CHATTY MOMENTS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 41, 28 May 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHATTY MOMENTS.

} and, above all, without straining. ) At the headquarters of the QueenV I Work for Women Fund in Portland-' I place—the house kindly lent for the : purpose bv Lord Blyth— is a disappear- • ing wall, supposed to lie the only one '. oi its kind in London. This wall is siti uated on the ground floor, and connects ! the morning-room and tne dining-room. : It is hung with pictures, and also shows : a big mahogany door. It was built some twenty-five years ago. At the pressure of a button, much in the same way as i old sliding panels used to act, the whole ! wall, with pictures, draperies, door, j etc., glide-, down into the basement, and ! the two already large rooms are con- ' verted into an immense one. Neither I when the wall is up nor when it is down ; is there anv indication that the solid I wall can ever move. One use of the disappearing wall is to enable both looms to be Hooded every morning with air and sunshine from one sid eot the house to the other. 1 The visit of Garibaldi's son to London in connection with the raising of 30,000 men for the Garibaldi Legion brings to mind that it was Lord Fisher who had the honour of introducing Garibaldi himself to the British Navy in the year i ls'.(jO, fiftv-five year.-, ago. Garibaldi was d»)ighted with the reception which lie .r„t. from our sailors at Portsmouth. As They sail-' tin' Italian National anthem, tear- rolled down his cheeks. The Italian liberator received a tremendous wel- ! come on arriving in the Metropolis. I lie Duke of Sutherland's four-horse carriage, which conveyed the popular hero . from Waterloo to Stafford House, took 1 mx hours to force its way through ihe crowds of cheering people who throng'ed the route. Afterwards the carnage literally fell in pieces in the coachi house, 'having been strained to break-ing-point by the weight of the thousands of strong arms which had clung to its sides as it passed through "a Loni don gone mad with joy.

The importance of the action taker* by British and French warships in the ; Dardanelles is considerable. If that ; "gate" be forced and a clear way to | Odessa opened, there will pass through I it the corn and oil of which Western : Europe is in need, and the supplies and munitions of war required by Russia. Ships laden with wheat will stream out- . wards, and ships laden with the equip-! ment and stores which Russia so great- j ly needs will stream inwards. j It was not only in affairs of state that , the -Kaiser sougnt to impose his Imper-j ial will on the Iron Chancellor. Prince j Bismarck was one day passing through the Palace at Berlin, when he entered a room in which the young prince-, were merrily romping and dancing to the music of a barrel-organ, which had been ( set u]) in the royal nursery for the j pleasure of the children. The youngsters insisted that Prince Bismarck should stay and dame with thru. "1 am too old." said the stiff and stately Minister, ''and really 1 eiinvnt dance; but I will grind the organ. ' The Prince ground awav merrily at . the organ, ' while the childien danced n:i in high glee. In the midst of their .mrth the door opened and the young Kaiser entered. He was not a little surprised to see his chief adviser grinding the bar-rel-organ; but, with a bow and tne pretence "of a smile, lie relieved him of the handle, and started to "turn nut' the music himself. Coal was unknown in London as a fuel before the end of ihe thirteenth centurv It was a t once complained ol as iniurious to health, and by 1306 its use was prohibited. But the price of wood made the prohibition worse than the supposed danger to health, and most Londoners by 1400 burnt coal to some Axtpnt. A couple of centuries passed before its use became general all over England. It seems that people must dame, in spite of the war. There are no balls anywhere, but in New Bond-street there are "tango teas." Tu a room over a shop there is a little oasis of gaiety.