HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 77

HERE AND THERE.

Tortoises to Race Hares.— The giant tortoises of the 'Jardin des Plantes (says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph) had of late been causing considerable anxiety to their keepers. Instead of peacefully ruminating and beginning to settle down for their winter sleep, they had become positively frisky, indulging in grotesque gambols. At first it was thought that the Indian summer had stirred their sluggish blood, and they were subjected to a regimen of bromide* and other tranquillising drugs. But the tortoises got daily livelier in spite of this, and their keeper was at his wit’s ■end, when one evening at dusk he noticed a venerable old gentleman very busy with the invalids. He came nearer, and found that the old gentleman was feeding the tortoises out of a syringe, which he inserted in their mouths. The keeper grasped the intruder by the arm, and asked him what he was doing. “ Leave me alone,” said the old gentleman peevishly. “ I'm not doing any harm. I am merely giving the tortoises a little necessary stimulant of my own invention. It will soon make them run like hares. In a week or two I shall match them with a hare I have got at home, and then you will see a fine sight/’ At the police station, to which the keeper dragged the reluctant tortoise-trainer, the latter gave his name as Frederico Ambrosetti, Professor Emeritus of Zoology at Milan. He showed such obvious signs of insanity that he was immediately taken to the special police infirmary. —lmpounding Hat Feathers.— “Your hat, if you please, madam; we must have that aigrette,” was the quaint but startling demand made by the Customs inspectors on October 6 of all ladies disembarking at New York with forbidden plumes in their headgear. It was the first day of the new tariff, which prohibits the importation of all feathers plucked from live birds. The first victim was a Frenchwoman dressed in the height of fashion and wearing a email velvet hat decorated with a valuable aigrette. Standing with several other passengers from the steamship Loraine, awaiting the inspection of her luggage, she saw that she

was being scrutinised. Then fearlessly a veteran inspector, armed with his new book of instructions, stepped forward and made his demand. Mme. Bevilaqua was too startled to reply. Next moment the inspector reached forward and extricated the feather before explaining the provisions of the new law. “ My milliner never told me a word about the new law,” exclaimed the lady furiously. Amid a storm of acrid adjectives aimed at the ‘‘chivalry” of the “gentleman” who drew up the tariff, a dozen more ladies were despoiled of their feathers. Soon a large heap of aigrettes and stuffed birds, cut or torn from feminine hats, was adorning the Customs table, and was promptly nicknamed “Exhibit No. 1 of Uncle Sam’s new tariff.” It has since been notified that the Customs officers acted without authority. The tariff was never intended to apply" to feathers worn in hats. Draining the Zuyder Zee. — “ The Zuyder Zee (Southern Sea) was formerly a lake surrounded by fens and marshes, its present extent being chiefly the result of floods which occurred in the thirteenth century. Its area is about 2COO square miles, and average_ depth from 10ft to 19ft. it has always been the work of the Hollanders to recover as much as possible of the land lost to them in this manner in past ages, and in the litoral sense they can he said to have half-made their country, having reclaimed over 1,000,000 acres from sea, lake, and river since the sixteenth century. Schemes for the reclamation of the Zuyder Zee have been at various times discussed, and a Bill was introduced in 1900, but afterwards withdrawn, to deal with, first, some 115,000 acres of the southern part at a cost of £7,917,000, and eventually 500,000 acres at an estimated additional cost of £24,003,000. The present measure before the Dutch Parliament is an extension and completion of those plans.’’ Mr Taft Wasting Away 7.— . Bad news comes from New York in the mail despatches of the Paris edition of the New York Herald. Ex-President Taft has lest nearly six stone in weight since he vacated the White House last March, and is now a mere stripling of 17 stone, w uen he appeared at the golf championship meeting at Brookline, Massachusetts, those who remembered the opulence of his proportions were aghast at the change. His figure before had been one of the chief glories of the great American Republic, but here he was with a girth that could not have been more than 60in. It is know that Mr Taft has of late been exceedingly anxious to reduce his weight, and his popularity has decreased in consequence. it is stated that he has accomplished his desire by cheating his appetite. He takes a great deal of outdoor exercise, and when he feels ravenously hungry he only grants his stomach an egg and a few slices of dry toast. Telephone Evils.— In his charge to the grand jury at Asheville, N.C., Judge Frank Carter said modern conditions are tending toward the downfall of the Government, and that the telephone is one of the most provocative causes of immorality, and has increased the lost of living at least 30 per cent. He declared that it is helping to break down the morality' of young womanhood, as “ boys and girls say things to each other over the ’phone that they' would not say if they had to speak face to face.” The use of the telephone Judge Carter said, caused people thoughtlessly to order things from merchants that they would not otherwise purchase, and thus increase their hills. Private extravagance, he said, “ finds expression in the purchase of automobiles by people who couldn’t buy' Shoes were their honest debts paid, and private extravagance has led to public extravagance, which threatens to bankrupt the country.” He said that much of the crime to-dav can be traced directly to extravagant living. Whiskers and Religion.— Whiskers and religion have ever been associated. Imagine a priest of any of the Greek churches without his flowing heard. Fancy, if yon can, a picture of a British Druid unbearded. Look back only to the beginnings of the Primitive Methodists, with their shaved top lip, but full beard and whiskers. Look at our own day and the .Tezreelite with his “ Flying Roll ” of back hair and finger-combed chin growth. And look at the Plymouth Brethren—-they have an unwritten law which means an unrazored face. But you never get Beelzebub and beards—never see a Mephistopheles with more than a cocky moustache and perhaps a chiu-fork—never an edition of Milton with illustrations of a flowing bearded Satan. ,A Photograph Romance. — How a photograph led to a romance was made known at Liverpool just before the departure for Australia of the White Star liner Irishman, which carries no fewer than five brides-elect going out to join their fiances. One of these five lias never seen her future husband, and has nothing but a photograph to tell her what he looks like. 'Hie hride-elect said that a friend of hers went to Australia three years ago as a domestic servant, and married later a sheep-farmer. The young wife displayed upon the mantelpiece a photograph of her friend, and tin's attracted the attention of a chum of the sheep-farmer. Photographs were exchanged, and a correspondence was begun, with the result that the girl has sailed to marrv the lover she has never seen. “Satan’s Kingdom” in Scotland. — Stands Scotland where it did ? It would seem not if a statement in a recent issue of the United Free Church Record is true, or anything near the truth. Mr IT. M. Barnet, a layman, of Kirkcaldy, is represented as saying: “The population [of the district about Kirkcaldy] hae seriously Outgrown church organisation. The kingdom of Satan is growing by leap* and bounds. The deities there are whippet, football, drink, and the devil. A large

proportion of the population are as completely heathen as the savages of darkest Africa. A great many have no regard for God and man. That is due very largely to the vagrant population, halfIrish and half-Scottish, which is about the worst combination in the world.” Other authorities, it should, however, be stated, take a less serious view.