HERE AND THERE.

Evening Star, Issue 11863, 17 April 1903, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

What our public men are or are not is not without interest. Sir John Gorst recently said that he is not a Salvationist, though the avowal was quite as unnecessary as the “I am not an agricultural laborer” of Mr C. R. Spencer, the popular half-brother and heir to the Liberal Leader in the Lords, Lord Rosebery is not quite so particular. He has confessed in a public speech that he is an “agriculturist.” “We, the farmers of England,” the Prince Consort once said; and lus son, King Edward VII., has also affirmed : “ I am a faVmer myself in a small way.” Sir William Harcourt named himself “The Old Reservist” And Mr Chamberlain, facing his enemies from the Government Bench, said: “ I am of a cheerful disposition.” Mr Balfour’s “ I am a child in these matters" is older than the Education Bill; but Lord Hugh Cecil’s description of Lord Rosebery as the “ choirboy always too late for the responses ” will be remembered as one of the happiest things said in that not always happy controversy.

A spectacle, probably unprecedented, was afforded recently (says a London paper) by a destructive fire at a farmhouse, which adjoins the railway station of Whaplode, near Spalding. The thatched roof became ignited by a spark from an engine, and so rapidly did the fire -spread that the inmates had to escape in their night attire. The body of a man named Ingammels was lying in the house awaiting interment, and a futile effort was made to get the corpse out. The village clergyman, it is reported, held a funeral service in a farmhouse opposite while the fire was in progress, it being thought that the body was being cremated. As it was, the ooffin was burned, but not the body. A new coffin was made, and the funeral subsequently took place in the village burial ground.

The American courts have at last decided to put a limit to “ sky scrapers ” in that country, and in a test case, recently heard before the Supreme Court at Boston, ruled that the erection of these formidable buildings could be legally restrained. In the case under notice a building (Westminster Chambers) fronting on Copley square had been built to a height of one hundred and twenty-five feet, under the old law permitting erection up to two and a-half times the width of the street. The decision of the Court sustains the constitutional nature of the law limiting erection to ninety feet. All storeys above that limit must be now raised. The ground of the decision is the public right to light and air, making it necessary either that “ sky-scrapers ” should be limited in height, or that the builders should purchase rights for the upper storeys, as in the case of the ground area. The owners of Westminster Chambers are considering the advisability of bringing a clainj for damages for infringement of the rights of construction hitherto enjoyed generally. Lawyers and builders in several cities throughout the Union are greatly interested in the case.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have respectively presented to the Royal Merchant Seamen’s Orphanage a boy and girl whose stories are very pathetic. The boy’s father, Captain Beckerleg; was wrecked in the Bristol Channel, and every other man on the vessel drowned but himself. After battling with the heavy seas for nine hours, he was washed ashore near Ilfracombe, and died after seven hours’ exposure on the rocks. He left a widow and ten children. The father of the girl presented was quite illiterate when he married, but with his wife’s aid he educated himself, and a few days after obtaining a shipmasters certificate he lost his life by being washed overboard. The widow died shortly afterwards, leaving a family of five destitute children.

Mr Balfour, in answer to a correspondent, recently wrote as follows: —“ In reply to your letter of February 8 I have to say that in so far as the new Act affects the status of Nonconformists who desire to become teachers, or are already teachers, it greatly improves it. Under the old state of things only churoh people had a chance of entering the teaching profession in church schools by becoming pupil-teachers, and only church people were allowed by the trust deeds of church schools to obtain in them teachers’ places. The first disability has been wholly, removed by the now Act; the second has been largely mitigated. In these circumstances it can only be imperfect knowledge which prevents the Act being welcomed by the persons of whom you speak.”

The first lucky American young man to obtain a Rhodes scholarship is Eugene H. I/ehman, an athletic young man of twentyfour. He was born in Pueblo, and studied in the University of Colorado before going to Yale, whers ho graduated last year. At Yale he won a great reputation as an ofator, carrying off many prizes and medals on the debating platform. In addition to his intellectual atttinments Mr Lehman Is a fine all-ronnd athlete. He was a shining light in the football world at Yale, and is proficient at baseball, swimming, gymnasium work, and cross-country running.

Mr Kruger, who is in fair health, spends his days at Mentone chiefly in sleeping and smoking (says ‘Vanity Fair’). He gets up at five o’clock and reads the Bible until eight, when he again goes to sleep until half-past ten. At that hour he begins to smoko and receive visitors until twelve, when he has breakfast, the meal lasting for twenty minutes. Then he goes for a drive, and at two goes to bed for a couple of hours, after which he receives Boers and reads the Bible until six. Dinner lasts twenty minutes, and at half-past eight the ex-President goes to bed and sleeps until eleven, when he has a cup of coffee. At one he is again roused, and eats some fruit He is not allowed by his doctors to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time, and except for his cup of coffee they permit him to drink nothing but milk.

Chicago would appear to be a most convenient place for Hi-assorted married couples, for the city’s reputation for bustle and hurry extends even to its divorce proceedings. Of the couples married each year one-ninth eventually find their way to the divorce court, when, if the dissatisfied party has the evidence ready, two minutes will suffice to untie the matrimonial knot. At the Saturday morning sessions the parade of would-be divorcees is continuous. The Judge mumbles the names of the litigants, and no one understands wha-t he says except the applicants. A few perfunctory questions follow, and then the parties are dismissed —freed. The record Saturday morning’s work for one Judge is thirty-eight divorces, but on one morning last December fifty-two couples were divorced.

The new number of the ‘ Journal of Comparative Legislation’ contains a summary of the Acts of Parliament passed during 1901 in the different parts of the King’s dominions, from ■which it may be (fathered that some 800 new laws were made ior His Majesty’s subjects. The legislative output of the Mother of Parliaments is insignificant beside that of several of her daughters. While the United Kingdom made only forty additions to its Statute Book, New South Wales and New Zealand both passed seventy-four new Acts, British Columbia passed sixty-four, Victoria fifty-nine, and Manitoba fifty-four. Even Tasmania beat the legislative record at Westminster, making forty-two additions to its Statute Hook.

Apropos of the Guards’ “ ragging ” scandal, the ‘Onlooker’ tells a story to the effect that on board a transport recently a young colonial officer was sentenced by a subalterns’ court-martial, for some small offence, to have his head shaved. The sentence was carried out, and the subalterns were much surprised’at his calmness, until he explained it by the announcement that he hoped to recover substantial damages in the courts for the assault, adding that he eccpected to hear soon afterwards of the removal from the army of several subalterns. He agreed not to take the matter into court' only on condition that his judges should apologise and submit to a similar shaving operation, and his terms

•were accepted. On their arrival at Cape Town without a vestige of hair on their heads these young gentlemen are said to have developed a retiring disposition and a distaste for “ragging.” Probablj the story is not true. The “young colonial officer” is nowadays the favorite hero for all apocryphal military yams.

A new “criminal of the century” is hr prison in Ohio. The man. Alfred Knappe by name, has since his arrest confessed to five murders. He discusses details of his murders and other crime* without the least hesitation, and in spite of the instructions of his attorneys. His victims were three young women, who were Knappe’a legal wives, and two little frrls. Knappe describes with much gusto is manner of choking his victims, apparently enjoying the recall of his crimes. All the prisoner’s statements axe borne out by records of crimes which were never before traced to their source. Three of the murders were committed in Cincinnati. Knappe confesses he has also been guilty of many assaults, and thinks he may have committed one or two other murders. The first af the murders Knappe certainly committed It occurred in 1894, and the last occurred a few weeks ago. Knappe has not been threatened with lynching, but has been formally indicted for murder. He “hopes they wifi be easy” with him, but it is not likely that judgment will be very gentle in his case. The man has a strange mentality, but is likely to be considered quite sane enough to deserve the full penalty for his deeds.

The Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, Mass. (U.S.), have just received a valuable historical relic through the kindness of William J. Davis, the historian, who is a resident of Plymouth and an officer of the society. It is the sword of the English Grenoral John Burgoync. who after the battle of Saratoga, surronnded by the victorious Americans under General Horatio Gates, surrendered on October 8. 1777, giving the Americans 5,000 prisoners. Burgoyne gave his sword to General Goodwin, and it has been kept in the family ever since, eventually coming to Davis, whose children are great-great-grandchildren of the original recipient The weapon has been placed in Pilgrim Hall. The hilt is covered with dark shark skin, wound with wire, for the grip, while the brass guard is more ornamental than was usual to the commoner swords of that time. At the lower end of the hilt the brass forms a largo flat plate, ornamented with engraved anchors on the upper surface, and thence the guard curves away to the pommel in a slender band, which terminates in an ornamental knob. The scabbard is of dark leather, with brass mountings, (hat at the top being stamped, in letters formed of tiny dots, “Lofham Royal Exchange.”

Best Company’s sugar (not beet), 2jd per !b; brewers’ crystals, same price. Wardcll’s. —[Advt.] The Heiress: “Just think! The baron dared to kiss me this morning. I wonder what he was thinking of? ” “ His debts, of course.”

WHY DON’T YOU STOP THAT BARK?