ABOUT PEOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1860, 20 September 1913, Page 12

ABOUT PEOPLE.

I MR. ROOSEVELT'S NEW TRAVELS. I ! ©

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt in the early part of 1914 will take a trip into the Paraguayan and Brazilian interior, whore he expects to travel by canoe and on foot through tho great South American tropical forest. His experiences, observations of the country, tlio people, and the animal life, will appear solely in "Scribner'a Magazine." Dr. Nanson's Voyage to the Yenisei. Dr. Nansen left Vardo, in tho Norwegian steamer Ivorrect (1800 tons) last month for tho_ mouth of the Yenisei. The voyage is being undertaken for an Anglo-Norwegian iirm in the hope of opening up a regular trade route during tho summer months. The Korrect will carrya Russian Government cargo to the Yenisei and will return with a private mercantile cnigo which already awaits it. This return cargo will consist partly of hides from Mongolia, which have befin brought down tho Yenisei from a depot at Ifrasnoyarsk. Tho expedition will rcceivo advices from the Russian Government's new wireless stations on the Yugor and Kara Straits as to what passage is ico free, and on these messages will depend whether tho Korrect goes by tho Yugor Strait, tho Kara Strait, or the Matyushin Strait, or circumnavigates Nova Zomlya. A Hero's Death. "Tho story of Mr. .Grant, the British telegraph operator in Mongolia, who chose to be shot with his Chinese followers rather than desert them in their extremity, makes proud reading for his fellow Britishers,"' says tho "Star." "Grant's heroism: was of the kind that fosters the truest patriotism. 111 tho history of our nation •.hero is a long chain of deeds 'like his, recognised upon the instant as tho veritable product of the virtue of courage _In its highest form. There is the shino of tho true gold about themj, and wo aro patriotically proud that it is British gold. "Grant was- a telegraph official under the Chinese Government,; 'in a tour of- inspection with four Chinese in a district terrorised by tho raids of Mongol desperadoes. He and his party were captured, and tho Mongols decided to kill tlio Chinese. " 'Grant was told that ho could go on to Kalgan after his camera had been destroyed, but he refused to abandon, tlio Chinese. The Mongols gave him tho choice of going away at oi'-e or being shot with the Chinese. Grant choso the latter, and as he stood in front of the firing party he taunted the Mongols with their cowardice and laughed in their faces until the Mongols wondered at his bravery.' "

An Earthquake Detective. Of Professor Milne, the seismologist, or eurthquako detective, who died in tho Isle of Wight last month, ''7he Times" says:— , "Ho was appointed in 1875 to the chair of geology and Mining in tho Imperial College of Engineering at Totyo. Though he continued to lecture on geology for nearly twenty years, ho soon becamo absorbed, like his friends, in tho study of seismology. In a country in which a thousand shocks aro fc'fc on an average every ycar ; and which is visited by a destructive earthquake overy few years, tho materials For research were ample. Milne founded the Soismological Society of Japan in 1880 He often claimed that the foundation of this society marked an epoch in the history of seismology, and his claim will be freely admitted. To-day Japan is covered with hundreds of ooservng stations.

"In July, 1895, Professor Mtlne and his wife, a Japanese lady, arrived in England and took up their residence at Shide. In less than three weokß a. brick pier had been built and a light horizontal pendulum installed upon it— the beginning of an observatory which is now well Known in every country 4n tho world.

" 'Proposals were made for establishing a network of stations all over tho world. Milne took up the new iino cf work with characteristic enorgy. His horizontal pendulum, known as the Milne seismograph, was improved and adopted as the standard instrument, and within a dozen years nearly 50 pendulums were installed in all parts of tho world, chiefly in Great Britain and tho colonics. Each year Milne analysed the records obtained from theso instruments, and ho had determined approximately the position of tho origins of 57 world-shaking earthquakes a year.' "

Faithful to His Glass. Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., last month 6aid that he had been told that his end might com© suddenly. He hoped those who remained when he had passed into tho shadows would bo able to say that whatever old Keir Hardie was, he was at least faithful to tho class from which he came.

Shoemaker's Son as M.P. "Mr. James Haslam, the British Labour M.P., who died last month, was born in the mining village of Clay Cross nearly seventy-one years ago. He was tho son of the village shoemaker," says the "Manchester Guardian." "His education was of the most meagre character, being imparted in a makeshift educational institution known as the Stable School in his native village. At the age of ten he went.to work at the pithead, his hours being twelve per day, and his minimum, and maximum, wage tenpence per day. Until the age of sixteen he was a surface worker; but then went to work underground, passing through all the stages of the collier's calling until he became a sitallman (a sub-contractor with men employed by him). At the ago of thirty-nine, after twenty-three years' work underground, Mr. Haslam left tho mines finally to undertake tho risky experiment of organising a minors' union for his native country of Derbyshire."

Premier and His Sons. "In the award of honours issued by the examiners in the Final Classical School, Oxford, appears the namo of Mr. Cyril Asquith, younger son of the Prime Minister, as having taken a first in Classical Greats," says the "Telegraph." "In 1911 Mr. Cyril Asquith got a first in Classical Moderations, and in tho same year won the Hertford Scholarship, tho Craven falling to him in the year following. He has thus, with small variation, repeated the remarkably brilliant record of his father, itlio Premier, and his elder brother, Mr. Raymond Asquith, both of whom, lileo-himself, were scholars of Balliol. "The Prime Minister was elected to a Fellowship at Balliol in 1874, and Mr. Raymond Asquith to a Fellowship at All Souls' in 1902. Doubtless Mr. Cyril Asquith will go on to make the parallel complete in this respect also."

A Groat Cambridge Scholar "The dinner held last month in Cambridge, attended by a concourse of scholars and men of science from all parts of tho kingdom, to celebrate tho sixtieth birthday of Prof&sor William Ridgeway is an event of more than personal interest, says tho "Manchester Guardian." "For Hie last quarter of a century, more than any living scholar, he has been the master of them that know; his pupils and oompanions have gone out into a score of different provinces of work inspired with a passion for the que-st of truth—missionaries, teachers, litorarv critics, Indian administrators, geologists, horso-trainors. architects,

classical soholars, psychologists, and a multitude of antiquaries busy .'ni almost every Jleld of tim© from palncolitliio man to tho Middle Ages of the Celt and Saxon and Norman. Tlio characteristic feature of tho function was tho presentation to Professor Ridgeway of a substantial volumo of Essays and Studies written in h'a honour."

Lord Rosebery as Farmer. Lord Rosebery seems to havo dono with tho House of Lords. He has not been soe-n there tho whole of this session, and l ho has only appeared there two or three times since tho passing of tho Parliament Act. I understand that he is talcing grea.t interest in scientific farming and agriculture, and is arranging for tlio equipment of his farms in" Scotlnnd with everything that tho modern scientific agriculturist requires," says tho London correspondent of the "Liverpool Daily Post." ' Special attention is lieing dovoted to intensive culture, and" tho latest methods will be omployed. 'Cincinnatus lias returned to his' plough,' his lordship is reported to. havo said when he was talking over his plans." "Ralph O'Connor" In London. "Ralph O'Connor," tho Canadian novelist, is in London, and has been preaching there. Ho spoke to the, "British Weekly" almost with awe of the impression made upon him by London, as he revisits it after nineteen years. Frankly he acknowledged that on his previous -visit he had not yet developed the historic senso. Twontv years ago there was a keen national feeling among young Canadians, but there was no cloar consciousness ot their relation to tho Empire. "When I come back to-day and revisit the historic places, and feel the tides of life pouring through tho arteries of London, or watch, as I did on Saturday from tho top ot an omnibus, tho flow of traffic through its central thoroughfares, I realise tho mighty Imperial significance of this cjty at tho heart of the Empire. "There is ono other point, Dr. Gordon continued. "I never realised l>eforc what an immense tiling it is for tlio Empire to have a great, new, and magnificent nation like Canada springing"up to be its buttress and bulwark.