News, Views and Opinions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 10, 7 March 1908, Page 55

News, Views and Opinions.

The scholars of a London County Council school who have been writing essays on what they would like to be have shown themselves very human boys. The majority hoped to oecumu engine or tram drivers, and very few elected for any occupation that did not entail wearing a uniform. Many of them will doubtless continue their ambitions, and eventually realise them. Here it is that the difference arises between boys of their class and those of better social position. The latter have to abandon their earlier aspirations. It is all very well for a peer’s son to wish to be a policeman while in the nursery; but the hope would be crushed in him by stern measures if he cherished it too long. The working-class parent has something of an advantake here. As a rule he can safely allow his boy to follow the bent he exhibits; whereas for the upper classes “What to do with our sons’’ is a problem in which the son can rarely be consulted. Experience has to. choose for him. The theory, it is true, has been put forward that a father can best insure his son’s success in life by watching the inclinations shown in the nursery, developing them, and posting the youth to the calling towards which .they point. Thus, if a child shows exceptional interest in mechanical toys, make him an engineer, and so on. The principle would be. hard on the boy whose sole delight was to play at robbers, because it would seem to necessitate making him a burglar. Perhaps after all the parent’s choice is the betterplan. ... Intensely cold weather has given renewed activity to the movement in Vienna for abolishing the custom of raising one’s hat as a greeting and substituting the gesture of a military salute. A club committee, which has this aim in view, has decided to invite members to join. It will confine its operations to Vienna alone for the present; and there is real curiosity to see whether the ultrapolite men of Vienna will accustom themselves to the proposal. As most men have been in the Army, the salute will not be new. Count Harrach, the prime actor in the movement, has been ill for some time, but a number of old gentlemen who dislike at this season having to carry their hats in their hands at frequent intervals are carrying on the work. A strange christening story is going the rounds of a certain mining village in North-East Warwickshire. When a male child reached the font to be baptised, the clergyman asked, “What is the name of this child?” “Beelzebub, if you please, sir,” answered the mother. “What!” ejaculated the astonished cleric, thinking he had not caught the correct word. “Beelzebub, sir,” repeated the woman. “My friends,” said the astonished parson, “I cannot baptise a child in that name, for it was given to the King of the Devils.” The christening party retired to the vestry, and there the parents informed the incumbent that they had followed an old rule in their family, and stuck a pin into the Bible, and the first male name it passed through was the one chosen. • • • Apropos the giving of tips by London tradesmen to servants-, of customers, “Truth” prints the following:—A friend of mine, who is of a waggish turn, received a visit from his butcher just before Christmas. The butcher asked if there was any objection to the cook receiving her usual Christmas-box. “What is the usual Christmas-box?” asked my friend. The butcher evaded an answer, but on pressure thought that it would not be more than half-a-sovereign. “Well, look here,” said my friend, “if it is worth your while to pay my cook half-a-sover-eign for the chance of keeping my custom it must be well worth your while to pay me a sovereign for the certainty of it. So you send me up thirty shillings, and I will give the cook ten.” He has not yet received a remittance.

Considerable interest must attach to the coming attempt in England to demonstrate the illegality of “Limerick” competitions. It appears that some two hundred newspapers, magazines and other periodicals now carry on this form of amusement, but, of course, no attempt will be made to attack them all. As the director of Public Prosecutions is of the opinion that the “Limerick” does not come within the meshes of the lottery law, the National Anti-Gambling League will try to “bell the cat.” The league will take out summonses in a few cases, probably in London alone, and then, a test case being selected, the battle over the question of chance or skill will be proceeded with. As an appeal is certain whichever-way the ordinary Courts may decide, the question will doubtless fall to be finally adjudicated upon by the House of Lords. The Anti-Gambling League is said-to be so bent upon curing the disease of “limrii-kitis" that it will in the last resort promote a bill in Parliament with a view to either complete suppression or to the limitation of the prizes to £5 to £lO. » » • Great as have been the triumphs of surgery during the past twenty years, all else that it has done will be eclipsed if it can provide a cure for consumption. It is stated that the experiments already made have been crowned with remarkable success, and in London last month a woman who was obviously dying was saved by cutting into the lung and removing the portions upon which the disease had been thriving. This great triumph of surgery is due to the discovery of a mechanical means of checking the excessive blood How which has hitherto prevented successful operations on the lungs. It is wise of those who are experimenting not to raise hopes too soon, as Dr. Koch did when he announced that he had discovered a curative serum. But if it can grapple with the root of the evil which steals away so many precious lives, surgery will have made itself, beyond all question, the greatest of the healing arts. * * * Parents could profit by Dr. Biss’s remarks on the care of the eyes at the College of Preceptors in London the other day. How enormously our eyesight has deteriorated in recent years requires no proof by statistics. In every assemblage of persons to-day a considerable proportion is to be seen wearing glasses; for one case of bad sight three or four generations ago there are probably ten at the present time. The cause is easy to find. We try our vision ten times more severely to-day than was formerly the case.. Long hours of work by artificial light, increased study, bad print—all these make directly for bad eyesight. It is very certain, however, that many cases would be prevented were parents to pay more attention to the matter in their children. It is quite commonly the case for a child’s weak vision never to be discovered until he goes to school. He finds difficulty in seeing the blackboard and wall maps, and thus his bad sight is detected. By then, however, he has been straining his eyes for some years, and in the majority of eases they are permanently injured. A little attention to these matters would save the many disappointments in after life which may result from bad eyesight. » » • One. perhaps, lias almost forgotten the astonishing career of Gallay and La Merelli; how in the Catarina, under an English captain, they wandered over sunny seas until the long arm of the law outstretched and carried them back to France. Both stood their trial for fraud and complicity in fraud, for the voyage had been undertaken on funds belonging to depositors in the Comptoir d’Escompte. Gallay was sent to penal servitude; the fascinating companion of his odyssey made her debut on the musichall stage. And now flu- dishonest bank clerk has returned to France, having partially expunged his crime. On board ship he was the pet of passengers and crew: his spirits were excellent, and he contributed much to the gaiety of the voyage by his lively picturesque accounts of life in Guiana. He was a great

favourite with the ladies,- who listened with interest to his (alas! unreciprocated' enthusiasm for l.i Merelli. But he seems tc have been silent on the new charge or fraud which has been brought against him. Whilst in the penal settlement he had charge of certain books, and he appears to have inaugurated a system whereby lie and certain prisoners shared gratuities to which they wore not entitled. Evidently an incorrigible, Gallay. « « • One of the bright particular inspirations of M. Lepine, defender of the Parisians against the Apache, was the police dog. There was. first of all, the river police dog. who was to fish the involuntary drowning and would-be suicides from the water, and to lend a hand (or, more properly, a paw) in chasing the brigands of the quays who put gimlets into barrels and draw off the wine. One day an adventurous reporter of the “.Matin” flung himself into the river to test the power of the dogs. But. though he yelled with the force of •a conscientious journalist, neither of the fine St. Bernards went to his assistance. It was afterwards explained that they bad just had lunch, and Seine water does not go well with bones and biscuits. But one suspects they seented a practical joke, and even dogs have dignity. The second essay of M. le Prefet to' provide canine land police has not begun any better. Two four-footed officers. Sultan and Margot, were reeeiwig a training for the force, or, more particularly, for a competition. The other morning they escaped, and after a desperate search they were found miles away in a shed. They had forgotten all about, criminals and the safety of Paris; -they were just off on a spree, like the gay dogs they are. » # » A writer in the “Daily Mail” calls attention to an alarming increase in the number of juvenile suicides. In'most cases the cause is extremely trifling—either fear of a reprimand, failure in school work, or a course of youthful true love which refuses to run smooth. Probably, as the writer- we have quoted suggests, this increasing tendency to throw up the sponge at so early a stage in the battle of life is due, in the majority of cases, to the neurotic and over-precocious mental condition into which present-day education and life tend to bring the rising generation. Over-pressure of school work is often the immediate cause of self-destruction, particularly among children in Russia, where child suicide is more common than elsewhere. Curiously enough, however, in the United Kingdom, it appears, love affairs are the most frequent cause—a fact which goes to prove the truth of the theory that the so-called practical Englishman is, in reality, one of the most sentimental creatures on the face of the earth. People have an idea that agricultural labourers are stupid. There never was a greater misconception, writes Dr. Macnamara, ALP., in “P.T.0.” If I had a weak ease to present—and I have been in that position—l would inconceivably rather submit it to a town audience than to an agricultural one. Indeed, the only time I was let down very much was at a purely agricultural meeting in the village of Braunton, near Barnstaple. In the middle of my speech a man got up and said. “I should like to ask ee’ a question about that.” I said, “Perhaps you had better wait until the close of my speech, and I’ll do my best to answer you.” He persisted, however, which brought another man to his feet, shouting, “Sit down, you ass!” An altercation of a wholly personal and uncomplimentary character followed between the two disputants, when a third man got up and said, “Sit down, boot "ee; you’ni both asses!” In a moment of extreme unwisdom I turned on the three of them and said, “There seems to be an unusual number of asses here to night, but, for Heaven’s sake, let’s hear one at a time.” Whereat the first gentleman, pointing a long finger at myself, returned. “Well, you go on. then.” For once 1 racked my brain for a suitable reply, and racked it in vain! » • • A discovery made recently in the Paris catacombs is amusing. The whole south of Paris is honeyconfbed with catacombs, of which a small portion is used as a receptacle for the bones from old Paris cemeteries. A professor from the Natural History Museum started to carry out

experiments underground. He entered the catacombs beneath the Jardin des Plantes, aceonipanieil by three laboratory assistants, an engineer, and an attendant. The professor went in the direettion of the Boulevard St. Michel. After a time he came upon a large pyramidshaped mound which obstructed the passage. Holding torches dose to the mound the party discovered that the pyramid was composed entirely of cats’ heads, numbering many thousands. Those on the top were freshly cut. The mound had evidently been accumulating for years. It seemed entirely inexplicable how the heads came to lie in an unfrequented passage underground. While the scientist were puzzling their brains and trying to imagine their existence of a secret sect of religious fanatics, the engineer unfolded a plan of the catacombs. From this document they discovered that they were under the premises of a well-known cheap restaurant which makes a special feature of jugged hare at popular prices. Close by an air shaft passed through the cellars of the restaurant in question.