THE BYSTANDER.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 3010, 23 December 1896, Page 4

THE BYSTANDER.

It would seem that English sailors are not the only ones with some

ground for grumbling that [- they ave superseded by foreigners. During tlio late gale a Swedish batajiie was wrecked

A OOSMOPOWTAIT Chew:

in .the Solway; o-tid her crew of fen were s'ivpd by, the ifiaryport lifeboat,. Tlie rescued consisted of three Norwegians, a Swede', two Spaniards, an Ara Russian Finn, a West Indian negro, and an Englishman!

OnC of the hioilfc interesting papers in the English magazines is tb*»*

THOSE ft to dovb.

~*,*oll oir Algernon Weetcon- ' tributes to the Nineteenth pen- ■ titty, entitled "Lord . Chilli chill ad ail Official/*. Sit Al-

gei lion West was. head of tap Inland Department when' Lord Randolph Churchill was Chancellor of tlfe Exchequer. ..He regarded tbsi adveht of Lora Randolph at the Treasury With no li,ttje which was net surprising, seeing that Lord Randolph regarded him as “ a d—d Qladstouian,” and his knowledge of figures was elementary in the extreme. A story is also told of Lord Randolph, that a Treasury clerk put some figures before him. ** I wish you would put these figures plainly co.that i can understand them," ho said. The clerk said he had done his best; and he had; pointing them out, reduced them to declriiala. “ Oh,” said Lord Randolph, “ X never could Understand what those d—dots meant;”

In thft ironist magazine a French scientist, Dr PaUI Topinard; ex-

ANIMAt LIFE AND FAMILY LIFE.

amides the various stages through which, as he contends, animal life developed into fahiily * life. Amongst manihials, Dr Topepard finds

that" it is on the female, in fine; that adaptation has concentrated all its efforts. The maternal family, is a necessity, .the paternal-maternal family a luxury. . Outside of the hours which he devotes to reproduction, the male has always, time for living and enjoying his individual life'. As 1 to the female, she his dmong the. birds no leisure except in winter, aild. none at all among the majority of the higher mammals. From tho moment she is capable of reproduction the object of her life is one thing—love. She seeks to please her nearest spouse, she loves him and admires him. She loves the eggs on whichshe broods and the offspring which are born of them; she loves him who has made her a mother and who shares with her her affection for her offspring. What a difference between her 1 and the male, particularly among the mam* mals! From the beginning it is pleasure which he seeks, frequently without any ulterior motive} later it is satisfaction of his activity, the need of possessing and of dominating. The male is the egoistic element in the association, tho female is the altruistic element. . . United they form a complete wholo—the physiological unit. All this is realised in the monogamous form of the family. , . Polygamy in the Ungulate is a digression of adaptation. If it still persists in tho monkeys, it is because it has not been able to regain the straight path. In the anthropoids, it is true, the scene is changed, and these animals have again become monogamous. f ‘ It is stated that “ Boodle's ”■ Club, in St. ;

boodle's

James's street, the oldest of all the West End clubs,- has ceased to exist owing to the

death of the proprietor. The “Thames Yacht Squadron ” Club will now establish their London quarters there permanently. Boodle’s was always noted for a peculiarity in its management as a club a peculiarity at once pleasant and satisfactory to its members, who were never dunned for their bills; the little account usually ran for a mouth, but in many cases for years. In the days of its zenith the club was named the “Savoie Faire/* It was her© that Gibbon wrote some of his letters in 1772 and 1774, and described himself as dressed in “a velvet embroidered coat with lace ruffles.” Wilberforce boasted that the first wont to Boodlo's ho won twenty-five guineas from the Duke of Norfolk. A cosfiESPONDENT of the Westminster Gazette writes:—“The Daily

'the }j AECHBI6HOP-’ ELECT ] AND THE " J CLBBY. i

News was not quite accurate • yesterday in its anecdote anent~ Dr Temple and St. Paul. The facts are these. Dr Temple after coming out of the House of Lords one'*

evening hired a cab and was 1 driven home to Fulham. He tendered the cabman the exact legal fare, two shillings. The cabman, hoping the Bishop would prove a good * fare/ expostulated with his lordship and acked for another shilling. The Bishop, however, firmly refused to be drawn. Thereupon cabby, became abusive, and as a Parthian shot to his lordship, who bad turned <?n bis heels to enter the Palace

said, 'you call yourself the head *o*’ St, Paul’s .Cathedral! D’ye think St,“ ho were alive, and were living kore ten thousand a year, would try and do a poor cabby by giving him_ only two shillings for a drive from Westminster to Fulham f 'No/ said Dr Temple! if St. Paul were alive he would live at Lambeth Palace, where the fare from Westminster is only a shilling.* Cabby collapsed.

The late Archbishop Magee—whose " Life and Correspondence jbyCanoil

LETTING M.R GLADSTONE ' OFF 1 CHEAP.

JloDonnel (Isbister), has been one of the books of the yearloved a good story. Xn the work in question he tells one

of Father Healy, who was breakfasting with Mr Gladstone .and Mr Gladstone said to huh, Father Healy, 1 went into a church in Rome once, and was offered a plenary indulgence for fltty francs; on what principle does your church grant such things ?” Father Hoaly replied, “ Well, Mr Gladstone, I don’t want to go into theology with you, but all I can say is that if my church offered you a plenary indulgence for fifty francs, she let yOu off very cheap.”

At the Johannesburg Civil Sessions rboently, before Mr Justice

A LADT CYCLIST (SETS £6OO DAMAGES.

Gregorowski—tlio “ hanging judge ’’—Miss E. C. HolmbsOrr sued the Co-operative Mineral , Company, Limited for £s(k)o ns hiid fob;

damages sustained by her through the negligence of ft waggon-driver In the employ of thedefendants, whereby she had been knocked down and seriously injured. The defendants put in a plea of contributory negligence,; but in the result the lady was awarded £6OO damages, and costs.

A tribute .is paid to Biitish character by M. Henri do Eourvilie, ip bis

A FRENCH Tribute TO BRITISH CHARACTER.

preface to “ The Labour Question in Britain,” by Paul da Eousiers (Macmillan): “There is a certain fooling of astonishment at the sight of this people, believed by its neighbours to be rather boorish.

' ' neither refined nor well instructed, aud but summarily educated, coming to tbe front everywhere, not by force of arms—for your Englishman is not a.fighting man, and does not boast of cementing society by blood and iron—but by persistent, prompt, daring aud intelligent action in every direction. As manufacturers and traders, Englishmen have surpassed Carthago or Venice or any other power that over was, and at the samo time they are pioneers and colonists of the first order. . . . Not one empire, but a series of empires, ha's arisen as it by magic iu the most distant parts of the globe, founded by the unfettered enterprise of British colonists. . . . Never before have such freedom and such dispersion and yet suoh unity of views and action been seen in any people, without fixed’ , plan, without centralised administration, and unassisted in any way by official control. Tbe whole is but the natural outcome of the individual organisation which to a French eye seems so incomplete. This groat work has really been done by these ignorant, halfeduoated barbarians 1 . . • England has conceived education os a simple thing. Her characteristic method can only be described as an endeavour to make men, as the prime element of all prosperity. England is first and foiomost a great school for men." M. Eousiers, to gather material for his book, ■ travelled about tbo country, and made a point of interviewing the working man in bis home. Tbo 'Spectator' says that ho is as entertaining a* Herodotus!

The typical American traveller seems to be

A TRIP TO THE CAPE.

acquainted with but one sea journey—the five or six days’ run across the Atlantic. So Mr Poultohey Bigelow, in Harper's ifagaiine for November, speaks of the incidents of

the nineteen days* run from London to the Cape as if they were something entirely new to American readers. First there are the regular morning baths in , salt water, and next '* dressing for dinner.” " It would be a bold man who, on the North Atlantic, would care to make a full-dress toilet each evening, and, indeed, the journey is now so short that many passengers do not appear at table until the voyage is nearly over. But between the Isle of Wight and Table Mountain! after allowing for the Bay of Biscay; which is Usually rough, there is ft lohg sttetcH of inote than tv*/o weeks wheg fehe sea is smpoUa, the air warm, without being hot. Ladies dress for dinner as they would in big cities, with low nock and short sleeves. A very pretty picture it makes on dock in the moonlight, particularly when a waltz is hoard from the saloon that sets our feet in motion over the smooth deck; and, of course, if wcmaa sets the example man must follow, • and thus it happens that, coasting the savage shores of Morocco; Sonegambla; Congo; and NigSrl t>a,fsengor. steatner life as hear as may bo, of Mayfair or West Point.”

The Emjpire bears from a correspondent in Rhodesia, who writes from the

FARE IN THE MATorro Hills.

Matoppo Hills, that his ordinary fare consists of porridge, without sugar of milkj and that cm Sunday ho treats. hltil=-

self to two gingor-nUts (prifcb §d each) and fin.ogg ih milli (price ssj. Eggs are 48s per dozen; aiio, not Jplpyet, eggs either, bub montli-old products of the kraal fion; for pho solitary cabbage tho vopdor has no hesitation in asking 255, and mdE ** when you can get it,” is a guinea* a bottle! f

We are told that “ the whole of the blacks im-

THE WITTAtt,”

of the hill just as tho steamer Was crossing the bar. They hhVer saw such ft tfes.sfcl bb :

fore j fioithef did L. Thff fpilosbd„He£ Shb steamed, tip the batbolir, the wouitiq ricreeching, the men and boys Ehoutihg :l a£ tb© .tppof their,voices. , ;i Whe.n the steamer Reached the.. wharf, the.' blacks >'o.meh afid children — galliGrodtih, rt. body directly opposite the vessel. Tho latter; having made fast to the wharf, commenced to blow off sleam. Simultaneously with tho first screech of tho whistle the whole ofowd stampeded, howling uud screaming iHrottgH the toifcrii ahcLiiever drew ropt ill, feached the btbbr eidp pf l|io •ridge, which sjiahho'a tHe fefeek at the ar end of the towii At first thby narded ter the " witter ” (devil), bdb after i While thojr be'cariio fecoiiciled ,td Het tlpliearahch.