A VERY PERPLEXING STTUR-
TION.
The situation was just this.
The lives of both here and heroine were in extreme jeopardy; it was clear that the latter could not be saved, but the hero could be rescued, provided he would be content to be rescued alone. If the man died, the woman was just as inevitably doomed.
-Surely. it was a moral mistake for the man to fling away his own life because he could any chance, save both himself and the not, by woman ho loved!
What would happen iä réal life, in similar clrcumstances?,
THE HONGKUNG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY JANUARY
#11 was my inner cousciousness speaking, to myself as the water rushed over my head. - 1 struck out vigorously with arms and legs, and came again to the dancing, roaring surface, to air and life and new bor hope, swept onwards by the food.
A house, with its horror-stricken occupants; at the upper windows, swept past me. The high, clean banks of the roadway danced by So rapid was my fight my head was almost constantly immersed in the ice-cold-water, and it was an effort to breathe and splutter.
III.
"It can't last long, that's one thing !”
I remember the thought flashing bindly above a hundred others through my lingering cons washed against me, something warmer than the water, more human, terrib'y suggestive.
I was writing the final chapter of a novel,sciousness then, as if in sympathy, something wad I had stuck at the above perplexity. For several hours I had mentally debated the doubt, sitting in my armchair with my feet on. the corner of the writing dosk,
Shaking the water from my blinded eyes f opened them as we crossed a beam of light "Assume that I am the hero, Imused, "anfrom an open window. The figure clinging ordinary, everyday man in love with a woman beside me was that of a woman, her face rälseði for whom in theory-1 would give my last piteously to mine. drop of blood: Gwendoline Manners would be the heroine.
"Put Gwendoline and myself in jeopardy of our lives--say, for instance, if that confounded reservoir up on the bill was to burst and pour down this gutter of a read like a——”
Somebody was knocking at my, studý door, I had been conscious of the rapping before, but, engrossed in thought, 1 had disregarded the interruption. However, the intruder was not to be denied.
"Come in!" I cried.
Mrs. Bloxley, my landlady, walked in. Her face, I saw, was grey and drawn as from a sudden shock, her limbs were visibly s-tremble, and her teeth rattled as she spoke so that her words were scarce coherent.
"Can't you 'ear the noise, sir? It auunds as if the reservoir's burst."
listened. Certainly there was a strange noise, an uncanny rumbling as if thunder clouds in the distance were cannonading along the ground.
With my landlady in close attendarice, I ran to the front dour, opened it, and gazed expect antly up the steeply sloping road."
There was the suggestion of running water
in the distant turmoil that was quite audible.
"There's been a lot of rain last month," whis-
"Gwendoline;"
She smiled; but she could not speak.
The touch of the woman. I loved brought courage to my quaking heart, and I clutched at her soddened gown with feverish resolve.
“Hold on to me, dear!" I panted. "Help me, sweetheart, end we will struggle out of this some-how. Fate is kind. She will not
desert us now!"
One hand grasping her garment, I struck-out boldly with the other-and something caught within my fingers.
^
It was a rope. Desperately clutching it. 1 felt it grow tàut, felt the weight of our two bodies, surged forward by the rushing water,j straining at my single arm till the muscles creaked from very torture of the strain that seemed to separate the very tissue.
"Hold on, sirt ifold on for your dear life! I've got this end of the rope tied round the bed-post. Hold on while I pull
It was my landlady's voice. The good soul had returned to the house and prepared the stout rope I kept by me for escape in case of fire, for possible contingencies.
But she could never haul us in against that merciless flood of water; yet, if only I could hang on till the fury had passed.
I groaned as the fugitive hope dawned upon
pered the trembling woman beside me "Theme. My single arm was breaking! racked with rivers swelled over its banks an' done a lot of mischief. If the water from the reservoir's coming down to help swell the river!"
She shuddered, leaving my imagination to picture the disastrous consequences.
What would happen, indeed? to her, to we- to Gwendoline Manners, the woman I was one day going to marry?
"Mrs. Bloxley," I said, "you have a cousin living the other end of the town; go to her im mediately. You will be safe there-if ever you get there. What? Get your bonnet and shawl? For Heaven's sake don't be fouliaht. This house" will never stand against the reservoir's flood. If you go now you may escape. If you hesitate "I slammed the door at her back “Go!" 1 commanded. "You may race destruction it you're nimble. Hark: The roar is growing ominously louder. The waters have got fairly loose at last. It's a race wish death. Win, my good woman win!"
I pushed her, shaking like an aspen, down the hill. But she turned her head to ask :
"An' what about you, sir?""
But I did not stop to reply. The Manners' house was up the hill, and the family, I knew, actired early. It was now close upon midnight. 16, as I now ceased to doubt, the great re- servoir on the summit of the bill has burst its banks, the Manners' house was doomed to destruction. We ind often decided as much in idle speculation,
What if Gwandaline and þér parents wore gs.cap.
11
The night was leaden grey, the hilly road tortuous and uneven, and the houses were but few, built here and there where the banks of the road had crumbled and fallen away.
Running hard, I turned the first bend in the winding hill, and there, not a hundred yards distant, stood the Manners' house, at a sharp angle of the road, the last up the hill.
Seen from where I stood it seemed to stand in the middle of the roadway, blocking all further progress, so sudden was the bend; but I knew that beyond it, a series of sharp ascents, high banked or both sides like a deep milway cut- ting, led far away up the winding read to the huge reservoirs, the pride of the progressive town where mighty engines droned day and night to the monotonous throbbings of the un- easy pumps.
A glance told me that the Manners' house was in darkness, though others showed hurried lights through open windows, where half-clad figures surmounted by fear-engraven faces pro truded, doubting the sense of their own ears.
The sight fascinated me, rooted me momen- tarily to the spot. For the present, at all events, Gwendoline and her people were safe.
:
Any instant the water might swoop around the corner and carry me away in its headlong race to the river,. At the moment the greater peril was with me, for the rear was growing deeper, like the lash of waves upon a story beach with the wind and the tide behind them. If I turned tail at once I might still escape the coming food. And, after all, it was not certain that the Manners' house was not strong enough to resist it. One fact became very apparent to my vacillating mind: between me and the house lay a hundred yards of steep roadway, and the flooding water might meet] me ere I reached my goal.
"Boom!"
The roar stunned me; the trembling earth made me reef; the shriek of the frightened people lean ng from their upper windows struck terror into me.
The water had struck the unsheltered side of the Manner's house, struck it like a battering- ram. The roar of the contact was still in my ears while my syès saw the house heave and sway, crumble and fall.
Then, in a thought, the water leapt over the ruins and tossed down the hill.
I heard it ; 7 saw it.
Let me in!" I cried to the gaping, FEAT striken faces at the upper windows. Let me Ja
Fly!" they replied. "We are not open 'our doors!"
The lead-like, helpless, horror fell from my feet and I fed down the hill, the water already around my ankles, twisting my maddened steps, pulling at my equilibrium.
Soon the volume of water caught me in its mad face and leapt up my legs, up to my knees, my thight, my waist. With difficulty I still struggled on, the breath panting in my Throat, the strength of resistance abbing fast,
And still the tide romped down. Up past my waist to my very armpits splashing in its mad Joy of freedain over my neck and shoulders, chilling me in its ghostly embrace, deadening thy limbs, my nerves, my kenses, R
Pushed on word by the pressure of the leaping currant could but stagger forward, half blinded, half dead, thrown from “side to side, splashing aimlessly, staggering at random. -
"Holp 1 acreamed. "Help me some Body Help!
The water dashed over my head
Swim ! Can't you swim with the current ?o.
the torture of the strain upon it. To hang longer was a physical impossibility. The ten sion was more than human flesh could endure. Yet, if i brought the other arm to my rescue I must perforce release my companion, whose fainting grip of me was loosened, and save my self while she perished.
1 Hung the inhuman thought away with a| cry of rage and shame, and, with the same cry, released my grip of the rope.
Both or neither!" I cried, "Both or neither!"
The water tossed us along.
"Come back, sir! Oh, come back 1"
My landlady's wail rose above the roar of the 4.torrent. I heard it as the water beat the lasti
fight from my bruised and exhausted body and gurgled over my reeling head, while I clutched the gown of my beloved with a fierce thrill of satisfaction.
Both or neither!' Both or—!" "Tap, tap, tap, tap
I sat up in my armchair and listened.
Mr. Felthorpe, sir, may I come in 7 Is any: thing the matter ?"
With difficulty I pulled myself together. "Come in," I said.
Mrs. Bloxley walked into the room, and saw a cloud of maternal anxiety, cross her face and leave it..
"I knocked so many times, sir, I was nfoard something was amiss. Then in stemmer tones
"Are you aware, Mr. Felthorpe, that it's gone midnight an' you ain't touched food or sup since
a hall'after two?".
Thank you, Mrs. Blaxley," I'murmured. "I have been busy. Let me have another five minutes and promise to clear every platier) you've laid for me, Good-night, Mrs. Bloxley Please don't sit up any longer."
She went out and I drew again to my desk and to my manuscript. In the short time that Mrs. Bloxley had been knocking at the door I had, by an effort of imagination, and all unknow ingly, solved the grievous doubt that had kept me at my desk since luncheon,
With a few notes 1 sketched out the end of my novel.
My. hero perished with the woman, he loved-A. India,
CONCERNING TOYS,
The other day, when I was staying under the roof which had obligingly sheltered Audrey until she left it in a shower of rice, she con ducted me to the nursery where, as she said. her happiest days had been spent. As to the happiest days, I did; not believe in them a bit, and told her so. Personally, I look back upon my nursery experience with more horror than delight. It bulked huge with ghosts, mysteries) of Fosed doors, portentous wailings. Until the clock chimed midnight I was subject to the powers of darkness; after that, an spectre could have convinced me of its reality."
There was a vast locker in the nursery in which Audrey had first acquired her sense of humour, and from this she produced an endless variety of discarded toys. All were more or less damaged, many were mere inchoate lumps from which, after a careful examination, there beamed forth some hint of their original con dilian. Audrey sat in the midst of piled con fusion with an air of surreptitious happiness | it was as though she said: "This is what i want to do all my life.". She hugged in her arms what I conjectured to have once repre sented a hippopotamus, I ventured to say that!
had a harassed and disturbed appearance,
But it isn't a hippo at all,” she cried,j Cucus again!”
PI'said.
it
"I give it "Why, it's a horse !" I shook my head.
My dear girl, your memory must be at fault. That was never à borte."
“Why, it's a horse now," she sald affectiona- tely:
Well, if it's a horse to you, I suppose it is a horse," ald
That's Just it!" she cried. That's exactly what I was saying to you yesterday,"
I remembered the discussion, Audrey had, been inveighing against modern toys, and had taken the opposite view. She had asserted that children did not care for naturalistic toy; 'they left, nothing "to the Imagination. A crude representation of an animal was - much dearer to them than an accurate model. They respected the ele fo phant which was Just like the real ones they had seen, and which wagged its head: so realistically, but they did not love it, they didn't want to take it to bed with them. It was the same, she said, with dolls. The beautiful creature dressed up is Sunday clothen never touched their hearts all their affection was lavished upon some tatterdamalion object over which they could laugh and cry without any sense of incongruity. It was the same, she asserted, with picture-books; everything was But I said "would you have them grow
toa recurate
ม
grow?
up with wrong models before them Miche ** Did it do any harm to your sense of form to have an impossible wooden horse to play with?
Q1 course it didn't. You know the horse way wrong.... You could compare it with a proper horse by just looking out of the window. Um the thing with a body like a thick rolling-pin left something to your imagination.”
You're a very reactionty young person, said. "Our modern cult of the child has always; seemed to me beautifully right."
but a bed of roses. During the last Genera Election the conflict between the opposing Parties in a northern city was most keep. Oạc night the Conservatives gathered by the thou
and In a large hall to listen to prominent lender. All went well until the middle the speech: then there was a sudden rush of men up the centre of the room. A mom-
So it is in most ways, but not in the maftalent faler, the Press-lable was upside down, of toys. It's just like this. When people go and close by was heap of journaliaja, to buy toys-grown-up people, I mean the Bruggling on the floor, amid hats, umbrellas don't look at them from the child's point of overcoats, note-books, and ink-pots. Some of view. They see an artistic piece of modelling and it appeals to them; therefore they buy Now, that's all wrong.
**
26, 1961
SRA LITTLE BIT OF ASIA””””
There is just a little bit of Axia down in somewhat comble Hackney, where the 'Ayahs Home, attached to the London City Mission shelters between go and 100 Indian women in a year.
Ladies travelling between England and In dia avail themselves of the services of these fellow-subjects on the outward and homewant voyages, and a capable ayah is seldom without an engagement Bright-eyed, dark-skinned, clad in clingin; Asiatic garments, smiles flasha l over their faces as a Aforning Lander repro sentative inquired of their well-being-quite
I must admit thar” said L.” You've almost local: daily's staff was turned into a sort of happy and comfortable without doubt. Some convinced me t
Mwenge
At that point our conversation had been in herrupted by the youngest brother, who always manages to tell me in some roundabout way what he particularly wants for a Christmas present He began 1o talk about books out of deference to my connection with the writing trade, He didn't want a book, it appeared; partly, I suspect, because he fondly imagines 1 can get any book for nothing. But there was $ new cricket handbook, with "all-about hats, is it; he could borrow the handbook from Smit son major. By the way, had be told me that his had split clean up the blade?" "We shall have to give him a bat, I suppose," Audrey had said. "It's a pity they're so expensive."
Well, as I watched Audrey sitting among that amazing collection of dilapidated toys, }] became more and more convinced that she was right. At any rate, the child la her wai awake again, and sho even fell into some of the baby-talk which years before bad bee addressed the contents of the locker. She bombarded me with beasts; if her aim had been a little less infrm I might have suffered severely, As it was, I escaped with a wool- stuffed-zebra in the eye.
"No toy should be given to a young child,” she said, which it can't fling about."
Lay down a few more rules,” i said, waŋd- ing off a kangaroo,
No toy should be too beautiful." "Not even for girls ?”.
"Least of all for girls," she said, though she didn't mean it.
"Well, go on."
"No toy should be directly educational. It makes a child think that it's being imposed upon."
It was, apparently, to enforce this statement: that the zebra was launched at my head.
"I'm so sorry," said Audrey, “Did it hurt?" "No toy" I replied severely, "should be hurled at a living tärget, even by a child like you."-A. M., in the Pali Mali Gazette.
place on the shirt front of a ·Press' contents of the latter had in one case fougst Agency representative, while the chief of the
Moore and Burgess minstrel. By some means quantity of ink had been deposited on his grey hair, and had wandered down his neck and over his face, The meeting was not ; resumed, but the reporters made much "copy" out of their discomfiture-Sport & Gossip.
AN OSTRICH FARM.
Hot Springs is to have an ostrich farm, T.A, Cockborn who formerly owned the Soutit Pasadena (Cal,) ostrich farm and who for the past two years has had a farm at San Antonio, Tex., and has just perfected arrangements for the moving of his forty birds to this place from San Antonio, having found the northern climata there very injurious to his birds.
of them have crossed the "dark water "upwar ́s) of a score of times, and one ayah has been to and fro for 30 years.
Winter is the slackest time for the Home, as there are not so many ladies travelling between the two countries, but in the summer it is not at all unusual to find 30 or more ayahs in the well-ordered establishntent.
The City Mission has but recently been Interested in the Home, changing its old situati tion in Aldgate to the suburbs, where the house is in every way more adapted for the require ments of the women. Of all castes and creeds, Mohammedans, Hindoos, Brahmins, front Bombay, Calcatta, Madras; and now Mariam mah, the Cingalese girl, who has figured in re cent legal proceedings, is one of the little Indian band.
Mr. Cockburn has secured land near the The matron sbakes bar head rather sorrow. baseball park, on the electric car line, und |fully over Mariammah, who is a handsome ins will begin at once building his houses, and telligent-lobing girl, for that darkeyed damsel expects within thirty days to have his bird does not wish to return to Ceylon. She is a there. It is the first attempt at rising ostrichesa Colombo girl, but has lived so long in Eng- in so cold a climate, bur Str. Cock-land that the eastern island is almost foreign burn thinks there will be no trouble front this score, as the valley here is protected front the extreme cold by the surrounding hills, and he thinks the sandy soil especially adapted for his birds. There are but three ostrich farms in the United States, the other two being in California and Florida.
to her. Mrs. Rogers the matron, who has been¦ connected with the home for inany years indeed, it was one of that energetic lady's rela tions who founded the institution in the days of the East India Company, nearly 70 years ago-superintends all cooking for the women, who are, like most Indians, extremely particular about their diet, rice and curry forming the staple dishes.
NATURALIST NOTES:
We are all familiar with a certain class of anecdotes in favour with readers of the Spectator
Sixteen years ago the first ostrich was parted to America from Africa for breeding purposes, and this exportation has continued from Africa until an export tax of 5500 has been placed by several countries in Africa on every ostrich exported. Mr. Cockburn has forty birds on his farm, and as the average, value of full grown bird is $1,000-storics illustrating intelligent behaviour in he has considerable capital invested. The the higher animals, Unluckily, they are principal source of revenue from the birds is in almost always told by untrained observers, the sale of their feathers. Each bird can be
biased by affection for same particular cat plucked once every nine months, and will yield or dog, and predisposed to hypothetical at present prices about $50 a plucking. Prices interpretation of facts. How cautious one are now about 40 per cent higher than they: ought to be in the endeavour to distinguish be were a few years ago. The wing feathers from
tween inherited instinct and Intelligent reflec- the male bird are the most valuable. They are
tion there are a thousand examples to prove. white and range in length from 18 to 26 inches. The sister of the late Mr. Romanes had a pet and four to nine inches in width. It is these capuchin (monkey) of an exceedingly irritable plumes that the Knights Templars wear in temper. She noted in her diary that one day their helmets. Each wing has 20 to 30 of this creature bit her several times, and seemed these feathers, and they sell at from $1 to afterwards overwhelmed with shame, sitting. $1.50 each, according to size and quality,. The quite quiet, and hiding its face in its arms wing feathers of the female are smaller and'
the obvious deduction was that it possessed are white, but generally tipped with drab an ethical sense, and was conscious of wrong The tail feathers are shorter, running from 10 doing. Had Miss Romanes not been accustom- 10 13 inches in length, and sell for about 15 ed to apply the sound rules of evidence, the cents each. Mr. Cockbuin has one of the behaviour of her capuchin would have been original birds imported America sixteen cited thenceforward in support of the untenable theory that animals have a sense of right andi wrong according to a human moral standard. But her critical faculty induced her to add this! significant footnote: "On subsequent obser vation 1 found this quietness was not due to] shame at having bitten me; for whether he suc-! ceeds in biting any person or not, he always sits quiet and dull-looking after a fit of passion, being, I think, fatigued."
EPISODES OF REPORTING,
Speaking at a meeting of the Primrose Len gue lately, Mr. Arthur Balfour, M.P, quoted some figures over which the reporters made a mistake to the extent of a quarter million pounds sterling.. It says much for their ability that smid the great rush of modern journalispi, so few blunders are made by them. In this connection it may not be lacking In interesi to say something about reporters and reporting, To start with, here are one or two funny blunders which arose through mishearing on the part of the reporters. In an import; ant speech, delivered not long since by Mr. Asquith, he referred to the "pique, or temper,livan.... He has, however, two larger birds, Me- of the Government," which appeared the next morning in all the London papers as "pea- cock temper," About the same time, Sir Henry Irving, talking of "many journeys in small boats," was pleased to see it reported as weary journeys in small boots." And it was an Exeter Hall orator who used the expression, "a double lie in the shape of half a truth," and this the nimble notetaker allowed to pass nata double eye in the shape of balf'a tooth,"
years ago. It weighs 310 pounds and stande nine and a halt feet from its toes to its beak He is 30 years old, and is named John L. Stl.
Kinley and Roosevelt. The birds weigh 345 pounds each and are over ten feet high. They are the largest birds in the United States. The average life of an ostrich is 70 years. They have been known to reach 80 years of age. They reach maturity in three and a half to four years, and at that ago begin to breed. They lay from twelve to twenty eggs in â nest and will make two and sometimes three acats ja a year. They lay an egg every alter nate day during the laying period and begin to -- sit as soon as the full number is laid. During the laying period the birds are careful to turn. each egg over twice a day, to prevent its becom
they do every day while sitting also.
Little slips, however, happen in all profes sions, but it is in smartness and resourcefulness that reporters especially shine. For instance, when the Prince of Wales visited Niagara he was bebind time, and the “New York Heralding addied from lying in one position. This did not wish to lose the nonopoly of the tele graph wires, which they had secured for their special correspondent's account. But Mr. House, the Herald's reporter was not to be outwitted, so he sent his editor this telegram "What is to be done to keep the wires in our hands?" "Telegraph the Book of Genesis replied · Mr. Gordon Bennett. After this had been done, at a cost-of £150, the Prince was still absent. "What now?" querlett the reponer. "Book of Revelations," respond- ed the editor, This was in course of transmis sion when H.R.Harrived, and the Herald's triumph was complete.
Very few dog-owners are accustomed to the mental discipline necessary for the applicatish to the conduct of their favourites of such cri cism as Mr. Lloyd Morgan has lately described in his thoughtful volume on "Animal Beha viour" He owned a fox terrier, which had the run of a court beside his house, separated upon the road by an iron railing and a ga'è, which swung outwards by its own weight on the latch being raised. The terrier, being an animg) of spirit, naturally wanted to get cut upon the road, where he sniffed adventure, and used to run along the parapet wall, thrusting his head between the railings, Now this parapet brought him just upon a level with the pokelatch, under which one day he happenedto put his head. In drawing it back, the latch was raised, and the gate swung open; behold the dog free of the road! An undisciplined observer would have jumped to the conclusion that this dog had seen his master ralss the latch, noted the result, and put two and two together, im
Mr. Cockburn is very fond of his birds and takes a great interest in the study of their habits. He says there are many valuable jessons that man might learn from them. in the first place. the male mates for life with his female partner, and if his wife dies, a male ostrich has never been know to take another mate, but lives and dies true to his best and only Joye. His attention to the female, while marked at all times, is especially soticeable when she is laying and sitting. The male bird always prepares the nest for the eggs.plying that the animal had the power of think- This, he makes in the ground by scratchinging a matter out. Not so Mr. Lloyd Morgan. in the soil or sand. When the female begins sit the remains on the nest during the day, while he walks up and down near by, as if keeping guard, and once during each day: will sit on the eggs while she gets her maxf.] Then at night he always sits on the eggs, while she rests from the cares of maternity. When the young are hatched the male is as attentive to them as the mother. It is the custom on these farms, however, to take the young birds from the old ones soon after they
The trial of O'Connell at Dublin (before the telegraph was worked) afforded an excellent ex- ample of smartness. The event was described. by Dr. W, H. Russell for the " Timer, who had chartered a special steamer and train in order to best all their Press rivals. As soon as the verdict of Guilty * was given, Russell `hor- ried from the court and as his steamer left for Holyhead, that chartered by the Morn
ng Herald was lying peacefully in the harbour. Russell reached Printing House Square elated at his success, and as he was-hatch, as there is danger of the old ones tramp- going into the "Tixtes" office, a man in bis shirtsleeves, apparently a printer, called out, "Glad to see you safely babk, sir, So they've found him guilty "Yes, guilty, replied Russell. Next day the Morning Herald announced the fact as well as the " Timer" He of the shirtsleeves was a Herald reporter!
ing on them in the small corrals in which they, sis kept. Until they are four weeks old the young birds are very delicate, and not much more than go per cent of them live. They are fed on alfalta, lettuce, cabbage or other green stuff, chopped up. and in a short time begin to eat grain. The old birds feed on grain, and When Dr. Nansen delivered his Arctić are particularly fond of corn, malt, bran, address at the Albert Hall, after his return alfalt and sugar beets. The eggs of the ostrich from his expedition, before an audience of weigh from three and one-half to four and 12,000 people, the gentlemen of the one-half pounds—about thirty times the size of Press" performed a noteworthy feat. The an ordinary hen's egg. The shell is very thick, famous explorer spoke for more than an hour, and it requires an hour and a half to boil ons illustrating his remarks by magic lantern pics to the consistency of a three-minute hen's egg. tures, necessitating the hall being in darkness: The young birds, when hatched, are about the Under the circumstances, the reparers had to size of an ordinary broiler, and arb vory beauti: take their shorthand notes av best they could, ful: They are covered with a soft feather and in the dark; yet they achieved the tasksschare the appearance of being covered with ex- cessfully, som of
celsior, the reports belog Over A column in length.
Zeal for their work is also a characteristic of reporters. This often leads to death, which was the fate of Matthew Dontelot, who was a dia tinguished French reporter. One day riot oc curred in the square of the Paris Fantic and there was Dontelot in the thick of the fightdmly writing in his note hook the passing incidents and sendjag of "copy" to his office sa chance permitted. At length the soldiers fired on the mob, and Matthew was hit "Write," said the reporter to the doctor who came to his assist ance," for I'm no longer able to 20, a postscript to this report: *3.20 The troops opened fire, wounding three and killing one," "Who is killed?" asked the surgeon. I »m," said the Press hero, and he immediately expired. S
Slightly to alter a famous metaphor of Sir William Harcourt, it may truthfully be said we are all journalists now it all sorts und conditions of people contribute to the Prest Two or three years back, in Berlin, there was a burglar richly endowed with the journalisties instinct. After Bach #czib he wracked ha sent full, and flowery descriptions of it to the daily papers, and for the same was remunerated in the customary manner. Eventually, how- ever, he was caught red-handed when he had packed bis plunder, and was writing kis reporter for the Fress before leaving his victim's house
“A” lengthy: term of imprisonment was fill reward
Political warfare often leads to rowdy: maste fuge, which make the reportats", lot anything
When about 33 years old, when the mating period arrives; a male and female that seem physically adapted to sach other are placed in a pen together. At first they do not take to this forced union, but soon they get better acquainted, and at a general thing they can be mated in this way but some times they refuse to mate, doubtless one or the other dading at objectionable trait of character Which would render a life anion-an-uobappy due. If they are not thated in this why tắc dalo will select his own partner, from the Back, and will live fog her; fight for her, die for her and enoura day her sa ca of her death and be in talian flord: has lid of loneliness, Wild [dstrichatráfe becófdíng möte sëšite in Africa,
He coldly recognized a fortunato occurrence arising out of the natural restlessness of the dog. In other words, it was a pure fluke ; but it passed into experience, for it happened more than once. Dogs, of course, are exceedingly susceptible of experience; after each successive repetition there was leas poking .of this one's head into wrong openings, till at last he "learnt to go swaight and without hesitation to the right
spo'." Yet the same dog seemed to be Incapable of perceiving the nature of the dlf- culty which, vertical iron railings presented to his pairage with a stick in his mouth. When sent-after a stick into a field through railings six inchpa apart, he dashed back with it, always held by the middle, and found his return hopelessly barred by the ends catebing Nor, although the experiments were continued through two summers, did this highly intelli gent animal ever change his behaviour with the stick, or learn what a moment's real reflection' would have taught him-to pass it through the railings lengthwise.
unçonscious-impalse which we define as 14" airct, that even Dr. Peckham's high reputation as a scrupulous observer might tail to convince sceptics that he had not been deceived ; but similar behaviour on the part of a wasp of the same species has been recorded independently by Dr. Williston, of Kansas University.
Another reson tó meclinical and has been' described by ore than one independent ob server, this time on the paf of a co-operative or social insect. An Asiatic ant (Ecophylla smaragdina) makes a house by curling up the edges of leaves. Having no means of their own of fastening the structure, these ants have recourse to Their own larva, which have glands" secreting a mucilage for the formation of a' cocoon. Drawing the edges of the leaves-tb- gether, the ants pass the larva (small white grubs) to and fro along the two surfaces, which presently are glued together by the thread of soft silk proceeding from the spinners of the larvae.
INSECT SOCIOLOGY."
The civilized organization of ants and bees is an endless source of wonder-stirring mani- festation. Lord Avebury and others have ex- plained their perfect co-operation, their respect for authority, their habits of slave-keeping and tending herds of aphides; but, perhaps, it is nut so commonly known that one species of American ant live by an elaborate system of horticulture. These leaf-cutting or parasol ants are so called from their spending their time in running about with circular pieces cut from the leaves of trees. Often the nest is at a consider. able distance from the tree, Mr. McCook dés- cribas one instance where passage ran from the nest about eighteen inches underground for 448 feet, and then above ground for BS feet to the troe, the whole course being almost in a straight line. Nobody knew why such masses of leaves were stuffed intothe nest, until Alfred Mol- ler discovered that the harvesters pass the crop. into the bands of a specialized gang of workers which reinain within the nest. These, having cut up.and masticated the left fragments, stere them in boxps and wait till a slender fungus spreads through the mass.. This fungus they riear in a peculiar way, causing it to throw out a white abnormal growth, which supplies 'the community with their chief diet.
The cultural process of these humble, insects is even more elaborate than the ingenious in- cubating process of the Australasian Mega- podes. These birds have been proved to colla- borate, several females uniting to pile up a mound of vegetable matter, sometimes thirty or forty feet in circumference at the base and tea or twelve feet high, wherein they deposit their eggs, perhaps to the extent of a bushel in a single mound, and leave them to be batched by the heat evolved from the decaying refuse.. But inasmuch, as sulphuret- ted hydrogen and other noxious vapours are generated simultaneously with the benefi- cent bent provision is generally made for their escape by a venulating shaft. Eggs laid upon their sides in a patent incubator would never. hatch unless regularly turned; the yolk would penetrate the white, adhere to the shall, and die. Therefore these birds arrange their tong, thin- shelied egga separately and scrupulously with the small end downwards, and afterwards take no thought for them or for the chicks thereafter batched therefrom. It will be observed, there fore, that these brush turkeys evince-leas capacity for "intelligent provision than the parasol ants, in that having deposited their eggs they leave the result to automatic process f whereas the ants are obliged to treat their fungus in special way during Its growth in order to render it fit for the table.
However tempting it may be to explain such behaviour as that of the parasol ants and the brush turkeys by attributing to them reasoning: powers, it would be in the highest degree an safe to do so in the present condition of know- ledge. Mr. Lloyd Morgan considers that more intimate acquaintance with these and similar traits in wild animals will lead to an explana tion of them as arising from the interaction of instinct and intelligence, to the aid of which experience may surely be thrown in. Thera. is one unfailing characteristic of anirsal be baviour to wit, Its conservative constancy and unprogressive character. One generation of ants repeala exactly the programime carried out by its predecessor: an old dog is as incapable- as a young one of thinking out the problem of guiding a stick through a railing. Reasoning: power would infallibly manifest. its presence by new and improved devices, but the civiliza tion of animals is stationary, save as it in forcibly modified by altered external conditions or developed in the exceedingly sinw process of the survival of the fittest,
AN ABSENTEE MOTH. Teleology-the deliberate preparation- and adaptation of creatures and their organs to a specific end by an external intelligence--has been discarded as a key to the phenomena of animated nature; yet it is hard to penetrate certain mysteries without presupposing stage-manages. The American yucca is well known, the plant that sends up a cascade of ivory white bells from the centre of a sheaf of leaves like painted tin. It condescends to flower under our cloudy skies, but never bears seed in this country, not, apparently, betatise of our cloudiness, but for the want of the offices of a little moth (Pranuba), The anthers to the yucca blossom are only bair as long as the pistil, which has its office at the extreme tip, so that the pollen from the anthers can never reach it unless helped by external agency. Pronuba lays her eggs by means of a sharp ovipositor near the base of the pistil among the embryo ovules... But thes ovules, upon which the month's grabs dépend for food, would never develop unless the plaik were properly fertilized. Pronuda la CATRİKİ SO sitend to this. She enters Aower, collecto E. pellet of pollen from the anthera, flies with it to another flower, in the ovary of which the deposits her egga, and then swiftly plugs the orifice of the pisill with the pellet of pollen) brought from the other flower. A double pare pose is thus affected the Bowers-RID® CROSKO tortilizad, as is essential to the vigour of future seedilugs, and the brules, swelling idio succus lent beds, afford provender to the young brood of Prosuba. The yucca dépends for propagation on what the grubs leave untouched. In this complex process there is a distinct act of volle on an the part of Pronube, queit différans from the casual transference of pollen from Bower to flower on the hairy bodies of bees: and flics. Bat science is dumb if you ask ther how Prenubs learnt her pars; she can only report the performance HERBERT MAXWELL
INSECTS AND MECHANICAL Occasionally the close observer comes acrosa startling manifestations of intelligence in animals very far inferior to dogs in the scale, The infinite varieties of device and function in insects are usually effected by means of highly specialized organs adapted for definite pur poses. But in the course of bis inost interes- day studies upon the habits of solitary wasps, || Dr. Peckham was witness of the behaviour of one of the genus dinmophila which it is scar- coly possible to account for by intelligence profiting by chance experience, as in the cile of the fox-terrier lifting the, latch of the gate. The deliberate use of a tool in generally suppud ed to postulate reasoning power, yet it would seem preposterous to grant in a little sand wap what we are compelled to diebelleve in bighly organized vertebrates The wasp in question diga a hole in *iko, earth, deposits therein an egg, together with a spider, which she has stung into paralysis, to feed the grub. M. Gastite. which shall be hatched in due course. Then the fills up the hole with sand or earth, jamming
AN APPEAL.
for ten likely that the fathery, will became one of that, the filing was fevel with the THE SUPERIORESS of the ITALIAN
marevilluable and that the culffisting of thêm this connity will increase The
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ground, she brought a quantity of fine grains of
ift to the spot, and, picking up a small pebble in her mandibles, used it as a hammer in pounding them down with mpd strokes, thus making this appt as, hard and frus as the surrounding surface. Before we could re acting cation, etc. Da the cover from our astonishment at this perioim Cocker expects to derive ance, she had dropped her stone and was bring pecuniary, benefit from the visitor ing more earth, and in a moment we saw her here, for they would pay un étus price for the pick up the pebble and again pound the earth fumes for the novelty and getting them dingefumo place, with in" "Once more the whole on the farm and of haying personal introduce process was repeated, and then the little creure flow away. (Peckham's...“ Instinct, &c. of Solitary Wäspa” RED CLAY
be to the bird on which they grÝNE of demand, too for the eggshell,
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The whole performance is so unexpected, a little in record with the manifestation of the
CONVENT, CAINE ROAD, begs most respectfully to APPEAL to the Residents of Rangkong and the Coast Ports, for their kind patronage and support, and desires to statwakat she will be pleased to receive ander for all kinds of NEEDLE WORK
AN Gentlemen's Shirts made to order, and Cuffs and Collars renewed on ald ones rac
Ladies and Children's Under-clothing Chila dren's Dresses, and all kinds of Embroider Materials can be supplied, if required.
The Superioress will also be most grateful for any PAPER, or old ENVELOPER to be made into Books for the Children of the Poor School who are taught by the Sisters,
Hongkong, sand April rigs,
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