Language Slaves.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 59

Language Slaves.

Even a most accomplished singer with a beautiful voice — one who has f-pent several years with the be^t masters — mvibt nowadays simply f-lavc at the acqiusilion of variosvi languages, especialy if an operatic career Lc in view. Hera in England, so far as grand opera L concerned, the spectacle has not infrequently been seen of an English audience listening" to an opera in German, ono principal character singing; in French, mother in Italian, another, like the main body, in German, but only knowing the words like a parrot. The people of the ch'iru ha\c mostly been Gelqi. vis and Italians', and ha^e sung in Their mm !onj>ues: the conductor has at rei'oaivals I>rvr. compelled to give liis verbal instructions to the band through an interpreter. This beems rucreclible: but it is absolutely true, uul i'as. happened in a modified degree -Airing the past few weeks. But aspimiits to the highest am-'ieal honour* are nowadays, very thorough, and Llioy luive to work like .slaves at languages, ->o liiil they usny at. calK&ing either iv (4erin:xn. Freacli, ov Italian opci'a. "' .My laii&ical education was a trifle to the learning of throe adverse languages in addition to my own,'' said a truly great operatic artiot the other clay.

The latest discovery in medical science is Townend's celebrated Cinnamon Cure for consumption and kindred chsea&es of the air passaged, coughs, colds, loss of voice, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, whooping cough, croup, influenza, pleurisy, pneumonia, and catarrh./ Sold everywhere. Price, 2s 6d. — A-dvt,

— The Fc-iiool children of (-Jenviany v.^s imitation iucliarubljer .slates, winch answer the purpose well. — It has been found in Germany that lightning rods do not protect high furnaces, the electric discharge preferring to pass to earth by the column of heated smoke, which, of course, is rich in carbon, a conductor of electricity. It is partly for this reason that so many smoking chimneys are struck bjr lightning, and that to sit near a fireplace is dangerouft

■ — -31. Iwi hec-n iloi.ioi'-.tivtrd tJ at the explocivo power of a sphere of water only lin in diameter is sufficient to burst a brass vessel having a resisting power of 27,0C01b. — Most Chinese mandarins pass the whole of their lives without taking a single yard of exercise. The late Nanking Viceroy (father of the Marquis Tseng) was considered a remarkable character because he always walked 1000 steps a day in his private garden. Under no circumstances whatever is a mandarin, ©veg seen on foot in his own jurisdiction.

. —The battleship Collingwood, which bas been undergoing a refit, was found to be simply swarming with rats, and as the result of an energetic onslaught on them over 300 have been caught by the ratcatcher employed for the purpose. In connection with this a Belgian paper gravely asserts that the ship is a total loss, and that the rats not only ate the dogs which were sent on board to kill them, but devoured the engines, and so nibbled into the hull that the frame of the ship can only be used for firewood I

I — The quarries from which the ancient Greeks obtained their marble were lost for nearly 1000 years, but were recently rediscovered, and are now being worked by an English company. They are near Larissa. — The Peruvians were the greatest roadmakers of the world. Their roads were built of heavy flags of freestone, and along them were posts or small buildings about five miles apart, attached to which were a number of runners, whose business it was to carry forward the despatches of the Government*