CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12933, 29 September 1902, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

When Parliament had shut down and 1 the Coronation was at length out of the way, the London news-

is TRUE LOVE PLATED OUT?

papers, following their custom, opened their columns for the discussion of more or less abstruse' questions of economics or philosophy. The latest numbers of the “ Daily News ” show that that journal was “ in for ” a very vigorous and healthy controversy on the aged question, “ Is true love played out?” A correspondent, who signed himself Alpha,” led off by asserting in so many words that it was, that though in rare instances men and women now-a-days married for love, the tendency was to be cautious and calculating, and to marry for money. As a bright and shining example “ Alpha ” quoted the case of the late Signor Crispi. When but a youth Crispi ran away from home and comfojt, and married the woman of his choice, in face of parental authority. When his wife died, her sister, who had secretly loved him, but who was nob'allowed to marry her entered a convent; and forsook the world for his sake. She Ikept him always in remembrance, although she had but one interview with'him in fifty years. When the flags of Italy flew at half-mast at his death she fainted away. The letter was a direct challenge to the people who had married for love on nothing a year, and had never known a moment’s unhappiness, and it was evident that they intended to accept it. “ Beta," for instance, said that he had read “Alpha’s” letter “with real pain.” He fell in love ’ at first sight, courted for a fortnight and proposed. He had nothing, she had nothing ; but they both had love and they wanted nothing more. “ It is no fun keeping house on more than £250 a year,” he declares. His motto is

“What I spent, I had; what I saved, I lost; what I gain, I have.” “ Alpha had some sharp words concerning the com* mercial-mindedneas of the upper “Beta” thinks that they do not count. 1 “ I know nothing of the smart' set," ha writes, “which I believe to be a comparatively small and undeniably dull company of people, who mostly live on credit! and cigarettes. But among the middle classes, among which I am proud to keep my little shop, I believe that love haa never been so powerful a motif® as it is at this moment.” “Beta” welcomes the “revolt” of the House of Hapsburg, and looks forward to the time when ai British prince will be able to many a colonial Premier’s daughter or the daughter of any commoner, outside the criminal class. Thus fairly started, the “Love” controversy very soon threatened to crowd out even the police news.

A remarkable CRIPPLE^

“ Lucas Malet’s ” unpleasantly strong novel, “The) History of Sir Richard Cal-

mady,” which is commonly regarded as one of the most successful of recent literary productions, concerns, as most people are doubtless aware, the life of a man. whose feet grew where the knees should! have been.. In spite of this deformity* Sir Richard compelled the respect of quits a wide circle of friends. A London writer, recalling the career of an able Irish' member of Parliament, suggests that it may have given Mrs the idea fop her greatwork, and novel readers will undoubtedly be interested in this parallel from real life. The late Mr Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagb, who represented Carlow in the House, of Commons from 1869 to 1880, was practically without arms and legs. ' He had tot be wheeled into the House, but, deformed as he was, his abilities were universally recognised. A remarkable story attaches to his name. He is said to have been do-, scended from. Dermot MacMomugh, ■ tha r King of Leinster, who brought Henry 11. to Ireland to replace him on his throne. At some remote period, nobody knows when,, a curse was pronounced on the Kavanaghs, namely, that “ the heir of Bojris should bo a torso.” “ Generations passed,” says the v London writer, “and the prophecy-remain-ed unfulfilled. The father of Arthur Kavanagh married, after the death of his first wife, Lady Harriet Trench, a relative of my father, s who told me in later years that he perfectly remembered, on- the occasion of her marriage, how it was in the family, ‘I wonder she dare marry Kavanagh, with that curse hanging over him.’ At that time it was obviously a very old story, and most unquestionably well! known before Lady Harriet's marriage.” The third son of that marriage was Arthur MaclVftjrroagh, who had only the rudiments of fingers on his shoulders, and of toes on his thighs. The two elder sons grew up, but died, so that the third sort was “ heir of Borns,” and the prophecy was fulfilled. He made, we are told, one of the very beat and ablest of Irish landlords, and his success in conquering his frightful disabilities, his courage and noble character were 3i.ttJ.ei short of miraculous. “ Lucas Malet ” seems to have had this story in her minidi when) she planned, her novel. Arthur Kavanagh a mother, it is to be presumed, knew of the old curse, and we are surely entitled ixt read something more than coincidence U# the strange circumstances of his birth.

THE BRITISH museum:.

The recently issued annual report on the British Museum shows that the great)

institution continues to grow in usefulness and in popularity. The visitors to the reading room of the Library last year numbered 200,055, and those to the newspaper room 25,511 as compared with 12,741 in 1896. The increase of visitors to the general collections has been similarly marked, for in five years the figure®, have grown from 581,906 to 718,614. - The number of student visitors, : those who sought admission to special departments, has also advanced considerably of late years, and the Museum authorities have been making great efforts to arrange their collections for the assistance of students. Thus cases axe devoted to albinism* to protective mimicry, to animals bred in domestication, to crystals, to mineralogy and so forth. During the year 48,855 volumes were added to the library, 12,720 being received, under the Copyright Act. "Besides this, nearly 61,000 parts of volumes j or separate numbers of periodicals were ac- j quired and 5170 newspapers published: in j the United: Kingdom, or 208,582 single • j numbers, were forwarded for filing pur- j poses. The additions to the Library in- ; elude many valuable manuscripts and doou- | ments, including a fine series of Greek | papyri and, among the miscellaneous docu- j ments, a despatch to Cromwell, signed by j Monk and Blake, reporting the victory | over the Dutch fleet on June 5, 1655. The | Egyptian collections have been enriched by j weapons and tools of flint which cannot | be less than 6000 years old, and in the j Assyrian collection there are newly dis- j covered tablets and inscribed cones dating j . ’back to 2500 B.C. Wong the additions j to the Museum of Natural History are a , series of models of the’mosquito and the J malarial parasite, an egg of the great auk j and an elephant’s tusk measuring more than 10ft on the outer curve. Lord Walsingham placed at the disposal of the - au- ' thorities his collection of nearly 200,000 /, specimens of the smaller groups of moths. Sir Harry Johnston contributed two skulls and a skin of the okapi, and Lord Ran- , furly’s donations have very nearly com- J pleted the Museum’s collection of New j Zealand birds. It is not surprising, considering the rate at which the collections have been growing, that the Museum has had to seek the assistance of Parliament in solving .its “ housing problem.” -