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TOPICS OF THE DAY

Beforo August, 1911, one A would havo said with confiSimplo donee that ono of the hardTheft, est things in tho world to steal was a picture in the Louvre. But the story of Perugia, the man who stolo "Monna Lisa," shows that theft in the Louvre was quito a simple matter. Perugia, who .is a housepainter, was employed for two years in re-decorating the Louvre. "One day," ho states, "I joined my fellowworkmen at the Louvro, talked a littlo with them, and then quietly slipped away into tbe room in which tho picture hung. The room was deserted, and the pk'turo smiled down at mc. In a moment I had taken it from the wall and placed the framo on the staircase. J slipped the panel under my blouse and walked out, without arousing any suspicion whatever." It is as if a man said: "Happening to be in the Tower of London ono day, I slipped into thc room where the Crown Jewels are kept, took the Cullinane diamond from tho crown, put it in my pocket, and walked out unchallenged." It is only fair to tho Louvre authorities, however, to say that this story is believed to be not quite true, but is thought to havo been told in this form to shield other criminals. Thero is a laugh /-gainst tin. polio in this strange business. Perugia was a convicted criminal, with fingerprints and measurements docketed by the Anthropometrical Department, and with all the other men who had actually been onip'.oyed about tho Louvre afc the tim- of the theft, ho was interrogated by the police, but managed to avoid detection. He actually left a finecrprint on the glass of the picture, and if it hod occurred to anyonn to suspect him, a reference to his ''dossier" in tho police archives would' at once have established his • guilt. A gendarme sent to question Perugia at his lodgings did not know that the picture was lying under some rubbish within a few f.ot of him. Ono would think that almost the first work of the authorities in such a cuso would ho U> enquire minutely into the character and circumstances of all the men about tlio building at the time of the theft. Perugia is a curious character. At latest advices he was maintaining that ho had stolen the picture from patriotic motives, to avengo Italy for the numerous thefts of Old Masters by French troops. "The moral force I experienced alter having achieved so patriotic an action," he said, "enabled mo to bravo the after-visits of tho Paris police at my abode with the utmost cheerfulness and unconcern." This moral fierce will not keep him out of gaol. '

The old-fashioned people In Praiso of who shake their heads Candles. at the comforts' and conveniences of modern civilisation, and refer to the "good old times" when these things were not, as to somo vanished Golden Age, are always with us. Several of them were goaded into joining in a newspaper controversy a little while ago by the "Westminster Gazette's" query: If you had gone to sleep seventy years ago, and awoke to-day, what would be the most astonishing thing? Motor-cars? Aeroplanes? Tho "Gazette" agreed with Mr R. E. Francillon, author of "Mid-Victorian Memories," that it would not.be these, out modern lighting, which would most astonish. "Fifty years ago the light of the home was a candle or two encouraged by snuffers. And this evening the awakened Victorian is dazzled by the electric lights that have abolished night, and the coming of light would be the wonder of the man who had gone to sleep with a tallow candle and awakened to—turn on the switch." This provoked a correspondent signing himself "A.G." to breathe a lament for the vanishing waxcandle. "If you want to write or read, at eventide, with.charity to your eyes," he wrote, "you sign for the old waxcandles and sigh in vain. They are not to be had. You ask for them, you order them, you y 0 v live in a generation that doesn't know tho difference." The'same correspondent denied that snuffeif were used fifty years ago. In 1863, he declared, they had long been abolished by the wire-wick invention, and could barely bo procured for love or money. To him replied "Fortyeight," distinctly recollecting snuffere in his grandparents' homes in the latter 'sixties, and pouring cold water on "A.G.'s" glorifications of the waxcandle. He quoted a case he had known of a family of unusually robust and "bonny" country children, whoso eyes wero all ruined by the use of candles for reading by. A subsequent writer enlarged on the sentimental charm attaching to candle-light, "the sociability engendered by the dancing half-light, tho cosiness, the incentive to familiar talk," and, like "A.G.," sighed n little for the old wax-candle of his youth. "Often I long," he wrote, "for all that went of charm and delight when mystery fled from our kitchen before the onslaught of Rockefeller and his beastly paraffin." Certainly the candle and snuffers are moro picturesque in their associations than the electric bulb and switch, but ono fancies that even the most ardent worshipper of the candle would bo far from delighted if he woke up one winter's morning, like the city man in Max Adder's tale, to find himself back in the days of picturesque but inconvenient iiluminants.

The truth of Napoleon's Diet dictum that "An army and marches on its stomach," •Efficiency, was illustrated by recent tests carried out by the British Army Council to ascertain what rations would give the best results with troops on tho march. The tests wero made in the autumns of 1909 and 1910, and the results wero recently published. In the first experiment the rations were thoso laid down in the regulations. Officers and men, the report states, lost weight, tho former half as fast again as tho men. In tho last fivo days of the experiment the average daily loss of weight was just over .lb in the case of the men, and about Jib in the case of the officers. Tho work dono under these conditions was, moreover, reported to be "by no moans excessive, in view of the exertions that may fairly be expected on field service." Tho report noted that the ration (corned beef, biscuit, jam, potatoes and other vegetables, and various groceries) was deficient in energy value, but that this deficiency could not be made up inside the limit of a 31b ration without over-concentra-tion. . It was suggested that ■»* +l *«

.lb potato ration possessed the least energy value it should be cut out, its place being taken by bacon, cheese, additional jam, peas, or oatmeal, and coffee, milk and sugar. On these lines a new scheme of rations was drafted, and the next year's experiment took place on tbe new lines. At tho end of it the men's appearance was reported to be strikingly different from that on the first occasion. Thero was no emaciation of the cheeks, or sunkenness of the eyes as before, while the work done was greater and the marches over two miles longer. The improvement in the men's condition was attributed chiefly to the fat supplied in tho bacon and cheese, and the bulk furnished by the porridge. Further tentative recommendations of tlie committee are: —Tho abolition of . the "emergency ration," tho lightening of the soldier's equipment, the use of aluminium in the manufacture of water-bottles and messtins, and the issue of one'mincing machine to every company. Summing up the results of its observations, the Committee adds: —"There is no doubt that the better men are fed the better they will be able to work; given plenty of exercise, there need be no fear of overfeeding; "on the other hand, there is no more insidious cause of inefficiency than persistent under-feeding, while there is no necessity to point out the effects on discipline of a ration which must tempt men to supplement their supplies by looting."

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19140129.2.35

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume L, Issue 14887, 29 January 1914, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,333

TOPICS OF THE DAY Press, Volume L, Issue 14887, 29 January 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY Press, Volume L, Issue 14887, 29 January 1914, Page 6

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