ENGLISH GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 13

ENGLISH GOSSIP.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) London, November 16. The great Paris Exhibition is closed, and London has been full of visitors, staying here for a while previous to their departure for their homes. London has never been so full of strangers at this season of the year before. On the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s prooession nearly every third person you met in the Strand was a foreigner. Tue Exhibition was open for five months, and the number of the visitors ran into millions. A list has been published giving the number of foreigners who entered the Exhibition, from which I gather the following particulars : English, 65,194 ; Belgians, 42,221 ; Germans, 22,812 : Austrians, 11,683 ; Italians, 14,258 ; Americans, 14,369 ; Swiss, 15,565 ; Dutch, 9959 ; Spaniards, 14,143 ; Greeks, 19,182 ; Russians, 11,096 ; South Americans, 14,301 ; and Oceanians, 171. The French visitors numbered over one million. These returns are calculated as correctly as possible, although it,is pretty well known that from negligence and otber causes at least 500 visitors per day were not registered. 1 The Lord Mayor’s Day has come and gone, and for a wonder fine weather prevailed. From a spectacular point of view the procession was tho finest seen almost within living memory, and the historical groups and personages were very interesting. The crush in the streets was terrible, and at least fifty accidents of various kinds are reported. Some strong comment is made upon the fact that at the Mayor’3 banquet in the evening none of the colonial Agents-General were invited. But Barnum, the veteran showman, was present in all the glories of a, dress suit. Why the representatives of

the colonies should be so slighted is more than I cap fathom, and some amount of soi‘e feeling is felt over the matter. Speaking of Barnum, bis name is on everyone's lips at the present time;' Ete promised to bring the biggest show on earth to London, and there is no mis 4 take that he has kept to his word. The great building of Olympia is fall of his manv attractions, At the opening night 16,000 people paid for admission. The show has one fault—there is too much of it. Imagine an enormous building of glass and iron with a tremendous floor surface, on which, three circus rings, double the ordinary Bize, are arranged, and i nagine three sensational performances, one in each ring, going on at the same time, in addition to two large stages, on which a performance of some kind is being gone through. In all five separate shows exhibiting at the same time, and the unfortunate spectator has only one pair of eyes with which to enjoy the scene. It is simplybewildering. No sooner do you fixyotir attention on the clever antics of the trained ponies than you hear shouts of applause at the rapid flight of a lady rider through hoops of fire, and at the same time the comic elephant in the third ring i 9 drawing all attention to his clowning acts. Then you feol mad, and wish you were somewhere else. The side shows, with theirdwarfa,giants, fat ladies, living skeletons, legless men and iatooed women are seen before the show proper opens, and a marvellous show it is. For two shillings you enter at 6 o’clock, and stay till 8, enjbying the hundreds of marvels of the side-shows and exhibition of strange wild beasts. Then tbechcus opens at 8 sharp, closing at 10. Then the great spectacle of the Fall of Rome commences, which lasts till 11.30, This is the grandest scenic effect ever seen iu London, and when it is mentioned t hat over 1000 persons are introduced in costume into the scene, it will be imagined that the effect is a grand one. Thus from 6 till 11 30 you are busy with a most varied and attractive show—a good long evening’s amusement for two shillings. Oo every side one hears of the great revival of trade, not only in one or two brauches but in nearly every industry. Tho demands from foreign countries for our manufactured goods is increasing rapidly from the stagnation which prevailed a short time ago. The Board of Trade returns for the month of October give the following figures Imports, L 58,195,000 ; an increase over the same period of the previous year of 9 per cent. Exports, L 23,001,000 ; an increase of 10 per cent. Re-exports, L 6,540,000, an increase of 10 per cent. The total foreign trade for the ten months ending October 31st was L 606,828,000, One of the largest cuttlefishes ever known in this part of the world was lately stranded on Achill Island, off the west coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The animal, although somewhat shrunken when discovered, measured as follows ; Length of tentacles or long arms, 30ft ; circumference of body, 60ft; circumference of tentacles, 4ft. The automatic delivery machines aro rapidly filling many long-felt wants, and are supplying the British public with a multiplicity of articles, from boxes of cigar lights, cigarettes, toffy, to paper collars, newspapers, filtered water, and photographs. But perhaps the most ingenious yet made is an auto matic savings bank, devised by a Mr John Hope, a Liverpool mechanical engineer. It is on a similar principle to other machines. Drop a coin in the slot, push a button, and the affair works. In this bank, when a penny is put through the slot, a drawer can be pulled open, on which is a printed card bearing a number in duplicate. The depositor writes his name and address on the ticket, which is then pressed into a recess similar to the instrument used at railway stations for dating tickets. This recess retains half of the card on which the address is written, the depositor keeping the other half. When the people in charge of this automatic bank clear the machine these half tickets are entered, with the names and numbers, into a book, while for security the depositor has his half ticket bearing the duplicate number and hia name.

After Barnum the next great topic is the terrible scandal at the West End. Years ago the Bolton and Bark escapade was a sensation causing disgust, but the present scandal is even worse, and its story is told with bated breath. Briefly, I may state that somewhere in the Caven-dish-square district is a club or meeting house of wealthy people, and it 33 now openly known that the sins of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah are daily practiced there. It was fonnd out m this way. Several of the telegraph messenger boys employed in that locality were found to be in the possession of more spending money than their wages would warrant. Enquiries were made and it was proved that “ gentlemen ” at the Club were in the habit of giving these boys sums of money varying from 03 to 30s per week. Almost every day adds more to the popular knowledge of tho scanda’, aud names of members of the Club are freely passed round. It is the blackest scandal with which London had had to deal wiih for many long years. Six sittings of the Marl-borough-strett Police Court have already been occupied | with a preliminary inquiry into the charge brought against the lesser offenders. One difficulty which the authorities are al’eged to have encountered is that of the identification of the

Aristocratic individuals who would have to be charged. Most of the offenders have fled the country. The 4th of January will see the commencement of a new era of journalism. For a long time it has been seen that tno daily journal of the future will not be the cumbrous sheet of the Times or the Daily Chronicle, but a sheet of a more handy size, easily handled and read while riding in a breeze, on the knifeboard or an omnibus, or on the crowded seats of the tramcar, and that the long dreary columns of solid brevier or bourgeois shall be enlivened with pictures. This newer journal has been in people’s minds for a long time, but up to the present none has had the pluck to make the first start. It is left to the proprietors of the Weekly Graphic to be the pioneers of advanced journalism. On January 4 they will make a start with a daily graphic, a paper of 16 pages of the same size hb the Weekly Graphic, each page having four columns. The paper will be essentially a daily one, having the same telegraphic and cable news as the ordinary journals, with the attractive addition of a score or so of illustrations. Already the proprietors have secured a numerous staff of literaiy and artistic people. They have laid down five machines each capable of running off 100,000 copies per hour, The venture is a plucky one, and from the enterprise of the proprietors there is no doubt it will be a gigantic success. Modern superstition, it appears, is not dead yet. At the late trial of Raurie for the murder of the tourist, !Mr Hose, in the Isle of Arran, it transpired that the Highland local constable rpgaged on the affair had taken the boots of the murdered man and had buried them below low watermark on the beach. When called upon to explain his reasons for so doing, the constable, in good faith, replied that what he had done was in strict accordance with an ancient tradition existing in that part of the world, to the effect that if a murdered man’s boots are submerged in this fashion his ghost will be “laid”— that is to say, it will be prevented from careering about and annoying the in-* habitants of the neighbourhood. During the year 1890 the carnival or jubilee of the' postage stamp collectors will be held. There is to be an Inter-: national Post Office Exhibition in Yierpia. A valuable prize will be given for the finest collection of stamps. At the present time there is a perfect mania for the construction of ship canals. The success of the undertaking which is to convert Manchester into a. seaport town is stimulating the people of other parts of the country. Birmingham, Sheffield, Worcester, and Nottingham have the canal fever, and there is a scheme mooted for connecting the Axe and the Exe, in the south-west of England. Perhaps one of the biggest and most feasible in hand at present is a canal between the Forth and the Clyde, in Scotland, thus joining Edinburgh and Glasgow. There are two routes proposed. One is in a direct line, and the other is through Loch Lomond. The former will cost about five millions, and the latter eight millions. The prospects of suoh a canal ars qotuidered good. The necessity of economising time in order to save expenses would secure a large trade through the canal, not only by steamers but sail ing vessels towed by tugs. The saving of distance would be great. The diminished

risk in navigating a long line of.coKSt Which R of a peculiarly dangerous nature in rough and foggy weather would em sure constant trade to the time of war the canal would be of national importance. It would form a safe harbour, uniting two seas on opposite sides of our shores, into either of which a fleet could steam as necessity arose. The scheme is being warmly taken up both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The untold wealth of our coastal fisheries is again engaging attention. A new company has been fonned with a large capital, under the title of the English Channel and Qcean Fisheries Company, for the purpose of acquiring and using four great remarkable reservoirs, or marine basins, on the poast of Frain.e for breeding, fattening, and storing the best fish of the English Chan? nel, and to parry on deep sea and other kinds of fishing. One reservoir covers 150 acres. It cost L6Q,(JOQ to complete, aud contains at present thirty-one million oy3ter3.

I mentioned soma months ago that the Germans intended to send a huge floating exhibition round the world. The scheme is now complete. The steamer Kaiser Wilhelm is fitted out for the ep pedition. It is a vessel of 560 feet in length, with a breadth of 69 feet, about largest vessel afloat. Her middle deck will be occupied with eight exhibition balls and galleries. There will fce pavilions on deck, restaurants, bedrooms, concert halls, and reading rooms. Her mission is to exhibit German manufactures in all the principal ports of the world, and her voyage is to last for two years. It is arranged at. present that she shall call at 84 port s, and remain at each for several days. Australia aiid the principal ports of New Zealand are In* eluded in the trip. She sails shortly from the port of Hamburg. Trade disputes on the question of wages and shorter hours still prevail in this country, and strikes are threatened in many industries. The bakers of London are about the hardest worked and worst paid of any skilled labour. They have submitted, through their union to the employers, a programme, which, if not

acceded to in a week’s time, will result in a total strike. The men demand that 60 hours shall be a week’s work, including one hour per day for meal times ; that, all labour after GO horns shall be overtime, paid for at the rats of time and a half ; that Sunday labour be paid for as lime and a half ; that the scale of payment for jobbing shall be.—for foremen, 10 hours a day, not less than 6s ; other hands not less t han ss, with the customary allowance of bread and flour.

There is difficulty brewing between Portugal and England. It is only just recently that the British Government have given power to the South African Company to acquire a tract of land in the Zambesi district three times the size of Great Britain. Hitherto this land has been under the protection of England, and Portugal has kept a respectful distance away. But no sooner have this new Company hoisted their flag, in a figurative sense, than Portugal, perhaps imagining that England’s power was waning there, tried to jump the claim, and proceed to annex every inch of country they fancied from the seaboard of Delagoa westward to King Khames country, which includes the flourishing districts of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, A treaty was entered into in 1855 between Great Britain and King Lobongulu, of Matabeleland, whioh gave the Imperial protection of Great Britain over the whol9 of the Zambesi country, From that date to the present the Portuguese have done nothing to interfere with England’s power or protection. But directly that a tract of laud is given over to the South African Company, Portugal imagines that she has a right to step in and take up the position occupied by England. Portugal will find that the South African Company will fiy the British flag, and as one of the Directors of the Company is the Queen’s son-in-law, the Duke of Fife, it is very probable that Great Britain will not allow Portugal to do as she pleases with suet a valuable district as Zambesi.

One of the saddest sights of this mighty metropolis is the crowds of half starved youngsters who attend the publio schools. They'sitside by side with well fed children, and the contrast is often startling. A committee is now at work for the purpose of providing such children with free dinners. They find that they will have to provide for at least 50,000 youngsters, and the cost will be something like L 25,000 a year. It is proposed to raise this sum by private subscriptions, for it is considered that taxpayers would grumble if a general rate wa3 fixed to feed bodies as well as minds.

During Mr C. Bradlaugh’a present illness prayers have been publicly offered in several places of worship for his recovery. At a meeting.the other night at the Hall of Science Mr George Holyoake said that some acknowledgment should be made of that friendliness exhibited toward Mr Bradlaugh by his Christian friends. He moved a resolution expressing ihe satisfaction and respect of the meeting for these “ unprecedented ams of kindly feeling,” and sending Mr Bradlaugh assurances of their sincere sympathy aud congratulations at his prospects of recovery,

Advertising is carried to a high pitch now-a-days, and advertisers are always devising some novelty to Qito.ii the eye of the public. One of the most gruesome advertisements, perhaps, ever seen in thD country wqs noticed the other day in the Strand. A new shilling shocker entitled “Dead” is being pushed everywhere. The publishers, in order to let the public know of the book, g< t together a string of men and dressed them like funeral mutes, Tlio public, whilst acknowledging the novelty of the scheme, thought it was too much of a good thing, and hooted and derided the men to suoh an extent that they gave up the job. The general verdict is that such proceedings were a discredit to all connected with it.

The Morning Dost, a staunch Tory paper, has at last been compelled to admit that Socialism has become one of the burning questions of the day,, but things that its advance should be resisted by the Toiy party and by (he great, hulk of the members of the House, whether they be Unionists or Home Rulers. The Rost goes on to say that herein lie those elements of an identical purpose which may ultimately weld all sections of moderate and educated opinion into one great National part) 7 , A Mr David Rough, described as a retired colonial official from New Zealand, repnpts to the polioe that while watching the Lord Mayor’s show on the 9di, some of the light-fingered gentry relieved him of his gold hunting watch and chain valued at 40 guineas, A young man was standing in front of him, when he suddenly turned round and made a snatch at Mr Rough’s ohain and watch. A. gentleman close by saw ihe occurrence, and quickly co lared the young man and gave him into the custody 7 of the police. He was sentenced to four months’ hard iabour, but up to the present Mr Rough has not oaught sight of his wa*ch or chain, for the thief managed to pass it to a confederate while being hel<l hefora the police came up. The retired colonial official certainly ha 3 had a “ r< ugh ” time cf it in London, gg Some excellent representations of the famous scenery of New Zealand are being exhibited in the Burlington Gallery, in Bond-street. They are watercolours, and are the work of Mr E. Gouldsmith, a colonial artist of some repute. They are greatly admired, not only as works of art,

but a faithful representation of the marvellous scenery of the Colony. H.R H. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, married Princess Helen, a daughter <-’f the Prince o: Waldeck, on April 27th, 18S2. The Prince died on March 28, 1884, leaving a son and daughter. His widow, who is a pretty woman of 28, is, according to current rumour, getting tired of her lonely condition. Her home at Claremont is certainly one of the most dismal places of residence in the United Kingdom,. but it is not the house she grumbles at. The truth is, she would be willing, very willing, to enter tlio married state again, and the trouble now is, who is to be the lucky man 1 The Queen, her Royal mother-in-law, is dead against second marriages, and won’t hear of such a thing, but the fair Helen figuratively says she will see her mother-in-law further first, and will marry in spite of all opposition. Several names are mentioned a 3 probable spouses, but nothing is definitely settled yet. One of the many attractions at the Westminster Aquarium isElizabeth Lyska, a Russian young lady who attained the ripe age of twelve in September last. She is a he dthy looking girl and stands 6ft Bin in height and is growing at the rate of one inch every two months. Medical men who have carefully examined her say she will probably reach 9ft in height before she has done growing. She is remarkably well built and is very nimble considering her bulk. She is a daughter of Cossack parents, who are of a medium height.