NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 263, 10 November 1906, Page 9

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

~ Falhe v Vanghan exaggerate when !■■:<? -v Farm-street on country fiC " manners r Thai well-informed 'IoHtV. PhUipP-. i» "Vanity Fair," .." tome iiinazinn insfanci-a which yo " n nrove th Jt Fatiu'V Ynughan did not iKSe. M- -----A man told only llie olhpl ' '!". v 1,,al hf> was ff!rin?" with some of the -spl" whom £S?Vawgh*» attacko.l so ably dm- ■* the season and Ih.it tmih men and i en played, leapfrog in the ball in L evening after dinner. I'hu hostess a "i' wt naniP, rtnrt many or the v* were well-known men and women f ae g oc ietr. I have heard and seen aoMlled amusements in country houses Lide which leapfrog would Ik> considerda eanie of great refinement and eraitaste, and I will give two intonces that came under my own notice. \ (rirl well known in a certain hunting ; irc c ] P (old mc she- was slaying with .oine ppop lo - anJ after clinner » in lbe Vllisrd-room. a- man came up to her and said 'Do let mc ' vpi^h ■ you " i!ist, X - r «ill carry you across the room." There were woighins scales in the room—but jj e laughingly and quite good-naturedly Refused." He then actually paid, 'Well, look here, if y n » don't let mo earn- you Ishall empty my whisky and soda down tbe back of your pretty white frock.' jhe, never for a moment supposing he ras'in earnest., .said. 'All right, you can, but I shan't, be weighed." and a raomrnt later he actually turned at least half Ijs iriiisky and soda down the back of ler Deck, amid roars of laughter from tvervone. Xow. I don't believe even the Georgian period can beat this for sheer downright vulgar impertinence. The other story was related to mc by a male relation of ray own. He was stayjnir -vrjth a very well-known hostess, and after dinner the woman next, to him, duriu" a slightly heated argument, lifted her finger bowl and poured the water <]oini his neck. His retaliation was to put the whole of his grape skins down the back of her dross —a punishment I really think she brought on herself. Hampstead Heath, or what is known as the 'non-genteel' end of Margate, cannot hope to excel this in behaviour. Therefore, when Father Vaugban attacks a certain set for their tendency towards 'horseplay,' he by no moans exaggerates."

■yajor Driant, who has returned to Paris after following the German army manoeuvrpf. says that while individually the French soldier is quite as good a< the German, the hitler's discipline h much better. The German generals, he thinks, are decidedly more capable than the French. Only hi the artillery does he consider that the French have any real superiority. Major Driant. was struck by the hatred of F:ncrlnnd showr. ty the Germans. "While he was dining »t a military a German officer sudtienly rose, and tinned to him. and proposed the toast: "Dowr with our commen pnemv. Enarlaiid!"

The oatmeal ami herrings which are Ik traditional fare of the Aberdeen •Student were replaced /cir once hy an fcntortsMmicnf of Capunn inugniftcpr>ce. u-ord §trt\ttscona's linnqucT for 2500 guests was served in a specially-built Jiall by 700 attendants at 7.'! tables. The apparatus included 2."i.00fl plates. 4000 rnfree dislics. 04.00 C knive?. forks, and ?poon.-\ and 1-2.000 vrnr glasses, while Jiinefy turtles found the Qimrtercenifnary an important, date in their hifh(rto placid existence. While Aberdeen "thus added to its honours that of a "record -7 in academic festivity. London, it seem-, was privileged to participate in ib ,, aeliievmeni by supplying the whole of the eatable-, drinkable*, ami organisation. The scale which allotted only fifty clonk-ronni attendants to V - -,-000 winp jrlasers -eemed io prove a remarkable confidence in tin- -trcnig h'.'ad« of the Granite City.

A revolution for a. shitt i= thr , latest ttory in U.S. nnval circles. Commander H. 11. Soiiihcrland. commanding the Dominion Squadron, i-- accused by broth'T officers of starl ing a- revolution in the island because he needed a shirt. 11,. had trnnpferred hi? flag from toe Dixie t< 1 the Yankee, leaving nil lie dean ou (he former. Hie. was ordered to Havana and he was left shir! •"* As the only menus of getthig back tl" , pirnjpiits hi; h alleged to have informed the Navy Dopartmont a I Washington that a fip>h revolution had broken out on tin. inland iiud insisted on tli» l'Kie being sent back.

An incident which ha- taken plnee. in -Algeria brine? out in a pathetic, manner be extremes to which the Moslem population raay be driven in their ignorant llr «td of European hospital-. And old B «geantof Native sharpshooters named *« Ailed, finding a painful ?om developing on the small too of the left '«*, simply out. ihat part of the toe a * a . v with his clasp knife, and went *»°ut as well ns he could. cutting the Mc toe away when the infection apSγ on the stump. This sent moruncation into the whole foot, and then M! surgeon, from whom the matter ,7° longer be concealed, urged the "ospital. Thai was enough. Fearful "avin ff "une.lo.an meals'- foisted on J a 2 poor Ben Ailed sccre.tcd himself, to! RUdl r;,ums y appliances as he J', Oblain r -ut the lower part of his ™ 'eg- away.

fc, mor|J thai hardy annual—What B r3 , f gc " tlf,ma bloomed. In the gjoni West (tiding <.: fnll -t. il has boon s[ * d thai ,v, 'in the spppirtl jury μ-tisp, while a Clayton individual, whom degrw; has Iven struck off the I foundedlt 1S eonfllEion made more con- | T Mal vi ls uoi so lonfr einco "Tudye i son dc «<l p d tha.t a school- i Wnn* 0 ? 03 " b " ''' in fact, j Vw?-^" 5 ar "' Mr - Juaticc be a 1 ~ d down thai a Pointer may ! from t T ntlem an, especially if h* suiTer j idea] $ eoilt ' Mark Twain found his i ~/ B Pnlle Di'in in his own coach- ! aßfl' nff '' 0 was ''all honour, honesty,! ether ■K^™ , "' 3L '- ITall ( ' ai » r '< " n the code nf v ' ODr ' C S;lirl th3t tllft modern ! l:-a ced \ our f " r n pentleman em-I «vclv t , P rmci P les —"to liv P esppii-' in c .a.! H cheat Jn business but never' OJ and always to li e in defence I VnM, Onia, i-" Miny will prefer the! eaeSfto i dofiniiio)l: "A rrn.tlem.in is j W e •■ l !' avi "S iwked you if you will Hvm. i whiek J. leaves'you to

South Wales footballers this season seem to be suffering from an epidemic of lapses of memory. In one game a player, who has received a slight blow, went on playing in capital form, but was found at the end to have no'recollection _of anything that occurred after his accident, neither the result nor who had scored. In another game an international forward so far forgot his scheme of the. universe and his own place in it that he. persisted in "scrumiiiinfj" for the wrong side. It in to b<« hoped that this football foigetfulness will not become a recognised incident of Hi.-: game; if \t doc?*, aggrieved players may take to kicking the referee instead of the ball and explaining that this was due not to los* of temper, but to loss of memory us to who or what the referee was.

The Cunard Company have gone a long way back for the name of the leviathan that was launched in September, but even though they went to classical for it—Mauretania, of course, Ihe ancient Roman name for Morocco— it is something that ther were able to find a place name that had already the distinctive '-in' , termination and wanted no alien affix to make it conform to the Cunard rule. English place-names I have not helped much to facilitate the J task of naming Cunorders, so few of I them have the proper ending. In ono or two instances the company have token a place name and finished 1t off in their own way. The Cardiganshire place name Caron and the little Irish town Lucan, for example, were Latiuised to christen the Caronia and Lv-

Why is the printer's errand boy called the "'printer's devil?' , A writer at the end of the seventeenth century explained it thus:—"These boys in a printing house commonly black and dawb themselves; whence the workmen do jocosely call them devils; and sometimes spirit?, and sometimes flies." It is related, however, that Aldo Manuzio. the great Venetian printer of the fifteenth century, had a black slave boy, who was popularly supposed to have come from below. Accordingly he published a notice—-'I Aldo, Manuzio, the printer to the Doge, have this day made public exposure of the printer's devil. All who think he is not flesh and blood may come and pinch him.' .

The fate of a prosperous German hotel proprietor, who believed that the tip ought to be abolished, and tried the experiment of living up to his principles on tour. i« instructively set forth by a Lausanne correspondent. One week of it in Germany and Switzerland was j enough for Ilerr firaitfr's wife and daughter, who abandoned the tour in disgust, and three weeks converted He it I Cirsiiior himself to the invincibility of the tipping system. Everywhere his comine appears to have been signalled, by some filch arrangement of cabalistic marks : r.s that which thieves and cadgers eraploy to warn their friends of dangerous or useless houses. No one ever met TFerr Orauer nt a station., or saw him and his luggage into an omnibus. He had garments lost and spoiled; he wa-J- served la>t at dinner; he had to linir half an hour for hot water, which proved to be cold: and no one would do anything for him. It is well that a man of moral courage and a tough German constitution has tried the experiment, but few will think of following his exuAnple. Those odd francs or marks have now been proved to be the only way to make a holiday il go."

A new disease has broken out) in Pittsburg. It is known as the ''auto>mobile heart/ and physicians, without joking, declare that it is a serious thing. Senator William Flynn, the Republican boss who made a largo part of ins fortune paving the streets of Pisssburg, is the first victim. For a. long lime he has been an automobile enthusiast, and has spent all of his leisure time riding about the city in his machine. His physician has forbidden him to ever step into an auto again, and declares that if he does not obey tho injunction he wiJl not be responsible. There is only one explanation of the origin of •"automobile iheart." . It is produced by the constant vibrations of the machine as it passes over the cobblestones of a eit3 r street, as in billy I'ittsburg. Here it is necessary to pave many of the streets with cobblestones instead of asphalt. Senator Flynn told his physician that he would only ride on asphalt streets, but the physician declared that the disease had such a hold on him that even that would be dangerous. So Senator Flynn locked up his garage. He had promised to buy an automobile for his son, Rex, a Yale football player, but after he discovered that, he Siad an '".automobile heart" he refused to do so and will send Rex mi a trip around the world instead.

Sonic interesting advice to would-be stylists is given by .\lr. Stead in "Cassoii's Magazine." They should practise their pro.se. lip Rnys, by writing letters To women "whom they ardently love." Practice of the kind is not, as a matter of inrt. infrequent, aud the value of the pxeroipe is sometimes tested by the readin cr aloud of the letters in a. court of law. It is then generally found that they treat of a very ..mited range, of subjects: and that, though the sentiments may h< 3 lofty, the panting grammar toils after them in vain. Of course there are exceptions to the rule; one finds such exceptions in some of Keats's letters, and in some of Browning's. But it is doubtful whether the average stylist has much Ito gain by following Mr. Stead's counsel. Flifi natural faults, in most cases, run in the direction of over-statement, and {in a. failure to sco things in their true proportion. Who will maintain that these are fauits likely to disappear be-

rnnse we are writing under the immediate influence of "ardent lore"? "We nre more likely, in sno.u circumstances, to herin by "piling up the adjectives, - ' ond ito conclude with a series of hieroglyphic i crosses —methods by no means caleulatr<l tr> give a writer rank among the masters of English pro?e. I ——~-^~- Numbers of English ictors are being i killed by •■Postcarditis." It is a disease ! that may prove fatal to many of our : mos-t popular mummers. One of the 1 chief assets of the "footlight-favourite" lis bis or her fatal beauty. Sometimees, it. is the only aseet. When hundreds of j thousands of theatrical postcards arc I being said, one becomes weary of a given j face. Illustrated papers and proprietors ' of mouth-washes are n"t doing any real 1 good to the theatre. One gets tired to 1 death of pictures representing grinning I girls, who smile, not with their eyes, but with their mouths. It seems to be the object of all ladies in light opera to be photographed as snapper-exhibitions. When you have grasped the fact that I Miss A's tombstones owe their whiteness j to Ono, and that Mr B's collar is made I of Obosh you are very liable to regard J these people merely as hoardings and J^ never dream of paying to sea.them act.