TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14841, 5 December 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

, On© of the latest devices Ingenious of the militant suffrabut gettes designed to impress Silly. man with a sense of his

general brutality, is to waste the time and wear out the temper of journalists by bogus telephone calls. Circulars sent out recently from headquarters suggested that this form of irritation would be particularly suitable for those who were debarred from doing anything more active. "Everyone is within reach of a telephone, either public or private, and. the success of the scheme depends, of course, on the numbers who will ha willing to take part." The method of causing tho desired irritation was described in detail. Between eight p'clock nnd midnight, the worker for the cause was to ring.Up a newspaper office, ask for tha editor or on© of the staff, and put this question,: "Are you going to sit in youj office chair and make no protest against tho horrible treatment to which suffrage prisoners are being subjected ?" • Each worker was to be prepared to devote a whole evening to the business, asking the same question of various members of th© staff. "After the first calls, some difficulty may be expected in being put through. In this case originality and some ingenuity should b© exercised. The chief aim should be to keep the line engaged for as long as possible, and a likely and plausible story purporting to be news from soma on© of their correspondent© Bhould be prepared, and dictated to a sub-editor. Thus, the caller might say: 'Will you put mo through to a _üb-editor? This is your York (or Hades) correspondent.' After having detained him for as long as possible, fire the question." Another suggestion was to get the busy newspaper staff to hunt through the files on some plausible pretext, a clever idea from the tormentors' point of view, because nothing takes up more time than looking for things in files, especially when they are riot there. - Concerted action on the part of militants, it was stated, would block th© newspaper's lines, delaying genuine, calls and hampering the staff in their work. "Snubs must not be minded," waa the last injunction, as if 4 suffragette ever minded a snub. The first paper to be "dealt with" was the "Standard." There is no doubt militants could be extremely exasperating to journalists if many of them adopted these ingenious tactics, but, unfortunately for th© cause, the tactics are more silly than they are ingenious. The dramatist or The Real novelist is treading on Mr Whiehello. thin ground when be looks about him in search of a name for a character. Sir Arthur Pinero's experience in connexion with "The Second Mrs Tanqueray," and "The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith," are becoming ancient history. Tho latest dramatist to land in trouble on this score is Mr Henry Arthur Jones, whose comedy, "Mary Goes First," has threatened to involve him in a lawsuit, owing to the name of the heroine's husband. The name about which all the trouble centres is Dick Whiehello, and the bearer of it is an easy-going unambitious tanner in an English provincial town, whose wife forces a knighthood on his unwillin_ shoulders for the purpose of humbling an arrogant parvenu neighbour: Whiehello is not at all, to all appearances, an objectionable or ludicrous, but rather a sympathetic character. However, Mr George Wbichelow, of Bermondsey, who by an odd coincidence, is also a tanner by trade, has taken umbrage and threatened the dramatist with an action for libel. To this threat Mr Jones has replied in a long letter, consisting of twenty-one clauses, which, to put it as briefly aa possible, treats Mr Whichelow's complaint as "silly and trivial," and holds out no hope of jflaking an alteration in the play, either spoken or printed. He offers, however, to print at the beginning of the published play a declaration that "Dick Whiehello of World-stall is not Mr George Whichelow of Bermondsey." Mr Jones explains that he borrowed th© name from an old postman in his native town, who has not, so far, offered any objection to its use. He points out that the names, though similar in sound, are different

in spelling, and indicates that an alteration could at this stage hardly be effected without causing confusion to the players and some detriment to the performance. Mr Jones further declares himself unable to understand "Why Mr Geoige Whicbelow, of Bermondsey, should feel any annoyance at being supposed to bear so-ie small outward resemblance to one who is an honest politician and an honourable man." He offers to place the fictitious Whiehello in a totally different branch of the leather trade to that of his living namesake, and argues (not without a little malice) that "the radical and basic difference in the characters and temperaments of Dick Whiehello, of War-install, and Mr George Whicholow, of Bermondsey, is startlingly shown by the fact that Dick Whiehello's main object throughout tho play is to avoid a silly law-suit." The chief point of the whole affair, of course, as Mr Jones points out, is that if authors are to be subjected to costly libel actions because some character's name happens to bo duplicated in real life, sincere portraiture in fiction and drama will become very difficult and almost impossible. What would Dickens have done if this had been the case? An unusual and highly senLions sational incident occurred not at long ago in Leipzig when, Largo, owing to an accident, eight lions and a tiger . were let loose in the streets of the city. It was just on midnight that the driver of a van containing tho menagerie drew up • opposite a hotel in the Berliner-strasse and dismounted to have a drink. Exactly why he left the rear end of the van projecting over the tram-lino is not explained. But this was what he did, and this was why tho next car which passed (it was a foggy night) bumped into the cage and caused its grated door to swing opsn. The animals, finding themselves at liberty, stepped out and surveyed their surroundings in some perplexity. The lights and the people, who scattered amid cries of terror, aroused them, and they made off, all except the tiger, which, being the last to leave the cage, was induced by its tamer to return. In a German town the fire brigade is tho power to which appeal is made in all unclassified emergencies. It mustered in strength, but none of its apparatus proved of much value. Tho police, who also assembled in force, wero better equipped for tho fray. Armed with revolvers, they set off in pursuit, and soon shots were ringing out on every hand. Then—so runs the story as told in tho English newspapers—the missing driver returned from his drink to find that in its frenzied terror a lion had jumped on tho back of one of his horses. Flinging his arms round the beast he dragged it off by main force, and it next boarded a motor-bus and took possession of the driver's seat, afterwards exploring the interior and descending at the.back by the steps. Two of the other animals, attracted by the brilliantly lighted.vestibule of a fashionable hotel, entered and trotted up the stairs. A lady who was putting her boots outside the door of her room at the timo was reduced to an hysterical condition, but luckily had the presence of mind to slam tho door first. " The two lions were eventually captured, one being shut up by a waiter in the lavatory and another in an attio.i The other.six wore shot by the police after an exciting chase.'The most tragic incident of the chase (except as far as the lions themselves were concerned) was the distress of the trainer, who implored tho pursuers to spare her cherished pets, and even sought to interpose her body between them and the bullets. When sho saw her. beloved animals lying in the street dead she flung herself upon their bodies and wept bitterly.