OUT AND ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1650, 14 October 1903, Page 59

OUT AND ABOUT.

(By Thomas Didymus, junr.)

Some time ago I was to purchase a house, and having advertised my ■wants I was speedily inundated with circulars and lists of properties for sale, every one of which, without exception, was recommended as a “good investment.” Had it been an “investment” I was in search of, of such I could have had plenty and to spare. It was, however, a “liome” I wanted, and that was clearly a distinction with a difference. « * * * * w Yet I was pleased to see that most of tho houses, besides having the various common conveniences, were also furnished with “bathrooms,” and I recalled with pride the unwitting compliment of the Italian who, on being informed that the British bathed every day, exclaimed. “They must me dirty beggars to need all that washing. Why, we wash only once a. year!”

I’m afraid my pride lias “passed out” since I visited a few of tlie houses, tho addresses of Avhieh were given on the “lists” referred to above. Perhaps it isn’t, right to gossip about what you see in another’s house, but in the interests cf the public health I think it is up to me to say something about wliat I saw. You can condemn me if you think I’m wrong. It did not need very close observation on my part to gather that many cf the bathrooms in houses I visited were innocent of being put to tho use for which they were originally intended. Sonic were used for one purpose and some for another—the popular use was as a lumber room. In one house I visited, the bathroom was very small, and the bath had been converted into a bed on which, at the time of my visit, a young lad was lying ill. I inquired as to the nature of the hoy’s illness, hut his parents could not say' what was wrong with him. On examination I ventured the opinion that tho trouble was serious—if I guessed correct, scarlet'fever. The Dr. was called in next day and he had the hoy promptly removed to the hospital. And I might ask, what is our Public Health department, doing that such cases are allowed to occur in Wellington P « * a a m y Tho ulsing cf the bathroom for other than purposes of cleanliness reminds me of the following conversation, said to have been overheard on a Glasgow car some years ago. First Wummin: “They’re vera Draw booses the Corpurashin’s biggin’ the noo.” Second Wummin : “They’re a’ that. Bit whit’ll ye think the rent’ll be?” First Wummin: “Three rooms an’ kitchen, an’ scullery for £l2 10s a year.” Second Wummin: “That’s gey guid, is’t no’ ?” First Wummin : “No’ sac bad. ava. hut they’re to lia’e nae baths.” Second Wummin : “Nae baths! Mcgstie, an’ whaur’ll we pit our coals?” * » - * ss John Burns used to say that Keir Hardie, the leader of the British Socialists, was a “very sanguine man.” 1 have just read an article by Burns in the “Magazine of Commerce,” on Condon twenty-five years hence, and I’m now for saying “ditto” to John. Hero aro .some of his phophecies:— “The East End will disappear as a home of miserable industry. It will become the true seat of industry, but the pallid dwellers of to-day will have gone to the light. Seven Dials will have become a mere name in the Chamber of Horror’s'history. “The power to breaths will he one of tho supremo physical characteristics of London’s emancipation. A new system of fire extinction, adaptable to cleansing the streets by hydraulic pressure, will be adopted. The “Growler” will have disappeared, the street omnibus of to--day 'will be the comic oddment of the past. Wc shall have 1500 miles of electric roadways in London. “The Tube’ will become a storm overflow conduit, a sewage washout, aided by the Thames, which also, will participate in the general improvement now going on. “Everyone will ride in the open air. We shall have established a magnificent service of river steamboats. Cannon street and Charing Cross railway bridges, with their red oxide abominations, will give way to 100-feet viaducts “We shall in twenty-five years have in London 150 public parks and open spaces.” All of which the Yankee would say was a very “tall” order, although all of us who have lived any; time in London will admit that John’s sanguine picture is “a consummation devoutly (o be wished.” ■ • * o a Our newspapers are full of the trial of the Humbert family in Paris, and I have heard many express themselves as surprised at the “ridiculously inadequate” sentence of five years passed on Mine. Humbert and her husband. People making these remarks surely forget that a French prison and a British prison are not to-be compared. Five years “reclusion,” or solitary confinement, as it is understood in France, is not only a rigorous, but a terrible penalty. The British code offers no parallel

to it; and a life sentence of penal servitude in a British prison could ho much easier endured than, that just passed on Mine. Tlierese. The solitude of the prisoner “on reclusion” is all hut. absolute. The strictest silence is enforced. Presumably the consolations of religion are not withheld; otherwise the prisoner is forbidden to speak, even to tho “guardian.” Books are denied to thu prisoner undergoing this terrible penalty, and (this must be almost the worst inVliction of all) the most complete idleness is enforced,; no employment of any description whatever mitigates the appalling vacancy of days, weeks and years. Half an hour’s exercise is allowed daily, dressed in a hooded gown which covers everything except the eye® .This horrible life m death may end in the tomb, but is far more likely to end in the padded room of the lunatic asylum.. *> to * * •

Who by prophesying can tell the. bounds of science? It was but yesterday our legislators were demanding the institution of “money orders” by telegraph, and here we have tho “money order” by ethergram and that without tho aid or interference of the Post. Office officials. Mr Henry Robertson, one of the “Compania's” saloon passengers, was dismayed on finding in the middle of a recent voyage that he did not possess sufficient ready money to pay the Custom dues at New York. He had no friends on board to whom he could appeal. Ho remembered, however, that His mother had sailed from New York in the “Lucania” on the same day a? the “Campania” left Liverpool. When the liner was in mid-ocean Mr Robertson sent, an ethergram addressed to his mother on board the “Lucania,” with which siiip communication bad been established when the two vessels were fifty miles apart. The message transmitted by Mr Robertson to the “Lucan ia” read:

“Pay purser ‘Lucania’ £lO, asking him to advise purser ‘Campania’ to pay me.” An hour later the purser of the “Campania” received the following message from the purser of the “Lucania” : “Pay Henry Robertson £lO. Have collected that amount from his mother on board ‘Lucania.’ ” I wonder what the Postmaster General will do in order to secure his commission on this transaction ?