HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1193, 11 January 1895, Page 11

HERE AND THERE.

CLIPPINGS, CONDENSATIONS AND

COMMENTS

The Bulletin thinks that the lato Robert

stevenson's WOBK.

Louis Stevonson “may bo countod fortunate in living to see but the beginning of Time’s revulsion.” It adds:

“Little of his work will livo long after him. 110 owed nothing to tho originality of genius, everything to the toil of talent. He strove hard to satisfy the clamour of his friends for a great book, but its material was not in him; and even that publi* taste which ho himself describes as ‘ a mongrel product, out of affectation by dogmatism/ would not be put off by tho showy performances in which ho tried to make style do duty for thought. His novels are mere juvenilities, pleasant and impermanent. His best work is in his essays, which embalm same of tho most exquisite prose in tho English language. •But Stevenson’s art, with all its miraculous imitatibii of simplicity, never reached the strength of nature. His work is marvellously gildod, but it is not gold. It was pathetic to see him struggling in liis Samoan refuge to produce the masterpiece which his premature notoriety demanded by way of justification. Ho taxed himself to the utmost, and now tho poor overdriven “brain lias given way, and his memory remains, not indeed that of tho great writer which ho hoped to be, but that of a clever man of letters who has done good service in his day and generation.” Ardent admirers of Stevenson that we are, wo cannot but confess that tho Sydney paper hits a partial truth. “The Ebb Tide” and even “The Wreckers” showed a most pitiful falling off. Nevertheless all his work will not readily die. “ Kidnapped,” for instance, and his exquisite essaj’-s.

The now Czar of Russia, says London

ANOTHER VIEW OE THE CZAR.

Figaro, “is little in every sense of the word. He is consumed with arrogance and conceit, and in character is the most weak - kneed.

J.O ItlU . UIUSU WUtm - vacillating, Black-baked scion that the house of Romanoff has produced. During

his tour in India the insufferable hauteur ~ which ho assumed towards the nobles who , formed his retinue was everywhere remarked upon. These nobles are men who " may one day drag him off his throne." This is all very well, but the now Czar has commenced well, and if he can succeed in pleasing his people the malcontent nobles may find his disposal a somewhat hard mattgrC"

In referring to tlie Wairarapa disaster, the

AN OPAL STORY.

Sydney Sunday Times teHs a story which will no doubt be accepted by the superstitious as ciuito correct.

% OUUIJ.UUO UO t|ULUU The prejudice against the owning or wearing, of opals dies hard, but of late years

this beautiful stone has become much more

■ fashionable in court and society circles, and the mines of Queensland and New South Wales have greatly benefited thereby. Still, a large proportion of the ' populatipn (some of them otherwise hardheaded and not giyen to superstition) are ' firm believers in the myth that opals are V the most unlucky of precious stones. There is an opal incident in connection with one of the chief actors in the Wairarapa tragedy which will be heard, with interest both by

the believers hnd unbelievers in the ill-luck

theory. The late Captain Mcintosh was < passing a well-lcnown city jeweller's just prior to starting* upon his last and fatal voyage. An opal pin in the window took his fancy, and he entered the shop to price it. The owner asked a certain figure, and the Captain offered a couple of pounds less. The did not come to terms, and the wouldbepurchaser left the shop. But ho was so

much taken with the jewel that he callod again, and, to " split the difference," agroed to give jEI more than he had previously offered. The seller, however, would not abate one shilling in the figure first named, and aftor being half inclined to pay that sum Captain Mcintosh ultimately left the shop with the remark that he would see about it when he returned from the trip which was to commence that day. How mysteriously fatal the trip proved is only too well known. Had the opal boon purchased the boliovers in the mystic evil fad would have pointed to the circumstance with particular emphasis.

M.'FiiAMMABiON, the well-known Froncli

SPOTS ON VENUS.

astronomer (whoso interesting’ work on astronomy has recently been translated

into English), has for eight years'past boon observing tho white spots at the polos of Venus, which aro supposed to be ice-caps. Schiaparelli has concluded that Venus revolves round her axis and rotates round the sun in tho same period, namely, 225 days; but M. Flammariou’s observations seem to show that Venus revolves round her axis in 24 hours, and that her axis is but slightly inclined to her orbit, for both caps are often visible at the same time.

The following- beautifully-written testimony to the importance of

THE AGE OE PROMISE.

childhood appears in a recent issue of the Popular Medical Monthly: —“Child-

hood is the age of promise. We see the hopes of the human race centred in the tiny sloeping occupant of the cradle. Whether wo love children or not, no one who looks to the destiny of his name and nation but finds the study of the inmates of our nursery fascinating. The of the birth, the advent of a soul into its r fragile tenement, is a problem that attracts yet baffles mankind, vicwod merely upon the physical plane, and theologians have bent a reverent head before the majesty of death, expressed in the tiny mould of clay that once held the divine spark of life. The vory helplossnoss of infancy is marvellous j the tiny fingers that can scarcely

span one of its mother's, that we could crush as easily as a rosobud, is a perfect hand, and destined to deeds of good or evil, of blessing or cui-sing. Those rosy feet, what journeys await them, whither will they carry thoir owner, may be when tho mother that kisses them shall have passed into tho beyond ? And the baroly awakened brain, what of it P Does genius lie behind thoso limpid eyes, will those pouting lips utter words in days to come that shall make men's hearts glow ? Or will tho future write 'failure' across tho opon countenanco ? But wo do not picture gloom in tho nursery. There is tho blossoming of humanity, and fruit will surely come at harvest time."

If Artomus Ward were living- to-day it

ARTEMUS WARD

would bo interesting 1 to have bis views on the

ON SPIRITUALISM.

“spook” mania. His ideas as to the spiritualism of Kio rlnv wi ll 1 l’nnJ xvif.li

ms ciay win oe reau wnn interest just now : —“ When tlio sircle stopt,” wrote Artemus, “ thoy axed me what I thawt of it. Si/, 1: ‘My friends, I’ve bin into the show biznis now going on 23 years. There’s a artikil in the Constitooshun of the Unitocl States which sez in effect that everybody may think just as he darn pleases, and them is my sentiments to a hare. You dowtlis believe this sperrot doctrine while I think it is a little rnixt. Just as soon as a man becums a reg’lar out-and-out sperret-rappor ho leaves , off work in’, lot his hare g-row all over his fash and commcnsis spungin’ his livin out of other people. He eats all the dickshunaries and goes chockful of big words, scarein’ the wimmin folks and little children and destroyin’ the peace of mind of every famerleo ho enters. He don’t do nobody no good and is a cuss to society, and a pirit on honest people’s corn-beef barrils. Admitting all you say alowt the doctin’ to be troo, I must say the reg’lar perfessional sperret-rappers—them as makes a biznis on it—air about the most ornery set of cusses I ever enkountored in my life. So saying, I put on my surtoot and went home.’ ”

The Hastings correspondent of the NaxAfir.

TIMBER PROM MELBOURNE.

Telegraph writes as follows : “ The people of Hastings will no doubt be interested in the fact that the bulk of

the joinery for tho new Catholic ohureh there is being imported from Melbourne. One consignment consists of 50 window and door frames, and they are made of kauri, too, which had to bo sent over from Auckland to Victoria before it could bo made up into joinery. It seems very strange that if Napier of Hastings could not make this joinery at remunerative rates, Auckland could not stop in. The question of how it can pay to export rough timber to Victoria and take it back again as joinery is a marvel, and wo do not pretend to have even a hint of a clue to unravel it. Perhaps persons interested in the joinery trade may be able to throw some light on this mysterious matter.”

With reference to Mr John Burns* remarks on the curse of militarism,

THE CURSE OF MILITARISM.

ViA 1 J- UtllQU Vi AXAAAAUCVI lOlJlj ■which were cabled out last week, the following paragraph from the London

VIU UUU JUViXViVXi Globa is very apropos :—“ Statistics show that the Franco-German war cost the lives of 250,000 men, the Prusso-Austrian 46,000, the American Civil War 450,000, tho war of Italian liberation 63,000, and the Crimean war no fewer than 785,000 lives. The various wars of the first Empire in France are estimated to have destroyed five millions of Europeans. If to these figures we add those for wars during tho eighteenth century, we get a total of nearly 20 million men. The wars of antiquity were apparently still more destructive, though wo cannot altogether rely on the figures given by historians. On tho average, from 18 to 20 million men are killed by wars in Europe every century. Tho same average will apply to Asia, where most of tho bloodshed seems to have occurred in China. Tho total number of victims to political and religious wars in a century is about 40 millions, and 1200 millions in all sinco the war of Troy.”

A writer, in the Edinburnh Review, clis-

MODERN WAR.

cussing- " Projectiles and Explosives in War/’ thinks that tho next great 'war may not bo so destructive

of human life as some of its predecessors. Ho says:—“Though the war of the future may bo more dramatically dreadful, because loyally more intense, it will not, as regards tlio entire body of combatants in the field, be more destructive than formerly. Probably, indeed, tho proportion of killod and wounded will be smaller than it has been since the adoption of rifled artillery and small arms. . . . Creator perfection in tho machinery and skill of tho medical department will diminish the percentage of deaths among tho severely wounded. Another circumstance tending in the direction of humanity will be the shortness of campaigns. Their duration has been greatly diminished of late years, and we believe that in futiiro it will be still more reduced.

... The shortening of campaigns moans an enormous diminution of sickness and death by disease. It is not so much the weapons of the enomy as disease by which graves and hospitals are filled."

In tho Nineteenth Century Mr J. E. Red-

mr redmond

mond, who writes in the name of tho Irish Inde-

ON HOME HULE.

pendent Party, says that Home .Buie has died out of

1 tho Liberal programme. He attacks Lord Rosebcry for his pixroosed "ending or mending" of the House of Lords, considering that a campaign against tho Lords being given first place would moan "nothing more or less than an abandonment of the Irish question." Ho says : " To think such a feat capable of accomplishment within, say, the lifetime of tho present generation, is evidence of either

childishness or imbecility. As well propose to abolish the monarchy; and, indeed, it is doubtful whether, on the whole, England would not prefer the House of Lords to the Throne, if it had to choose between tho two. Tho Irish movement for Homo Rule . . . would have been dead and buried long before tho House of Lords' veto was abolished." This is his ultimatum : " The Independent Party in Iroland see no course open to them, as Irish Nationalists before anything else, but to take the shortest way to put a summary end to a situation so full of peril to the Irish cause. That way seems to lie through an early dissolution and a direct appoal to the constituencies on tho issue of Home Rule unencumbered, as far as possible, with other issues.

In Good Words for 'November a writer

A FAMOUS XiIBKAIIY.

describes how the famous London library of Messrs Mudio and Co. is managed. The following figures are

interesting':—“ The number of volumes in circulation is, in round numbers, about three and a half millions. The monthly postage of the library comprises 8000 letters, 3000 English and foreign packets and papers, and about 25,000 English and foreign circulars; and the written communications by letter, postcard, &c., rccoived daily number not far from 1000. The staff required for carrying on the work of the various departments numbers altogether 254, of whom 70 (men and women) are employed in bookbinding (increased to 85 in winter), and 178 are absorbed by the library.

Says tho London Schoolmaster : —" To edu-

education and crime.

cate a child for a year in a London Board school costs <£3 10s ; to maintain a ' wastrel' in a workhouse

for a like period costs .£ls ; while the charge per annum for a prisoner in the county gaol is .£24. In 1870, when tho Education Act was passed, there were 30,000 persons in gaols and prisons in England and Wales. In 1890, with an increase in population of four millions, the number had fallen to 19,000. In 1870 thoro wore li3' convict establishments to bo maintained. In 1892 practically one-half the number, 57." Thoso Australian politicians who want to economise by cutting doAvn the Education vote should think hard over these figures. The money that is saved off education would probably have to go in building gaols.

The United States Army and Navy Journal

THE CHINESE AND THEIR WOUNDED.

has the following', by an English engineer on the Chinese cruiser Yang-Wai, re the treatment of those disabled in an encounter

with tho Japanese :—“ There were but two white men aboard the cruiser—myself and the surgeon. As soon as the vessel was out of danger from the shells of the Japanese gunboats, he and I, with a corps of the surgeon’s assistants, set about clearing up the terrible on the main deck. Wherever wo found a man hopelessly wounded the surgeon gave him instant relief from his agony. Ho carried an atomiser filled with prussic acid, and as soon as his hasty examination of a hopeless case was finished he sprayed the poison into the man’s mouth and nostrils. The dying men craned their necks forward eagerly in their desire to escape from the torture they suffered. There were very few of the wounded who were not put out of their misery by tho surgeon’s atomiser. One of the most, distressing features of an engagement like this is tho terrific noise aboard a modern man-of-war fairly in action. Tho Yang-Wai fought all the time with one screw turning slowly, her fires raked clean, and the steam blowing off like the shrieking on a gale. The scream of tho shells, tho thud and the vibration as they struck the cruiser, the terrific roar as they burst, and tho deafening noise and concussion of our own guns, made it utterly impossible for anything else to bo heard aboard tho vessel. To my dying day I shall remember that July 12th, and, most of all, the horrible noise and tho scene on the bloody main dock.”

The work on which Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson's pinal work,

was engaged at the time of his death, says tho Bulletin, was " The Lord Justice

Clerk" —a special study of tho times and career of tho ingenious and brutal Scotch Judge, Braxfiold. lb Avas on his last visib to Sydney that Stevenson determined on tho prosocution of this work, the idea being suggested to him by tho coincidence that tho room in which he was conversing with a Sydnoyito was built upon tho sito of Maxuice Margaret's cottapo. Margarot was one of the famous body of Scottish martyrs—Muir, Skirving, Fusshe Palmer, Gerrald and Margarot—who wero transported by Braxfiold for " seditious practices." ' '

The duty of tlio Church with regard to Economic Reform is ably

THE CHURCH AND ECONOMIC REFORM.

set forth in an article by the Rev C. 11. Zimmerman in the American magazine, the Arena :—“ 1. The ministry should make themselves

masters of political and social science, so as to bo able to preach, intelligently and exert a leading influence on questions of social amelioration. 2. In pulpit and press they should seek continually to apply the ethical and social principles of Christianity to the solution of economic problems and tho promotion of social reforms. 3. They should do all in their power to displace tho anti- social and inhuman law of tho survival of the stio.igest, which governs our present industrial system, by the Christian law of the succour of the weakest. 4. Tho ministry can and should make membership uncomfortable, if not impossible, to monopolists and stock gamblers. 5. They should assert their independence of all ill-gotten wealth by denouncing tho methods by which it is gained. 0. They can and should

free the Church from its present bondage to wealth by setting the example of a cheerful cl. oico and endurance of poverty and social ostracism, rather than bo recreant to the claims of justice on behalf of the poor."

In the Review of Reviews for Docomber Mr

Stead discusses the Political

WOMEN AS LEGISLATORS.

Woman. He gives interesting details of an American experiment:—“ In the pre-

paration for the November elections for Colorado forty thousand now electors have been added to the list of voters in that State by the enfranchisement of women; and as women are also eligible to sit in the Legislature, as well as to vote, all the three parties have nominated women on their tickets. Whether the Democrats, "Republicans or Popularists win there will be eight or nine women in the next Legislature. With Colorado thus taking a front place, it is not to be expected that New Zealand will long persist in excluding women from tho Colonial Legislature. In New South Wales it may be noted in passing that Sir Henry Parkes and Sir George Dibbs have both declared themselves in favour cf female suffrage, and the Legislature passed a resolution supporting it by a large majority. So it would seem that the cause of female suffrage is winning all round the globe."

An industrious Frenchman (says the London

Standard) enumerates tho

drinks of famous men.

favourite drinks of famous men. Frederick the Great

drank Imperial Tokay, Richelieu preferred Romanie, and Peter the Great Madeira. Rubens liked Marsala, Rabelais his native Chablis, and Cromwell Malmsey, a potent vintage to which the Roundheads attributed some of the Lord Protector's historical pimples. Marshal Saxo drank champagio, and Talleyrand Chateaux Margatix. This wine was one of the weaknesses of Horace Walpole, who, when a bishop affected concern as to how he was to remove three dozen of that exquisite vintage, suggested that his lordship might be saved all trouble by asking him six times to dinner. Goethe limited himself to Johannesberg—mosVly the gifts of his Royal and noble friends. Byron and Tennyson took port. "Wine for boys" was one of the least sage of Dr Johnson's aphorisms; "but brandy for men. He who drinks -water thinks water." Yet during the greater part of his life his only excess was in tea. Prince Bismarck is understood to have been a great beer-drinker in his youth; in his old age he confines himself to champapne, drunk (by his physician's advice) directly out of the bottle, though Motley, the historian, when he visited him, Avas amazed at the quantity and variety of beverages on the table of the famous Chancellor. Some men are born without palates. Sir Walter Scott could not distinguish port from claret, and Porson would drink anything liquid—beer, wine, spirits of wine, ink (it is said), and even a mixture of the liquor left at the bottom of a dozen glasses.

Mr A. F. Robbins, in his “ Early Life of William Ewart Gladstone/ 1

Gladstone’s ANOBSTOIiS.

— ~ - -- 7 recently published, states tli at the Robertsons, from whom liis mother on, mo

wnoni ms motner came, sprang from Duncan, King of Scotland, eldest son of the third Malcolm, and the branch to which Ann Robertson, his mother, belonged had for its immedia e ancestor Conan, second son of the last of the Celtic Earls of Atholl. “ She was of kindred with the Munros of Foulis, the Mackenzies of Coul, and the Mackenzies of Seaforth, High Chiefs of Kintail, all old Highland families of fame; and she was thus descended not only from the older line of Scottish monarchs . . . but from Henry 111. of England, and King Robert the Bruce, and King James I. of Scotland.” That Mr Gladstone's ancestors were considered of some account in their native land is evident from an interesting anecdote which Mr Robbins reprints. Mr Gladstone's father, John, and his brothers all migrated from Leith to Liverpool ; and the story runs that on one occasion John Gladstone took Henry Brougham, then a rising barrister, to a local theatre. The play was “Macbeth,” and when Macduff asked “Stands Scotland where it did?” the unexpected answer came from the gallery, “ Na, na, sirs ; there’s pairt o' Scotland in England noo—there’s John Gladstone and his clan.”

The Emperor Napoleon had many doctors, but of thorn all the only ono

NAPOLEON AND THE DOCTOEH.

in whom ho had confidence Avas Corvisart. Napoleon nearly always received him Avith jokes. “ You there,

groat quack,” lie would say; “have you killed many peoplo to-day P ” Corvisart appeared at tlio toilet every Wednesday and Saturday, and in his absence the Emperor chatted with his personal attendants, who were “ compelled to report to him all the trifling talk of tho town.” The warm bath amounted to a passion with Napoleon, and he often remained in it a whole hour. When he got out of it he frequently proceeded with business in anything but imperial habiliments : —“ On leaving the bath lie put on a waistcoat of flannel, a shirt similar to that which he wore at night; then he put on his chamber costume, composed in summer of a pair of a sort of drawers with foot, and of a long coat or dressing-gown of white twilled dimity; in winter of drawers-of stout twilled cotton with feet, and of a dressing-gown of white dufllc. On his head ho kept the bandana which ho slept in, knotted over the forehead, tho two cornors of which hung down behind on his shoulders. In this costume ho worked for a long timo with his secretary, and began to dictate his letters, or even, if it was a caso of urgency, ho received ono of tho Ministers in tho back cabinet”

The Australasian, having seen that woman's franchise does not spell

THE POLITICAL WOMAN.

Toryism, judging by the Now Zoaland precedent, falls foul of the “Political Woman.” There is. however, some

j. uau jh, uuwuvur, sumo sound sense in the following extract from au otherwise prejudiced article :—“ It is a mistake to farcy that woman is dishonoured because the place assigi.el to her is somewhat diffeient from that ,of man. By a decree of nature her place is different from his ; in some respects it is higher. Man stands forth as the public representative of the household ; the splieie of woman is more emphatically the home, and, because it is so, in her hands lies the moulding of the national life and character. If she has suffered much at the hands of man, there have been compensating advantages. In all civilised countries she is encompassed by honour and observance. As Mr Goldwiu Smith has said in his ‘ Questions of the Day,’ ‘ War has comparatively spared her public justice has been lenient to her, in a shipwreck she has been put first into the boat, while the slave to whom she now likens herself has been thrown overboard to save tbo provisions. In civilised countries she is on all occasions served and considered first; special provisions ai'O made for her comfort and convenience.’ Let. her not throw away the chivalrous aid and affection which slio may rightly claim by insisting on an equality of status and competition in every phase of life.

Some scraps about the Great Napoleon aro extracted by the London

SCRAPS 4. ABOUT “ NAP.”

papers from M. Frederick ” Masson’s “ Napoleon at Homo : the Daily Life of the

•/ Emperor at the Tuilerios.” Napoleon was a good sleeper. He had indeed the power of sleeping at will, and of sleeping for only six hours, whether ho took those six hours successively cr at intervals. He Lai also the faculty of passing at once from the deepest sleep to the most lucid wakefulness “ Napoleon, when ho was suddenly woke up, joked for a moment with his valet-de-chambre. ‘ Open the windows,’ said he, ‘ that I may breathe the air God made.' Although chilLy indoors, the Emperor liked the air ; he had a horror of bad smells, and of ‘ closeness the smell of paint made him ill. And this passion for fresh air in the morning is characteristic of his sensations ©f smell. The only perfume which he liked in his rooms was that of aloe wood; no doubt he brought this fancy .back with him from Egypt. It remained with him till death, and he was always throwing ayaloudjin on small perfume burners to purify aDd scent the rooms in which he lived,”

The teleautograph, the invention of Professor Elisha Gray, of

THE WRITING TELEGRAPH.

Chicago, is moving on, a,nd will one of these days revolutionise telegraphy. It was

recently tried, under the direct supervision of the English telegraphic authorities, on a stretch of wire between London and Cable Hut, St. Margaret's Bay, through which the London and Paris telephone, passes. Special instruments were fixed up at both ends, and as this was the first time that long-distance experiments in teleautography have taken place in England, they were watched with unusual interest. The results (says the Times) were excellent, the messages transmitted being in every respect most successful, and the instruments working without the slightest hitch ovor a distance of 83 miles. Messages were both sent from and receivod at St. Margaret's Bay. The principle of the instrument is that it automatically records an exact fac-similo of the writing coiatained in messages. In these experiments the receiving pencil recorded with ease and cloarness different handwritings, giving thick and thin strokes, dotting i's and crossing t's very correctly.

Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysantheme Vk iolrod f Tin fnl 1 min'n rr mfnv_

JAPANESE “ SPOOKS.”

maires tno ioiiowmg' rerorence to Japanese “ bogeys “ In, one of the booths a man stretched on a table, flat

on his back, is alone on the stage ; puppets of almost human size, with horribly grinning masks, spring out, of his body; they speak, gesticulate, and then fall back like empty rags; with a sudden spring they start up again, change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four, appoar at the same time; they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up and capped with a wig under which peers a maslc; between these phantoms tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a sword-thrust is exchanged. The most perfect of all is a certain puppet representing an old hag; every time she appears with her weird head and ghastly grin the lights burn low, the music of the accompanying orchestra moans forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones/'

The oldest bank-notes are the ‘‘flying money ” or “ convenient

money ” first issued in . China, 2697 n.c. The early

THE OLDEST BANK-NOTES.

Chinese notes wore in all essentials similar to the modern bank-notes, bearing tho name of the ban!;, tho date of the issue, the number of the note, the signature of the official issuing it, indications of its value in figures, in words, and in pictorial representations of coins or heaps of coin equal in amount to its full value, and a notice of the pains and penalties for counterfeiting. Over and above all was a laconic exhortation to industry and thrift: " Produce all you can; spend with economy." The notes were printed in blue ink on paper made from the fibre of tho mulberry tree.