LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13187, 26 May 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

■■■i <;.'■■■:.. ■ ■■■■::■.■■■-■■■■::..:•.■■■'. ' ■'":. ■■■ ■ .."■■.'■.". [fbom our OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London', April 12. ■:',.".,■'■ THREE WEEKS OF SUN.' / For just upon three weeks not a drop of rain has fallenvin London, and there has been an almost unbroken persistence of brilliant sunshine. ■ Paradoxically, this has inspired all Londoners who can leave their sunny city to do so in urgent haste. This is the week before Easter, and there is such a prospect as never was of a fine weather holiday. So the exodus is tremendous, especially to the Continent. London is almost deserted. By a very considerate and ; humane arrangement most of the best business establishments will close from this (Thursday) afternoon until Tuesday or Wednesday next, and the railway companies are issuing cheap tickets to cover that full period of foiu or live clear clays. Wherefore, everybody who can pay his or her fare, and who is not confined to bed with the malignant influenza, which is raging just now, is off to other climes, not sunnier ones in this case. ■ ' ."• v '- '

st;::.-;." : Vesuvius.;' Notwithstanding the peril involved in a, •visit to Mount Vesuvius at the present time, • there are plenty of tourists who would gladly run the risk could they feel at all sure ,'of arriving in time to see the "fun" or of behv allowed to approach near enough to 6<w anything, failing, which the visit to BNaples"would merely spell extreme discomfort. But the great eruption is anything but a holiday spree to the" unfortunate Neapolitans, It always strikes a visitor as ex- , traordinary to see the way that towns and villages and vineyards and gardens still '"' cluster round the 'terrible cone, and seem to embrace it lovingly, after all the devastation it has caused. Some years age I obtained, ; with a little difficulty; permission to go up Vesuvius during a moderate eruption, and I found the experience sufficiently impressive ] and awe-inspiring. But those pretty towns round the foot of the volcano—Torre Annunziataand Torre del Greco, for instance, both of which have been wrecked with fearful loss of life bv the present eruption, seemcd utterly indifferent to what was going on : inside tlie mighty, crater, though at any time it might have turned on them its terrible batteries of molten lava, or hot stones land, ashes, to their utter destruction, as it. ; has done on this occasion. Thev merely say that they are used to it, and will take their chance!" Sincere sympathy.is felt with the sufferers, and already steps are being taken tc afford them pecuniary aid. THE AXGI.OSrANTSH WEDDING. " v Amid all these surrounding horrors the preparations for the pending Anglo-Spanish wedding go on cheerily. Columns in the daily papers are filled with gushing and picturesque descriptions of the lovely :Ena's trousseau, which is to be "perfect past all parallel!" But that is not in my department, 1 have no doubt it will be. superb, ' and still less that Princess Ena will look a . vision of beauty when arrayed in all this "gorgeure." She is very handsome and attractive' young womanhow coarse such" • a description seems!—but.something of the girlish brightness and prettiness of former, days has given place to greater maturity accompanied by a certain tendency to embonpoint, and' to some degree of " nosiness." She is already without dispute "a plump and •; pleasing, person," and in certain aspects she is emphatically " high -nosed" as well as high bred. Still her colouring is delightful and her manner'full of grace and brightness. ' It is not surprising that the Spanish nation 'has fallen in love with her as desperately as has its young monarch. ;-.';.' A TRAGIC MYSTERY. . ...•.'•; .-,' V. A certain Mi. and Mrs. Higgs with their .: grown-up son and several small children were travelling by an evening excursion train on .the Great Western : Railway from Birmingham to Hereford. On arrival at their destination all these passengers were fast asleep, but they awoke and rose to quit the carriage. Then suddenly one of them exclaimed, "Why! where is. mother?" - She had vanished, and one of the.carriage doors v was wide. " f open. "'.., ; A search was promptly made' along the lute 1 , and'soon, in s the Ledburv tunnel, about five miles from Malvern, and 20 miles from Hereford, were ' found the mutilated ''remains of the unhappy woman. The tunnel is a single-line one, I so trains run through it in both directions on , the 'same (metals; and anybody falling out of a' carriage would go.to almost certain, death and mutilation. - ' . . ~ One curious feature of the affair is the :r fact that not onV were the other passengers } sot ..v.rk- ; :.-edi Mrs. Higgs' move- ' ments, b'.«' they l did 'not feel the tremendous draught which tie spee* of the tram must ha.ve caused through the open dooi all ? the wav from MalvoK to Hereford, where f; Mrs. Higgs' absence was discovered. So - extraordinary did the affch appear to the • officials at Hereford, whev the guard found ; the door open, that for a time they could not believe that Mrs. Higgs had left Bir- ; mingham with ter husband. It was not until the .other passengers - awoke and corroborated Mr. Higgs' statement- that they sent 'a -'light" engine back,.along the line '.. and discovered . ..the : body in the tunnel. Mr. ; rLig<rs:3t ■ \ be"-id at Hereford until' Sunday .iiipnf, Vhi rhe^^umca ' o ,%?va, -vl-ther hi- -W.ren hr.d. oeen fa<»i % »'' »v;=...cd ; ;-?Tb:; m?'-j in *% tower r No solutior ox the litj.."".* 7 :?. ■■■■_$'-'■■ ■'._""

. : ot u">; *".)• • :■*■• ■ .-.- - v.- . coming, nor does- it appear to be coming fclther. The husband and children, utterly weary and worn cut, after a long day outi4-it <sr»--in'the small hours of bunMy 'Bioraing that Hereford' was reached— ■ail" wort wrapped in the sounder ol_ slumber, and when aroused' by the stopping 01 the train at Hereford were at first too much "dazed and confused to realise what nact happened. But when it was made clear to the half-asleep, husband that his wife bad varnished and that the carnage door was found open, he sent up "an exceeding fitter cry" and broke down altogether, me period' of suspense which ensued while ft search was being made .donee 20 miles of line, with the aid of a. "light _ engine, muni have been, terrible, and the scene when the fearfully mutilated-corpse 0, the wife and mother was at last brought to Hereford, is described as harrowing m the extreme. , ~ ~„,. • The onlv theories of explanation are >er> vague and : inconclusive. One » that ; tin unfortunate woman ttiav have been aroused bv the noise made by the train on enteirng "the iftwnr Ledbury tunnel, may have fancied si., had arrived nt the station,.and so. 'still'half-asleep, may have opened the MO* 'unci fallen out. Another is that she may have felt ill while in the tunnel and may have ooened the window and leaned out. when the door, if insecure!* hastened, may have opened and let her fall out. But. Mj.have said, the sad affair remains, ard is. likely to remain, an unsolved and impenetrable mystery. .- .