FROM ROUND THE WORLD.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 14 March 1906, Page 4

FROM ROUND THE WORLD.

EVENTS AND OBSERVATIONS

2,000,000 PILGRIMS. The Khumbh Mela, the great religious fair held at the confluence ot the Ganges and Jumna beneath the old Mogul fort at Allahabad, is visited this year by a personage who claims to be the most learned ot all the Mahatmas in Tibet or elsewhere. He is besieged by devotees of all sects, and his preaching is listened to with rapt attention. The number of pilgrims now congregated at the Mela, trom all parts of India and the bordering countries, is estimated at two millions. A Magh Mela is held yearly at Allahabad, but every twelfth year, when the planet Juptier is in 'Aquarius, a peculiar sanctity is attached to the gathering, then known as a Khumbh Mela. The fair is always attended by immense numbers of Yogas and other Hindu devotees and ascetics. SIMPLON TUNNEL OPEN. The first passenger train steamed through the Simplon Tunnel this morning, leaving Brigue amid loud cheers and the firing of salutes, said a Geneva telegram of January 25th. The journey from Brjgue to -Iselle occupied thirty-seven minutes, At the end of the tunnel the tram was given another ovation, and more salutes were fired. The tram consisted of an ordinary locomotive and four coaches, containing sixty passenger Federal authorities, engineers, and journalists. The passengers found it uncomfortably warm in the middle of the tunnel, but the journey was without incident. It is announced that regular tramc will begin on April 15th at the latest. "WHY DIE?" "Why die?" asks Vv Cornwall Round in a little book called "SelfSynthesis: A Means to Perpetual Life," published at the office of " Light," London. Dr Round is of opinion that this custom of dying is nothing more than a bad racial habit. The body, he argues, is not a machine that need wear out, but one that can be kept in good repair for an indefinite period by right suggestion. Our forefathers set us a bad example, which has hypnotised us into the belief that death is inevitable, a hypnoisation which can be conquered by self-suggestion in the conscious state, " when the S. (or subjective mind) is under the protection of its O. (or objective mind.)" To be aged and ailing shows that we have ignorantly mismanaged our bodily affairs. .. ~ , It is right, however, to add that others besides Dr Round have held i disease to bo unnecessary. Dr S. A. i Russell, of Ploughkeepsie, shared this opinion until lately, abstaining from food to demonstrate that the mere will to live was enough. The " Yorkshire Observer" announces Dr Russell" death from starvation.

created a deep impression here, as the Crown Princess is exceedingly popu- ■ because of her simple, charming, and unaffected manners.