1900-06-23 — Page 6

NEWS FROM MAFEKING.

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1900.

against you?"

horsed and standing on the Market-square, CAPETOWN'S MIXED SOCIETY. ready to be moved to any point that may CROSS-CURRENTS PRODUCED BY THE WAR. threatened. We hear that the southern reliev, MAFEKINO, March 25th.

~ CAPETOWN, April 4th, 1900, --| We still hold the trenches in the Brickfieldsing column is north of Vryburg. The towns-

"You don't seem very, enthusiastic over our evacuated by the Boers last week, and the enemy are in laager out by the big gun. We

heating those treacherous brutes, Miss de Vil- re not niolested now, and tanid ones can walk

fiers,

"Can you expect it, Major Brown, when my about the roads in safety. I thought the men out-

uncle and is three sons were there fighting side would move off last night, but they ate in their fail numbers to-day, and it is not unlikely that they will remain until the close of or until Plumer or some other the war, relieving commander gets to us. On the other. hand, I would not be in the least surprised if the enemy here, reinforced by the commandos that are certain to retire up before the southern relieving column, made a more determined attack upon us than has been made yet; and as it will be his last chance he is not very likely to fight with his gloves on.

* BIG DEN AT WORK AGA IN,

March 26th. This morning, soon after dawn, our guns, which had been advanced during the night,.}. operated against the Boer laager in the cast. A Bamber of Shells were fired without any apparent result beyond drawing fire from the Republi cans, who brought their big piece into action, and proved to us three things: that the gun herself was there and not a dummy, that she was not out of repair, and that the Boers had ammunition for lier. Big Ben had been quiet for about a week, and there were various the ories as to why he was not fired. If the object of this morning's attack was to set the matter at rest, the move was successfel. There was a good deal of long-range rifle work, but the only casualty on cur side was the slight wounding of Inspector Brown, of the Cape Police. Ic is believed that 01 Joer was wounded; but he has obly himself and par rillenium to blame, as he came out and dodged around in the open.

Capmain Wilson to-day invited me into one of his cookhouses at the soup kitchen to taste a new kind of porridge that has been invented for the feeding of the whites. It is made of the lusks of oats and a very small percentage of flour that remains in them after they have

heen sieved for the purposes of the bakery. The husks are fermented for thirty-six hours and then boiled, and when the mess is strained the pots contain a palatable and no doubt very natritious porridge, somewhat resembling flum inery. Its a product of what up toy few days ago was waste, and is far and away Better than the food with which we are supplied at break- Bast in our hotel.

A DIRE CHUPATTIE.

1.

It is wonderful how even in a fitte town like this in siege time food supplies can be disco- vetedy invented, and eked out. All kinds of experiments have been tricl, and 1 have no doubt that a standard work on food and how

people are in splendid spirits in view of our pending relief. Some are half mad with joy thers are quieter in their demonstrations, and some go about with a calm pien, but on every face there are unmistakable signs of happiness. It is only now when we look back that we properly realize the dangers that the town has passed through. Reaction has already begun to set in. Baden-Powell is worshipped, by the people as a here; his staff are beginning to get their full share of recognition in the minds of the people. A moment ago a large shell burst with a deafening explosion within twenty yards of the room in which I sit; five smaller ones have passed close in the space of ten minutes. The roads are littered with iron. Up to the present I have, only heard of onc casualty, a Baralong boy having received. a slight flesh wound on his face as he stood in the yard of the soup kitchen opposite my door.

HOPES OF PLUMER

,

Noon. The guns have censed firing and the town is steeped in quietness. There is a feeling that the Republicans have prepared to retreat from Mafeking, and will go to-night. It is believed that they have got rid of their heavy loads of shell in order that they may not be hampered by the weight of them. The town is literally jumping with joy. The ap- proach of Flumer is the one topic of conversa tion. The population feel like people about to be taken off a rock-split wreck by the lifeboat. They are weary of the sige and the hardships of war, and I see some who will be as

hysterical as schoolgirls when the column niarches in. Up to this hour five horses bave been killed by the shell-fire, and two white men and two coloured have been struck, The former two include Sergeant Abrams, who commanded the Black Watch," one of the best scouts in the country, and to us a very valuable man whose services will be missed.

3 p.m.-The guns opened fire shortly before luncheen-time, and shelled for nearly an hour, The larger pieces then went out of action, and with the exception of the ft. Maxim, they they have not again reopened up to the time of despatching. A good deal of house property has been damaged, but, having regard to the weight of fire, we have escaped marvellously. As I close my letter the guns have again opened fire, the 94-pounder sending her shells in the direction of the women's laager.---P, M. Gaselle:

ON THE WAY TO ST. HELENA.

I looked at the company.. At the table apposite me were the officers, clad in red tunics, and some gentlenes in smoking jackets. The

know nothing of English dishes

Well you allow me to help you, sir? I have fixed much in France, and light be able to tell you to what dishies of your country ours correspond."

A band playing on a stormy night would not cause me greater joy. It is my neighbour on the left who addresses me thus, with just that

tight lisping so becoming to foreigners.

I pour out iny thanks.

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"Poor fellow. I felt sorry for him as he gazed girl, dressed in perfect taste, who met his glance in blank amazement at the pretty, fair-haired with quiet self-possession. It was not his, fault. whiled away his time on board with papers, He had landed from the last transport, and had illustrated and otherwise, that told him, in the words of the schoolboy, that the Boers had no that their Dutch sympathisers in the Colony manners and their customs were beastly, and were little better.

Yet here he was sitting at a thoroughly English-looking dinner party, gazing across the flowers and silver at a charming vis-a-vis who was little less than a rebel! Not a "crank " from home, mak you, but a young lady of the same blood as the Queen's enemies. She ought to have been fat, coarse-featured, slovenly in dress and manner; it was all very surprising. It will take our friend the Major, as it has taken the rest of us visitors to this land of pamdox, a good many weeks before he will realise how intricate is the problem, how numberless are the cross-cuments of Cape politics, even as studied from their social side alone.

THE AFRICANDER'S DREAM. Carefully must he trend if he wished to avoid tumbling on someone's cars at he dinners or at homes, of these hospitable folk. There is the rich commercial class, the 'mer- chants and bankers, the owners of big "stores". and the rest, solidly British to a man; there are the young Africanders, undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge, barristers of the Inner and Middle Temple, students of the medical schools in London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, almost as solidly pro-Boer. Atheart they have long dreamt of a great Africander, nation in which they and their friends, kinsmen, and fellow students at Pretoria and Bloemfontein would hold all the fat posts and fucrative offices and be, indeed, a power in Sp Africa.

Then there is the old Dutch aristocracy and there is an aristocracy here, with family portraits running back for 250 years and a con- servative pride which, though it has robbed them in many cases of beautiful chateaux and smiting vineyards, still holds them aloof from the despised, moncy-making crowd of Jews and Gentiles that bas poured into the country of late years, even as the Spanish and French gran- dees of the Southern and Western States of the U. S. A. refused to compete with the pushing Yankees and as a body the Dutch gristocracy are hopelessly divided.

if Majer Brown knew-which assuredly he does hot-he has on, his right a con- nection of the famous novelist (why disguise

the name ?), Miss Olive Schreiner,

THE SCHREINERS.

to make it will be the result of the painstakingene was passed round. Terrible moment investigations. Naturally, we, being the con- sumers, are the parties experimented upon, but I have little complaint to make of the process, I have only on, and it is against a form of Indian meril, or puttenl, or linseed ment (1 cannot determine which) chupattie, his a brown, concrete-like flat cake, ut in a cross between a sea-bisenii and an over-baked ori. En several days I ate this bit of cantectionery without a grouille, but now when I see it à tear gums inke my love, and I know that if tulge in my two-ounce portion 1 will die around all day disinclined for all kinds af work save that of growling, at everything

I would waget," says my neighbour, that around me and generally acting like a chained you believe in Eng ish pride, in their contempt

moneys The internal machinery of some people of the French, and in British sans gone." tiger

I try in ay turn to find some amiable phrases; "Are you going to the Cape, madam?»

"No, sir; to St. Helena." Profound astonishment on my part. "Ah! say to myself. all England, it seems, is going to St. Helena,”

Ob the least thing we can do is to help you, since you are the aly Frenchman here."

I do not repent it

"And you sir?',

y be quite the cake; I am sure that such stinese, fur mature must have produced more than one of those hunan ostriches when we Occasionally see in the Aquarium eating horse- shoes, and anchors, and anvils, and such things; -but I was not bon that way; and I min afraid that if 1 aan not placed on hospital comforts 1 shall join the small array of grumblers in the town-1 shall be forced to it by the strain on my digestive apparatus. (I hope this hint will drift to the higher authorities through the Press Censor; it would be so nice to get Christian-great gure. „food, once more, and I envy the delicate people who bring their ration of white bread to the table at me. times !)

"I, too, am going to St Helena, madamm." "Ah, what a surprise!"

I am going to see the grave of Napoleon." You are right to do so, he was such a I am going to rejoin my husband who has cominand of the island." O the hazard of the voyage! I am sitting next the Countess Bathurst, whose husband is in command at St. Helena, and whoisdescended from the very minister that sent Napoleon into exile. The father of Lady Bathurst is the proprietor of the Morning Post".

Winter is coming. But winter here is not the bleak specimen of weather that we get up north. It is a crisp, sunshiny season that nips like the Arctic regions. It is not that the cold

How odd it is!" she says with a smile; it is intense, but when one's blend has been rendered as thin as the point of a scalpel by was the great-grandfather of my husband who the allroasting summer the slightest change is

exiled your Emperor, and it is my husband. Who is charged with guarding Kronje. But rest felt. I can wear a heavy great-coal in comfort at night, and in spite of two rugs and winter bed-assured that he will be better treated than clothing I sometimes awaken in the morning Napoleon."

you think, then, that Napoleon was badly half petrifed... It is refreshing to meet a fellow coming off the veltd in the early morning just treated?" after sunrise. The sight of a blue nose and pinched checks reminds one of the old country it is the only sight that does. But an hour's canter over the vast sea of flat land (or as much of it as one can safely ride over) is a splendid experience. I sometimes indulge in it, sad- ding up before dawn, and come back full of vigour and life-until I see those chupatties!

The state of affairs financial has rendered it. necessary for the Colonel to issue pound notes, which he himself designed. The note will be a splendid souvenir of the siege. It is artistically worked, and pictorially represents types

of fighting men and guns, and the pathetic figure of A woman holding her child and looking for the protection of the rough, armed men about her. The Colonel is a man of many parts, and before now has made a name as an artist, but this conception is the finest thing that I have ever scen come from his pen.

A BIG BOMBARDMENT.

*

our

18

"Oh, don't speak of it it is one of the most deplorable pages of our history. It was the fault of that stupid Hudson Lowe, whom they ought never to have selected, and who was so little of a gentleman. He wrote lying letters to London, hid the real state of the Emperor and deceived all the world. This unfortunate man has contributed, more than anything to είναι

the reputation of being cruel." The Countess stopped. Then, excitedly, "It was like him, that idea of calling him 'General Bonaparte. It was stupid, and so mean and useless Just as if he had not the right, more than any one, its be treated as an open end, he who was so nobly vanquished. That Hudson Lowe is a disgrace to us. Unfortun. ately, Kronie is not the equal of the other, and his exile will be less talked about.".

The conversation continues about Napoleon, and in the course, of it the Countess reveals to me that the manuscript of the "Memorial of St. Henena" belongs to her husband.

Of her politics or of those of her husband, Mr. Cronwright Schreiner-Cron was his maiden name; he changed it on marrying so great a celebrity-there is no doubt; yet her brother, the Premier, sits uneasily on a rail, letting "I dare not wait upon I would," professing a yental geutrality: while her mother an Impe falist of the Imperialists, presented certain

that her daighter sent her for the sale of her books to a political league presided over by Mr Cecil Rhodes, Near the head of the table sits » member of the Cape Ministry in no good odour at Cos urnent House.

Yet his sist r is a leading Imperialist in Nal, and even wis wording obly to help nur waded, while a a brother is an officer in In com nde of Boers besi, ging Mafekcing, and another is in the column that goes to re ́ieve it.. Opposite to bm sits camber of one of the proude ! | otist families of Dutch Huguenot race that we have in the colony.

H's brothers with the toers, his nephew a gallant Ind of 20-holls a commission in that lat d if he ces, the fupril Lght Horse; his wife is in mourning for the dead among her ole friends in toria, where she was born and bred. Are not these instances enough? I tou d give a dozen moe, equally true. equally perplexing, equally painful.

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half in fear, half in delight at the "terribla I It will be seen," comments the Journal, creatures, "thanking heaven in no measured ↑ "that the Prince de Poix's sermon lends itself terms, that the "blood-thirsty ruffians" are cag. | ensily to burlesque, inasmuch as it is bat ed at last, without a thought of the black- necessary to substitute lovely and joyful scenes clothed women beside her, who are striving to | froth life for those he selected. It is announ- catch a glimpse through the bars of uncles, ced that many fashionable dames have already cousins, and even brühers from over the border; gotten up lists of pictorial bills of Fire, in now it is a freshly-landed' panty of Militamen, which the classic, as well as the more recent who indulge in an occasional cat call and a school of painter, are represented by some of "Wot price St. Helena?". Now it is a couple their muister-pieces."—Kode Chronicle, of Imperial Yeomanry, or bronzed Regulars, beaten foes, and pass away in silence, the who gure almost sympathetically upon their former because they are gentlemen and sports- men by birth and breeding, the latter because he who has seen service in any tands becomes a war-made gentleman and sportsman too, respecting a brave enemy alike, in the tour of victory and defeat.

THE CAPE DUTCH ARE LOVAL,

They all represent types of English opinion; but scarce a single one of them understands the curious position of the loitering colonists around them, Dutch even as the prisone s within are Dutch, of the same Boer speech, of the same Boer religion, yet, and to their bonour be it spoken, in vast majority of cases loyal to the Queen, under whose protecting hand they and their fathers lived and prospered.

do

Oh, my English friends, you who may me the honour to read what now I write, do not call me a pro-Boer, whatever that may mean, and give me up in disgust! My politi cal confession of faith is sound, I believe neither in the Conciliation Committees presided over by such impossible folk as earnest Temple Hargrave, nor do 1 ask you to "stop the war." I would have the British flag dying at Bloem fontein and Pretoria now and for all time.

We

But do not be blindly led by screaming news papers in this "land of lies" into the belief that to be a Dutchman at the Cape is to be a traitor, that those of them who have fallen from grace, and who, remembering-cven and the Americans have remembered-that blood is thicker than water," in their folly joined their kinsmen when the Boers cane riding over the border, rifle on bip, must be shot against walls in the best Russo-Spanish methods. Deal gently with them, for the temp- tatinn was great, and the penity for loyalty wolinus recked and plundered and wag- posledile commandeered.

Ir, too, the hundreds of Dutch name and pure Dutch descent who are even now fighting gallantly for our country and our Queen in a dozen Cape-raised regiments of horse.

--The R. Times,

FLETCHER ROBINSON

HOW GEMS MAY BE MANUFACTURED,

One of the most striking articles in the May number of the Windsor Alagasine deals with the wonderful developments that are being opened up in Selence by the Electrical Far naces at Niagara Falls, So far they have not yet succeeded in manufacturing dia monds in quantities, but the day does not SCCAT far distant when even these will be shipped from the Falls in peck boxes. The origin of the discovery was as follows: Mr Acheson conjectured that carbon if made to combine with clay, would produce an extremely hard substance; and that, having been combined with the clay, if it should in the cooling separate again from the clay, it would issue out of the operation as diamond. He therefore mixed a little clay and coke dust to- gether, placed them in a crucible, inserted the ends of two electric-light 'carbons into the mixture, and connected the carbons with a

dynamo. The fierce heat generated at the points of the carbon fused the clay, and caused portions of the carbon to dissolve. After cooling, à careful examination was made of the mass, and a few small purple crystals were found. They sparkled with something of the brightness of diamonds, and were so hard that they scratched glass, Mr. Acheson decided at once that they could not be diamonds, but he thought they might be rubies or sapphires. A little later, though, when he had made similar crystals of a larger size, he found that they were harder than rubies, even scratching the diamond itself. He showed them to a number of expert jewellers, chemists, and geologists. They had so much the appearance of genis that inany experts to whom they were submitted without explanation decided that they must certainly be of natural production. Even so eminent an authority as Geikie, the Scotch geologist, on being told, after he had examained them, that the crystals were manufactured in America, responded testily, "These Americans! What won't they claim next? Why, man, these crystals have been in the earth a million years.-L. Chronicle.

SOCIAL LIFE 15 SPLINTERED. Into the social life at the Cape the war has Fallen like a shell, tearing and rending old ties and old associating. There was none of this talk about Dutch and English before this horrid war moaned a lady to me. "We differed, may be, but only in a friendly spirit. Now you can't imagine how bifter the feeling is. any people have given up their 'at homes, for the Indies fell to talking of the war, and the-NOVEL PARISIAN DINNER IDEA. scenes that followed were really scandalous.

It was only the other day that a Dutch lady, after a violent quarrel with her hostess, an English woman by birth but her friend since girlhood, rushed out of the latter's bouse, sobbing as the soldiers killed her brother in the Transvaal

she

went that

If

service she would teach her children to bato the very name of England-and that, too, at an afternoon tea party, with a score or more of people present!"

1 wish to goodness we could muzzle the Cape press," said a good-natured English. merchant of my acquaintance. I'm an Im- perialist heart and soul, but this continual abuse fairly sickens me. Ifa man is a moderate, both were a pickpocket or wrse. Blood-thirsty Jingoes, slicks the "South African News;

sides set to work and bound him down as if he

The Prince de Poix, who is one of the heads of the ancient ducal house of Noailles, has in- troduced a novelty in the art of serving great dinners. At a banquet recently held in his palace, in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, in Paris, the courses were announced by lineto- graph, instead of by bill of fare, as customary, The Prince adopted this new science with a view to reminding his guests of the amount of danger and work involved by catering to their

pilates, but society refused to see the point of his argument and, says the New York Journal, in reporting the incident, turned his sermon into a jest.

the

"But how," said she, "are you going to put aitor" "rebel." political mugwump," bellow repast. A white silk screen hid the great wall

up at St. Helena?" "At the hotel."

"But there isn't onef"

March 27th, 6, 30.3. Last night passed quietly. On coming out this morning I was told that runners from Plumer's column had arrived at 10 p.m. last night, having started from the camp outside

She laughs very gally. Well, you must go at sundown. The relieving force is reported and put up at Longwood. Besides, there you to be only about eleven miles out. Five blue will be on French soil" signal rockets were seen early this morning- "Didn't you know it? 1 didn't before the real rockets this time. The runners brought a

journey. Longwood was given to France under number of telgrams for residents, addressed

Napoleon III. I wanted to buy it when my from various places. Several of the wires con gratulate us upon our relief, which congratulat-husband was sent there, and it was thus that I

tions are somewhat premature. The big gun lins begun to fire, backed by the smaller artillery,

the fact."

"Then I shall be in Franco.” "To be sure you will,”Le Malin.

OMENS ABOUT WEDDING RINGS.

the "Cape Times" and the "Argus." From the way the Rhodes supporting papers talk you might imagine that every man with a Dutch The cleavage between the two parties growS name must be a rebel. Look at the result! broader day by day. You can't even invite your old friends to dinner without carefully considering what their opinions on the war may be. Everyone seems to forget that we shall have to live together after the war, and the more we rave and howl at one another the more difficult will it be to settle down's sheer tomdamfoolery-that's what I call it!"

PRO-BOERS BLACKDALLED.

-

- SOME ROYAL MUSICIANS.

Nowadays musicians are not looked down upon as they used to be, and the change is greatly due to the filet that the Queen and the late Prince Consort-themselves musicians of no mean order-both honoured music and musicians, and helped greatly to bring music into the position it now holds in England. Everyone knows how the Prince Consort and still delights ber Majesty. The Prince Consort The Queen honoured Mendelssohn, whose music himself composed many chorales and a good deal of church music which is very musicianly, and is still player. All the Royal children had the best musicians to educate them, and not only were they taught to sing and play, but also to study the principles of harmony and composition. One result of this is shown in berg, who arranged Lord Beaconsfield's "Green the charming song of Princess Henry of Batten-

Cavalier's Song," as well as Heine's "Im wun- derschönen stönat Mai"

are very musical. The Princess herself is a The Princess of Wales and her daughters

good pianist, and for many years she and her daughters have attended Air. Chappell's popular concerts. The late Duchess of Teck was extremely musical, and was always ready to encourage talent. She was particularly fond Empress Frederick is an allround, accomplished of the cello playing of M. Hollman." The

woman--good musician, linguist, painter, and politican--and was the especial pride of her father, the late Prince Consort, by reason of

her talents.

and can read anything at first sight. She passes Princess. Henry has always played the piano, many hours in trying over ducis with her Maid of Honour, Miss Minnie Cochrane, who also composes songs and reads music perfectly at sight Princess Henry's children have all been brought up in a musical atmosphere, and are very gifted. The eldest buy attracts atten tion by the great contentment which is visible on his face when music is being played at the Castle.

The Duke of Saxe-Colmarg is a violinist, and used, at times, to play in the Albert Hall Orchestra. Both he and the Prince of Wales preside at some of the smoking concerts giver by the Madrigal Society and the Amateur Orchestral Society. Princess Helena (Princess Christian) has a pleasant singing voice as Her Majesty once had. In the winter Her Royal Highness altends Sir Walter Parratt's Choral Society at Windsor, and seems to enjoy the practice immensely.

:4

POISED ON A WHIRLPOOL.

WHY MY LADY IS ALWAYS LATE.

When a man decides to go out be picks up his overcoat, flings himself into it, slaps his hat on his head "any old way, lights a cigar and off he strides. But when a woman makes up her mind to sally forth well, that is another story, and a far more lunga by cre

The odds are that resolve úvertakes her when she is either stretched out in an easy chair, in some loose, comfortable garment, perusing the last new havel, or else she has just been enjoying the luxury of an afternoon nap, while “visions of bargain sales danced through her head.".

tlaving roused herself to the exertion of get. ting dressed, she begins the regular and seldom varied programme that nearly every woman goes through with each time she gets ready to go out. Occasionally one discovers a woman who doesn't feel called upon to perform all these Rule acts, but she is the exception that” proves the rule.

If she is just the average development of the eternal faining the first thing she does is to tightch up her shoe laces. The woman has never yet been found whose shoes were too light about her pretty ankles, and so the faces must be drawn snug and taut each time the fair manipulator makes really to go out, whether the shoes have been worn all day or whether they have but just replaced the dainty house slippers. It's a nuisance and a bother, and a woman grumbles every time she has it to do; but she keeps on doing it just the same, and will, so long as laced shoes are fashionable, unless, as a result, blood blisters chilblains put in an appear ance and she is not able to wear shoes at all.

With her feet well and comfortably clad a woman feels prepared to go forth and fight all the battles of life.

So, having girded on her ammor, as it were, is planning an outdoor jaunt is to investigato the next thing done by the pretty creature who

the condition of her back hair. There never was a woman yet who glid not protest loudly that her hair was an awful nuisance and that she would like to be bald ended as a Rocky she hates "doing " it, and yet, if the truth were mountain cagle. She invariably pretends that known, every woman in creation loves her back hair as she loves no other portion of her physical organism. She loves to squeeze and press the wayward locks into place with her white and slender fingers, for she known full well this is a pretty, graceful action that all men know and admire. So, whenever she makes ready to go out, she lifts the handglass, and, gazing at her back hair, wonders if it will have to be done over.

This ponderous question settled, she next slips into her skirt and waist, taking care to fasten the one to the other, for, unlike heaven and the baldheaded man, to whom it is some- times likened, there is apt to be considerable "parting" there if this little precautied be neglected.

Then she takes a survey of her nose, to make sure that it shineth not Some women's noses glow with the effulgence of a newly po ished dishpan. If the parti cular woman who is getting ready to go out is one of this class, and at the same time one of those strong-minded ladies who rant and the rail against the use of powder, she tempers shine on it by means of a gentle polishing with a soft linen handkerchief, perhaps moistened with a bit of eau de cologne. If, however, she be one of the women to whom à modicura of powder is not only a comfort, but a necessity, she dabs a little of it on the member which is apt to be quite as unruly as the tongue. In any event, ber nose is certain to be an object of solicitude before she faces her kind on the streat.

Then she does her hat, prodding it carefully with hat pins, so that it will keep its place properly, for a woman's hat sometimes displays as great an unwillingness to do this as does an untrained servant girl.

to her entire satisfaction, she takes up her veil, This important adjunct of her toilette settled

and, standing before the mirror, she tries time after time 10 adjust it. Before she has it arrang. ed to her liking she probably has tied untied and retied it anywhere from fifteen to fifty times. Some women stop when their arms have become so stiff and weary that it is a physical impossibility to raise them again; others when the ends of the veil have been torn into shreds, while still others, after a few unsuccess- ful attempts, cast the veil aside in disgust and decide not to wear any veil after all. Once in a while a woman distinguishes herself by tying the veil satisfactorily the first time, but such women are sirange and unusual.

An old gentleman, hearing an account from his nephew of the latter having once looked down the crater of a volcano, shivered with horror. "But, uncle," remarked the young adventurer, one wants to see the world, you know "Well, for my part, I'm contented with the outside of it," was the answer. This (says a writer in "Chums") was a sentiment evidently not shared by the narrator of the follow ing story, who, just for the novelty of the thing, was once poised on the edge of a whirlpool, while he peered into it out of a boat (he says) to see this whirlpool in the Yangase River, China. As we ap- proached the outer edge of the circle, the fun- el-shaped cone in the centre, about five feet in of floating wond were caught up in the circling depth, was distinctly seen; occasionally pieces

water, to be spun round and round, till they reached the centre, when, after one or two turns, they would disappear with the strong. downward suction. The whirlpool was not strong enough to do anything more than play with a junk of the size of ours, but had we been in a small rowing boat, we should have been sucked right into the forbidding depths. As it was, the affair was perilous enough, and the Round we went, and excitement intense." after having reached the vonex, which was now directly under the keel of the boat, the motion became extremely unpleasant we were simply turning round and round, as though fixed on a pivot, and at anything but a slow speed. On looking over the side, there was the horrible cose straight underneath us, like the mouth of some huge sea monster, ready to swallow everything that approached interposed between us and that sheer chasm It was terrifying. Only a few inches of wood of water. I soon had enough of that sickening "roundabout" za dizziness swept over me, and I shouted to my men to pull out, Instantly cover a number of buttons missing from her twenty bars gripped the water and we slowly shoes, heels on the bins, soiled neck ribbons, but surely drew away from that horrid gulf and the like. On the other hand, with her Had there been more water in the river, the veil neatly tied at the back, the ends carefully whirpool would have been too strong for us; tucked away, the scolding locks caught up, and and boat, men, and everything would have the veil pinned over them in such a way as to been sucked down like a wisp of straw.

once shows herself keep them up, a woman precise and neat and mindful of the minutcht detail. A women should give much thought to the selection of her veil, for it does much to enhance or belittle her beauty."

VANITY IN THE BIOKROOM.

During all my twenty years' experience of patients," remarked a lady nurse "I have never inet with anything more extraordinary than the craving which fashionable women have for looking at themselves in the glass when they are ill in bed.

"Many society beauties have been under my care, and I must say that the less I have to do with them, in a professional sense, in the future the better I shall be pleased. I have known women famed for their looks to stagger out of bed when they were in the greatest agony of pain to snatch a glance of themselves in the glass, while others have insisted on keeping hand mirror under their pillows, and even sometimes of having the pier-glass brought to the bedside.

"A vain and pretty woman, no matter from what fell disease she may be suffering, is far more troubled by the fear that she may possibly lose her beauty than by the pain she has to bear. Her one thought thing to witness is her personal ap

her torture of mind when the fact is brought home to her for the first time that when she rises from her bed it will not be as a handsome woman, but as a faded beauty whose facial charms have gone for ever.

pearance, and it is a

There's a heap of characles shown in the way a woman wears a veil. When you see a woman with her veil askew, or wrinkled, or with some one of her features protruding through a good-sized hole in the mesh, or of her hat, you may safely accredit, that with ragged ends hanging out from the back

focussed upon her would probably dis woman with being a slouch. An X-ray

The out-door jacket assumed, again sho stations herself before the mirror. Then, if she be an out and cut woman, she grasps the front of her coat with both hands and pulls it down firmly, twisting about the while sho gazes critically in the mirror to discover if there be any fault to be found with the ft of the garment in the back. If it fits well she smiles contentedly, and

That back certainly does fit me as though I had been poured into it," is what she says, or, Dear me ! That's an awful wrinkle in the

back of that jacket," she may complain,

Giving it a final tug in front she proceeds to draw on her gloves. And then

"These gloves are altogether too large,” fu what she is pretty certain to exclaim.

The banquet-room was steeped in low, soft light light of a few candles only, when the ladies and gentlemen sat down to the facing the table, which was placed in the shape of a horseshoe. After the Prince's house chaplain had pronounced grace-for all his go guests belonged to the Catholic aristocracy the screen suddenly lit up and there appeared on its smooth surface a scene from the Brit tany coast,, showing a number of men and women trying to save themselves and their oyster irons from a storm which was about to swamp their boats, while wailing children and old women stood on shore, wringing their hands and crying to God for mercy. After the

Even though they hug the thumb so tightly guests had taken in this scene, the electric

as to stop the circulation and the upper clasp lights went up, and they found their plates load-

positively refuses to fasten, while the pretty Io am. We inve been under the heaviest

ed with most delicious oysters ori powdered ice,

hand looks, like a jelly roll, when once the bombardment we have experienced since the

Go where you will. the same facts confront The second course, sago soup, was prefaced

matter of course. At least a mile too large gloves are on; still, they are too large as a siege begun. The artillery fire has come from

you. Men are blackballed for clubs on mereby a scene from the Island of Sumatra, bun- three sides, and shells, have been screaming

suspicion of pro-Boer sympathies; the race- dreds of half-naked coolies, driven by the whips

at the lowest estimate, as any one can see who and bursting for over three hours. I have Just

course committee expelled one of its members of cruel overseers, gathering, the corn by cut.

takes the trouble to look. There is sure to be come back from the outworks. Several parties Many believe that the loss of a wedding ring for a similar reason; even in trams and railway ting and splitting palm stemi under a broiling

something altogether wrong with the woman of Bours commenced to advance to the attack, means that the husband's love will be lost in carriages the opposite parties draw apart and sun. In the next picture, the royal sturgeon

who fails to make this remark over her gloves and we fancied that at last we should have a turn. If the ring is broken the husband will scowl mutual defiance as fiercely as did the which the Prince's guests were about to enjoy

when dreasing for, the street. Either she is á really good fight; but we were disappointed. soon die. In Ireland it is a general belief that free and independent voters in the good old *cost the lives of two brave Rahermen out in the "A patient of mine a lady celebrated for creature too bright and good for human They cune on in open order until they were to rub a sore with a golden wedding ring will { times of county elections in England, with storm to earn their unbuttered bread. Be her magnificent face and figure-on learning | nature's daily food," or else she's a business within a thousand yards, and our men remained cause it in speedily hout. The wedding ring is this difference liowever, that whereas politics fore the roast was served, the ladies and gentle that the fover with which she had been battling woman and hasn't time to criticise die fit of quietly under cover without firing a shot. Our supposed never to tarnish, and if it does become have always been regarded somewhat in the man had to make a tour of an abattoir-patient, had robbed her of all her physical attractions, her gloves plan has always been to reserve fire until the dim, it is said to be a warning that love niso is light of a popular amusement at home, to be inofansive animals killed and cus up before completely lost control of herself, and flying enemy got within six or seven hundred yards. tarnished and dim. A wedding ring should fit swept away when outside danger threatens the their very eyes, men in blood-stained garments, into an ungoverable fury tore the sheets on There was dead silence in our works, and the the finger. If it is too large it is a sign of country, here the people are in sullen, deadly revolting detalls,

her bed to rags, and ɓnally made a dash for a shell-fire was received with the utmost cool, shallowness of purpose. If too tight, it camest.

The pictorial bill of fare made known the bottle containing poison, and tried to commit ness and quietude. When our spirits were suggest that the union pinches somehow. A The curious observer-a most objectionable cook's readiness to bring on the pheasants, by suicide. Folled in the attempt, she fought highest in anticipation of a fight, the Boers perfect filing ring is symbolic of a perfectly individual to have about the place, but interest two scenes King Henry pronouncing the wish like a madwoman, scattering, omaments here, repeated their former cowardly conduct:armonious union. Every man may select the ing withal-will find much food for reflection that every Frenchman have a chicken in his pot there, and everywhere, and bad to be strap

at least once a week and an actual photograph | ped to the mattress. their forts. The disappointment of our men | The-groom's Initials and the bride's initials, Point camp of the Boer prisoners,

in Paris, where the miser These exhibitions of vanity seem absurd, was keen. Within the past three hours the big followed by the wedding date, is most frequently

able dine off dog 'gun has fired 5,840 lb, weight of shell, and the the inscription. But there are many beautiful

fusel. Dessert was ushered in by similar grue.women vieing with each other as they are at Other guns among them have fired upwards of sentiments, and individuality and originality in

some scones--poor, ragged children searching the present moment, it is a serious thing for a 1,260 lb. They are still firing, and every few regard to these motides are becoming very

theart barrels for food, wallethedogs of the rich lady whose appearance is her fortune and the minutes the alarm bells clang to warn us that popula? The date is always engraved in the

dine luxuriously of Dresden and refuse to eat foundation of her popularity to be suddenly shell is on its way. Our reserve guns are | wedding!

*ving -5. F. Chrenitik..

grojow unless it is served ahead of sexUON, deprived of her mala soures of enjoyment?"

The next exclamation ther my lady fair makes is snent fier shoes. Whatever she has donned in the way of foot gear she is sure to dissatisfied with. If she doesn't wish she had. put on some other pair, she exclaims, as sko did in the case of the gloves, that they are, altogether too large.p

they funked the work and slunk, back to sentiment to be engraved in his bride'e ring, and subsequent "copy" by visiting the Greep of the poor quarters shing it down with but they are not a little pathetic With society figure that confronts her in the long pier, glass

Joining the little crowd that peeps through the bars of the gate at the close pitched tents, from lounging loose-limbed men he hears many a casual wom that throws light on the relations of Briton and Boer. Now It is an English indy, under khaki, officer-ascort, who gazes

Then, a last look over her shoulder" at the reflection in her mirror, another glance at the

in the hall, and the is off

What is the next thing that she dons?" Well, if you are really curious on this point, watch her as she near the first plate-glass window along her line of march."