Here and There.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XIV, 2 April 1904, Page 13

Here and There.

Kev. Sabine Baring-Gould, novelist, hymn-writer, folk-lorist and half-a-dozen other things, was 70 in February. It is 50 years since he began to write, and he has been a prolific producer all the timeMr. Baring-Gould has an estate in Devonshire, and deals in his stories preferably with Devonshire scenery and folk. He is a High Churchman, and does not always fairly represent what Nonconformity stands for in his novels. Mr. Baring-Gould will live longest, perhaps, in his hymn, “Onward, Christian soldiers."

Since the sudden and pathetic death in his arms of little Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Tsar has been more than ever devoted to his religious duties. He always has been religious, but now he spends hours at his private devotions and in writing prayers in Russ and Slavonic for the Imperial family. A strange rumour is current in both Moscow and >St- Petersburg that if the child expected next June should be a son the Tsar will abdicate in favour of his brother, who will become, regent until the Tsar’s son comes of age.

The damage done to the Iroquois Theatre, Chicago, by the recent fire was small. The fireproof floor and roofs were not damaged either by heat or by water. The partition dividing various dressing-rooms from the stage formed a complete barrier to the progress of the fire. The columns in this partition were covered with wire lathing and plaster, and their protection remains intact. The girder supporting a heavy brick wall over the proscenium arch was protected with cinder concrete and wire lathing covered with plaster. In this case the plaster was destroyed, but the concrete was uninjured.

Sir William Ramsay’s name has been constantly before the public lately in connection with his discovery that the much talked-of element, radium, changes into a gas known as helium. Sir William is the son of the late William Ramsey, C. E. His uncle, a sugar planter, left his library to Mr. Ramsey, and his son found among the books “Graham's Chemistry,” which he devoured eagerly. It is a curious coincidence that he has lately been appointed to the very post which Professor Graham himself once held —that of Professor of Chemistry at the London University College. Sir William’s name first became known to the world at large as the discoverer of three new gases—neon, krypton, and xenon. All these exist in the air.

After a disappearance of forty years, an early opera of Bizet, the composer of “Carmen,” has come to light. It is entitled “Don Procopio,” and is an opera bouffe in two acts. When Bizet won the “prix de Rome” in 1859, he was expected, under the terms of the scholarship, to send to the Paris Conservatoire a mass composed in the Eternal City. “Don Procopio” was the work that Bizet forwarded; and Ambroise Thomas, then director of the Conservatoire, while acknowledging the invention and verve of the composition, expressed surprise that an opera boufTe should have been sent in place of a solemn mass. “Don Procqpio” is to be produced at Monte Carlo, and although it is unlikely to prove another “Carmen” or “Pecheurs des Perles,” it is certain to be both melodious and original, which are rare features in operas boutfes nowadays.

Sir Frederick Bridge, organist of Westminster Abbey, lectured at Church House, Westminster, recently, ou “Shakespeare and Music,” pointing out that in the time of Elizabeth music was an important part of general education, also that beyond question Shakespeare was a lover of the art. In his works appear upwards of one hundred words that are exclusively musical. Sir Frederick discussed the setting of “Where the Bee Sucks,” by R. Johnson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, and Pelham Ilumfrey who was sent from the Chapel Royal by Charles JI. to study in France and Italy, the ex-

pense being defrayed out of the Secret Service Fund. John Canister, who gave the first- public concert at a tavern in Whitefriars, then a London Alsatia, was represented by his music to “Come Unto These Yellow Sands.” Miss 8. Maris, Mr. Bertram Mills, and the Westminster Abbey boy choristers rendered these and other examples.

Clerics, as fellow-passengers at sea, were not to Thackeray’s liking, to judge by a passage from one of his letters to Mrs. Baxter, published in the “Century Magazine.” Writing on board the Baltic in May, 185(1, he said: “There are three yellow-gilled Popish priestlings in the cabin now —they know all about kingdom come, and have the keys of heaven in their portmanteaux —yet why did one of ’em faint almost the other night because it blew a little hurrykin? What numbers of gates to heaven have we built? And suppose after all there are no walls? But this is a mystery. The Rev. Osgood, the Rev. Hawkes, the Rev. Hughes have the keeping of it—l am come, twaddling in the dark almost —to the end of my page. Good-bye and God bless you, my dear friend.”

In “Macmillan’s Magazine” for February, Mr. H. F. Abell writes scathingly about the tyranny of football in England. He inveighs not only against the players for commercialism, but against the spectators, who are pictured as thoroughly unsportsmanlike in sentiment. “When the game is quiet the vulpine and sodden faces are eager, but not happy; when an exciting phase occurs the general expression is one of malignant anxiety, here broken by an outburst of frantic disappointment, there by one of savage joy. There is enthusiasm, plenty of it, but it is an ungenerous one-sided enthusiasm, without a spark of chivalry or appreciation of alien worth in it. . . . Every Saturday during eight months of the year at least 200,000 men, for the most part young and strong, are idling round a football ground in a state of perpetual excitement and passion not to be soothed by incessant smoking.”

A memoir of Charles Wolfe, prefaced to a volume of his poems just issued, tells how his one famous piece, “The Burial of Sir John Moore.” came to be written. The account is that of one of Wolfe’s college friends, the Rev. Samuel O'Sullivan. He says that one day in the summer of 1814 or 1815 he read Wolfe the account given in the “Edinburgh Annual Register” of the burial of Sir John Moore. The two friends then went out walking, and Wolfe was so unusually silent that his companion wondered at his unresponsiveness, especially as their walk took them through a beautiful country. When at last he broke silence, it was to repeat the first and last stanzas of the poem that was to join Moore ami himself in a common immortality. The next morning the rest was finished, and before very long the piece appeared in “Blackwood’s Magazine.” On the list of works to be staged at his theatre in Paris this year, M. Antoine has included an adaptation of “King Lear,” by M. Pierre Loti. Although not one of the subsidised houses, the Theatre Antoine has been styled “ the second theatre in Paris” by no less authority than M. Emile Fnguet, the leading French critic of the day. So that the projected production ought to prove an event of the greatest interest from a literary and dramatic piout of view, ranking next to the famous presentation of “Hamlet” at the Theatre Francais, with M. MounetSully as the Dane. It may seem strange to consider the performance of Shakespeare by a company of foreign actors as an important theatrical event. But there are many excellent judges of acting who consider that the greatest Hamlet over seen in London was Charles Feehter, a Frenchman, who was also famous as the original Armand Duval, of “La Dame aux Camelias.” Another foreigner who achieved considerable repute as Hamlet was Herr Bandmann, who was the flrat to introduce the business of the two miniature portraits--

one of the dead King’s, the other of the reigning usurper—"the counterfeit presentments of two brothers.”

“It's alt very well to talk about tho wonders of radium,” said the scoffer, “but what I want to know is, what practical use is it?”

“My friend,” said the man from Invercargill, “you cannot have studied your subject very closely, or you would know that among other uses radium is used down South during the winter months as a means of catching rabbits.” “Pooh, nonsense!” scoffed the scoffer.

“It is quite simple,” continued the other. “At dark a glass tube containing radium is placed ou the snow near Ute burrows. The brilliant rays given off by tho precious metal of course attract the rabbits. When, with their well known curiosity, they approach the tube, the glare causes tears to flow copiously. These are frozen into icicles, which hold the rabbits firmly fixed to the ground till tbe morning, when all that remains to be done is to go and collect the rabbits. Dear me, I’d no idea it was so late! 1 niuC be going.”

In one examination paper the meaning of cum grano saiis was given by the intelligent scholar as, "Although with a corn thou dancest,” while the Knights of St. John were described as a sacrilegious order who lives on an island. The question, “Why does true English history begin with the reign of Henry VII.?” evoked the answer “Because up to this time it was all lies.” Other facts that will strike most people as new arc: The. population in the neighbourhood of coalfields is very dense because of the smoke coming from the coal; the sun never sets on British possessions because the sun sets in the West, and our colonies are in the north, south and east; the chief feature of the play of "Richard II.” is the decomposition of the King; the feminine of “he-goat” is “she went”; Izaak Walton was such a good fisherman that he was called "the judicious Hooker”; a cuckoo is a bird that does not lay its own eggs; pedigree means a school master, emolument a scathing medicine; in the United States people are put to death by elocution; the primate is the wife of a Prime Minister; a Job’s comforter is a thing you give babies to sooth them; political economy is the science which teaches us to get tile greatest benefit with the least possible amount of honest labour.

Many expatriated London theatregoers in the colony will read the following from the “Era” with a throb of London—and the Strand—sickness:

“There is something very pathetic in the sight of the dismantled ruins of an old playhouse. A few days since the gallery staircase of the old Gaiety Theatre stood almost isolated, amongst heaps of rubbish, tbe legend of tbe price paid for admission standing out distinctly in the daylight. There must have been many passers-by who cast pensive glances at the “remains” of the ladder by which in the past they bad climbed so often to enjoyment and amusement; ami the Olympic Theatre, which has been attacked by the housebreakers, is suffering similar demolition. The Olympic was one of the finest West End minor theatres which won a prominent position in the days of privileges and patents. Drury-lane, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was known as the “Via de Allwych,” until Drury House, built towards the close of the sixteenth century, gave the thoroughfare a view title. Near Drury House the Earl of Craven erected a mansion for the us, of his bride, the daughter of Janies 1., In the course of years, the old house was turned into a tavern: and in 1805 it was pulled down, and the ground cleared as a site; and Lord Craven, the owner of the land, granted the celebrated cireiu proprietor, Philip Astley, a lease for a term of til years, at an annual rent of £ 100. Some old naval prizes being on sale, Astley bought the timber of one of them, the “Ville de Paris.” With tho yards, masts, and bowsprit of the French vessel, Astley made the main props and supports of his playhouse, and they were noticeable in the old Olypmie Theatre fill it was destroyed by lire in 1849. The new house consisted of a tier of boxes, a pit, nfid at the back of this space called a gallery, parted off from tho rest of the house by an iron grating"

"Jlradsliaw” is essentially a British institution, like "The Times,” football, •Flinch,” and cricket, observes a writer in “The Strand Magazine.” It is about 65 years since George Bradshaw, a Quaker, and by profession a map-maker, reprinted the time-tables of the seven railways then existing, together with some maps and plans of his own, and issued the production, in cloth binding, as “Bradshaw’s Railway Time Table’’ at sixpence. It was badly received by the railway companies. “Why,” they said, "if this fellow goes on in this way he will make punctuality a kind of obligation.’’ They refused to supply him with their time tables, and to secure these promptly Bradshaw went so far as to become a stockholder in the hostile companies. The railway guide has grown from 38 pages to HOB, from a couple of ounces in weight to a pound and a half. Every single page is literally "packed to bursting with type, not merely with words and numerals, but with characters and spaces—altogether 3000 to the pages:” and the contents are “equivalent to a dozen ordinary octavo volumes.”

Admiral Fanshawe is a groat favourite with his officers and men (writes "Cristina” in the “Australasain’’). lie does not seem to have forgotten the time when he was a young midshipman, and he enters into their sport with keenness, and understands their attitude towards things in general. At the Hobart regatta he stood on the bridge and followed every race with the telescope glued to his eye, and when he thought the galley belonging to the Royal Arthur was loading he became as excited as any punter in front of tin* Maribyrnong stand at cup-time, calling out “the flag’s galley, the Hag’s galley!” This appeals to the hearts of the bluejackets; they, themselves, stand in rows on the lo’<’sle and shout as their own boats shoot past these of other ships. Though the Psyche had six wins to its credit and the Royal Arthur five, the men of the Royal Arthur won the most money — their prizes were the most valuable, I suppose 1 should say. The other day, when the admiral went on board the Katoomba for inspection, he had all the stokers and engine-room artificers collected together in the nether regions, and said many nice things to them. The stokes of the Wallaroo, after the accident oil the coast of New South A Vales, were “turned over” to the Katoomba. The admiral told them “that he admired their pluck, endurance, and presence of mind.” They were delighted, although they declared that they only did their “duly.” Beb Fitzimmons has had his mouth put in order by a prince among dentists; he has had IG2 diamonds fixed in his teeth to fill cavities. Ibis dazzling installation has just been made, and Fitz will now be able to masticate anything and everything. There was a man once who had difficulty in mastication—He wanted a diamond set- and used to sit all day and sigh because he could not tackle as of old such tough lovelinesses as porterhouse steaks, devilled turkey drumsticks. ami crackling off the pork. Presumably these luxuries, as well as the bones, would be easy to Fitzimmons with his De Beers molars. 'There is really a lot of common sense in the use of rough gems for the purpose named, as any one who has seen a diamond drill at work can appreciate. In fact, it would make one’s living much easier if every youth and young girl had the fit-up, even if palish or State aid were solicited—they could get tin* artificial endowment on the time payment plan. How much cheaper would one’s bills be, and how much less fastidious would be the community! A tough leg of mutton would cease to be the cause of bad language, while a good but hard-as-a-brick wing rib of American beef—delivered as best Scotch—would never again cause dissension at a family Sunday dinner at. Tooling. No longer would the diamond tiaras, sprays, and collarettes of dainty ladies be the sole attraction at (he theatre, as there would be a premium for the low comedian to make the men of the party laugh, for at the first burst of hilarity from boxes, stalls and dress-circle there would be a flash from hundreds of masculine mouths. incidentally it may be mentioned that the diamonds for t<*(*t h-building are used in the fillings and bridges, ami arc for the most part visible.

The story that Lord Russell of Killowen thought Mrs Maybrick innocent continues to be repeated. The unfortunate part of it is that he never thought her innocent at all, neither at any period of his career did he give utterance to any statement open to such a construction. What lie did say over nnct over again was that there was not sufficient evidence to hang her; in other words, had the trial taken place across the border the verdict would have been “Not proven,” as in the ease of Madeleine Smith. Lord Russell wrote to successive Home Secretaries on the subject, because, in common with most people, lie was of opinion that the verdiet being “Guilty,” Mrs Maybrick should either have been hanged, or, if the Home Office interfered at all, allowed to go scot-free.

Innocent or guilty, the unfortunate woman has now to undergo an ordeal far worse than cither Hanging or penal servitude, for, like Isabel in “Rast Lynn,” she must never reveal her identity to her own offspring. A more terrible punishment cannot be conceived. To the majority of people it will perhaps appear a needless ami superfluous act of mental torture.

Viscount St. Cyres contributes to “Cornhill” a very racy account of Theodore Hook and his jokes. He quotes Coleridge’s tribute, to the effect that Hook was a genius, like Dante. The story is told how he took his revenge on an old lady who had offended him. lie wrote to ever: sort and kind of person, over four thousand in all, asking them to call upon the old lady on a certain dav.

“But. perhaps, the most entirely typical of all Hook’s jokes was the hoax he played on the doctor. Driving back from a party at. some unholy hour in the morning, he found he had not a farthing in his pocket. Suddenly he remembered that in the same street as his own there lived a medical man, famous for his skill on interesting occasions. lie stopped the cab at the doctor’s hour. 0 . jumped out. and rang with frantic energy. Presently a half-dressed figure appeared at ths window. “For heaven's sake, doctor, come at once.” panted our hero. “My wife—prematurely—not a moment to be lost!” “Directly,” answered the doctor, and soon emerged with all his paraphernalia under his arm. In a twinkling Hook bundled him into the cab, slammed the door, and hade the cabman drive as fast as he could to —the address of a prim old maiden lady against whom he happened to have a grievance.”

According to the latest genealogical calculations, there are more than eleven t housand people in England alone who are descended directly from royalty. This may seem a somewhat startling statement though, nevertheless, a true one. and the reason for it must be looked for in the fact that from the thirteenth century onwards to the sixteenth, sons of kings, and, in some cases, even kings themselves, thought nothing of wedding the daughters of the nobles who very often had won their way to fame and riches though of humble birth.

The children of these marriages in turn intermarried with those of the

“upper ten,” and so, as generations passed on. royal blood became suffused throughout all the more important families in the land.

The eleven thousand people referred to, however, have not to go as far back as the Plantagenets to trace their claims as descendants of royalty, for, according to a work winch has just been issued under the title of “The Blood Royal of Britain,” 11.723 living people are the

direct descendants of Henry VII., and form that time till the last generation no fewer than 30,735 people have lived who carried the blood of the Tudors in their veins.

It is rather interesting to trace the descent of these people from the Tudor family. History records that Henry VII. had two daughters. The elder of these married .lames IV. of Scotland, and so became the grandmother of .Mary Queen of Scots. The younger daughter was Mary Tudor, who married first, against her will, Louis XII. of France, and afterwards Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, a great favourite of Henry VIII.

Now, the descendants of the younger daughter number, as far as can be judged at the present time, some 10,283 persons in a direct line. It is a remarkable fact

that the descendants of the two sisters have kept in two distinct lines, for from the elder sister, Margaret, came the Stuarts,, who afterwards occupied tho English throne; and all the crowned heads of Europe to-day, with the exception of those of some of the minor States in the South, can trace their descent back to Margaret, but none to Mary. Thus, all European monarchs are more or less related.

Once, in a country branch of a big bank, the manager’ issued a number of new notes, but forgot to notify head office of the fact, and the omission was not discovered until the worn-out notes began to come in to be destroyed. Then a letter came from headquarters asking for an explanation, and the manager, in reply, told the simple truth —that he had forgotten to send the notice. Headquarters were not satisfied. "Mr N. has not yet explained why the omission was made,” the next memo, ran, carefully marked “3” in red ink. The manager marked “4” with equal care and wrote—“Mr N. regrets that he cannot explain his forgetfulness. It may ba tl'j'.t he lias forgotten why he forgot.” There was no further correspondence; but that manager left the bank long ago.

Large sums of money are spent annually by society women in England on scents and toilet waters, and the fashion among them is to keep to one perfume only. Rose water has come into vogue again.

In the matter of scents the Queen is most fastidious, and soaps and sweetsmelling washes are made for her in great variety. The perfume which Her Majesty always favours is a delicious compound of flowers, and the secret of making it is in the possession of a Parisian perfumer. The name of the scent is “Coeur de Jeanette.”

One of the tokens of signal favour on the Queen’s part is when Her Majesty bestows a box of tins scent, as she is most particular to reserve the brand for herself and prevent it becoming popular. The Queen naturally recognises the smell wherever she goes. The liquid costs something like six guineas a pint, which is by no means expensive as perfumes go.

The Czarina favours an especial brew of violets redolent of fresh Parma Howers, but she is capricious in her tastes, and for a long time she was devoted to jonquil ami jessamine extracts made for her bv a Russian chemist.

The German Empress, who is characteristically simple in her tastes, prefers “Newmown Hay.” The Queen of Holland cannot endure scent of any description with the somewhat uncompromising exception of eau de cologne.

"Leon Brodsky”: A letter just received from Mr William Archer, to whom I wrote for advice concerning an Australian National Theatre, suggests that the best way to start is with municipal theatres in Melbourne and Sydney. He thinks the cash difficulty the least of all. "A manager, actors, repertory and traditions will all be very hard to obtain.” The repertory will certainly offer its problems for solution, but it and the traditions can stand over. The absence of a past in Australia certainly militates somewhat against the creation of an artistic atmosphere (who was it

said there was nothing as uninteresting as tile woman and the eoun’ry without a past?), but then we shall have th» chance of avoiding much error which is encrusted is a lot of European tradition. Of the four difficulties mentioned by Mr Archer, the one that seems the greatest me is that of the actors. I doubt if at the present moment we were to get a theatre for purely art purposes, whether we could get together a good enough company. At present the plays produced in Australia mean nothing, and consequently an aetor’s success is conditioned by his personality, -his looks, or something else that does not count as art. The sooner, therefore, we can get a new school of young men and women, with a broad general knowledge and some real enthusiasm for art. to train lor the stage, and to train only in good plays, the better. Valuable work can be done in this connection by amateur dubs.

An M.D. says that it is worth while reflecting that the following diseases may be directly or indirectly caused by some form of alcoholism: Acute gastric eaform of alcoholism: Acute gastric catarrh, chronic gastric catarrh, gastric dilatation, intestinal indigestion, constipation, gout, cholera, morbus, peritonitis, dropsy of the abdomen, catarrhal jaundice, congestion of the liver, cirrhosis (hob-nail liver), chronic tubal nephritis (chronic Bright’s disease), diabetes mellitus, chronic bronchitis, congestion of the lungs, cedema of the lungs, lober pneumonia, fibroid phthisis (interstitial pneumonia), chronic valvular disease of the heart, dilatation of the heart, chronic fibroid heart, fatty degeneration of the heart, palpitation of the heart, arterio sebrosis, aneurism of the aorta, meningitis (brain fever), apoplexy, congestion of the brain, brain thrombosis and embolism (in youth), nervous vertigo, temulentia (a plain drunkard), delirium tremens, dipsomania.

Alcoholism predisposes to sunstroke, chronic pleurisy, inflammation of the nerve trunks, spinal congestion, spinal meningitis, spinal sclerosis (four forms, one of which is locomotor ataxia), disseminated neuritis, melancholia, mania (insanity), delusional insanity, phagedenic ulcer, erysipelas, blood tumour, fatty tumour, monomania, general paralysis (paretic dementia), acquired feeble-mind-edness, acne rosacea (whisky nose and cheeks), and trifacial neuralgia.

It will surprise many people that the origin of “lynch law” and “lynching” is declared in the latest instalment of the “Oxford Dictionary” to be undetermined. The expression, say the editors, is often asserted to have arisen from the proceedings of Charles Lynch, a justice of the peace in Virginia, who in 1782 was indemnified by an Aet of the Virginian Assembly for having illegally fined and imprisoned certain Tories in 1780. But Mr Albert Matthews informs us that no evidence has been adduced to show that Charles Lynch was ever concerned in acts such as those which from 1817 onward were designated as “Lynch’s law.” It is possible that the perpetrators of these aets may have claimed that in the infliction of punishments not sanctioned by the laws of the country they were following the example of Lynch, which had been justified by the act of

jndemnity; or there may have been Some other man of this name who was a ringleader in ruch proceedings. Some have conjectured that the term is derived from the name of Lynch's cteek, in South Carolina, which is known to have been in 1768 a meeting-place of the “Regulators,” a band of men whose professed object was to supply the want of regular administration of criminal justice in the Carolinas, and who committed many acts of evidence on those suspected of “Toryism.”

What literary geographers chart as “Thackeray’s London” is sympathetically described by Mr William Sharp in the “Pall Mall Magazine.” “Thackeray enthusiasts were formerly wont to seek more than any other place (for now Godahning claims what was once the glory of Smithfield) the Charterhouse—the Grey Friars of ‘The Newcomes’ and elsewhere, and for ever now associated with the beloved memory of incomparable Colonel Newcome. Others, perhaps, sought first those ‘dark alleys, archways, courts, and backstairs’ of the Middle Temple, so beloved by Thackeray; and in particular Brick Court, and the stairs leading to the chambers once octeupied by Goldsmith . . . visiting these no doubt for Thackeray's sake rather than for other associations, though remembering his ‘I have been many a time in the chambers in the Temple which were his (Goldsmith’s), and passed up the staircase which Johnson and Burke and Reynolds trod to see their friend, their poet, their kind Goldsmith —- the stair on which the poor women sat weeping bitterly when they heard that the greatest and most generous of all men was dead within the black oak door.’” . ~, • • l

The following on the “Sign of the Cross” revival in Sydney is amusing: — One simply cannot take the “Sign ot the Cross” seriously, chiefly because the early Christian martyr seems so unpleasant and sorrowful and needlessly husky. We are quite willing to give him all the honour we don’t want for ourselves, but wo would much rather have Marsus Supcrbus or Licinius lo dinner. Mercia is unpleasant, hence she is the cause of a lot of trouble. The most convincing thing in the present revival is Julius Knight’s love-making. He bias a good idea of how “the brute aroused in the man” would roar and rend its prey. He folds his arms high up on the roof of his chest at times, and the hang of his toga is a marvel of skill. If the original Marcus wore his with the same artistic but negligent droop Mercia must have indeed been unimpressionable. Maud Jeffries plays the whitefaced spiritual maiden who goes about Rome bare-headed in so beautifully passionless a way that one doubts if the lions got any red blood and satisfaction from their meals in the days of old. Memories of Caleb Porter and after him Atholwood as Nero handicap actor Warburton for the majority of the audience. Arthur Wontner as Tigellinus and Johnston Weir as T-icinius are well fitted. So are Madge Hope as Poppea, Olive Noble as Dacia, and Rose Pendennis as Berenice. Eardley Turner is good in everything, and as the drinky Glabrio he pleased a very crowded house on Saturday.

There arc in operation to-day 252,436 miles of ocean cables, of which only 38,797 miles, or about 15 per cent., are owned by governments, the remainder being in the hands of private owners. Englishmen opened the first cable line—across the Channel between Dover and Calais, on August 28, 1850—and Englishmen still control a larger mileage titan the capitalists of any other country and more than half the total length of the submarine lines. The British cables that connect London with all parts of the world have a length of 154,099 miles, of which 14,963 miles are owned by the Government. Of the 139,136 miles owned by private companies, the longest mileage is in the Australian and Oriental lines. The Eastern Extension, Australasia, and China Telegraph Company controls 27,609 miles, and the Western Telegraph (Company 19,880 miles. The most important of the British cable lines are the five that stretch Across the North Atlantic, and also the first line stretched across the Pacific, which connects Vancouver -with the Fiji Islands, Norfolk Island, Queensland,

and New Zealand, and which was opened on December 8, 1903. Among the many British lines also are cables to South America and along both of its coasts.

The craze for jokes of the “Why did the fly fly?” order had its day, and had almost ceased to be, but Carolyn Wells revives it with a page of clever play on authors' names in "Everybody’s Magazine For how much did Eugene Sue? For what he let George Borrow. But wasn’t he Owen Wister? Yes, but so did Harriet Martineau. When did George Ade? When he found Clement Shorter. Why did Mary Abigail Dodge? Because she thought she saw Elmore Elliott Peake. Why didn’t Charles Dudley Warner? Because he was watching Josephine Dodge Daskam. Why did Josephine Dodge Daskam? Becausj she had George Wither. Why did Charles Lever? Because he didn’t wish to see Samuel Lover. What made Victoria Crosse? Because Albert Hcrter. What made Winston Churchill? Because Ik- let Eliza Cook. Why couldn’t Joseph Cook? He didn’t ask Julia Ward Howe. Why was Madeline I.ucette Ryley? Because Elizabeth Custer. What made Oscar Wilde? To see George Madden Martin. What made Maxwell Gray? Because he saw Jesse Lynch Williams. How do you know Mrs. Campbell Praed? Because Johann Herder. Whom will Mrs. Humphry Ward? Hamilton Wright Mabie. What did William Ware? John Godfrey Saxe and Edward Noyes Westcott. Why was Irving Bachellcr? Because he couldn’t Marie Corelli. When was John Gay? When he saw Henry Blake Fuller. When did Anthony Hope? When he saw Robert Treat Paine. When did Susan Marr Spalding? When she saw Julia Dent Grant. What is it William Hazlitt? The Henry Francis Lytc. Is that the kind Robert Burns? Yes, and 1 saw Mrs. Hodgson Burnett. Why doesn’t Clara Louise Burnham? She and Molly Elliott Seawell enough without. Where did Henry Cabot Lodge? On A. Quiller Couch.

The “buried treasure” schemes adopted. by some of the London newspapers as a means of running up their circulations have been responsible for some remarkable ebullitions of character on the part of some London crowds. The rush for clues to the treasure hidden by two of the Sunday newspapers led to remarkable scenes on Saturday evening and yesterday morning (remarks a recent issue of the “Daily Express”). Thousands of people thronged Carmelite and Bouverie streets at midnight, waiting for copies of the papers the instant they left the printing presses. In the adjoining thoroughfares were long lines of cabs waiting to hurry the disc hunters to the places indicated by the clues. “This way for the discs!” shouted the. cabbies, and one offered to throw in the use of a trowel and his lamp without extra charge. But many of the treasurehunters had provided their own vehicles. There were bicycles by the score., ami innumerable traps and tradesmen's light vans. The . crowd swayed round the publishing rooms, fighting for places. Many women wore among them, and they neither asked nor gave quarter. At oho of the offices, where police assistance had been engaged, a constable was

asked to stand in front of the publisher’s window. “Not me,” he replied; “I don’t want shoving through the window." While the crowd were waiting someone threw a handful of paper scraps from an upper room. “ The clues! ” shouted an enthusiast, and dashed off to pick them up. But he found nothing worth having, and lost his place for his pains. Then a flashlight photograph of the crowd was taken, and another was taken afterwards as the people madly scampered away in quest of the gold. When the papers appeared, copies were snatched front hand to hand, and many paid extortionate prices to agents who had secured bundles. The rush to the suburbs followed. Cabs, carts, and bicycles dashed off in every direction, determined to be first on the spot indicated in the latest clues. One of the most remarkable searches was prosecuted at Woolwich, on the south end of the common, opposite the Royal Herbert Hospital. Over a thousand people were to be seen prodding and digging in the most busi-ness-like fashion. From dawn until nine o’clock in the morning they continued, and the slate of affairs became so serious that mounted troops had to be called out to clear the common. For a time it seemed as if there would be a riot. The crowd was angry and determined not to be driven away. The tact of the troops, however, turned the danger, and in a short time the upturned common was clear. This part of the. common has been, by permission of the War Office, the people's pleasure ground for many years, being closed only on “Boundary Day” to preserve the Government’s authority. So incensed, however, are the authorities at the depredations of the treasure-hunters, that ( olonel Coke, the officer commanding the garrison, yesterday closed it, and not a soul was allowed to cross. The identity of one of the men who have been engaged in hiding the gold-bearing discs has been established, and his friends an 1 acquaintances are giving him a very lively time. They cultivate his company in the most embarrassing manner, dodge his footsteps, and lay all kinds of wily traps to get the information which is worth gold to them. The outcry against this new method of advertising is growing, but, so far from being inundated by it, one of the papers intends to follow up its success by burying hundreds of discs for smaller sums of 5/ ami 10/ each. Scotland Yard, according to the “ St. James’ Gazette,” has issued instructions to the divisional stations of the metropolis with a view to putting an end to the destruction caused by tho treasure-hunters.

The “Monthly Review” contains a very interesting article by that high authority, M. Tugan-Baranowsky, on “Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Russia.” M. Tugan-Baranowsky does not find that the Russian peasant detests the Jews- He has recently lived two years in a Little-Russian village, and found the attitude of the peasants distinctly friendly to the Jews. The Russian “feels himself anything but fleeced or oppressed by the Jews;” and the majority of the Jews are honest and industrious folk, forming the commercial and industrial clement in Little-Russia, an element whose expulsion into the towns would place the peasants in an awkward position.

Of course St 3 working class Russian finds the Jew to lx? a “foreigner.” But there is so little enmity between the races that it requires some exceptional factor to bring about the suck of a Jewish Quarter. When M. TuganBaranowsky inquired of some of the assailants at KietF, he got the reply. “The Jews have murdered our Tsar.” Many peasants thought that the Tsar had deliberately abandoned the Jews to their merev-

But the root of the evil is the AntiSemite press, inspired by the Russian Nationalist Party. The Government is not primarily responsible, for Russian Nationalism is not a Governmental invention. It has been growing in Russia of late; it inspired the oppression of the Finns, and makes war against all non Russian races. When AL Witte was still in power, lie prepared a secret memoir in which he advocated the removal of all legal restrictions on tho liberties of rhe Jews. This be did on purely economic grounds. But the Nationalist Party proved too strong, and M. Witte was beaten. Anti-Semit-ism, in fact, is merely one branch of the Russian Nationalist campaign.

Tt is an acknowledged fact that the pursuit of health is one of the most absorbing culls of tho present, time, and that to eliminate disease by common sense means is as interesting a pursuit as any that can be offered to the mod ern man or woman. Munching parties are an outcome of the latest rhaze in health-production. They require a little explanation, to those who have not yet joined the large and ardent hand of persons to whom the Gospel of Clean Ealing, pioneered by Mr Horace Fletcher, means so much, remarks a. Home journal. When Mr Fletcher was pursuing his investigations concerning nutrition his attention was called to Air Gladstone’s famous observation that each mouthful of food should be bitten thirtytwo times before being swallowed. He made a careful study of this idea, and found that while some food may be swallowed after less than half the number of bites prescribed by Mr Gladstone, other kinds require hundreds of bites more. For example, a young garden onion will require seven hundred and seventy-two bites before it disappears by the action of involuntary swallowing, ami, more curious still, when this is accomplished, it leaves no odour in the mouth whatsoever. That expression “Involuntary swallowing” requires a little explanation. One of the rules the inunchers are bound to follow is that they chew their food until the throat takes it down automatically. The. food must be systematically and carefully tasted and turned in the mouth slowly, so that it becomes perfectly incorporated with the saliva, and when this process has been accomplished the throat takes it in charge, and sends it down to the stomach to deal with further. Thus the office of (he teeth is so to reduce the food placed under their protection that each particle can be acted upon by the saliva, which is freed by the action of the mouth for (his purpose. Dentists tell their patients that one reason why a perfect mouthful of teeth is necessary hy artificial means if not by natural ones, is that salivation is not produced to perfection unless the teeth are in a completely satisfactory condition