Here and There.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue II, 9 July 1904, Page 13

Here and There.

The boy stood on the burning deck Because ha was afraid; lie could not swim n little bit, And that was why he stayed.

There was a young man from Vodnijszmreefski. Who fought under Gen. Plobszmreplonercfski. In a charge at Duriskoffbrizstonovltch, He was a hit on the kinjiplxtsubeniprovitcb. And cried, as he fell, “Mirjcbuninohtrszecfski.”

Hood completed the Song of the Shirt. “I was awfully rushed,” he told his friends. “If I had waited till it came back from the laundry there wouldn’t have been enough left to write 'about.” With a regretful glance at the garment he sent it out to be mangled.

Motor-car catarrh is the latest development of Hie passion for driving at a terrific speed, says the New York correspondent of the “Express.” Its first victim in America is Mr W. K. Vanderbilt, jnn. Only the total abandonment of racing and a long rest saved him from having to undergo a serious operation on account of the trouble. The disease is produced entirely by high speed, and the consequent Hying of line particles of sand and dust against the delicate mucous surface of the nose and throat. The development of the new disease is doing a great deal to cheek the growth of high speed.

P. C. Catchem had been very busy all day with motoring cases, and he was just taking a final look at his notebook, when down the road came a motorist who was evidently hurrying to catch his train. Somehow or other Catchem failed to clear him in time, and—bang!— he was on his back.

“Well, and what’s your number?" he bawled. “Oh, dear!” said the motorist. “You’re the third person I have run down on my way! Well, as a rule I am B 9; but to-day I have been UN—--4—2—NB.”

“5—4 shame!” said Catchem, ns he rubbed his back and searched for his note-book.

I have heard (complains a writer in a music journal), Beethoven’s Violin Concerto over and over again during the last few months. Ysaye has played it; Marie Hall has played it; Rivarde has played it; Mdme. Soldat has played it; to say nothing of minor violinists. Saint-Saens’ I! minor Concerto

runs the Beethoven work very close, and Tschaikowsky’s in I) minor is becoming almost hackneyed. I love the great masterpieces; but I should not be sorry if the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Kreilt-

zer Sonata. Hie Waldstein, Appassionala and (tp. 110 Pianoforte Sonatas, Schumann’s “Carnival’’ and Chopin’s Scherzo in B minor. Polonaise in A flat and Funeral March Sonata were omitted from future programmes. I could add many other compositions to the list, but these should be omitted first.

Speaking of the “arpeggio-non-legato” style of some organists, M. Widor, the distinguished French organist-composer, notes the following interesting point. In all the gigantic works of Bach, he. says, you will find only two or three passages, two or three measures, that outstrip the hands’ ability of extension. “Now marvel at the nrt of the fine old fellow. A moment before, a moment after, rests are cunningly introduced, so that there is time to push in and then to pull out the 10ft pedal, and you can play with pedals coupled to key-board the notes impossible to play strictly legato with the fingers alone.” Coming to some matters of technique, if. Widor says that for the organist to be master of himself, he must ‘‘abstain from useless motions, shiftings of body.” A good player “siti upright on his bench, bending a little towards the key-board; never resting his feet on the framework of the pedals, but letting them just touch the pedals, heels and

knees each riveted together, so to speak.” The foot “should not attack the pedal perpendicularly, but from behind; and advancing, skating a little, and noiselessly, the toe to one or two centimetres of the black keys.”

There was a rakish side-tilt on a buco-lic-looking youth’s lint as lie strolled into a shop and announced his desire to lay out about ten shillings on something suitable for a birthday present for a lady. His inclination leant somewhat towards a rolled-gold bangle: but- the shopman’s insistence as to the merits, value amt suitability of a gramophone exactly counterbalanced his predilection, and he was quite undecided when- • Just listen!” said the shopman, a? he started the instrument of torture on its two-minute whirr, squeak, and groan performance. ’•There! That’s the ‘Death of Nelson.’ Now, what do you think?” •'Well, if that’s anything like it,” replied the youth, *1 reckon it must ha’ been a happy release. I’ll take the bangle, mister.” Mr. Arthur Roberts, the ever-popular London comedian, has tasted of the kilters of life as well as the sweets. When roughing it in his early days, with ail sorts and conditions of companies, it was often as much as the ‘ghost” could do to walk. Ho tells of one particularly unfortunate company he joined. In some of the towns where they played while “on the road" the audiences were chiefly conspicuous by their absence. One night, in a small town, while waiting for the curtain to rise, the manager said to Arthur, who. with eye glued to the peephole in the drop curtain, was looking at the audience: •’What sort of a house have wo got?” •'Well, some of the seats are tilled,” answered the comedian lugubriously; •'but we’ve got a majority this side of the curtain, worse luck!” Even the dear old nursery rhymes of our childhood’s days have not escaped the wave of disinfection which came in with the century, as witness the following:— Lillie Miss Muffet Sai on a tulfot, Eating curds and whey, When along came a doctor. Who said- how tie shocked her — •'They’ve germs in them; throw them away.” Little Jack Borner Sat in a corner. Eating a Christinas pie; The microbes he got Laid him. low on the snot. And little Jack never knew why. Jack and Jill Went, up the hill To fetch a pail of water; Ji’l drank a glass, Unboiled, alas! And so the microbes caught her. “Carmon Sylva.” the literary Queen of Houmania, lias in the matter of words and columns written more than any living author, though not all of her works, by any means, have seen the light. The critics, say. indeed, that she. writes too much and too fast. She often gets up at three or four o’clock,in the morning, and goes immediately to her study, so that she may have got through a full day’s work before being called upon to exercise any of the other duties which devolve upon her in her Royal status. Once she lias written a sentence nothing will persuade her to alter it or to attempt any improvement, because she holds that the original thought of the brain should be regarded in a manner as sacred. It' is the romance of the com try which so particularly appeals to her, for she is of a romantic nature—a circumstance in a great, measure due to the rural life of her early days, which were spent on a farm. Her simple but. aesthetic tastes betray themselves in a hundred ways, and not the least conspicuously in the crown that she wears whenever it is necessary for her to wear one. Probably it is the most simple and inexpensive crown that adorns a monarch’s head in those days, for it is of plain beaten gold, nnd there ia mJ » single jewel ill it, ?

The death occurred nt London on May IK of Mr Herbert < hnmberiaiii. a younger brother of the ex-Sccretary for the Colonies, Mr ilcrliert ( hainberlain who was 58 years of age, had been in indifferent health for some mouths, but his death was quite unexpected. He had been out lor a drive in the morning, and in the afternoon he was seized with sudden illness, and succumbed to heart disease. Shrewd and penetrating, Mr < haiiibcrlain had earned a high reputation as a business man. Until ulmhil a year ago he was chairman of the Birmingham Small Arms Company and of Brown Brothers. Limited. He was a director of Messrs J. B. Brooks and Co., and of the Central Insurance Company, Limited, of which he was the founder. Since 181)0 he had been on the commission of p<«(*e for Birmingham, and for seven years, 1891-1898, he had served on the Licensing Commit tec. but he haul never taken a prominent part either in politics or in the public Ide of Birmingham. lie leaves a widow, who is a prominent member of the Women’s Liberal Unionist As-ocialion. and a son and two daughters. Mr Joseph Chamberlain fell the death of his brother very acutely, for the closest intimacy had always existed between them. An indicated at their annual meeting held in May last, the Northern Steamship Company intend to build three new steamers to replace some of the older boats. Mr. Gow is al present busy with the plans and ‘-pectinations, and purposes leaving Auckland for Britain in August next. The orders for the new vessels will probably bo placed with one of the Scotch builders, and it is anticipated they will take about six to eight months to complete. Mr. Gow remains at Home to supervise the construction ami equipment of the vessels. .Miss Gow will accompany him on the trip. All the vessels will he built of steel. Two of them will be of similar size and design. The other will bo smaller, and in general appearance vastly different to the first named. They will bo principally cargo boats, but agiplc provision is also being made for the accommodation of passengers—the larger vessels will carry betwen 50 and GO. and the third boat between 30 and 35 passengers. The. electric light and steam steering gear, together with other modern conveniences, are to bo installed in the vessels, the larger of which will be fitted with twin screws and the smaller with a single screw. The big boats are to be sister ■whips. The principal measurements will be as follows: Length overall 145 ft, beam 27ft, depth (moulder) 10ft 3in. Bearing some resemblance to the Kanieri, the smaller boat will be of 200 tons gross. She will be 105 ft long by 21ft. beam by 9ft moulded depth. King Edward is very proud of his walking-sticks, which number nearly two hundred, and range from specimen® in exquisitely carved ivory, brought from India, io a stick made from one of the piles of old London Bridge, and an elaborate hit of carving, on which Sir George Dibbs, the Australian statesman. lavished many months of loyal and loving work. Queen Alexandra is said to have accumulated the largest private collection in England of photographs, thousands of which are the product of her own skill. 'rhe Prince of Wales was for many years one of the keenest collectors of stamps in the world, and this fascinating hobby divided his spare lime with that of filling countless scrapbook® with Press cuttings recording his doings; and the late Duke of Edinburgh was deservedly proud of his collection of old violins*, ami of his fleet of silver vessel®. Of collectors of whips the name is legion. The Earl of Lonsdale has a room full of them, many worth considerably more than their weight in gold: and the Duke of Beaufort lias a large number <»f the whips used by riders of Derby winners for nearly a century past. The Princess of Wales is also a great whip lover, and the gem of her collection is a beautiful production in ivory and holly. There has just been published :in interesting book, “Letters of Lord A ton to Mary Gladstone,” edited by Herbert Paul. While the greater portion of 4he correspondence is naturally taken up with the cm rent politic* of the day, there are also ninny letters in which the scholar takes the place of the politician, Almost the onL question ou

Which Mr Gladstone and Lord Acton differed strongly was in their allegiance to their favourite authors Mr Gladstone was devoted to Scott, Lord Acton to George Eliot, and neither felt that the other did justice to his choice. There arc nr.iny eloquent passages in praise of George Eliot’s work, for Lord Acton, though possessing a keenly critical faculty, did not stint praise when he thought, it deserved. ‘*Jn problems of life and thought which baffled Shakespeare. disgrace fully,” he writes” “her touch was unfailing. No • writer ever lived who had anything like her power of manifold but disinterested and impartially observant sympathy. George Eliot seemed Io me capable not only of leading the diverse hearts of men, but of creeping into their skin, watching the world through their eyes, feeling their latent background of conviction, discerning theory and habit, influen.es of thought and knowledge, of life, of descent, and leaving obtained this experience, recovering her independence, stripping off the borrowed shell, and exposing scientifically and indifferently the soul of a Vestal, a Crusader, an Anabaptist, an Inquisitor, a Dervish, a Nihilist, or Cavalier without attraction, preference or caricature. And each of them would say that she displayed him in his strength, that she gave rational form to motives he had imperfectly analysed, that she had laid hare features in his character he had never realised.”

The Wellington “Post” reports that •when in the Northern thermal district a few days ago, Air C. R. (.’. Robieson, Acting-Superintendent of Tourist Resorts, was interviewed by a deputation from the To Arolia Town Council, which sought the aid of the Department in effecting several improvements to the baths, which are now under the control of the Government. It was also desired that an electric-lighting system should be established at the township: that additional books be provided for the public library (the Council expressing willingness to vote £ for £ up to £15); and that the baths should not be closed during meal hours, and should remain open on Sunday afternoons. Mr Robieson promised that most of the matters mentioned would receive favourable consideration. At Rotorua a request was made for the construction of an asphalt tennis court in the Sanatorium grounds, and it was promised that this would be done as soon as funds were available. While at Rotorua Mr Robieson selected a site on the Government reserve for a golf links, for the use of tourists and visitors staying at Rotorua. The work of puttng it in order for play will probably he undertaken at an early dale. Air Robieson •went overland to and from Rotorua. Music, according to the inter-depart-mental connnitttee of the London Board of Education on the “Model Course of Physical Exorcises,” should never be used as an adjunct to drill. While il saves fatigue by its rhythmic stimulus, it detracts from the will-train-ing in mubculir movements, and diminishes the educational value of such movements. It may. however, bo allowed in the infants’ departments, where the saving of fatigue is very valuable. The committee, furthermore, think thal the “Model Course,” as embodied in the Board of Education’s code, is unsuitable for use in schools, ami append to their report a model syllabus of their •w n. This is framed on the very sound basis that the question of physical exercise is only part of a much larger question—school and personal hygiene—and that all exercises should be conditional on the health of the children. Teachers should be trained to recognise at once any signs of physical or mental weakness or fatigue in their c harges, and should immediately exclude such children from any xignrous c.\crThese exercises increase the demand for nutrition, and children improperly or insufficiently fed may suffer positive injury instead of deriving benefit therefrom. Gymnastic shoes, too, the committee urge, should be made part of < very school equipment, for such beneficial exercises as heel-raising cannot be performed in heavy elogs: while the attention rtf girls should be directed to the injurious effect of tight clothing. Physical exercises should be regarded BOt a‘ an adjunct to, but as part of tiie

school lessons, for the expenditure of will-power and the concentration of attention arc just ns great as in lessons on other subjects in the curriculum. The committee lay great stress on the importance of nasal breathing in all exercise*. Heel raising to counteract the tendency to Hat-footedness, and head and trunk backward bending to remedy the stooping position acquired at desks, are also very strongly insisted upon. A series of these simple exercises should be performed in the class-room several limes daily for two or three minutes at a time, merely for their effects upon the circulation and respiration. One of the most amusing instances of a writer's careless composition ami of an editor's “nodding” in the chair of his sanctum is to be found in “ The People’s Friend,” a Scottish weekly with a large circulation. It is entitled '• Jean Du's Angel, the Romance of a Fiddle” ami is the work of “ Lizzie C. Reid.” Briefly put, Jean Duff, whose lover has gone to the wars, one evening in compassion gives a fiddler on tramp the shelter of the hay loft, and is rewarded by the strolling musician dying during the night after bequeathing his violin to the girl. By and bye the lover returns. “One sleeve hung empty by his side, his face was gaunt, and haggard and wan. She welcomes him. “ Will you be content with a onearmed man for your husband? ” he asked: and she answers, “Afore than content.” After their marriage hard times come, and Jean suddenly remembers the vio-

" Where is it, lean? I’d like fine to try it. Why, it’s years since I lingered a bow. Bring it here, and I’ll play you ‘ Annie Laurie.’ ” She went io the press for it. She took it from its ease and tuned it, and the notes of the sweetest love song that has ever been set to music quivered through the quiet room.

Now, every reader wonders how this one-armed man could play the violin. Did he. hold the bow with his foot or teeth and finger with the only hand he had while his sweetheart held the violin; or had he the violin between his knees, and linger with his hand, while Jean used the bow for him; or did he linger with his feet and use the bow, with the violin held by Jean; or had be a false arm with a wonderful mechanism which made him double-handed, ns violinists generally require to be?

“ Lizzie C. Reid ” wisely- is silent on the subject; The violin being pronounced a genuine “ Strad,” is sold for a large sum; lot wouldn’t the genius of the writer have triumphed mere had she sent the wounded warrior all over the world as the one-armed violinist playing the sweetest love-song on a genuine Strad!

One of the strangest of the many strange partnerships that exist in the animal world is one between the jellyfish and the shrimp. Gatch a few of the largest specimens of jellyfish and examine them carefully, and you will find that nearly every one nr them contains a small white shrimp, with brilliant grass-green eyes. These shrimps arc found nowhere else. They exist only in the bodies of these wandering lumps of jelly, and if taken away starve and die. Tiie shrimp lives at the expense of the jellyfish, feeding upon the small living tiling- which the slinging tentacles of its host destroy. The remarkable fact is that these tentacles never harm the shrinip, which swims in and out among them with perfect impunity. All jellyfish die in the autumn; so do ’.ill the white binimps. Yet this odd partnership endures from year to year. This is how it conies abouti.Just before it dies the shrimp leaves the jellyfish and lays its eggs at the bottom of the .‘•hallows. About the same time the jellyfish lay- thousands of floating eggs, which swim'away and an hor themselves in the little bay- along the shore. Tiie jellyfish eggs take root like seeds, and grow in the soring into stems with branches. The jellyfish are produced from cups at the ends of these branches. The white shrimp eggs hatch at the same, time that the jellyfish stems begin to grow, but id its early d-.iys the shriinn is of quite a different form from that it later, ami il lives at the Imttom of the sea. No sooner, however, do the perfect jelly fish begin to move than

the little shrimp changes its skin, ami swimming upward takes shelter with the first jellyfish it meets. It is a .strange ease of inherited instinct, and perhaps the oddest part of the arrangement is that it is not known what benefit, if any, the shrimp confers on the jellyfish in return for the shelter provided by the latter.

The London Vegetarian Association has just issued a pamphlet which shows how a labourer may live on a highly nutritive diet at a cost of a fraction under eightpence per day, as follows:

Breakfast: 4oz oatmeal porridge made with milk, O.Rd; 4oz of bread and butter. 0.5 d; egg and cup of cocoa, 1.3 d. Dinner: Plate of lentil soup, 0.2 d; potatoes (lib), 0.75 d; cheese omelet (3oz of cheese), Lsd; bread (2oz) and butter, 0 25d.

Tea: soz of bread and butter, O.Gd; cocoa (large cup). 0.3 d. Supper: soz of bread anil butter, O.Gd; cheese (loz) and milk, 0.9 d. Total cost, 7.7 d.

Vegetarians claim that their diet is the one best fitted for feats of endurance. Air. Eustace Allies has won five tennis championships on no other support than a tablespoonful of plasmon in a glass of milk, and the "Vegetarian Cycling Club can show an imposing list of "records” made by their non-flcsh-cating members.

Here are a few of the feats accomplished on fruit, vegetables, milk, cereals, and food preparations:

Bicycle records, 25miles in 38m. 59 l-ss; 35 miles in 57m. 205.; and 277 miles 30 yards in 1211. by G. A. Olley. London to Brighton and back, Ch. 13m. 28?. bv J. Parsley.

Ladies’ amateur swimming record and championship, 100yds, 85Js: and 66yds, in 555-, by Aliss AL A. Scott. Walking competition, Dover to London, 72 miles, 14h. 19m. 405., by W. Hutchinson.

To an “Express” representative Air. 11. Douglas Kerr, the treasurer of the Vegetarian C.C., explained that the members modelled their diet on the lines laid down by Dr. Alexander Craig. “Pulses, beans, lentils, and fruit largely made up the diet. A special product made of digested nuts, which in taste resembles meat, is also used. Experience quite justifies us in thinking this the best diet. The ordinary washed-out vegetables enter very little into vegetarian diet. Tea is generally dispensed with by our members when in training. "Walter Hutchinson, who has just broken the London and Dover record, as

a rule, when in training, dispenses even with milk and eggs.”

How and why animals are coloured is an old subject, remarkably well treated, in the " Pall Alail Magazine,” by Air. R. I. Poeock, of the Zoological Department, Natural History Afnseum. A seasonal adjustment is constantly going on between colours of animals and those of their environment. Polar tears, for instance, are perennially white. In the ease of many of the Arctic seals, remarks Air. Poeock, the pups are clothed with Huffy, snowwhite hair, so that while still unable to swim and compelled to lie on the snow thev may escape the notice of the polar

bears; but on the Antarctic ice, where the seals have neither bears nor any

U:nl carnivora to fear, the young are burn with the cuMnrs of their parcr.vs. Th colouring of animals is by no means always protective. Where concealment is unneeded animal- tend to assume a uniformly dark coloration. No animal exceeds the common mole in the jetty blackness of its fur. Its subterranean life and the nature of its food make protective eoloiation superfluous. Ravens, rooks, and carrion crows are eopspiefjeus everywhere by their blackness. They hare no need for concealment, since they feed upon food that required no catching, are unmolested by raptorial birds, and iie-t out of reach of rapacious mammals. So too with bears. Black is the colour characteristic of these animals, as is testified by its prevalence in nearly, all the known species. All eats, however. are in general protectively coloured. Their whole organisation "is iV perfected mechanism for catching ami killing living prey by a sudden pounce, from a point of vantage”. With very, few exceptions, the ground tint of the the . eoat is some shade of yellow or grey, relieved by black markings forming spots, patches, or stripes. The yellowish skin of the tiger, with its vertical black stripes, blinds with the fading stalks of the jungle-grass, and with tiie dark interspaces between them. Alonkeys are generally, if not always, protectively coloured. Some shade of grey, often with a yellowish or brownish tinge, and frequently relieved by darker or lighter patches, is the prevailing colour of the body, while while spots or patelies are in some cases developed upon the face. Since monkeys are exceptionally keen-sighted, and ever on the watch when awake, it is probable that the usefulness of concealment comes in eliietly at night, when pythons, constrictors, and climbing nocturnal carnivora search for them sleeping in the trees. Deer are always either spotted with white, the effect of which, resembles’ that of sunlight streaming through rhe leaves of the trees, or uniformly dark in tint, to accord with the dense forests or jungle which they inhabit. The colours of wild sheep and goals blend with those of their surroundings too perfectly for detection except by the most practised eye; and unless silhouetted against the sky as they stand on peaks or ridges, they a’a, fairly safe. When giraffes stand in a clump of acacias they are practically invisible at a little distance. It is not possible to cite all Air. Poeock’s extremely interesting instances of animals’ colouring; but one fact he mentions is not very generally known. The hindquarters of monkeys and ceriain lierbivora (the waterbuck, for instance) ara very conspicuously coloured; but there is a reason for this eonspieuousness. Both these classes of animals are apt to dash oil headlong though the trees, and their striking colour serves the useful purpose of enabling any laggers to keep up. Mr. Poeock concludes:—All facts in natural history have to be looked at from two points of views—the “ how ” and the " why.” With regard to the colouring of beasts, the “why” in many' instances is known, and can lie guessed in others from that knowledge; in some few it still remains a puzzle, from dearth of observations of the animals in their natural haunts.

('anon Hensley Henson, whose portrait we gave a few weeks ago in the “Graphic,” continues with unabated vigour to urge the adoption of Ins proposal that the <'linrch i f England should

revise its leetionary in sm-h a way that that the reading in church of what ho calls “uuedifying lessons" could be dispensed with. In the ‘•Spectator” Canon Henson gives the following list of lessons which he would omit from the leetionary:

Gen. ii. 4 The creation of woman Gen. iii.—The Fall of man Gen. vi., viii.—The Flood Gen. ix., 1-20—Origin of the Rainbow Gen xii.—Abraham in Egypt Gen. xviii.—Visit of the three men to

Abraham Gen. xix. 12-30—Lot’s wife. • ten. xxii., 1-20 —Sacrifice of Isaac Gen. xx-.ii. 1-41—Death of Isaac Gen. xxxii.—Jacob’s wrestling with the angel

Gen. xxix.— Potiphar's wife Exodus ix., x„ xi.--Plagues of Egypt Exodus xii-. xiv.—The Exodus Num. xvi.—The destruction of Korali, etc.

Num. xvii.— Aaron’s rod that budded Num. x.x.— Moses smites the rock. Num. xxi.—The brazen serpent Num. xxii.—Balaam’s ass Joshua iii , iv.—The passage of the Jordan

Joshua v.—Capture of Jericho Judges iv., v.— History of Jacl Judges vi.—History of Gideon 1 Sam. ii.—The sons of Eli 1 Sam. xv.—History ot Agag J Chron. xxi.—David’s census 1 Chron. xxviii.—David’s preparation for the Temple 1 Kings iii.—Judgment, of Solomon 1 Kings xi.—Solomon’s harem 1 Kings xiii.—Story of the old prophet. 2 Kings ii., 1-16—Ascension of Elijaii 2 Kings ix., x.—Jehu’s exploits 2 Kings xiii.— Elisha's posthumous miracles

To an •' Express" representative Canon Henson explained how a revision of the leetionary could be brought about. “Convocation can do it, and has done it,” he said- ‘'Convocation effected a change in 1871. The consent of Parliament would not be necessary, but the sanction of the Crown would.” In the ‘■Spectator” the canon gives the reasons which have induced him to put forward his appeal. “All. the history of Israel,” Ire says,” ought to be thoroughly and intelligently taught to children ‘as they are able to bear it’: and I do not consider any. man fairly educated who is allowed to grow up without a familiar acquaintance with the English Bible as a whole; but the lessons read in church to mixed congregations must be chosen mainly for their edifying character, and I hold very strongly that, in the present circumstances, such lessons as those named above are, more often than not. disturbing rather than edifying.”

When fowls roll in the dust and sand Hain is at hand. A bee was never caught in a shower. The low flight of rooks indicates rain. Mackerels’ scales and mares’ tails Make lofty ships take in their sails. Soap covered with moisture indicates bad weather. ’Animals and birds and insects learn their weather wisdom in the same manner as our forefathers acquired it—namely, by personal experience. The men banded on their knowledge by proverbs; the beasts by instinct. The United States Department of Agriculture has just published a report <,n ‘ Weather Folk Lore,” which is full of good reading. The weather proverbs of the world are summarised ami explained. Modern science Ims not advanced upon these ancient prophecies, 'they remain in the great majority of cases as correct indications of what is io be expected from the skies. 'lake the fowl, the bee. and the rook -that figure in the first three of the eomman proverbs printed above. To birds and insects a heavy gale and a pelting shower may mean the deprivation of a meal, or. indeed, utter destruction to themselves and their young. Therefore. it has come about that nature Ims given them the power to realise the coming trouble and prepare as best they may to meet it. The temperature of the air increases before rain, in addition to which the variations of the atmospheric pressure which are recorded on the barometer are felt by the sensitive organisms of Hie creatures of the tields and woods. It is for this reason that rooks lly low in the heavy air. that bees seel: their hives, and that fowls prepare for B wetting. t As regards the “ mackerels’ scales

nnd mares’ tails," perhaps the best known of all our proverbs, the explanation is simple. After fine clear weather the first signs of change are seen in the curls and wisps and mottled patches of cloud. These are at high altitudes,hut gradually the gather, and fall into the heavy’ clouds from which the rain descends. The moisture on soap, again, is due to the humidity in the air before a storm; the same humidity which sailors know in tightened ropes, the increased we’ght of salt, or in the moisten.ng of dried seaweed. It is a mistaken belief, however, that animals can anticipate the weather for the whole of the coining season. They are short-sighted in this respect, their * knowledge only extending from one to twelve hours in advance. Therefore, such proverbs as ‘ When summer birds take their flight summer goes with them,” or, “ The swan builds high for high waters and low for low, are hardly correct. I’ai ticular saints’ days were once held, to inlluence the year’s weather: — If st. Paul’s is bright and clear, One does hope a good year. A green Christmas brings a heavy harvest. There arc scores of similar prophecies common to all nations. But though they are not actual guides to the weather, thev are not to be neglected. They indicate that the sun or the rain is holding sway at the right time of the year; that the balance of the season hargs true. If the balance has gone wrong, t here may' be expected a drought or a flood to make good the deficiency—abnormal weather, in short, that will bring ill to the luckless farmers.

Some interesting sidelights on millionaires and their money are, says u New York correspondent, contained in a pamphlet which has just been compiled bv a Wall-street banker.

(He estimates that Mr John D. Rockefeller is the world’s only billionaire. A thousand million dollars, or two hundred pounds, is the colossal sum airaissed, in thirty odd years by this erstwhile almost penniless merchant. If he chose Mr Rockefeller could corner the world's wheat supply, and bring an international war to a speedy conclusion. He could close the greatest banks in America and precipitate a panic. He could ruin thousands of industrial enterprises by suddenly increasing the cost -of commodities which he absolutely controls. lie has the means of finding out the bank balances of every man in the country. No loan can be negotiated in the principal cities of America without his knowledge of the character of the security. Mr Rockefeller is a director of only one company —the Standard Oil Trust. This is curious, because the -multiplicity of his interests is one of the most surprising features of the life of the modern American. 'The great billionaire spends on himself a little less than £3OO a year. 'file personal 'habits and tastes of Air Roel-lefcllcr. as well as his business methods, have for their foundation policy secrecy. He. never frequents clubs, theatres, or public meetings. His neighbours do not know him by sight, lie reads a great deal, and plays golf pari of each day. for lie firmly believes that this recreation saved his life. He plays golf, of course, on private links. He recently bought the links at Lakewood, including the new clubhouse, (hi these links Mr Rockefeller plays golf alone. His life by ordinary standards would be termed a lonely existence. He is deeply religious, •according to Lis beliefs. Those who know him say that liis religious fervour is sincere. They ridicule the idea that his interest in religion is for the purpose of -.iffecting the public. The idea of impressing the public is utterly foreign to his nature. Mr Rockefeller cares nothing for yachting or travelling, lie is charitable, but, as is generally known, in a coldly scientific way. Not a penny is ever wasted, and he seldom gives u dollar unless a dollar is raised by others who -are interested in the same education or charitable enterprise. This is the num who wields a power greater than even that of the President of the I’nited States. He has never taken any open part in politics, but he can easily have any Bill Hint he wauls passed by Congi’css. He has his own

representatives iu both Houses in CottMr Rockefeller has devoted lii- whole life to bringing the organisation of the Standard Oil Company up to the hfghe-L point of perfection in the world. How many other men have became millionaires through their connect ion ■with it would be hard to tin I out. Here are a few beside- Mr John D. Rockefeller:— William Rockefeller .... £ 40,000.000 Henry 11. Rogers t 10.1100.000 Henry M. Flayler 20,0Qi1,000 J. D." Archbold 10.000,000 Charles Pratt 5,000,000 Wesley Tilford 5,000.000 Daniel O’Day 5.000.000 The last mentioned was a poor Irish boy, who started work in the oil fields at 4/ a day. The total wealth of the Standard Oil Trust is estimated bv the banker at £ 400,000,000.

Jerome K. Jerome, who has been writing a good deal for the periodicals lately, approaches nearer than ho has for some time to the style of "Three Men in a Boat” in an article on the hero of the average novel. If the hero of the popular novel swims at all, he says, it is not like an ordinary human being that he does it. You never meet him in a swimming bath; he never pays ninepenec, like the rest of us, for a machine. He goes out at uncanny hours, generally accompanied by a lady friend, with whom the while lie talks poetry and cracks jokes. Some of us, when we try to talk in the sea, till ourselves full with salt water. This chap lies on his back and carols, and the wild waves, seeing him. go round the other way. At billiards lie can give the average sharper 40 in 100. He does not really want to play; he does it to teach these bad men a lesson. lie has not handled a. cue for years. He picked up the game when a young man in Australia, and it seems to have lingered with him. lie does not have to get up early and worry dumb-bells in his nightshirt; ho just lies on a sofain an elegant attitude and muscle comes to him. If his horse declines to jump a hedge, he slips down off the animal’s back and throws the poor thing over; it saves argument. If he gets cross and puts his shoulder to the massive oaken door, we know there is going to be work next morning for the carpenter. Maybe he is a party belonging to the Middle Ages. Then, when he reluctantly challenges the crack fencer of Europd to a duel, our instinct is to call out and warn his opponents. "You silly fool,” one feels one wants to say; “why, it is the hero of the novel! You take a friend’s advice while you are still alive and get out of it anyway—anyhow. Apologise—hire a horse and cart, do something. You’re not going to fight a duel: you’re going to commit suicide.” If the hero is a modern young man, and has not got a father, or has only something not worth calling a. father, then he comes across a library—anybody’s library does for him. He passes Sir Walter Scott and the “Arabian Nights,” and makes a bee-

line for Pl»to:it seems to la* an instinct with him. By help of a dictionary he worries it out in the original Greek. This gives him a passion for Greek. When he has romped through the Greek classics he plays about among the Latins. He spends most of his spare time in that library, and forgets to go home for tea. That is t lie sort of b>y he is. How I used to hate him’ If he has a proper sort of father, then ho goes to college. He does no work: there is no need for him to work; everything seems to come to him. That was another grievance of mine against him. 1 always had to work a good deal, and very little came of it. He fools around doing things that other men would bo ‘sent down” for; but in his case the professors love him for it all the more. He is the sort of man who can’t do wrong. A fortnight before the examination lie ties a wet towel round his head. That is all we hear about it. It seems to be the towel that docs it. Maybe, if the towel is not. quite up to his work, lie will help things on by drinking gallons of strong tea. The t c:i and the towel combined are irresistible; the result is always the senior wranglership.

“Small, but a work divine." sings Tennyson, of a lovely shell with de.licato spire and whorl, exquisitely minute, a miracle of design; and Mr Benson tells a characteristic story illustrative of the. poet’s wonder ami worship at sight of such exquisitely minute but no less exquisitely finished forms of life. Walking once with a friend, Tennyson, in getting over u stile, stumbled, ami fell to the ground- His friend, knowing how the poet hated being helped, amt how he hated also any notice of liis clumsiness, walked on discreetly, as though nothing had happened. As. however, Tennyson did not rejoin him, the friend looked back, to find that Iho poet had made no effort to rise, Imlwas lying prone with his face poring upon a little muddy pool, overgrown with duckweed. Then the friend, thinking the poet had dropped smncl.bing, returned to help him to find it, when Tennyson, rising slowly on his hands and knees, turned upon him a face of rapt contemplation, and said, in a tone of reverence. “T— —, what an imagination God Almighty has!” lie had been fascinated by the myriad and dainty forms of infusorial life in the little pool, all fresh from the mind of God. —- Benson's "Life of Tennyson."