CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14432, 24 July 1907, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

A novel experiment in training gi l-ls to manage a homo is to be

MODISL WIVES. /

made in London if the Education Committee of tho London County Council adopts a scheme which has been submitted by the directors of the Shotreditch Technical Institute It is proposed to establish an experimental home either by building an annexe to the Institute or renting or leasing a house in the vicinity. The aim is to make tho girls proficient in tho domestic duties they would have to perform as tho wives of artisans earning from £1 to £3,a week. In addition, to washing, cooking and cleaning, and the general management of the homo on a systematic basins, they will be taught how "to shop" in tho most economical way. Tho training will last six weeks, six girls being under tuition at a timo. Only thoeo who have gone through the theoretical training at the Institute a.nd earned tho domestic economy scholarship will be eligible. Two teachers will live with the girls. At the beginning of each week a certain sum will bo sot apart for rent, rates, clothing, insurance, travelling expenseo and' for providing a fund for " a rainy day." The remainder will bo available for food and any little luxuries that may be jwssiblo. In order that the training may be as practicable as possible, it is necessary that the time occupied in attending to baby in most homes should not bo overlooked in the programme of the experimental home. It is proposed! each week, therefore, to undertake the care of a child belonging to a, working-class family in the neighbourhood, aaid in this way the girls should gain valuable experience. The home will be provided as homes of the working-class are, only the furniture will be more tasteful, and probably more useful, at less cost than is to be seen in the average artisan's house. Every pieco of furniture and ©very utensil will have the price paid for it marked on it, so that the girls may havo an idea of the: cost of furnishings. It is not proposed, of course, to spend from £1 to £3 a week on tho experimental homo. Apart from the teachers' salaries, it can be run for considerably less than a pound a week. Tho initial -expenditure is estimated at £IBO.

CECTX BHODES'S FAME.

Unveiling a) tablet in memory of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford a few weeks ago, Lord Rosebery

gave hi 3 hearers, some interesting glimpses of the very human workings of the great Empire-builder's mind. The idea of the scholarship scheme, which would combine his Imperial ideals with his affection for Oxford, was a constant solaco and . inspiration to Cecil Rhodes in his last years. Ho once said to Lord Rosebery: " When I find myself in uncongenial company, or when people are playing their games, or when I am alone in a railway carriage, I shut my eyes and think of my great idea. I turn it over in my mind and try to get a new light on it; it is the pleasantest companion I have." It was l not merely a companion, to him, observed Lord Rosebery; it was a solaco, and it was a protection. "I have my will here," Rhodes used to say, " and when they abuse me I think of it, andi I know they will read it after I am gone, and will do me justice when I am dead." The two friondu used sometimes to discuss the subject of fame. Rhodes's ambition was not impersonal. He had at one timo a strong desire for posthumous fame. Lord Rosebery argued on the other side, urging that fame was short, and that in the case of-but very few people there was no fame to speak of, and even with them it did not last very long. He pointed) to the millions of universes in the firmament, in eaoh of which there may be millione of insects liko ourselves striving for tho same brief and futile hour of fame. But Rhodes would have none of it. "No," he said; "I don't agree with you at all. I have given my name to this groat region of Rhodesia, and in two or three hundred years my name will still be there, and I shall be remembered. After two or three centuries what does it matter?" Thus with him, even then, it wo-s only a question of degree. The last time Lord Rosebory saw him, when the hand of death was upon him, and when' sentence of death had already probably been pronounced to him, the Empire-builder was in a very different mood. "Well, after all." he said, "'you are right; everything in this world, is too short, life and ff.me and achievement, everything ia too short"; and he gave a groan as he thought of his own career and his own ambition cut short. "Perhaps ho and I were both wrong,' said Lord Rei?e-be-ry. '•' I think his fame will survive his own anticipations and mine also. He Lis dug deep, he has dug broad the foundations of his own rep itation In South Africa, that region <yf perplexity which will, at any rate, remain for all timo a monument of British generosity and, I hope, of British wisdom, the name of Rhodes will always be preserved."

Sixteen yoars ago, "john orth." Europe was stirred by

tho sudden disappearance from Austrian Court circles of the Archduke J'ohann Salvator, a relativo of tho Emperor, a man of high culture and a clever musician. He fell in love with a dancer of the Royal Opera House in Vienna, and 1 when he departed from Fiuiae in his yacht his inamorata accompanied him. As " John Ortli" the Archeluke was known to have reached tho Argentine, whoro lie led a chequered career for many years. Then he was completely lost to eight for a time, but a little over a year ago he was reported as having died of enteric whilst exploring in the Argentine hinterland. But it is now averred that not only ia John Orth very much alive, but that he is at the present time residing in London. Ho came, it is said, from Buenos Ayre3 by a steamer which reached Cherbourg a few weeks ago. Among his fellow-passengers was Dr Quintana, son of a former President of the Aripntin© Republic. The pair be-

camo very friendly on the voyage, and the doctor, noting the resemblance his fellow-passenger bore to published portraits of " John Orth," taxed him with being the missing Archduke. After a time, Dr Quintana succeeded in getting an admission from his friend that he was really John Salvator. The identity of the claimant is supported by a M. Garzon, an ox-Senator of Uruguay, now resident in Paris, who, being interested in the adventures of the missing Archduke, sot himself to trace " John Orth " in his travels. The information collected was embodied in a biography, and published about two years ago. During tho voyage from the Argentine, "Orth" and Dr Q.uintana frequently discussed this book, and at Cherbourg a meeting was arranged with tho author. M. Garzon, although lie had written a book on "John Orth," had never, until the meeting at the railway-station, set eyes on tho individual who passed under that name in the Argentine. He had, however, a portrait of him, and specimens of his handwriting, and M. Garzon is convinced that it is the genuine Archduke Johann who has returned to Europe. The man who now claims to be Orth appears to be about fifty years of age. The Archduke Johann was born in 1852.- The usual photographs of the Archduke ehow him to be wearing a beard, and " Orth" is clean-shaven, but there is not likely to be any difficulty in identification on that account.