OUR MAIL BAG.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11127, 16 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

OUR MAIL BAG.

MOVING PLATFORMS FOR PARIS. A special commission of the Paris Municipal Council is considering plans for a new form of locomotion — a series of moving platforms which are to form a circle m the centre of Paris underneath the 'grand boulevards and the Boulevard St. Germain. THE CURFEW BELL. At Crowland Abbey, iri the Lincolnshire Fens, the old custom of ringing the curfew bell at eight o'clock each evening has been revived. The bell was rung every night for many centuries,- but the custom was given up thirty years ago. PROHIBITION MOVEMENT. A movement having for its object the declaration of Pennsylvania as a prohibition State (says a New York despatch) haskbeen m. progress for some time past. The agitation has alarmed the "trade," and the liquor dealers are subscribing to a campaign fund to protect their interests from the Temperance reformers. It is hoped to raise 7,000,000d015. BEAUTY CHALLENGE. The Femina, the leading woman's paper m France, has received a challenge from the Chicago Tribune to produce a more beautiful French woman than Miss Margaret Frey, a young woman of Denver,' Colorado, whom the Chicago paper" declares to be the most beautiful woman m the world. . The Femina has accepted the challenge, and will be assisted by the Intransigeant. ■ . '. THE CANADIAN HARVEST. It is almost certain that the' bumper harvest of 1906 will not be repeated ; and the new setters will have to .undergo many hardships, during the next few months, if, as 1 predicted, they have to face two bad winters m succession, with bank accounts low from a poor summer as .-well. The fact that snow has already fallen m Alberta looks bad both for the still, uncut crops arid for the comine fall. —The Globe. 115 MILES AN HOUR. Mr A. Lee Guinness, the racing motorist, accomplished the remarkable feat of driving! a motor-car at the rate of 115.4 miles an hour on Brooklands track a few weeks ago. The car was a 200-h.p. Darracq, which was being exhibited for the benefit of a rich American enthusiast who had exf pre/ssed a desire to purchase a car capable of travelling at more than 100 miles fin •hour. The car will be taken to America. SERVANTS' UNION. The Servant Girls' Union of the United State appears to wield no small power judging from a telegram from Pittsburg. It appears that, as the result of the action of the union, a man who had been going-round to various houses doing the duties of "a .housemaid has now been sent to perf oriri similar duties m the workhouse for three months, on the ground tljat he wa? "lowering the standard of wages amongst housemaids." CHANGING THEIR SKIN. Professor M'Millan Brown, -the ethnologist, ; holds that the future Australian people will, m all probability, be black. The Polynesians, he said m a lecture at Sydney, come. originally v not from America, as has been supposed, but from Asia... '.They were whites, and changed color, just as the future Australians may do as the centuries go on, at least m the tropical regions of the North. The violet rays of the sun will turn hini black m course of time. ' REPORTED MUTINY. The Transvaal Advertiser asserts that a field troop of the Royal Engineers, who were proceeding to the Orange River Colony for manoeuvres, . mutinied as a protest against inconsddlerate treatment by a certain officer while on trek near Vereeniging. The men slashed up their saddlery. A troop of the Queen's Bays was requisitioned to escort them back to Pretoria. It is rumored that this is the third time that a, passive mutiny of tliis sort has occurred within the last six months. THE KAISER'S REASONABLE PRIDE. • The Germany Emperor has good reason to be proud of his infantry. A division that can march' forty miles' in a day, carrying knapsack, greatcoat, entrenching tools, and portions of a tent is beyond all value. Even the sturdiest soldiers m the French army, tho Bretons, • have not done more m a day, we believe, than thirty-four miles. All this change has been wrought by some steady training. The moral is obvious, and it is time Englishmen took it to heart.—Evening Standard. . WHAT ARE "WE COMING TO? Congressman Blank and his wife had been to Baltimore one afternoon. When they left the train at Washington, on their return, Mrs Blank discovered that her umbrella, which had been entrusted to the care of her husband, was missing. "Where's my umbrella?" «.!ie demanded. "I'm afraid I've forgotten it, my dear," meekly answered the Congressman. "It must "still be m the train." '*In the train !" snorted the lady. "And to think that the affairs of the nation are entrusted to a man who doesn't know enough to take care of a woman's umbrella."— San Francisco Argonaut, SUCCESS IN WIRELESS * TELEGRAPHY. The announcement that the battleship fleet which is to go to the Pacific may be equipped with wireless telephones is regarded as , indicating that the experiments conducted by Dr Deforest, the inventor of the wireless telegraph system, which is being installed by the American Navy, have been successful. It is stated that the wireless telephones are guaranteed for a range of five miles under all weather conditions, while communication is possible at long_r distance under favorable conditions^ Di" De forest's instruments are said to have distinctly transiriitted spoken words at a distance of seven miles. A SURPRISE OF "UNCLE." From the East End conies a sad story of a pawnbroker.. He , was enjoying a beauty sleep when a furious knocking at the street door brought him to the window with a jerk. "What's the matter?" he shouted. "Come down," demanded the knocker. "But " N "Come down !' The man of many nephews hastened downstairs, and peeped round the door. "Now, sir?" he demanded. "I wan'sh know the time," said the reveller. "Do you mean to say you knocked me tip for that? How dare you! The midnight visitor looked injured. "Well, you've-got my watch," he said. SURGEON'S FIGHT WITH A MADMAN. Dr French, the surgeon of the White Star liner Majestic, , had a most alarming experience during a recent voyage from Liverpool to New York, narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a mad stoker. .On the third day out one of the stokers went to him m his surgery for treatment. The doctor had no reason to feel alarmed at the man's appearance, but was surprised when the latter turned and locked the door behind him. Then, without any warning, the stoker threAv himself upon the doctor, hurled hini to the floor, and attacked him with a madman's desperation. The stoker held him by the throat, and the unfortunate doctor was being rapidly strangled when one of the ship s officers, finding it impossible to effect a rescue by means of the door, fired a revolver down through a grating and shot the lunatic. LOOKING AHEAD. This story is well m keeping with the spirit of the age. A city man tells it about his little boy. The neighbor's young hopeful had been very ill, and Willie and the other youngsters had been asked not to niake any noise m the street. The neighbor's 'door bell rang one day, and the sick boy's mother opened it to find Willie standing bashfully on her front steps. "How is he to-day?" he inquired m a shy whisper. "He's better, thank you, dear, and what a thoughtful child you are to come and ask." Willie stood a moment on one foot, and then burst forth again, "I'm awful sorry Jimmy's siclj !" The mother was profoundly touched. She could find no further words to say, but simply kissed him. Made still bolder by the caress. Willie began ti> back down ihe steps, repeating at. intervals his sorrow for his playmate's illness. At the bottom step he' halted aiid .yoked up. "If Jimmy should die," he asked, "can I have his* drum?"