CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14988, 7 May 1909, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

Angelo Neumann, who

waiver for nearly ton years RKCOtXECTiONS. acted as stage-manager

for Richard Wagner, in bis recently published "Personal Recollections of Wagner," tells somo stories which throw an interesting sidelight on a personality which has not been made familiar to tho reading public. Neumann first met Wagner in 1862, at Vienna, while tho preliminary rehearsals of "Tristan" were in progress, and ho speaks of the maestro walking to and from the rehearsals " generally talking to himself, and flourishing big gTeat red bandana handkerchief." In 1864, while staying at an hotel in, Stuttgart, Neumann was greatly annoyed by n man in the next room walking up and down all night in terribly squeaky boots, and was surprised, on making enquiries, to find that bis restless neighbour was Richard Wagner. Wagner was at this time in great financial straits, and the landlord of tho hotel, an admirer of his genius, asked Neumann to offer him the beat two rooms in the house and a standing invitation to the table d'hote, free of charge " as the management was only too delighted to havo so great an artist as guest." Neumann declined the commission, and no one could bo found bold enough to convey the invitation to the composer, a striking testimony to tho lively nature of the great man's susceptibilities. The letters which Neumann publishes show that Wagner was a keen man of business. Ho had seen so much of poverty that ho had no desire to repeat the experience. At Berlin, during tho production of "The Ring" series, Wagner took strong exception to Neumann's action in including the singer Scarpia in the cast of "The Valkyrie," and demanded that he should be paid off at once. Scarpia was allowed to sing at rehearsal, however, and immediately after the great scon© in the second act Wagnor tore on to the stage; shouting " Where is he ? Whero is Scarpia ? That was glorious; man alive, where did you get that voiceP" Neumann also tolls how, some weeks after tho death of Wagnor at Venice, tho Wagner Company visited the city and arranged a stately tribute to the memory of its founder. The orchestra and all tho members of tho company, in tho gondolas of state, lent by the municipality, wore conducted along the Grand Canal to tho Palazzo Vendra.min, where , tho orchestra began tho first great strains of the Funeral March from the "Dusk of the Gods." Tho members of tho company, and the crowds who assembled to see tho ceremony, uncovered their heads and in sileueo listened to tho mighty masterpiece

StnUTARIVR SOUND fiICVALLING.

The sea is to be robbed of one more terror by the system of submarine sound signalling, which has lately been adopted

by Trinity House for use on the coast of Great Britain. It is a system of bell signalling in fogs, and takes up tho work where wireless telegraphy stops. By wireless telegraphy a disabled vessel can tell others what has happened, but if lost in ail impenetrable fog it caunot possibly say where it ip. The electric current goes in all directions, and will not convey the definite position of a ship. It was the water, not the air, that was the medium for locating the Republic, when, wrapped in a fog blanket off Nantucket, she was struck by the Florida. On that eventful morning one of the Republic's officers up in the wheelhouse, listening at two telephone receivers strapped to bis cans, heard the sound of a bell. It was not a loud sound, and seemed to come from a long distance, but, faint as it was, he was able to catch its strokes. " One-two-three-lour-five-six," ho counted. There was an interval of two seconds. Then he caught the same number again. He let the two receivers drop, and turned

to the little group of anxious navigators. "It is Nantucket all right," he said, " and she is bearing north north-east." A moment later tho wireless operator was tapping his key and sending out in all directions through the ether the information that the Republic, disabled and needing help, was from fifteen to seventeen miles south of Nantucket lightship. The submarino signal is a simplo device, its chief value lying in tho fact that water is a much surer means of communication than air. Ring a bell under water and the sound will travel almost four times faster than the same sound will carry through the air, whilo it m not subject to tho uncertainty of "silent zones," which havo made siren signalling subject to all kinds of atmospheric freaks. With the bell system each lightship or station has a bell which is sunk about twenty-five feet as soon as a fog rolls in, and is operated with a distinctive code number by means of compressed air. Down in tho bowels of a ship liko the Republic clamped on to the vessel's skin on either side near tho keel, thero are two littlo tanks of water containing a. microphone, connected with a receiver in the whoelhouse. ' The sound, waves coming through the water hit tho vessel's sides, and by means of the port and starboard tanks the officer on watch can tell exactly the direction of the sound.

BESIEGED TABRIZ.

Tho Russian advanco on Tabriz, backed by the Nationalists' appeal

to the Shah to rescue tho country from foreign intervention and the danger of partition, practically put an end to tho extreme suffering of the population of tho city, estimated at 300,000. Tho struggle between the constitutionalists of Tabriz and tho forces of the Shah was> a prolonged one extending over a couple of months. Both sides suffered seriously from one cause and another, and those in a position to sum up the probabilities were never sanguine that tho Royalists would be successful in their operations. The population suffered oxtremo privations as tho result of the prolonged siege. Tho women went about complaining of the lack of the bare necessaries of life, while tho merchants were beggared by the complete stoppage of business. On the other hand every effort mado to take the town by assault had failed. Satar Khan and his followers showed the most determined spirit, and declared that they would resist the pressure of hunger for months. The plight of tho Shah's troops was no better, and thoir prospect of victory was not 00 good. Prince Ain-cd-Dowleh, the leader of the Royalists, was absolutely powerless in his efforts to havo the Indo-European telegraph lino repaired, after it had been cut by his own troops, and utter anarchy prevailed on the Royalist side. An employee of f}be Indo-European company was sent out to repair the broken line, but was captured and turned back after having been stripped. The Kavasa of tho French consulate was robbed whilo paying an official visit to Ain-ed-Dowleh. Two foreign merchants of Tabriz, 0110 a Swiss and one a Greek, were captured and released after being relieved of everything they possessed. It was therefore tho restoration not merely of legislative machinery and the Constitution, but also of the barest elements of law and order, that Persia needed. Tho observations of tho Constitutionalists led them to believe that o conclusive issue was near at hand, and evidences of the fact were not wanting. Tho Samadi Kurds as long ago as the beginning of March were returning to their homes, disgusted at having been involved in a campaign which had entailed severe losses without tho expected opportunity of substantial loot. A fight had taken placo between sections of tho investing troops, and one section had withdrawn. Tho Karadaghli villages, in the absence of their most active men on the Shah's service, were being plundered by lawless tribes, and the troops from these villages were also compelled to return home. There was every prospect that the siege would soon bo abandoned, and tho Shah's recent armistice and offer of an amnesty and a constitution in conformity with the sacred law must have been hailed with satisfaction in the besieged city.