ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.] There was quite a sensation in the House of Lords before the Duke of Argyle commenced a great speech lately in consequence of the appearance of an individual clad in a horsey-looking tight coat and white hat,who had appropriated the seat on the episcopal bench which is usually occupied by the Primate. His face could not be seen by half the people in the House, and they were apprehensive that the worries of Lambeth conference had so far deprived the Archbishop of his wits as to lead him to come to the House of Lords in a costume which would have done credit to the smartest habitue of Lansdowne or Kempton. At last the individual who had excited so much speculation turned his head, when it was discovered that it was neither Dr. Benson gone crazy nor any other disordered or disorderly prelate, but only Lord Latham, who was presently obliged to give up his comfortable place to its regular occupant.

Polydore de Keyser, Lord Mayor of London, seems to be a most remarkable man. His eccentricities are almost startling. Not long ago he inspected the boys of the British naval training-ship Warspite. During his address he told the boys that his wife would take great pleasure in giving each one of them a shilling, which he hoped " they wsuld keep throughout their future lives as a souvenir of the occasion." Pecksniff remarked that if England expected every man to do his duty, England was the most sanguine nation on earth. If Lord Polydore expects every boy on the Warspite to keep his shilling, he is the most confiding man in the world.

Luxury has transplanted itself from Paris to the seaside. The Mondaines vie with each other as to who shall have the best fitted-up bathing cabins. Some of these are fitted in costliest ways. I hear of one lined with yellow plush, with Louis XV. furniture, costly pictures, a Venetian glassmirror, Vienna bronzes, and bric-a-brac of all sorts. One lady, with a taste for the eccentric, has hers lined entirely with black, so that it looks like a mortuary chapel. In these sumptuous machines the lady bathers sit in state, awaiting high tide. It is usual for their lady friends to call upon them at this time The ladies call this " going over their rosaries/' because they say the same things in each box.

Mr. Thomas A. Edison, the electrical inventor, is now for the first time a father, and it is pointed out that the fact may have a marked effect upon his next invention. He has a new personal motive for adapting electricity to the needs of the nursery. Who can say that he will not be able to develop some device by which every baby will be able to do its own walking at night, or to rock itself to sleep by day ? Better still, he may be able to apply electricity to the process of teething in a way which will make his name famous for ever amongst the mothers of Christendom.

Dr. Porter, of Fort Wayne, Ind., six months ago performed the difficult and rare operation of gastrotomy. The patient was Charles Schuu, a native of Saxony. A few days before the operation was performed Schau's throat contracted from some unknown cause, and he was unable to swallow food. Dr. Porter therefore made an opening in the young man's stomach, inserted a tube and saved his life. Schau lives mostly on beer, which is poured through the tube into his stomach. He is terribly emaciated and may die at any time, but his spirits art cheerful and he enjoys taking such liquid food as he can. His case has attracted great attention in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and other places.

The Government consider that Lord Reay's Dutch descent qualifies him admirably for the Governorship of the Cape. In the ordinary course of things two years should elapse before he leaves Bombay; but an arrangement is proposed by which he is to be transferred to the Cape in the course of the next six months as Sir Hercules Robinson's successor, and with the prospect of seven years' tenure of office. In spite of semi-official denials, Mr. Raikes has the refusal of Bombay.

It is to be hoped (says Truth) that the Prince of Wales will not too frequently attend city churches. It would seem that His Royal Highness condescended to worship last Trinity Sunday in the church of St. Botolph Without, Bishopsgate. The parish authorities expended £299 16s 9d on the occasion. Among the items are " Prayer and hymn books to order ; renovating Prayer-book and Bible, £15." "Four book-markers, •£3 35." "Violet cloth frontal, embroidered and fringed, £9 193 6d." "Ribbons and silk, for ditto, £1 Os lid." "Cupboard for ditto, £4 155." At the last meeting of the vestry, a motion was made to disallow these accounts, but it was not carried, as the vicar stated that: this would be an "unprofitable scandal." It seems, however, to me, that the scandal was an exceedingly profitable one to somebody. There are a couple of items in this little bill which suggest questions of a different character. These are :— "Paid policeman for taking man into custody, 10s ; paid policeman for taking woman into custody, '2s 6d." I should like to ask the city police authorities upon this :—(1) Does not a city policeman arrest any culprit until he is paid for it ? or (2), Will he arrest anyone, provided he is paid for it ? and (3) Why does the job cost half-a-crown in the case of a woman and half-a-sovereign in the case of a man ? The last question is by far the most serious of the three. In this age of woman's rights it does seem to me a monstrous thing that in the city of London four women can be run in at the same price as one man.

Quite a stir in a small way has been made in Paris anent the sham duel fought by two budding chemists last week in the Bois de Boulogne, certain compassionate individuals severely blaming the seconds, who perpetrated "a cruel hoax," and allowed one of the principals to suffer "an agony of remorse," under the erroneous belief that he had killed a man. In response to the charge, one of the said seconds has written to the papers to explain how the matter stood. He relates that the combatant in whose behalf pity has been awakened endured no remorse whatever. He is a young Chilian, and such an incorrigible duellist, that during the six months he has been in Paris he has challenged five men to mortal combat. The plan was to give him a lesson, and to let him experience the feeling a man who had killed another might be supposed to have when the cause of the duel was a trifling one. The lesson, however, failed to reach the heart of this bloodthirsty young Chilian ; for his second says that after the mock duel, and whilst still believing he had killed his adversary, he went to a restaurant, ate a hearty luncheon, and was puffed up with conceit at his own i act, which he evidently considered one to be ! proud of. His seconds are consequently ! disgusted with him. They look upon him I as past praying for; and if he chooses to ! fight all the apothecaries' assistants in ! Paris, they will let him continue his evil ! courses, since, evidently, by recent exi perience, all attempts to keep him steady in I his pills and his powders are wasted.