Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 390, 29 October 1903, Page 7

Traveller.

VOLCANIC FREAKS. ;Sjrjl£>UßlNG the recent volcanic erupn|<A tion at Martinique a strange jifijPS phenomenon was noticed at certain mineral springs near Prague. The water first turned brown and then red, retaining thisflatter colour for a full hour. Scientists "are unable to accouat for this sudden chajpge in the water, but those who the springs are certain that it war caused by the volcano, and do not fail to point out that a similar phenomenon was observed in 1755 on the day when there was a terrible earthquake in Lisbon. Vesuvius in Sympathy. From Mount Vesuvius there recently came a great quantity of vapour which was saturated with chlorohydric acid, and now all the farmers in the neighbourhood are complaining that their vineyards and other crops have been seriously damaged thereby. The vapour, it appeaTS, became condensed, and fell in the form of acid rain, .which speedily burned all the vegetation on which it fell, The farmers evidently think that the Government is responsible for whatever Vesuvius doep, for they have formally demanded folt compensation for their losses. The Gov<?rament has replied by sending a Commission to study the situation, and to find a remedy if possible. Vesuvius, however, ia still threatening, and the vineyards show no signs of life.

GOOD OLP DiYS. . Oar forefathers might be considered pretty proficient in the invention of inducements; to elicit information from unwilling witnesses or confessions from either guilty or innocent parsons, but they were Eurpssstd by their contemporaries on the Continent. For example, in 1838 Mr. Raikes asd a ftiend vieited the Rath Haus of Carlsbad, asd thus describes the relics he saw:'— * Below are the State prisons—a sickly sight to view. There are in all sixty dungeons, only four feet high, with no furniture save a log of wood for a pillow, and deprived of light —I might almost say of air. Here the sufferings of man must have been interne, but could not have been long. On the same floor is aeen the chamber of torture, with all the implements of cruelty, ÜBed oven as late as the time of Matia Theresa. Pullies, wheels, and weights remain to attest the fact that human beings were racked with sufferings a thousand times worse than death. Ib one instance the arms were bound behind: to a state, the feet fastened ? to stone weights, which I could not lift ground, and at a given signal, the victim was raised towards the ceiling by a pulley, which drßw every, limb from its socket. Another instrument was the 'Spanish Ass'.— a sharp ridgß of wood, on which the victim was placed astride, with weights to his feet, till his body wa3 cut through by his own weight. There was a seat with wooden points for tearing away the flesh, and a pointed roller that was drawn under his back while he lay bound to a wooden bench. We both left this record of misery,' concludes the diarist, 'with feelings of horror, which no narrative in books could have produced.'

SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA, In the Russian press a lively agitation is in progress, with the object of improving the condition of the village tchoolteachese. A school-mistress who has had much experience in the villages contributes an article to a leading St. Petersburg newspaper, which is regarded as a faithful portrayal of the existing state of affairs, She was sent recently a3 assistant to a school whese the master was a named man of 35 years with five children. His annual salary was 200 roubles, about ,£2O. He had been thirteen >ears in the same echool. The poverty in his family was indescribable. With his family he inhabited two rooms, and the poverty and filth combined banished even the beginnings of comfort. The teacher invariably went hungry to school, and the half-wild village children fared badly

at Mb hands. Once a week the school overseer visits the establishment—not the inspsctor. The overseer is a well- to-do peasant appointed to the office by the community. He jokes with the children and is witty at the teacher's expense. He asks him, for example, if he has had a good breakfast. In a school of 140 boys and 25 girls there are altogether 60 books of all sorts—religious and secular. They belong to the school, not to the scholars. Of these, three are on arithmetic and two

on geography. The schoolmistress who contributed the article from which this sketch is taken enjoyed a salary of 50 roubles a year. It is not every village which can support two' teacherß in this munificent fashion. There is a sort of guild of travelling teachers in Bussia believed to be over 2000 in number, who go about from village to village duzing the winter months and teach chiJdren to read. They have had no training, and are largely travelling vagabonds who. are glad of shelter and food during the long frost.

A CPRIOUS GLOBE-TROTIEB. Count Dianovich is a Slavonian who for the past 36 years has been wandering ia all partß of the world with two objects. The first is to gratify, a fondness for walking, which he regards as the healthiest form of exercise, enabliag one to obtain insight into national character and peecs into ideal scenery which are invisible from a rsilway carriage window. His second object is to study the prisons and punishments of every country, and very often he has committed same trifling offence in order to be locked up in some gaol to which admission had been refused him as an ordinary Individual, He has slept in the dungeons of Spain, and has enjoyed' his life in the prison settlements of Siberia. '• ■ . 'I have not been jn London for 80 years,' he told an interviewer, « and the last time I was here I wanted to see the interior of an English penitentiary. I could not get the necessary permisEion, so one day I assumed drunkenness and hit a constable. My end was achieved, and I waß happy. Oh.no; I paid no fine, but weHt to prison for a few days, and I was treated very well. But I shall not do it again, because I am afraid of your solitary confisment arrangement, which mußt be ■ .•■ -^ The Count '-not a poor man, though he confesses he nopes to make money out of a book he is. writing on his travels. Prom his experience of life in every country, cwilised and uncivilised, he thinks that J America is the best place for a poor man, because he can always earn a livelihood there. This globe-trotter, has walked from London to Liverpool and there resting only two days.