In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue III, 16 January 1897, Page 60

In The Smoke Room

V ICTORIA’S accession to the throne did not usher in an era of peace. Scarcely a year of her long reign has passed without England’s being at war in some part of the world. The two greatest wars of her era have been the Crimean in 1854 and the Indian mutiny in 1857. Hers is the only reign since the conquest in the eleventh century that England has had no war with France, her hereditary enemy. The eggs of a blue-bottle fly, if placed in the sun, will hatch in two or three hours. Linnaeus declares that the larvae of three blue-bottle flies will devour the carcase of a horse as quickly as would a lion, so rapidly do these insects increase and so voracious do they become. Recent insurance statistics show that if the wife dies first the husband on an average survives nine years ; while if the husband dies first the wife survives eleven years.

Many pleasant ways of earning a livelihood are open to the man of tact. Witness the professional entertainer, essentially a product of the times. He is employed by a mercantile house, his connection with the firm not being generally known. If it were, much of his usefulness would be gone. His salary is large, he lives at one of the big hotels, he knows everybody, he has a variety of accomplishments, and he is one of the pleasantest men to meet. He poses as a friend of the several members of the firm, and when a prospective placer of a large order appeals, he drops into the office, and an introduction follows. The merchant asks if it it would be too much trouble to show Mr S about, and the entertainer replies that it would be a great pleasure. Then follows a dinner at the club, introductions to genial and prominent men of the town, and, after the theatre, perhaps the visitor is given a glimpse of behind the scenes. A wine supper follows, and after it is over, the entertainer and the visitor are on such terms of good fellowship that the latter subsequently comes to that particular city to place orders, with the avowed purpose of spending an evening with his genial friend.

Paper telegraph poles are the latest development of the art of making paper useful. These poles are made of paper pulp, in which borax, tallow, etc., are mixed in small quantities. They are said to be lighter and stronger than wooden poles, and to be unaffected by sun, rain, dampness, or any of the other causes which shorten the life of the latter. According to Andrew Lang, ‘ Byron’s verse will never again be cherished by lovers of poetry.’ Most of it, he avers, ‘ is fustian.’ Professor Flinders Petrie wants the British Government to buy a tract of 500 acres somewhere within an hour’s ride of London and gradually build it all over for a storage place for ethnological materials. No museum in London is large enough to hold the treasures that are being discovered by Englishmen all over the world. Max Nordau is described by a traveller as the very quintessential figure of gall and bitterness. He is small and is as hairy as a monkey. His eyes are large, fine, and rather sad in expression. He is a remarkable linguist, and has an excellent practice as a physician. Bicycling in France has led to one strange and quite unexpected result. It has made the authorities keep a firmer hold on the Paris cabmen. The dangers of the pedestrian attempting to cross the Place d’Opera were enormously increased when he had to deal with both cabs and bicycles, and the number of accidents drew attention to reckless driving in the great thoroughfares. The authorities went very fully into the matter, and a budget of new regulations came into force at the beginning of the present month. Cabmen, henceforth, go through very rigid examinations before their licenses are granted. Among the precautions taken to insure the Czar’s safety while in Paris was the photographing and measurement by M. Bertillon, head of the anthropometric service, of every servant employed at the Russian Embassy. Speaking of whistling, Dr. Gordon states : It is an art that does require study certainly, and this study must be backed up with a good knowledge of music and daily practice. I can recommend it for another reason. It is a most excellent exercise for the lungs, and a good whistler is most unlikely to die of chest disease. If for this reason only the art should be more popular than it is. I feel certain that young folks in particular would be

benefited thereby; but just one hint—whistling if not accompanied by an instrument, say the piano or guitar, would be excessively tiresome to those in the same house with the learner, so certain hours should be set apart for exercising the vocal chords in this way, else the learner would only succeed in making himself a nuisance. Theory cuts a poor figure when confronted with experience. An English canon, in his capacity as magistrate, visited a county gaol, and expatiated to a friend who was with him on the virtues of the treadmill. Warming with his theme, he declared that he often wished he had one at home to give him the gentle exercise he required, but was too lazy to take except under compulsion ; and to remove his friend’s scepticism he asked the warder to give him a turn. Round went the wheel, the canon declaring that the movement was delightful ; but after two minutes of it he had had enough, and called upon the officer to stop the mill. To his horror the officer answered, ‘ Very sorry, sir, I can’t. It’s timed to go fifteen minutes, and won’t stop before.’

Russian passport law is no respecter of persons. Prince Youriewsky, the son of Czar Alexander 11, by his morganatic marriage, was kept waiting for two days at the Russian frontier while on his way to Paris till the passport permitting him to leave Russia, which he had neglected to procure, was sent after him from St. Petersburg.

Mme. Audiffred of Paris has given to the French Academy of Medicine a sum of about £32,000, the interest of which —about —will be awarded without regard to nationality, for the discovery of a cure for tuberculosis.

The late Sir Richard Burton’s translation of the ‘ Arabian Nights ’ was sold out in ten days and brought upon which he and his wife lived royally for five years. At his death only 10s remained of the sum and Lady Burton deposited it in the poor box of her church.

M. Andree, who almost started on a voyage to the North Pole in a balloon last summer, has just published in Stockholm his report on his researches in Spitzbergen, which were by no means unimportant. He will again attempt to reach the North Pole next summer in his balloon, and to accomplish this he needs £2, 800. On arriving in Gothenburg on his return he received a cheque tor £\2O, and no doubt the rest of the sum will be made up before next July, for the King of Sweden and Norway is as great a believer in the scheme as ever, and has rewarded many of the original subscribers to Andree’s fund with the decoration of the Vasa cross.

A committee of notabilities from all parts of Holland has been appointed to consider a National gift to the Queen Regent in 1898, in recognition of the manner in which she has carried on the Government of the State during the minority of the Queen.