HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17689, 9 November 1925, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. UMBRELLA LAW XEEDEP Showery weather, such as that recently experienced in Auckland, suggests the question whether there is any* “rule of the pavement” for umbrellas. One leaves aside the umbrella. hogs, who plunge along regardless of others, but there should surely be some rule for polite umbrella-holders. When two of these meet it is quite common for both to raise their umbrellas simultaneously, so that the two clash in mid-air. and the attempt to avoid a collision has only involved entanglement. A recent writer asks: ‘‘Can anyone suggest a rule bv which wc shall known which of two people meeting ought to maintain the umbrella at the normal level, and which ought to lift it to clear the othrr ” BRITAIN’S IDEAL VILLAGE. The ideal village has been discovered at last. It lies snugly on . the rocky coast of Pembrokeshire, and is called Marloes. which, translated into English, means “the voice of the sea.” Some five hundred odd souls live in the village, ail of whom live by gathering the seaweed, which is made into the Welsh delicacy’ known as Laverbroad. Every* householder in this unique little village is a freeholder and the owner of a garden sufficiently large to produce all the vegetables the family’ may* require. Politicians have never been known to speak there. It is still the fashion at Marios for young women to keep their hair: jazz bands have never troubled the village cars; tourists and motor-'buses never wander or career up the village streets. But — rates are heavv there, just as they arc everywhere else. DOG S CURE*FOR RHEUMATISM. How n sheepdog cured itself of rheumatism is told by Dr 31. 15. Ray in the English Review. The facts, for which he vouches, were related by a Highland shepherd. One of the sbep-. erd’s dogs developed painful swellingin its joints, and disappeared- The dog was discovered buried up to itneck in a peat l>og. whither it had betaken itself to obtain relief from its pain. The shepherd rightly concluding that the dog evidently' knew what was best for itself, left it there, and eventually’ it came back to its master perfectly well. OUR COMPASSIONATE PRINCE. Again and again have we been told, or wc have read, of instances of the innate sympathy and kindness of heart of the Prince of Wales. The latest instance is furnished in his “Memories.” by r Sir A-meric Fitzroy. who for a quarter of a century served as clerk to his Majesty’s Privy Council. Sir Almerie tells this story of the Prince when he visited Belgium in 1923: —“One of his tasks was to visit a hospital for the special treatment of English soldiers suffering from facial disfiguration, the greatest difficulty of which is the extreme sensitiveness of the victims to any* suspicion of curiosity or recoil on the part of a visitor. The Prince had seen all the cases produced, and. noticing there were only twenty-seven present out of the twenty-eight known to be in the charge of the institution, asked for the twenty-eighth. The officer in charge proceeded to explain that his was a case of such a frightful, not to say repulsive, character that it was not thought well to include him with the rest: whereupon the Prince said he had undertaken the job and refused to have anvonc deprived of his sympathy who had, it seemed, the highest claim to it. He was at once taken to the patient's room, went straight up to the man. and kissed him. Surely,” comments Sir Almerie. “an act of compassion entitled to live in history with Philip Sidney’s cup of water on field of Zutphen! He who can so bear himself in the dread presence of extreme misery must have a genius for pity.” A FAVOURITE HYMN. How many of the thousands who join in the singing of “Abide M ttli Me” know that the tune to which it : > set was written in a few minutes' Setting out one morning with Sir Henry Baker his co-worker in the editing of “Hymns Ancient and Modern. Dr Monk suddenly recollected there was no tunc to No. 27. “Abide With 31e.” Dr Monk returned to tne House and. undisturbed bv a music lesson that was going on. the doctor sa* down and wrote the well-known naelody in ten minutes! The hvmn was composed in less than an hour b> llenry Francis Lvtc. THE SPIDER PLANT. Travellers who visited or*passed the Cape Negro country’ of Africa often heard from the natives of a plant which was part spider, and which, growing, threw its leg' about in continual struggles to escape. It was tne good fortune of a visiting scientist to discover the origin of the legend. Strolling through a wind-swept tableland countrv, he happened upon a giant which rested low upon the ground, but liad two enormous leaves that blew and twisted about in the wind like serpents: in fact it looked, as the natives had said. like a gigantic spider. Its stem was four feet across, and but one foot high. It had two leaves, which were six or eight feet long, and split by’ the wind so that they’ resembled ribbons. It is probably the most extraordinary tree known. It grows for nearly if not quite a century’. but never upward beyond about a foot, slowly’ expanding until it reaches the diameter given. looking in its adult state like a singular stool on the plain from ten to eighteen feet in circumference. When the wind rushes in from the sea, lifting the curious ribbon-like leaves and tossing them about, it almost seems that the strange plant has suddenly’ become imbued with life and is struggling to escape*