A READER’S MEDLEY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 93, 14 January 1935, Page 7

A READER’S MEDLEY

See Fever < Miss Mary Smith, in 'ninety-three. Went down to swim in neck-to-knee. But now it’s nineteen thirty-four— Well. Mary Smith can swim no more, But finds, in watching swimming suits, More intellectual pursuits. It Hap pence To-day. DEATH OF LORD NAPIER Forty-five years ago to-day there died Lord Napier,tyvho won the shortest war in British history. He was sent against the Abyssinians in 1868, and within two months had landed his men. marched 420 miles up country, won the war and embarked his army, even to the last drummer. It won , him a Field-Mar-shal's baton, the thanks of Parliament, a pension, a peerage, freedom of cities and university degrees. This Napier is not to be confused with the Sir Charles Napier who wrote the shortest and wittiest dispatch in history: “Peccavi” —I have Seinde. Dramatic Moments. TWO MEMORABLE EVENTS A cable from Paris states that the case of Captain Froge. a French officer with a distinguished tecord. appears to be developing into a repetition of the Dreyfus case. Dreyfus was falsely accused, and basely betrayed. He walked out of his house one morning in October, 1894. and bis child went with him to the door. He appeared at the War Office in Paris at nine o’clock. There he was arrested. In December a secret trial was held, and be was pronouuced guilty of treason. A few days afterwards he was de graded before the troops. An officer tore his buttons from his tunic, snapped his sword, and threw it to the ground* The troops jeered. He was handcuffed. The ciowd made a rush at him. And all the time he knew he was an innocent man. After five years of torture of mind and misery of bodv on Devil’s Island under <i blitzing sua he proved it. A\ new trial was held ■ The court was crowded—and all the world with compassion in its heart was looking on. In the dock stood a man who bad suffered as few men nave ever suffered. He pleaded. “Not Guilty.” There yvere hours of anxiety and doub't. but bit by bit an unbelievable plot was laid bare. In a breathless moment the jury gave their verdict. It was. "Not Guilty.” Hi