Round the World Paragraphs.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 20, 13 May 1908, Page 57

Round the World Paragraphs.

.1 What Children Like to Read. Two years have wrought a great Change in the literary tastes of children ■ educated at the elementary schools of London. The change is indicated in a report of • the Education Committee of the jjondon County Council, published last month, which gives a list of the seventeen most . popular prizes in 1905, and the seventeen books which were chosen most often last year. The comparison is interesting. Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mrs Craik, and Charles Lamb have taken the place of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Wetherell, and other authors who used io be sought after. The following is the list of the seventeen favourites for 1907, with the number of children who chose each book: — “Anderson’s Fairy Tales .. 5,877 I “Grimm’s Stories” .. .. 4,227 : “Robinson Crusoe” . . . . 2,403 •! “Toni Brown’s School Days” 2,349 “Little Women” 2,151 ~•“Tanglewood Tales” .. .. 2,077 •“Water Babies” .. .. .. 1,804 “Alice in Wonderland” .. 1,034 •“Old Curiosity Shop” . . .. 1,515 •“Heroes” (Kingsley) ... .. 1,484 •“John Halifax, Gentleman” 1,481 ' •“David Copperfield” . . . . 1,441 •“Tales from Shakespeare” (Lamb) 1,423 • Island” 1,409 ‘ “Westward Ho!" 1,340 ■ “Ivanhoe” .. . . . . ~ 1,266 ' “Pilgrim’s Progress” . . . . 1,244 The liooks marked with an asterisk have taken the places of the following ' books in the 1905 list, which have been withdrawn by the committee:—“Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”' “Swiss Family Robinson.” “Wide, Wide World.” “The Lamplighter.” “The Land and the Book.” Some of the books have varied much in the measure of their popularity. Hans Andersen comes from fourth place in 1905 to the head of the list last year. “Robinson Crusoe” holds his own, “Tom Brown” has advanced, while “Alice in Wonderland” has receded. “Little Women” has gained three places, while “Westward Ho!” has lost six, and “Pilgrim’s Progress” has dropped from fourteenth to the bottom of the list. “The Robber’s Cave” and “The Story of a Needle,” which were thirteenth and sixteenth in popularity in 1905, were unable to reach the favourite seventeen in 1907, but they have not been withdawn from the list. Realistic Fire. Ye Olde Red Lion, at Hampton-on-Thames—which is doomed to make way for a modern building, in spite of a his--tory which goes back to Cardinal Wolsey, and a guest-list which included Pope, Dryden, Swift, Colley, Cibber, Bolingbroke, Peg Woffington, and Kitty Clive —was the scene of a realistic, but not destructive, fire one day recently. Its internal fittings had been removed, and to Captain Graham, the captain of the local fire brigade, came the idea of making the shell serve a useful purpose —to give good practice to his men and to help the orphan fund of the National Fire Brigade Union, by affording to cinematographers and photographers the Opportunity of taking realistic pictures and contributing to the fund from their profits. The window frames, accordingly, were wreathed with cotton wool soaked in paraffin, and oil and inflammable materials were scattered about the interior.

When the cinematograph was in position, the fire broke out in the lower part of the bouse and spread rapidly. The alarm was given, and the Hampton Fire Brigade and the brigade of the Metropolitan Water Board from the neighbouring reservoirs rushed to the inn with three steamers and several fire escapes. They found the place enveloped in Hames, and floods of water were soon playing upon it.

A number of people were able to make their escape from the tap-room by the front entrance, but presently several persons, including two women whose esoape appeared to be cut off. were seen

at the upper windows calling for help. They were brought safely through the flames and smoke to the ground by means of the escape. A man seen crawling along the roof, and another man at an upper window, were also rescued in the same way, and the last to leave the burning building was a man who managed to escape by jumping from the top of the porch over the main entrance. Two horses were also rescued from the stable. Buccaneers’ Hoard Unearthed. Treasure trove secreted by Portuguese buccaneers in bygone days has been revealed near the seaside village of Paradelha in a remarkable manner. The village is being slowly washed away by the action of the sea and buildings have been undermined from time to time. A storm of more than usual severity swept the coast not long ago, and a portion of the foreshore -at Paradelha was washed away. According to the “Secolo,” treasure of various kinds was thus exposed to the astonished fishermen, who first believed that it had been sent to them miraculously. There were many ancient gold and silver doubloons, jewelled crosses, finger rings of quaint antique pattern, earrings, gold and silver medallions, portions of silver censers, and other fragments of Church plate. All the people in the region hurried to the spot, armed with picks and spades, and have since been digging feverishly’ for treasure. Some of them have been rewarded with further discoveries. One man secured gold coins valued at £lBO. The Portuguese buccaneers -who harried the Spanish Main were in the habit of burying their booty along the coast, and the treasures unearthed at Paradelha undoubtedly form a portion of one of their hoards. JU Was the Duke Jilted. The three most feverishly debated questions since the mystery of the lady or the tiger, concern the Duke of the Abruzzi, says a New York despatch. Has Miss Katherine Elkins jilted the Duke, and is he hiding a broken heart under an alias? Or has the Duke sailed for Europe in order to gain the consent of his cousin, the King of Italy, to his marriage with Miss Elkins? Or is the Duke merely rejoining, his ship, the Regina Elena, because his leave expires in a few days; and is the story of his love affair merely a myth ? The newspapers and the leaders of New York society are anxiously discuss- - ing these questions. Society inclines to the first theory. The delicious novelty of an American girl jilting a royal duke is fully appreciated. Society is willing to believe that the Duke of the Abruzzi, despite his experience as an Arctic explorer, has been frozen out. Two facts are absolutely indisputable: First, that the Duke of the Abruzzi has left America; and, secondly, that neither Miss Katherine Elkins nor her father, who is a typical mining millionaire, will ever consent to a morganatic marriage. On such slender foundations the newspapers are hopefully building many impossible marriages. Losing sight of the fact that Miss Elkins could never become a royal princess, even if the King of Italy ennobled her, some of the journals even refer to her as a possible future Queen oi Italy.

'There is no doubt whatever that the Duke of the Abruzzi and Miss Elkins are great friends, and that the former lias been the guest of the Elkins family during his stay in the United States both on this and former occasions.

A meeting is said to have taken place at the Italian Embassy at Washington between the Duke, Senator Elkins, and the Italian Ambassador, where the possibility of a marriage was discussed.

Senator Elkina is said to have stated emphatically that he would never consent to his daughter marrying the Duke, unless she would receive full official re-

cognition at the Italian Court as the Duchess of the Abruzzi, not as a morganatic wife.

All the members of the Elkins family, as well as friends of Miss Elkins, refuse either to confirm or deny the reports regarding the Duke’s departure, and the failure or success of his wooing. No one imputes mercenary motives to his Moyal Highness, for he is wealthy in his own right. There is undoubtedly a pretty love story behind the affair, and had the Duke been an ordinary nobleman an engagement would probably have been announced by this time. The fact that he is a cousin of a King, and a member of the House of Savoy, is responsible for the present difficulty. The newspaper statements vary from the announcement that the marriage will take place at Easter, to the bald declaration that the Duke has been refused by Miss Elkins. jX Jt Who’s Who On the Stage. “The Green Room Book,” the 1908 volume of which is just published, is the Burke of the dramatic profession. It is as full of the information which -the actor loves as an egg is full of meat, and it is not without a zest for those who only know the stage from the front of the house. A fascinating section of the book is the “Eootlight Families,” a history in brief of heredity on the stage. One learns from it that there has been a Kemble on the stage from the days of Roger, the founder of the family, who began his acting when the Young Pretender had his eyes on the throne, until the present day. The male line died out in Mr. Henry Kemble last November, but in the female line the daughters of Mr. Frank Kemble Cooper still carry on the family tradition#. Mrs. Kendal traces her dramatic pedigree back to the early eighteenth century, and she has sons and daughters treading the- boards to-day. One of the most curious of the genealogical tables is the one which shows the connection of the Bland family, which sprang from an Irish judge, with the Duke of Fife, and so in a two fold way, with the Royal Family — through the Princess Royal of to-day, and through the Dorothy Bland whom everyone

knows better as Mrs. Jordan of the days of the Sailor King. But acting is not always hereditary. Mr. Tree and Mr. Alexander come of the business stock. Mr. Waller's father was an engineer. Sir Charles Wyndham’s a physician, while Army officers are res|K>nsiblc for both Mr. Bourehier and Mr. Seymour Hicks, and an architect for Mr. Arthur Collins. It is noteworthy that neither of the first four mentioned bears the name his father was known by. Many of the most famous figures on the American stage have come of British stock. The Booths all spring from a London attorney of Jewish origin. Thomas Frederick Lane, an English actor, and John Drew, an Irish one, were the progenitors of the intermingled families of the Drews and Barrymore. Joseph Jefferson was descended from Thomas of that, name, who was born in England in 1728, and the Wallacks gi back to William Wallack, who made his first appearance on the stage of life in England in 1700. <.« Strange Chinese “Loot.” The.recovery in Germany of the Emperor of China’s marriage contract, which was stolen from the Imperial Pal ace at Peking during the occupation by the allied troops in 1900, is the culmination of an eight years’ search by Chinese diplomats in every part of the world. Some weeks ago the Chinese Minister in Berlin received a letter from a village in South Germany saying that the writer was in possession of a large piece of yellow silk covered with Chinese characters.

The writer stated that he had the inscriptions deciphered and that they proved to be the marriage contract of the Emperor Kwangsu. As proof he enclosed a photograph. The Chinese Diplomatic Corps recognised the truth of this statement and handed the letter to the German Foreign Office. Negotiations have been conduct ed for a considerable time between the Foreign Office in Berlin and Peking and the possessor of the document, who claims that its acquisition cost him great pains and money.

He declines to confess whence he obtained the document, but it is assumed that it was stolen from the private apartments of the Empress after the occupation of the Chinese capital by the allied troops.

The contract bears the date of th Emperor’s wedding day, February 211