PEN-NOTES AND PENCILLINGS.

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 22

PEN-NOTES AND PENCILLINGS.

"ON THE BOARD." Russia has not only be decorating the Marquis Ito. She has been giving japan advice. This in part is to approach the United States and induce that country to part with the Philippines. It is a cheerful suggestion which may or may not bo intended humourously. 'Whether it will be acted on will altogether depend on Japan’s common-sense or her lack of it. It needs no great insight into things to see the attitude of the States in the accompanying sketch. Uncle Sam has found his box of tricks heavy, and is just now' having a ‘‘whiff’ before going on with

his white man's burden to the end. Probably it is because he is resting a bit that Russia has advised Japan to ask him if ho will kindly allow some one else to relievo him. A wiser piece of advice would be to let him alone, as if Uncle Sam was ready with the trigger to resent Asiatic interference it is now. In this little matter Australia is interested far more than Russii, as the Philippines are a next door house as it were. If it was as far off as Corea it wouldn’t particularly matter who had it, the States or Japan, but the White Man’s Burden for Australia is to keep her seas as far as possible for her own complexion. Uncle Sain, as tenant of the Philippines, is a gentleman we shall be pleased to call on and ask to dinner in return, but we don’t want Japan a foot lower down on the map than ehe is, and would like our news on this question to get the quickest possible j publicity.

A GREAT WRITER AS A HAIR RAISER, A correspondent to one of the Australian papers, writing from London, says "Mr George R. Sims got married the other day, and no one knew it.” When he returned to town with a Mrs Sims everyone was astonished, and said "so.” This is one of the minor penalties of greatness.

You win fame as a novel writer, critic, or versifier, and immediately the world claims a right to say when, where and how you shall live, and whether you shall havo a cradle or a perambulator as a for holding tho first born. But Mr “l'ns is interesting in a private way I? r ?>■ , ?*•’ ?°P because ho has rejected Mr 1 inch s advieo on matrimony, but because he is figuring throughout the Anglo-

Saxon world as the seller of a hair restorer. The writer confesses that when he first saw his portrait attached to the label of a bottle—in a window, of course —he got a shock, which has left a kind of “Cheviot” tremor ever since. It is oil so out of the way, and would have at one time have been considered so infra dig, that anyone hanging on to the skirts of literature must feel a qualm when one of the giants blossoms out as a hair man, soliciting 4s 6d for a full size bottle, and offering liis once bald and now downy scalp to the eye-glass of this disbeliever. "You are the first genuine hair restorer I have come across” has been written on

many a lotion to make it "wash,” but the , most reliable occasion was when a bald man said it to a boy who had chased ai d brought back a wig on a windy day. To , s l j eak plainly, the average hair restorer ] belore it can be rc-iiamutated on the glossy skull of tiie afhicted will require to I restore itself in his confidence, which * | fears of experimenting with hope deferr- j id has also left bald. The fact that Mr j Sims advertises a hair restorer as one he Used himself, coupled with the information that lie has just got married suggests all kind ol things, mainly comprehensible to tiie gentlemen wfio have lost their top knots under the scalping knife if matrimony. If the redoubtable novelist should lose his hair now some of our alleged humourists will certainly not spare iiim when hard up for a subject relating to hair pulling, while if his skull do velopes each day a-thicker and better -top it may help the restorer by enabling the advertiser to say that it strengthens the roots. To oe serious,./ft is a question it this method of eminent persons lending their names to advertise toiiet preparations is not derogatory to their calling. . Ot course there are degrees in this as ; there are in everything, as no one would argue that Patti suffers as much by advising the populace to buy a certain soap as Mr Sims does in actually advocating a hair-wasli. Though it is doubtful if ever tho personal advertisement will lose its pre-eminence, it does seem a pity that it should so often involve a high professional reputation. TIME TO TALK BACK. The European papers ought to endow a dozen hospitals with the wealth of coin they have taken from the mob "going for England. The Boer war has been a perfect god-send to them, as for once their columns have become of some interest outside their immediate boundaries. "Jaw breaking names” are pinned to all =orts of opinions as to British villainy, British cowardice, and British cruelty, and if vinegar is steadily rising, what wonder when it seems to bo now the chief constituent of European printing ink? Perhaps, ten thousand articles have been written abroad in the last two years for f the mere purpose of defending brother Boer, not for any love for him, but for all consuming hatred of England. And the extent of the abuse contained in these shows how very vain it is to attempt to please the malicious, while it illustrates once more the wisdom of never doinoothers a good turn. A hundred years ago had the same unfair papers had any existence they would no doubt have been singing tho praises of Britain at their Jouriest, as the corresponding authorities of the time undoubtedly did, in that gratitude which was a lively sense of favours to come, leading to and including Water- ] ™°,. !aics J at | ack 1S m the direction of belittling the Imperial instinct and loyalty of the English speaking and other peoples under tho British flag, and the excuse is the absence of any fresh offers from Australia to help to bring tho war in South Africa to a speedy conclusion.

While it is quite true that Australia doesn’t wish to send any more contingents either to South Africa or to any other country, let it be definitely understood that if she must send them she certainly will. Also, she will do this all the more readily to give the lie to these carping European critics, who, if they wanted to cement the Imperial union any more t-ian it is cemented could go a surer way about it than to thus dare the outposts to make another effort. That the slander has had this effect already, is shown m the piesent attitude of the Federal Government, which has let enough out to enable it to be said that if England asks J;°' morlo \, she shall have 5000 or even 10,000 men as fast as our means can despatch them. A carping European press says we knocked off sending contingents the moment we discovered it was no picnic, but let it

definitely understood by these false authorities that we are ready to send at this moment half a dozen more contingents as a mere result of their vapouring, and we have learned the cost, even to the last drop of blood and the last fraction of a shilling we are ready to do this the instant England raises her beckoning finger, and if there is a regret at all in

the minds of men like the writer of this paragraph to is that the destination is not somewhere else where the outraged legions of our. Empire might make these scribblers dangle from their door beams it they didnt run away beforehand. It Great ai ßrit” StlC °» t he relation between Gieat Britain and Europe that so long class of V fn teke ltj abuso from a certain class o, foreigners pours in on England averi^ ab ! e tldal wave, but that when! ever she sneezes, as Mr Kruger had it I 1 * 6 f Queen they withdraw, tone uown, and it need be, apologise. OuitA tentioif to he th ßritish . Governi »ent drew attention to the imminence of a "sneeze” by warning one country that she would ?“ e , .4 a y to ® far in tho way of inviting ral^m! 6 ?’ and tbe .fening down was gen* uf...“Ml-ungovernable immediately. Perhaps, that day is inevitable when the springs of this malice overflowing, will cause a European Power to go the full length, m which case she will find to her sorrow a United Empire of 400 000 000 «K red Ir make auy sacrifice rather than mßult; °ut, in which, in that smsn, of course, they would be backed by a navy which could sweep the enemy’s nianne from the seas, blockade her ports and reduce her commerce to the depths of ruin. There is an old fable of 1 the

fox and the grapes, but in that ca ßft «. I fox did his talking to himself, and i not arouse the sleeping dog in the . 1 inside the vineyard- These EuronSf i carpers would do well to profit by the e ! ample, and while full of envy at beholdiif, ! an altitude they can never attain, show ; a little more discretion in regard to their | utterances. As it is their yelping w m ; probably be responsible for a large Fede- ' j ral contingent from Australia, earnest of ! what may happen if some day they yejn j with the single desire of committing But i cide in their country.

THE LATE PRIME MINISTER OF ZANZIBAR. The unlisted legion so ably told of Kipling’s “Banjo Song” embraces men of all ranks, all professions and all capacities, though the last are generallv of thn best. The highest rank of the Legion is contributed to by statesmen and war riors, who finding the British Empire too small for them enter the- service of foreign potentates, and sometimes succeed In moulding minor destiny. Thus, India

had its English Rajah, Afghanistan its English Prime Minister, and Morocco its Scotch Commander-in-Chief in the respective persons of Sir 11. Brooke, Sir Waiter Pyne, and Kaid Maclean. The provim of Zanzibar has been similarly served for some years by General Sir Lloyd Mathews, whose death is now announced by the English papers with the customary eulogistic notice. General Mathews was born in 1850 and began his career in the Navy, serving later in the Ashanti war. Eventually he was employed to supress tb slave trade, and this gave him such ai intimate knowledge of affairs in Zanzibar that ultimately the Sultan of that place offered him the position of Prime Minister and Treasurer. To accept this offer he applied for and obtained the consent of Qneen Victoria, and so it may he said that he ruled the country named as much as an officer of the Crown of England as of the dusky potentate who paid him his .£3OOO a year. It is said by English authorities that General Mathews combined a perfect mastery of Arabic with an intimate knowledge of Zanzibar affairs, which, coupled with an innate capacity tor the management of native populations, distinguished his ministerial career with many triumphs.

HIS DIAMOND JUBILEE OF OFFICIAL SERVICE. It is seldom that a public officer is able to celebrate his diamond jubilee of service with the State. Perhaps, so far as Australian examples are concerned, the experience of Sir Charles Todd, Deputy Postmaster-General of South Australia, is unique. Entering the Greenwich Observatory as far back as 18-11 he has had an unbroken career in the public service ex-' tending into the present year, and the circumstance singles him out for special honour. A few days ago his jubilee was celebrated by the officers of tho departments under his control with much ecla^

when congratulations were tendered from a thousand and one sourc > p ginning with His Excellency the Govei General, his own Governor, Lord 3 and the Postmaster-General of N® , land. Sir Charles Todd is; thus »»» | to by a writer who- has an intimate gg j

i ir/> of liis career: —“Educated at ~i? .°" iu -icli lie was appointed in 1841 AsSonom/cal Computator at the Royal OhRorvatory under the late bir lvoberc Airey, and in 1848 Assistant Astronomer at the fdiiversify Observatory, Cambridge, then ,mder the direction of the late Professor ri.allis In 1854 he returned to Greenwich oc n U assistant astronomer to take charge j nf the vaivanic department. In the tolloniiT' “year he was appointed Superintendent of Telegraphs and Government Observer in South Australia by Lord John Russell, then Colonial Secretary. Hia ■rreat work was the superintendence of ft, = erection of the telegraph line across the continent from Adelaide to Port l)arn stupendous undertaking successtv.ll’v completed in 1872. Upon his arrival in South Australia he began the construction of the first Government telegraph t’>"ie At the time of the erection of line j, n 'o from Adelaide to Melbourne he freci’ientlv rode through the Victorian capital on' horse back. The country was then ru«°ttlcd and infested by Imshrangers aiul other wild inhabitants. He has described his outfit on such journeys as consisting of a vaiisc strapped io his saddle, and containing a Crimean shirt and a few paper collars. When ho was building the telegraph line to Wentworth, to meet the “-ire from Sydney, he had a somewhat singular experience in getting over the count) v. The contractor for the supply of poles, Mr Watty Thompson, of OTlalloran iiiil. was with him, and the two had only one horse between them. This was hew they travelled, one of them, say Sir Charles Todd, would ride a mile and then tie the animal to a tree. His companion would walk that mile, at the end of which he would find the stood waiting for him, while Sir Charles had gone ahead on foot. Then it was Yvatty Thompson’s turn while Sir Charles tramped. Thus they alternately rode and walked, constantly overtaking each other in the day’s journey. It was what is called in bush language ride and tie.’’ Sir Charles has promoted the welfare of Australia by his important share in spreading a network of telegraphs over the South Australia and other Australian States.

THE MOPE ELABORATE BLOCK- ■— ;sE. Tiie moated castle, the drawbridge and portcullis these things were thought to bo but memories till the initiation of the blockhouse system in South Africa. The latter, though differing in a variety of ways, chiefly iii regard to the "moat,” which local conditions forbid, shows that

there is nothing new under the sun. The accompanying illustration is of a blockhouse of a permanent character, a typo of just a few which are being built as a compromise between the round one and an actual fortress. .As will be seen it is a building of some architectural pretentions, the material being stone, and tiie work evidencing a desire for symmetry as well as strength. The proportions of the blockhouse are roughly speaking as follows:—Height, 30 feet, four sides, c-ach 15 feet wide; corners, six 6 feet wide, making the building really eight sided though the faces differ m measurement, twenty-five feet from the ground are four iron projections fully covered in for shooting purposes, and ns will be noted the wans are pierced m many places much as a fortress wall is looped, and with the same object. The only door is the one W !IV‘ tne ?k e £ e V, and this is reached IP a ladder, which like the drawbridge in the ancient Norman strongholds, can be hlnMh-f nd m a,; will- The actual wWi fi Wlnch supped the photo from the accompanying sketch is taken S Situated on the Kaffir river in the Orange Hirer colony

EOlt THE SUPPRESSION OE ANARCHY. A proposal has been made by Senator George F. Hear (Senator from Massachusetts in the United States Congress) that an island should be set aside for the sate keeping 0 f the world’s anarchists. tuiruvs this would be a feasible method of dealing with a very serious question, and he intends to ask the States to invite

the Powers of Europe to join in making it a success. Senator Hoar is a leading politician of America, but takes higher rank, perhaps, as a journalist. To one of the chief Now York papers he contributes about a dozen signed articles each week, and the ability with which he handles many diverse subjects stamps him as a man of very wide range. His scheme for the disposal of anarchists is no doubt a result of the assassination of President McKinley and so far it has been submitted in only a skeleton form. When it comes along for close consideration it will no doubt possess that detail, the absence of which now makes criticism useless. That the Powers will agree to any tangible scheme for tiie safe keeping of anarchists goes without saying, but a point that will want to be assured relates to the identification of suitable candidates for deportation. An anarchist is not, ns a rule, like a common thief who is developed by progressive stages till he commits his filial crime. The most dangerous one is an apparently respectable citizen a single moment before he commits an act which plunges a nation in grief and convulses all society. You can identify the men and women who talk anarchy, such as Herr Most and Emma Goldman, but how can you identify the men and women who only think anarchy, and who are unknown as persons of anarchical tendency till they do the deed which lifts them to the pinnacle of detestation? The talkers do a certain amount of mischief, of course, as they are the sowers of the vile seed that takes root in weaker minds, and no one could object to their being deported m a body, and hold in an ocean island as firmly as poor Dreyfus was held at Devil’s Island by tne French. But the assassins of monarciis and presidents, premiers and other heads of the political systems in vogue in the world, how would they ba dealt with in order to make the measure of suppression worth a straw to their possible victims? In this particular the Powers will want : some considerable assurance which, speak- ! ing m the daik ot premature judgment, as it were, few will believe Mr. Hoar can give. Anarchy is a thing which awaits, so far as the populace is concerned, a better and clearer definition. The man who outrages society by the assassination ot a King or President is simply the detected article, and lie is so far from being alone tnat there are probably a thousand I others like him in his own town. It is these others that are the constant lurking clangor, the people who find the suppl ios ; -nd whose crimes are the uncommitted but possible offences of unfathomed temptation. Senator Hoar’s scheme will cure, or at least stifle, the talking anarchists j arm the anarchists who have openly inl vited suppression in other ways, but un- | less it contains something not now aoparent, it will certainly not prevent the assassinations which terrify us, as these I cm no invariably from previously unsusI P ?' s S ns - f ha PP.v assistance to vnuirt ln°fi S scheme in this direction wo V !u bo the suppression of pernicious literature which, according to some d T H , nlf V;° llarl » in developI ing the anarchisticall.v inclined than all i or°sonarl‘ eS t! * at Ina f b f delivered in hail i ui souaie. A most aole paper in f),;« JjASW TT? form of literature— books that a ™° )ei " , to all other priiiemiV, E aS f l,erior apsiiis / lle^ *\paper people— merely di ■ tubute but tne seeds of aunmin- r ==_ where it may find develop into the most awful fori J ti^° tiie'state!' ° ®

A GREAT SCANDAL IN HIGH LIFE. -A. most sensational cnjf in England, the plaintiff beina“w* on \ Ve * t: ’. cx-South African Yeoman, d Sackville est, liis father. J ord mile, while acknowledging his pateriu f v ou U th S is tl that a t? tiff,S le&rit . i ,T acy ’ aild it'"is on this that the case will rest, the »x----yeoinan claiming rank and fortune as his father s heir It is another Paulett case but with infinitely more to cavil at, as i' lllle th ® father lias a title and estates and many thousands a year, the son earns Jus living about the village where he has excited enough sympathy, it is said to provide him with funds to prosecute his

case. The claim rests on the allegation that Lord Sackville West and the young man’s mother, a Spanish singer, were married, during the time they lived at Madrid and had three children, including himself, born while teally married, and the defence is that the marriage never existed. What is a Boint in the claimant’s favour is that the irth certificate of one of his sisters was endorsed in France by her father, this making her /legitimate in the eyes of the French law even if there were nothing else. It is a nice question whether a father would have made a false declaration on a document of this character, yet

if his denial of his marriage is true, it was false. It will be remembered that D°f'd Sackville West was recalled from the British Ambassadorship at Washington on the request of Mr Cleveland for unjustifiable interference in their Presidential Election. It is openly stated that his offence was a slight one, and Avas really the first pretext possible for asking England to withdraw a gentleman who liad established his illegitimate family at the British Embassy, and avlio Avas persisting in forcing them on official society at the capital.