Death of Emil Boss.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6383, 31 October 1888, Page 3

Death of Emil Boss.

The current number of the Alpine Journal (Longmans) contains an "in memoriam" notice of Emil Boss, one of the four hosts of " The Bear" at Grindelwald. From this notice, written by Mr D. W. Freshfield, we take the following :— " He was better known, and will be long: remembered, as one of the most skilful and adventurous not only of Alpine climbers but of mountain explorers. Tall and powerful in frame, with a fresh, open countenance, an expression full of life and energy, and at ordinary times a gentle, kind manner, he stood out— tbe handEomest of a good-looking family of thirteen—a remarkable personality among the sturdy, weather-beaten, yellow-faced figures of the Bernese Highlanders who gather round his father's door." THE "TRUE MOUNTAIN PASSION." "As a climber, Emil Boss had great Btrength, agility, self-confidence, almost unlimited powers of endurance of cold and hunger, as well as the higher capacities of the mountaineer, the instinct of path finding, and the judgment which varies a route according to the temporary conditions of rocks and ice. In the Alps, in chamois hunting, in winter climbing, in any form of adventure which struck his fancy as out of the commonplace, he had often proved his powers. He wa3 never co happy as on the snows, and, keen sportsman as he was, would often, when out with his brothers, insist on going up beyond the haunts of the game, simply for the pleasure of going up. He had the true mountain passion, and the rarer sir seemed to steady the too excitable nerves on which the smoke and crowd of cities acted (as he once said to me) as a poison. In New Zealand, in 1882, in the first ascent of Mount Cook with the Eev W. S. Green, in the Himalayas, in 1883, with Mr W. W. Graham, Boss showed, in camp and on the mountains (as both travellers have borne emphatic testimony), all the qualities of a first-rate mountaineer, a hardened explorer, and a cheerful aud resourceful companion." i'EOM THE ALP 3TO THE HIMALAYAS. "This faculty of cheerfully accepting and confronting the ordinary hardships of travel in a strange and wild country is rare among Alpine guides. To the uneducated the unknown is always terrible. The familiar perils of the snow-world guides are ready enough to face, but the prospect of encountering strange people,, lands and soas fills them with apprehension. Even when persuaded to face an. exploring journey, Swiss peasants do not as a rule take kindly to thejjask. They miss the cheerful guides' f OOI 5 af tsr*their day's walk, the scarcity of stimulants depresses them, they are bewildered by the requirements of tent life, and before the snow-line is reached their energy is more than half spent. Many good guides havein no way to their blame— declined to go beyond the Alps. Others, when brought face to face with their work, have found reasons, which seemed to them sufficient, for turning back. Emil Boss, not being himself a guide, went out with Ulrich Kaufmann to join Mr Graham in India because no leading guide at Grindelwald would go so far alone. AN ELIZABETHAN ADVENTUBEB IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUBT. "In Emil Boss the man himself was more interesting than his deeds, extraordinary of their kind as these of ten were. It was impossible to be long in his company without feeling that in him a nervous, imaginative nature, capable of rising to great emergencies, was chafing against the bonds of circumstance. His quick eyes and gestures, his vivid and forcible talk, were constantly vehicles for the expression of an inward unrest. Those who met him for the first time were apt to feel' like the Wedding Guest in the poem. They could hardly believe that their new acquaintance was a native of Grindelwald and one of a family of Swiss innkeepers. He seemed rather an adventurer strayed out of the Elizabethan age, one of those eager spirits who sailed the Spanish Main under Drake and Raleigh. Emil would have been happiest in Borne great adventure — such as there are in this time— of African discovery or Polar exploration. Fate placed him in youth in a positiou in life in which the office of steward on a French ocean going steamer was the readiest gate to distant travel. As soon as the winter snows covered his native valley in their white ; monotony he would disappear, like the ! birds of passage, to some far off and uncertain part of the globe. Previous to his two mountaineering journey b he had been in Australia, South America, North Africa, ' India. In several cases he left his ship and penetrated far into the interior ; how . far it is impossible now to say. But in ' spring he generally returned to his home with strange stories of many lands. In the course of these wanderings he made himself an excellent linguist. And in ; many other directions he had, from the j time when, as a boy, the village school- 1 master found he had no more to teach him, natural capacities beyond his fellows. He possessed, besides, an amiable and generous character, which helped to make him the favourite son and brother in a large and . attached family, and now adds keenness to rthe^ense of their loss." A. PBEKATUEE END. "Of late years the increasing responsibilities attendant on the success of 'The Bear' kept Emil Boss much at home. After his journey in India— there seems no certain reason for saying in consequence of it— symptoms of abnormal brain excitement, coupled with intervals of melancholia, showed themselves from time to time, and caused much concern to his friends. Last winter, however, he seemed to be more himself, and he took a leading part in much of the winter climbing, of which Grindelwald was the centre. At the beginning of the summer he went to Meixingen as the manager of the ' Wilder Mann.' There he felt ill and depressed, and in the last days of June returned to his old home on a visit; returned, as it proved, to die. In his death we lament the lossof an original and fascinating character, as well as the premature cutting off of a mountaineer who, with ampler and kindlier chanches, might have carried man's highest on the mountain even higher than he did."

France employs over 6000 women in her Civil Service, telephone, and telegraph offices. The Municipality of Paris alone gives work to 900 women, while tbe Sank of France pays salaries to 400 more. Two hundred women have permanent positions in hho "Credit Foneier," with earnings varying from* J635 to £70 "and J275 a syear.