CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12584, 20 August 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE GREAT HEAT.

During the first few days of July New York, as the cablegram told us, was like a city stricken by a plague.

It was tfce time of the great heat ware, when cities became like furnaces and men and animals dropped fainting or dying in the streets in hundreds. By July 3 the death-roll from heat reached 600, and in twenty-four hours there were 225 deaths and 327 cases of prostration. Tire most terrible mortality was among the children. Enormous crowds were deeping dn tire parks at might so as to avoid the stifling rooms. Hospitals were so full they could take no more. Doctors had not time to give certificates of death. The morgues were.,, crowded with unclaimed corpses that "had to be buried unknown. The whole account, reads, indeed, like the famous descriptions of the plagues in Athens, Florence, or London. The causa of the trouble was a rise of a few degrees in the ■temperature, an experience that San Francisco or Melbourne could have borne with comparative indifference. But it was the humidity of tha atmosphere that did the damage. The heat was. not burning so much fe softening. The very walls seemed' to' drip with perspiration, muscles stretched and joints became rmshaicMed, and those who suffered least were to a,tired and listless to work. New York is moib wdl fitted to endure heat. The streets are like tunnels, and the <«ily freeze to be obtained is 'that caused by the rush of electric cars. The .“wave” lasted a week There were mitigations, of course, for iced! drinks have been brought; : aMteril

to perfection in America. • “ Ice oreiam sodas” -were the stock drinks for ■women, end champagne juleps, mint juleps, gin fizzes, “horses’ necks” and “gin slings” were in immense demand. Tons of fruit were consumed, and nobody took meat at meals. Fashion and custom imposed mo reriri-otiom in the matter of dress ; and it is related that the poorer children went naked, played in the streets and allowed themselves to be sprinkled by the corporation water-carts. Charitable societies distributed free ice, though the supply was far short of the demand. As for the horses, many of them wore straw hats, with holes for their ears to stick through, or had weft sponges over their forelocks. In front of each engine-house, or fire brigade station, 'teams were lined up by the score waiting their turn with the mam at the hose. There was, of course, a great exodus into the country, but people whose circumstances compelled them to remain in the city 'had' an exceptionally trying time.

THE ' SYDNEY LABKIEIN.

Unless Mr Ambrose Pratt is a romancer of the first water, thia larrikins of Sydney have am 'organisation quite as formidable as that of

the Mafia or the Kle-Klux, in its own limited field of operations. Writing in “ Blackwood’s Magazine,” Mr Pratt describes the organisation, aims and methods of procedure of the “push” with a graphicness which is impressive, if not quite oonvinSmgr The larrikin®, we are asked to feve, constitute-am “imperium in impario” under an elective monarchy, every subject owing allegiance to the King, and being •obedient to a code of laws which, is framed by the King omdi five councillors. In lieu iof the civil list, his majesty receives a sum of 10s from every new member, who is received on probation for a term of six months before being, allowed! to subscribe his name in the “ push ” book. The King is absolute, and any act of rebellion, is punished by this “ sock” in the first instance, and by death in the second. For the ordeal by * sock ” the offender is stripped, gagged and strapped face 'downwards along an 'Ordinary wooden bench, whereupon his executioners beat him ini turn with a stocking fifed with wet sand until his flesh is completely raw. Ha is them salted, and! kept in durance till recovery. The death penalty is rarely inflicted except against outsiders, but it is minutely described by Mr Pratt. “The King,” he says, “chooses for executioners a score of his subjects, of whom at least seven are the latest recruits of the order. The victim, who is Often stalked for month® before he can be found in a favourable spot, is, when caught, surrounded 1 , stunned and thrown to the ground. No lethal' weapon is employed, but each of ‘ the push ’ silently kicks, and continues to kick, the body ,of the prostrate wretch until life is extinct. The whole twenty are thus equally rendered guilty of murder, and probably mo member of ahy ‘puShf has been enrolled for a longer period than two, years without being thus stamped with the hall mark of pushdoin, which is the brand of Cain.” If a.-larrikin wishes to quit a distract, he is only allowed to do so after signing a confession of hawing, single-handed, committed the last capital crime of which the “ push ” is jointly and severally ‘guilty, which document ifo promptly filed in the,Push Book. Mr Pratt’s article makes sensational reading, hut his statement that a secret society exists in Sydney armed with the .powersof the old Vehmgerichte of Westphalia, and striking at its victims with all the deadly force of its mediaeval prototype, will require further confirmation before securing general acceptance.

THE AMERICAN INVASION.

Happily many Britons are still of Sir Carnegie’s mind that their country has no causa to bs alarmed at the

rapid commercial and industrial progress of America, but no one can help viewing with alarm the acquisition of British steamer 'lines, libraries, art treasures, tramways and mines by enterprising Americans. But John Bull has not lost his good! humour ini th© keenness of the rivalry. Apropos of Mr Carnegie’s munificent gift to the Scotch Universities it has been suggested that greater attention should be devoted in the University classes' to American facts and methods, and half a dozen questions suitable for inclusion in the nest matriculation examination papers have been framed by a London journal. Thus in Geography candidates might be requested to “draw a map of tho United States, marking London, Glasgow and Birmingham.” “if a man- does a piece of work in four days, how much quicker will an American do it at half the salary?” is an ordinary Rule of Three problem, which any Fourth Standard New Zealand school boy could solve. More intricate are the questions in economics. “ Yankee millionaires over here,” runs the first, “ state that they feel as if this were their own country. The German Emperor, when last visiting us, declared that he felt perfectly at home. Account for this.” Here is a trade problem of interest to New Zealand: “ You are an English, manufacturer, and an extensive order is received'for locomotives for the trans-African railway. Which would you do, demand the entire alteration of the railway to fit the sis locomotives you have in stock, or recommend an. American rival?” Candidates in History might be asked to write a irate, on the invasion of Great Britain and the rebellion and subjugation of the Angles, to give the dates of the accessions of Yerkes 1., Sloane, Morgan, the contractor, and other' conquerors, and 1 also of the beatification) of St Carnegie. Finally, we have one of those pleasant geographical essays: “If you were am American millionaire travelling for recreation, which would yon take back with you as a souvenir, London or Paris? State vour reasons for preferring one of these trinkets.” These “ test questions ” have become very popular in America, if one may judge from the frequency with which they have been quoted.