INTERESTING EXTRACTS FROM CURRENT MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 9

INTERESTING EXTRACTS FROM CURRENT MAGAZINES.

WHAT ANK.F. MAT NOT DO. , Parliamentary procedure is fearfully and ■wonderfully made, and presents innumerable pitfalls for the new member, says Dr. Micniman in. "Tie Leisure Hour." In. tie first place, you must not on. any sceeunt read a newspaper in the House. If you want to quote a newspaper you must s» fold it np as to mate it look lite a pamphlet to tiie eye of the Speaker whicli yon do not catch. Then of coarse yon may not.stand up in. the House with your hat on: and really yoa ought not to sit down with it off. Years ago nobody sat uncovered In the House save Ministers, ex-Ministers, and Whips. Sow tie matter is not one of such, acute punctilio apparently. Teen of eonrse mere extra-parliamentar-iaa courtesy would prevent you from waitIng between the "Speaker" and the member who is addressing the Sonse; but members of the two front benches may commit this solecism, and may even pat their feet on the table. In addressing the House the time-honour-ed preamble is ''Mγ Speaker, Sir!' or whea the Boose is in Committee, "Mr Chairman." It is a cardinal sin to call a man by his name. Ton speak of hfan as "the honourable gentleman the member for Loamshire." If he is on your side yon say "My honourable friend the member for So-anfl-so;'" if on the other side, you say "the honourable gentleman tae member foe So-and-so." Taat is the correct style of address. But I am glad to note that many men on. the Government side now speak of men on cur side as their "honourable friends;" and we pay them the same compliment. .This is excellent and ought to be encourased. BABIES FOR HIKE. Miss DliTe Christian MaJvery, the wellknown lecturer and reciter, lias followed up her investigations of the lives of the homeless poor of London by a similar examination of how the street pedlars make their living. Here is an extract from the narrative of her experiences which she contributes to the. Christanas number of "Pearson's Magazine":— "I took my stand next to a woman whom I had often noticed standing near the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. In her arm* she carried a baby, and by her side was a, little boy. She ortred matches to the paa-sers-by with a very woeful look indeed. "1 noticed that several people gave her money, and: refused to take her wares. After some little time I entered into conversation with her, and she confided to mc that matca peddling was no good unless you had a baby. She also toM mc that the baby in her arms was not her own, bat one that she got twopence a day for mindIng, while its mother worked in a laundry. Thns the baby brought in money, ln two ways. "I asked her If I could get a baby anywhere. "Sbe told mc tb»n that a regular trade was done in nlred bvOjies, and that if yoa got the right sort it paid very well to have one; 'but they're a Job to carry, my dear,' she said. "However, she premised to find a baby, by next day that I could hire. >My takings amounted to sixpence that day, but the woman with the baby took one shUEng and. niaepence, thus proving; clearly that these poor mites do create sympathy and so increase the profits oX those who bave them. "There is not enougn positive craelrfj to these little ones to warrant tae interference of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,, but it requires little imagination to reaH3e hew ruinous It is fcb their health. i "I hired xot baby foe sixpence from a ■.woman in a. street off the FuHiam-ro*d. The little tMng was quite a professional*. .and I must- admit, in favour of the mother, that she was .a -working woman, _: wlto na.d to leave her children while she was at work, and that she was earnest in he? demand that I should look after tie little one and keep it warm. "I bad it long enough to prove that a baby is * valuable adjunct for a street pedlar. I took two shillings the first two hours I bad it. I ceuM. not bear to keep the mite out longer. • > "It is a cro«l practice. Oae day I counted ten women with babies en Dudgate HilU The whole life of ta* caUteen. of the vagabond class is ernet enough. ■ Nβ one unfamiliar wita their surronadings can realise how grave- a danger to the State are these children bred tn degradation, if not In crime, who are jrowinj op to infest oar dUes." GBArfD OLD MEN OF WORK. Wbo are the "Grand Old Men" wna stni lead their coafreres in profession, art, or science with the dignity added to ta* experience of years? Canada, Austria, and Bnui, says a writer in the "Criterion, ,, divide first Iraaours. The Hon. David Wark, "the Crandfather trf the Dominion. Senate," whose sixty-two years of putrtic service began when England's big cwlony to the nort3» of us first was confederated, is still active in her Interests at one hundred and one. Near Vienna fives and writes Bduard yon BauernfeW, fifty-oae of whose comedies are to-day acted on the stages eC Central Europe, and he too is one year more than the even century. The Viscount Barbacena, of Brazil, whose one hundred and first birthday fen only last July, still ia t* be counted as of erven if no longer in t&e world of diplomacy, which. lie entered as Secretary of the Brazilian. Legation, at London in 182SArrsxtgeA in the order of seniority, t&ese are the ten names which fellow those of tne three leaders:— Mnsic: aSaaaeel Garcia, of Spain 09 Science: Ctates Haynes Haswell, of New York 95 Education: Dr. Eduard Zelier, of Germany -.; 09 Finance: Ecssell Sage, of Xew York.. SS Art: Adolf Menzel, of Germany 87 The Church: Bishop Bo>wtnan, of New Jersey 86 Royalty: Christian 15.. King of Denmark ; S3 literature: Edward Everett Hale and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. (Mas.) 80 Tne Stage: Jobs. H. Stoddart. of New Tort 77 Only the other day Copenhagen was the scene of a festtrxl royal in a double sense, when King Christian, "the Father-in-tiatv of Euiope," celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday. With others in the world of letters walk .Tames X. Trowbridge, seventy-six: Jnle3 Verne, seventy-fire, who, In spite of blind-. ness, has Jest completed h-fs hundredth story m tbet bMrctttnl place of IU3 near Paris, where be is speadias his iast yeats with the gr«s»t I>u«s he loves so v.-eIL; BJornstenie BJ&rosea, seventy: and Justin McCaithy, who, at seventy-four, ta perhaps the most active of all the writing septuagenarians. Ia tie active service of taß Chnreli there are a dozen venerable raboarers, as •nrpil as that oestor of Methodism, Bishop Bowman, of East Orange. Older than hel though no longer in the harness, is the Hight Rev Mgr. O'Retlly, once the kmmate friend of Pope Leo XIIL, who \ mnety. is passing his last years almost as a rednse in the castl«-Uke walls of"the **>="» ° QC * wm*4. by Edwin Forrest £ Moaat St. ytawat, ea tae Bta**^