HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5008, 4 July 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

HERE AND THERE.

In view of recent occurrences, tho following reference tp Mr Chamberlain m “M.A.P.” is suggestive:—“ls Mr Chamberlain’s ambition yet satisfied, or does he still long to.roach tho climax of all political careers—the Premiership. Opinions differ. Some people think that ho is watching with vigilant eye tho mistakes which Mr Balfour is supposed to be making, and that he hopes to soo tho hour of inevitable disaster when his party will insist on calling him to tho top as tho one man who can avert defeat. Others have tho theory that Mr Chamberlain accepts the fact that ho ba.s got as far ha ho can now go, and that advancing years, hard work, and his recent accident havo taken off a little of tho zest of his once exuberant ambition. The only times I havo hoard Mr Chamberlain speak sines his return from South Africa, ho appeared to mo_a very jaded man. But then ho had been going through a lot of winings and dinings and receptions, and these - things are cnowgh to break the strength of any man. Altogether, I may sum up tho Parliamentary situation by saying that many people expect this to be ono of tho most interesting 'sessions wo have had for many years, with all kinds of possibilities.” • • « It has been estimated that no Fewer than 100 titled ladles are to-day making very good livings out of running small businesses of various kinds. Many noblemen are actively engaged in. , business. Lord Londonderry is a largo coal dealer. JL*ord Harrington Cucording to tho London “Sim”) raises some of the finest fruit in the world, and is often

to bo seen in his fruit store at Charing Cross. Another famous fruit tradesman from tho ranks of tho nobility is tho Marquis of Bute. He owns the only vineyard in England, and raises grapes which havo no rival. Ho makes an enormous profit each year from his vineyard. Lord Iveagh and nis brother, Lord Ardilaun, are the head of tho famous Guiness’s stout trade. Another peer in the beer trade is Sir Arthur Bass, created Baron Burton in 1881. Lord Ashton has an enormous carpet factory at Parkfiold, Lancaster. Lord Masham owns the Manningham piush mills, one of tho largest businesses of the kind in the world. Lord de la Warr —whose family goes back to Baron de la Warr in 1209—is the actual proprietor of an hotel at Boxhill-on-Sea. Lord Armstrong is the maker of big guns; Lord Glenesk runs tho “Morning Post Lord Wolverton is in tho tin-plate business ; Lords Farquhar and Revelstoke are in the banking business. In the rago for feathered victims for bat trimmings, the magpie has now fallen under the ban of the destroyer. In Russia 80,000 magpies were quite lately slaughtered to tho order of on© Berlin firm alone. It is sought to have the bird protected in tho Czar’s dominions, ns otherwise it will sOon become extinct. Black plumage is much in demand, and whole tribes of little birds with black breasts, whoso habitat is the shore of the Caspian, havo been demolished to satisfy the demands of fashion. - • • • The “no ring" wedding is tho latest fad in America, where some brides refuse to wear tho “golden badge of slavery.” It is pointed out that this is a revival of am old custom. In 1653. and for seven years afterwards, weddings were celebrated in England without a ring, and if marriages were celebrated according to tho prayer-book rite, wherein a ring is necessary, a fine was imposed. , By latest mail news, the Prince and

Princess of Wales were settled in their now home, Marlborough House. Up till now tho Royal couple havo not been too well accommodated in their different houses, but for the future they havo a permanent homo. Among other liux- j uries described by tho Loudon papers is a special service of cut table-glass, en-1 graved with a new monogram, in which ! tho Prince of "Wales's leather is prominently introduced. • * * * » « In all our suburban streets tho perambulator and go-cart nuisance is quite rampant, and in a small way forms as annoying an obstruction as tho much- j abused hawker’s barrow, Tho mirsemaid, with her baby-carnage, is as much a detriment from tho shopkeeper’s point of view as any barrow pusher, for sho hides the glories of his window, and won’t allow the watches to see tho - people, as tho old pawnbroker complained. In the old world tho authorities copo with this difficulty by issuing by- ; laws empowering tho police to move-on tho prams. In Exeter they have such a regulation, and some of the local municipalities in London, who are wrestling with the problem, are seriously j thinking of following suit. King Edward pridas himself on being i successful practical fanner. Tho King’s farm at Sandringham consists of 10,000 acres, which are under tho personal supervision of his Majesty. Though the King employs an agent to look after tho affairs of this vast estate, y<?t every detail is submitted to his Majesty. It is said that bo even looks after the bingos on tho stable doors, and derides, the prices at which tho products from | the farm must be sold. Tho farm has ' more than paid for itself for many years, duo entirely to tho business head of the farmer King. j

Queen Alexandra runs a model dairy! farm at Sandringham, and the profits l derived are devoted to charitable work, i The Queen herself supervises- all tha; business connected with this dairy, and i it is solely duo to her business methods that it has been a financial success. With the money derived .from the dairy the Queen has been able to give many beds to hospitals. Lord Gwydyr, who has just entered ■ on his 94th year, can look back on more Coronations than most people. Besides that of Queen Victoria, ho witnessed those of Georve XV. and William IV. When George was crowned Lord Gwydyr went from Whitehall to the steps of the Speaker’s House at Westminster in his grandfather’s state barge, which was rowed by liveried oarsmen. After the ceremony in the Abbey ho Was in the gallery at the Coronation banquet, i and retains to this day a vivid recollection of the formal entry of Dymofco, | the King’s champion. It was on that i occasion that he felt the pangs of hun-1 ger very acutely.' and his cousin, Lord Prudhoo, who was seated at the tables I below, flung up to him a leg of chicken. wrapped in paper, which was'speedily devoured without the aid of either knife or fork. • m • I have never allowed myself to worry. It I have enough money in my purse for this week, I never ask where the money will come from for next week. I have never had a sleepless night for fear of the future. I know no other reason why I still look so young, as people call me!—Sarah Bernhardt. Miss Balfour, the Premier’s sister, is an exceedingly clever woman, who can manage her brother’s estates as skilfully as she can prescribe his dietary or dismiss philosophy '■ W.th him. She has a passion for travel," and revelled in her South African tour in a bullock-wag- { gon. Now she prefers to drive a motor or ride her bicycle, with both of which I she is an expert. , |

Tho fashion introduced by the King and Queen of dining at tho opera in tho intervals of the music, and at th© theatre when the play begins early, will certainly spread among the aristocrac3% and a dining-room will soon come to ho an indispensable adjunct of some? of tho London theatres. Philadelphia, which from being a city of homes, seems to have become tho wickedest city in the country, has just awakened to the fact that her youthful population has developed a new sort of jag. The new jag is nob new to Philadelphia by any means, but it does not yet »eom to have spread throughout the country. Tho jag is a cheap one, one dime being sufficient to jag a whole gang of boys. Tho bright Philadelphia boy has discovered that a very comfortable and adequate "drunk” can be secured by inhaling tho fumes of gasoline. Ho has also discovered that the drug can be obtained by climbing tho lampposts of the city, unscrewing the tops of tho lamps, and saturating a sponge or bundle of rags with the‘fluid. A descent to the street is followed by holding the saturated substance to the face, and an adequate intoxication of three hours’ duration is the immediate result. The boy who is thorougnly jagged will butt his head against a brick wall with every indication of perfect happiness. Tho gasoline seems to have the attributes of that brand of mountain dew manufactured in North Carolina. of which it is said that three drops given to a rabbit will give him tho desire to spit in a bulldog’s face. One of the most laughable hoaxes played in Greater New York has just been perpetrated in tho Orpheum Theatre, Brooklyn, by Mr Percy Williams.

! tho manager. About six hundred'mem- | bora of Kismet Temple of the Mystic I Shrine attended the performance m a body. _ To them- tho announcement by ; Mr Williams that ho intended to expose the secrets of Masonry came as a shock. At tho conclusion of tho performance Mr Williams rode upon the stage mounted on a camel, and told the audionoo he was about to give a Masonic initiation in public. At his request three leading members of the secret societies took their places in tho centre of tho stage, and Mr Williams, telling them to wait, rode off on his camel. Then the lights went out, and, for a quarter of an hour the expectant audience waited in tho dark. Finally a man with a lantern came on tho stage and called out, “Haven’t you people got any homes?” Sadly tho audience filed out. realising that they had been the victims of an April" hoax. I Denunciations of the actions and i policies of organised labour were a feaI ture of tho annual convention of the National Association of Manufacturers 1 now being held. Mr David M. 1 Parry; of Indianapolis, the president, called the “muscle trust” a national menace, _which was extending its tactics of coercion and intimidation over all classes,, and strangling independence of thought and American manhood. “It holds a bludgeon over the head of the employer,” he said, “laying down the terms upon which he is to be permitted to do business. The rule that organised labour seeks to impose is the rule of tho least intelligent part of labour.” • « «' Louise Forslupd, tho author of "Sarah” and the “Ship of Dreams,” constructs the plots and the greater part of tho situations in her novels after she has entered in upon her night’s slumber. She has a habit of suddenly awakening with an idea, whereupon with i a pencil always handy under her pillow i she jots it down on the wallpaper and . is off to sleep again. As a result of this habit sho has been compelled to l_move her bed along the wall almost

! daily, finally circling the room, but she never loses track of her mural notes. Not only did she build most of her first | novel, as to its situations and inspiring ideas, in the midnight hours, but time j and again she has suddenly awakened I and written down carefully on the wall conversations that aro now included in her books verbatim. In the past two i yeans tho wallpaper on Miss Forsluud’s room in her homo at Sayville, L. 1., has j been changed three times, j A good story is told, showing the i rapidity with which things move nowadays. A certain servant went to her mistress and gave notice, “I’m going to ! bo married, ma'am.” “To whom P” asked her mistress. “Do you remem- > her the funeral you allowed me to go j to three weeks ago, ma’am? 'Well, I’m { .'?o*Pg to marry tho husband of tho corpse.” It subsequently transpired that the widower took a fancy to his fiancee as “she was the only cheerful party there,” ■i , I * *. * • When the farmers in an unfrequented district near Washington, Indiana, saw j Poster Wratten practising steeplechas--1 ing in a running and short trouI sens, they mistook him for .an escaped lunatic, and started in pursuit. Wratten ran home, changed his costume, mid returned to aid the farmers in looking for the snpnosod lunatic. He explained at midnight. A policeman of Philadelphia was seized with a sudden fit of sneezing, and while quicklv drawing his handkerchief rmt of his pocket also accidentally pulled out his revolver, which fell to the ground j and exploded, causing a bullet to enter his log.

For ten minutes William Davis, of Spokogee, United States,.used bad language over the telephone. The exchange girl brought an action against him for moral and intellectual damage. She was awarded £2 for each minute, or £2O in all. • • • “When I first came to London.” said a young American, “the place seemed mean. Your stores have no show about them. Their windows are too small and too crowded. Wanamaker’s in New York City is worth tho whole lino, of your great Oxford street. Then your houses are so low. They seem as though they started growing and then stopped short. There isn’t a decent high building in London. Even Philadelphia could giro you points for sky-scrapers. What surprised me most in London was the laziness of yOur business men, the dirt, the way landladies charge extra for even sewing on buttons, and how you let your 'hoodlums’ talk rubbish in your parks. Our police would chib them.' 1 went out at 8 o’clock the first morning I was hero to your ‘down-town’ quarter to present some letters. The offices weren’t even open. Fancy a city where the business houses are shut at eight in the morning.”