TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 27 May 1914, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A Lady at the Ringside. One of the characters ik "Willow the King" refers to the type of woman who goes to Lord's, and sometimes looks at tha cricket. An interview in the "Argus" with Mrs R. L. Baker, wife of the well-known Australian boxer and manager of boxing, familiarly known as "Snowy" Baker, suggest* that a similar type is to be found at. boxing matches. Mrs Baker saw "the match in Paris on March 21st between Jeannette, the negro boxer, and Georges Carpentier, the French champion, and the interviewer asked her for her impressions of what had been her first fight. Mrs Baker plunged into a vivid description of the crowd, with its rank and fashion, and the dazzling jewels of the women. "Were you interested in the boxing?" put in the interviewer. "I had little time for what was going" on in the ring. Close to mo was the famous Madame Gourot. whose pearls are said to be the nioafc wonderful in the world. I w_s told that the pearls ehe was wearies- thr * night were worth £40.000." Mrs Baker at length got to Carpentier's entry into the ring, and was describing the enthusiasm of the crowd, when the interviewer again tried to bring her to the i fight itself. "Well, you see, I had never been to a fight before, and just a« the men began to square up to one another in the centre of the ring I saw a woman just in front of mc who had previously attracted my attention. I was told she was a banker's wife " Then followed thirty lines of nrint about this dress and other dresses, after which the inter-newer again mentioned the fight. Mrs Baker described Carpentier's appearance and.manners

~- l»»«4.l. „_J -..^.--.^J,'.^,^^^

' had said nothing about ftjAj. switched off on to the effect of th<&'wl low flares lit for the picture operate on the complexions of the fashionah'l women. "Yes, yes: but have yon.no imptessions of the fight?'* __ tell the truth, I had hardly miring the elaborate costumes nf Paquin. Diecall, Doucet. and the other great dressmakers, and the wondeefaj coiffures of the ladies, including j-j c pink wig, when it'was all over, and the young Frenchman, who had come in a little while before, so spick and spaa, was being led away bruised and bleeding." Mx Baker must really educate his wife. But one has a lurking gag. picion that Mrs Baker has a sense of humour, and that she eouid. if sn ' e would, describe the fight with considerable accurncv.

Smoking Cars. Some interesting particulars of the | warfare which raged around the Question of smoking cars on railways in the early days of locomotion, are nrovided by a writer in "Nates and Queries." During tho first thirty years 0 f the existence of railways a great tobacco persecution was waged by the companies, and with a few exceptions no accommodation was set anart in trains for smokers, and smoking was absolutely prohibited in carriages. . Probably .this veto was to be attributed rather to an apprehension of danger from carelessness than to any belief in the supposed noxious qualities of tobacco. However, in 1339 the inspector of rolling-stock on the London and Birmingham railway recommended attaching a smoking-car to every train, '-as this habit has become almost a necessary of life with many people." The railway companies' by-laws against smoking were vigorously ' onforced. On one occ.-usion. however, tho Great Western Company caught a tartar. A passenger was removed from an ''up" express train by the atationraaster of a country town and handed over to the police on a charge of annoying a fellow-traveller by smoking. When brought before the magistrates nest day he replied to the charge as follows:—"Gentlemen, the offence took place in the County of J' ilte, whereas lam now charged in Berkshire. | am a solicitor-; I was specially engaged in a case which I shall now miss, and I shall sue the company for detaining mc. I respectfully hold that you, in this county, have no jurisdiction over what occurred ia another county." And. true to his word, he sued the company and got £50 damages. In 1803, an extreme case occurred, when a man sued the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was awarded £S. Gs.Sd damages, merely because he smelt someone smoking, not in his compartment, but somewhere in tho train. He based his claim on the danger ho ran from fire and injury to his feelings. Some years previously a correspondent of "The Times" had complained that tobacconists' windows were full of cunningly contrived "railway pipes," adapted for instantaneous concealment. The railway smoking question figured prominently in the pages of "Punch'- during the 'fifties, and, 'sixties. The arst "smoke*" was introduced on the Eastern Counties Railway in September, 134(3. But the. warfare between smokers and non-smokers continued unabated until two years later legislation was introduced, compelling all railway companies except the Metropolitan Uaifway Company to provide smoking compartments on .passenger trains. The Metropolitan Railway obtained it 3 exemption on grounds of special circumstances, but it, too, yielded- to tfc* pressure of public opinion a few years later. .