NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4740, 23 August 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

.Mi' \V. liroun, Edinburgh, was the (ilia 1 bidder for several Hums’ autographs at Christie’s la-sb week. Three stanzas beginning “The last lime I came o’er llm moor,” with on tim hack in the poel.N autograph a “List of books bought in (,lio Monkland Society’s Library, ’ made £3O; a letter to James Hamilton, grocer, Glasgow, dated Ellisland, May 20, 1789, £l4 10s; another to Mrs McLehoso, £2O; and a fourth from, that lady to Robert Ainslio, Cal ton Hill. £■> 10s. Mr Brown also bought, for respectively £7 5s and £5 10s, two letters addressed by Soott, 1819-22, to W. Laidlaw. • » • • •

Whole armies of rats leave towns at the end of summer to go and spend a part of the autumn in tho country, th-m to enjoy tho change of diet which fresh fruit "affords. Country rats enjoy fie' eggs of tfio wild ducks, and many a water fowl, besides their luckless young for whom they Ho in wait in tho lohg grass, and the rat can swdrn as well as run after his quarry. They will tak<* tho eggs and bury them one hy one in the soft bottom of a little fill they have a store of these, to be judiciously indulged in as need arises.— ‘‘Pall Mall Gazette.”

A blue rose, which has just reached Liverpool from America, and is to go to Kew Gardens, w r as raised by a head gardener in the States named Macdonald (Scotland has a way of being on tho top in gardening matters). The no wroe is described as a “perfect blue. As a rarity it may claim rank wdth the choicest now orchid, and it is, therefore, not surprising to loam that on the way over tho Atlantic it received the most careful attention, and was protected in a specially-constructed miniature greenhouse—a care which was rewarded by its arrival with blooms in excellent condition. • • • • •

Kubelik, the violinist, admits he has already received many offers of marriage from ladies on both sides of the Atlantic. Only the other day he received a letter from a wealthy lady in far-away Alaska, and who had never seen him, asking him oo marry her, while more than one lady moving in London society has thrown herself at his head. • • • • •

Writing in the “Century,” of the organisations to create or preserve beauty in public places, Sylvester Baxter thus ppaks of the service of the American Soonio and Historic . Preservation Society :—lts record of work accomplished includes the purchase by Now York State, at its instance, of 33 acres of the battlefield of Stony Point on the Hudson, committed to the custody of the society with an appropriation for its improvement; the purchase by the State of a tract of about 35 acres at the head of Lake George, the scone of notable events in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars, and the principal scene for Cooper’s novel “The Last of the Mohicans”; causing the creation of the Interstate Park Commission for the preservation of the Palisades, with an appropriation of 400,000 dollars from the State of New York and 50,000 dollars from the State of New Jersey to realise that purpose; inducing the embellishment of the surroundings of the ancient church in Salem, Now York; and securing the purchase by the city of New York of the fine old colonial mansion where Washington lived-in 1776. The society has also been active in the steps for preserving such historic monuments in New York city as Frau hops’ Tavern,' the homo of Alexander Hamilton, and the cottage of Edgar Allan Poo, the Phillipso Manor Hall in Yonkers, the mansion of Sir William Johnson in Johnstown, and the ruins of the forts at Crown Point and Ticondoroga. A feature of the society is the organisation of a Women’s Auxiliary, which has performed effective service.

"Chambers’s Journal” gives currency to this story about W. P. Frith, the groat R. A. Being advised by a friend that a speaking likeness of himself in his younger days was for sale in a certain shop, Frith wont to havo a look at it, and found his own portrait of 45 years ago. Being curions as to its origin, he was told by the attendant in charge (a woman) that the canvas was a representation of the celebrated Frith, painted by himself, and that it was valuable inasmuch as tho artist was deceased — had, in fact, died of drink. Of this sho was sure, as her husband attended the funeral! Frith bought tho picture, which proved to bo really one of his own early productions. This recalls a story of Reynolds, which has, no doubt, given heart of grace' to many a disappointed artist. Burko once obtained ono of Reynolds’s early works and submitted it to tho master as that of a young stpdent who sought his advice. “It’s a cloverish thing,” replied Reynolds, dubiouslv “but really, whether it is of sufficient promise to justify tho young man in adopting art as a profession I cannot say.” • • • • •

Some illuminating facts with regard to the food of working women are stated in a report furnished to tho Women’s Industrial Council by Miss K. Marion Hunter, its honorary medical advisor. Sho finds that tho dietary is made up of tea, which comes first in every list she Ims made; bread, buns, heavy meat and fruit pasties, sausages, pork, bacon, tinned foods, fried fish, pickles, cheese, and condensed milk—used because cheaper than fresh milk. Tho standard aimed at is a “satisfying” and “stimulating” diet. Tea is taken so constantly because it is stimulating, and whips up flagging energies for the work still before them, while in winter it is, of course, warming. “Is it reasonable,” asks Miss Hunter, “to look for such children as our country requires if the parents become more weakly every year?” Tho question needs mo answer.

• • « # * That the art of acting is in decadence is generally admitted. The old school of actors is fast disappearing, and the art bids fair to disappear entirely. This subject is being discussed in the Now York press, and one writer says:—“A waitress at a summer hotel, estimable person though she be, or a Pullman palace car porter, or a young woman in suburban society, cannot apd does not, by some miraculous interposition of providence, prance on to the stage a fully-equipped artiste. A person to succeed upon the stage should be possessed of good eyes, good teeth, minus gold filling, a good figure, a good voice, cultivated by competent teachers, and a slight knowledge of tho French language, sufficient to pronounce properly monsieur, madame, au revoir, monsiognour, etc. Ho should know how to sit down and how to stand up, and have tho manners of being accustomed to good society, and given education, figure, cultivated voice, and the necessary polish of manner, tho actor must, in addition, bo the painter and the poet. There is no school for actors. Tho actor ‘nasoitur non fit.’ Observe tion and experience do the rest. He must he willing to learn from tho masters.”

Two men recently got into a railway carriage in which a young lady was silting. Although it was not a smoking carriage, they began to.£iiiok<:, and presently they started a discussion upon tho woman question. At last one of them appealed to the lady thus: “Do you think there will he men in heaven, miss?” Tho lady blushed. “No.” sue replied, “they will want to go somewhere where they can smoke. ’ Hie hint was taken. * f. • •

A Berlin correspondent, writing on June 18, says that a bank servant named Constantino Cardaez was sent to the bank in Warsaw,, with 30.000 roubles. On tho way a gentleman met him and asked him the way to some street or other. As thanks he offered him a cigarette. Tho hank servant had scarcely drawn a few whiffs when, tie fell down dead. Tho gentleman seized hold of the bag containing tho money and vanished. On being examined, the cigarette proved to bo poisoned.

Some fair imitations of band-made lace are already manufactured by machinery. A recent invention by an Austrian named Matitscli renders impossible to reproduce ono more variety, known as torchon lace. Hitherto it lias been necessary to have a separate machine for eacli design. With the Matitseh machine it is only necessary to substitute ono jacquard for another, as in weaving cloth. In Vienna it is thought that a new era in lacc-making Is ahead.

Cheerfulness is tho virtue specially enjoined upon us this year. Tho King, by instituting musical Sundays on the terrace at Windsor, has set a good example. Some people think _ religion and sadness synonymous, which perhaps accounts for the intolerance of so many good people. Ono can but rejoice when music is added to the joy of life, and cheerfulness allowed as a duty, even on Sundays.—“ Graphic.” • • * • •

Mr J. S. Dixon, president of the Institute of Mining Engineers, says that colliery operations if carried on by moans of electricity, and by the aid of high pressure and improved steam engines, would result in a saving of fuel by at least one half. Thus, from eight to ton million tons of coal per year would bo saved in Britain alone. • » * • *

Tho partaking of a slice of pine apple after a meal is quite in accordance with physiological indications, since, though it may not bo generally known, fresh pine apple juice contains a remarkably active digestive principle similar to pepsin. This principle has been termed “bromelin,” and so powerful is its action upon proteids that it will digest as much as 1000 times its weight within a few hours. Its digestive activity varies in accordance with the kind of proteid to which it is subjected. Fibrin disappears entirely after a time. With the coagulated albumin of eggs the digestive process is slow, while with the albumin of meat its action seems first to produce a pulpy gelatinous mass, which, however, completely dissolves after a short time. When a slice of fresh pine apple is placed upon a raw beef steak tho surface, of the steak becomes gradually gelatinous, owing to the digestive action of tho enzyme of the juioe. • m • • •

In the “Revue Gcnoralo do Sciences,” M. Nordmann proposes a theory of the propagation of electric force from tho sun into space which is based on tho assumption that Hertzian waves are emitted from tho surface of our luminary, and that tho emission of those electric waves must ho particularly intense at epochs of maximum solar activity. M. Nordmann admits that hitherto attempts to discover Hertzian waves in the solar radiation have led to a negative result; but, in his opinion, this may bo explained by the copious absorption of the electric undulations in tho higher layers of our atmosphere.

The number of lady students at the German universities is increasing. At Berlin 365 have inscribed their names for this summer, as compared with 303 during the same term of last year. The number of male students is always' higher during tho winter in Berlin, and so it is with the ladies. Last winter there wore 611 of them—the highest figure as yet attained. * * * • •

When lawn tennis enjoyed tho popularity that to-day is attributed to pingpong, tho late George du Maurier, in ono of his famous cartoons, depicted a garden scene in which, by tho light of the moon, tho Pocklington-Smytbes or the lie Rigby Postlothwaites are pourtrayod clad in garments possessing phosphorescent properties, and playing tho game with balls and racquets treated with luminous paint. A well-known lady who lives within a hundred miles of Richmond Park has, it is said, instituted croquet by moonlight—a sport requiring the organs of vision usually assigned to the feline face —but no ono is recorded to havo entered upon a game of lawn tennis in the open within measurable distance of the hour of midnight. Perhaps, in view of tho enthusiasm displayed by devotees, it would bo safer to say nc ono has owned to having been engaged in such a travesty of tho game as tho conditions would suggest.

M. Moirand, a well-known Paris dentist, has just described a case in which hypnotism as an aid to dentistry was resorted to with complete success. A young man of seventeen presented himself with a decayed molar in. the left upper jaw, accompanied by alveolar periostitis. M. Moirand' decided that extraction was necessary, but ids patient refused to submit to the operation. His father proposed that he should bo taken to M. Berillon, a specialist in hypnotism, and this was done. Tho hypnotist, as the result of the interview, simply told the young man that he must bear to M. Moirand a message to tho effect that he must make an injection of cocaine and take out tho tooth without causing the slightest pain. The patient returned to the dentist’s, and sat down quietly in the chair. M. Moirand pretended to inject tho cocaine, took up his forceps and removed tho tooth. This proved to be a difficult task, and considerable forco had to bo employed, but the patient remained completely motionless, and seemed entirely insensibilo to pain. • f • • ft After all that has been written about tho King’s Champion, and tho disappointment felt by tho lovers of historical spectacles when it was known that he was not to have a chance of challenging -anybody in Westminster Hall, it is gratifying to learn (says “London Society”) that Mr Dymoke was given an opportunity to “witch the world with noble horsemanship” by prancing in the procession from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey. It is understood that ho is an accomplished rider, and he was doubtless seen to bettor advantage than some of his predecessors, who were obliged to “back out” at very considerable risk to everybody.