CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 269, 23 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE TRUSTING EMIGRANT. We frequently complain that New Zealand does not get the publicity it is entitled to in the English prints. New Zealand, However, lately received an advertisement in Bristol. Here is a copy of an advertisement appearing in the papers of that city: —"New ZealandWanted men of all trades and field labor, fully paid. Moody and Co., Victoriastreet, Bristol." "Men of all trades" visited the offices of "Moody and C 0.," who were careful to fill their clients full of delectable information about the country, where gold grew in the streets and diamonds were used as road metal, ''Moody and Co." took great care to deprive their trusting clients of any money they might be able to spare for initiation into the secret of how to make millions in the Antipodes. One day the usual, crowds of clients went to Messrs Moody to transact business and to pay fees, and found a small office boy looking after New Zealand, so to speak. The office boy, in response to furious enquiries, mentioned that he knew nothing except that Moody and Co. had not been seen lately and that lie had not been paid liis wages. "Moody and C 0.," it subsequently appeared, was one "Abdullah—a Man of Mystery," who, when he had no clients aching to go to New Zealand, dealt in psychometry and allied arts, including phrenology. He had obtained in some cases the whole of the passage monies from people who intended to proceed to this country. The crowd had the dismal satisfaction of breaking into Mr. Abdullah's premises and smashing his furniture, but all the money found amounted to rs, 1 and a British threepenny piece. The Oriental gentleman, who used the sacred name of Now Zealand as a stalking horse behind which lie might track the lissome sovereign, wa9 described as an "Oriental, who spoke English perfectly." When the mail left, "the police had a clue," but not Abdullah, who apparently also used Australia as a name to charm money out of trusting Bristolians. "THE NOBLE ART." Quite a number of pugilists have been killed lately. One has died from heart disease without having been at all pugilistic. Perhaps it is unnecessary to attach any more importance to deaths in the ring than to deaths in other sports or pastimes. The most noticeable feature about modern "prize-fights" is that they are mostly "prize" and very little -> "fight." In one "fight" during which cable told us) a man was killed, the whole allair, except its unexpected termination, was a "ready." One is unable to say whether the mercenary side of pugilism was as prominent in the days of thn doughty bruisers who began to thump each other in 1719, the birth year of the art of fisticuffs. A genius by the name of Jim Figg instituted the pastime, which rapidly became exceedingly popular. It was popular mainly because noblemen, who had nothing much to do, patronised it, and the boom was at its giddiest height between 1734 and 1750, when Figg invented the "muffler," a name that has degenerated into "glove" and .sometimes, familiarly, "mitten." In fact, Jack Broughton did more to popularise fisticuffs than any man who ever lived, for he not only invented gloves but made the first rules and fought under them with physical and financial success. Broughton went the way of all flesh, and boxing died down a bit, but Tom Johnson—who was a white person —restored its popularity and gave it a greater vogue. This period ended with tho retirement of the noted Tom Spring in 1524, and during the time of fighting prosperity, every butcher, or blacksmith, carpenter, .shoemaker or soldier who "had a punch" left work to use it. Those were the days of Pearce, the "game Chicken"; Gully, who fought in the ring (and subsequently into the House or Commons), Mendoza, "Gentleman" Jackson, Crib, Curtis and "Dutch Sam," not to mention the notorious Randal and the big bruiser Humphreys. Between ISSI and 1800, the greatest battles in British boxing historv were fought, for the championship was contested by Heenan, Tom Sayers, Tom King and Jem Mace. About this time the shameless boodlers got hold of boxing, and there was a distinct national antipathy to prize-fighting for this reason only. The British Press, not hampered by any stringent libel law, fought tho system of selling fights with great success. For thirty years the "sport" remained more or less dormant as a. public amusement, but the modern giants ..gat. to-work-, the-public woke up and

took notice. The exhibitions of Corbett and Fitzsimmons, JacksOn, Kilrain, Smith, McAuliffe, McKoy, Malier, Mitchell, Palmer, Sharkey, Slavin, Sullivan, Bulge, Jeffries, Johnson and Burns revived interest, which is, however, likely to lie down again, since it is proved that there is a greater disposition in 1911 than there was in 18G1 to sell anything from a horse race to a glove fight. "POOR PUSSIE!" "I love little pussie, her coat is so warm, I and if I don't hurt her she'll do me no harm." A wire from Home upsets this delightful theory. Some Bedfordshire cats, which had dined on French pigeons infected with diphtheria, took the disease into some homes, and gave it to the people. One begins to be afraid of the "friends of man." By the time that one has received diphtheria from the family cat, caught influenza from one's riding hack, tuberculosis from the mild-eyed cow, and trichinosis, or worse, from "the gintleman that pays the rint," not to speak of plague from the homely flea, the gentle mouse, and the cunning rat, one begins to be suspicious. The common fly may be settling on you with the intention of giving you typhoid; the insignificant but irritating mosquito carries a- variety of fevers about with it; the faithful hound helps you to a stage of hydatids or tapeworm; and the common everyday sheep seems to be the only safe creature left. Returning to the cat. The ancient Egyptians adored him more or less, and made a sacred matter of the disposal of his remains. Successive generations, right down through the centuries, have fondled cats, and millions of dear little children have smothered them with infant salutes. The only comfort one can get out of the fact that disease is being carried about by our furry friends and the beast creation generally, is that we may not be susceptible to the disease the animal is able to convey. Everybody 'has read stirring tales of the devotion of dogs. One of the most stirring of them all was cabled to us a couple or three years ago: "The sole survivor of the French schooner Juanita alone floated on the wreckage off Newfoundland. Two dogs accompanied him and became famished. They attacked him. He managed to kill both —one by drowning." The story books would have had the faithful hounds sitting dolefully beside the body of their adored master. In 1894, an Australian bushman "overlanding" in "the Territory" on foot, was accompanied by his friend, a dog. 'The man died of starvation on the track. The dog was discovered by telegraph linesmen watching beside his deceased,master. But he regarded his deceased master as sustenance, for he had already made a meal from him. Nothing is proved by this except that friendship is a matter of circumstance* The gentle tabby which sups milk out of a saucer beside the fire is related to the tiger that claws you to pieces, but, as far as can be ascertained, the tiger does not come and breathe diphtheria on one.