CURRENT TOPICS

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXII, Issue 13574, 21 October 1904, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

London's lost LEGION.

The dreadful plight of the homeless wanderers of London is always- a topic of discussion, but the near cap-

proaeh of winter has quickened interest in the subject, and the London newspapers are full of pathetic stories of the poor. Faint with the want of food, and worn out with tramping aimlessly about the streets, they crouch at night in dark corners and .doze until the voice of the policeman sends them off again upon their dreary round. To sleep in the streets is not allowed by law, and the outcast must keep moving on, unless, perchance, he can evade the rangers and seek refuge in one of the paries. No one, says one correspondent, can live in London without experiencing, at the sight of these human derelicts, the haunting fear that his own future may hold some such dreadful fate in store. "I would sooner kill myself," he may think; but the doctors even declare that destitution can so weaken a man's power of will as to make him incapable of self-destruction. Many have known days of prosperity and affluence who now endure the slow starvation of the streets, and yet they cling to a. life which in reality is nothing but a living death. A journalist who spent a. night recently among the outcasts on the Embankment, their only refuge, when the parks are shut, heard from tlleir lips some tragic life-stories. One, a woman well past fifty, had been the wife of a country clergyman. Her husband committed a crime and went to gaol, her friends deserted her, and now she is a penniless wanderer, driven to beg in order to keep body and soul together. A haggard-looking man in tattered clothes had been a University graduate, and afterwards a schoolmaster. Long years of drudgery culminated in the failure of the school, and he went to London to earn a miserable pittance as a clerk. In a moment of temptation he stole, and since coming out of prison had been a. helpless tramp. Another poor waif had been a governess, who ran away to London with the son of her employer. Cruelly deserted by the man, she was left utterly destitute and friendless. Such life-tragedies might he multiplied almost indefinitely, and the same terrible note of despair is found to run. through them all. '

A TEHR'inLE EXPERIENCE.

The holiday season this year has produced a heavylist of Alpine casualties

among British tourists. In one week, no fewer than six holiday-makers met their death in. the Alps, including the Rev W. F. Wright, tho Vice-Principal of Ripon College, -who, with three experienced mountaineering friends, perished on the Grand Pa-nwlis Range, between Cognc and Valsavaranche. The list of Alpine victims nearly included the name of Mens. Albert S-enouque, a prominent French astronomer, who, accompanied by a single guide, started from Chamounix to make observations from the summit of Mont Blanc. They reached the top of the mountain' in fin> weather, but during the night a terrible snowstorm came on, and when daylight arrived the astronomer and his guide found the small observatory in which they had rested covered feet deep in enow. They forced their way out> however, to

find the storm still raging so furiously that they were glad, to get back into the little building. Their condition, was on* calling for fortitude. All the food they had with thenx was a few biscuits and some chocolate, and the fuel stored in the observatory consisted of a handful or two of sticks and a little coke. Dining on a biscuit, and supping on a cup of cocoa, they went to bed, but the howling of the gale, which threatened to wreck their temporary prison, banished sleep, and when morning broke,again the weary prisoners found the weather conditions worse than ever. Another night came, and with it an. increase, in the violence of the tempest. } Then the hurricane broke down the door of the observatory, and their little sleeping apartment was all but rilled with snow. • In the kitchen attached to the observatory the stove was choked with snow, and their store of wood wet beyond hope of kindling, so they rolled themselves in as many blankets as they could find, and awaited events with the patience of despair. On the sixth morning the two prisoners, well nigh dead from hunger, cold and fatigue, ventured forth. Almost immediately another storm envelopid them. For four hours they stumbled and strayed, hardly knowing or oaring whither they went, but at length, with hands and feet frost-bitten, they regained the observatory. Here they slept till another day dawned, and creeping forth, they were helped down the mountain by a rescue party. Months ago the St. Petersjapax's burg newspapers were disdemakds. cussing the. terms to be- imposed upon Japan at the conclusion of the war with an easy assurance that thf> Russian arms would 1 be ultimately victorious. They are probably discussing them now with the same assumption of confidence. But the events of the past fcu r weeks have given more interest to the Japanese schemes foT dividing the spoils in the Fax East. The " Kezia. Znsshi," one of the leading journals published' in Tokio, takes.the- success of the Mikado's forces quite as a. matter of course and lays down isvery detail of the final settlement. It would be idle, it says, to talk of arbitration until- Vladivostoek is captured, but when that port is in the hands of the Japanese King Edward will have to be appointed arbitrator. His Majesty, we are told, is " the most appropriate person " for the position, and he is trusted: by both the belligerents. But the arbitrator is not to have an entirely free hand in the matter. Japan must hold Port Arthur Dalny and Vladivostoek, or, at any rate, have them secured for all time against Russian occupation. "The Government" the "Kezia Zasshi " continues, "should also claim Saghalien Island, the fishery of the Amur, aaid the indemnity due to Russia 'from China. But these are the minor claims. • The principal claim- should be under no circumstances yielded. Russia has so far sustained such a severe defeat at our hands, and will some day plan her revenge. In that case, what Japan should fear most is that Russia will possess naval stations in the Far East. The income of Russia is seven times as large as that of Japan. If with this enormous income Russia should plan a ten-year naval expansion, with the view of stationing her fleet in her Far Eastern naval stations against us, we could never rival her. Only' when she is without a naval station in the Far East need we have no fear, no matter how powerful a navy she may possess t because she could not manoeuvre a fleet, just as she- can not manoeuvre her Baltic fleet to-day. Port Arthur and Dalny are already ours. Only Vladivostoek remains to be taken." This was written nearly two months ago and the statement that " PortArthur and Dalny are already ours " gives some colour to the view that Japan is deferring the capture of Port Arthur only to tempt the Russian Baltic fleet to sea.