Here and There

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11, 15 September 1906, Page 37

Here and There

Reflections. A soft head can't be filled with hard sense. Prejudice is a good thing to forget. Eccentricity is the chum of genius. If you ean’t get wise, get gumption. A broad mind won't fit in a narrow groove. Enthusiasm is the forerunner of .achievement. The value of an idea depends on its application. It’s less difficult to get to the top than to stay here. Experience that isn't costly is not apt to be impressive. So many flowery phrases are made up of withered flowers. Erected to a Sparrow. Tombstones of an imposing- order have often been raised to the memory of pet dogs and cats, but the one in Berlin to the memory of a sparrow is probably unique. It stands outside the Nordring railway station. It is eighteeen inches high, and is shaded by a oak tree about four and a half feet in height. The inscription runs: “Here rests Kuhe, born 30 April, 1892, died 30 Oct., 1898.” Kuhe was a sparrow which became so tame that he would eat out of the hand of the porters and other officials. His days were all spent in the station, his night above the waiting-room window. His end was tragic, as he was run over by an engine. His railway friends erected the above-mentioned monument in memory of their pet. Chinese Duelling. A Chinaman has just been killed in a house at Bangkok, as the result of a duel •with another Chinaman. The method they adopted in fighting is of some interest. They fought with the two forefingers of each hand, stabbing each other with these in the region of the spleen and at the same level on the other side of the body. The men who go in for this kind of contest practice every morning, stabbing bags of rice or paddy with these fingers till they can use them like a piece of iron.—“Times,” Bangkok. Worth. Noting. One does not advance far who treads many paths. A lazy man is never too lazy to help load up others. Even an idea will seldom strike a man when he is down. Enthusiasm is to a man what steam is to a locomotive. Success never comes to a man who is afraid to face failure. The man who has no faith in anyone gets deceived by everyone. It is foolish to run yourself down when your neighbours are only too glad to do it for you. What Makes the Successful Lawyer? In the “Grand Magazine” a more than usually interesting symposium is devoted to success in the law. In the essential qualifications good health figures prominently. There is difference of opinion as to how far a certain private income to tide the briefless over the time of waiting is an advantage. There is a little difference of opinion as to the importance of influence, especially influence with solicitors. A judge who is nameless, and who speaks with remarkable plainness, says that he knew two students, one much the better at examinations and much more gifted. The less gifted has a large practice, and knew 120 solicitors the day he was called. The other can but just scrape along, and knew one. Given that a man

is not utterly incapable, influence is the great thing. Most authorities agree, however, tliat there is a great siftingout of able men from fools in the legal profession. The plain-speaking judge thus sums up the qualities most essential to the successful lawyer; power of making himself believe in his eases—in other words, power of self deception, though he does not say so; willingness to work up the facts of a ease, which is rare; and common sense enough neither to overrate nor underrate the intelligence of judge and jury. Why Glasgow is a Model Municipality. Mr. Frederic C. Howe, writing in “Scribner,” praises the Municipal'’Government of Glasgow. The citizen of Glasgow is a good citizen because it is his city: it gives him more for his money than anyone else. He savs: — “It is a government of the taxpayers, for the taxpayers, by the taxpayers. For only taxpayers vote. I never knew a city that hated taxes as much as does Glasgow, and talked so everlastingly about the rates. Any measure involving taxation, even for the relief of the poor, and the poor of Glasgow are terribly poor indeed, has to pass a jealous scrutiny. Away back in the sixties, the ratepayers defeated Lord- Provost Blaekie, who had promoted the splendid clearance scheme for the destruction of the city’s worst slums. Glasgow is a taxpayers’ administration. I fancy it was these same taxpayers who took over the various undertakings of which the city is so proud. With Scotch thrift, they hated to see profits go into private pockets. The man on the trams is evidently right. He owns the trains; therefore he is interested in them. He owns the gas, the water, the electricity supply and the telephones. Therefore he watches them. He loves Glasgow' just as does the Lord Provost, the hardheaded alderman, the man in the club, the caretaker of the city’s sewage works. The city is his parent. It cares for him. And it is worth working for. It is so big in its ideals, so big in its achievements, so big in its kindness and goodness.” The Congo Horrors. Mr Harold Spender, in the “Contemporary.” reviews the report of King Leopold's Commission and the consequent debate in the Belgian Parliament. He calls special attention to the report presented by Professor Cat tier, who showed that in 18‘dti King Ja-opold set aside from the Congo State a large area, about ten times the size of Belgium and two and a-half times the size of England, as the “Domains de la Conronne.” The Professor found that the total revenue of the King’s domain from 1896 to 1905 must have amounted to £2.800,000, “Now,” he asks, “how has tho King spent that money? Here. Professor Cattier made some interesting discoveries. He found out. by a search through official records, that it lias been largely invested in real estate in different parts of the Belgium. His inquiries have been restricted by expense to a few districts, bitt even then the results dug out in Brussels and Ostend cover twenty-one pages in his book. The purchases include hotels, villas, houses, woods, lands, fields. gardens, and stables. It almost looks as if King Leopold aimed at using the proceeds of the Congo for turning Belgium into his private estate. Besides these purchases, the proceeds of the ‘Domains de la Couronno’ are being directed to the following objects:— (1) Construction of the Palace of Laeken at the cost, when completed, of thirty million francs; (2) construction of the Arcade of the Cinquantenaire (celebrating 50 years of Belgian independence) at Brussels; (3) construction of a ‘Colonial School’ at Terveruen ; (4) Press Bureau. ‘Worse and worse!’ The fourth and last is a most important and significant, item. It explains much. By an ingenious arrangement the profits

wrung from the tortured millions tif Africa have been used in tilling the Belgian and Continental press with inspired glorification of the 'moral and material regeneration’ of the Congo.” Them is, in addition, a deficit of four millions in the "estimate” of the Cong® State, so altogether there is a sum unaccounted for of seven millions sterling. ‘“Massacre in Africa seems to go hand ia hand with robbery in Europe.” Mixed. It wasn’t a back blocks editor but a printer’s devil who was going through his first experience in “making up” forms. The paper wfts late and the boy got the galleys mixed. The liiwt part of the obtiuary notice of a pccunious citizen bad been dumped into the forms and the next handful of type came of! of a galley describing a recent tire. It read like this: "The pallbearers lowered the body into the grave and as it was consigned to the Haines there were few if any regrets, for the old wreck had been an eyesore to the town for years. Of course there .vas individual loss, but that was fully covered by insurance.” The widow thinks the editor wrote the obituary that way because the lamented partner of her joys and sorrows owed him five years subscription. The Motorist’s "Exam.” What is an automobile? It is an infernal machine used by ths classes for dealing death to the masses. Whence is its name derived? From Auto and Mob. Hence an autoniobilist ought to be mobbed. What is the difference between an automobile and a bunch of violets? The smell. What is an auto-race? A race of men who drive automobiles. What do they look like? Like the wild men of Borneo disguised as Esquimaux. What is the difference between an automobile and Beau Brummel? Beau Brummel was a lady-killer, bit an automobile will kill anybody. What follows the automobile? The autopsy. <se-3> The Literary Ghost. An amusing anecdote of a literary “ghost” is related by an English piragrapher. This “ghost.” one of the convenient hacks of current letters, received a book which lie had written, but which bore on its title page a far more distinguished name than his own. Accompanying the book was a request from the editor of an important literary journal that he should review it— and the “ghost” wrote a favourable review. A query goes with this story "Should he have returned the book with sonic excuse?” The answer is obvious, but not so obvious is the survival of the “ghost” in these halcyon days of unplumbed seas of printer’s ink. lie is not really needed, for every one who can write, after a fashion, and the veriest amateur may bulge into print with the least difficulty in the world if his ambition looks in that direction. He may always be sure, too, of a certain amount of “critical” applause, and of n certain “public.” What makes the “ghost” even more puzzling, too, is the fact that he need not. after all. practice his im moral trade if be has the smallest grain of talent. The old traditions of Grubstreet were long ago laid to rest. Authors do not starve in garrets any more. Indeed, they are far more likely to be found living in elover, with every conceivable luxury in the house, from eyposed plumbing to automobiles. The “ghost.” wo fear, must not be so much the product of existing conditions as a type of inherited criminality. Some one of his ancestors followed the a.t of swindling for profit, and ho in his turn follows it for the same purpose, but also for its own sake. We do not know how otherwise to account for this poisoner of the wells of literary rectitude. ' '