NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 14319, 18 March 1910, Page 1

NEAR AND FAR

An aviation meeting has been held ai Heliopolis, near Cairo, under tho auspices of the London 'Daily Mail,' and it attracted to the Egyptian capital thousands of- spectators, who wishod to see mechanics/ birds hovering in the shadow of the Pyramids. Extraordinary indeed, even to the most unimaginative, must have been the sight of aeroplanes—these ultra-modem products of human daring and invention, rising over the ancient city of the sun. whither, in the dim past, Plato travelled in quest of learning. The meeting itself, so far as aerial feats were concerned, did not present as keen an interest as last year's contests at Rhcicas or Brescia. A remarkable sequel to a marvellous surgical operation was described at an inquest at Birmingham a lew weeKs ago. Jt. was performed by Dr Morrison, at Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, on a man named Charles Endall, who had been eufiering from a stricture of tho gullet, caused by his taking sulphuric add in mistake for whisky. The man's throat having been closed, a new permanent mouth was opened in his side, through which he was fed by means of a tube. Endall gained weight, and was able to leave the hospital, but had given way to drink, and died from exhaustion. 'General Booth, whose abounding vigor is the admiration of everybody, keeps lit by living the simple life. He is a vegetarian, a teetotaller, and a non-smoker, but h< indulges in tea and a feather bed. Hii rules for a long life arc fow. They are: "Eat little; drink water; take exercise; have a system; lake pleasure wisely; avoid excess of ail kinds; aim high." The oldest member returned to the new House of Commons for an English constituency is Mr Robert Cameron, the member for Houghton-l,e-Spring (Durham), who celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday last November. Despite his great age, Mr Cameron took an active interest in the contest, and addressed numerous meetings. The son of a Scotch Baptist minister, ho was for forty-seven years head master of the Sunderland Friends' School. • Ho has been a lecturer on literature and science, and was a member of the local borough council. The King, there is authority for stating. ■ has made it very clear that he greatly disapproves of more than one volume of " reminiscences" that have been published lately, and anyone guiJty of a similar indiscretion in future will find themselves excluded from all Court invitations. In the case of the Countess of Cardigan's notorious 'Recoiledions,' the King has given orders that it is to be removed from the whole of his residences, and he has intimated to his personal friends that he hopes they will do all in their power to discou'rago its further circulation. It was a rule a year or two ago that any passage! in any'work about to be published" concerning the late Queen Victoria should be laid before the King's private secretary for approval before it was published, and it is probable that the Publi6hers' Association will be invited (informally, of course) to see that this is strictly enforced in the future. Another point upon which the King lays stress at the moment is that he does not desire that any record of his reign should be published until after his death, and he has already made arrangements for an authoritative memoir of his life to be written in years to come.—The ' Gentlewoman.' Mr John Burns, while in France, paid a visit.to Versailles, and met an.English guide who has been there for nearly forty years. When this guide began to play Aunt Sally with the facts of history, fearful (the ' Daily News' says) was the retribution. "Here," said the guide, "Marie Antoinette stood and told the people, that if they could not get broad they must eat grass." "Stay," Mr Burns remarked, "that wasn't Marie Antoinette; that was Foulon." "Well, if she didn't say that she said that if they hadn't bread why didn't they eat cakes." "Oh, my good man, this will never do. She did say that, but sho didn't say it here." This was only the beginning of a miserable hour, for'this formidable man with the big voice seemed lying in wait for him at every turn, and when ho plunged '" into one> "howler" he was met with the startling reply: " You ought to know better, for you came from the New Cut at Lambeth." " Whatever made you say that, sir. ' I didn't come from tho New Cut, but I was born in Kcnnington lane." "'Same parish'," said the tormentor. The guide learned more about Versailles than he was likely to remember , The Fortune of War, an old inn at Pyo Corner, West Smithfield, London, which mark* the spot where tho Great Fire ceased, has closed its doors, and will shortly be demolished. It is famous for the figure of a gilded fat boy, "put up in memory of the late Fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony." It is understood that Mr fiaynor. the Mayor of New York, intends to abolish the arming of tho city police with truncheons or "night sticks." many complaints of undue violence having been received. Except in districts where hooliganism is rampant, the police will be expected to do their work unarmed, as in England.