Here and there

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 2 June 1906, Page 17

Here and there

Visitors in Profusion. A circular has just been i-sued by the relatives and friends of Luther Burbank, cutting attention to the annoyance to which he is subjected almost daily, and requesting the discontinuance of visits by the publie. In the year , 19O.» oyer six thousand visitors were received .on .the Burbank grounds, and Mr. Birrbank was given absolutely no opportunity to rest. A warning sign has been placed on each gat - at the residence, declaring that anyone entering or trespassing on the grounds will be prosecuted. Little Dorrit Still Alive. In view of the announcement that the crypt of the Church of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, so closely associated with Dickens’ "Little Dorrit." is. to let for "storage purposes.” it may interest lovers of Dickens to Learn that the original of the character is still alive (remarks a London paper). Mrs. "Cooper, who, as Mary Ann Mitten- was a playmate of Dickens and the. sister of his closest school companion, has lived at Southgate for more than ■ halCa century. Although more than DO years of age. she is still in full | o-ses-sion of all her faeu’t’es, and takes an outdoor walk every tine day. , In a conversation with a reporter, Airs. Cooper showed how keen a pleasure it affords her to talk of the far-away* times when as a girl she attended St. Paneras Church with “Charges,” and - of the. visits afterwards paid by him to Manor Fann, Sunbury, where the Mittons lived later. Of the boy Dickens she retain* the fondest recollections. One of her quaintest anecdotes tells how as a girl she teased him about his future wife. He declared that she must possess an intellectuality which would qualify her to take a keen interest in his work, and whtn the girl remarked: “Then 1 would not do for that. Charles,” he agreed. ‘’No. Dorrit. you wouldn't do for that.” How keen an interest both she and her brother took in the young writer’s work is shown from the tales she tells of how “Charles” used to bring his manuscript and read it aloud to them. , “If we thought anything was not 'quite as it ought to be. we would tell him straight: ‘Xo. no. Charles, that won’t do at att? ” Mrs. Cooper wo ild say. Of Dickens, the man. the old lady says: “There never was *uvh a man. He was so gentle and kindly to every one, and clever, for he never really had much education: but he had a natural gift for noticing things and describing them.” The old lady has still in her possesion many relics of''those old days, notably part of the bed ij|M)n which Dickens slept when he used to visit her brother during holidays at Sunbury. She is proud, also, of having received many' letters from the great novelist in his younger days. She dearly loves to tell of the trouble she used to get into in the early days of young Dickens’ sojourn in Camden Town (Mrs. Cooper was born in Hattongarden >. when, instead of returning straight home after the service at St. Paneras Church, she used to listen to Charles’ persuasions, and go to see the “"beadle in his gorgeous dress.” or some such other wonder of childhood.” Speaking of the life at Sunbury she said: “You could always 4hhl Charles lying out among lite hay, absorbed in some book.” Erroaeoas ideas in Regard to Snakes. King Solomon acknowledged that there were “three things which are too wonderful for me, yea. four which 1 know not.” and one of these was “the way of a serpent upon a ro<k,” and for years the mode of progression of a snake remained to men of science as much a mystery* as it was to Solomon. It is thought that the absence of limbs is a great disadvantage to snakes, but the fact is their ribs take the place uf Limbs, so that, instead of having two pairs, they sometimes have over 200. Mr. Ferguson, of India, savs that he once followed a

large snak«*. and found a smart walk sufficient to keep up with it. Nor do snakes exercise any fa-ci nation over their viclini*. Pcpys alleged that they ejected poison on lark- in full flight so That they fell into their mouth- but in fact, x-hivkens. rats, guinea pig-, rabbit-, a ml heiis show no fear of -’take* when given 1o the latter in a rage. A lien ha* been known to roost on a python, and one ha* hern known to peck at a -uajie’s tongue in motion, evidently taking it for an insect or worm. 'Jhe functions of a snake’s tongue have also been the -übject> of popular error. Job speaks of the viper’s tongue slaying one. and Shakespeare is full of similar remarks. The tongue is really a very delicate organ of touch, for the eyes are so placed that the snake cannot see in front or below, and by mean- of its tongue it literally feels its way. The popular notion that every snake is poisonous is. ot course, absurd. but the proportion of poisonous to harmless*, snakes is much less than is generally supposed. In India only one genus in ten is poisonous, and the same projM»rtion is probably accurate a* to individuals also. The cobra .is timid—the charmers who play a pipe in front of it do not attract it by the music. for it is nearly deaf; but by the movement from side to side. which is followed. bw the snake. The bites of some species of pQisonons snakes are not fatal at all. and merely produce a little pain an<i -welling of the injured member. One Way of Doing It. There arc all sort of ways of offering your manuscript to a publisher. One of them is this from a letter receiveci in a newspaper office the other day:—“Dear Sir. —If this is any use to wn, why any use you use it for will be all right, and 1 can use whatever you're used to giving for whatever you use.—Yours truly. Ulysses Houston.” The letter, at all events, was not useless. A StartHngly Large Family. The visit of the Japanese sailors to Australia ju*t now recalls a laughable incident in connection with the visit of some Japanese sailors to Cork a couple of years ago. A Japanese battleship was in Queenstown Harbour, and a large number of the men obtained leave to visit the city. They were to Ik 1 seen everywhere, walking, driving, riding, ami. as may be imagined, they were an object of great interest to everyone. An old woman, up from the country to see the exhibition, which was then open, was also “doing the sights.” and was “tramming it” in a car which happened to be more than half full of Japs., of whom she had never till that day seen a specimen. Utterly bewildered by what appeared to her the absolute sameness of all their faces, she turned at length to someone be*ide her. and remarked aloud, “Clory be to Cod’. Wasn’t she a wonderful woman that had all them sons? Everywhere I went today I seen more of them, and they have all the same fares <»n them, the little erathurs!’’ Ghost in the Camera. An astounding story of mysterious photographs, which is vouched for by a well-known London photographer, is told in “M.A.P. A certain young lady, who may Im* tailed Miss 8.. live* with her mother in one of the Home Counties. Some time ago. wishing to have her photograph taken, -he made an appointment with the photographer in question. The sitting was duly given, ami the photograph taken. After the lapse of a week Miss B. received a letter saying that the photos were not a success, and asking for another sitting. She at once agreed, and as soon as possible went to London again, and a second photograph was taken. A short time elapsed, and as no proofs wore sent she wrote to make inquiries, only to receive a very apologetic letter,

t»a.\ ing that agaiti the photos ucre failures, and asking f«»r a third -itting. s<» for the third time .Ml*- B. <;an>e up to London. She is a good-natured girl, and cotitenfM herself with expressing a h«q»e that this time there would -be a succt»-ful result. In two <lays’ time she r«*ce:ved an urgent letter from the photographer asking her to rome up to lii< -:u<!i*» and to bring a friend with her. As a result of’the letter Mi<- 8.. aecontpaiin*d by her mother, paid a fourth visit to the studio, and there-tin* photographer‘exhibited the amazing result - of the rhr<ae sittings. The actual photos of the girl hcr*eif were qnHe good, but in each plate then* •was to In* *een standing In-hind h«-;- tin* figure of a -nian holding a d ig_.t r m hf* uplifted hand. a The feature.-, though* tain:, were dearly discernltile. and. to her horror. Miss B. recognised them i- those of lom iiancee—an officer in the Indian Army. The effect of this experience was so .great that after a few days she wrote out to India Breaking off the engagemt*nt. The Goda.” r Mr Arthur Botirchier pleaded for a dean and wholesome drama at Uie annual dinner, at Frascati’s, of the Gallery First night ers' ( lub isays the “Express” ». The following are some of tl»e principal points in his response to the toast of “The Drama”: — I maintain that the public do not want to go to the theatre to see a rehash of the sweepings of the divorce court offered them as a picture of English' Imine life in the inneteenQi century. No play has ever made for the good of its author, its- producer, the actors engaged in it. or of any one else, which had a •breach of the seventh command meat for its pivot, or the display of the seamy side of private life for its rai-on d'etre. The man with the muck rake is not wanted within the walls of the playhouse. He cvrtainly will never hold sway in my theatre: and it rests with you. free and intUprndeiu gallery first nigh ters, to make his stay elsewhere both brief and inglorious. A* sure as “the drama’s laws the drama’s patrons give.” if vuu will, you can -end him back to the obscurity from which he ought never to have been allowed to emerge. There is nothing novel in his methods. for wherever there are two men and a woman, or two women and a man. there is bound to be trouble. To pervert the old proverb: “Where there’s a frill there’s a fray.” I know from experience that the reward is great for one who will take the extra pains and exploit the wholesoiiH*. which, after all. is the grandest thing in art. In this present year of grace theart of acting is. in my humble opinion, on the up-grade, but the craft of the playwright hangs in the balance. Are the writer* for the stage to-day prepared to take the hard but only way that ennobles them ami leads them towards the uplifting of the true standard of the British drama, or are they satin* tied to lie back on the ephemeral .rewards of the society for the. pr<»mulgation of (he greatest possible fee* with the least possible labour? The Fanning Island Sale. Apropos of the sale of Fanning Island, where the Pacific cable station is. a lawyer writes to the London “Express” as follows: —“The private sale of a British island to a foreigner, or even to a foreign Government, ha* no more effect to detach the property from the British Empire than tin* sale of a fr-*c-hol<l Imhim* in Park Lane to a foreigner would do. “Some years ago the island of Anticosti, <*pposite the mouth of the St. Lawreme River, was purchased by M. Menter. He thought the purchase entitled him to hoist the French tlag. but was quickly undeceived. “It is well known that the island of Henn, in the Channel Islands, i* owned by a German. I have heard that he, too, pre*uine<l to fly the German flag, but was promptly required by the captain ot an English gun boat to haul down the offensive emblem of foreign sovereignty. “The rights of the Crown can only be ceded by the Crown, and no owner of land, even in fee simple, is other than a tenant of the Crown.”