News, Notes and Notions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 1, 6 January 1909, Page 53

News, Notes and Notions.

I' [A-t last the awful thing ias happened. J t is solemnly asserted that engaged men are to wear bracelets! Indeed, the “engagement bracelet” for men has already arrived in London, and promises soon Io attain the significance of the engagement ring. At present engagement bracelets for men are being made to order by a well-known Jeweller of New Bond-street, and are said to have been much in demand by the newly engaged. The bracelet is a plain flat band of pure gold, which is fastened tightly on to the wearer’s arm above the elbow. It is snapped on to the arm with a buckle or joined with an invisible spring. When once it is on it cannot be removed except by a small needle specially manufactured to touch the spring in a tiny hole which is left for its insertion. Needless to say, this “bracelet” is not worn by men of action. <?><?> <3> The Bishop of Carlisle has sworn off motors. The new Dean of Carlisle had a car given him by his London parishioners, and in this car he essayed to take the’ Bishop to the consecration of a new church at Plumpton. But when the congregation, some thirty clergy and other officials gathered at 'the church at the appointed hour, the Bishop was not there, and continued so for more than an hour. A motor was sent out to look for him, and did not return; likewise in the last resort a humble horse-drawn trap. Finally the Bishop, alone and still hot from exertion, arrived in another trap. He had no robes, and had to enter the pulpit to explain with surplice and stole for vestments—no cassock could be found to fit him! His account of his adventures made the congregation sometimes laugh outright. The whole incident was explained, he said, when he told them that he had been in a motor-car. He had sometimes been asked whv he did not himself possess a motor-car" and he had jocosely said what he now found to be a reality, that the reason he had not such a vehicel was. that he always liked to arrive at the end of his journey *hey were going brightly and' briskly then, with exceeding ingenuity, the car chose to break down, in the worst possible place. They were several miles from the nearest village—almost in a desert but he and the Dean set off to walk, expecting the ear would soon catch them up. They arrived at Calthwaite without having met a single person or conveyance. At Calthwaite he was able to dispatch a telegram, and finally got a vehide to take him on. + + + Attention has meen called to a statement by Professor Haeckel that in the course of time—millions of years the earth will fall back into the "sun, when the force of attraction is destroyed by the diminution of the solar diameter It is certain, too, that the earth cannot fall into anywhere else but the sun. whence it came. Now it is shown that the diameter of the sun decreases each year in accordance with the cooling process—a process which is still taking place with our earth. The process has not vet come within the range of accurate mathematical calculation. Nevertheless, it is eer-tain-that it is taking place. So then, according to Haeckel, we must believe that the earth, which is conscious, or feeling matter, will eventually fall back into the sun, and mini there for millions of years. Just reflect, says a criti thafc the diameter of the sun is more than one hundred times that of the earth, and you will see what a pleasing prospect lies' before the human race when it returns to matter. And even when the sun cools down to a point at which life becomes possible upon it the process, of life will be renewed, till the sun in turn returns (according to Flammarion) to the greater sun whence it came. This is the simple logic of the case, if Haeckel means what he says in simple words. Whether he is right or not in what he assumes is rot here the point. In the scientific world, however, where all attempts at absolute, or ultimate, explanations of there is no reason to assume that life s mystery are who iy tentative, Haeckel’s theory is less worth considering than any other.

To most people mention of Niagara recalls only one thought—the magnitude and the magnificence of the falls. To those in the vicinity, however, it has a second, and that a sinister, significance. It is, in fact, another Dean Bridge, only on an enormous scale, where many people have been lured to self-destruction. There is evidence to show that with most of these death was not the result of choice, but of impulse; that a large proportion of suicides were persons who came to the falls merely as visitors, with no other motive than to see the mighty cataract, and were led to kill themselves by some sudden and uncontrollable desire fostered by the rushing waters. Wherever suicides are of frequent occurrence the current at that point is swift and strong, and moves incessantly with a wavy motion. In the wave Will be found bright green colours that repeatedly and monotonously dance and flash in the sunlight, irresistibly holding the eye. Joined with this is the hoarse and changeless song of the cataract. So powerful is the spell of the waters at Terrapin Point that men have been known to become suddenly insane and go dancing to their death. Here the green walls of the Horseshoe Falls incessantly shimmer. Unknown disturbances send the spray in fantastic clouds toward the zenith at fatally regular intervals. If elsewhere the waters call, here they may be said to command. It is a curious fact that nobody has ever committed suicide at Niagara who has seen the gorge and the whirlpool before seeing the falls. It is easy to see why- this might be a significant fact with reference to the hypnotic theory; for to see these fearful things

first is to prevent any illusion that the conditions above the falls might suggest. It is not difficult to realise how the waters above the falls might promise peace to the world-weary, but what peace can be hoped for when one looks into the abyss at the foot of the cataract 1 Indeed, for this reason visitors subject to nervous disorders are often cautioned By their physicians, if they must visit the falls, to take the trip through the gorge first. One susceptible to hypnotic influences will not be so open to suggestions of rest when he sees the diabolical sight presented by the river below the falls. <s><s> The marvel of to-day becomes the matter of fact of to-morrow. It does not seem to some of us so very long ago since we wondered at the flights of imagination of Jules Verne when he pictured a trip around the world in eighty days. Yet it is a fact that the passenger may now take forty days’ vacation, and accomplish the Jules Verne feat with plenty of stopping time on the route. The statistics of this trip come from London, and the compiler of them merely asks that the Cunard liners shall make their call at an English Channel port. Ho figures out the run as follows: Leave New York Saturday by the Lusitania, land at Plymouth the following Thursday, reaching London in time to catch the evening train for Berlin. Leaving Berlin Friday evening, the traveller reaches Moscow Sunday morning. Ho would be at Vladivostock, on the Pacific, the following Thursday week; and. leaving there on the next Saturday evening, would be landed at Tsauraga, Japan, on the Monday following. Taking train across to Yokohama, he would catch the Canadian Pacific steamer sailing the same day, and reach Vancouver twelve days later. Then taking the Great Northern Limited to St. Paul, the North-west Limited to Chicago, and the Twentieth Century Limited for Ne wYork, he would reach his .starting point at 9.30 on Thursday morning, having taken less than forty days for this 20,000 mile journey. <S> <3> The Paris hairdresser cannot be persuaded to do anything more than pretend to remove a little hair. It almost breaks his heart if you insist on a serviceable cut. The price charged is sometimes a painful surprise to the unsuspecting visitor. He has been warned to avoid those establishments where the tariff is not displayed, and so does not hesitate when he sees the announcement, “Haircutting, 1 franc.” When the operation

is over, however, he is a little hurt at being asked for three francs. If he knows enough French to understand, he gathers that one franc is for the haircutting, one franc for a “friction,"' and one franc “tor perfume.” Frenchmen pay these charges without complaining, and

seem to enjoy a visit to the barber’s. As they generally go to the same shop, —and Frenchmen have their hair "cut” once a Week—the assistant becomes their confidential friend. His customers discuss with him their love affairs, their ailments, and lastly their business. Ho is also supposed to be a great authority on horse-racing, but he is too prudent to act on his own tips, and generally manages to save enough money to start in business for himself. <S> <£> <S> What the wealthy Zurich tradesman said to the Swiss telephone girl over the ’phone, we do not know; but it was evidently quite rude, since it has cost him two days’ imprisonment, JUnd eighty francs as atonement to the country, and a hundred francs as moral and intellectual damages to the girl. It is an arguable question whether an insult by telephone is worse or milder than any other form of insult. On the one hand, nobody at the girl’s end of the wire can have heard what the trailesman called her, while nobody at the tradesman’s end can have seen her blushes, even if anybody knew at whose expense the tradesman was relieving himself. On the other hand, even the manliest woman could not take physical vengeance upon her insuiter over the wire. On the whole, the cowardliness of insult at a distance is probably its dominant feature, and, if the tradesman's language was anything like so bad as we suppose it io have been, we are glad he has had to pay for it. <•><s><?> Travellers and explorers regard Mr Roosevelt’s African tour as very hazardous and full of peril. While most hunting expeditious into East Africa are much larger in numbers, usually several sportsmen combine and enter the forests and jungles with trains sometimes aggregating hundreds of porters and guides, because so much of the area is the home of 11i« human savage, if not the wild animal. One of the most noted American hunters, Mr John 11. Brailey, made a recent tour of Central Africa, which extended to the upper Nile region. He took over one hundred men with him, and was accompanied by several colonial officials of the British Government. Mr Brailey has warned President Roosevelt that he is liable to l>e stricken down with some of the tropical diseases which are so prevalent in the portion of Africa he will visit, while he further states that the pursuit of the African lion and even the water buffalo is attended with great danger, especially if the hunter gets at close quarters with a wounded brute. Mr Brailey, who is one of the most expert shots in America, and has pursued big game not only in Africa, but in far away Alaska, narrowly escaped with his life on several occasions, while in the wilderness of the Dark Continent. Those warnings have not altered the President’s plans. lie has declined the offer of the British Government to furnish him an escort of soldiers while in Fast Africa, on the ground that ho is going as a private citizen, and does not wish any official reception or courtesy. Invitations to accompany several European parties of game-seekers and explorers in Africa have also been declined for the same reason. As his friends are well aware, he is absolutely fearless, and believes that his life in the American wilderness has trained him for his African experience. Unfortunately, his vision is defective, so that he can see only a limited distance without the aid of glasses. During his last hunt in the southern part of the United States, ha missed a bear, at which he had aimed. In hastening to one side to avoid the brute, his eyeglasses dropped to the ground. He again discharged his rifle, taking the chances of hitting the bear, but only succeeded by good luck in so wounding it that it was disabled.