HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 88

HERE AND THERE.

• — Torturing Prisoners in America. — The torture of witnesses in American prisons, as recently in the case of the Chanaman alleged to 'have assisted in the murder of Miss Siegel, is a regular police method' of extracting confessions. It is used at times in oases of robbery as well as of murder and other hideous crime, and is employed by Pinkexton's detective agents as well as by the officers of the iaw. The chief instrument is the "sweat box." That in the Tombs Prison in New York is a tiny apartment constructed entirely of iron and stone. Its door jls of massive iron bars so arranged as to prevent the entrance of the slightest ray of light. Outside is another iron door of sheet iron which does not close flush, so that the air can get to the screens through the edges of the ovexlappings of the sheet-iron door. This cell has been found, when tested, to contain sufficient air to allow of free breathing, but it produces' a sensation of suffocation which usually has the desired effect upon the prisoner's nerves. According to statements published in reputable American newspapers, refinements of- cruelty are sometimes employed against suspects ; for example, their bread is salted and they are then refused water, or an electric "tapper" operates for hours on a sheet of glass just outside the dark ceil. Last year at Newark, New Jersey, a man accused of murder was kept sleepless for ' three days end compelled to put on the blood-stained clothing of the victim. This induced a confession which was afterwards proved to be false. After a Chicago murder some years ago the corpse was carried to a vault and placed in- a sitting posture, ' the right arm and hand being propped up in such a manner that the index finger pointed directly at the face of any person entering the vault. Suspected persons were then made to •confront the accusing finger of the dead man, and' were watched for signs of nervous* collapse. There are occasional newspaper protests against these anr* similar barbarities, which are, of course, utterly unwarranted by either law or justice, but it sems to be nobody's 'business to interfere. ] — Spirit Photography. — A Spirit Photography Commission was set up last November at the instance of Mr Sinnett, a well-known spiritualist and! writer on theosophy, who invited the Daily Mail "to investigate the whole matter and take evidence in a systematic way." The result of the inquiry is that two reports have been issued, both of which show very clearly that where the experiments in spirit photography are carried out under scientific conditions, so as to preclude any possibility of deception, spirit photographs cannot be produced. The commission was composed of seven members. Three were spiritualists and. three were expert photographers, while the seventh member was an independent investigator representing the Mail. The three spiritualist members report that the experiments failed because the experts had not undergone any preliminary study of spiritualism, though they go on to add that "with perseverance it might have been just possible to arrange" experimental demonstrations. Yet, as the experiments have been protracted over a period of several months, it would seem that ample opportunity has been given for the ghostly forces to manifest their power, and as they did not do so the public will draw the obvious conclusion. The three photographic experts slate plainly that "no evidence whatever, experimental or otherwise," has been forthcoming to support the contentions of the spiritualists, and that what spirit photographs were produced or submitted: were sapable of a matter-of-fact explanation. Unbiassed men, aftei this (says the Daily Mail), will conclude that spirit photographs are really due, when any image or writing appears -on the plates, to defects or fog in the plates, to double exposures, or to adroit manipulation, and are not the result of some mysterious psychic farce. — How Chinese Like Their Eggs. — Dr Maleguon, who has dwelt long in China? gives some curious details of the food of the Chinese. This is what he says of the "Sons of Heaven" and the way they eat eggs: — "The Chinese are great eaters of eggs, which they take hard boiled. One finds them in all the roadside places for refreshment. The Celestials have an expression, 'Eggs of a hundred years.' The eggs are not always a century old, but you are able to get them of many years' standing. The Celestials have a preference for the egg of the duck or goose. They are placed with aromatic herbs in slaked lime for a period more or less long, the minimum time of treatment being five or six weeks. Under the influence of time the yolk liquifies and takes a dark green colour. Tne white coagulates and becomes green. The product of the eggs, which have a strongodour, from which a stranger betakes himself quickly, the Chinese eat as hors d'oeuvre, and it is said to have th.c taste of lobster." — Indiscriminate Drugging. — Neither doctors nor Christian Scientists will much relish Dr Wiliam Osier's recent address to the Ontario Medical Association at Toronto. He denounced the practice of indiscriminate drugging, rather rejoicing in. the fact that he had been branded as a "therapeutic nihilist." His theory k that students should be thoroughly grounded in the properties of a dozen principal drugs, and acquire practical knowledge of their use in hospital training under skilled direction. The defects of the pre.«ent methods, he insisted, are fhown in the ineffectiveness of the mode of treating pneumonia; but his own method he did not reveal. With faithhealing Dr Osier has as little patience as he has with quack doctors. "As a profession," he said, "we took our origin in the cult of iEsculapius and the Temp.\e of

Sleep, and the interpretation of its dream* was carried on into the Christian Church. The cures of Lourdes and of St. Anne de Baupre have their exact analogies in ths mysteries of Epidauros. All these depend on mental receptiveness. But we must' recognise their limitations. The prayer of faith nowadays neither sets an alarm nor stays the epidemic of typhoid fever. The less the clergy have to do with hysterical patients the better for the patients and for the credit of the cloth." — Socialism Foredoomed to Failure. — SociaJiiste gienerally, 6ays Xord Avebury, in Peace aaad Happiness, defend their policy by the argument thai the present state of things is unsatisfactory and indefensible. But we may feel this without being Socialists. " Socialism is fatal to individual enterprise and to freedom. As an economical problem, it is foredoomed to failure. It would check production, and thus reduce the supply of food and other necessaries. But what is worse is that it implies implicit submission to the decree of the State-?*, c., of State officials. What led to the tyranny and eventual ruin of the Roman and other empires? Some of the chiefs were able and .excellent (men — -Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, Antonious, Pius, and others were, proverbial for wisdom and virtue. But such a ■State is an organised., bureaucracy. If the State is to undertake the responsibility of ■feeding and clothing and housing us; we must eat what is provided, wear wha>t is supplied us, live where we are sent, . and do what we are told. We shall have no choice left, -either for ourselves or our children. We shall no longer select our own profession or theirs : this will be done for us by th^ clerk of the lo*cal councillor, one --of his employees. This is bureaucracy, or, rather, slavery, and is incompatible with economical production, with progress or with freedom. We cannot therefore look for improvement 'in that direction. But I believe we shall avoid those dangers, and am firmly con* vinced that the world will, advance." — Nonconformists' Rights. — Closing the discussion in which it rather daringly endeavoured to show the right of a, Nonconformist to the communion at the hands of Anglican clergy, the Spectator says : "Once accept the notion that the Church, of England is simply an episcopal sect, rigid and exclusive, and the grounds either in policy or equity on which it can base its claim to be established and national are reduced to the vanishing-point. That being so, we are most anxious to maintain what .the law of t&e land has alwatys 'maintained — namely, that a. .mam does , not 'ase his rights in the church or his status as a parishioner^ because he is a, Nonconformist — that is, does not conform to all theceremonies and rites "of the church, and, further, has attached himself to some other and more exclusive church. He is in no sense excommunicate ox driven out of the church, but -is merely what the law has always called Mm, a Nonconfo-mdst, and a Nonconformist who has the right to occasional conformity, and who will be protected in its exercise." The Academy (on the clerical side) replies hotly that it hopes its contemporary will be punished for these subversive and insidious doctrines in its tenderest part — its circulation. " All loyal churchmen should give Mr Strachey clearly to understand that he will lose their support if he cannot make up his mind to draw some sort of lint to his ' broad-minded tolerance.' AH through the late education controversy the Spectator supported- the enemies of the church, and it has now got to the pitch of saying practically that there is no church at all in the spiritual sense, and that it really makes no difference whether a man conforms or oiot. This is * despicable creed, but it is also-a dangerous and deadly creed." , — Five Queer Places.— Doubtless the most unique spot in Europe is the little village of AJtenberg, where on its borders four countries meet. It is ruled by no monarch, has no soldiers, no police, and no taxes. Its inhabitants speak a curious jargon of French and German combined,, and spend their days in 1 farming the- land/or working in the valuable calamine .mine of which it boasts. The little town oi Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, possesses the most unique school sea-vices ever known. Two .travelling schoolmasters are provided by the Government, who visit the different families where there are children, and give instruction. The length of their visit depends on the astuteness of th© children, and they may spend days or weeks, as the casa may be, at one house alone. ' A town boasting of. a railway station which cost £4000 to erect and a dulyappointed stationmaster, and yet having no train service, is unique beyond dispute. Dundee, in New Jersey, is in this predicament, the inhabitants having actually no trains, although their fine station is available for any amount of traffic. The reason given for this strange^ fact is that so long as the trains run through the inhabitants ought to be satisfied. There is a place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, well known to mariners, where there is never any Christmas Day. This is owing to its being in the ons hundred amd eightieth degree of longitude and directly opposite to Greenwich, and therefore 12 hours ahead of Greenwich time. In a journey around > the I globe the other- 12 hours would hare to 1 be mark«d out of the navigator's calendar, and if this point crossing the A<ntdpod«s is touched on Christmas Eve then therecan be no Christmas Day. j In on& of the West India islands there is a colony of some 800 whites amd blacks ' where there are neither towns nor villages nor fresh-water supplies— in fact, there ia such a scarcity of everything that the* Government has to send food and employment to the inhabitants to keep them from starving. Salt fish and sweet pota*

"LINSEED COMPOUND" for CougSa and Colds. Loosens phlegm, allays irritation,.

foes are the staple foods of the Aaiguillas, -raid the only water obtainable is brackish and tainted by tbe sea. — A Millionaire Story.- — A striking product of finanoiaJ America was Darnel Drew, a Wall street speculator, who at on© time (1865) was the richest ma© in the United States, worth, it is said, 13,000,000d01. Drew began life as a cattle-drojer, but with the assistance of a New York butcher, Henry Astor— a brother of the great millionaine, John Jacob Astor— he bought cattle in Ohio and drove them himself over the Alleghany Mountains, each journey occupying two months. In tune he opened a cattleyard in New, York, made money, paid Astor back has loan, and in .the end became a creat power in Wall street, where be was Known as " Uncle Daniel." He never altered his attire, but still dressed in tbe slovenly clothes of his cattle-drov-ings day. Like Vanderbilt, Drew was absolutely ' uneducated. Hie pronounced the word shares "sheers," and Vanderbilt spelt boiler "boylar." Neither man believed in- books, keeping all their gigantic accounts in their heads, and Drew's • specolations were colossal. One evening he entered- a club in which were assembled a -number -of* men of the financial world. Old Daniel ran in, as if to look for some important stockbroker, and the© ran _out' again . ' ' • "Guess Dari'l has some points," said one. "He's on the 6coop,"'said a second. "It 'would be worth a few million dollars to know i what's in Uncle Daniel's head," said a third. Drew re-entered the room more excited than x he left it. Carelessly pulling a large pocket-handkerchief otrfT of bis pocket to wipe his fevered brow, he drew with it a small piece of white paper, which fluttered to the floor, apparently unseen by Jrim. Then he hurriedly departed. A rush was made for the slip of papth*, on which were written, in his own handwriting, the following ominous words: ""^uy me all the OshkMi stock. you can, at any price you can get it* below par." Here was news indeed! All thought that particular stock was already too hagh ; this accidental discovery clearly showed they^ were wrong. Some new move was, no doubt, imminent ; not a moment was to ?v3 lost. All those present joined, and the Jtrst thing the following morning purcbated 30,000 shares from a broker whom old DTew had in wait for them, and he scooped in an enormous profit. In finance, as in any other game, it is the tricks that win th©*"pool.