NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7395, 22 February 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

The ■ small-pox epidemic in London brings about many peculiar contretemps. Quite one of the most extraordinary occurred at East Ham a few days ago. A wedding was being held at which a friend of the contracting parties was unable to be present owing to illness. After the ceremony the bride and bricegi-oom, accompanied by the wedding guests, repaired to the invalid's house, and spent some time with him. He was reported to be suffering from chicken-pox, but as a fact he had small-pox, and everyone of the bridal party caught the disease. They are all— bride, bridegroom, and friends — in the small-pox hospital, as well as the friend who unwittingly communicated the malady. What a cheerful honeymoon!

Some wily, passengers on a Lau< don suburban line recently affixed a bexibboned notice on tneir carriage window to the effect that it was a "Vaccination compartment to seat four-a-side only," and thus travelled up to town in comfort. But even their cleverness ("The Globe" remarks) did not exceed that of the old gentleman, who wrote, "For squalling baties only," on a label, and fixed it on to the window. He kept his carriage entirely to himself.

Rudyard Kipling" has been badly "ratted" by Canadians for his daring to miscall their country "Our Lady of the Snows," but he is unrepentant, as witness this Limerick perpetrated by Mulvaney's biographer in a little girls' album: — There was a small boy In Quebec, Who was burled in snow to the neck. When asked: Are you friz? He said: "Yes, I is; But this Isn't cold, in Quebec."

Lord Salisbury has the reputation of being singularly detached from the world of men and affairs, in short is "an absent-minded beggar." A very good story of his absentmindedness is going the round just now. Lord Salisbury, the Bishop of London, and many others, happened to be in a room with the King. The King said to the Bishop, "Do you know what Lord Salisbury has just said about you? He pointed you out and asked, 'Who is that young-look-ing cleric?' " And then, to save embarrassment of the Bishop, his Majesty, with that invariable geniality which is all his own, added, "But you need not mind that. I just showed him the latest photograph of myself, and after looking at it some moments in silence he said sympathetically, 4 Poor old Buller.' "

Hew far is a man, holding opiQions conveniently described as proBoer, justified in forcing his children to accept his views? A Stirlingshire father has just registered the name of his child, ushered into this world recentty,' as "Christian De Wet Botha Cronje Sv-.n Kruger" So-arid-So. As the law stands, a parent can bestow an;- collocation, of names he pleases on his offspring; but such a formidable list as that chosen by the ardent pro-Boer of Muiravonside must heavily handicap his son in life's race, even althoiugh his praenomen is "Christian."

A novel and certainly effective device was utilised by an unemployed Liverpool clerk for the purpose of draining 1 a situation. It -was to engage a sandwichman to parade the i.eighbourhood of the Exchange with placards setting forth the clerk's requirements. <The i..aiiouncenients, neatly inscribed in text-hand, and written with pen and ink, stated thai the advertiser was an experienced bookkeeper, a shorthand writer, and a linguist, also that he was a married man with two children. It gave, of course, an address to which inquirers ■were referred. The ingenuity as well as the originality of the proceeding evoked general remark from the frequenters of the Exchange, and there appeared good iv r.son to believe that the method adopted -would be effective for its purpose.

While the things that the wife of the United States President must do are" few in number and simple, the things she must not do are many and sometimes real deprivations. But as all etiquette is really common sense applied to small things these restrictions in effect make her position far easier in the end. She can attend few private entertainments — so few that it practically "shuts her out of general society. Mrs Harrison, during her stay in the White House, went to not more than half a dbzen private parties. Mrs Cleveland scarcely exceeded that number. Mrs McKinley never went to any. The official dinners given by the Cabinet officers to the President and his wife are necessarily dull, being made up of the same small and intimate circle, meeting on that occasion in the most ceremonious manner. Mrs Roosevelt is prohibited by custom, as the President is, from entering the house of any ambassador or envoy whatever, such premises being technically foreign ground: ' If she goes to the theatre she must sit in a lower box. She may

go to one ball in the year — the annual charity ball — when, if disposed, she may walk through two or three quadrilles. But if she should venture to dance a round dance it would mean a cataclysm. So \vould it be if she were to appear in a carriage sitting anywhere else than in the left hand corner of the back seat if the President is with her, or the right hand corner if he is not with her

Mr. Gaylord Wilshire, who edits a Socialist magazine, and actually makes it amusing for American readers, has just taken a step that ought to gratify Britishers of his cult all the world over. The American Post Office refused to pass Mr. Wilshire's publication at newspaper rates, on the ground that il> contained tow large a proportion of advertising matter, such matter consisting, it explained, of advertisements of Mr. Wilshire's " ideas." This decision Mr. Wilshire denounced as pure persecution, and crossed into Canada, where the Post Office is favourable, and where, moreover, his ' printing is done both better and cheaper than it was in California. The queer spectacle is now presented therefore of a magazine of advanced opinions, posted into the States from Toronto, with the Royal Arms of England emblazoned on its cover, and the legend "Now under protection of the British Crown."

A curious ana rather incredible story about the Royal tour comes from Portsmouth. When the Ophir, with the Duke and Duchess of Camwall on board, was nearing St. Helena, the signal was made to the attendant cruisers St. George and Juno, " Can you steam another knot? " The Juno replied, "Yes, four if you please.' This answer was regarded as impertinent, and when the vessels reached Portsmouth, as a mild form of punishment the Juno was ordered to lie up the harbour, while the more respectful St. George came alongside the dockyard. The Juno is lying at her moorings still. Probably 'tis an idle tale, but funnier things have happened in the Navy. We once heard a story to the effect that a certain cruiser which had steamed six hours from Sydney was ordered back by the commander to fetch new sets of films for his hand-camera.

M. Cochefert, the head of the Paris police, received an agreeable Christmas card in the form of a telegram from Demerara, which informed him that the swindler, Altmaygr, who escaped from New Caledonia three months ago, has been retaken. Altmayer belonged to a good family, and is an exceedingly good looking man. At eighteen he stole a cheque book of his father's and forged his signature for sums totalling up to several, thousand pounds. He was found out and made to enlist in a dragoon regiment, where he stole some valuable jewellery in his * captain * quarters and was imprisoned in the Cherche Ridi prison. He escaped in a sack of waste paper, in which he was carried to the dust heap. In 1886 he came back to Paris, begged for pardon, and by his father's influence got a position offered him in a business firm. One day he stole £1689. He was not found out for some months, when he was arrested and sent to Mazas prison. He escaped from it by stealing a stamped letter head from the desk of the magistrate who examined him, and writing an order on it for his own immediate deliverance. This he presented to the gate keeper and passed out of Mazas calmly. Altmayer has since been travelling under all sorts of aliases, and was arrested at Havre in 1888. He escaped from New Caledonia on board an English ship, which he left at DemeTara. There he was arrested, but he is unlikely to remain in safe keeping very long.

Ib is generally known by people accustomed to stay at hotels that they are supposed, on leaving their roioms, to deliver up to the proprietor, for safe keeping, valuables they do not keep about their persons, and if they neglect to do so the proprietor is not liable for their loss to "the extent of more than £30. The Innkeepers' Act at Home requires hotel proprietors to post up conspicuously upon their premises notices to this effect as a condition of their exemption from liability. There is. however, another condition in the Act, which is not generally known,_ and that is that the loss must not be occasioned by the wilful neglect of the innkeeper or his servants; if it is, and if there has been no contributory negligence on the part of the guest, the notice is no protection, and the innkeeper must make good the loss. A case like this has just been tried in the King's Bench Division. The plaintiff leit £900 odd worth of jewellery in .ai locked trunk in her room, shut her door, which had a spring lock, and left the key, according to the usual custom, with the attendant at the bureau downstairs. Upon her return to the hotel the key was not at the bureau, and it was ultimately found that someone else had got the key from the attendant, and having gained access to the room had broken open and rifled the trunk. The jr.iry found that the defendant's ser.Vants had been guilty of neglect, and that there was no contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, who acordjngly obtained judgment for the amount claimed.