HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11, 18 March 1905, Page 14

HERE AND THERE.

The Czar, it in stated, is contributing 110,000,000 towards the expenses of equipping a third Baltic Fleet for the Far East. This present to the Japanese is said to be in return for the chivalrous treatment of the defenders of Port Arthur.—" Punch.”

It is often said that clever children Hall Caine maintains that momenta of the greatest inspiration come in great solitudes. He himself was alone halfway up a bleak and rugged mountain in Iceland when the thought eame to him to end his latest novel, “The Prodigal Son,” by having Oscar die in an avalanche instead of being killed by his brother Magnus, as he had originally intended. He immediately decided to make the change, and at the same time made a note of the incident for a future press notice.

Matrimonial- advertisement, Japanese style: “I mu a very pretty girl. My hair is as wavy as a cloud. My complexion has the brilliancy and softness of n flower. My expression is as mobile as the leaf of the weeping willow. My brown eyes are like two crescents of the moon. I have enough worldly goods to pass happily through life with my husband, hand in hand, gazing at the flowers by day and the moon by night. If this should meet the eye of a man who is intelligent, amiable, and of good address, I will be his for life, and repose with him later in a tomb of Ted marble.” There were 346,000 marriages in Japan last ye.ar, but for all that such advertisements as the above appear every day.

rarely grow up clever. A flat contradiction to this statement is found in the fact that two of the greatest actresses alive, Mrs. Kendal and Mies Ellen Terry, were both celebrated as children. Miss Madge Robertson, as the former was, made her first appearance at the Marylebone at the mature age of three. She was supposed to play the part of a blind child, but it so happened that she was wearing a new pair of shoes which were much too beautiful not to claim all her attention. Arrived on the stage, Baby Madge opened her eyes wide, and observing in the very front row a favourite servant of her father’s who had been specially allowed to go to the theatre to witness her debut, marched straight across to the footlights. “Sarahl” she cried, extending a small foot. “Sarah, look at my lovely new shoes!”

As io the mosquito, that poisonous thorn upon the beautiful rose of country life—

Wherever there is perfect drainage there are no mosquitoes. Wherever there is not perfect drainage the mosquitoes will come, no matter hod foten or how thoroughly the larvae are killed off. In Central Park, New York City, the mosquito makes it a torture for a. human being to walk in many of its delightful paths after sunset. In the Champs Elysees and the Tuileries Gardens, where the foliage is dense, the drainage is so perfect that there are no mosquitoes, although mosquitoes abound in badly-drain-ed hotel gardens a few yards away.

The mosquito is a warning of danger that should not go unheeded. If you have mosquitoes you or your near neighbours probably have badly-drained grounds; and it isn't necessary to explain what a breeder of sickness bad drainage is.

The motor problem in England is-evi-dently approaching the tragic point. At the last meeting but one of the Warwickshire Chamber of Agriculture the chairman announced that he would instruct his waggoners to drive athwart the road when they saw a furiously-driven motorcar approaching; and on Saturday a member read a letter from an ex-sergeant of the Army, a trained shot, whose intention, no doubt, was to burlesque the chairman's policy. At least fifty

motors pass the ex-sergeant’s house daily, and he pledges himself to bag at least thirty with a magazine rifle if the Chamber will remunerate him at the rate of sixpence a head, and tell him to whom to forward the heads. Explosive or poisoned bullets will be used if desired. After all, this would only be going a little further than the ruffians in some places who have deliberately scattered “sharp instruments,” as Mr Pickwick might say, on the road for the destruction of tyres. It is a reduction to absurdity of the lawless unreason of the motor battle, on both sides, in too many districts.

There is no reason to doubt that, by following any one of a dozen of the current recipes for long life, one could keep himself on earth a hundred years or a hundred and fifty. But in each and every recipe there is this flaw—it would take such an interminable deal of bother to follow’ it. One would have to go about the world thermometer and foodscales in hand, wholly centred in one’s self, with no time for wife or children or friends. As for fun, that would lie out of the question. There isn't anything, not even life, for which one eould not pay more than it was worth. And the scientifically correct regimen would mean not a century or a century and a half of life, but a dreary waste of centuries —long years of death and life. Until some more attractive plan for eentenarianism is found the most of us will prefer to take the chances and think at least part of the time of something else besides microbes.

The chief topic of conversation in billiard circles for the past three or four days has been the break of 821 made by John Roberts at Glasgow, remarks a writer in “London Sporting and Dramatic News.” The feat would be a marvellous hne if accomplished by a player- in the prime of life and at the height of hie reputation. It really borders on the miraculous when we reflect that Roberts is in his fifty-eighth year, a time of life when a man's sight must have passed its best, and that he has only recently returned to England after travelling ail over the world for about four years. I do not attach any great importance to his having played with composition balls during this period, for he has had plenty of time to become thoroughly familiar with ivory again, having used them consistently for many weeks past, and wo have seen Stevenson accomplish some marvellous things when coming straight from one to the other, though, in this respect, he forms quite an exception to the general rule.

How cats are enabled to turn themselves round in mid-air without gaining a leverage from any fixed object is a problem which has long baffled scientists. It makes absolutely no difference at what angle a cat is launched into space, or how powerful a rotary motion may be imparted to it at the start, its feet are down in the orthodox position before it reaches the ground. Elephants, as might be supposed, fall very clumsily, and show- great awkwardness, even in trifling falls. Their enormous weight makes it impossible for them to perform any gymnastics in mid-air .which may serve to relieve their fall. They have the proud distinction too, of falling faster than any other animal.

As a rule, elephants appreciate this weakness,- and are exceedingly cautious in exposing themselves to such a danger. An elephant will never, for instance, step on a bridge without first testing its strength as best he can. When, however, an elephant does fall Im makes a convulsive effort to get down feet first, and, accompanying his descent with a magnificent roar, he fulls heavily, landing with a resounding thud.

Man, it is not generally known, knows less about falling than any of the animals. The human body is well

equipped for withstanding tho shock of landing, yet .when a map realises that ho is faffing ho instantly does the wrong thing. He tries to recover himself, and makes every part of his body tense and rigid, and thereby generally gets a nasty, bruise; whereas if lie were to fall naturally, without any effort to regain his feet, he would suffer less. A politician wag one day canvassing a rural constituency when suddenly he struck a village that appeared fairly swarming with children. Never had ho seen so many little ones in so small a plaice. Clustered! about one doorwaywere some fourteen tots of varying ages. In their midst stood an extremely goodlooking young woman. "Madam,” said the politician, with gallant bow, "you must permit me to ki.sa these charming little ones.” The woman merely smiled. After he had affectionately saluted each of them, he asked, with a genial smile, “All yours J” The young woman blushed. ' The candidate, with another how, then said, “I trust, madam, that I may further trespass upon your good nature by asking that you will be so good as to inform your husband that Mr. Gatherum called upon him this afternoon with respect to bis vote.” "Pardon me,” gasped the woman, “but I have ne husband!”

"But these children, madam}” exclaimed tho astonished man. “You are not a widow?” "Oh, no sir!” was the reply: “This is an orphan asylum!”

The solicitor who failed in the City of London Court just before the mail left, but has desperate hopes of succeeding in a higher court, is in advance of his age. He contends that a bicycle is persona) luggage, and as such, if the handle-bar is locked and both wheels firmly fixed, and it does not weigh more than 601 b., is entitled to free carriage on a railway. He also maintains that, if the fare charged for a bicycle is six-, pence for twenty-five miles, its owner is entitled to take out the twenty-five miles in two journeys, there and back, instead of having to pay two sixpences for two shorter distances. We are not surprised that be lost, the law being on the side of the railway companies. It allows them to pass a bath as personal luggage, but to class a bicycle as a perambulator. But the law, as Mr. Bumble declared years ago is not always brilliantly in accordance with reason, and railway companies in England are not always models of untameable zeal for keeping up with the times. There have been slight modifications in bicycle fares of recent years, but the sixpenny registration fee that is good enough for any distance in Germany, and the still better penny of France, are not above the English horizon as yet, and it. is still only a rich man that can really afford to take his bicycle by train in England.

Many to whom the name of the greatest horse market in the world —Tattersail’s—is known ihave never read the interesting history connected with the founding and continuation of the business. The name belongs to a good old Lancashire family who have an innate Jove for horses, and, better than this, are always loyal to country and King. Their ancient homestead, elating back to the time -of Elizabeth, was near the home of the poet Spenser, and the surrounding country is described with! great minuteness in “The Faerie Queene.” In 1745 young Richard Tattersail had a friend who went out for t’he Pretender, and Richard was so deeply compromised that it was considered necessary for him to go into hiding for a time. Naturally he went to London, and after the storm had subsided looked about for a means of earning his livelihood. He had inherited a fortune of $50,000, but most of it had been squandered on costly 'horses and dogs. In later years he gave a; dinner to all his old creditors, and each found at his place a cheque for th® sum due him, with interest."

The Duke of Kensington appointed Hie young man master of the horse, and while holding this office equine •matters fell into his hands so that in time it became a matter of course that when a great racing stud was to be sold he was the one to manage it. Young Tattersal), seeing ‘his opportunity, made the start from which the business Ims developed. The Jockey (.‘lute made Tattersallfc its head-quarters, and in time the place became the centra of the bunting and racing world.

' Borne famous ealee have been made at Tatteraall'e. When George IV., then Prince of Wales, sent his stud to the hammer eighty-seven horses of all Olaaaes were sold for him by Tattersall, •nd the sum realised was 2500 guineas. He afterward stood high in favour with the Prince, and royal parties often came over from Newmarket to drink his wine. It is more than one hundred and thirty years since a Tattersall founded •the establishment. The present owner, Tattersall 4th, has been actively engaged in the business since 1850. His (eldest son la also a partner, and bids fair to carry on the traditions of the house with honour and success.

In his amusing speech at the taw Society’s dinner at Home the other day Mr. Gerald Balfour delighted his legal audience by insisting that it is folly for the layman to try t-o be his own (lawyer. lie quoted, of course, the classic case of the leading lawyer whose own will was upset by the Court, and the story of Horne Tooke, who declared that lie would be hanged if he did not conduct his own case, and was promptly assured by counsel that he would certainly be hanged if he did. Mr. Gerald Balfour’s advice has the almost unanimous experience of untold generations •t his back. The wisest lawyer usually knows better than to fight his own case, just as the best doctor does not try to act on the principle of “Physician, 'heal thyself.” They know the supreme importance of introducing the dispassionate outside point of view.

Joseph Leiter was in New York the other day. He had luncheon at a fashionable restaurant. During the luncheon the subject of widows arose, and on this interesting topic many original ideas were expressed. Mr. Leiter said: “Some widows are to be pitied; others, •gain, are to be felicitated. My father used -to describe a widow of the latter sort. “She lived in Maryland; she kept a little village store. Her husband was a worthless fellow. He never worked, and he drank a great deal. A worthless fellow, I repeat, but nevertheless, when ho died suddenly, many persons made calls of sympathy and condolence on the widow. “My father did not call, but one day. stopping at the store to buy some trifle or other, he thought it was no more than right to say in a feeling tone: “ ‘You must miss your husband a great deal, madam?’ “‘Well, sir,’ said the widow, ‘it does •eem strange to come into the shop and find something in the till.’ ’’

Charles Ml Schwab, like most men of wealth, gets innumerable letters askiiig him to subscribe to charities. When Mr. Schwab is assured of a charity’s usefulness, ha subscribes, but often, of course, he lias to refuse to give to charities about which ue is dubious. Not long since Mr. Schwab received a letter from a stranger in. London. “Knowing as I do your generosity,” this stranger wrote, “I have put you down for a £4O, or 200dpl„ subscription to our miners’ widows’ fund. Christmas Is approaching, and we propose to give a fowl and a Christmas pudding to each miner’s widow on Christmas Eve. In this good work your donation will help largely." Mr. (Schwab replied to the stranger as follows: “Though I know nothing of you or of your fund, I respond gladly to the call you make upon me. I, too, am interested in a charity similar to yours. It is an 'American charity, and, since it stands in need of funds for a Christmas treat, I have not hesitated to put you down for a subscription of 200dol. to it, Thus no money need pass between us.”

When that genial mariner. Captain Scott, of the Discovery, publishes -Jis book it will, of course, contain much about the dogs, who are so all-important in Arctie adventure, remarks a writer in “Sporting and Dramatic News.” A Various and most fascinating beast is the sleigh dog, half wild, and yet so •trangely domesticated, if that be the tight word. The creature’s life was .Vividly portrayed in Mr. Jack London’s •tlrrfng book, “The Cry of the Wild.” *md all explorers naturally dwell upon their chief companions. What a hard life they lead, tool It is their habit. eptain Scott will tell us, to go to sleep * circle of a dosen or so, with their

noses all together, and their tails turned over their backs to act as a species of rug. 1 imagine. Their noses they bury in the snow, and they have to be chopped out each morning, as the snow freezes over the covered parts. Perhaps, however, the most striking thing about them is their jealously. An affable dog would at times ingratiate himself with a man; the man would acknowledge the attention. and pet the creature in turn; but the favoured dog would inevitably suffer for it. When his companions got him to themselves they would unfailingly go for him. They might not care to put themselves out of the way in search of pals and kind words, and possibly scraps of food—perhaps they were too uncouth to know how to set about it—but they bitterly and actively resented any other dog being favoured and taking advantage.

Superstitions die hard. Hence it is that even these scientific days see a controversy waged in all seriousness in the columns of the “Times’' on the subject of water-finding by the use of a hazel twig. That “dowsers” should often have been fortunate in a country like England, where water is easier to find than to avoid, is not surprising, especially when it is borne in mind that subterranean water docs not, as a rule, flow iu narrow streams, but lies in pools and lakes. Add io these considerations a reasonable margin of allowance for lucky coincidences and for the tendency of the human mind to remember successes and forget failures, and additional explanation seems superfluousNevertheless, the whole paraphernalia of musty theories, including the marvellous “affinity” doctrine, may be found gravely propounded in the contributions to our English contemporary. There is a. type of person who possesses an extraordinary capacity for belief in the marvellous—whose intellectual canon (unacknowledged, no doubt) is “Credo quia impossible." The dowsing twig, when all is said, is in very much the same category as table-turning, ouija, and planchette.

Several years ago, a one-legged youth named Kempton, who had left a comfortable home to engage deliberately in begging, conceived the idea of organizing a. community of interest among panhandlers in the Park Row district. Ho picked out strategic spots throughout the city and selected a man to beg in each. These men were always particularly well adapted to their posts, a. blink (blind man) here, a crust thrower there, a- maimed youth somewhere else. In order that the beggars might not be molested by the police, a lookout was appointed for each, and in order that the syndicate’s interests might be conserved, Kempton employed roundsmen to observe how faithfully the beggars attended to business, and to collect hourly the earnings of each. In case of arrest, each member of the band was assured of legal representation, to be paid for out of the earnings of the pool. The scheme thrived for many months, and at one time there were thirty men in the combination, which became a close corporation of profit and power. There is no knowing to what extent it might have expanded, nor how influential it might have become at last, bad not the nature of the organization given it undue prominence, and caused it to fall directly under the ban of the mendicant squad. One by one the members were captured and sent to the Island, and in the end the gang was broken up.—Theodore Waters, iu “Everybody’s Magazine."

Until less than a generation ago all notions of personal beauty were regarded among us as tolerable weaknesses in the female, and as intolerable indications of sap-headed n ess iu the male. The advertisements of the beauty specialists indicate how rapidly all this has changed. To-day our great cities show proportionately a higher average of dress and general striving after personal attractiveness among both men and women than the great cities of any other country. There Is a practical reason why a practical people have so quickly reversed themselves.

It has been discovered that there is an intimate, an indissoluble relationship between personal attractiveness and Success. Success depends in the largest measure upon health and the personal impression one makes upon his fellow-men; and properly to develop and maintain the “points’* that

make for personal attractiveness is to develop and maiutaiu health. For example, how many men and women slop drinking and overeating because fat is fatal to gobd looks. The struggle to keep looking young is a struggle to keep in perfect health—and what a blessing that is to the present and all future generations. The price of good looks is right living. And the reward of right living is health.

In those parts of London in which the penny is the standard of value there is a- traffic in second-hand materials of a sort that, is unheard of in any city in America. For example, a dress costing 100 guineas and worn by a woman of fashion on one of the days of the Ascot meeting will be seen perhaps twice thereafter, once at a garden party and again at some function remote from town; after which it becomes the perquisite of the lady’s maid, from whom it is bought by an oily and hawk-faced woman who maintains what is called a “Ladies' Wardrobe,” in Brixton or Bayswater. To the dingy parlour in which this oily-mannered woman transacts her business come the wives of struggling attorneys, medical men and city clerks, intent on bargains, and to one of these the Ascot dress, “positively worn by Lady G- ——- in the royal inclosure,” as the hawk-like woman informs her in an awed whisper, is knocked down at the. low price of ten guineas.

Its now owner wears it until it is too shabby to be worn again, after which it is sold to a second-rate wardrobe and becomes the property of a greengrocer's wife, who takes it to pieces, retrims it, and wears it. in and out of the shop until it is fit for another step in its descent, Now it finds its way to Whitechapel, where it catches the eye of some coster lady and is sold to her for three shillings.

Mr Dooley on “The Pursuit of Riches’*: —“Life, Hinnissy, is like a Pullman dinin’ car; a fine bill iv fare but nawthin’ to eat. Ye go in fresh an’ hungry, tuck ye’er napkin in ye’er collar, an* square away at th’ list iv groceries that th’ block man hands ye. What’ll ye have first? Ye think ye’d like to be famous an’ ye ordher a dish iv fame an’ bid th’ waither make it good an’ hot. He’s gone an age, an’ whin he comes back ye’er appytite is departed. Ye taste th’ ordher an’ says ye: ‘Why. it’s cold and full iv broken glass.’ ‘That’s th’ way we always serve fame on this car,’ says the coon. ‘Don’t ye think ye’d like money f’r th’ sicond course? Misther Rockyfellar over there has had 42 helpin’s,’ says he. ‘lt don’t seem to agree with him,’ says ye. ‘but ye may bring mo some,’ ye say. Away he goes an' slays till ye’er bald an’ ve’er teeth fall out an’ ye set dhrummin ’ on th.’ table an' lookin’ out at th’ scenery. By an’ by ho comes back with ye’er ordher, but, jus’ as he’s goin’ to hand it. to ye Rockyfellar grabs th’ plate. ‘What kind iv u car is this?’ says ye. ‘Don’t I got annything to eat? Can’t ye give me a little happiness?' ‘I wudden’t ricom-

mend th’ happiness.’ says th' waither. ‘lt’s canned, an’ it kilt th’ las’ man tint thried it.’ ‘Well, gracious,’ gays ye, T’ve got to have something. Give me a little good health an’ I’ll tliry to make a meal out iv that.’ ‘Sorry sir,’ says the black man, ‘but we're all out iv good health. Besides,’ he Rays, Inkin’ ye gintly bo th* ar’rni, ‘we’re coinin’ into the deepo an’ ye’ll have to get out,’ lie says.”

The Homo War Office authorities are slid to be contemplating a new departure in regard to rifle shooting in ths army, namely, that soldiers are to be practised iu shooling with both eyes open. This has been urged upon the War Office by the press fur many years, for it is a well-known fact that net half th« soldiers are most fit to make the best possible practice of which they are capable with the right eye only, and when the left one is closed. Moreover, a large number of the men cannot, shut the left eye while keeping open the right, and it would have been thought that instead of treating these units as ineffectives, and bad marksmen for ever, a schema would long since have been devised of enabling them to use the cue eve they could aim with. As the subject is exceedingly interesting to sportsmen shooters, as it ought to bo also to the War Office, a brief statement of the faeimay not. be out of place. Moreover, only three years ago there were eminent eye specialists who denied the possibility of aiming by means of two eyes, and perhaps they still exist. Nevertheless, years ago it was proved by actual demonstration that U playing card might, be placed upon the muzzle of .a rifle, so that the right eye could not. see the target at 1000 yards away, but could only se» the fore and back sights, and that the ah inter could, notwithstanding, make just as good practice as when his right, eye (with which he aligned the two sights) saw the target also, mid aligned it with the sights. What happened is this. The left eye is fixed upon the target, the inv-ge of which is impressed upon the brain, but the left eye does more than this, for during the time it is focussed on the target, it controls the focus of the < ther, or right eye. Now, when eyes are normal, that is, not cross eyes, when both look at an object there are two images of it superimposed on the brain. This being the case, when the left eye focussed the target the right was unconsciously d- ing the same, although the target was not visible to it. It follows, therefore, that any object (like a gun sight), the image of which is also. superimposed cu the brain imago of the tarr-et, must 1 o in line with the target itself. In other words, the right eye gels the two sights in a line, and the left eye places this line between ths right, eye and the target. , Those facts may sound a little startling to those who have never Jieard of them before, but they have been well known to expert gunners for ton years at least. There is much use in the knowledge from a military point of view, liecause it shows that what are called perfect eyes (that is to say, when both eyes are equally good) are not necessary to shooting, and may even be an objection and a hindrance lo the finest, work with the rifle.