ROUND THE COMPASS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18578, 28 September 1928, Page 8

ROUND THE COMPASS.

Prison Artist’s Masterpiece. AN ex-convict’s masterpiece, which for many years remained at 10, Downing Street, recently came into the possession of the owner of the Aerodrome Hotel, Croydon, England. It is an engraving by J. Wilson on a piece of Slate taken from the Portland quarries, weighing approximately 281 b. The work was done by Wilson while he was serving a sentence for forgery in Portland Prison to commemorate the escape from assassination of Queen Victoria, when a revolver was fired at her in 1882. It depicts an important epoch of the Victorian era. The original intention was to present the work to the Queen, but when the suggestion was put before the Premier. Mr Gladstone, it was considered inadvisable to recall the memory of such an unhappy incident. The engraving, however, was instrumental in hastening the release of Wilson from prison, and he was employed until his death by the Rank of England to detect forgeries in notes. The Black Art. THE death of. Captain Clive Maskelyne, the famous illusionist, removes a notable figure in the entertainment world, and stirs old memories of his father's achievements. The father was John Nevil Maskelyne, who died on May 18, “1917. He was the founder of the celebrated firm of Maskelyne and Cooke, whose “ entertainment ” was one of the stock attractions of London for many years. Maskelyne died while performing at St George’s Hall. He was born at Cheltenham (England) in 1841. As a bov he was apprenticed to a watchmaker, but the study of conjuring and the inventing of tricks, and “ making magic ” generally, occupied all his spare time. At the age of sixteen

he gave a public performance of tricks and illusions entirely made and invented by himself. Nine years later he gave up watchmaking and launched out as a professional conjuror and illusionist. Then he entered into partnership with Cooke, and the firm 'started operations very successfully, for Maskelyne had achieved a good deal of celebrity by his exposure of the notorious Davenport Brothers. The two Davenports were the pioneers of “ professional ” spiritualism in England. _ Their “ cabinet,’* a kind. of box in which the brothers were securely bound and in which mysterious 44 manifestations ” occurred, had become the talk of England. « X Two Speeches in 25 Years. A CABLE this morning announces that the Conservative seat of Cheltenham has been retained by the Party candidate at - by-election caused by the death of Sir J. Agg-Gardner. Sir J. Agg-Gardner was a charming, but enigmatic personality. For forty years he was at Westminster. No other member was so well known among his colleagues or so little known to the public. He chatted with M.P.’s in private more than any other man, and he adc'»sssed them publicly less than any other. Sir James hardly missed a day in attendance at the House, but the library and the corridors were his haunt rather than the Chamber. He was chairman of the Kitchen Committee, and the question of food brought him in continual contact with the changing personnel of the House. New M.P.’s discovered an alert mind and a quick wit in the stooped little man whoso bent shoulders and drooping grey moustache were the only attributes of his eighty-two 3-ears. They were the more puzzled to know why he never spoke in Parliament. He was first elected for Cheltenham as a Conservative in 1874, and whenever Cheltenham rejected him he waited until Cheltenham changed its mind. He was defeated three times and elected eight times, serving altogether for forty-three years. Sir James made a speech in 1903. A second speech wa6 delivered four months ago. “ X have not spoken because I did not see wh>I should; there has been no necessity for it,” was the quaint explanation he

gave when one was sought for this quarter of a century of silence. Sir James was four 3'ears old when the present Parliament Buildings were opened by Queen Victoria. They were only sixteen years in use when he first attempted to enter them by wav of Cheltenham. He tried again in 1874 and won. coming to Parliament when Disraeli for the first time had an ample majority. He saw the rise and fall of many Ministries and outlived seven Prime Ministers—Earl Russell, Lord Beaconsfield. Mr Gladstone, Lord Salisbury. Sir Henry Camp-bell-Bannerman, Bonar Law, and the Earl of Oxford and Asquith. By Mere Chance. T>Y the merest accident Maskelyne succeeded in penetrating the secret of the cabinet. The “ manifestations ” were always presented in a darkened room, and a dark curtain was hung before the cabinet. On one occasion when Maskelyne was present this curtain slipped down and the interior of the cabinet was illumined for a second b> T a sunbeam. That momentar*- glimpse was quite sufficient for Maskelyne. He saw how the thing was done and shortly afterwards exhibited a copy of the Davenport cabinet and seance. From 1873 to 1904 Maskelyne and Cooke occupied the. Egyptian Hall, London, when they transferred to the “ Home of Magic, St George s Hall. To the end of his life Maskelyne waged war against the spiritualists, and he exposed the fashionable imposters of three generations, including Eufatia Talladina, an Indian magician, who had appeared in London. Maskelyne’s “ psycho automaton,” which played whist, was most interesting and perplexing. He offered £2OOO to anyone who could produce a similar mechanism. He also offered £IOOO to anyone who could correctly imitate a box used in a certain trick. Two men claimed this prize, and after litigation the House of Lords their claim. Then Maskelyne doubled the prize, but no other person ever claimed it. X K X ’Planes in the Bible. "RECENTLY M. Louis Baraduc-Mul-ler, writing in the Paris “ Illustration,” declared his belief that the source of locusts which St John saw in his vision and described in the ninth chapter of the Book of Revelation was a prophecy of the modern aeroplanes. Lord Ampthill, writing to the ‘ Daily Express,” sa\’s: — “I was much Interested in the communication from your Paris correspondent which you published. under the heading, “Aeroplanes In the Bible on Monday last. The views of M. BantaucMuller accord entirely with those or a good many persons in this country, including myself, who are c °£ Vl V!«v that the Revelation of St John the ine is, to a large extent, a prophetic vision of events that have actually been taking place In our own time. It is, h?'*ever, In the Book of the Prophet Bzekiel that we find a far more definite description of aeroplanes seen in prophetic vision, and I often wonder why it has attracted so little attention. It will be sufficient to quote a few verses from the first chapter to show that in this case the Prophet contented himself t\ Ith the term, “living creatures,' and did not think it necessary to compare tne aeroplanes which he saw In l ila vision to any birds or insects. The verses hardly need comment, as there is no metaphor about them:v s—Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living croatUv?S<3And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. v 7.—And their feet were straight feet: and the sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the colour of burnished br vf*9.—Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straigv f °v W lL—And the living creatureu ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. v. 18.—As for their rings, the* ere so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. v. 19.—And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

Can there be any doubt that this is a prophetic vision of a flight of military biplanes? The “ rings ” are, of course, the identification marks on the under side of the wings of the aeroplanes for which we looked out so anxiously when we were in the front line during the war. What better description could you have of those target-like discs than that given above? To any person seeing an aeroplane overhead for the first time they would certainly look like eyes underneath the wings. The whole chapter needs reading in order to see how striking is the description of a sight which is now familiar to us all by a man to whom it was new and unexpected, and one who was, of course, entirely destitute of modem scientific knowledge and the corresponding terminologv. AMPTHILL. Oakley House, Bedford.”