HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 11

HERE AND THERE.

The grave digger of Growl and, who is also the custodian of Crowland Abbey, having recently relinquished both his life and his office, the local vestry has appointed] his sister to succeed him. The sextonship lias been in the same family for two hundred years. * * * *i *

There are many who find great difficulty in taking cod liver oil. A very simple plan will quite overcome ordinary cases of repugnance, while it permits the administration of oil, except the rankest kind, without the patient’s knowledge. He probably confesses that he likes sardines, so without his becoming aware of the trick, the preservative oil is emptied away, and the sardine box is filled" with fresh cod liver oil, of which every day the patient unconsciously takes a substantial amount. —“Science Siftings’’ to :£ -X- ii tt

The opal is no longer considered of evil omen by these who are the best informed. It has become popular to believe that instead of ill-luck, the opal carries with it the best'luck and happiness in its highest form. Indeed, it is now considered the token of mutual love, burning brightly in all the colours or the rainbow. Tt is the gift of lover to sweetheart, tha symbol of an eternal devotion, and of so devoted a character as to she witoelf in constant and fiery flashes of beautiful colour. To emphasise this romantic idea, the opal i; now cut in the form of a heart, and the sentiment of a heart on fire with love is one which appeals to all lovers. This heart, when small enough, is set in a ring; but Australian opals have recently been imported of sufficient size to permit of their being used in a simple gold frame as a pendant for the lorgnette chain. These opal hearts are also used for the centres of brooches. # « rj »

The Birmingham correspondent of “Sell’s Commercial intelligence” states that a number of the swords of honour, which are being presented to various generals and others, are manufactured by a well-known Birmingham firm, whose name he is, not at libeidy to publish. The same firm, life is. well informed, have the orders to manufacture crowns of gold, but with only “flash” stones, for some of the many “Bangs” of Africa. Cash is not sent in payment, but a large return of ivory and other merchandise. *• * * *

Aii interesting discovery in tlie neighy bourhood. of Jerusalem is described in the quarterly statement of the Palestine EspTor&tion Fund. About thirty yards from the Bir Eynb, or '‘Well of Job,” which, the Jewish tradition iden- . tifies with En Hegel or “The Fullers* Fountain” (Joshua xv. ), from thirty to fifty vats have been found hewn in the reck. Their shape is wholly different from that of the vats connected with oil and wine presses, and one, at least, is exactly like the fullers' vats depicted on one of the tomb-paintings of BeniHas§an. So it is is suggested that they represent the remains of ancient -fulling works, a relic of an industry of Jerusalem which may be as old (conjectures tlie “Jewish World”) as the time of Joshua.

Here is a new and characteristic story about the Queen. She commanded the young widow of a certain major of the artillery, who had fallen in South Africa under peculiarly sad conditions, to visit her at Windsor; ehe also asked to see the baby—a posthumous child—• to whom she had consented to act as godmother. When her visitors were leaving, the Queen expressed a wish to have their photographs, with that of the deceased officer. The widow, with extraordinary laelc of taste, had her photograph taken in full evening dress. It was returned by Her Majesty. -K- jg.

A northern correspondent of “M.A.P.” writes: “I have lately come across a little story of the Duchess of Montrose, whose beauty is no less renowned than her philanthropy. The scene was a bazaar, where the Duchess was selling photographs. One old Scotch ‘buddy* of the mere frugal sex was very anxious to secure a photograph of tlie duchess ; but the price asked was five shillings. The old woman hesitated!; she wanted the photograph, but she could not afford so much. ‘You can have my husband, said the duchess, with an amused glance at the Duke standing near, ‘for two-and-sixpence.’ The would-be purchaser look ed at the Duke and then at his photograph contemptuously. ‘Half a croon!* she blurted out, *T wadna’ give a silver saxpence for him. But,* she added insinuatingly, ‘l’m right willing tae give hauf a croon for your bonnie sel.” The Duchess was unable to resist this, and herself added the other half-crown to the bazaar coffers, or as another version of the story goes, the despised Duke proffered the balance.

An another attempt to describe the Australian cry of “Coo-ee,” with which the Australian troopers hailed the Queen iti Windsor Castle, is sent to the “Daily News” by one who heard it raised by over 100 of the same men at the recent banquet to Lord Hopetoun. Ac-

cording to this correspondent, the national cry of Australia is utterly unlike the musical “Hoch, booh,” of Germany, or the storm-like “Hurrah” of Britain. It is a whoop, at once mocking and piercing. The first'syllable, as its name applies, cooes, but loudly and at length. The second is a shriek, with a sharp crescendo. It is the cry of a country of great distances and dense bush, where men often call to distant and hidden comrades. Necessity gave it birth, and custom has made it national.

Lord Hardwick’s promotion reminds me (says Mr Clement Scott, in the “.Free Lance”) of a famous romance which concerned the late captain Sir Joseph Yorke, his grandfather. Lady lorke was at a concert one afternoon in London when she suddenly saw the figure of her husband before her in his naval uniform, which was dripping with wet. The illusion was only momentary, but it was so perfect and so remarkable that she became alarmed and went hurriedly away. Just as she was leaving, she met a gentleman of her acquaintance, who said, “I have just seen Sir Joseph, but he was in such a hurry that I could not speak to him." The poor lady went heme trembling with melancholy forebodings. The next day there came news that the yacht in which Sir Joseph had been sailing in the Solent with some friends, had been struck. by lightning, sunk and all hands drowned. This story is as well authenticated as any tale of the supernatural can be. A very similar tale is told of a like appearance which is said to have been seen by Lady Tyron at An caster House, Belgrave square, on the day when the victoria went down in tho Mediterranean with Sir George Tryon on board.

* * * •# Field-Marshal von Waldersee s nag for the campaign in China is a Uhlan's flag, divided into four squares, two black and two white, with a red border, and a bar running transversely across the design. The flag is attached to a Uhlan’s lance.

If an Englishman says “Plenty,” he means “That’s enough ; stop.” But a Maltese has for centuries meant the opposite. So if yen say “Plenty” to him, he will give you some more. If you are being shampooed by a Maltese barber and say “Plenty,” he will keep on dousing you. * * * *■ *

The clouds between the two countries (England and France) are gradually being dissipated; men of sense are returning to the old traditions of courtesy, and when in a few days’ time the frenzy of a few and the idle curiosity of some others draw them round eld Kruger \at Marseilles, the demonstrations, if there are any, will be powerless to disturb the /good understanding.—So says the Paris “Figaro.”

It is stated that a native cf Washington whose father and grandfather were officially connected with White House has a collection of blotting-papers on which the ink of letters written by ail the Presidents has been dried, from General Harrison, who died in 1841, after holding office for a month, to Mr McKinley. A blotted impression of the last letter written by Abraham Lincoln on tho day of his assassination by Booth is the most valuable item of tJtie assortment.

The much-discussed long sight or the Boer and the savage (supposing these differentiated) is not due to an extra sensitive retina or even to accurate focussing. It is the training of the brain which interprets the sensations received. There are exceptional cases like that of the North American Indian of a few years back, who could separate the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye! But a white man living long enough in wild country—witness Burnham and “8.-P.”—can “learn** to see as well as any coloured man.

Canada is still the paradise of game. A party of four canoeing on a Muskoka lake saw 'a deer swimming in the water a little ahead of them. Paddling rapidly, they came up with the animal, and the man in the bow seized it by the ear. The deer made for the shore, dragging the canoe after it. As the bank was reached the frail craft upset, but the occupants, scrambling to their feet, threw themselves on the frantic beast, and having tied its legs with their handkerchiefs, put it on a waggon and drove home in triumph. *****

We in Belgium, observes a Brussels paper, are railing against Great Britain, but the wicked old nation seems to care very little about it. She will continue doubtless to purchase the half of our products and 1 manufactures, she will send her tourists and her pounds sterling, and, in a word, will continue to enable us to live. Perhaps, finally, we shall be able to send our products into these two very Republics which have suddenly become so dear to us, and this, perhaps, will be the sole revenge which the most splendid Empire on earth will wreak on those who are barking at her. * * * *

The South African war, which has supplied us with so many new ideas', has somehow failed to perform one very usual office —it has supplied fewer nicknames to regiments than any war of the rame importance and duration. A few jocular epithets were bandied about from time to time, but not one of them with sticking qualities. Our 200,000 men will bring back with them no lasting ad-

ditions to their military folk-lore of “cxeepy Queen’s,” •■Resurrectionists,” and “Sandbags” ; of “Elegant Extracts,” “Slashers,” “Bengal Tigers,” “Surprises,” “Death or Glory Boys,” “Steelbacks,” and “Die Hards,” with which all other fateful fields have added to, and generally glorified, the vocabulary of barrack-rooms. * * * * *

The war pictures of illustrated papers may have become something of a weariness to ,the spirit of the general reader. But when you have a couple of hundred thousand men away at a war you have also a specially interested public of their relatives and friends enormous in its dimensions. Tho “History of the War, ' issued the other day by the “Illustrated London News,” supplies a case in point. Tina whole edition was bought up at once by the trade, and copies now sell at a premium. Within a few hundred yards of its office, and almost immediately after its issue, at half-a-crewn, this war number was being sold, as a favour, by booksellers, for 4s. * * * tt *

A most imposing ceremony took place recently at St. Anselm’s Benedictine College and University, on the Aven-t-ine, which was opened in 1896. Cardinal Rampella, Legate a latere of the Pope, consecrated the church, 65 mitred abbots, four of whom were English, being present, besides many bishops and prelates. Ten cardinals assisted at the function. The church and crypt contain 19 altars, of which 18 were consecrated by Benedictine abbots and oisnops. There are 56 students in the college, including many English and American. The college and church is a fine building in the Romanesque style, designed by Abbot-Primate Da Hemptrut, and carried out by Vespignani. * * * * *

Wo in India who live far away from the great mint of party watchwords and shibboleths have noticed with seme interest the growing use of the word “Imperialism” to denote a certain phase of our present national policy. We have marked more curiously the strange aversion to it evinced in no halting fashion by some sections of the British public. To us, writes the “Times’"' of India, it seems to be a harmless word,, signifying a tardy recognition by the “man in the street” of those many lands beyond the sea which we in our innocence have always considered to form an indissoluble portion of the British realm and dominion.

From the “Memoirs of General Sir Arthur Cotton” (Hoder), by his daughter, Lady Hope, it appears that the general during a visit to Australia, married, ‘in 1841, Miss Elizabeth Learmouth, daughter of a Tasmanian. “The state of his health was the only objection in the mind of her parents to their union; of this they said quite gravely, “To all appearance he won’t live two years.’ Over these fears the general and his wife often laughed in after life, especially when the day for keeping their golden wedding drew near.” Sir Arthur . Cotton died on July 14, 1899, at the age of 96.

At the age of 70, Sir Arthur Cotton, in 1874, in the days of the bone-shaker, or high-wheeled bicycle, not only learned cycling, but invented a tricycle for his own use. Lady Hope,' in the biography she has written of him, says : “As I was driving along the high road near Dorking I was dismayed to see my father coming down the hill near our house on his tricycle ,at a tremendous pace. He bad lost control over his machine, and speedily found himself in the hedge. I ran to his rescue, asking anxiously, ‘What can I do to help you?’ His reply was, ‘Look after the machine. I can take care of myself.’ He was in a wretched plight, his face full of scratches, and his anus bruised by the fall. The. only remark that he made was. ‘I hope my cycle is not spoilt*; and then, ‘I am afraid your mother will be anxious if she knows of this accident.’ It was quite true ; my mother was very anxious, not to say alarmed, when she heard what had happened, and, as he had already had one or two falls, she implored him to discontinue these perilous rides, for they were all experimental ones. His reply was: “Rome was not built in a day; it will take me a long time to complete my patent brake!’ Her patience was. heivever, exhausted, and finding she could not persuade him. to give up the cycle for his own sake, she told him a pitiful story of an excellent missionary, who needed better means of getting about his district than his donkey-cart afforded. She prevailed upon my father to send him the tricycle, but what she intended for kindness proved to be a misfortune, for tlie missionary met with such a serious accident, when riding the machine one day. that he was compelled to go to the hospital with a broken arm. So the tricycle came back to my father, and was eventually given away to a friend who knew how to use it.”

In the “Memoirs of Coventry Patmore” is a “take-off” by Tennyson of an opinion expressed by Patmore in regard to what he had spoken of as most solemn English metre. Patmore, in an essay, had said:—“The six-sy±lable ‘iambic* is the most solemn of all our solemn measures. It is scarcely fit jor anything but a dirge ; the reason being that the first pause in this measure is greater, when compared with the length

cf the line, than in any other verse. Here is an example, which I select on account cf the peculiar illustration of its nature as a ‘dimeter brachycatalectic, which is supplied b ythe filling up of the measure in the seventh line :

“How strange it is to wake And watch, while others sleep, Till sight and hearing ache For objects that may keep The awful inner sense. Unroused, lest it should mark The life that Haunts the emptiness And horror of the dark.” Tennyson sent Patmore by way of reply these lines . “How glad I am to walk With Susan on the shore! How glad I am to talk! I kiss her o’er and o’er. “I clasp her slender waist, We kiss, we are so fond; When she and I are thus embraced There’s not a. joy beyond.”

Mr John Ward, F.S.A., the Egyptologist, has an article on the “Mystery of Scarabs” in the “Sunday at Home” for December. Scarab comes from the Greek word scarabeios, a beetle, and it is given to flat aval stones bearing inscriptions. The names of early Egyptian kings have been made known to us only by their scarabs, and search is being made year by year for Royal tombs cr monuments bearing records cf their reigns. Scarabs have been found of not only the kings who reigned from the time of the building c-f the Pyramids, but of kings whose position is not yet determined. They are in regular succession for about a thousand years, and then there is a gap of nearly 500 years. Many scarabs carry the names and litlea of great officials, and others bear only good wishes, mottoes, and private names. Others have only a few signs, but are covered with scroll patterns, sometimes skilfully interlaced. The scarab had evidently a religious origin. The beetle was the emblem of regeneration, or of the resurrection, for the E-o’vrs-tians were firm believers in tfie future stole, when soul and body, being reunited, would live again for ever. The king, was regarded as the head of the church in life, and. was worshipped after death. Consequently the kings’ names alone appear on the earliest scarabs (about 4500 8.C.).

“Some months ago,” writes Sir Walter Besant in the “Century” for December, “L saw standing on Oxford street (London) a man attired in really picturesque rags and tatters. His clothes hung, from his shoulders from sheer force of habit, for. there was nothing apparently to keep them there. He had no hat; his shoes were in the last stage of decay, the uppers parting from/ the j solfel f it was thus obvious that he had nb socks; it was also possible to guess that lie has no shirt. The man was not begging; he was wandering aimlessly; he had nothing to do; no one would employ such a scarecrow. As I passed lie stopped and looked in at a china and glass shop—a very attractive, shop, ‘dressed’ with a dining table laid for dinner. Everything was there, silver, glasses of all kinds, knives, costly plates of a new design, flowers, showy napery, and here and there the little lights that are called fairy lights. I spoke to the man. ‘Do you remember’—pointing to the fairy lights—‘when those things first came in?’ He replied, as u it was the most natural turn that the conversation should take, ‘Oh, yes; it was about eight years ago.’ I would have inquired into the cause of his melancholy condition when ho had the presence of mind to borrow- half-a-crown. He made no favour of it; he simply said that, as I could see, he •was down on his luck. * * * * •

If I would lend him balf-a-erown on the following Monday at 10.30 precisely, he would meet me in the same plane and repay it. ‘Thanks very mueh, he said airily, and 1 walked away, with some show of the old form. I kept that appointment, but he did not.”

Attempts are made from time to time to identify the land of Ophir, from wliich gold was fetched for Solomon’s temple. Dr Carl Peters, in “Harper’s Magazine” for December, claims to have found it, 20 miles from the Upper Zambezi Rij&er, East Africa. He was led to the discovery by seeing an old

map (dated, he believes, 1705) which, he thinks, was the work of the French geographer, Delisle. With the map which he saw in an old atlas in an ancient castle on the Weser River (Bremen), was a description of the Portu- . guest gold markets in the Zambezi dis- p-’ tricb. This stimulated liis curiosity, and made him resolve to explore. Dr Peters ingeniously argues that Ophir, Afer (Africa), and Fura (on the Zambezi), _ are words of common origin. Fura signifies a mine or hole. Ho took an exploring expedition to the Zambezi in April, 1899, and 200 miles up stream, west of Iryakafura (“place of the great mine”) he found remains of ancient gold workings. The principal ruin was , a wall that once encircled a hill. J “Here 'it stood up to 15ft, and higher, there it was half broken down, and elsewhere broken down altogether. At some places the stone, stood bare, at other places it was overgrown by dense vegetation. This wall round the middle of a fortified hill

is particularly typical of an ancient Semitic fortification. • It is precisely the same Semitic style which we find, over and over again. As a fortification the place was very well chosen. It commands the plain in the west, which lay before us in the sinking sun, and through which the Muira passes in wide bendings,. as well as the Gorge of the Fura escarpment, which meant for the old conquistadores the way of retreat to the Zambesi and: to the coast in case of need.”

The country examined by Dr Peters on the Upper Zambezi is still auriferous. In the diorite quartz reefs are embedded in- small bars of with all surface indications of gold. Slost of the reefs were/- covered with ancient workings surface workings as well as real shafts, with tunnels and roads cut into the rock. The reefs are as much as 24ft in breadth. They are covered by the so ; Called: ."“iron cap/’ and panning as well as chemical analyses proved them to contain gold. The district, though in communication with the sea by river, 7 is occupied by natives under chiefs who - are not friendly to the Portuguese, the nomnial owners of the Zambezi region. Dr Peters thinks that the alluvial ground worked by -the Arabs extended oven the dry : hed of a prehistoric lake. When • the ground was exhausted the Arabs i! may have extended their operations to / Mashonaland, where Mr Theodore Bent found similar ruins. ' * « * * * -*

; ’• The following appears oil a signboard till lately on view at Burton’s Old. Curiosity Shop, Falmouth: Roger Giles, Surgin, Pariah Clark, and Schulemaster, Groser and Hundertaker, ' Respectably informs ladys and gentleman that he drors teef without watein a ininit, applies laches every hour, blisters on the lowest t-arms, and vizicks l for a. penny a piece. He sells Godfather’s lvordalis, kuts corns, bunions, doctors hosses, clips donkeys wance a month, Jo-esharps, penn y wissels, brass i lean elsti cks, fryingp ans, and other moozical instruments hat greatly ruj doo ced figers young ladvs and gentlemen lams their grammar and langeudge in the . puhtiest mannar, also great" care taken of the morrels and spellin. ' • -L./L.,;* . * * * *

The remarkable case of Private Shawcross, of the Ist Royal Lancashire Regiment, completely baffled the Aldershot doctors. He was admitted to hospital

suffering from ague. Two days later he /was, found on his bed in a choking condition, black in the face. He was kept under close observation, but nothing could be and eight days later he died. At the post mortem a largo - tablespoon was - found wedged in his . throat -bowl uppermost; the edge of which had burnt through the windpipe. The doctors stated that they held re- • peated- consultations and examinations :of -Shawcross ■ but failed to detect the ? spoon, although they suspected the presence of some foreign substance. Evidence of strangeness of manner was given, and! a verdict of “suicide while temporarily insane,” was returned.

As The late Earl of Dariiley. says the

.• < 'Emg, w was a “bundle of eccentricities.” !. He amused everybody a year ago by re- • fusing- to take the oath of 'allegiance : te v the Queen, and he spent ten days in <‘ : l)risdnV“at Canterbury some 'years since , forcontempt of f Court in connection .with some bankruptcy proceedings. He field strong Views on most things, particularly on vaccination, and London

v editors received extraordinary letters 4 from him at frequent intervals. They - were rarely 1 published, but that did not deter the Earl from writing them. t- : ■ * -.‘ •• •• He . as .*

Whenever Dean Hole, of Rochester, • is. announced to speak anywhere, says the YGoldeh Penny,” there is always a big audience in waiting. The Dean, who j celebrated- his' eighty-fiiVt 'birthday on . December 5, is an inveterate story--teller, and it is a poor day wheii' he can-1 mako somebody laugh. He once P wanted to knew the difference between : an up-to-date lady cyclist and the dog following her,; and" When’ everybody gave the. conundrum up he replied that “one wears trailers and the other pants.” ' Dr Hole knew Thackeray, the great noj velist,, very well, and the first time . they met they- stood hack to. back to , ascertain who was the bigger. . They • were found to be each 6ft 3in high.. . Thackeray then told of a visit- he had I made to show in company with a friend .who was several inches the talleer of , the. two. The man at the door asked them if they were in the business, because, if so no entrance fee need be r .paid. The Dean, though a temperance man, is not a believer in total abstinence, while he is not in favour of Sun- „ day closing. .f - . ■' . v y. * # * a *■

Mr • Alfred Grenfell, British Consuly General in the Argentine Republic, who died suddenly at Buenos Ayres the otheu day, had, says "Truth,” a singularly varied career. The second son of Admiral John Grenfell,; a famous officer, he himself served for some years in the .. Havy, but was compelled by ill-health to retire in 1862. Being still quite young, and blessed with a fine baritone voice, he determined to try his luck in the musical profession. He studied at Milan, where he was a contemporary of the De Reszkes, made a debut on the operatic stage in Italy and subsequently sang in London between 1871

and- 1874. The death of his elder brother then compelled him to give up the musical profession and settle in South Africa to look after family property. In 1885 he was quite ruined by the failure of a South American bank; but. after a hard struggle he recovered his legs, and in 1890 w r as appointed ViceConsul at Monte Video, and in 1898 promoted to the Consulate at Buenos Ayres. He had a perfect knowledge of the Spanish language and of South American affairs, and a charming manner, which Avas not only of great value in his official duties, but gained him a wide and affectionate circle of friends. * * * -*

Miss Frances Power Cobbe, Aihose seventy-eighth birthday occurred on December 4, is one of the oldest of lady journalists. It is said that she was the first of her sex to do regular office work on a newspaper staff. She is now living in well-earned retirement in North Wales, and a romantic story can he related in that connection. The mansion in which Miss. Cobbe resides is called “Hengwrt,” and it was the property of an old friend, Miss .Lloyd, Avho died in 1896. The two ladies, not being able to keep it up; were about to let it, when, just in: the nick of time, a solicitor’s' letter arrived, 'intimating that Miss Cobb had' been left a fortune. . A Miss Yates, of Liverpool, Avho had taken great interest in Miss Cobbe and her work, had-bequeathed to her nearly all her Avealth. The neAvs was a great surprise to the recipient.

The- ‘‘Standard” correspondent at Madrid teLs a tragic story. .Five military; chaplains were strolling past the Church of Clatravas, in Alcala street, at 6 o’clock on December 8, The thoroughfare" was crowded. Suddenly another military chaplain canie up to the.senior chaplain, of the Madrid Garrison, Senor Valenzuela, and fired twice witli a revolver,. wounding-him severely 7, one bullet passing through the bodv from the back to the left breast. When, the .assailant saw his victim tottering towards the door of the church ho turned round, put the revolver to his temple, and fired, the bullet lodging in his- head. The milHaty chaplain died before he got to the hospital ; the garrison chaplain is in a serious condition. The other chaplains, as soon as they heard the shots, rail in different directions. The: Chaplain-General of the Forces, Bishop Sion, says he was well axvare that Senor Florido had been Avrong in his head for some time, showing symptoms of persecution mania, and that he only kept him employed because he knew he ivas doing his best to support his sisters. * * j* X-

Sir Francis Jeune, on December 8, released Airs Julia Iremonger from her marriage Avith Captain Edgar A. Iremonger, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who last year was all but killed by a Mr Gregory at Bombay. It is twenty-three years since Captain and Mrs Iremonger were married at a Registrar’s office at Leeds. Some years ago they Avent to India. In 1896 Captain Iremonger, who was then in the Durban Light Infantry, sent his wife to England, Avhere she went on the stage to earn a living. Her health broke down, .andwhen -begged her/husband to return to England ho replied that he loved another woman. This was Mrs Gregory, wife of a railway engineer. In the" summer of last year Air Gregory, Avho had begun an action against the captain for abduction, found Mrs Gregory with-him. 'He shot the captain, his wife, and himself. Only the captain recovered. He offered no defence on Monday ,and Mrs Gregory was given the custody of her two children./ - •. • ‘ : - it X \ '•» . , *

The question is often asked, “How is it that America can heat Britain 'in ' several manufactures, seeing that the ' wages- paid in tho United. Slates are so much ip excess of those .paid' here ?” Ti-.o British commercial agent in Chicago writing in the “Board of Trade Journal,” supplies an answer’ to the question. In the, first place, the American workshops adopt machine topis of the very iates'- ' pattern and labour-saving appliances V’hich will turn but goods at a rapid . rate, and in large quantities. In one large works which he visited he found cne man in charge of ten automatic ma- , .chines, all working at, the same rime.

In the same- shop were 50 machine tools working in charge of only five men. and it was not an unusual thing to see one

man in charge of three or four ordinary lathes, placed in such a position that he could pay attention to each. At another works he visited .he found 'hat, o wing to the perfection of the m icbines employed, arid their almost automata action, ordinary .labourers were employed in place of skilled mechanics. The tools are hotter than those of British n anufacture!. and run at a far higher speed. It has often been alleged that the British workman resists . the >ntroduction of -abdur-sa-dng machine? y> an 1 i* averse r,o one man tending more than cne machine 'lf this be true he is singularly blind to his own 'nteoei s. fir he is playing into tho hands nr i'ormi t able rivals The tadoits trade? unions

would do well to give this matt -r thoir serious con-rderaton before it is tjs late. —“Chambers’s Journal.” * * -» •-* *

Abdul Hamid’s name is the latest addition to the list of royal patrons of automobilism. During his recent stay

in Berlin Marshal Shakir Pasha, Chief of the Sultan’s Household, bought a magnificent motor car for .his Majesty. It was tried on. Sunday in - Yildiz Park. The Sultan Avitnessqd the proceedings from one of the palace A\ 7indews. As: toon as the .automobile was set goinp- the noble entourage was seised with such fright that they all scamped away. Their equanimity was Avith difficulty restored. —“Mechveret,” Constantinople.

It has been notorious for a long time past that the municipal debt" of London has been mounting up very rapidly. It is, none the less, a shock to learn that this indebtedness has increased by two millions and three-quarters during the last twelve months, and that it noAV aggregates .£46,250,000. Excluding the five millions raised a few months ago, the County Council’s share is exactly ore-half of •'the total —that is to say, £23,000,000 —as compared with .Li 7,500,000 in the year 1889. Thus, for eleven years past there has been an average increase of half a million a year.—“ Estates Gazette.”

The telephone, ivhich was at first condemned as a. mere toy, has only been in general use in Great Britain for 2C years, but it has already far outstripped its elder rival, the telegraph. In the latest reports issued by the General Pest Office, it is stated that ninety 7 millions of telegrams were despatched in the United Kingdom during the;* year. According to the records of 'the National Telephone Company, the telephone messages for twelve months reach the astounding total of nearly' six hundred and forty 7 ' millions—more than seven times as many telephone calls as telegrams sent! —“Sheffield Telegraph. - ’

A Avriter in the “Leisure Hour” for December gives quotations from an old chronicle about London. An extract runs thus :—“James Farr, a Barber, who kept the. Coffee House which is now (1707) the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate (one of the first in England), was, in the year 1d57, prosecuted by the Inquest of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, for Making and Selling a sort of Liquor called Coffee, as a great Nusance and Prejudice of the Neighbourhood, etc. And yvho would then have thought London would ever have had three thousand such Nuisances,and: that Coffeewould have been (as 'now) so much Drank by the best of 'Quality and Physicians ”

A correspondent of the Worldi” writes: —‘‘So many instances are quoted of the stupidities of school children that it may be a change to hear occasionally of their triumphs. A schoolmaster has told -. the following story as occurring in his oavii experience : —‘The children in the fifth standard Avere asked to give an example of a sentence containing more than one subject. Instantly up rose a ragged, shock-headed “hoyden,” who straightway began to quote from Browning’s ‘‘Pied Piper” : “ ‘Great rats v small rats, lean rats, braAAny rats; Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, ■ tawny 7 rats: /./.•.' "Grave old plodders, gay young ' friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles/ cousins, Cocking tails and puckiiig whiskers, Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, Wives, Followed the piper for their

lives/

By the time the end was reached examiners, teachers, arid pupils were all alike in ecstasies. The shock-headed girl achieved a triumph for the Avhole of her .class in literature.’ ”

Huxley, as appears froin his biography, found.& in the course, of his busy life to learn . French, - 'German, Italian, and Greeks in addition to the Latin he picked up at school, • Leonard Huxley, , ; his biographer, writes :—“His early acquaintance - with : German had given him a lasting admiration of -the greatest representatives of German literature, Goethe above all, 7in whose writings lie found • a moral grandeur to be ranked with that of the Hebrew prophets. Eager to read Dante in the original, he spent much of his leisure on board the Rattlesnake in making out the Italian with the aid of a dictionary, and in this way came tcp know the beauties of the “Divina Commedia.” On the other hand, it was a scientific interest which led him in later life to take up his Greek, though one use he put it to was to read Homer in the original. Though he was a great novel-reader, and, as he grew older, would always have a novel ready to take up for a while in the evening, his chief reading, in German and French, as well as English, was philosophy and history.”

Mr Augustus Hare, in volume iv. of the "Story of My Life” (Allen), tells a ‘programme” yarn which has appeared in another form in London “Punch”: “In the winter the Duchess of Leinster had a large Christmas party for her servants, and took particular pains to make it agreeable fo r ' them. Afterwards she asked her old housekeeper how she had enjoyed it. r Oh, your Grace, I should have enjoyed it very much indeed if something most dreadful had not happened which has made me feel perfectly miserable.’ ‘What can it have been?’ said the Duchess. ‘Oh, it was

something so dreadful, I really cannot tell your Grace. I avus so dreadfully insulted by the butler, I really cannot repeat his Avords.’ ‘Oh, but you ready must,” said the Duchess. ‘Well,' your Grace, if-I really must, I must tell ypur Grace that I was coming out from supper, and I had only had the wing of a pheasant and a little hit of jelly,- and I met the butler, and he said to me, Vis your programme full ?” Noav, your Grace avIII alloAv that that was so insulting that pleasure was not to be thought of afterwards/ ”

An unflattering portrait cf Tennyson is given by Augustus G. C. Hare in the “Story of 'My Life” :—- “Tennyson is older looking than I expected, so that Jus unkempt appearance signifies less. He has an abrupt, bearish manner, and seems thoroughly hard and unpoetical /one would think of him. as a man in Avhoxn the direst prose of life Avas absolutely ingrained. Mrs Greville kissed his hand as he came in, AA 7 hich he received without any "protest, He asked if I would like to go out, and Ave Avalked round the garden. By way of breaking the silence, I said, ‘How fine your arbutus is.’ ‘Well, I would say arbutus/ lie answered, “otherwise you arc as bad as the gardeners, who say clematis/ . . .I told him the stories of Mademoiselle yon Raasloff and of Croglingrang, He was atrociously bad audience, and constantly interrupted with questions. . .. . On the Avliolo, the wayward.',poet, leaves a favourable impression. He could scarcely be less egotistic with all the : flattery he has, and I am glad to have seen him so quietly. For the poet’s bearish manners five Tennyson family are to blame in making him think himself’ a..demigod. One evening, on arriving at Mrs Qrayille’s, he said at once, ‘Give me a pipe, I want to smoke/ She at onco Avent off by herself doAvn the village to the shop, and. returning Avith two pipes, offered them to him with all becoming subservience. Ho neA 7 cr looked at her or thanked her. but, as he took them, growled out, ‘"Where are the matches r. I suppose now yoifve forgotten tihe matches/”

Once in seven years the voter likes to indulge his vanity. For one month at least he is an important personage, and he means to vindicate his importance as savagely as he can before he resumes the baser pursuits of life. The servant, in fact, suddenly becomes the master, and since bribery ha® been suppressed by an unimaginative Act of Parliament, the servant is free to take out his mastery in a contemptuous patronage. He will heckle the candidate with the calm assurance that the candidate is merely there to be heckled 1 . He will welcome all tho canvassers into his hdpse, because "each fresh-comer increases his dignity. He will resent nothing save neglect. He must be visited, his vote must be demanded, or he won’t give it at all. And even though he believed the country in peril, he would vote blue against his conscience if the blues had shown him a more pertinacious attention’ than the reds. ljet this, then, be remembered as the essence of practical poltics • the virility of the voter. Opinions are nothing, .speeches areC nothing, leaflets are nothing, .. But the voter must have his hand shaken—-“Blackwood’s Magazine.” The Belgian Chamber have resolved that every M.P. shall be a total abstainer—at least during the hours when he is officiating as a legislator. We imagine that it is the only Parliament in the world which Has as yet imposed a compulsory, if temporary, teetotalism among its members. All that is now requiredl for the ideal perfection of the new regulation is that the > Speaker should “name” any M.P who is found to have a private spirit-flask in his pocket.—London “Daily .News/’*, ;; V,-; ' //. •

. ‘‘The Highlander,” says Mp J. Macleary in the “Temple isna-a-azm©”\for November, ‘“is. not yet educated t-'o short sermons. '■ Even in the advanced burghs of the east coast, which regard the west a si the “Hielahs,”- length. is often a saving qtmlity. I remember how -at comjnunions .in Inverness we used •to take q pocket full of toast with us to munch when hunger attacked our young stomachs, and’ a lady of my acquaintance, on turning to look at the church clock—it was five in the evening, and the service had lasted since twelve—was remonstrated with sharply from the pulpit: ‘Never mind the’ clock, my good woman,’ said the minister, addressing her directly, ‘never mind the clock: you’re in good -time vet.’ ”

A remarkable piece of machinery is described in the current number of the “Stone Trade Journal.” It is the mammoth lathe built by the Philadelphia Roll and Machine Company of Philadelphia,: Pa., for the special work of turning up and polishing granite columns to be Used in the erection of the Cathedral of St. John the Devine, in New York City, which will have thirty-two granite columns, 54 feet lon** by 6 feet in diameter, and weighing, when complete, about 160 tons each. The lathe itself is 86 feet in length, and weighs, complete, 135 tons, swings 6 feet 6 inches by 60 feet lone, and has eight cutters, each tool taking a cut 3 inches in depth, the whole eight reducing the column 24 inches in diameter at one pass over the length of the stone.