HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2975, 22 March 1911, Page 78

HERE AND THERE.

—A Parish 1800 Miles Long.—

Ai parish 1800 miles in length and 300 miles in width is in charge of the Rev. W. H. Law, known from Buffalo to Duluth as the sky pilot of the great lakes. The membership of this parish runs into the thousands, and the great majority of the parishioners never worship twice in the same locality, for services are held mostly on moving ships. Some are held in lonely lighthouses far from other human habitation. No wedding has ever taken place in this parish, no christening of a baby, no services for the burial of the dead" The sky pilot seeks his parishioners in a small gasoline boat 22ft in length. Besides carrying the message of the Gospel to these men, he takes to them books, magazines, papers, and news of the outside world. His visits are looked forward to by the lighthouse keepers and the lightship crews, for his territory is so largo that he is unable to visit them more than once during the season. He maintains a small circulating library of not more than 70 books. He also carries with him a phonograph, with records of the most popular hymns. Some of the lighthouses visited are far from the mainland, and the trips, to them are hazardous. Standard Rock light, for instance, is nearly 50 miles out from Ma,rquetto on Lake Superior. It is erected on a small but dangerous reef, which resembles a whale's back. The light is 105 ft in height, and rests on crib work, which is encircled by a railway, and for weeks at a time the weather is so bad that it is dangerous for the keepers to venture out of doors. Between the light and Keweenaw Point there is a depth if 1008 ft if water. On his travel? the sky pilot visits 300 lighthouses, 15 lightships, and 60 life-saving stations. Mr Law does not outwardly resemble a minister if the Gospel. He is big and healthy, and has a rolling gait like a sailor. He preaches simply to the sailors, with whom he is very popular.— From the Chicago Inter-Ocean. —Seclusion of Women in India.— In his book "Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots," Sir Andrew Fraser, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, gives several examples of how the seclusion of women works. While hearing a case the evidence of a lady of considerable property was required. She was brought to court in a palanquin, which was really an uncomfortable little box carried on, a bamboo pole. The thick curtains wsre never drawn, and the lady replied to questions in a clear, low-toned voice. No one in court saw her. After narrating other official experiences with ladies in seclusion, Sir Andrew Fraser writes : —" I made it a practice as far as possible to take my wife with me to such interviews, so that she might sit on the other side of the parda with the Rani, as she was acquainted with her. This was at least security that the right lady was conversing with me. To me there was always a feeing of dissatisfaction, in that neither of us, in the course of our conversation, was able to look the other in the face, and receive that light upon our interchange of views which the human countenance so often gives. 1 recall one case in which that feeling was evidently shared by the lady herself. She turned to Lady Fraser and asked her in a whisper, which I did not hear, whether there was any objection to her slightly putting the curtain aside with her finger, just so far as to permit her to get a view of my face, so as to see whether I was giving kindly attention to the expression of her views. My wife, of course, said that there was no objection; and, although I was unaware of it, the old lady saw my face, and then expressed herself as more confident that I would give careful and kindly consideration of her wishes." —Compulsory 'Service for Women.— Compulsory domestic service for girls and women as an equivalent to the universal military service incumbent upon men is a novel proposal put forward by Fraulein Pauline Worner, a leading German feminist. Fraulein Worner points out that compulsory military training has contributed enormously both to the mental and physical development of German manhood, and declares that similar benefits would be inevitable if the women subjects of the Kaiser were compelled to undergo the training for which Nature best fits them. She explains that it could be enforced without burdening the national Budget, and that it is men who would benefit most from the system because the

State would thus assure them competent and experienced housewives. Fraulein Worner thinks the marriage institution would also become more popular if men knew they could select wives who had done- service with the "colours" in kitchen, laundry, nursery, and sewing room. "When it became necessary through the stress of war," concludes Fraulein Worner, "to introduce compulsory military service there were many protests against such a ' limitation of personal liberty' ; but Germans have lived to appreciate the incomparable blessings of male conscription. Would it be otherwise in the case of girls and women? There might be less of the craze for higher reduction for women, but fewer girls of our lower classes would be compelled to enter industrial occupations." Romance of a Battle.— Mr Max Somoner, an American subject, who was a sergeant in the Bavarian army during the war of 1870, has (says the Express) arrived in Paris on a pious mission. At Chatillon on October 20, 1870, two regiments of French infantry tried to dislodge the Bavarians, who were masters of the village. The engagement, which began at 9 o'clock, was a terrible one, and lasted until late in the afternoon, wheal the French beat a retreat. One French officer rallied 30 of his men, and fought the Germans foot by foot in the streets of the village. He fell mortally wounded, and Sommer offered him a drink of water as he died. The Frenchman refused the drink, but, taking a ring from his finger, handed it to Sommer and gasped, " Give it to my family." Circumstances have prevented Sommer from visiting Paris until now. He has kept tlie ring for 40 years, and is now trying to find relatives of the dead officer and hand it over. He does not know the French officer's name, but the War Office is making all inquiries, and hopes to put him in the way of accomplishing his act of piety. The ring is a magnificent piece of workmanship, of gold, wi)th five large diamonds in it. Sommer, who is a poor man, has a small boarding-house at Hoboken, New York. A Mystery Cleared Up.—

The mystery regarding the deaths of Miss Grace Elosser and Mr Charles Twigg, at Cumberland, Maryland, early in January, has been cleared up. The young couple (says a New York telegram) were engaged to be married, and their bodies were found in the Elosser parlour on the eve of their wedding day. It was believed that they had been, poisoned by cyanide of potassium administered through chewing gum, which both had shared during the evening. The police, assisted by two doctors, have been on the case ever since the tragedy, and it was through an experiment made by one of the doctors that the true cause of the young couple's death became known. He found it to be due to carbonic monoxide from a defective gas stove with which the roam was heated. Ho placed a cat on the sofa used by the young couple, lighted the stove, and shut the room up. In an hour and a-half the room was opened, and the cat was found to be dead without having made a struggle. Its organs were found to be affected in similar manner as to those of Mr Twigg and Miss Elosser. The State Attorney, on .being notified, demanded a repetiton of the test, and this was done, with the same result. The authorities are now convinced that there was no foul play in the matter. Last Chapter of a Duke's Romance. — On February 1 the period expired for the notification of the proofs of the existence of " Johann Orth," the [missing Archduke Johann Salvator, a distant cousin of the Emperor Francis Joseph. The Archduke's legal representatives will therefore file an application for his Imperial Highness's death to be officially recognised, and for his estate to be distributed according to his will. It is nearly 21 years since the Archduke was seen alive. He was a man of most original and ardent character, and came repeatedly in conflict with his Imperial relatives. Finally, on his marriage in London with Fraulein Stubel, a dancer of the Vienna Opera Houee, he forsook his rank and his country and set out on a life of adventure in the name of "Johann Orth." With a cargo of cement he sailed' from London to Buenos Aires in a steamer called the Santa Margherita, which he had purchased. He left Buenos Aires in the vessel in July, 1890, with the intention of rounding Cape Horn. The ship and all on board have never been heard of since. The Archduke's fortune amounts to about £160,000. The Archduke's heir is his eldest nephew, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand. —Route of the Exodus.— Mr Villiers-Stuart sends a note to the Egyptian Gazette concerning the possible route taken by Moses and the Israelites on the exodus from Egypt. " During a recent journey in Sinia," he writes, "I visited the sand-bar separating Lake Bardawil from the Mediterranean. It extends for some 75 kilometres (47 miles) along the .northern coast of Sinai, and would form a good route for a retreating army encumbered with women and children, as was the case with the Israelites during the exodus. A small rearguard could hold the narrow sand-bar against a pursuing army, while the flanks would be protected by the lake on the right and the sea on the left, which is my interpretation of the passage in Exodus, ' The waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left.' Pieces of wreckage, both of iron and of wood, are embedded in the crest of this sand-bar, showing that it is awash during a gale. If the Egyptian army had been caught by a gale on the sand-bar, the surf would have drowned such as did not succeed in retreating from it in time. ' Red Sea ' in the Bible is (more correctly translated 'Sea of Weeds.' Some of the authorities consider Lake Menzaleh to be meant, but the labd is too shallow to drown anyone. The wind only affects the depth _by a few inches. The only marked rise is during the Nile flood."