HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20055, 18 September 1920, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

f The demolition of the old fortifications of Paris goos on apace, and a year from now the city shall-- know thorn no more. In their place there will bo splendid playgrounds and open spaces, which will certainly be for tlw good of the people, even though they obliterate an 'historic landmark. And now it has been decided 1 to pull down the fortresses and strongholds in what is strategically known as the Second Zone encircling Paris. These are no longer serviceable against modern weapons of war, and it is, probably wisely, contended that their elevated sites will be better occupied by hospitals antf houses than by antiquated places of defence. • , Scented notepaper is the newest key used to unlock jealously guarded business doors. The general manager of a large wliolcsalo market calls the method the latest manifestation of the alert post-war commercial mind." "In my ease,.' he says, " th e buyers get the letters first—and buyers are a, body If over-given to encouraging new. blood. I hey are apt to bo conserva;™s| content with those who are com- : tortably established in their ' ring.' But a letter in,feminine handwriting on puce notepaper delicately scented got through the ' ring.' It reached mo, and to my astonishment T found its information distinctly worth while from a business point of view. A semblance of romance is not always inseparable from hard,commerce." * The lato King Edward was very fond of card-playing, and the story is told that on one occasion a card party was in progress at a great house in " The Dukeries," at which a certain young subaltern of the Guards and an irascible duchess were seated by their hostess at the same table as opponents, {lis Majesty and another lady completing the four-handed game. After play had been in progress some little while the duchess revoked. • The subaltern noticed it. and at the end of the hand claimed the penality. The duchess glared but submitted. "Young fellow," Baid the King, leaning over and lapping the subaltern on tho knee, " I have given the Victoria Cross for less than that.", ZANETIO is unique. It easily en, sures absolutely perfect, ,„ permanent pen-copies of your pen-ivritten letter without soiling tho hands or original letter. Obtainable from Stationers'. write to makers, ZANETIC, 159, Albert Street, Auckland. * On& would hardly think that tho science of eugenios, which deals with the improvement of the human race, ent itself to humorous treatment, vet a lady speaker managed! to got a lau<rh out of it. "Wo eugenists," she °s reported to have said, "advocate love matches because they produce the finest children. Let shallow, worldly people decry love, and advocate marriagos of common-sense. Wo know that they are wrong. No longer is it permissible,, she conoluded "to sneer -all lovo as a disease, beginning with a fever and ending in a chill. 7 ' The sol© recreation of Cardinal U Lonnell, tho Roman Catholic prelate of Boston, is said to bo golf, at which, however, he does not greatly shine. One day. the story goes, he was badly beaten by one of his parishioners. ''Never mind, Father" said the latter consolinglyj "you'll get your own back when you com© to bury me." "That's where you're wrong," sighed the rueful prelate. "It'll still be your hole 1" u I l ' , Clemen cea'i is said to bo a very hard nut." When ho returned from Higypt to his small flat at Passy he was besieged by reporters. They began by asking him what impressed him most in the East. "Tho heavy cold i caught,' ho answered promptly. Having failed to draw him out in that quarter, they tried another, and asked his views about San Renio. " Tho weather -was very lino." he stated. His art of evasion is of tho dear and concise order. He either refuses bluntly to disclose his views, or puts lub interrogators off with what may be described aa "curt geniality." How different this, says tho writer, to that of thu politician ■who, when asked! his opinion of tho political situation, cleared his throat elaborately and replied: "You may ask my views? In .these everchanging times, when the political pendulum swings first one way and then another, it is not easy to pierce the veil of the future; but my own personal, opinion, which you must take for what it is -worth, and which ; of course, is subject to modification m tho event of unforeseen circumstances arising is, as far as I can determine—er—much the same as it was yesterday." Mr Georgo Roboy is always good it telling a story. A friend of mine, ho said, had been up and down the laud for months, vainly seeking a small houso at a reasonable .rent. At last, when he was almost in despaii, ho found an agont who had one to lotrent _ £52 per annum. My friend vent to view it in high hopes, 'but alas! ho returned shortly afterwards very much disillusioned. _ "That house you sent mo to," ho said, addressing the agent, "is in an appalling state of disrepair, and damp as damp. Why, there are toadstools growing in the kitchen, and tho dining-room walls are covered in mildew." " Mildew 1 Toadstools I" ejaculated the agent contemptuously. " Well, what about it? What do you expect for a quid a week? Orchids?" There seems to be an object lesson for other countries in tho aviaries near Melbourne, Australia, where one reads in tho Melbourne "Argus," the "wild birds are guarded, but free. Many aro annual visitors, coming from rural haunts to spend a holiday in town. And some drop in occasionally a clay or twt*, no longer—'between their hail and farewell. But numbers, like the . wiso thrushes, are year-long residents. For board and lodging they pay with a

generous measure of song. Broods am reared in the gardens, in shrubs, and trees, iii ( the fernery, and on islets in the lake. 1 ' The Melbourne aviaries, in fact, are a garden spot near the city which has been mado a sanctuary for birds and has become, recognised as such by them, as seems to bo the ex. perience wherever sanctuaries are established either for birds or wild ani- ' raals, until nowadays the total number of species that the head gardener has seen there counts up to at leant IGO. Frco to come and go as they please, ; many of the birds seem to comprehend the security and fri«ndlines3 of tho gardens and become tome and sociable, in a short > time after their arrival. From morning till night tho gardens are alive > with birds—blackbirds, thrushes, tits, wrens, and, in uhort, a host of others nro busy on the lawns. Bird families are growing up in the trees and bushes;_ swans, coot, duck.s and other water-birds, parents and infants,.cruise the lakes and are so much at home that they come ashore to bo fed by children. Tho gardens cover about 100 acres, and except for a smaller sanctuary of the same- kind at Gizeh, Egy.pt, contain probably the largest variety of birds that is to bo found so near a city. Describing the Bishops at tho Lambeth Conference, a • London pape? 1 writes:—"There wero some with faces like a sacrament. To look upon them was to feel assured of the possibility of an unseen world. Others there were, lean and ascetic, with thin-lipped, tight* closed mouths, and faces of fanatics You might, torture them, you felt, but! never move them by a hairVbreadth from their pumose. Sotno had the faces of statesmen, clear-cut and determined ; Bomo were rugged and careworn, as if they had taken life hardly; some enigmatic; or neutral, and a few who did not look the part, who might, in & crowd, have been taken for anything but bishops. Two native* bishops'! Bishop Oluwolo of Lagos and Bishop t>ornakal of Southern India, arrested the eye. Their coal-black faces showed op titrongly, uiajiiug pallid the couu, Unanoee ox thai* companiona,''.