HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1665, 27 January 1904, Page 15

HERE AND THERE.

Most people dwelling in great cities seem to : think that the old-fashioned fail* ground, with its roundabouts and its shows, is pretty well a thing of the patt. But in -reality, there never was so yatit- an amount of capital sunk in the show business as at the present time. One steam roundabout company has more than £50,000 sunk in the business, arid pays a very handsome dividend, and at least two travelling wild beast shows are respectively insured for £12,000 each. In peabooths —an institution, much beloved in northcountry fair grounds—something like £20,000 is invested, so> far as- Sheffield and (Leeds alone go.

(Railways in Holland are so carefully managed . that' the accidental deaths on them average only one a year for the entire, country.

In the British steel penmaking trade there are over 3,000 women employed, nearly ten times the number of men who work in this; industry.

Bleakinisop slept in a haunted house. \ About one o’clock in the morning he : awoke} with the knowledge that the | flickering gas jet was filling the room with weird shadows and that a blast of ; cold air was sweeping through the room. ;It was uncanny; but there was worse ito come. Glancing at the foot of the bed he saw the dim outline of a hand on the bedrail. Even his iron courage failed. Grasping a revolver lie had provided in case of accidents, he pointed it at the hand. ‘‘Whatever ghost : you may bo,” he quavered, “take your

hand from the bedrail or I fire!” ; There was no reply and no movement of the hand. Only the wind howled in the trees outside. Then bang! bang! • went the pistol. And that is why Blenkinsop limps. He shot off two of his own toes.

* * #, ® » © Nine hundred pounds was the cost of the cake provided at the wedding of Air Aster,, the American millionaire, to .Maas Willing, at New York. The Princess Beatrice’s wedding cake was worth £3OO. It weighed 6owt.„ was 9ft. in height, and sft. in diameter. Six months was required for modelling the ornaments, among which were 1,800 sprays of sugared leaves of ivy, clematis, roses, honeysuckle; and other plants. It was made in the royal kitchen, and was conveyed to Osborne in a special van, 12 men being required to lift it. The wedding cake provided on the marriage of. the Princess Louise with the Duke of Fife; also made by the Queen’s own confectioner, was nearly 6ft in height, and weighed lewt 3filb.

A Comparative recent' craze, says T.A.T., is ribbons, out of which fancy tablecloths, quilts, etc., are made. Railway tickets are being collected, often at considerable risk' and expense, by hundreds of enthusiasts. An authoress has collected buttons for over 20 years, and now possess over 8,000. A Canadian gentleman has made a collection of the. buttons and badges of the uniforms of every regiment and departmental carps in the British Army, spending nine years of labour and several hundred pounds upon his hobby. A bootblack, whose pitch is in the vicinity of Ludgate Hill Railway Station is said to possess the finest collection of cigarette pictures in England. It numbers over 4000. An American has formed the “champion” collection pf drums of all countries, and he has over seven hundred examples. Perhaps the strangest of these many- strange fads is that indulged m by Mr Charles Rothschild, who has spent thousands of pounds in collecting fleas. The particular brand of pulex irritans, which has for its host the artio fox—itself one of the scarcest of .land mammals—is said to be worth £1800; other choice varieties are priced as much ag £3OO to £4OO apiece.

A Mr X. wished to have a telephone put in his house, hut his aged mother vigorously protested against it. “Robert,” sh'e said, “if you bring those, dreadful things in here I’ll never close ,my eyes for fear it may break out and sweep, us all into eternity, and us net a bit the wiser.” Mr X. tried to persuade her it was a most harmless instrument,, but she said. “No, no; look ait the thousands millrons—<otf poor Hindus it killed last autumn.”

“Why,” exclaimed he, “that wasn’t a telephone, mother; that was a typhoon/’ But the timid old lady lowered her spectacles and, looking at him over the rims thereof, said:—-“You need hot try to make a fool of me, Robert.; I perhaps don’t know very much, but I do know .that the typhoon is the Emperor of Japan.” Mr X. gave it up as a hopeless case. ‘' ; ’ • ‘v v - 9 - : ' v*’ A..'’. .. Both the King and Queen of Italy are fond of sport, the Queen especially so. She is an excellent shot, , and a wonderful climber. When in Mentenegro she announced her intention of revisiting on foot the mountains about kjettigne. Her Italian ladies-in-waiting glanced at each other in consternation, and al!_ with one exception, begged to be excused, the request being good-naturedly granted. One, however, young and lovely, ambitious for the favour of her mistress, determined to brave all and go too. The next morning at 6 all had gathered except the venturesome lady, who at. last appeared in a gown with o train, which, however, had been a,ll carefully pinned up, scent bottle in hand, and in high-heeled,, thin kid slippers. The Queen took in this vision, and remarked similingly that she looked pale, that evidently she was not feeling well, and had better not undertake so arduous a climb. The hint was accepted, she stayed behind, but lost nothing, as she has since . been prime favourite, and often laughs over the incident with her royal friend, who says: “Never forget again that you are ornamental.”

Liddon had a very genial, kindly wit—never harsh or cruel, yet often incisive (writes Professor Clark). When he was Proproctor at Oxford an opportunity occurred for his exercise of this gift. This story I wa.s told by one who took part in the incident. A friend of his had been plucked several times, and in the better colleges it was customary to ask such men to take thou* names off tha books. At that time a. man could not be a member of the university unless be belonged to a college. The dismissed student thought that this was a good opportunity of “getting a rise” out of a proctor; so he told his friend if lie would walk up the High street with him, he would smoke a cigar (a thing unlawful for undergraduates in the public streets). His friend agreed, and the candidate for honours in conflict with the proctor proceeded to smoke his cigar in. the most ostentatious manner, so that he could not possibly be overlooked. It so happened that, as they passed Queen’s College, Liddon, the Proproctor, emerged from the gate, and, seeing the violation, of the rules, he raised hie cap. as is the custom with proctors, and said —“l beg your pardon, sir, but I must ask your name and college. You must be aware that it is not allowed to smoke in the High street.” “Oh, I beg your pardon, sir,” said the man ; “I am not a member of the university.” “Oh,” said Liddon, with a quite smile and a gracious bow, “I am sincerely thankful to hear it.’ This was decidedly a backhander. “Oh,” said the man to- his companion, “shouldn’t I liko to punch his l head.”

An interesting contribution to the history of musical scales by Air O. K. Wead has just been published by the U.S. National Museum. _ Three centuries before the Ohistian era, the Greek musician Aristcxenus pointed out that while the voice-, in speaking, changes its pitch by insensible' gradations, in singing it moves usually by leaps or steps. Alcst people who have attained any moderate degree of civilisation have attempted to (limit the number of steps to be taken by the voice in any song between the highest and lowest note, and to fix these steps by rules. In earlier days, however, no definite musical scale cf notes existed, and the voice of mian was as free as regards musical utterance as that of birds. After this stage of primitive music came the stage -of instruments mechanically capable of giving a scale of notes. The commonest instruments of this kind are flutes, the holes of which are in some cases arranged in two groups. Flutes, were used by prehistoric man, and instruments with from three to six holes have been obtained from early tombs in Egypt.

To obtain information as to the general direction and rate of ocean currents, Mr H. C. Russell, Goveriiment Astronomer of New South Wales, has for several years arranged for sealed bottles -to be thrown overboard from ships in various parts of the world. Each bottle contains a paper giving the 1 date and position when it was thrown into the sea, and asking for,, similar particulars from the person who recovers it. In his latest report upon the results, Mr Russell states that one bottle thrown overboard in the Socotra Sea on January 28, was found in the Gulf of, Aden on February of having travelled. 350 miles in 12 days, or on the average, more than 29 miles a day. This is 'one of the most rapid drifts yet recorded for ocean waters.

In outspoken terms the Bishop of nopolis. Hie estimated (says “The Daily News”) that there, were 28,000 unhappy women in London ..engaged in the most appalling of all, yobations.' €ta terrible a ‘ .curse can orhly diminished by co-

operation between the churches and the municipal. bodi||} and we gladly reorll the refreshing object lesson of Mr F. B. Meyer and Mr Tolefree Parr allying themselves with, the Bishop of Rochester in a quiet, but effective, campaign against disorderly,} ho uses tftr oug.ho at certain areas of South London, It is by such intei'-denominational alliances that we shall arrive at a better England, as well as a ; more" tolerant and active Christianity. A word is due also to the borough councils, which have a good reeprd so far as this particular problem is concerned. Prevention is, of course, better than, cure, and we Wellcome, therefore, the scheme at Birmingham, which is due to the energy oi a local-vicar, the Rev J. H. Richards, who is esablishing. at a cost of £BOOO, an institution for working girls—now too often found spending their evenings in tihe public house. Drink is the feeder of all other form of vice, and the most patriotic work, as well as the most Christ-like A work, in which the churches can engage is in combating its influence, not only by opposing such shameful schemes as that of the Government, but in positive work such as that of Mr Richards.

An interesting anecdotal paper, dealing with the early life of the new Pope, is contributed to the December number of “The Pall Mall Magazine” by the Rev Alexander Robertson. “Heoften played chess,” he writes, “and a game called ‘briscolo’ with younger people. This is a game of chance that is played with cards. Italia,ns, as a nation, and as individuals, lay and clerical, are all given to gambling. Personally, Ido not know a single priest who does not engage in it, and the curate cf Tombola was no exception. Another Italian weakness which he shared, and which he developed at Tombola, was running into debt. In his case this was.not due to self-indulgence, for it was little lie spent upon himself, but rather to an almost indiscriminate lending and giving. When be left Tombolct,. he left a few debts behind him, especially one of 200 francs to a certain Zambusi, and he, himself, has told how he was ashamed to return to the village till he was able to pay what he owed, and this was not till be besame Bishop of Mantua.”

The problem of christening children, it appears, is a very small one compared with the question of the proper name for a book. The titles cf some recent popular novels have often undergone extraordinary evolutions in order to reach the final satisfactory stage. “Jude the Obscure” was first entitled “The Simpletons,” a name which gave place at the very last moment to a later and better title, for during its appearance in serial form it was known as “Hearts Insurgent.” Sir Gilbert Parker’s “The Right cf Way” was at first in the author's . manuscript “Charlie Bell,” and later “Charley Steeleand “The Lane that has No Turning,” by the same author, was until the time of its going to press called “The Golden Spoon.” “Lady Rose’s Daughter” was in. manuscript “A Woman of Talent.”

The “Book Monthly” tells this story, of Air John M-orley and his great book' on Gladstone. He was asked, when he had finished it, whether he did not feel relieved. “Yes,” was Ids answer, “I am very thankful —and very lonely.”

King Edward is very punctilious in the matter of his birthday letters and telegrams, and each year these congratulatory messages are counted up, so that every one knows whether there is an increase or falling off in the current. number as compared with those received an previous occasions. The number of birthday gifts received by His Alajesty this year (remarks “The Onlooker”) are said to be even more numerous than for his birthday in coronation year. Jewelled trifles, in novel shapes, were numerous from bis guests at Sandringham, and the Earl of Dudley’s gift was especially appreciated. It is a matchbox of quite a new shape, being round and very thin, tho inside coated with blue enamel set with saphires, the patent spring being marked by one beautiful blue stone. The outside is of white enamel, with roses, thistles and shamrocks., and the royal crown carrying out exquisitely in coloured enamels.

- > A writer in theh/ current numebr of “The British Realm” says of Load, Kitchener, who' has met with such a serious accident, that, like lago, he does not “wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at,” but he has a heart, and a warm one too. 'The man wha follows through life the woman who nursed him as a child, who never misses an opportunity of seeing that old nurse, is not heartless; and if he has hestitaited at the lottery of marriage, he is not the only brave man who has shrunk from the edge of that precarious cliff. No; it iis a contradiction of all the laws' of human nature to suppose that - from a being so gifted _ there has been left out tApii supreme gift'of feeling and of love.” When Queen Victoria spoke of his first visit to. her at Balmoral, she. r said:—“They say he hates women; T .can only say lie was very nice to me/*”'.