HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3207, 17 August 1897, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

The soldiers who have been brought to London £o? the Jubilee celebrations are now, says an English paper, wearing boots for the first time. In West Africa they do all their work barefoot. When they first arrived at Chelsea Barracks they used the butter given them for breakfast for rubbing themselves with instead of eating it ; but when they were told that was not the use to which it was applied they soon got educated, and said it was “plenty good." The chief cook at the barracka says that shortly after the Sierra Leone Frontier Force arrived he gave them some rhubarb tart for dinner. They ate the pastry, and when he went up to see how they were getting on he found them washing their plates with the juice.

The carpenter bee is a large and handsome insect with lovely purple irridescent wings, to be found in the South of Europe and in tropical countries. A writer in Chambers's Journal says : The female carpenter bee scrapes out in a wooden post or paling a cylindrical tunnel, sometimes as much as fifteen inches in length and half-an inch in diameter. This laborious undertaking is necessarily the worK of several days. An egg is then laid at the bottom of the tube, and this the bee carefully shuts off by constructing a sorb of ceiling out of the particles of sawdust which have accumulated on the ground as the result of the boring operations. This ceiling forma the floor of another ! cell or chamber lying immediately above the first one, and an egg is laid in this cell likewise. This process is repeated until the whole tube is divided into tea or a dozen compartments, each containing a single egg- As a consequence, however, of this peculiar method of nest-building, the egg laid at the bottom of the tube is the oldest, possibly by days, and hence hatches first. How, then, is the bee, when full grown, to find its way out of the tube without disturbing its companions 1 As if aware of this difficulty, the motherbee, with remarkable foresight, has already constructed an orifice at the farther end of the tube, through which the new-born bees can crawl out in succession. What is still more remarkable, by a very curious instinct, the grubs, When about- to enter the quiescent or pupal stage, place themselves, if nob already in that position, with their head downwards, and thus each newHy matured bee is enabled to pierce the partition immediately below it, and so work its way out ot the old home without disturbing the companions of its youth.

Although it is a fixed idea in the official mind that it ia weakness to rectify an official blunder or to supply an official omission when one or the other has been publicly made, it ia not improbable that the War Office conscience may it the present time be prompted to undo some of the things which it ought not to have done, and Haw do some of the things which it ought to have done before. The Broad Arrow quotes the following case:— Amongst the individual oases which might meet with attention under this this idea might be instanced that of Major-General Luke O’Connor, one of the few officers who received the Victoria Cross personally from the hand of tier Majesty at the ceremonial parade in Hyde Park forty years ago. His services then were fresh in the nation’s memory. At the battle of the Alma, when the 23rd Welsh Eusiliers were winning theft desperate way to the Buaai-ah redoubt* and the officer carrying the Queen's colour was shot down, Sergeant Luke O’Connor, although wounded himself at the sane moment, snatched up the flag from the ground and planted it on the redoubt. Ho showed equal gallantry at the assault on the Redan on September 8, ISOS, when he was again severely wounded, being shot through both thighs. Afterwards receiving a commission, he served through the Indian Mutiny, and continued to gain promotion to the rank of major-general. At the J übilce of 1887 his name was brought forVvard for the G. 8., and he would have got it, but having just retired it was found that, under some red-tape rule* he was not eligible owing to such retirement. If the rule be not of the nature of Mede and Persian unchangeableness, the opportunity might now be taken of relaxing it in favour of a good and gallant old soldier.

The Manchester ’ Guardian tells an amusing story of a little Harrow buy who was shouting himself hoarse in the .jubilation of victory after an Etoh and Harrow match at Lord’s, in which Harrow had it hollow* To him an Eton boy, of corresponding years, severely observed, “ Well, you Harrow fellows needn’t be so beastly cocky. When you wanted a head master you had to come to Eton to get one. The small Harrovian was dumbfounded for a moment, and then, pulling himself together for a final effort of deadly sarcasm, exclaimed, “ Well, at any rate, no one can say that we over produced a Mr Gladstone.' 1 The strange death of a London fireman is recorded by one of his comrades in the current issue of Cassell's Family Magazine. He says; About half-past twelve on a bitterly cold winter’s night in (he year 1882 we were called out in a mighty hurry with the news that the Alhambra Theatre was in a blaze. Away we went, expecting a big job, and a big job we found if. One of our men, named Berg, was up on a high ladder working a hose. He was in a moat exposed position, with the icy wind yelling behind him and the great fire roaring in his face. A dozen steam fire engines were hard at it playing on the burning building, and spray from the jets kept splashing over Borg ; as it fell it froze, until, without any exaggeration, he was one great icicle. None of us realised what was happening until quite suddenly down he came all of a heap. He was literally covered with ice.

A point of law of special interest to commercial travellers is laid down in the current number of Cassell's Family Lawyer. It is in connection with a traveller's claim for commission upon Lad debts. I have frequently (says the writer) heard the point debated—though no in court—whether a traveller can claim commission on orders that produce bad debts. This very often depends upon the exact language of the contract between the knight of the road and his employer. When the agreement is, “ The traveller to have 6 per cent, commission on all orders obtained by him,” it may well be contended that the traveller has a right to his commission on each order immediately his principals receive it and raise no objection againstthe customer. But then there is the custom of the trade to be considered, and in many classes of business it is customary not to pay commission unless the customer pays for the goods. I strongly advise all commercial travellers and their masters to have a clear understanding on the point at the beginning. When a traveller is not to be paid on bad debts, be is entitled to demand that bis employer shall use the utmost diligence in collecting overdue accounts, A bad debt does not mean simply an unpaid debt, but one of which there is no reasonable probability of extracting payment—a debt owing by someone unable to pay. “ Norman Macleod ” is the subject of the latest issued—and one of the best—of the monographs in the “Famous Scots Seties ” (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier). The writer, the Rev John Wellwood, might, however, have given us more of the anecdotes associated with his subject’s name, but he tells one concerning the period of Maoleod’s ministry in the Barony Church, Glasgow, where his bearers spoke of him affectionately as “Norman," which hits off admirably a Scots characteristic. Ono day a U.P. member was requested to visit a family whom he did not know. Thinking that they might be new adherents, be went to the bouse, which was up three flights of stairs. A man was lying ill. After pray-

ing the minister asked if they belonged to his congregation. 44 Oh, no," said the wife, 44 we belang to the Barony ; butyou see this is a catchln* fewer, an* it wad never dae to risk Norman."

The Royal Family, and especially her Majesty, had all a great love for Macleod, who was for many years one of Her Majesty's chaplains. The Prices of Wales on one occasion put in a plea for short sermons. Said the Doctor, 41 1 am a Thomas a Becket, and resent the interference of the State’* ; and sure enough at the drat opportunity he preached for thiee-quarters of an hour, only so well that hia Rcyal Highness wished it baa been longer. But the extract show? perhaps better than anything else could how intimate he was with her Majesty: “ The Queen eat down to spin at a nice Scotch wheel, while I read Robert Burns to her, ‘Tara u' Shanter and 4 A man’s a man for a that, her favourites."

The smallest human being ever in existence is said to have been a Liverpool child named Catherine Elliott, upon whose mite of a body the local coroner recently held an inquest. The Liverpool Mercury says the child was born in (_*.aa gow ten weeks ago, and was being exhibited in Liverpool, the parents receiving £3 10s per week. The child weighed 20oz, was 12in high, and the palm of her hand was only the size of a shilling, ine parents disclaimed any desire to limit the growth of the midget, which had been guarded from cold, well nurtured, and had. never had a day’s illness before Saturday las*, when, accoriingjto medical evidence, it died suddenly from natural causes. The jury returned a verdict accordingly.

According to the author of an article on 44 The Gods of Africa" in the May Quiver. the Congo Natives undoubtedly regard some, if not all, of their Fetiches as having supernatural powers. “ Could thia image hurt me ?” asked one of the Baptist missionaries on the Congo—the late Rev. Thomas Comber —of a group of natives. “Oh, yes," they replied; “it could strike you dead.” Mr Comber took it in his hand * and turned it about, and looked at it meditatively. It was a funny little object, an image of wood, with a large protuberance on its back and a similar protuberance on its chest, looking as though it were both humpbacked and pigeon breasted at the same time. “ What would happen if I were to cut it ?" asked Mr Comber. “ Oh, it would strike you dead 1” they exclaimed in alarm. “May I try Vhe asked. “Oh, it will kill white man,” they asserted. But as he pressed for permission, they at last agreed. So, in breathless silence, Mr Comber drew his knife from his pocket, and slowly out off the pigeon-breast of the little figure. Scrap after scrap fell from the image, but still it made no sign. At length he desisted ; the operation was complete. “ Behold," he exclaimed in triumph, “your god has no powers. See what I have done and yet lam not hurt. It is but a senseless piece of carved wood." And ho proceeded to point the moral of his action by showing the difference between such gods and the God of the Christians.