HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 14

HERE AND THERE.

Sir Samuel Baker gives the weights of the largest African elephant tusks he ever saw as 172 and 188 pounds respectively. Tiffany and Company, of New York, have now a pair weighing respectively 224 and' 239 pounds. Their corresponding sizas are length 10ft o|in. ■and. 10ft 3^in; circumference, 23m and 241 in. The tusks of the extinct elephasganetsa were sometimes 12ft 4in long, and 2ft 3in around.

Dr J. I>. C-ohefei, of Yorkshire College, Deeds (Eng.), recently read a paper before a scientific society in London, m which he vigorously pleaded for pure ■air, as we had not in vain pleaded tor purd water. He had studied the question very fully. To determine the amount of soot, ha filters the air through cotton wool, which he finds' preferable to asbestos, though owing to its hygroscopic character one plug must be weighed against another. Most of his experiments date back to 1894. Over the four square miles of Leeds, 800 cwt. of soot were suspended at any moment, 1.2 milligramme per cubic foot. Twenty tons of*soot went,up into the air daily, which meant a waste of £3OO worth of coal annually. ■’ To this we had to add the high washing bills, which he had taken pains .to compare for town ana country., and all .tho,discomforts.. One-half per cent, of the coal burned in works went away as spot.; the domestic hoarth contributed 5 per cent, of the whole soot amount. The soot contained 15 per cent, of oil; hence the sticky: nature of. the soot. In town' 24 times as much soot fciT cui snow as nine miles away from it, as tests made with glass plates . showed. One quarter of English daylight was shut out by soot.

The Victorian issue of Commonwealth postal cards has proved a great success, no fewer than. 250,000 in all six colonies .being now in circulation. The department intends to. continue to print 100 cards, sc long as the public demand warrants. The intimation, published in' “Thd Age” a fortnight ago with regard to the £1 and £5 series of slightly post marked Victorian stamps, the department has since sola 81 sets. The supply is running very low, and no more will bo printed. Victoria is the only colony which liras, gratified philatelists fov substituting a light post mark for '.he objectionable wood “specimen,” in order -to prevent the special sets now on sale getting into Circulation before 30th June. Mr Gurr is expected to authorise* the issue of the new postage stamps marked “A C/’ (Australian . Commonwealth) at stx i early date.

The following advertisement lias been inserted in leading Church of England journals in Condon :—“Jubilee of Canterbury, New Zealand. Completion of Cathedral as Memorial. Already built, have, tower, spire, and. walls of unfinished portion. To finish, transepts, choir, sanctuaries,' and vestries. Amount required, £15,000. Air eddy subscribed locally, £9,000. Patrons in England, Marquis of Normanby, Viscount Cobham, Earl of Glasgow, Earl of Onslow, Bishops of Ely, Iftchfield, Rochester, Salisbury, and Winchester. Contributions towards balance Of £6OOO will most thankfully be received! by the bishop’s commissary.” The Key. J. F. Teakle, the bishop’s commissary, has written to “The Times,” appealing for contributions.

Ah English exchange, to hand by the last mail, reports that almonds have advanced 50 per cent._ in price owing to the Sicilian, crop this year being only about 25,000 packages, compared with 75,000 packages last year—which is about the average for the preceding years. At Bari, oh the mainland, the production hah decreased from 100,000 packages last "year to 15,000 in the present year. Large qtiahtities aredesti tht e of kernels, and it ! is' estimated that from this cause’ blond thOre will bo a loss of 10 per cent, on ; the crop gathered. The exceedingly high price is maintained a slight fall : was occasioned a short time since by the. arrival at Catania of 500 packages of almonds. from- Morocco, but the decline in prices was drat temporary. •

; • Some pleasant and gentle letters written by Ruskin to the “Rose Queens" of the Girls’ High School at Cork have been • published in the periodical of the Rus- , kin Society at Birmingham. He estabv~dished :an annual “Rose” fete for the - school, and each year a Rose Queen v/as selected, to whom Ruskin gave a gold • ' cro%s,/ as also a set of bound books to -present./to her maidens. From time to L tiinerhel woiild send also pieces of gold and silver, uncut diamonus, .and precious stones.. : In one of his letters to the •girls fhe/says “The chief danger for l yaniig-girls m this-great city ‘to-day*, of " their own and the world’s age is the , r temptation to } restlessness, whether in /,. curiosity, pleasure or pride. I want them all to bo earnestly, thoroughly intelligent of what is close to them and under their care—happy not,in one day as. the happiest of .their lives, but in the daily current of. their time ; and prond in rightly knowing what’ they have joy in . knowing, -and. .whatever they are called upon—not by fame, but ’by love—to do for any who love them, for aIT who are dependent upon, them.’

The annual consumption of lemons in the United States amounts to about 5,000,000 boxes. In 1896, Italy and Spain supplied 4,700,000 boxes of lemons,

and 300,000 boxes wetre grown in California. Last year there were imported from Mediterranean countries 3,800,000 boxes of lemons, and 1,200,000 boxes of the fruit came from the Pacific coast. This year, says a trans-Atlantic authority, the importation of lemcns will be considerably smaller than ever ‘before, and, provide*! the present high standard of the Californian fruit is maintained, the growers of the State will in - the course of a few seasons succeed in driving the Mediterranean lemons from our markets, just as they have driven out foreign prunes and raisins. Rough estimates put tlie capital invested in California in growing and curing lemons with all the appurtenances at 4,500,000 dollars.

A Boer, or at all events a pro-Boer, has been writing to a leading London paper. He says “Your Empire is but a huge soap bubble, floating majestically in the air ; a mere bubble that will be annihilated at the first shock of a European war. Whilst other nations rest off the solid rock of conscription, all their manly citizens being disciplined soldiers, you hire onljr the stunted dregs of your debased and degraded, population, who- are drilled for parades and reviews only. When compelled to face a few thousand armed Afrikanders you were forced 1 to shriek for volunteers to come from all parts of the! earth-tp help you/’ Well, hard words break no bones, and if the Empire- is a bubble, it is, as the writer remarks, a very majestic ope, and one that into the bargain will take a lot of. breaking.

A new sort of confidence business trick is flourishing in Victorian country districts. A man travels, around the farmers offering soap at £1 per box,-, with, given in, 40 yards of carpet, to be chosen from samples carried in the van. Thd operator leaves the soap and drives off with the =-61, promising to return with, the carpet in a day or so. But he is, of course, seen no more, whilst. the soap buyers find the stuff they have paid their money for mere worthless rubbish.

The level of Great Salt Lake, Utah, is reported to be steadily falling on ac-cc-unt of the large volume of water tributary to it being absorbed by irrigation enterprises. The Jordan and Bear Havers, City- Creek, and other tributaries rise in the mountains to the east, and before they . are intercepted by irrigation ditches poured into the lake the year round about 10,000 cubic feet- a second. It is interesting to learn that a similar condition now exists in the Dead Sea, Palestine. The sea was formerly much larger than at present, as is shown by the old beaehe-s, stretching at various levels along the basin. Since the! middle of the century its level has been very slowly rising, till quite recently, but now it is failing. This shrinkage of Great Salt Lake is not due to natural causes, but to the increasing quantity of water taken from Jordan and smaller streams by farmers, who are diverting all they can get to their lands. Some of the 1 salt deposits covering the bottom of the lake may , now be seen above the water in shallower places and near the shores.

When General Warre was Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Division he once gave a luncheon-party at Poona, where about forty officers • were present; The only lady who graced the: gathering was Mrs Warre, who sat at the other end of the table. Now the General, in the course of conversation, often addressed his wife, and, whenever he did<so, called her f< Joy.” Amongst the guests was a young subaltern j by name Macdonald, who talked on every subject which, arose. This youth suddenly startled the guests by saying to the General—“l say/, who’s “Joy,’ General?” There wa-s an awful pause, and the .General said 1 very slowly and distinctly—“ Joy, Mr Macdonald,/ is a pet name I. sometimes-, give -my*: wife,’ “Quite right, , too, General,” sang but the unabashed subaltern. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever!”■ This remark saved the situation.. * ■* * .... -* ' ... Do fishes talk ? Professor Kollicker, a; Continental scientist, says tney do. It is a strange pronouncement, because the finny tribe has always been regarded as, a silent race, the only member: of it, perhaps, possessing any audible voice: being the conger eeil, which has been known when caught to utter a hoarse bark. In the course of investigations the Professor, clad in a diving suit, was lowered in an iron cage, lighted by electricity, to the bottom of the .Mediterranean. He took with, him a phonograph, with a re--oeiver designed to register the slightest sounds, and; furnished, moreover, / with a cluster of electric lights, which might astonish the fish into the utterance of such sounds as they are accustomed to ; make to express surprise,or bewilderment! After various attempts, the - zealous scientist succeeded in obtaining records, of the voices, of several marine creatures.They are believed to be all sounds in* dicating surprise, the. most remarkable being “a note of astonishment from a shark-” ....... ,

An ingenious arrangement has / been made by the German military and naval authorities whereby the soldiers and sailors in China may telegraph ' news home to their friends at little cost. A sort of code is' constructed, containing a hundred sentences, Of' the kind most likely to be required as messages, and every sentence has a number of its own.

Each man has also a registered number, signifying his name and the address of his family or friend, lnese messages are sent home in batches, and distributed to' their addresses. By the ordinary telegraph every word coming from China costs six shillings, so it may be imagined what a boon this very simple and considerate plan is to all concerned. The name-number and message-number are 1 combined, and count as one, so a man may send a message as, “Shall be discharged in a few days from the hospital cured,” and adding the address of the recipient and his own name, all for the cost of a single word. Postcards are also issued of a special kind at the nominal cost of one halfpenny for ten, and the address side is so printed that the sender cannot very well make a mistake in addressing hiss or her card for the friend out in. China. After all. there is something to he said for the methods of a “paternal government!”

Laud is far too valuable a commodity in England to permit us to look for an extension of game preserves within its borders. Scotland has great resources, but, notwithstanding great expenditure, the supply in that country is not equal to the demand. Ireland, on the contrary, has tens of thousands of acres in Donegal, Connemara, Cork, and Kerry, not to speak of smaller areas elsewhere, affording splendid facilities for sport. Game is at present sadly, deficient in quantity; and, owing to causes' known to all, it is Hopeless" to expect the landowners. to stock and proper! 3* preserve their moors. Propefcry treated, they would harbour immense quantities of game; and abundant sport would attract men of means to the country, would lead to the expenditure of a good deal of money, and would give employment to many an idle rustic. Considering the favourable change in the condition of things in Ireland, and its rising popularity as a tourist resort, we may perhaps hope that there is a future "before it for sport, and that it will in time be able to meet the ever-increasing demands of English sportsmen, which even Elizabethan conditions at home would be barely sufficient to supply.—‘“Quarterly Review. 1 ’

Not long ago a French reporter encountered in n! littla village of the South of France a. gardener, who- wore, pinnied on his clean Sunday blouse, the ribbon of the Legion of Honour., Naturally, the newspaper man desired to know how he got it. The gardener, who, like many of his trade, seemed to be a silent man, was averse to meeting an old and wearisome demand 1 , but finally he began-—“Oh, I don’t know how I did get it! I was at Bazeilles with the rest of tlie battery. Ail the officers were killed; then down went all the non-commissioned officers. Bang! bang! bang! By and by all the soldiers were down hut me'. I had fired the last shot, and naturally was doing what I could to keep of? the Bavarians. Well, a General came, and says he, ‘Where’s your officers ?’ ‘All down/ says I. ‘Where’s your gunners ?’ says he. ‘All down but me,’ .says I. ‘And you’ve been fighting here all alone?’ says he. ‘I couldn’t let ’em come and get the guns, could I?’ I says; and then he up and put this ribbon on me, probably because: there was nobody else there to put it on.”

“No, I am not going out in the evenings just now to anything but strictly informal affairs,” said the young man sadly. “Why? Well, because at present I’m not the possessor of a dress suit, and lack the wherewithal to purchase another. It happened) this way. X had a friend, a good fellow, who came to me one night and asked me if I would lend him my swallow-tail. .T. consented, hut I told him I wanted the. cloth.es back the next week 3 , as I nad a function to attend myself. Well, to make a long story short, the week we.at by, and not a word from my friend and not a sign of . my_ clothes. I had to, miss my date, and .was pretty mad, but I didn’t say anything. Another week .went by, and' still no Avord. Tnen I decided to go and hunt him up and find out if he intended to keep my garments for ever. I called at his . lodgings and rang the bed/ His landlady came to-the door. When I asked if my friend was fin she gave a start cf astonishment and .exclaimed, ‘Why,-didn’t you know he was dead and buried?’ It was my .turn to be knocked out. After I. recovered my breath I explained that I had hot heard the news, and had merely called bp take back my dress-suit, It would doubtless be found among my friend’s effects, <, 1 said. The landlady turned pink, white, •and then pink again. ‘Why,’ she gasped, . r that must have been the suit we buried him in. It was the only good one we found among his wardrobe.’”

More telegram stories! Lord Gurzon is hot the only man who has- received' a telegram which baffled explanation. Sir E. H. Wittenoorn, the Agent-General for Western Australia in London, tells a singular story of a message once received by the Governor of the colony which he represents. Twelve years ago gold was discovered at Mallina through a boy, who-picked up a stone to throw at a croV. The lad observed a speck of gold in the stone, and. did not throw it at the crow, taking it to the nearest magistrate instead. The magistrate was so excited that he at once despatched a , telegram to the Governor, saying that gold in tho stone, and did not throw it a crow, but forgetting to add that “he saw gold in it.” The Governor was puzzled, and telegraphed back to the

magistrate: “What happened to the crow ?”

Juries have more than once added u> ■the gaiety of cities by their curious verdicts. A Welsh coroner" not long ago recorded a verdict on the death. of a woman that she “fell into the Glamorganshire Canal, whereby she died, and being of unsound mind, did kill herself.” A Leicester jury was even more inexplicable., It returned a verdict of “wilful murdett*” against a man, but added a rider to the effect that the jury did; not believe he intended to kill the victim* But both these “good twelves and true.’ must give first place to the jury which arrived at an amazing decision in a case of damages for negligence. The jury found that a man fell downstairs in the dark, hut agreed that the darkness was not due to 'the defendant's negligence; The plaintiff was., awarded £5. and it was sugge-yci-ed that the employer should erect a notice warning persons against falling down the stairs- —presumably in the dark.

The Emperor. Empress, Crown Prince and a numbed of other German Princes were present recently at Berlin Arsenal at the nailing on and consecration of b 4 colours, to. be presented to various Prussian regiments, including the colours for the battalions proceeding to whin a. For the first time, within recent years the Kaiser carried a Field Marshal's baton, covered with yellow velvet and embroidered with black eagles and precious stones. The Kaiser drove in the first nail cf the new nag to be presented.pq the principal cadet academy, the Kaiserin followed, then the Grown Prince, and then the other Princes, geteerals and snoordinate officers, down to- the colour-ser-geant. The consecration service) was of the usual kind, the address' of the Court Chaplain being perhaps a trifle more florid than was consistent with good taste. Alluding to the Chinese expedition, he said it was a Crusade, a holy war,. “God is with us; we are with God,” said the chaplain, “we shall attain to victory. ’ After the consecration service the Ta Beum was played by t he' bands.

The Dutch Constitution dees, net provide any settlement- for a Prince Consort, but it is understood (says the “World”) that the financial question is net to come before the Chambers in connection. with the Queen’s rharriage, a-s Duke Henry will not receive any income from the country, Queeiai Wiibeimina proposes that-’a- sum of 20,000,000 marks should be taken out of her private fortune and given over to trustees, who will pay the interest to her nusband. The money will be so settled as to place the income at the disposal of Duke-JTenry for his life, after which the capital is to. pass to the younger children of the marriage, and, m default cf such issue, the money will reveirt to the Crown. This arrangement Will give the future Prince Consort an income of about <£3o,000 a year, which, it will be remembered, was the amount settled upon Prince AfPert in 1840-

A story is told of an American Volunteer officer, who had his home in a small toAvn near the' Mississippi River, and who had been chosen to command 1 the local company because of his political influence. The ladies cf his town had organised a Red Cross Auxiliary Society, and among their contributions to the comfort of their absent heroes was a case of home-made pyjamas. The box containing these'was sent into camp, but no acknowledgement of its receipt was returned. So the good ladies telegraphed ;—“Anxious to know if. you got the pyjamas last week;” JXow the captain had been sitting up Avith the boys the night before, and when the despatch was handed him he was trying to reduce his swollen head with a wet towel, and his mind was somewhat confused. So the ladies of the relief) society were astonished by the receipt of this despatch : “Story is a lie out of whole cloth, probably made up by my 'enemies to ruin me politically. "Admit am not a total abstainer, but never had the pyjama® last week or < at any other time.”

. It is one of Mr characteristics that he never wears a collar a < second; time;; 'They, are not sent to the; wash, but ’simply discarded-. His voyage to Malta, therefore (writes' a correspondent of; the “Free Lance-’’)j may be said to be marked by : a foam, as it were, of -rejected collars in hisv wake. It is not generally known that this particular voyage is merely a variant oi tho regular autumn tour which Mr Chamberlain; has taken every year for at least thirty years. He used at one time to travel with Air Jes.se Collins. Since his last marriage his Avife has.,been his companion . Once they took,» .tour in Spain and Mr Ohambcrhan .says..that he was struck both , by the extraordinary obsequiousness of the natives, and the; monstrous nature of the Bills. .At last, at one place, he was met on his arrival by a procession headed By the mayor and priest, who rend an address. Then Mr Chamberlain said to his .courier,. “There is something wrong. Find opt who they take me for/’/ After a ivbile the courier came back with the information that it was supposed that Mr Chamberlain was , tho Prince of Wales, liicog. t and the charges had been raised.accordingly. .-It. seems that a local paper- had announced that the Prince of/Wale® was coming. Therefore, when the landlords saw the name Chambeiiain oh the luggage, they said, “Of Course, the itoyal Chamberlain would have charge of the luggage. Manifestly, this is tho Prince ef Wales.”

During an action recently heard by the Lord Chief Justice, counsel stated •that the profits on the farcical comedy “Charley’s Aunt” had exceeded £IOO,000, arid that a Mr Tiurdman, who advancdd) £BOO for the production of the play, had been paid upwards of £30,000 for his share or the profits. -* * * * *

It- is not only Americans who joke. Recently it was announced in London that Dr Joseph Parker, the eminent divine, "was going to edit the “Sun” newspaper for one week on Christian lines. This, which is correct, was followed by the statement that he had asked Mr George Edwardes, the “Gaiety” manager, to attend to the theatrical column. There was at once a rush to interview (Mr* Edwardes las to how he, would reply! He was caught on his return from a trip to> Paris. Mr Edwardes did not gratify the Curiosity of the interviewers, but sent a short note to Dr Parker declining, for obvious reasons, a responsibility that did! not fit in with theatrical nmnagement. Now conies out the joke* The interviewers went to Dr Parker, who was amazed. “I never sent such a letter, he “Mr George Edwardes? Why, I never heard of I was astounded ” ho continued, “When I saw the headlines in the morning papers. I was more astounded still when I received a letter from Mr George Edwardes acknowledging my courteous letter, and regretting that he was unable to comply with my courteous request. I sent it hack to him at once, stating that I did not know what it meant When the M.S. was examined it was found that some mischievous person had very cleverly copied Dr Parker’s signature.

: A writer in the “Leisure Hour” for January tells us who Robin Adair was, but confesses that it is now impossible to say who wrote the song that has made Robin Adair immortal . The tradition that Lady Caroline Keppel was the author has long been given up as without basiswneither did Robin marry a daughter of the house of Albermarle. But Robin Adair was a real person, the descendent of a very ancient Irish, and for a time, Scottish, family. About 1388, Robert Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Desmond, and owner of the lands of Adare in Ireland, settled in Galway and took the name of Robin Adare. His family became the heirs 'of Kilhilt. An Archibald. Adair of this family came to Ireland in 1630, and became Bishop if Killala, and afterwards of Waterford; he died in 1647. He was the direct an-' cestor of Robin Adair of Hollybrooke. Robin Adair died in 1737. His daughter Eleanor married William Hodson, of Old Court. The son of this marriage was Sir William Hodson (born in 1747'* and he married his cousin Anne, the only daughter of Forster Adair, of Hollybrooke. Thus the Adair property at Hollybrooke came into the possession of the Hodson family, who still hold it. But why or when the song was written and who wrote it is a mystery. Testimony of its popularity in Ireland® is borne by M. de Latoenaye, a French royalist who visited the country-in 1796. Describing Hpllybrobke, he says:—“lt is in this house that there lived that Robert Adair, so famous In a number of songs in Scotland and Ireland. -1 have seen his portrait; he is the ancestor of Lord Molesworth and of Sir Robert Hodson, to whom Hollybrooke belongs/’ Burns fitted new words to the air (originally “Eileen Aron”) in 1783. The popularity of “Robin. Adair” dates from i 1811, when the famous., singer Braharn introduced it to-public notice. A literary man’s name, though it may be known-the world over, does not always prove an open sesame. Sir Wemyss Refcl, in an address /to the Whitefriar’s Club on the Brontes, related how, in 1881., Bret Harte,. an American consul and himself, visited .Haworth - tp... get a glimps& of Haworth Parsonage, the old home of the Bronte’s. Before they started from Leeds a smart young man of the town, Mr M , made nimself an unwelcome guest, and formed one of the party. Bret Harte was eager to go over the'parsonage at Haworth, but Sir Wemyss, knowing the stubborn opposition of the vicar, warned him that it

was no use trying. Bret Harte insisted. Sir vV emyss lighted a cigar, and waited some way off while they besieged the parsonage. They stayed much longer than was-* necessary, but soon they apeared, and Sir Wemyss felt somewhat perturbed by the jubilant air of the youth. “Well/' said Sir Wemyss to him, “you didn’t get in, did you?’' “Oh, yes,'’' replied the young man with alacrity, “I got in all right—was shown all over the place.” Observing Bret Rarte’a dejected look, Sir Wemyss took his friend, the American,'consul, on one side, and asked what had happened. “It’s just happened as you said it would,” he rejoined; ‘‘Bret was the spokesman for the party—told our business to the vicar—we were rebuffed by him, and when Bret. handed his card to him with the remark that possibly the vicar knew his name, the vicar angrily said, ‘Oh, yes, I think I have seen it before, but that makes no difference.' Then Mr M—— spoke up, and explained that we had come a long way to look over the parsonage, etc. At sight of him and his name, the manner of the vicar changed. ‘Mr xvx——/ he exclaimed, ‘not the son of Mr M , of the wealthy M- and M—— P Really. Why, Mr M I’m delighted. Come right in/ And that is how we got entrance to the parsonage.” -* * * * Ye In “By. Land and Sky” (Isbister), a book on ballooning, the Rev J. *M. Ba-

con describes the effect that the sight of a passing balloon has on men and quadrupeds underneath. The most excitable creature is man. “I have seen a farmer, followed by his men, rush madly after a balloon across a field of stan—ng corn, causing reckless damage, and all without the smallest occasion. I have, on reaching earth, had a man of seventy years come gasping up, his hand pressed hard over his heart, -simply because for the life of him he couldn’t help running his hardest over the stubbles, though no one wanted him. Db,fs appear to be greatly affected, judging from the excited barkingjthat. constantly reaches one in a balloon. / It would seem that they 3 elp at -a balloon overhead much as they would ; bay at- the moon. Birds are cowed, and lie close. Horses take alarm, while sheep will sometimes become so scared that the}" wn: bolt through a thick hedge.: A jackass will become interested when it lias had plenty of time to’think the matter well out, but a cow ? Whether it feels any astonishment, X know not, but it declines to show any. We brushed close past a herd of them lying resting in the meadow that summer evening, but 1 they simply, lay still, ruminating the while as though it word no concern of theirs.”

A writer in the “Pall Mall” Magar zine for January, describing life at Cape Nome, the shore gold field in Alaska, north of the Yukon River, quotes some of the phrases that pass current among miners: —■ The old-timer is called a “sour dough,” because the man who has been in this country some time knows better than to try to live on pancakes and “baking powder” biscuits he makes honest: bread, raised with yeast, and saves over a bit of the “sour dough” for his next baking. I He is the experienced, level-headed fellow, and he is flattered when you call him “Old Sour Dough.” He gets, perhaps, his best enjoyment out of his cheechaker miner, or the fiscientifib' expert.” These are scarcely' less the butts of “sour dough” wit than the raw clerk or tourist, who steps off the barge that lands him, and before he loosens holu of his “grip sack” stoops and picks up a handful of ; surface sand, examines it .and throws it down indignantly. “I don’t see any gold -—the whole' thing’s a Jake.” One of the current pieces of slang is to say of a newcomer, “He’ll have cold feet in a day" or two,” meaning he will lose heart. Of two men sitting side by side out on the tundra, seeming to perch on the edge of the jsvorld. a miner, looking up from his rocker, says, “Case of cold feet off yonder; they’re wondering whioh steamer they’ll take back.” * * # •»

Some of the notable men in the House of Commons are sketched by Mr Joha Foster Fraser in the “Pall Mall Magazine” for January, xxe says that in debate no member is more feared than Mr Chamberlain. “In talking he is pertinent, dogmatic, now and then vicious, showing that he has passion, although under complete control. His words are clear, inclined to be mellow; there is never an involved sentence. At the beginning of a speech he trifles with his notes, neatly written on notepaper, and placed on the brass-bound chest at the corner of the table, and which bears a hundred dents inflicted by Mr Gladstone’s ring. Mr Chamberlain runs his finger along the side of his notes, getting the edges straight. Then he runs his little finger along top and bottom doing the same. As he unfolds a principle he taps his left hand Avith the forefinger of his right. When explanatory, he taps his two hands together, with the fingers slightly apart. Then suddenly, like a flash of lightning—reaching a point involving his personal honour—there is a quiver on the parchment face, a tightening; of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes. He steps back an instant, grips the edge of the chest-, as though holding his passion in, and with a tauiit, that sometimes conies perilously near a sneer, he throws his hands from him as though he were casting aside his opponent in contempt. No man lias received such hard blows as Mr Chamberlain. No man can hit back so well, so and make his foe on the opposite bench curl with vexation. Few care to 'stand up toJoe.’ Only one man does so, and does it persistently. That is Mr Lloyd George, an excitable, gleaming-eyed little Welshman, who finds joy in baiting: Mr Chamberlain, very much as Lord Randolph Churchill found delight in baiting Mr Gladstone.”

Why should not the universal language be Irish? An address by the Very Rev. J. T. Murphy, reported iTi the “lireemail's Journal,” should . convince us of its suitability. Irish, said Father Murphy, was the language of Goff and of the scholar. There was no language so impressed with the great, principle of Christianity. Irish was even more logical than Greek; it was characteristic by its directness and its euphony. He advocated the use of Irish in business and in churches.

In dealing with the subject of the employment of pigeons in the carrying of the war despatches,*the “United Service Gazette” is reminded that the first extensive use of pigeons in war took place during the siege of Paris in 187071, when no fewer than 150,000 official despatches and a million private letters were, according to French statistics, conveyed by pigeons over the investing lines into the city. The idea has since heen taken up and systematically developed by all the great continental Powers. In England only nothing has been done by the military authorities,

although (says t-lie “Gazette”) we are promised a pigeon loft at Aldershot next spring. But, broadly speaking, such a loft should exist, apart from any arrangements for the employment of pigeons in the field, in every place which is. case of invasion may be surrounded by the enemy. *****

. Cremation is slowly increasing in favour in England, and Woking is now to have a rival establishment at Hendon, where twelve acres are being prepared for the purpose, nob far distant from the Chinese Laundry. In 1885 there were three cremations at Woking ; in 1886, ten; in 1890, fifty-four; in 1894, 125; and in 1899, 240. It- is only during the past t-hree years that- this crematorium lias been profitable from the shareholder’s point of view.

A hitherto unpublished story, an echo of the hard fighting at, Pieter’s Hill, may be told on the authority of a lately returned officer of the Inniskillings. The British and the Boers were crouching behind boulders scattered over a wide surface. The moment a man on either side emerged from his cover he was at once a target for the enemy’s bullets. A Boer, partly, it- seemed, in bravado, made a sudden sally to join a neighbour. An Englishman, who- had long watched the rock, and was becoming sick with hope deferred, took aim and broughtthe daring one down. So, delighted was he with his luck that he threw himself on his back behind the shallow shelter of his boulder, and kicked his heels in the air. In his transport his heel rose above the rock, as h© was instantly made aware by a bullet transfixing his fluttering ankle, e ..

Apropos of the Nelson relics lately stolen, an interesting memorial of that time has just come into the possession of Mr Emanuel, The Hard, Portsea, which was presented by .the Bank of England to Commander Robert Tyte, of her Majesty’s ship Glory, in “recognition of the services rendered by him to the public and to the Bank in the detection of French prisoners concerned in the fabrication and circulation, of forged bank notes, 1812.” On the other side of the vase, beneath tli© recipient’s crest and motto, is the Order of the Crescent—the Turkish gold medal of 1801, presented by Sultan- Selim 111. to Commander Tyte, who, under Nelson, took part iu. the naval operations of that year. **. * *

Mr Gumming Macdona, M.P., England, is said to intend the introduction of a Bill compelling a foreigner, before marrying, to obtain, a Consular certificate to the effect that the contemplated ceremony will meet the legal requirements of his national law. The result of such art enactment would probably be that, no, foreigner could be married in Great Britain at all; for foreign nations would be almost sure to prohibit their officials from issuing sncli certificates. Consuls are not expected to be v authorities on such matters; and their intervention might give a false sense of security, which the- same result might rudely dispel. United States Consuls, for instance, whose country has about fifty different sets of laws as to marriage and divorce —how could they issue ■a certificate. which would! be worth the paper it was -written on P Their regulations already prohibit their certifying that a fellow citizen is free to marry.

Homoeopathy, which was a fashionable craze in the middle of the, century, when a leading exponent warmer cilessly caricatured in “My Novel,appears still to* flourish in Nonconformist circles. In the report of a special religious service a suburban• paper states that, “owing to the pastor’s severe cold, the first part of the service was conducted by one of the deacons, Mr Frost.”

There has \of late been anxiety in Paris as to fhe absolute safety of. the Louvre, whiclr is a matter of world-wide interest. The Colonial Office adjoining* is of somewhat ffemsy material; but- inquiries. are on the whole quite reassuring. A staff of twelve ’watchmerf is constantly employed, arid, tile director, secretary, two. chief custodians, • with a. plumber and skilled mechanic for the flues, reside on the premises. In fact; it is thought that danger threatens from water rather than from fire, sas there are 200 taps constantly under pressure, and a pipe breaking might do serious damage. There has been no fire in the Louvre since February 1661, and’ this although many, persons have resided in the building, some of them of very irregular habits. * * * * *

The most popular -Christmas carol of the day is “Hark, the herald angels sing,” the words of which are by the Rev. Charles Wesley. Years ago it was sung to the tune of “See, the conquering hero comes,” but Mendelssohn’s tune is now preferred to Handel's 1 . Mendelssohn, however, never intended the air for this hymn; it was written for the Gutenberg Festival of 1840, held at Leipzig, and 1 in after years he said it would never do “for sacred words.” Nevertheless, in 1856 Dr (then Mr) W. H. Cummings arranged the melody as it is now sung, and to him must he given the honour of having happily, “appropriated” a tune which is well known now throughout the British Empire. * * * *

A Seaforth Highland'er, writing from the camp in Egypt, says : —Gaelie concerts have just been started. A number of natives attended our first concert in

the desert; and it was interesting to see how they seemed to enjoy the proceedings. What we used to hear called “the other language” (English) is .simply “not in it” here. “The other language” is Arabic, very little English being heard in camp. Gaelic resembles Arabic—at a little distance the two old languages sound very much alike, and with “ach’s” and “cha’s” ; and our men seem to find it easy to pick up Arabic, while, on. the other hand, it is net at all unusual to hear a native shout out such expressions a.s “Greas ort” and “Cum do theanga.”