HERE AND THERE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

HERE AND THERE

The crew of the Italian steamer Falla, which was wrecked on December 7 in tiro of Biscay, have arrived at Bilbao. During a severe storm a big sea mmaahod tho sorew and dashed it against tho side of the ship, making an immense bole through which the water rushed. Tho crow had barely time to launch the he ate. The captain refused to go into them, and remained at his post until the vessel sank. Just before she went down he blew tho steam whistle as a hist farewell to his men. The crew were picked up> by a. passing steamer and taken to Bilbao. Tbo Falla was from Mba to Glasgow.—“ Central News.’'

During the cruise of tho gunboat King among tho islands of the Santa Oruz group, which wore annexed B ome twelve months ago, it was found that the Union Jack was still flying on all of the islands except one. A landing party was consequently ordered to go ashore and avenge the insult. They found the colours, and found the wearer of them—a native lady, who had been so fascinated by the gaudy tints that she noiv proudly wore the flag ns a dress to eke out an otherwise somewhat too scanty wardrobe.

Kitchener is carrying desolation into tfae Transvaal, but in oar own Civil War, it will be remembered, there was a time when a crow could not fly across the Shenandoah Valley without taking his rations with him. —“Ledger " Philadelphia. # » » * *

The most threatening danger to British trade lies partly in the inadequate and antiquated educational provision which we make for our people, rich and poor, but most of all in the absence of the spirit which alone makes education of any value. —Mrßirchenough in “Nineteenth Century.”

The mere idea that a word on behalf of the South African Republics might be taken amiss by England frightens all of the Powers. Mr Chamberlain’s dream of an alliance between England, Germany, and the United States, which, at one time was laughed to scorn, seems tp bo approaehing realisation, even if it is not drawn up in a treaty.—“V'aterland,” Vienna.

The House of Commons delights in men who can make it laugh, but it is ever suspicious of their legislative abilities. One of the ablest men in the Chamber is Mr Gibson Bowles. He knows the rules of procedure better than the Speaker himself. He can explain the financial schemes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer better than the man who devised them. He knows all about naval manoeuvres and army manoeuvres. He. knows what is in every Blue Book, and more than the casual reader suspects. But ‘'Tommy” will fiersist in making jokes, so he is never ikely to get even the office of Civil ■Lord of the Admiralty.—“ Yorkshire Post.”

The cardsharping gang which is preying upon gilded London, and whose operations have fluttered some Very aristocrat!® circles, is receiving the active attention of Scotland Yard. The leader of the gang is now found to be a notorious ox-oonvict. ’ while a member of it—who acts as a decoy—belongs to an aristocratic family.. One wealthy young, man parted with £6OO to this fang over cards, and gave a written unertaking to pay £27,000 when ho came of age. A proposal was actually made that the young man should borrow £50,000 to be raised on the security cf a life policy. The victim informed his trustees, who promptly took stops to defeat the ends of the conspirators.—“ Glasgow Herald.”

Men. and women (anti even boys and girls) discuss things at the present hour which would have made our mothers faint with horror and hav© sent our grandmothers into a fit. The mid-Vic-torian fashion ordained that if a subject were “unpleasant" it was not to be mentioned ; with the swing of the pendulum, those unpleasant subjects are precisely those with which we arc nowadays pre-ocoupied in fiction ; in the drama, and in real life.—“ Ladies Field.” * * * *

When one hears of sulphate of lead, zinc, alum, Epsom salts, magnesia, etc., being manufactured into cloth, one wondens how the poor tailor will get on who has to mqko it. Visions rise of sore fingers and poisoned blood by tho introduction of these obnoxious chemicals, and if this practice is not speedily brought to an end, we shall have a clothes scare of even greater dimensions than has resulted from the use of beer.— “Tailor and Cutter.”

Ottawa may get one of tho guns captured at Paardoberg. Mayor Payment lias written Sir Wilfrid Laurier stating that a number of the returned soldiers have requested him to solicit the Prime Minister’s aid) in securing from th» British authorities one of tho Boer guns captured from Cronje on February 27 last, when so many Canadians, including six; Ottawans, lost their lives.—"OUawa Citizen.”

From Covent-garden comes rhe welcome intelligence of a boom in Christmas trees. Tho stirring events of the past year have brought the nation to a frame of mind which cannot tolerate anything like decadence and fashionable ennui. Britons, therefore, will . “lebralo the lasfc Christ*** of the century with as much jovial abandon as their great forefathers celebrated the first; the children will shout themselves hoarse round the Christmas tree, and Blind Man’s Buff will find many a sedate father groping cheerfully among his giggling children like a general searching for D© Wet.—“ Globe.”

Certain charged have become unpleasantly frequent of late against -lie conduct of the croupiers at the Men to Carlo Casino. Time was when these officials were beyond reproach. But in tho last year or two the custom 1m grown up among them of soliciting tips Srom winners. In the wake of this come, as might be expected, complaints that those who refuse such tips are apt to find that w r hen they next win a coup their money is unceremoniously handed over to somebody else, and that remonstrance is futile. One of the latest complaints refers to the case of an English lady.—“ Truth.”

The. charga lias often been made against our national system of public school education that too much attention is given to athletics and outdoor sports in general. More to the healthy love of out-door sports and open-air life, engendered at the English public school, than to aught else, is due the undoubted pre-eminence, of Englishmen as colonists and pioneers in new countries.—“ Public School Magazine.” • * • * •

For the second time in Succession Lord Roberts will spend his Christmas on tho sea. When Lord Roberts left England last Christmas Eve he went to take the command of an army dispirited by blunders and reverses; it was, perhaps, the darkest hour .that England has seen in the century just now closed. He returns, a victorious general, to receive the grateful acclamations of his fellowcountrymen.—“Evening News.”

There is not a single princely family in Caucasia that does not claim to be direct descendants of King David of the Jews. Some even claim to be descendants of cne of the sons of Noah, whose ark, it is assumed, landed on Mount Ararat, in Caucasia. It is historically correct that the Jews 2500 years __ ago came to the Caucasus. —“None I reie Pressc,” Vienna.

In the matter of sheer, besotted, overmastering drunkenness, wo stand without rivals in shameful isolation.—“ Dundee Advertiser.”

“The ‘Highlander,'” says Mr J. Macleay in tho “Temple Magazine,” “is not yet educated to short sermons. Even in tho advanced burghs of the east coast, which regard tho west as the ‘Hielans,’ length is often a saving quality. I remember how at at communions in Inverness we used to take a pocket full of toast with us to munch when hunger attacked our young stomachs, and a lady acquaintance on turning to look at the church clock—it was five in the evening, and the service had lasted since twelve —was remonstrated with sharply from the pulpit—‘Never mind the clock, my good woman,’ said the minister, addressing her directly, ‘never mind the clock; you’re in good time yet.’ ”

Tho modern girl who has ousted the male from employment, who has usurped his calling, and cut down his wages, still clings to tho tradition of her sex, “The man pays!” She writes ineffably silly letters to such silly papers as publish them “On the Meanness of Young Men” —the young men whose businesses in life her competition has ruined, but upon whose purses she still endeavours to spouge. She is able t° compete against man, however, only by the splendid chivalry of man, which, like tho scent of roses, still clings to the shattered Jar. —“Skopos,” in “Adelaide Critic.”

At tho Southampton Docks there waits, says the “Express,” and has waited for nearly a year, a terrier dog; out on tho veldt, under a rough-hewn cross, lies the body of his master, who has gone to answer his “Last 801 l Call.” But the dog still waits, and meets every incoming transport witli an eagerness pathetic in its intensity. It mingles with the landing troops, yearningly searching for its dead master, and when its quest has resulted in the_ usual failure, it disappears as mysteriously as it came. The dock police have now given the poor terrier a home, and between them and their recruit, who figure upon the muster-roll as “Jack,” a warm, attachment has sprung up.

A Now York telegram say's that a merchant of Columbus, Ohio, was compelled the other day to call in the services of a professional “safe cracker” to open his safe for him. Tho merchant lost tho combination of the safe, and sent to the manufacturers to supply him with an expert to open it. The expert spent three days trying different combinations, but made no impression whatever._ He was joined by another expert with no better success. The merchant, in a quandry, went to the head keeper of the Ohio Penitentiary, and asked for a burglar to help him A man undergoing five years’ sentence was taken to Columbus, and immediately set to work on the combination.

The St. Petersnbrg correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says an invalid yho has reached the remarkable age of 140 years is now. lying in the hospital at Tomsk. He still remembers Catherine 11., and talks of having buried hia wife 100 years ago and his son 90 years back. His record was nearly approached by a Georgian who died a few days ago in Tiflis at the age of 128. **»»«■

The Emperor Francis Joseph hits sent the Austrian aeronaut and engineer, Wilhelm Kress, 5000 crowns (£208), to enable him to continue the experiments with his aerial machine. This (says the Vienna correspondent of the “Daily News”) would nave been completed long ago if Herr Kress had not lacked the means. It was much regretted in scientific circles in Vienna that while Count Zeppelin was able to make trials with his machine on the Lake of Constance, Herr Kress was obliged to remain idle. A number of high authorities approve his system, and there has been a wish that this Austrian inventor should be given the chance of solving the problem of aerial navigation. He needs 20,000 crowns, which it is hoped will be forthcoming now that tho Emperor has made a beginning.

An extraordinary claim on an insurance policy was decided at Birmingham assizes recently before Mr Justice Channell. ■ Albert Taylor, a manufacturing jeweller, sued Charles Irving, an underwriter at Lloyd’s, for £I,OOO insurance in respect of an alleged burglary on his premises in February.- The defence was that no burglary had been committed, and it was admitted that the safe bad been unlocked and not forced.—Detective officers gate evidence that no marks of violence could be found on the doors which were alleged to have been forced. It was also contended that no strange hand had rifled the safe, that plaintiff had claimed for goods which he had never possessed, that the policy of insurance covered only travelling stock, and that there had been no concealment of important circumstances in obtaining the policy. The hearing of the action lasted a day and -a-half, and in the end the jury found for the defendant. » • •» - ♦ »

At a meeting of the) Rathdrum Board of Guardians recently, the relieving officer handed in a notice of eviction from the solicitors to Earl Fitzwilliam against John Howard Parnell of Avondale. The entrances to the Parnell dein ense are on tho Fitawilliam estate, and rent has not recently been paid for them. Tho result of an eviction, should Lord Fitzwilliam. *o desire, would he that the public would be precluded from visiting tho lit© Mr Parnell’s residence.

A disturbance occurred at Kingston (Jamaica’), recently, arising out of a quarrel between civilians and soldiers of the West India Regiment at a race meeting. Over 100 black soldiers marched through the street, attacking and beating tho townsmen. A large body of police quickly turned out, and Lieut.-colonel Allen, commander of the regiment, despatched Strong pickets to the town and had as many as possible of the rioters arrested and marched back to camp. .Much alarm prevailed for a time, bnt although several people were severely, beaten only one had to be conveyed to the' hospital.

A statue has been unveiled in Vienna by the Emperor Francis Joseph. This was the crowning figure of a handsome monument to Gutenberg, the father of printing. Gutenberg stands upright and very tall, in a long mantle, and wearing a broad cap. It is . one of the many Fausts we have seen on the stage, characteristic only by the lohg_ flowing beard that frames his face. Behind the statue rises an enormous building erected quite lately on the site of one of the most interesting old Vienna houses, the Regensburger Hof. That old house, if it were still there, would be a fitting background to the mediaeval statue. On the pedestal a: fine relief in marble shows the Awakening of Man, the rays of the sun being made to symbolise the art of printing.

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A “Capd Argus” correspon Pretoria says : Baden-Pcwell was on the point of embarking upon the southern-bound train when a plump, pleasant-looking little woman tapped him on the arm. "Good-morning, sir,’' - she said, "are you not General Baden-Powell ? I am Mrs Sarel Eloff.” 8.-P. looked a little soared. "You know you took ray husband prisoner at Mafcking.” “Oh, yes,” said 8.-P., still nervoualv, “you see, ho camo and tried to kill us, so we took him prisoner.” “Oh, I know,” said Mrs Eloff, accepting the apology; and then, after some conversation, they parted, 8.-P. saying, as he entered the train: “Your husband was a very brave man. I don’t think he boro me any malice, and I hope you don’t.” And the cheery little person, who, by the way, was by no means in anything approaching mourning, replied brightly: “ No, of course not; you were very kind to him.” ******

A correspondent of “London Literary World’’ writes: So many instances are quoted of the stupidities of school children that it may be a change to hear occasionally of their triumphs. A schoolmaster has told the following story as occurring in his own experience: “The children in the fifth standard were asked to give an example of a sentence containing more than one subject. Instantly up rose a ragged, shock-headed ‘hoyden/ who straightway began to quote from Browning’s ‘Pied Piper’; “ ‘Great rats, small ruts, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, grey rats,

tawny rats. Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, Cocking tails and pucking whiskers,

Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives. Followed tho piper for their lives.’ By the time tho end was reached examiners, teachers and pupils were all alike in ecstasies. The shock-headed girl achieved a triumph for the whole ofher class in literature.”

Among the apocryphal stories in tlie new volumes cf Augustus Hare’s “Story of My Life,” one relates to Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar.” On one of his dark days his nurse saiu to him: “Mr Tennyson, you ought to bo ashamed of yourself for grumbling in this way; you ought to he expressing your gratitude for your recovery from your had illness by giving ns something—by giving it to the world.’’ He went off repentant to his own room, and returned in half an hour with “Crossing the Bar.” The light of tho storv is somewhat dimmed by the fact that Mr Tennyson was Lord Tennyson at the time, and that the poem was certainly written while ho was crossing the Solent on his way to Parringford.

Tho Rev Mr Moffat says that “the natives of South Africa are increasing almost as fast as the white races.” Thoughtful persons would not regard the matter as so serious, if it were no worse than that. Mr Moffat is a great authority. but so is Mr McCall Threal. and the latter has studied this question. There is a passage in his history of South Africa which begins with the demonstration that the Kaffirs in British territory have trebled bv natural increase, in the last fifty vears; ami it proceeds to show, by careful_ statistics, that this increase at present is 20 to 45 per cent, faster according to circumstances than that of any white people under the most favourable conditions. We are not aware that this startling assertion has been disputed. In confirmation of it, may be adduced the circular which was despatched by the Capetown Government in 1885 to officials, missionaries, nnd traders in native territories' and reserves. asking to what cerise they attributed the “grUst increase” of the black population, and whether it is Hkelv to be permanent. There are those who predict that, sooner or later, the whites must be simply “crowded out” of South Africa by the multiplication of the Kaffirs.

"Writing from Greymouth, New Zealand. to the “London Snectator.” R.S.H. says :—-Your issue of July 14th arrived here last week, in which vou relate the picturesque incident of the trooner and his horse at Germisten. _ A young fellow of nineteen. Frank Bird, who went out as trooper from Westport, the town next to this on the northward, with ono of the New Zealand contingents, had in two or three months trained his horse to follow him, to lie down, and to kneel, and so aptly or completely was ho trained that though Bird went away into the bush the horse would follow and find him. He would blindfold the horse, and still he would go to Bird. Shortly before leaving, when the Westport sqxiad had been paraded. Bird went off the ground and concealed himself, while another trooper went with a bowl of corn and tried to attract it. But the horse refused the seduction, and followed till it found its master. While no little trouble was experienced with other horses in getting them on hoard shin. Bird’s horse followed him without hesitation into his stall on deck. Bird is quite a little, slim fellow, but an admirable horseman, taking after bis mother, who was an accomplished rider. *. » * « » *

A storv was published a few weeks ago, says a London paper, of a well-known Southwark merchant who left £3O on a bank counter at London Bridge, and found it there an hour afterward's. iPe same gentleman happened to witness a still more extraordinary incident at. tho Bank of England on Tuesday. As be was standing at the counter anotner customer came in somewhat hastily, and said to the cashier. “Do you know that you gave me £IO.OOO short?” The cashier made an indignant reply in rim negative. “Well, you did," persisted the customer. “You gave me £30,000 instead of £40.000, as you will see if vou look at yeur hook.” Referring to his hook accordingly, the cashier admitted that an error had been made, and handed over the missing £IO,OOO witnont more ado. There was no excitement perceivable on either side and the incident occupied barely five minutes. « » # * ♦

It is high time that Pere Kruger realised that he has alreadv gone too far, and that it is not to the interest of his country to increase the sanguinary devastation which a guerilla straggle must involve, seeing that there is not the remotest chance of the Boers regaining their independence.—“Svenska Dagblad,” Stockholm. • * • * * *

A soldier who murdered fourteen persons in Fekuoka, Japan, has been aocmitted by court-martial on the ground that ho was suffering from delirium Irani ens.—“Pinang Gazette.”

A pennyworth of new bread and four quarts of water—that’s the recine for a man who wants to make himself heavy enough to pass the Army attesting officer. At least, that is what a youth named Walter Webster told the Marlborough street magistrate recently. He tried it—on the recommendation of the recruiting sergeant, he said—but he went further, and made a false declaration, and for this offence he was sent to gaol for fourteen days._ Sergeantmajor Rose, of the Recruiting Department, said he had heard of the bread and water method, but had never seen such a thing done.