NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 15075, 6 January 1913, Page 7

NEAR AND FAR

The night porter oi some business premises in Berlin met two men coming down the stairs, and was greeted bv them in genial fashion. "Hello," tier said. "We've just- robbed ynur place."* “Have you?“ ho replied laughingly. A little laler it dawned upon him that there might be something in the story, and looking round the premises he found the safe- open and a considerable sum missing. The moral of the story appears to be: “Tell the plain truth and yon will not. be believed.”

. -^ r Borden (the Canadian. Prime Afmif.tcr) has been telling an anecdote concerning two “brither Scots” who used to fuegather in s, “dry" district, each bringing with him a portable spring of comfort, in tho t-hap,? of a bottle of whisky. Qua oi them was asked one dav bv a “third party" whether Mm other, Jock Anderson, did not get a. little drunk so met lines 3. “Drunk!” was the reply. "Alan, the last Hmo J was wi' him Jock got- that drunk I couldna’ see him.”

Captain William Hentherington, aged 91, journeyed the other day from Liverpool, to Douglas on tno eighty-second anni versa rv of the Isle of Alan Steam Packet Ooinpanv. He was a passenger on the original Alona's Isle on 17th August, 1330. and has thus repeated the journey 82 years afterwards. TV captain is halo” and heartv. and uses neither glasses nor stick. In the course of his seagoing career he has been three times shipwrecked. Hamburg has provided its trumeax conductors with hoses ot hatpin point protectors, and ladies with unguarded hatpins may choose between getting down from tho car and giving the' conductor an extra penny for a couple of tho municipal point protectors.

An organisation, which lias just been founded in Belgium ought to flourish under the atmospheric conditions that arc at present being experience. I. This is an “ Urnhrella Lending Society,” which is being controlled by a company having a capital of several million francs and half as mam* umbrellas, and its object is to save people from the trouble of buying and can-viim these occasionally useful but cumbersome articles about when not in actual omplov. Subscribers pay 4s a year, and are given an. aluminium counter with a, number. It is much easier evidently to cam* a counter than an umbrella. If the cull sen her is caught in the rain, all that he has to do is to go into the nearest restaurant, tobacco shop, or big store, and in return for his " iiche ” ho is immediately furnished with a. respectable umbrella. When the sun conjcs out again he enters the first similar establishment and deposits his umbrella in exchange* for another counter. Tho system is simplicity itself—until some ingenious swindler casts faesmilo enuntovo and surrepitinusly sells them for 2s 6d. M. Emile Faguct, the distinguished French author, has recently established what must come near ranking as a. record. Within two months he has produced three totally distinct works in various wavs connected with Rousseau and his ter-centcnarv. First came the biography. ‘Vie do Rousseau ’ ; next ‘ Lcs Amies de Rousseau,’ a. series of monographs upon the famous women who admired or loved Jean deques —lfondctot, d’Kspinny, Verdelin. etc. • and, finally, ‘Rousseau centre Moliere.’ a critical examination of Rousseaus attacks on tho great dramatist.. Considering that the majority of Emile Faguct’k writim* •ranks as literature, and not as journalism, the perfromance is an astonishing one. It becomes almost incredible when wo learn that by Christmas are to appear two moro Rousseau studies by tho same hand—■ ‘Rousseau penseur ’ and ‘Rousseau artiste,’ Suicide has now become a serious menace to the United States. Not only is the number of suicides increasing yearly, hut an advanced intellectual condition on the part of the people enables them to commit suicide in such a manner as to be undetected, and the death pass as one that is natural. A recital of these misleading methods supposed to have been employed is not advisable, but they have- been numerous and ingenious. In the whole of the United States during 1911 there ware 15.630 suicides, and over 5,000 deaths suspected to be cases of self-murder. ■What are probably the longest trains ever assembled are now being worked over the Lehigh Valley system in Pennsylvania, Recently a train composed of 133 cars was despatched from the Perth Amboy Docks to the distributing yards at Mahon. This train was 7,000 ft, or more than a mile and a-quartcr in length. Two locomotives pulled it, and a. third was used as a “pusher.” The reason for operating trains of this length is said to be the ahorta-w© of traingien. in Pennsylvania,