HERE AND THERE

Evening Star, Issue 12397, 10 January 1905, Page 8

HERE AND THERE

There are about eighty ships in the British Navy which are too weak to fight and too slow to run away. They ought (says 'Vanity Fair's' military critic) to be called the Lamb, the Mouse, the Blue Ribbon, the Darby and Joan; *not the Wasp, the Porcupine, the Pallas, the Pincher, or the Plucky. The man responsible for the creation of the P class should be tried by a jury of matrons, for no sensible housekeeper, with a knowledge of the elements of naval warfare, would have spent the national resources upon ships that would have to be laid up in war-time. There are no fewer than 9,000 men employed on the non-fighting ships. In her almanac for 1905 Madame De Thebes (the French Zadkiel) gives divinations of the future. In the early part of next year (according to the 'Telegraph') she predicts that kings and chiefs of States will make themselves talked about more than usual. The year will be a red year, a grey one. England will traverse periods of great unrest, to be marked by deaths, among these being some which will startle the whole world. Germany will also have cause for mourning. Political and Governmental Europe will sustain irreparable losses in the beginning of next year. In France there will be sensational disappearances, but a new victory will be gained, in tie domain of thought with the aid of an unknown person, whom Madame De Thebes has studied without his knowing H. Finally. Rome will be the scene of a sudden change. Apropos of nowspaper changes and consolidations in England, Mr Lucy, writing in the 'Sydney Morning Herald.' says:— The announcement that an offer of £200,000 preference shares in the combined undertaking of the Liverpool 'Daily Post' and ' Mercury' was in two days subscribed more than three times over is testimony to the local popularity of the long-established journals. As a rule, newspaper property, when transformed into a limited liability oonrpany, does not find especial favor with j the investing public. There are from time ' to time special reasons for warning off would-be .subscribers. A Manchester daily paper of old renown has just been acquired by one of our octopus newspaper proprietors for the sum of £30,000. Not very long ago tho family in possession easily obtained £310,000 by transference of their property to the public. Even in the case of more modern enterprises understood to return fabulous incomes to their promoters 5 per cent, preference shares steadily hover under par. The London 'Evening News,' the paper that first set Mr Alfred Harmsworths ball a-rolling, and still brings iir handsome revenues., has its £5 preference shares marked in to-day's }i?ts at 4| —J. Preference shares of the 'Financial Times,' another journalistic milch cow, stand just under par, as do tbe preference shares of Sir George Newnes's prosperous, manifold, well-managed papers. As things go, 5 per cent, on a moderately secure investment is a desirable thing, and its market price stands accordingly. I fancy the. public, with shrewd instinct, recognise the fact that in peculiar degree the value of newspaper property depends upon personality. As long as certain pairs of hands are strong and sure in the direction all goes well. When they lie limp the barque they steered may fall adrift. An ingenious test of sobriety is now being experimentally adopted in Continental towns. On entering a - ; public-house the would-be drinker finds that the only way to the bar lies along a platform about 2ft

high, ascended by three This plat- I form is about 12in wide and 50yds long, I following hj zig-zag courso, with here and there an obbtaclo that has to bo stepped over. One who has already had a drop too much is thus practically certain to fell from this narrow and difficult pathway to the'padded floor especially prepared to receive him.. Sober ones are served in the order in which? 7 they reach the bar; if they; require another drink they must traverse the-platform, a second time, and so on. ■ '"mi ' — \;. ,■. ". j A case involving the privileges of the medical profession was heard recently before tiie Court of Session at Edinburgh, Sir Patrick .Watson, a fashionable surgeon'in ! the Scottish capital, being defendant in an' action in which £2,500 • damages were claimed by a'Mrs M'Evan and her father.' Mrs M'Evau had consulted- Sir Patrick prjor to the hearing of a matrimonial separation case, and when the knighted medico came to give evidence he let out the statement that Mrs M'Evan had desired him to perform an operation. Tbe action brought this week involved the question of a physician's right to disclose information gained professionally. The Court decided that Sir Patrick's evidence in court was privileged, but, as to his alleged statement of the matter to the husband and his agents, an issue, was allowed. One Judge dissented, as he held that Sir Patrick Watson had done nothing improper.