HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17178, 23 October 1923, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. BIG HATS AND LITTLE HATS. A hatter, writing in “Men’s Wear,’ 1 mentions that it is bis invariable experience that men with small beads buy the cheapest hats, and men. with big beads the dearest - and in explanation he suggests that “ men with small heads have not th© intelligence to enable them to obtain a position which will permit them to pay the price of the best quality bats.” PA RLI A MENTA RY NOVELTY. For the first time in the history of the British Parliament the peer-hus-band of a woman M.P. lias just moved the second reading of a Bill promoted hy his wife in the Lower House. The measur© was Lady As tor’p Biff to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor to persons under eighteen years of age. Viscount Astor made an excellent speech, and the Bill was read a second time in the House of L-ords without a division.

SOME ADVERTISEMENT The advertisements of homeland Tac* meetings and horse shows are tepid indeed compared with how they do things “out West..” This is how Calgary announces such affairs: “Calgary. July. 1923, Exhibition Stampede and Buffalo Barbecue. Buckingist. outlaw bucking bronchos that ever bucked a buck. Roping wild and suorty calves, riding wilder steers, milking wilder cows (against timei. and the famous wild horse race. After watching this race you will need a half-hour’s rest to get tame enough to eat your supper. Honest you will.” FAMOUS LIONS _ The famous lions at- the base of th© Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square are the work of Sir Edwin Landseer, The figure of Nelson stands 145 feet above them. These colossal lion©. stationed in what has been called the “ central square ” of the universe, are said to have listened to more political balderdash than any lions in the world. The lion of lions is that on Lion Hill at Waterloo, marking one of the great battlefields of all time. The Lion of Lucerne, th© work of Thorwaldeen. wax executed in 1821, to the memory of 26 officers and 760 soldiers of the Swis# Guards who fell in defending the Tuileries on August 10. 1 792. Th© animal, hewn out of natural sandstone and reclining in a grotto, is represented a* dying, transfixed by a broken lance and sheltering th© Bourbon lily -with it* paw.

INSECTS’ SENSE OF SMELL Insects are equipped with a much more highly developed sense of smell than are humans, science has lately decided. It is by this olfactory sense that bees, working together in their hives, are able to distinguish the three castes of inhabitants, for the queen has an odour all her own, and the drone and w-orker are each allotted a particular odour. The workers know their hiv© mates by th© odour they carry. This insures harmony and a united defence against attack. The queen odour constantly informs the workers that their queen is present. Even though she does not rule, her presence means everything to the bee* in perpetuating the colony. Thus by obeying the stimuli of the hive odour and queen odour. **nd being guided by instinct, a colour of bees perhaps could not want a better ruler. Among ants the same broad principles hold, but here the family odour retains its importance. METHUSELAHS *OF THE DEEP. V ith land anima-ls it is comparatively easy to get information as to their length of life. We know definitely that an elephant will live for mor© than a century, and that a goose can survive to the age of sixty. But when we com© to fish or to creatures whose life is spent in the waters, the difficulty of ascertaining their ages is very great-. Since it is usually the largest animals that live longest, we can assume that the whale is very long-lived. Of this fact we have also 'orae definite proof. In 1866 a huge bull sperm whale was killed. In its body was found the head of an old harpoon, marks upon which showed that it belonged to a whaler which had been broken up forty years before. It would seem that this whale had been hunted at least half a cen-

tury earlier, and since the rreahir# must then have been of fair size, it- is probable that at the time cf it.s death it was about a hundred years old. IVal ruses certainly live to fifty year* of age. and possiblv much longer, while a seal has lived in captivity for thirty years. The longest-lived creatures sr© reptiles, and we are aware that the giant Galapagos tortoise, has a life extending to two centuries. And sine© we know that the great sea turtles are very slow growing, yet reach a weight of six hundred pounds, we are justified in believing that these creatures, too. many live to be at least a hundred years old. It is more than likely that monster devil-fish the remains of which have at times been washed ashore on beaches may have lived for centuries in the cold black abysses. A MAX’S LOOKS. No woman could look at Earl Beatty and despise him ; tew could look at him ■without admiring him. H© would not adorn the Russian ballet or a picture of the. pre-Raphaelite school. You could criticise his features and their proportions. Bnt what woman think© about, trifles like that? See what his face suggests—oceans. wide spaces, ships, battle. invincible strength, all of which things are entirely unfeminme, and that leads us back to wise Darwin who said:—“The sexes like b©3t in each other what is most- different from themselves.” ** It all depend* on the sort of looks a man possesses, and th© sort of girl who regards them.” writes Miss Violet Quirk in the “Royal Magazine.’’ “ Then why do women adore the Prince of Wales. who is short, slight. and not aggressively masculine? Merely because to them lie is still Boy. Thev love him with the paternal part of their nature. Also his face is good, and that makes an added appeal, for tb© maternal, too, is so good. They understand the wistfulness which comes from his intelligence. he realises to th© full his tremendous responsibilities. A woman wants a man to be masculine in essence, but she wants him as well to possess just a streak of the feminine in his nature. It must be big enough to enable him to understand her weakness. but not big enough to override his virility. Because she likes a man to look what site thinks he ought- to be. she passes over the slender lveing whose appearance expresses his effeminacy, and die shrinks from the hard, bull-necked, loud-voiced male who«© appearance expresses bis brutality; but sb© gazes long at the rp»n whose locks ar ft all masculine but whose eve* g Tjd mouth reveal that little of understanding of th© feminine which she reed? A woman cannot- separate a. man s looks from the man himself. Tliis admiration of manlv instincts colours all a woman’s likes and dislike* with regard to man.”