CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

Even millionaires nowadays contract tho habit of living in flats. To meet the requirements

COSTLY APARTMENTS.

of some of them a house which has a j rental value of £60,000 a year has been erected in the ''exclusive" quarter of Fifth Avenue, New York. It has two great claims to distinction in American eyes. It is situated near Mr Andrew Carnegie's mansion, and it is believed to bo "the most expensive residential building in the world." It is the first "apartment" house that has been built in Fifth ' Avenue, and it is designed to accommodate eighteen tenants. They will share the burden of the enormous rental, paying on an average at the rate of £204 a year for each room they occupy. The rental seems ridiculous, even for American; millionaires, but apparently money is: no object in the case of the wealthy ■ people who prefer paying rent to' maintaining mansions of their own. All, save one or two of the apartments were taken before the building was com-, pleted, among the tenants being Mrj Levi P. Morton, who was VicePresident of the United .States twenty j years ago, and two prominent members ', of the Legislature, Senator Root and-j Senator Guggenheim. Senator Root, who is known to fame as a former | Secretary of State, having held office, under Mr M'Kinley and Mr .Roosevelt, L enjoys.the distinction of paying ajhigher rental than any other tenant', in tho building, his little bill amount- j« ing to £soooper annum. The house is; divided into " simplex " and " duplex "I apartments, and Mr Root, of course, j has secured a " duplex " set, occupying ; two floors that aro connected by pn- j vate stairways. The " simplex " apart- j meats boast one 'floor only. The de- < scriptions of the house that have been j * published by the newspapers in New I York show that the unhappy million- j j aires who are condemned to live "in j i rooms" will be able to obtain at least jl a measure of comfort. The kitchens < and laundries are said to be the finest j ' in New York, and all the rooms are to.} bo cleaned by the vacuum process. It I is really soothing to learn that this U cleaning and the washing of the win- 1 dows are included in the rental." The , t millionaire tenants must be quite eco- j j nomical persons. j _

APrAEBNT BEArH.

Some very earnest people in Paris are endeavouring to launch a cru-j sade against the laws and

customs that make premature burial ] possible. The subject is one in which - Parisians are interested particularly,! since burial in that city is never deland longer than two days after death. , One of the leaders of the crusade is , Dr Thainot, » prominent medical man, 1 who is said to have devoted years to ] the study of the melancholy subject, j \ lecture which he gave recently m , the Sorbonne attracted a great deal , „f attention. Dr Thainot mentioned 1 a number of cases in which persons who appeared to be dead were buried ] before the mistake could be rectified. J T the retreat from Moscow a .trench , general was shot, and as he was be- , r d to be dead an order was issued ] fhlt he should be buried in the snow. [ T interment had been completed \ , tMe general's aide-de-camp ex- ( nrSU a wish to take the body back ] France. The body was exhumed ■ t 0 1 laid on a car, and within a few ] an tn c general recovered conscious- \ He lived to Bttend the funeral j.» 'Tike officer who had ordered his bu-' <

rial. Another case mentioned in Dr Thainot's lecture was that of a young priest who suddenly became insensible whilo preaching in a crowded cathedral. A medical man declared that he was dead, and arrangements Merc made for the funeral. Tho young priest was unable to speak or move, but he understood all that was going on, and at the last moment he -regained the use of his faculties and averted a tragedy. The story of this young priest was told to the French Senate many years ago by Cardinal Donnct, and a tremendous impression was created when the. Cardinal remarked, "Ho is to-day among you, asking you to prevent tragedies." Dr Thainol declares that in spite of all the attention that has been given to the subject science has not discovered a certain sign of death. Apparent death resembles real death so closely in every respect that it seems to be impossible to distinguish with any certainty between the two states.

THE WINDOW SIIABHEES.

The" proceedings in the London Police Courts in connection with the recent suffra-

getto demonstrations, were not without pathetic touches. It was evident that many of the girls and women who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment with hard labour, for having smashed windows, were shocked at the discovery that they were to bo treated as ordinary offenders against the rights of property. One elderly woman appeared at Bow Street in widows' weeds, and pleaded for the option of paying a fine, promising that she would never offend again. She was sent to prison for two months, the ovidence showing that she had destroyed several panes of glass with a large hammer. "I am very vexed I did it. I will pay for tho damage," said another elderly woman. She had made an attack upon the War Office, and was sentenced promptly to "two months' hard." She was succeeded in the dock by two 3'oung girls, tho daughters of an Essex gentleman. They had thrown large flints through some windows and the pleading of their lawyer did not save them from going to gaol. A woman whose name, appropriately enough, was- "Lawless," was charged with having broken a window in the, Cannon Bond Police Station. She had gone there to visit a friend, who was under arrest, and while the officers were making inquiries courteously on her behalf, she produced a stone and flung; it against a large pane of glass. She explained to the Magistrate that she had been assailed by a " sildden impulse." and a sentence of one month's imprisonment with hard labour was •nflieted. Dr Ethel Smyths was charged with having done damage to .the residence of Mr Lewis Harcourt, in Berkeley Square. She said that she had thrown a stone, but had been " horrified to find that the shot had failed." She was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and told the Magistrate as she left the dock that she had seen Mrs Pankhurst recently and had been assured that "oven if the leaders disappeared beneath the earth tho movement would go on." Fifty women were sentenced during the same sitting, the punishment in the great majority of cases being imprisonment with hard labour.' The Magistrate inflicted a small fine only in the. case of a woman aged seventy-nine years, who had broken a window- of a club. He suggested that she was old enough to have known better.