected lines within contract time." The companies refuse to jay the fines, and have appealed to the law courts.

Most people are aware that Captain Oswald Ames, of rhe Life Guards, is the tallest officer in the British Army, but probably few know who is the smallest of our defenders. According to the 'Week End, Major Dopp:cg-Hepenstall, of the Royal Engineers, can claim that distinction —if such it be. But if Major DoppingHepenstall (irreverent brother officers call lim "Hopping Steo it all") is diminutive, he is a brilliantly clever man, and a mechanical genius. Whilst stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he invented an electrical appanitni for filing lire mid-day gun at the Glacis Barracks, and in hjs quarters was a clockwork machine in which the Duke of York, who, as Prince George, was at Halifax i'i command of J he Thrush, took the greater interest. Tiis machine was popularly reputed to wales the Major up, throw Urn out of bed, bat'i, dry, and shave him, whilst simultaneously performing such minor duties as mak'tig a cup of tea, boiling a.' egg, frnd blacking the boots, after which it dressed hwx, brushed his hair, curled Lis moustache, scented his handkerchief, stA finally tr»ew him down stairs in tiavJ for parade. An element of exaggeration may have into these statements, but the machine undoubtedly existed, and probably (.\isi<« to this day.