INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12193, 12 February 1903, Page 3

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS.

I VENEZUELAN SITUATION. 1 Germany desires nothing more earnestly * than to see England and the United States . at loggerheads. We must look to it that this amiable aspiration is not brought nearer , realisation in the course of our recovery of , our just debts from Venezuela.—Pall Mall : Gazette. Germany's interest and ours are not the i same in this Venezuelan affair, and before we are committed to follow her lead we have * a right to know the grounds on which wo [ are acting, and the views held by the United j States Government about the application, , now or in the future, of the Monroe doctrine. —Westminster Gazette. * - > "MB. DOOLEY" ON PROFANITY. [ Th' man that swears at ivrything has nawthin' to say when rale throubles come. Put a little profanity by f r rainy days, says I. But if ye hurl it broadcast, if ivry time ye open ye'er mouth a hot wan lapes out, th' time will come whin ye'll want to say something scorchin', ar' ye'll have nawthin' . to say that ye havn't said f'r fun.—Examiner, San Francisco. NEED FOR WHITE STOCKINGS. The story was recently told us of a nurse who, proceeding to the tropics, on consult- , ing the matron of the hospital, who was >n England at the time, as to her outfit, was advised to take out white stockings. She must at any rate take one pair of white stockings. Curious to know why, she asked the reason, and received this terse answer, "To be buried in." We relate the story as showing the spirit in which nurses take up work in unhealthy climates, knowing full well the risks. —British Journal of Nursing. AUTHORS' INCONSISTENCIES. The comedy of life is always presenting to us the • spectacle of the author, who first invites and then resents the judgment of others, who, protesting the while that critics are foolish when they are not malevolent, sedulously subscribes to a presscutting agency.—Blackwood's Magazine. OSTRICH FEATHER TRADE. Tire sales of ostrich feathers take place every two months at Mincing Lane. An average sale is about £140,000. The following are the figures for three years: — 1901, 425.0001b realised about £870,000; 1900, 390,0001b realised about £825,000; 1899, 380,0001b realised about £855,000. —Magazine of Commerce. MODERN MANNERS. As to manners, it is curious to observe how far less they have improved in society than among those from whom good manners are least expected. Except in the case of a panic, it was less disagreeable to be in a common crowd at the entrance of an exhibition or theatre than in a large drawingroom at the palace before the new regulations were made.Lady Guendolen Ramsden, in Nineteenth Century and After. MR. F. C. GOULD ON CARICATURES. The influence of caricatures in politics is undoubtedly increasing. Personally I may express my appreciation of the great courtesy which I have always received from my political opponents. Perhaps that is because I have always remembered what Izaak Walton said, " Put your worm on the hook as if you loved him," and I have always done that with regard to those opposed to me politically.—Mr. F. C. Gould, interviewed in Strand Magazine. DEMOCRATIZATION OF BOOKS. The great libraries ranking with the private picture galleries in size and importance have been until recent days in the hands of our great noblemen. 'We have but to think of Spencer, the Roxburghe, the Sunderland, and other libraries more or less recently sold or dispersed. These are all disappearing, the prices brought by bibliographical rarities holding out an irresistible lure to the descendants of past collectors. Before another generation has passed there will be no more great ancestral libraries, and public institutions will preserve the hooks previously in private hands.—The Gentleman's Magazine. COMPULSORY EDUCATION ASSAILED. Either let us candidly confess the family system a failure, and set to work to organise England on the model of Sparta, or let us maintain it in its integrity. The only way to accomplish this is to -withdraw the compulsory system of the old (Education) Act, with 'its invidious network of spies and summonses. The home is an organism which will not stand rough handling. Family life, high and low, has been the foundation of our national solidarity in the past. It will not be so for very long in the future, unless there is a speedy change in our educational methods.Thomas Baty, in Macmillan's Magazine. DINING FASHIONS. It is quite in accordance with the sequence of fashions that while London is learning to dine out, Paris is learning to dine Court Journal. THE RULING PASSION. Messrs. Cassell and Co. have published a book entitled "Britain at Work." This is not, as it name might lead one to be- '' lieve, a treatise on sport.Punch. INFLUENCE IN THE ARMY. Whether personal influence can be eliminated in the future advancement of officers is a question not easy to solve so long as ' human weakness has to be taken into consideration in the matter. Even at present ' the continuance of officers, good as they . may be, in staff billets year after year, , to the exclusion of other officers well quali- i tied and equally deserving, is a matter on • which those who take an interest in the ) service should keep a watchful eye.—The ( Broad Arrow. * 1 NEW "SHIP OF THE DESERT." Various trials of both motor and desert transport waggon have been witnessed by the officers of the Headquarters Staff of t the Egyptian Army, and the heads of the ( various departments of the Ministries of I Public Works ind Interior. It is, we - understand, quite the official opinion that ! the difficulties which have hitherto existed ' in connection with desert transport have J been finally overcome, as the trials with the transport and steam motor waggon ( have been eminently successful.— ~ Sphini a Cairo. } I