GENERAL NEWS.
1 HABITUAL DRUNKARDS
The Farmfield colony established by the London County Council for the treatment and cure of habitual drunkards is, it is said, to be abandoned. After ten years' experience, tide Council finds that the results do mot justify the expenditure. Out of six hundred cases investigated o'nly 19 per cent have benefited, by the treatment, and the efforts at "cure" i are to be given up (says "the Westminster Gazette). The possibility of reclaiming permanently habitual drunkards, women especially, has always been a much debated "question. We know that the Salvation Army sometimes works' wonders in tlr.s direction ; and Lady Henry Somerset's efforts have also often been attended with remarkable .success* But the "colony" system *as carried out by tile London County Council lias not accomplished what was expected of it, and as the scheme costs the ratepayers £IOO,OOO a year it lias been considered wisest to bring it, to an end. MODEST MISSOURI. A wave of modesty swept over St. Louis (Missouri), a few weeks ago, and the cafes and restaurants presented an extraordinary spectacle, most of the pictures and statues there being partially covered with some article of clothing. Under a city ordinance, cafe and restaurant proprietors were forbidden to display pictures, paintings, or statues in the nude, a form of decoration which has been almost universally indulged in. The cafe proprietors let their fancy run riot in the matter of clothing their treasures (relates Lloyd's Weekly). The "Sleeping Beauty" who lias for years slumbered peacefully and unclothed on a slab now wears a liceman's uniform —the proprietor de-_ daring that he could think of no more" fitting garni for a sleeping figure. Another cafe manager in whose place was a bronze figure taken from the. famous "September Morn" picture dressed the figure in a short white linen garment, while a statue of a bachhaute, the original of which was refused by the puritanically inclined of Boston, wore a complete motoring outfit, including goggles and veil. INTRODUCING A STEAMER. Heavy expenditure upon ceremonial i,s a'marked feature of life in this country (writes the London eorrespon-
dent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph). Take, for example, the launch and introduction to the public of a new vessel. When an important steamer is launched at Belfast or on the Clyde great sums are spent upon entertainment. Special trains are frequently run from London, and hundreds of guests are entertained upon the most expensive lines. A trial trip is even more costlv. For the cruise of the Ceramic nearly 100 guests were conveyed to Belfast from London andi the provinces. Special trains were run, and a special steamer was chartered to carry the passengers from Fleetwood to Belfast. Everything! was done to study our time and comfort; we left London:on Friday eveni ing after our week's work, slept as we crossed tho Irish Channel, and, after cruising along the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, and doing a circuit of the Isle of Man, w«tere landed in Liverpool early on Monday, and back in London by noon. For two days the White Star Company entertained the company on first-class North Atlantic fare. This week >t Liverpool there have been, lunches to large additional parties on" Ihe new vessel. Doubless this is charged to the company's advertising account, and it is not all unreproductiie. But as every company adopts tho same scheme the gain to each is not material. One is safe in saying that thousands of pounds are wasted in this manner upon every large steamship launched, and those thousands of pounds are, ok course, one day paid back by the travelling public. People who themselves live the .severest of lives contribute each day to the ceremonious entertainment of others.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 November 1913, Page 2
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621GENERAL NEWS. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 November 1913, Page 2
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