THINGS ENGLISH AND OTHERWISE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7338, 26 February 1902, Page 2

THINGS ENGLISH AND OTHERWISE.

The latest caricature of Mr Joseph Chamberlain to bo seen in London is scratched on one of the windows of the Colonial Office. The artist is unknown, and no suspicion rests on Phil May. " Moatlhodi " may certainly boast that he is at present the mostly widely caricatured man in the world, and the reason is that he is the one British statesman who is at all popular (in the artistic sense) on the Continent. Draughtsmen differ as to the possibilities of Sir Chamberlain's features for caricature, but anything with a long hatdhiet nose and an eyeglass is good enough for Continental consumption.

Mr J. Foster Fraser, of " round the world on a bicycle" fame, has recently been meandering in the Far East, and has returned Home with a tolerably good 1 yarn anent the übiquity of the Scot. Once he landed a.t a god-forsaken place somewhere up the Persian Gulf, and asked if there were any Britishers about. He was directed to an isolated .cottage or corrugated hut, which was the abode, he was assured, of a- man : who had been "sent there to keep an eye on the plague, " He knocked at the door, and was invited to come in. " I hear you are a Britisher," he said ; "my name is Fraser, and I came from Edinburgh." " Ah, that is interesting," said the solitary plague inspector, "my name is also Fraser, but 1 was born at Aberdeen."

A " refutation " of Mrs Gallup's " Shak<£ bacon " theory has come from America, in the shape of a. theory nearly as fantastic as the original. A Dr Mendenhall, after " exhaustive investigations,'* has discovered that every author has a more or less constant "verbal curve." If you go through, say, 10,000 consecutive words of any au- , titor, you can afterwards represent by a curve the nature of the writer's vocabulary in respect of the length of the words he I uses ; and this curve will accurately apply to any consecutive 10,0<J0 words in this writer's works. Mill, for example, is unique in his fondness for wordfe of two letters, most Elizabethans prefer four-lettered words ; but the curve of no two is found to correspond. Unhappily for Mr Mallock atnd Mrs Gallup, the Baconiaru curve is quite different from the Shaksperean. The argument is ingenious, and it is probably true that the nature of most people's vocabularly, written or spoken, is fairly constant. Mrs Gallup, however, may argue that Bacon's poetry involved l a. different curve from his philosophy. For ourselves, we think we may rest content with ai fleeting glance at the mental curves of the GallupsandMendenhalk of this world* We.see at once thatjetiough they differ in size, they are all very decided, in fact, one might fairly call them "kinks."

Where lives the real Laureate of the Empire? The publishers of " Good Words," Messrs Isbistbr and Co^ Limited, 'have a simple plan for dragging our unlaurelled laureates from those remote regions where they lurk unhonoured and "tfisung. They offer £50 "and the honour fo be adjudged the 'best of living poets Jn the English tongue," for the best Coronation Ode, £15 for the second best, and £10 for the third, and £1 Is a piece to these other odes deemed worthy of publication. There are^o .restrictions as to length or form of composition. The odes must be signed with- a pseudonym only; a sealed envelope being enclosed oontadnjng both the real name and address of the writer and the chosen- pseudonym. Th© Committee of judges will not have access to these envelopes until the awards have been finally made. The awards of prizes will be announced, and the winning odes will be published (with such others as eeem worthy of publication), in the July number (1902) of "Good Words." Odes posted in any part of Australasia must be received at the office of "Good Words," 15, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., by April 30, 1902. Now then, New Zealand bards! One warning before you start. No referen/e to "flannelled fools " or "muddied oafs."

The editor .of the "Essex County Chronicle : ' having heard nothing of the compensation of Mr Charles Lillywhite, who was dragged back from New Zealand to Colchester on suspicion of being Arthur Blatoh, recently wrote to tho Home Secretary for, information. He received this reply: "Sir,— ln reply -to your letter I aim directed by tie Secretary of State to inform you that it would be contrary to the established practice to make any communication of the nature you d*ire.~ l am, sir, your obedient servant, CHarles S. Murdock." The editor comments : " All I con. ssxy is, that the ' established practice' of withholding information of this kind seems strange. Surely 1 the public have a right to know something? Perhaps the member for Colchester can " help them in the Government officials are, of course, justified in refusing to satisfy mere vulgar curiosity, but in. Mr Lillywhite's case the public have at least the right to know whether the authorities haive made financial amends to the victim of police 'blundering. a \

This is the "age of young men. Lord Curzon received the post of Viceroy of India ait the age of thirty -nine, having been. a. Minister of the Crown at thirty, -while Mr Cecil Rhodes, the "King of South Africa," was Treasurer-General of Cape Colony when only thirty-one years old, .and Premier of South Africa at thirty-seven. Lord Rosebery was a Cabinet Minister at thirty-four, and at the early age of forty-seven became Prime Minister ; while Mr St John Brodrick, the present Secretary for War, was made Financial Secretary to the War Office at the age of thirty ; he is now only fortyfive years of age, and has already occupied some of the most important posts in the Government.' Mr George Wyndliam, the Chief Secretary for Lreland, lias not yet reached his fortieth year.

The Marquis Ito, who was largely instrumental in arranging the Anglo-Jaipanese Alliance, is the greatest man in Japan, and unquestionably one of the world's wise •men. It was e w^° f° resaw the invasion of tile West, and saved Japan from ihe doom which 'has hung so long over China. All Bis political 'life the Marquis Ito has been meeting Europe half-way. He resisted party government, but accepted it and became the finst party Premier when the European system became inevitable. In the same way he has accepted the political systems of the West as the foundations of the New Japan, and he 'has, indeed, gone a K reat deal farther. He is a Protestant, and he has gone so far in his Europeunising as to say that tie Japanese must adopt Christianity. The Marquis's first visit to London me when he was but nineteen, in company with a fellow count to learn navigation. Somehow the two boy counts J

were bundled) on to the vessel as common seamen and expected to work their -way to London. It wus all an absurd mistake, of course, but the two victims of it 'had no alternative but to accept the situation, and, a* if that irony were not enough, they were rendered helpless on arriving in London by the failure of their friends to meet them. That was the first introduction to London of the man who met the King recently at Marlborough House. Ito is, like most of his countrymen, of diminutive stature, but the possessor of a thoughtful and sympathetic face. Extremely thin physically, he has earned for himself the nickname of "the lean man." His daughter is one of the very few 'blonde beauties of Japan.