TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8242, 21 September 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Entertaining nnd interesting details of some minor consequences of tbe San Franoisoo earthquake are given in tbe newspaper The Hospital, After commenting on tbe remarkable abaeuoe of panio or depression, the writer goes on:—'There was, too, an improvement in tbe general bealtn of the people after the earthquake. It is an undoubted taot that a great many men and women who were in a poor state of health before the sbooir, with bad appetites and defective digestion, are now eating all they can get, ami digesting it without trouble; whilst the mental condition which so often aooompanies the dyspeptic state baa equally improved. The explanation ie as simple as it is rational. These people were fortunately deprived of their trams, alcohol, and luxuries; they had nothing but simple food, and they were compelled to take exeroise in the open air to get it. Tbe men found it possible to live without cigars and whisKy, and the ladies without candy.

Mr Douglas Story, writing from Warsaw, comments on the loyalty of tbe troops. The soldiers, be says, shoot as unoonoernedly at their fellows as they did at the Japanese. The fact is unpleasant to the socialists, but the explanation is simple. Troops levied in tbe south or north garrison tbe regions of Middle Russia. Troops raised in the districts "around Moscow are quartered at tbe extremes of tbe Empire. These men, consequently, never aot in ; civil war against people known to them, but against those who are of a race as different as though they were bcrn under a foreign flag. In and around Warsaw is a vast force of men gathered to keep the Poles in subjection. They consist of one regiment of Cossacks, one regiment of Circassian Cossacks, one iegiment of horse artillery of the Guard, two regiments of cavalry of the Guard, four regiments of infantry of tbe Guard, four regiments of infantry of tbe Line, one regiment of ganison artillery, two regiments of dragoons of the Line, two regiments of infantry of the Line, and one regiment of Cossacks oi the Line. Not one company of all the regiments has more In common with the citizens of Warsaw than would a party of Germans or Austrians. The Cossacks come from the Urals, the Don, and the Caucasus. The regiments of the Guard are all recruited in Middle Russia. Tbe regiments of the Line contain detaobments from every part of Russia—except Poland. So it is that Warsaw is patrolled by troops as alien to its populace as would be Prusaans from Berlin or Hungarians from Pesth.

la a new book on Afghanistan tbe author, Mr Hamilton, presents an interesting sketch of the present internal position of Afghanistan. He decoribes the Ameer Habibullah as weak, indolent, addicted to pleasure, and without a trace of 'hid father's genius. The army which Abdurrahman had built up on a modern model is now in prooess of decay, and before long it may be worth considerably lees as a fighting machine than tbe original tribal levies which boasted nothing that oouid be called an organisation at all. The value of the old tribal levies depended simply on the fighting spirit of the individuals who oomocsed them. But a modern army cannot be held together without a seriousness of aim, a determination tb preserve discipline, and a respect for, if nut an acquaintance' with, the of military soi enoe. If Mr Hamilton is well informed, the Afghan army is now little more than a rabble, dressed in secondhand uniforms, and tbe Afghans themselves are tending to lose under the influence of closer contact with more oivilised races those primitive qualities which used to irake them formidable as individuals. At the same time, their vanity is said to be more marked than ever before. The ameer is apparently preoccupied by court intrigues, which render his position inseoure, and the dominant influences about him are said to be clerical. Ther» may be some exaggeration in this rather depressing picture, but it is no doubt a reflection ot the opinions prevalent among the few Anglo-Indians who know Afghanistan.

in the World's Work, Mr Georgo Turntull has an article on "Mr Bryan and tho Presidency." The chances of Mr Bryan for the next Presidency of the United States are regarded by the author of this article as exceedingly favourable. The Democratic candidate appears to possess an almost magnetic personality. "Mr Roosevelt, like Mr Bryan is very attractive, and he is certainly moro versatile. But Mr Bryan is an orator. More especially he excels as a campaign orator—the expression is an one and the English equivalent is 'electioneering orator'—-a man who talks from the hustings. In'this respect he has probably no equal, certainly no superior in the United States. Mr Roosevelt, his best friends will admit, has no, speoial oratorical ability. People are always interested in what he has to say, and he has a reputation for speaking his mind. But his voice is poor—it breaks at every other sentence and runs to a falsetto—his delivery is not good, nnd his platform rammer loaves a great deal to be desired.