CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4582, 2 March 1893, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

'■ Not many men can : haye'%acrificed : th^ir lives for so trifling ail article as a cigarette end. This, however, is what has been done by a French private, soldier with the curiously outlandish name of Schwinghedaw. , This manj who had a bad character in the arni^ for his inaubbrdinatioa, was undergoing one of many terms of imprisonment he has' had at Bic^tre Military Prison, when on the 7th of December he picked tip a cigarette end that had been thrown down in the exerbise ground. The sergeant on duty ordered him to throw it away, whereupon the delinquent became abusive, and eventually struck his superior with his fist. '- A Court Martial sitting in Paris has condemned Sohwinghedaw to be shotJ ■ "" ,

'Supposing a man is born in, France of ,an English father and a French mother, lo what nationality does he belong P To Mr Alfred Exshaw, as. one to whom the description applies,, the question is, one of more than merely speculative .interest. He was born in Bordeaux ia 1871, and in spite of the fact that his father is ah alien, he was drawn last year for the military service.' He protested, .however, that he was not a Frenchman, and refused to join the ranks./' 'The case catne some time ago before the Civil Tribunal at Bordeaux, which decided against him; that is to say, declared him to be 'French, and mulcted, him in costs.' This deoision has now been upheld by the Court of Appeal; so that Mr Esshaw will have either to shoulder his Lebel rifle or to leave France su'rreptitionaly and never set foot there again. ,

In the middle-class fatailiea in Vienna jihe children ( live through; Christmas Eve in a state of chronic excitement, sometimes •f saying over" the verses they have learnt or singing them softly to themselves^ When darkness sets in they are dressed, and they attempt to keep quiet in a room adjoining that in which the tree ia lighted and the presents are spread out in the most effective manner.. Then the servants are called in, a hushed silence, and at last the. little, dinner-bell tinkles, and the folding-doors are thrown open to reveal the brilliant splendour of the carefully trimmed tree, which is different every year, and sometimes for a change is adorned with fireproof cotton strewn with a glittering powder, with glass icicles and white candles only,, while silver threads are spun from branch to branch. The first five minutes die very solemn, and only the baby in arms gives loud expression to its delight, while the bigger children' are awed into silence. But soon one . or the other of the children discovers something whioh is obviously intended for itself, and then the spell is broken, and while the toys and books, or skates and new finery are received and examined the tree> is forgotten, and the wax candles may be extinguished. • ,

Those who believe in epidemics of genius, says a correßponderit, may pointi with great complacency to that veritable annus mirabUis 1809. To that one twelvemonth the world owea, besides him whose departure hence all are now lamenting, tw_o of the mosfc consummate musical prodigies the world has seen, the moßt famous naturalist of oar century, if not of all time, the present Premier, the greatest English poetess, and ■■ the ' most fasoinating 'of American authors. Can any other year show snob, an extraordinary array of varied talent as is suggested by the name'e— . Tennyson, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Darwin, Gladstone, E. B. Browning, Oliver Wendell Holmes? Of the mystic seven who tpus started together in life's race four* score and three years ago, two alone survive, one in either hemisphere. There have been other dates famous for their crop of genius, but, for the quantity and guality combined^ 1809 undoubtedly Bfcands pre-eminent.

The plague of, wolves in Shonsi, a mouQtainous Proyince of North Central Ch|da, is described as becoming more and more alarming. A correspondent in that part writes that in tha village in which he via sojourning they had heard , of eleven persons carried off by these animals in seven days. Most of the viotims were children; the rest young persons of sixteen, nineteen and twenty years of age. "They. come/' aoys the writer, "to our village here every night just now. Men are bestirring themselves, going out in large numbers to hunt them, as yet, however, u'nßticiieß&fuUy. . To-night we v have put poisoned mutton in two places ''n'titi far

off, hoping to find at least one 'dead wolf to-morrow. They roam in open daylight, boldly entering villages and carrying, off helpless little ones. Three went in company a few days ago into a native village ; one of the number entered a hut and snatched a little child from his father's arms. Pursuit in every case has been; futile. It eeems this -is their breeding ] time, hence their abnormal boldness. •