HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16780, 8 July 1922, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. PADEREWSKI NOW A RANCHER IN AMERICA Far from his native Poland and the turmoil of European politics, in which, he was so active for a time following the end of the world war, Ignace Jan Paderewski, the renowned pianist and statesman, is living in semi-retirement in the United States. He is just, a plain rancher near Paso Robles, California, where he is trying to recoup his fortune that was depleted by the war. Paderewski’s lifo to-day. that of raising fruits and nuts for the market, although on a fair-sized scale, is a far cry from concert halls, where great audiences sat enthralled by his artit=try; or from war-time gathering!*, where he stirred his countrymen to patriotism bv fervent speeches, but he is content. ‘His beloved Poland is free, and, as for the thrills of his music - well. Paderewski says his skill has not deserted him, although at the present time he has no thoughts of making a concert tour. In January, 1919, Ignace Jan Paderewski became Premier of the new Polish Republic, and proceeded to bring order out of chaos. lor ten months he laboured as Premier, dividing his time between the Polish seat of government and the councils of the Conference at Paris. “ I believe in clean politics,” Paderewski has told an interviewer, “ and when the time came that Polish statesmen began to follow tactics that I felt to be inimical to the welfare of the country* I bad no course left than to express mv earnest disapproval and resign the Premiership, which I accordingly did. in November 1919.” He went to America and later to Paso Robles. He says he has no intention of returning to Poland. Paderewski’s wife is as unassuming and selfsacrificing as her husband. * * VENUS IN JET.

Is the white woman more beautiful than the negress? This was the momentous question proposed to the art critics at the Grafton Galleries by the most, sensational exhibit of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers—the sculptured figure of a young negress, symbolising the New World. For the first time in history the supremacy of the white woman over the negress lor beauty of form and figure is called seriously in question, says the “ Daily Express.” Miss May Creamer, who sculptured the enigma, explained her theories on tho superiority of black beauty to a “ Daily Express ” representative. “I believe,” said Miss Creamer, “ that the most beautiful women in the world, spiritually and physically, are to be found among the coloured women, in the Southern States of America. That is why I chose the figure of a negress to symbolise the New World- It was tho deep, mystic beauty in the eyes of tho southern 4 mammies * that first attracted me in Virginia. There is more spirituality shining out of the eyes of these coloured women than can bo found in any race of white women on the earth. The marvel to me is how the beauty of the negress has for centuries escaped artists and sculptors. She is more beautiful in face and form than the white woman.” 4 ‘ SHODDY DROPPING.” A visit to a Court of law is always an education, but more often than not tho things to be learned are not such a* reputable citizens would care to put lo any use (says a Melbourne paper). The defendants in vagrancy cases at the City Court successfully pleaded that they were 44 shoddy dropping.” Accord-

ing to their interpretation, 44 shoddy dropping” was merely buying up lines of cloth—whether it was good or bad was not of any moment; it was all designated 41 shoddy ” —and selling it again at a profit. Preferably the stuff was peddled about. The police definition is not so flattering. They say tho gentle 44 dropper *’ buys up inferior material and passes it off on the unwary as good-class stuff. The exponents of the game who were before the Court quite candidly admitted that they expected at least 100 per cent profit on their deals. The police assert that 44 shoddy dropping ” is generally a cloak nnder which to pass off the proceeds of robberies. The purveyor of tho stolen material covers himself by receipts obtained for cheap lines actually bought. Of course, any 44 shoddy dropper ” would indignantly repudiate any such insinuations. ANCIENT FAMILY. Only four years ago there died at Gattonside. in Roxburghshire, a farmer named Thomas Boston, whose ancestor settled there in the time of Robert Bruce. Ho went to Bannockburn as a harpist in tho tram of Edward 11. to celebrate in song the victory which the English King anticipated ; instead he fell into the hands of Bruce, who spared his life on condition that be composed a ballad in Scotland’s honour. Boston fulfilled the condition so satisfactorily that he got in return the grant of Gattonride. An inn at Lamberhurst, in Kent, has been held by the same family for over four centuries, and a blacksmith at Muckiest one Shropshire, claims that his forge been in the family for at least 500 years, and that one of his ancestors shod Margaret of Anjou’s horse in 1459. A DIET OF LONGEVITY. Mr M- E. Forbee. writing in the “ Saturday Review ” of a system diet when people lived hundreds of years without growung old. says:—“l heard of it while travelling in Asia Minor from an Armenian woman of sixty of very youthful appearance. Traditions on diet and long life had been preserved in. her family from very ancient times. Her father had lived to 150 and her grandfather and grandmother also. She attributed her youth to certain laws of diet, and to a particular sweetmeat, a kind of sweet paste, which she claimed was one of the foods of the Patriarchs, and enabled them to live to their great age. It prolongs youth and retards old age, and is made f two of the life-preserving foods mixed with honey and other ingredients. She believed that old age and disease were due to unsuitable and wrong combinations of food, and that a longer yemth can be achieved by keeping as strictly as possible to the diet of the ancient world- She divided foods mto thro© classes —the lifogiving. containing tne proteids, fats and carbo-hydratee; tne life-preserving, onlv six in number wine! olive oil, youhort (fermented milk), butter, honey and dates, and the life-destroying, five in number, which should never be eaten, and consists of flesh of meat, tea. coffee, beer and spirits. Her own diet consisted of wholemeal bread, eggs. vegetables, some of each of these lite-preserving foods, and lentils, and at the midday and evening meal some of the sweetmeat, the latter being a very essential part of the diet. She claims that it is possible to maintain youth and vigor up to a very long time on this diet. I have grown much stronger, my friends tell me I look much younger, and I have entirely got rid of a troublesome throat affection and cough which I always feared would develop into ooa.irruption.”