HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3216, 3 November 1915, Page 72

HERE AND THERE.

—Drug Curse in Paris. — By the arrest of an American named Herry Thomas the Paris police believe they have succeeded in laying hands upon the leading spirit of the organisation which has for so long defied all their attempts to stamp out opium-smoking and the drug habit in the French capital, says the Pall Mall Gazette. Thomas was caught in the act of delivering cocaine to a confederate in Montmartre. Contrary to his custom, he had got down from the powerful motor car which he always used, and which has more than once enabled him to make off before the detectives could pounce upon him at the very moment of committing an offence. Thomas had no fewer than six different flats in Paris, and a search of each ' of them showed ’ how extensive were his ramifications in the drug trade. He made an income of several thousands of francs a month by smuggling opium, cocaine, ether, and the like"" He drew a large profit also from a luxurious opium den he had fitted up, and which the po’ice have discovered was habitually frequented by more than one well-known public man. A chemist and two other persons have been arrested in connection with the case, and other arrests are expected to be made before the- whole gang is under lock and key. Many of the drugs smuggled still came from Germany, notwithstanding the war. —The First Matches.— Should the price of matches rise, through the scarcity of wood to make them with, the ordinary man will be surprised. To him matches are quite inconsiderable, since he thinks of them by the box, so often obtained for nothing—or next it. But it was less than a century ago that one John Walker, an apothecary, of Stockton-on-Tees, found the release of the smoker from the tinder-box or the live coal in the grate. It was an accidental spilling of a solution that took fire which gave him the hint; and not long afterwards, in 1827, he placed on the market his boxes of matches—lucifers—containing 50 each, at Is. They lighted on sandpaper. But he neglected to patent his invention. And the Reading schoolmaster, Isaac Holden, who a little later hit on the same idea, made the same mistake. It was not long before the “box of matches” fell to a penny —and finally was given away to the purchaser of tobacco. —Vast Shell Expenditure.— The Berlin Bokal-Anzeiger has published some interesting figures on the shell expenditure in the present war. In the Franco-Prussian war a German battery fired on an average 200 shells from each gun. In the Russo-Japanese war the average had already risen to twice that figure. But the totals are far exceeded in the present war. Adverting to the FrancoPrussian war, the writer states that the expenditure of shells on the German side was in all 817.000 shells—47o,ooo being ased in the siege of French fortresses, and 538,000 on the field. As regards field fire, iboufc 34,000. or 10 per cent, of the total, were expended during the battle of St. ?rivat. Statistics are meagre for the pre;ent war, but the German General Staff ; ■stimated that on March 10 the Allies fired j .00,000 shells in 24 hours on a front of i

i J eight kilometres, which is about six times I a.s many for each metre of front as were e I fired at St. Privat 40 years ago. These f figures were exceeded later near Arras, e when the French in one day fired 300,000 1 shells, or nearly as many as the whole field artillery of Germany expended in 3 1870-1871. - 1 —A Sleeping Palm.— 5 Ip Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, a specimen, of the rare “sleeping” palm has I ” ei “ n found, which is considered to be the i one * n North America. The tree, , : Y hlch ’ n ' as brought to America by a young : Australian botanist, William Robinson, u gives out a peculiar aromatic odour. Its ; upper branches were loaded with a beauti- , fuf rainbow-lined flower, giving forth a heavy perfume. Around the base of the tree were the dead bodies of small animals and birds. The curator who discovered 1 the rare palm felt drowsiness stealing over him, and his son complained of the same ■ had originally been brought from one of • too South Sea Islands, belonged to the : species Cocinece sonnambulse, or sleeping 1 palln, which blooms only once in 50 years, > the flowers of which were formerly used as a drug by the islanders. The “Coffin League ’’ of Arras.— At Arras, the French town that is bombarded nearly every day by the Germans, a “Coffin Lea gue” has been formed. When the bombardment began the victims were so numerous that it was not possible to give each a separate burial. For instance, in the alms-house one shell alone killed 32 women and wounded 43 more. The cemeteries being as usual outside the town, and fully exposed to the enemy’s fire, arrangements had to be made i’or inhumation in gardens or courtyards, and on one occasion 150 bodies had to be incinerated at a street corner. This tragic spectacle so impressed the people that a “Coffin League" was started, and its members work almost clay and night in cellars making coffins. And now all the ; civilians who are killed and all the soldiers who die in Arras are decently buried. “Crown workers” is the term which is coming into currency for those who, being unable in any other way to assist the Government to prosecute the war, are systematically saving by buying weekly either a five shilling or ten shilling war voucher at the post offices. These (says the Birmingham Post) are largely drawn i from a class that has not had a previous ! opportunity of becoming creditors of the | State, and they include a great number of women, who, stimulated by the possession of a few vouchers, are more resolved than ever to obtain a further and steady supply. It is because of the stimulus thus given to thrift on a systematic scale that | the hope continues to be expressed freely j that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will | allow no technical difficulties to stand in | the way of keeping open as long as possible | this avenue for saving. The Soldier Czar.— The Czar’s action in assuming command of his army recalls that as a colonel in • his own army he once effectively quashed j the snobbish proclivities of his fellowI officers, who had objected to a lieutenant | riding in a tramcar. “Gentlemen,” said j the Czar, “I hear that to ride in a tram | is considered, beneath the dignity of an | officer of your regiment. I am your colonel, and I have just been riding in a I tram. Do you wish me to send in my I papers?” In early life the Czar gained an I insight into military affairs in the ranks, I appearing on the roll as “Private Nicholas | Romanoff, married, of the Orthodox Faith, j coming from Tsarskoe Selo.” He was in i the 16th Company of the Emperor Alexander the Third’s regiment of riflemen. Record Journey to Enlist.— Same of the Canadians have shown a | determination to enlist which nothing j could daunt. For example, a former resident of Calgary rowed 850 miles or more in an open boat to join. He was in Alaska on a two years’ trapping and prospecting trip at the head of the Novikaket River, a tributary of the Yukon, in March, when ho first heard of the war. Leaving everything to his partners, he started for the Yukon with two dogs and a small sled. Arriving at Ruby, a town about 360 miles distant, in 12 days, he waited until navigation opened, -which was earlier than usual this year, and then obtained a small boat and rowed and drifted 700 miles to St. Michael’s, Alaska. Thence he rowed across to Nome, a distance of 150 miles, and from there he took a passage to Vancouver, and then to Calgary. This feat is surely unique.