CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12559, 22 July 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

AN - elephant's St'ICIDE.

A remarkable story of ele-

phantine emotionalism is told by a correspondent of the " Madras Mail." Among

the team of elephants carrying military stores to a Southern Indian station was a magnificent tusker named Sultan, a docile and even affectionate beast. He would stand for hours fanning the flies from the face of his mahout's child as he lay asleep between his great forefeet. One ntomino- when Sultan was obviously in a 1 bad temper the mahout struck him sharply with the heavy steel goad, and the nexti instant the unfortunate Hindoo was hurled aloft by the beast's trunk and dashed to the ground. The mahout's wife, frantia with grief at seeing her husband slain, threw herself and her infant before the* elephant, crying to him that, as he had murdered their proteotor and bread-winner,, to allow, them to share the same fate. But beyond raising the child tenderly and placing it near him, gently stroking its face with his trunk he took no notice of them. It was the custom on the road to allow each working elephant' a pint of arrack daily, but the beasts knew .perfectly well .that their keepers robbed them of a portion,' of the ration, and made the quantity up: with water. It was shown at the inquest on the dead mahout that he had served! Sultan with almost pure water on the night before the incident, and Sultan had evidently not forgotten , + he robbery. Dur-

lug the rest of the jourfley the elephant stubbornly refused to -work, and took no food, allowing only the. •widow and child of the dead mahout to come near him. On arrival at the station he was " oourtmartialled" for disobedience, and sentenced to be flogged. The-punishment was administered by two brother elephants, who Itood on either side, each armed with a stout steel chain carrying a Iheavy shot. Sultan took his punishment calmly, and was then marched off to the lines. But in the afternoon, when he was taken with the other elephants to water at the neighbouring tank he deliberately walked in beyond his depth, and, in spite of efforts to drag him out, drowned himself. Clearly he felt his humiliation and disgrace so keenly that existence became intolerable.

THE tfOSQTJITO.

The mosquito problem is , occupying attention in those regions of America- where

the pest is a» annually lerarring trouble. All sorts of schemes, scientific and! unscientific, but wholly slaughterous, have been devised for destroying the larvae during the close season, but with no great success. But one

enthusiastic student has solved the problem ©f haw to destroy the individual mosquito with unfailing certainty. His discovery will Dot solve the whole mosquito problem, but

it will carry the consolation of 'revenge wherever the bite of cules or other winged' pest of the tribe prevails. Two things 1 only are necessary to ensure the capture. The- mosquito must be allowed to light on one's body, and! he must then be, allowed to unsheath his labium and begin [his boring for oil, blood, ,or trouble, or whatever his appetite may crave. When

once in this position he. is absolutely at the mercy-of Ms victim, andean be made.''prisoner -without the stirring of a hand. This is the inventor's recipe: " Simply - quit breathing. Sib still' and hold your "breath. The mosquito, -with all the force.of ,his wings and legs, could not break away from the spot where he had. sunk his beak, and the only remaining thing to do is to slip one's fingers up under his wings, get a good firm grip on Ms back, and then swat him in the head or slay him in some other approved method." The explanation of the capture is that when in a normal condi-

tion the pores of the body are 'open sd

long is'".breathing continues, butjthe.iiitf- ' men* a man. stops breathing the pores contract. " Tie contraction holds the mosquito by the beak, and it Ist impossible for him

to : break* away. The system appears to •havei aE the simplicity and effectiveness of* ' ,'the time-honoured method of catching birds ,3>y putting salt on their tails, or the infallible system of black-beetle slaughter which necessitates their capture and a gentle pressure on their ribs until they open their mouths sufficiently wide to take in a pinch of the destroying powder. But, ia common with these methods also, the new mosquito killer is hardly likely to na-Srdicate'fhe race. , /'"..".,

jWNETT miles AN HOUE.

The great motor-oar race from Paris to Berlin probably attracted more atten-

tion than any previous contest of the kind, but it is by no means- the

»nly one in which extraordinary rates of speed have "bee© developed. The annual race from Paris to Bordeaux has always been marked by two or three conspicuous performances;, and this year it was expected! that at least; one of the machines would obtain a pace of minety miles an hour. In a trial spin between Paris and Le Treport, M. Girardot got up this speed over several long stretches of level road, and covered the whole distance, 144 miles, in less than tiro Even then he complained that he icpuld not travel at his fastest, " because the population- along the roads were so terrified.". We must confess that our sympathy is rather Tvit-h the frightened rustics than, M. Girardot. The English oars enterf ted for the'Bordeaux race had a top speed of miles an hour at the -normal' rate of the engine, tout by a little extra pressure-ithey could be driven at nearly a hundred miles an hour. This pace is nob practicable' on English roads, -as there ds scarcely a stretch of highway without curves •Hoi some sort, and if a -car were taken round :ft corner at even forty miles an hour it be sure to come to grief. A 'French racing man, speaking to a reporter on the 1 subject of motor speed, declared that thirtyor forty miles on an English .highway .seemed faster than fifty on sixty on a .road. "You can see right ahead to the horizon nearly the whole way on the< »oute rationale," he said, "and the-result is that not; ;only do you feel safe at ..-.a, great speed, (but the people can see you ; coining, and they do not, therefore, fee! endangered. It puts fast motoring on quite' % different footing from that which it occupies in England." Even a speed of forty miles an hour on an ordinary road would give some point to the nigger's remark that •" it 'takes two to see a motor-car, one to Bay 'Here she comes,' and the 'other to eay 'Thar she goes.'" It will be some' years before we see cars travelling "at halfthis rat©in.New Zealand, and probably-by lfchat time the French motorist will be covering his hundred miles an hour as-an 'every-day pastime.