THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8164, 22 June 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1906.

The Amerioans have hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of that not very elegant title, "the hustlers," bat the journals of London are at length asserting a olaim to it on behalf of the people of the metropolis. We are told that to-day walk, talk, think, drive, ride, in all things move incomparably faster than they ever did since the history of the greatest of oities came to be recorded, "It is, indeed, the strenuous life," says the Daily Mail, to quote only one paper. "One feels tne pressure everywhere, in a trip through London's great avenues of traffic ; one notieos the pulsating, nervous, eager desire for speed, more speed. The oonduotor beats his foot in an agony of impatience; the dri-

ver bellows 'Horry"up;' the policeman's old familiar uall is more strident, more insistent than it ever was to the Loudon public, 'Move on!' And behind the conductor, the driver, the polioeman, behind every man, woman and child at whom they cry those commands, there is a something stronger still—the demand of modern life for unprecedented celerity; the fleroe, «m----petooos desire to 'get there' as quickly as eleotricity, steam, petrol, cable, horse or wheels, or legs can oarry one." Experts before the Commission regarding London traffic declared that it was the slow trafflo that oauaed the congestion, and that if all vehicles moved more rapidly the narrow streets would be found wide enough. And the experts seem to harbour no doubt that the trafflo is becoming more rapid. It would move faster still, according to those who have to watch it, if it were not for women. What happens, of course, is that the bus-dri-ver will condemn aIJ women for a day because one of his passengers has delayed him. "You can't get women to take the trafflo question seriously," a 'bus driver says. "They're always fiddling with parcels, or faddling with tickets, or chattering among tnems'elves, when everybody else, is on the 'bus and waiting; and some of them are silly enough to need a guide with a string to them." The polioe, too, say they get "the jumps" watching women take wild erratio plunges among the whirlpool rapids of But Londoners are a very orderly people, and the tale of street deaths is not nearly so- terrible as is that of New York, for example.

Lord Cromer's latest report on Egyptian administration has some interesting observations on the customs of Sinai Bedouins, the Arab tribes along the frontier which was lately the subjeot of dispute. If a man kills another in time of peace, the relatives of the murdered man, beginning from the father to the fifth generation, have the right to revenge or pardon against the receipt of "blood money." This latter is fixed at forty-one camels. If the murdered man was of the same tribe as the murderer, the latter, or h»s near relatives, have to give a girl in marriage to one of the victim's relatives without receiving the usual payment. When she gives birth to a child she is free to go back if 3he chooses. In the latter case the marriage must be renewed and the usual payment made. The usual payment is five camels, and the murderer's people may give up the five beasts if they do not want to give one of their girls. The custom of trying accused preaons by ordeal is carried out by these Bedouins. One method is for the judge to place an iron pan in the Are until red hot. Then, after it is wiped three times with the hand of the judge, the accused has to touoh it with his tongue three times. Marks of burning denote guilt, the theory being that guilt leads to fear wbiob dries from the tongue the moisture that would otherwise protect it. By way of contrast to these primitive customs, Lord Oromer records evidences of the inarch of civilisation in the Soudan, Men and women who formerly were content to wear beads and brass wire nuw have clothes, and hesitate to appear in their former s.tate of nudity. They no longer flee at the sight of a steamer, and they have learnt the value of money and goods and will not give a bull or a sheep for a few beads. Civilisation is also driving out the native worker. The tramway is ousting the donkey, and with the latter is disappearing the saddle-mater. With the disuse of stone floors the maker of straw mats is losing his occupation, the native tanner oaunot compete againpt his more skilled European competitor, and with the adoption of European clothes the makers of flowing robes and embroidered vests are losing their trade. Even the red slipperß of the Sheikhs are made in Europe. Native furniture, too, is being replaced by European goods.