HERE AND THERE.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 169, 28 July 1908, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

A London firm has secured the concession of supplying taximeters to the City of Vienna for a long term of years. They will begin the service in October with between 300 and 400 cabs. Of the delights of the Hawaiian Islands Mark Twain once said : " No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one ; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime as that has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf -beat is in my ear ; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-racks ; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitude ; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago." In a lecture in Sydney Mrs Besant related a story of her friend Charles Bradlaugh, who, as stile reminded the audience, was a materialist and did not bel'eve in spiritual things at all. Bradlaugh, however, was a man of strong magnetic *K>wer, and made many experiments with mesmerism. He gave the study of it up at last, believing that it had no way out, ar.d, further, because he had not' sufficient time to moke full investigation. One experiment he made, however, baffled him. Ee^ used to mesmerise his wife, and once did so when tlhey were at Leeds. Bradlaujh told his wife to go to the London office of the 'National Reformer' and to tell him what article they were setting up. In a moment Mrs Bradlaugh said that she was in the London office, and gave the name of a woman who was setting up type. Upon that Bradlaugh asked his wife to Tsad out what was being set up. The mesmerised person began to read, but suddenly stopped, and said: "Oh, the stupid woman ; she has put in a letter upside down." Bradlaugh took a note of the sentence, ,and the turned letter, and on the following morning, when the proof of the article was delivered to him at Leeds, he found the tevensed letter in the exact place where it had 'been described to him the day previously. NeitheT Bradlaugh nor Ms w'fe were in touch with iflhe people at London. The German Ministry of Marine has begun preparations to complete the fortification of Heligoland, for which £1,500,000 was granted by the Reichstag. Toe construction of the fortifications has '"-en entrusted to *he engineer, Mr Eckhardt, who will superintend not only the land fortifications, but also the construction of a new harbor for torpedo boats. This will cost an additional £L500,000. The expend.-, tufe will be distributed over severa l years. The Reichstag granted a first sum of £100,000 for the harbor, to be expended during the current financial year, and £60,000 for the land fortifications, likewise to be spent during this year. The erection of barracks and a new artillery depot will also be begun. These two buildings will cost approximately £35,000. The for- ; tification of the island is to be pushed forward with all possible speed. Speaking at the recent annual dinner of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, the Governor of New South Wales, made two or three statfcmEhts with regard to Sydney, the capital <-ity of the State, which will come as a surprise to most people. In the cours^ of 'his remarks, **hicn were in favor of "he provision of better accommodation in Sydney for "Jack ashore," he stated that .h^t city ranks as the eighth in the British Emjir* in point of population, and as one of. the first half-dozen ports in the world considered in relation to its .-hipping. Moreover, the port can boast an annual trade of nearly £90,000,000i! Politicians who assembled at Chicago and Denver to nominate Republican and Democratic candidates for President of the United States had their labors lightened by a number of "freak" entertainments . At Chicago" cafa entertainments of various kinds were held during Convention week. At Denver, wheTe an amphitheatre holding 14,000 people was built specially for the Democratic delegates, an x open-air masked ball was a feature. At this ball a snowball battle was one df the novelties. A train-load of snow was imported into Denver from the mountains near' by. Mt Rockefeller and Cardinal Logue met one day recently, and what they said to each other fills much space in the New York journals. It was while the Cardinal was lunching with Mr Butler that Mr Rockefeller unexpectedly called. Cardinal Logue and Mt Rockefeller chatted together animatedly, the 'Telegraph' says. They had a tussle about who should go into the parlor first, £he \Cardinal insisting upon the Oil King and the Oil King upon the Cardinal. "This is, a question," said 'Mr Rockefeller merrilyj " of God and Mammon. You must really, go first." Later on the two sauntered arm-in-arm, and Mr Rockefeller said : "I would like to know the feelings and thoughts of a man in a Cardinal's position. They must be wonderful. ' The little Cardinal answered: "It would interest me just as much, Mr Rockefeller, to know your feelings and thoughts.*' In the House of Commons on June 4 Lieutenant Bellairs asked if any change was contemplated in the flags now used on board H.M.S. Victory to represent Lord Nelson's signal on Trafalgar Day. Dr Macnamara replied that it was intended to make a change in accordance with the l-ecent discovery by the Admiralty librarian. A signal book had been unearthed, which made it clear in the opinion of the Lords of the Admiralty that the flags used down to 1885 correctly reproduced Lord ■ Nelson's sigruu. The alteration made at that time appeared to have been unwarranted, hence the reversion to the older and correct flags. Dr Carroll, a well-known physician of New York, recently inoculated a perfectly healthy man of about thirty with tuberculosis germs, with the object of demonstrating the efficacy of a cure. The young man, Frank Merritt', voluntarily offered himself to the doctor for the experiment. Two other physicians are associated ' with Dr Carroll, but the niedical faculty' generally' highly disapprove of it. Mr' Mer - ritt's 'lungs have already Shown signs cf congestion, ahd there are signs '■■. that the germs have attacked his ' system. The stage has not yet 'been reached, however, at which the cure begins. This is supposed to commence under the doctor's new method, and he promises thAt his patient shall be perfectly cured within two weeks from the time of beginning the treatment. The experiment has caused considerable sensation, and its results were being eagerly awaited. There is much misgiving at the idea of inoculating for consumption, but Dr Carroll is very confident of success. Other doctors have expressed strong disapproval of Dr Carroll's action, and he will probably be prosecuted for manslaughter should Merritt die. The latter is a journalist, and his purpose is wholly unselfish. He says : " I feel that I owe something to the world and humanity, and as I have not been a most exemplary citizen, this seems to be the only way that I can halance the account." . A Baltimore lady offers, so submit to the same ordeal as Merritt, but Dr Carroll refused to inoculate her.