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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature,
-Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 17, Vol. I, April 26, 1884, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art,
-       Fifth Series, No. 17, Vol. I, April 26, 1884
-
-Editor: Various
-
-Release Date: June 8, 2021 [eBook #65567]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Susan Skinner, Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The Internet
-             Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR
-LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 17, VOL. I, APRIL 26,
-1884 ***
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration:
-
-CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
-
-OF
-
-POPULAR
-
-LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART
-
-Fifth Series
-
-ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832
-
-CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)
-
-NO. 17.—VOL. I.       SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1884.       PRICE 1½_d._]
-
-
-
-
-POST-OFFICE LIFE-ASSURANCE AND ANNUITIES.
-
-
-The numerous aids which the government have from time to time afforded
-through the agency of the Post-office for the encouragement of thrift
-and providence amongst the poorer classes have generally been attended
-with so much success, that it is surprising to hear of even one
-exception in regard to such efforts. There is no doubt, however, as
-was pointed out two years ago in this _Journal_, that the existing
-scheme of Post-office Life-assurance and Annuities, which has been in
-operation since 1865, has sadly hung fire, and but little advantage
-has been taken of the system, as may be inferred from the fact, that
-although it has been established almost twenty years, the total number
-of policies for life-assurance issued during that period is not more
-than six thousand five hundred and twenty-four; while the number
-of annuity contracts granted during the same period is only twelve
-thousand four hundred and thirty-five. Taking the latest returns, too,
-we find that the life policies now existing have dwindled down to so
-low a number as four thousand six hundred and fifteen; while the number
-of annuity contracts now only reaches nine thousand three hundred and
-seventy-three. These figures at once show how trifling and unimportant
-have been the results from this branch of Post-office business; but
-perhaps the causes for this want of success are not far to seek, if we
-consider how circumscribed and restricted the present system is in its
-action.
-
-It was but natural, therefore, that so energetic a reformer as Mr
-Fawcett should speedily turn his attention to this important subject,
-on taking the helm in the affairs of the great department over
-which he has so ably presided during the past four years. A select
-Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1882, of which the
-Postmaster-general was chairman; and after thoroughly inquiring into
-the whole subject, that Committee unanimously recommended in their
-Report the adoption of a scheme for the amelioration of the present
-system of Post-office Life-assurance and Annuities which had been
-put forward and explained to them by Mr James J. Cardin, the present
-Assistant-receiver and Accountant-general to the Post-office. An Act of
-Parliament was passed during the same session legalising the proposed
-changes; and as it is understood that the new system will be brought
-into operation on the first of May this year, it seems desirable, and
-indeed important, that the undoubted benefits and privileges that will
-accrue therefrom should be made known as widely as possible.
-
-The essential feature of the new Post-office scheme for assuring lives
-and granting annuities is, that every person wishing to assure his or
-her life or to purchase an annuity through the Post-office shall become
-a depositor in the Post-office savings-bank—a plan that will offer to
-the public numerous facilities, and a large amount of convenience in
-respect of this kind of business, which have hitherto not existed. In
-the first place, the intending insurants or annuitants will in future
-be able for that purpose to go to any post-office savings-bank in
-the country—of which there are now over seven thousand. At present,
-life-assurance and annuity business can be transacted at only two
-thousand post-offices; but the intended system will at once place five
-thousand additional post-offices at the disposal of the public in this
-respect. In the next place, the cosmopolitanism of the savings-bank
-system will apply equally to the assurance and annuities business
-under its new conditions; and this it may be pointed out will prove
-an advantage of no mean order to the classes for whom Post-office
-Assurance and Annuities would appear to be chiefly designed, if it be
-remembered how frequently working-men move about from place to place.
-Under the present system, the insurant or annuitant is tied to the
-particular post-office at which the insurance or the contract for
-the annuity was originally effected, excepting by going through the
-formalities involved in giving notice to the chief office in London of
-a desire to change the place of payment of the premiums, which by most
-persons of the classes concerned is regarded as a somewhat irksome job.
-
-The great idea of the whole scheme seems to be to afford the public
-in respect of Post-office Assurance and Annuities a maximum amount
-of convenience with a minimum amount of trouble; and nothing could
-probably further this object more successfully than Mr Cardin’s scheme
-of working the assurance and annuities business in with that of the
-savings-bank; for all the advantages and benefits which the public now
-enjoy in regard to the latter-named branch of the Post-office will be
-equally shared by those who intend to assure their lives or purchase
-annuities through the same department. Mr Fawcett, who is a true
-champion of the principles of thrift, has in all his schemes to this
-end recognised the supreme importance of simplicity in the necessary
-machinery, so far as the public at all events are concerned; and it
-was probably the fact of such simplicity being a predominating feature
-of the new insurance scheme that commended it so favourably to Mr
-Fawcett’s mind.
-
-Any person desiring to assure his life or to purchase an annuity
-through the Post-office, will first of all procure the form or forms
-applicable to his case, and such information as he may require from a
-post-office at which savings-bank business is transacted, the number
-of such offices in the United Kingdom being, as already stated, over
-seven thousand. On completion of the necessary preliminaries, which
-will be reduced to the smallest limits compatible with the safe conduct
-of the business, he will be furnished, if not already a Post-office
-savings-bank depositor, with a deposit book; and a deposit account
-will be opened in his name, and he will then be asked to authorise the
-transfer of the amount of all future premiums as they become due, from
-his savings-bank to his assurance or annuity account. He will pay into
-the savings-bank account thus opened such sums as he conveniently can
-from time to time; and these sums, together with any accumulations
-by way of interest, or from dividends on stock purchased under the
-savings-bank regulations, will form the fund from which the Post-office
-will take the premiums as they annually become due. So long, therefore,
-as the annuitant or insurant, as the case may be, takes care to have a
-sufficient balance in his savings-bank account when the premiums become
-due, he will have no further trouble in the matter. In the event of the
-balance being insufficient, the fact will be specially notified to him,
-and reasonable time allowed for making good the deficiency.
-
-The advantage in this scheme which the classes for whom it is
-designed will probably best appreciate is the liberty, and consequent
-convenience, of paying the premiums not in one annual lump sum and
-on a specific date, but from time to time as may be agreeable to the
-insurant or annuitant, and in such sums as may at the time suit his
-pocket. He may indeed save a penny at a time for his annual premiums by
-using the savings-bank stamp slip, which has spaces on it for twelve
-stamps, and which when filled up may be passed into the post-office.
-It is astonishing what benefits can be procured by the saving of only
-a penny a week. For instance, a youth of sixteen, by putting a penny
-postage-stamp each week on one of the slips referred to, might either
-secure for himself at sixty, old-age pay of about three pounds a
-year, or insure his life for about thirteen pounds; and if the saving
-commenced at five years of age, the old-age pay would be about five
-pounds a year. Another appreciable benefit which the new system will
-afford as regards payment is, that by allowing the premiums to be paid
-in as savings-bank deposits, the higher charges necessarily made when
-premiums have to be collected in regular periodical instalments will be
-saved to the insurant or annuitant, as the case may be.
-
-To make a providence or thrift scheme at all successful it is of course
-essential that the general working of such a scheme should be adapted
-to the character of the classes whom it is intended to reach; and it is
-precisely in this respect that the new scheme of Post-office Assurance
-and Annuities would seem to succeed. As Mr Fawcett is himself ready
-to admit, the purchase of an annuity or the keeping up of a policy of
-insurance is at present a constant source of trouble to the person
-concerned. Attendance at a particular post-office is necessary for the
-payment of a premium, a special book has to be kept, and other rules
-have to be observed. All this will be changed under the new system; and
-when once the annuity has been purchased or the assurance effected, no
-further action on the part of the person concerned will be necessary.
-The premiums will be transferred at the chief office in London from
-his savings-bank account to his assurance or annuity account without
-trouble to him. He will thus be saved the task of remembering the
-precise amount of premium due or the particular day on which it is to
-be paid; and this arrangement will also abolish the necessity for a
-special insurance or annuity book.
-
-The operation of the new scheme will, so far as can be seen, lead to
-some collateral advantages, of which not a few persons will be ready
-to avail themselves. A depositor, for instance, in the Post-office
-savings-banks, or a holder of government stock obtained through that
-medium, will be able to give authority to the Postmaster-general
-to use the interest or the dividends as the case may be, which may
-accrue, for the purposes of purchasing a life policy or an annuity, or
-both, as might be directed. Thus, as Mr Cardin tells us, a man at the
-age of thirty, with one hundred pounds deposited in the Post-office
-savings-bank, will be able to give an order directing that half the
-interest thereon shall be applied to the assurance of his life for
-fifty-three pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence, and the other
-moiety to the purchase of a deferred annuity of eight pounds six
-shillings and eightpence, commencing at the age of sixty; and if his
-one hundred pounds were invested in government stock, the amounts of
-his life-assurance and his deferred annuity would be greater, as the
-dividends would be of greater amount than the interest received on a
-mere deposit.
-
-It may be briefly pointed out that under the Act of Parliament for
-legalising the changes about to be wrought in the Post-office Assurance
-and Annuities system, some important alterations in the limits will
-be made. It has been long recognised that the present limits were ill
-adapted to the kind of business sought. The higher limits were too low,
-and the lower limits too high. The former will now be raised to the
-useful maximum of two hundred pounds; while the present lower limit
-of twenty pounds has been altogether abolished, so that an assurance
-can be effected or an annuity purchased for any sum below two hundred
-pounds. There will also be some beneficial changes as to the limits of
-age. There can be no doubt that the first steps taken by the young to
-make provision for the future act as a powerful incentive to greater
-efforts, and that thus an annuity or life policy of considerable amount
-is gradually built up. Mr Fawcett and the select Committee over which
-he presided, recognising this fact, felt that such beginnings of thrift
-could not be made too soon, and consequently recommended that the
-present limits of age which restrict life-assurance to sixteen, and the
-grant of annuities to ten, should be respectively reduced to eight and
-five years; and these proposals have been sanctioned by the Act. It
-should be added, that for obvious reasons, it was considered expedient
-to limit the amount of the assurance to be effected upon the life of
-a very young child; and the Act provides, therefore, that the amount
-shall not exceed five pounds on the life of a child between the ages of
-eight and fourteen years.
-
-In conclusion, there can be no question that the changes which we
-have indicated here will prove of the greatest value, now that the
-importance of life-assurance and of making provision for old age is
-becoming more appreciated among the people. It is true, of course, that
-numerous benefit and friendly societies exist which offer various kinds
-of privileges; but from causes that are not far to seek, the poor have
-come to view such societies with a certain amount of distrust; and it
-is needful that the government should step in to render the poorer
-classes not only all the facilities at its command, but also that
-assurance as regards stability which alone a government department can
-impress on such classes.
-
-We have attempted to show some of the principal advantages which will
-accrue from that system, and there is one more that should not be
-omitted. It is, that any person who may suddenly or unexpectedly become
-possessed of a certain sum of money may invest it in the Post-office,
-and by a single payment secure either an annuity in old age or a
-life-assurance. The advantage of being able to make a single payment
-is obvious; for it at once removes all further trouble and anxiety
-from the mind of the person so investing his money as to the future;
-a reflection which, to most persons, must be a source of infinite
-satisfaction.
-
-
-
-
-BY MEAD AND STREAM.
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV.—A WORD IN SEASON.
-
-The suspicion which Philip now entertained regarding his uncle’s habits
-rendered the letters received from him the more surprising—they were so
-calm, kindly, and firm. He did not receive many: Mr Shield preferred
-that his instructions should be conveyed to him by Messrs Hawkins and
-Jackson. There was one waiting for him, however, on the morning on
-which he took possession of his chambers in Verulam Buildings, Gray’s
-Inn.
-
-Wrentham had tried to persuade him to take chambers in the West End,
-indicating Piccadilly as the most suitable quarter for the residence of
-a young man of fortune who was likely to mix in society. There he would
-be close to the clubs, and five minutes from every place of amusement
-worth going to.
-
-But Philip had notions of his own on this subject. He had no particular
-desire to be near the clubs: he expected his time to be fully occupied
-in the enterprise on which he was entering. What leisure he might have
-would of course be spent at Willowmere and Ringsford. The chambers
-in Verulam Buildings were all that a bachelor of simple tastes could
-desire. They were on the second floor, and the windows of the principal
-apartment overlooked the green square. To the left were quaint old
-gables and tiles, which the master-painter, Time, had transformed into
-a wondrous harmony of all the shades and tints of green and russet.
-
-Sitting there, with the noisy traffic of Gray’s Inn Road shut out by
-double doors and double windows on the other side of the building, he
-could imagine himself to be miles away from the bustle and fever of the
-town, although he was in the midst of it. And sitting there, he read
-this letter from Mr Shield, which began as usual without any of the
-customary phrases of address:
-
-    ‘I now feel that you have begun your individual life in
-    earnest; and I am glad of it. By this step you secure full
-    opportunity to show us what stuff you are made of. As already
-    explained, I do not intend to interfere with you in any way. I
-    do not wish you to seek my advice, and do not wish to give any.
-    Once for all, understand me—my desire is to test by your own
-    acts and judgment whether or not you are worthy of the fortune
-    which awaits you.
-
-    ‘When I say the fortune which awaits you, I mean something more
-    than money.
-
-    ‘I hope you will stand the test; but you must not ask me to
-    help you to do so. Circumstances may tempt me at times to
-    give you a word of warning; but my present intention is to do
-    my best to resist the temptation. You must do everything for
-    yourself and by yourself, if you are to satisfy me.
-
-    ‘I admire the spirit which prompts your enterprise, and
-    entirely approve of its object. But here let me speak my first
-    and probably my last word of warning. No doubt you are anxious
-    to convince me that the capital which has been placed at your
-    disposal is not to be thrown away; and it is this anxiety,
-    backed by the enthusiasm of inexperience, that leads you into
-    your first blunder. You calculate upon reaping from six to
-    eight per cent. on your investment. I do not pretend to have
-    gone thoroughly into the subject; but considering the kind of
-    investment and the manner in which you propose to work it, my
-    opinion is that if you count upon from two to three per cent.,
-    you will be more likely to avoid disappointment than if you
-    adhere to the figures you have set down. At anyrate, you will
-    err on the safe side.
-
-    ‘Further: you should also, and to a like extent, moderate your
-    calculations as to the degree of sympathy and co-operation you
-    will receive from the people you intend to benefit. I should
-    be sorry to rob you of any part of the joy which faith in his
-    fellow-men gives to youth. I think the man is happier who fails
-    because he has trusted others, than he who succeeds because he
-    has trusted no one but himself. I have failed in that way, and
-    may fail again; yet my belief in the truth of this principle of
-    trust is unchanged.
-
-    ‘At the same time, whilst you have faith in others, your eyes
-    should be clear. Before you give your confidence, do what you
-    can to make sure that it is not given to a knave. Should you,
-    with eyes open, allow yourself to be deceived, you would be a
-    fool, not a generous man. I was a fool.
-
-    ‘Pardon this allusion to myself; there was no intention of
-    making any when this letter was begun.
-
-    ‘Briefly, whilst hoping that your enterprise may be completely
-    successful, I wish to remind you of the commonplace fact that
-    greed and selfishness are elements which have to be reckoned
-    with in everything we attempt to do for or with others, whether
-    the attempt be made in the wilds of Griqualand or in this
-    centre of civilisation. It is a miserable conclusion to arrive
-    at in looking back on the experience of a life; but it is the
-    inevitable one. The only people you will be able to help are
-    those who are willing to help themselves in the right way—which
-    means those who have learned that the success of a comrade
-    is no barrier to their own success. You will have to learn
-    that the petty jealousies which exist amongst the workers in
-    even the smallest undertakings are as countless as they are
-    incomprehensible to the man who looks on all around him with
-    generous eyes. You will be a happy man if twenty years hence
-    you can say that your experience has been different from mine.
-
-    ‘You are not to think, however, that I consider all people
-    moved by greed and selfishness alone: I only say that these
-    are elements to be taken into account in dealing with them.
-    The most faithful friends are sometimes found amongst the most
-    ignorant of mankind: the greatest scoundrels amongst those who
-    are regarded as the most cultivated.
-
-    ‘Do you find this difficult to understand? You must work out
-    its full meaning for yourself. I say no more. You have your
-    warning. Go on your way, and I trust you will prosper.’
-
-This was signed abruptly, Austin Shield, as if the writer feared that
-he had already said too much.
-
-‘How he must have suffered,’ was Philip’s thought, after the first few
-moments of reflection over this letter. It was the longest he had ever
-received from his uncle, and seemed to disclose more of the man’s inner
-nature than he had hitherto been permitted to see. ‘How he must have
-suffered! Would I bear the scar so long if—— What stuff and nonsense!’
-
-He laughed at himself heartily, and a little scornfully for allowing
-the absurd question even to flit across his mind. As if any possible
-combination of circumstances could ever arise to take Madge away from
-him! The tombstone of one of them was the only barrier that could ever
-stand between them; and the prospect of its erection was such a long
-way off, that he could think of it lightly if not philosophically.
-
-But as he continued to stare out at those quaint russet gables and
-the green square, a dreamy expression slowly filled his eyes, and
-visions of the impossible passed before him. He had thrown himself
-into this work which he had found to do with such earnestness, that he
-had already passed more than one day without going to see Madge. Her
-spirit was in the work, and inspired his devotion to it, and all his
-labour was for her. In that way she was always with him, although her
-form and clear eyes might not be constantly present to his mind. That
-was a consolatory thought for himself; but would it satisfy her? Was
-it sufficient to satisfy himself how he had allowed three days to pass
-without his appearance at Willowmere?
-
-He was startled when he recollected that it was three days since he had
-been there. Three days—an age, and how it could have passed so quickly
-he was unable to understand. He had certainly intended every evening
-to go as usual. But every day had been so full of business—details of
-plans and estimates to study and master—that he had been glad to lie
-down and sleep. The task was the more laborious for him, as he had
-not had previous knowledge of its practical intricacies, and he was
-resolved to understand thoroughly everything that was done.
-
-‘I suppose she will laugh, and say it is like me—always at extremes;
-either trying to do too much, or doing too little. At anyrate, she
-will be convinced that I have taken kindly to harness. We’ll see this
-afternoon.’
-
-There was another influence which unconsciously detained him in town.
-He shrank somehow from the interview with his father which must take
-place on his return to Ringsford. He had hoped to be able to take
-with him some friendly message from Mr Shield which would lead to the
-reconciliation of the two men; and as yet he was as far as ever from
-being able to approach the subject with his uncle.
-
-His reverie was interrupted by the arrival of Wrentham, spruce and
-buoyant, a flower in his button-hole, and looking as if he had made a
-safe bet on the next racing event.
-
-‘Came to tell you about that land,’ he said.
-
-‘I suppose you have made arrangements for the purchase?’ rejoined
-Philip, as he folded his uncle’s letter and replaced it in the envelope.
-
-Wrentham followed the action with inquisitive eyes. He was asking
-himself, ‘Has that letter anything to do with this coolness about the
-bargain, on which he was so hot a few days ago, or is it accident?’
-Then, with a little real wonder, and some affectation of amusement at
-the innocence of his principal:
-
-‘My dear Philip!’—Wrentham was one of those men who will call
-an acquaintance of a few hours by his Christian name, and by an
-abbreviation of it after an intimacy of a couple of days—‘you don’t
-mean to say that you imagine a question of the transfer of land in this
-greatest city of the world is to be settled off-hand in a forenoon?’
-
-‘O no; I did not think that, Wrentham; but as the land is very much on
-the outskirts of the city, and has been for a long time in the market,
-I did not expect that there would be much delay in coming to terms
-about it.’
-
-‘Ah! but you forget that it is within easy distance of an existing
-railway station, and close by the site of one which will be in working
-order before your houses can be built.’
-
-‘Exactly. That is why I chose the spot.’
-
-‘Just so; and you can have it; but the fellows know its full value, and
-mean to have it. Look at that.’
-
-He handed him a paper containing the statement of the terms on which
-the land in question was to be sold. Philip read it carefully, frowned,
-and tossed it back to his agent.
-
-‘Ridiculous!’ he exclaimed. ‘They must have thought you were acting
-for the government or a railway company. I believe it is considered
-legitimate to fleece _them_. Half the money is what I will give, and no
-more.’
-
-When a clever man thinks he has performed a particularly clever trick,
-and finds that, by some instinct of self-preservation, the person to
-be tricked upsets all his calculations, whilst there still remains
-a chance of persuading him that he is making a mistake, there comes
-over the clever person a peculiar change. It is like a sudden lull in
-the wind: he shows neither surprise nor regret on his own part, but a
-certain respectful pity for the blindness of the other in not seeing
-the advantage offered him. So with Wrentham at this moment. He left the
-paper lying on the table, as if it had no further interest for him, and
-took out his cigar-case.
-
-‘You don’t mind a cigar, I suppose?... Have one?’
-
-‘Thank you. Here is some sherry: help yourself.’
-
-Wrentham helped himself, lit his cigar, and sank back on an easy-chair,
-like a man whose day’s work is done, and who feels that he has earned
-the right to rest comfortably.
-
-‘I’ve been trotting between pillar and post about that land all day,’
-he said languidly, ‘because I fancied you had set your mind on it;
-and now I feel as tired as if I had been doing a thousand miles in a
-thousand hours. Glad it’s over.’
-
-‘You do not think it is worth making the offer, then?’
-
-‘My dear boy, they would think we were making fun of them, and be
-angry.’
-
-Wrentham rolled the cigar between his fingers and smiled complacently.
-
-‘Surely, they must be aware that the price they are asking is
-absurd—they cannot hope to obtain it from any one in his senses. Look
-at this paragraph: there is land bought by the corporation yesterday—it
-is almost within the city, and the price is more than a third less than
-these people are asking from us.’
-
-Wrentham’s eyes twinkled over the paragraph.
-
-‘Ah, yes; but, you see, these people were obliged to sell; ours are
-not. However, we need not bother about it. They require more than you
-will give, and there is an end of it. The question is, what are we to
-do now?’
-
-‘Take land farther out, where the owners will be more reasonable, and
-we can reduce our rents so as to cover the railway fares.’
-
-‘But the farther out you go, the more difficulty you will have in
-finding workmen.’
-
-‘I have thought of that, and have secured an excellent foreman, who
-will bring us the labourers we require; and for the skilled workmen, an
-advertisement will find them.’
-
-‘And who is the man you have engaged?’
-
-‘Caleb Kersey.’
-
-Wrentham laughed softly as he emitted a long serpentine coil of smoke.
-
-‘On my word, you do things in a funny way. I am supposed to be your
-counsellor as well as friend; and you complete your arrangements before
-you tell me anything about them. I don’t see that my services are of
-any use to you.’
-
-‘We have not had time to find that out yet. What advice could you have
-given me in reference to Kersey?’
-
-‘Oh, I have nothing to say against the man, except that, as soon as you
-had your establishment ready to begin operations, he would have every
-soul in your employment out on strike for higher wages or for new terms
-of agreement, which will cause you heavy loss whether you knuckle down
-or refuse. I know the kind of man: he will be meek enough until he gets
-you into a corner—or thinks he has—and then he turns round and tells
-you that he is master of the situation, whatever you may be. That’s his
-sort.’
-
-‘I think you are mistaken, Wrentham. I am sure that you are mistaken so
-far as Kersey is concerned. He managed that business of the harvest for
-my father when nobody else could, and he managed it admirably. He wants
-nothing more than fair-play between master and man, and he believes
-that my scheme is likely to bring about that condition.’
-
-‘All right,’ said Wrentham, smiling, and helping himself to another
-glass of wine; ‘here’s good luck to him—and to you. We are all
-naturally inclined to be pleased with the people who agree with us.
-We’ll say that I am mistaken, and, on my honour, I hope it may be so.’
-
-Philip flushed a little: he could not help feeling that Wrentham was
-treating him as if he were a child at play, and did not or could not
-see that he was a man making a bold experiment and very much in earnest.
-
-‘It is not merely because Kersey agrees with me that I have engaged
-him,’ he said warmly. ‘I know something about the man, and I have
-learned a good deal from him. He has the power to convey my meaning to
-others better than I could do it myself. They might doubt me at first;
-they will trust him; and he is one of those men who are willing to
-work.’
-
-‘That is everything you want in the meanwhile, except the land on
-which to begin operations. I promised to take your answer back to
-these people by four o’clock. I shall have just time to drive to their
-office. I suppose that there is nothing to say except that we cannot
-touch it at the price?’
-
-‘Nothing more.’
-
-‘Very well. I will report progress to-morrow; but I have no expectation
-of bringing them down to your figure. Good-day.’
-
-Although Wrentham bustled out as if in a hurry, he descended the stairs
-slowly.
-
-‘He may have gone in for a mad scheme,’ he was thinking; ‘but he is a
-deal ’cuter in his way of setting about it than I bargained for....
-This is confoundedly awkward for me.... Must get out of it somehow.’
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-
-
-
-MY OLD COLLEGE ROOMS.
-
-
-No easy task would it be to analyse the medley of conflicting emotions
-that run riot in the heart of an old ’varsity man revisiting the haunts
-of his academical ‘auld langsyne.’ Even were I equal to it, I would not
-publish the results of my experiment. Far too sacred, too personal, at
-least for the pages of a magazine, were my own thoughts and memories
-the other day, as I stealthily stole up my old staircase in ——’s,
-Oxford. ‘Stealthily stole,’ I say advisedly; for I felt unpleasantly
-more like a burglar in my pilgrim-ascent, than a respectable country
-clergyman. In a university sense, generations had passed away since my
-college days; since I, in my generation, was wont to rollick in and
-out of those ancient ‘oaks’ and about those venerable banisters. One
-felt a kind of sad impression that one belonged to a bygone age; that
-one’s only rightful _locus standi_ in the university now was a shelf
-in the fossil department of its museum; that one was _de trop_ in this
-land of the living; that one was ‘unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown,’
-a sort of college ghost that ought long since to have been laid. But
-now, the gray goose-quill would fain flutter on, by the page, with
-emotions which, as I have said, are too sacred for publication. I will
-confine myself to more exoteric details. At the funny old cupola-like
-entrance—where, on the first impulse, I found myself all but taking
-off my hat to the ‘silent speaking’ stones of its venerable, unsightly
-pile—I had met a porter, but not _the_ porter. On the staircase I
-had met a scout, but not _the_ scout. No civil salute and smile of
-recognition from either of those; only a curious stare—a look that
-seemed to ask, ‘What business have you to come back and revisit
-earth’—(I beg the reader’s pardon!)—‘_college_, disturbing us in our
-day and generation?’
-
-Then, at last, well ‘winded’ by my climb, I actually stood once
-again in front of my own old ‘oak;’ and much I wonder if ever pious
-Druid stood with deeper feelings of reverence before his own! It was
-superscribed with a most unusual, though not foreign, name; one which
-to me at least was new. So far, this was a comfort; for ‘Jones’ would
-have made me very sad and at ‘Smith’ I feel I should have wept. As
-it was, I found myself already speculating with some curiosity what
-manner of man might own to it. Somehow, with perhaps pardonable vanity,
-I seemed to have expected ‘Ichabod;’ but that was not the present
-occupant’s name. At the inner door, which was ajar, I knocked, honestly
-trying not to peep; but the gentleman was not at home. Just then, a
-jolly young fellow, books under arm, and obviously out from lecture,
-came bounding up the stairs, two or three steps at a time, in the
-real old style. Oh, how the aged, nearly worn-out parson envied now
-the limbs and wind that could perform that once familiar feat! There
-used to be a _je ne sais quoi_—a sense of freedom, I suppose it was,
-after being ‘cribbed, cabined, and confined’ for an hour at lecture,
-that always made one sadly forgetful for the nonce of one’s dignity
-in that matter of going up-stairs. At other times, the leisurely
-step which betokened the importance of the (newly fledged) ‘man’ was
-carefully observed; and used, no doubt, to make due impression upon the
-freshman—that junior Verdant who always had what Carlyle would call a
-‘seeing eye’ for such details of deportment. But coming from lecture,
-even the old hand, the third-year man, now, as of yore, involuntarily
-betrays a lingering trace of schoolboy days by a very natural, but most
-undignified, hop, skip, and jump up-stairs, to doff cap and gown and
-don flannels for the river.
-
-Well, up he came, this embryo bishop, statesman, or judge—I know not
-which—and fixing him Ancient Mariner-wise with my eye, I told him my
-story; feeling rather sheepish until I had satisfactorily accounted for
-my being discovered hovering about the coal-bin on his landing. More
-than one kind of expression flitted over the youth’s features as he
-listened to me; but the predominating one, which his politeness in vain
-struggled to conceal, was characteristic of the antiquary surveying
-some newly dug up relic of a past epoch. ‘I am not Mr Ichabod’ (let
-us suppose the name), he said; ‘but I am his neighbour on this floor;
-and I’m sure he would wish you to go into your old rooms. I will
-explain it to him. He will be sorry that he was out when you came.’
-With this and a mutual touch of hats, we parted; he to his rooms, and
-I, after an absence of some forty-five years, to mine. Suggestive
-enough was the very first object that caught my eye upon entering; for
-over the bedroom door was placed, by way of ornament, a real skull,
-with crossbones! There it serenely rested on a black cushion fixed to
-a small shelf, horribly grinning at me. I could have wished a more
-pleasant welcome to greet me after my long absence.
-
-‘Eheu! fugaces, Postume, Postume’ (The years fly by, and are lost to
-me, lost to me), I had said to myself all the morning, as I wandered
-about the old college haunts of my far-away youth; and if my perception
-of that sad fact needed quickening, that skull certainly brought it
-home to me with a vengeance! Clearly, my successor was a bit of a
-‘mystic.’ Weird prints on the walls; curious German literature on the
-shelves and tables; outlandish ornaments everywhere: these and such as
-these spoke for their absent owner, and I felt that I could conjecture
-the man by his various kickshaws. I pictured him to myself reading
-for ‘a class’ by the midnight oil, and occasionally stimulating his
-flagging interest in the classics by casting a philosophic glance at
-the skull, to bethink him of the flight of time and man’s ‘little
-day’ for work. Or, again, I could see him as he refreshed himself on
-the sofa with a grim legend or two of the Rhine, and meditated upon
-the fate of some medieval fool wandering about to sell his soul, _si
-emptorem invenerit_, until he met and did fatal business with the dread
-merchant of the nether world. At such times, no doubt, his death’s head
-would have a specially attractive charm for him, and elicit some such
-sigh as ‘Alas! poor Yorick,’ in reference to the deluded Rhinelander.
-Two more clues to the character of my young friend were obvious, and
-right glad I was to obtain them. In the first place, he was not, as
-are too many of his university generation, so ‘mad,’ through much
-‘learning,’ as to deny or ignore his God. Witness a well-worn Bible
-and Prayer-book; and even an illuminated text opposite his bed—the
-gift, perhaps, of a pious mother, or handiwork of a pious sister, whose
-holy influence he did not despise. And, again, he was not one of our
-unhealthy ascetics of modern society, secular ascetics, I mean—if I may
-coin such an expression—whose artificial merits are purely negative.
-Witness his rack of grotesquely shaped and well-cleaned pipes, no less
-than that three-handled jorum, with the shrivelled peel of the previous
-evening still therein!
-
-Having taken notice of such apparent trifles on every side, and not
-liking to trespass longer, I prepared to leave. But if the ‘man’ who
-occupies my Old Rooms is brought as safely to his journey’s end as I
-have now well nigh been brought to mine, my last half-minute alone in
-that ancient ‘upper chamber’ was not spent there in vain.
-
-
-
-
-MY FELLOW-PASSENGER.
-
-
-IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER II.
-
-The next afternoon, I landed at Southampton; and having left my luggage
-with Raynor’s at the railway station, and exchanged my twenty-five
-sovereigns for their equivalent in Bank of England notes, I started
-off to see some relatives living a short way out of the town. After
-a few pleasant hours at Hambledon Hall, I drove back to Southampton,
-took an evening train to London, and by half-past nine was comfortably
-installed in my old quarters, No. 91 Savile Street, W.
-
-In the morning arrived a telegram from Raynor: ‘Heard of a good
-thing in Dublin. Going there at once. May be a long business. Better
-countermand my rooms. Will write.’ Here without doubt was an end, at
-least for the present, of our partnership. Whether Paul intended me to
-gather that the ‘good thing’ was to involve my presence in Ireland, I
-knew not; but having already come to a very distinct understanding with
-him that the _venue_ of any future operations must, as far as I was
-concerned, be laid in or near London, I was able to decide at once that
-even the claims of friendship did not demand my expatriation to the
-other side of the Irish Channel.
-
-London was hot, airless, and uninviting this 21st of July. Two days had
-elapsed, during which I had heard nothing more from Raynor; and as I
-loitered down to my club, there came into my mind the recollection of
-Keymer, a breezy little homestead among the Sussex downs, where lived a
-middle-aged bachelor cousin of mine, and of his cordial invitation to
-repeat a visit I had paid him the previous summer. Half an hour later I
-had posted my letter to Henry Rodd, whose reply by return post was all
-I could wish: On and after the 24th, he would be delighted to see me
-for as long as I cared to stay.
-
-On the morning of the 26th, the day upon which I was to leave for
-Keymer, my landlady presented herself in my sitting-room, and with an
-expression as of one who has intelligence to convey, opened upon me
-with: ‘Oh, I beg your pardon, sir, but there was a gentleman called
-yesterday, askin’ whether we had any one lodgin’ here as was jest back
-from furrin parts, because he’d got a friend who he thought was goin’
-to some lodgin’s in this street, and he couldn’t find him out—not the
-gentleman, couldn’t, that is, sir. I’m sure he knew you, sir, because
-he said, when I called you Mr Rodd, “Ah! is that Mr _P._ Rodd?” says
-he. “Yes,” says I to the gent; “it’s Mr Peter Rodd.” “O yes,” says
-he, careless-like, “I know Mr Peter Rodd by name.” Then he give me
-five shillin’s, sir, and told me be sure and not trouble you about his
-’avin’ been, seein’ as ’ow you wouldn’t know who he was—he didn’t give
-no name, sir—but I thought I’d best tell you, sir, because it didn’t
-seem right-like his givin’ me five shillin’s to say nothin’ about it.
-Excuse me for mentionin’ it, sir; but it’s what I call ’ush-money, and
-it’s burnin’ ’oles in my pocket ever since.’
-
-Here the worthy woman paused for breath; and wondering much who
-this lavish unknown might be, and how he came to know so obscure an
-individual as myself by name, I, perhaps indiscreetly, asked for a
-description of his appearance, being then unaware of the curious fact,
-that people in good Mrs Morton’s station of life are wholly incapable
-of conveying to a third person the faintest impression of a stranger’s
-exterior. Thus she could not say whether he was dark or fair, tall or
-short, young or old, stout or thin. Upon one point only did her memory
-serve her: ‘His necktie was a speckly, twisted up in a sailorses’
-knot.’ Having triumphantly furnished me with this useful clue to the
-visitor’s identity, Mrs Morton took herself down-stairs.
-
-A sudden thought struck me, and I ran to the window. No; there was
-not a soul to be seen in the quiet little street save a very ordinary
-looking person in a gray dustcoat, sunning himself against the
-pillar-box at the corner some fifty yards away; evidently a groom
-waiting for orders, I thought. An hour later, I went out to make some
-purchases, lunched at Blanchard’s, and drove back to Savile Street to
-prepare for my journey to Sussex. There, in friendly converse with a
-policeman at the same corner, was Citizen Gray-coat. I looked sharply
-at him as my cab passed. His tie was _not_ ‘speckly,’ nor had he any
-outward pretensions to the title of ‘gentleman.’
-
-I reached Keymer without adventure late in the afternoon, my cousin
-himself driving over in his trap to meet me. Turning round on the
-platform, after our first hand-shaking, to look for my travelling-bag,
-I saw stooping in the act of reading the card attached to the
-handle—_the man in the gray dustcoat_.
-
-It could not be a chance! No; look at it which way I would, there
-scowled at me the unpleasant but undeniable fact that I was being
-‘watched.’ For what purpose, it was of course impossible to tell,
-though I had no difficulty in connecting the visitor of the day before
-with the apparition in gray at the little Sussex junction. I waited
-till the evening to mention the matter to my cousin Henry, who,
-after a ringing laugh and many small jokes at my expense, suddenly
-became serious, and remarked: ‘But I say, Peter, it is an excessively
-disagreeable thing to be followed about in that sort of way. Can’t you
-account for the mistake in any way, so as to be able to get rid of the
-fellow to-morrow?’
-
-At that moment the suspicion against which I had fought so hard was
-borne in with irresistible force upon my mind, and almost dizzy with
-the physical effort to conceal its effect, I muttered my concurrence
-with Rodd, that for his sake no less than my own, steps should at once
-be taken to come to an understanding with the man and relieve him of
-his duty. Looking forward with interest to learning the nature of the
-mistake next day, we parted for the night.
-
-That circumstances were so shaping themselves as to do away with
-the necessity of any action from our side, did not, and could not
-enter into my calculations, as, bitterly wondering when and how this
-miserable suspicion would become a sickening certainty, I fell into a
-dream-haunted and unquiet sleep.
-
-We had breakfasted, and were leaving the house towards eleven o’clock
-the next morning, intending, if we could sight him, to interview
-the gray-coated sentry, when a station fly drove up to the door and
-deposited a well-built and gentlemanly looking person, who, slightly
-raising his hat, said: ‘May I ask if either of you gentlemen is Mr
-Peter Rodd?’
-
-Casually noticing that the speaker wore a speckled tie, I replied:
-‘That is my name.’
-
-‘Then it is my duty to inform you, sir, that I have a warrant for
-your arrest on a criminal charge, and at the same time to caution you
-against saying anything which may hereafter be used in your disfavour.’
-
-‘What is the charge?’ I asked, ‘with the air,’ as Henry afterwards
-observed, ‘of a man who is in the habit of being arrested every morning
-after breakfast.’
-
-‘Suspicion of having stolen on or about the 23d June a sum of one
-thousand five hundred and fifty pounds in gold from the Alliance Bank,
-Cape Town, in which you were an employee under the name of Percival
-Royston.’
-
-‘And what evidence have you that this gentleman is the person for
-whose arrest you have a warrant?’ interposed my cousin.
-
-‘Strictly speaking, I have told you all I am permitted to do,’ was
-the courteous answer. ‘But it will not be a very grave breach of duty
-if I say that my prisoner is known to have reached England in the
-_Balbriggan Castle_, to have exchanged gold for notes at Southampton,
-and to be in possession of a quantity of luggage marked P. R., some of
-which has been found upon examination to contain clothes, books, and
-letters bearing the name Percival Royston, Alliance Bank, Cape Town;
-while in other boxes were found similar articles with the name Peter
-Rodd, showing the adoption of the alias.’
-
-‘Would it be within your province to release your prisoner upon
-undoubted proof that he is not the person wanted?’
-
-The officer thought for a moment, and replied: ‘If such proof
-could be confirmed by a magistrate—and after communicating with
-headquarters—_yes_.’
-
-‘Then,’ said my cousin, ‘will you be good enough to bring your prisoner
-to the manor-house, and ask the squire—who is a magistrate—three simple
-questions?—The name of your prisoner—How long it is since they last
-met—What is to his knowledge the total duration of the prisoner’s
-recent absence from England?’
-
-This my captor readily consented to do; and after the three questions
-had been answered by the squire—at whose house I had dined just a year
-before—telegraphed to Scotland Yard, asking whether it was known how
-long Royston had been continuously in the service of the bank. The
-answer came speedily: ‘Five or six years;’ followed half an hour later
-by a second message: ‘A mistake has occurred. Do not arrest Rodd. If
-already done, express regret, and return at once.’ There was just
-time for him to catch an up-train; and after carrying out his last
-instructions with great politeness, the detective drove off, stopping,
-as I observed, at the end of the drive to pick up a man who was leaning
-against the gate-post, his hands buried deep in the pockets of a gray
-dustcoat.
-
-The next post from London brought a very ample explanation and apology
-for ‘the painful position in which I had been placed through an
-exceedingly regrettable mistake. This had arisen through the imperfect
-information furnished to the authorities in the first instance as to
-the movements of the real culprit, who, they had unfortunately no room
-whatever to doubt, was the passenger going under the name of Paul
-Raynor. This person, it was now ascertained, had taken passage on board
-a sailing-ship for South America. The similarity of initials, with
-other facts of which I was aware, had combined to mislead those engaged
-in the case; while the discovery of Royston’s luggage in my possession
-had of course confirmed their suspicions.
-
-‘They were directed to add that the alias under which I knew him had
-of course been assumed only after the _Balbriggan Castle_ had actually
-sailed, as the message brought by the next homeward-bound steamer
-to Madeira, and thence telegraphed to England, did not contain this
-important item of information.’
-
-Opening the newspaper two or three days later, I read at the head of
-a column, in conspicuous type: ‘Arrival of the Cape Mail. Audacious
-Robbery from a Cape Town Bank’—then in smaller print: ‘A considerable
-sensation has been caused at Cape Town by the discovery of a robbery
-planned and carried out with an audacity which it is not too much
-to describe as unique in the annals of crime. The circumstances
-are briefly these. On the morning of Wednesday the 16th June, the
-mail-steamer _Turcoman_ arrived in Table Bay from England, having on
-board some five thousand pounds in gold for the Alliance Bank, to
-whose care it was duly delivered on the same day. A portion of this
-amount, namely, fifteen hundred pounds, was destined for the use of
-the bank’s Diamond Fields branch at De Vriespan, where it was required
-with all expedition. The overland service between Cape Town and the
-Diamond Fields is a bi-weekly one, leaving the former place at six
-A.M. on Monday and Thursday, and covering the whole distance of seven
-hundred miles in about five days nine hours. In order, therefore, to
-insure the despatch of the case containing the specie by the mail-cart
-on the following day, Mr Percival Royston, the assistant-cashier,
-was requested to undertake, in conjunction with the senior clerk, Mr
-Albertus Jager, the duty of counting and repacking the gold, after the
-completion of their ordinary work at six or seven o’clock. According to
-the latter gentleman’s statement, the task was not commenced till after
-dinner at about eight o’clock. They had made some considerable progress
-when Royston remarked how pale and tired his companion was looking.
-Upon Mr Jager’s admitting that he was feeling far from well, the other
-asked him if he would not give up the work and go home to bed, saying
-that he (Royston) would finish the counting himself and have everything
-ready in plenty of time for to-morrow. Knowing how thoroughly the
-assistant-cashier was trusted by the bank, Mr Jager allowed himself to
-be persuaded, and left at once for his own quarters. The case was duly
-despatched in the morning, in charge of a clerk proceeding to the De
-Vriespan office on promotion, the fact being reported by Royston to the
-head-cashier.
-
-‘Nothing further appears to have transpired until Tuesday the 21st
-June, when the head-cashier addressing Royston, asked: “By the way,
-when is that gold due at De Vriespan? To-day?”
-
-“Yes, sir,” was the answer; “we ought to get the telegram announcing
-its arrival in half an hour or so.”
-
-‘It is the custom of the bank to send a junior clerk to the home-going
-mail-steamer with late letters for England, which may be posted on
-board upon payment of an extra fee. This duty Royston asked to be
-allowed to perform on the present occasion, stating that he would be
-glad of the opportunity of seeing some friends off who were leaving by
-the steamer that day. He left the bank at three forty-five, was seen to
-go on board with a travelling-bag ten minutes later, and has not since
-been heard of. His other luggage, consisting of two portmanteaus, had
-been removed from his lodgings before daybreak, Royston having somehow
-obtained the services of a coolie, who states that, following his
-instructions, he first carried the luggage to an inn near the docks,
-subsequently transferring it thence by hand-truck to the ship as soon
-as the dock gates were opened. It should be remarked that Royston
-occupied rooms on the ground-floor, the landlord and his wife and the
-other lodgers sleeping on the first and second floors. But for this
-fact, it would probably have been impossible to effect the removal of
-the luggage without disturbing the other occupants of the house.
-
-‘At five o’clock a telegram was received at the Alliance Bank: “De
-Vriespan, four thirty. Case just arrived. On being opened, found to
-contain nothing but lead-sheeting to exact weight of gold expected.
-Clerk in charge denies all knowledge. Wire any instructions.” A cab
-dashed furiously to the docks, its occupant the head-cashier, who, as
-he turned the corner towards the quay, was just able to descry the
-smoke of the vanishing steamer now four or five miles on her way. “Too
-late!” shouted the Steam Company’s agent as he passed on foot. “Ship
-sailed sharp at four thirty!”
-
-‘The above incident will most probably give a sharp impetus to the
-movement, already initiated in Cape commercial circles, for the
-establishment of ocean cable communication with Great Britain direct,
-the importance of which, from an imperial as well as a colonial point
-of view, has long been recognised.’
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-A keen east wind was blowing in my teeth as I hurried along the Strand
-towards Temple Bar one morning in March, and as I bent my head to meet
-a more than usually piercing gust, I came against a passer-by, who
-answered my apology with a smile of recognition. ‘Mr Rodd, I think?’
-
-It was no other than the polite detective, more polite than ever,
-because of the whirling dust and biting wind, against which the best of
-good-humour is so rarely proof.
-
-‘Ah, sir,’ he went on, as we drew into a low archway for a moment’s
-talk, ‘you would be astonished to hear the story of the wildgoose chase
-we had after Mr Percival Royston last summer and autumn. If you would
-care to call in at my quarters any day after four o’clock, I should be
-very pleased to tell you about it.’
-
-‘Thank you,’ I replied; ‘I will see. Meanwhile, how did it end?’
-
-‘All wrong for _us_, I am sorry to say. He got clean away from us; and
-I don’t suppose we shall ever hear of him again.’
-
-The sun shone out for a moment, and the wind seemed to have lost
-something of its bitter chill as I wished Detective Elms good-morning
-and passed on my way eastward.
-
-
-
-
-THE MONTH:
-
-SCIENCE AND ARTS.
-
-
-The abnormally mild winter—if winter it can be called—which has been
-experienced this year, has once more raised hopes in the minds of
-farmers that brighter times are in store for them. The extreme mildness
-of the season has not only been favourable for all field operations,
-but it has been most beneficial for stock. Lambs have never been so
-numerous as they are this year in many of the southern counties, for
-not only have they had the climate in their favour during the most
-critical time of their lives, but there has been a wonderful number of
-twins. Indeed, the proportion of these latter to single births has on
-some farms been as high as sixteen out of twenty.
-
-A silver lining to the dark cloud which has so long overshadowed the
-British farmer may also perhaps be discerned in certain operations
-which are now being pushed forward at Lavenham, in Suffolk. A private
-Company has been formed to recommence, under the more favourable
-conditions which the progress of scientific agriculture has rendered
-possible, the making of beet-sugar in this country. Between the years
-1869 and 1873, Mr James Duncan tried a similar experiment, and the
-present Company has acquired his works at Lavenham, to take up once
-more the industry which he tried to establish. The recently devised
-methods of extracting sugar from the beet are much easier and simpler,
-and far less costly, than the processes employed by Mr Duncan; and the
-promoters of the enterprise are sanguine of success, if they can only
-induce the farmers to grow sufficient beetroot for them to operate
-upon. The Company has arranged favourable terms of transport with the
-railway authorities; for instance, a truck-load of roots can be brought
-to Lavenham from Bury—a distance of eleven miles—for eighteenpence a
-ton. For the same distance, Mr Duncan formerly paid four shillings and
-twopence a ton. The experiment will be watched with extreme interest by
-all agriculturists.
-
-Mr Wood’s lecture to the Institute of Agriculture on the subject of
-Ensilage gave some valuable particulars of experiments he had made
-with the object of ascertaining which are the crops that can be most
-profitably cultivated for that method of preservation. He first of all
-took the value of ensilage at twenty-six shillings and eightpence,
-or about one-third the value of hay. An acre of heavy meadow-grass
-produced twelve tons of compressed food; and the same quantity dried
-into hay weighed only two tons seven hundredweight. After allowing for
-the cost of producing each, the lecturer showed a balance in favour of
-the ensilage over hay of nearly five pounds sterling an acre. Buckwheat
-cultivated for treatment as ensilage, against the same valued as a
-seed-crop, showed a gain in favour of the silo of two pounds eight
-shillings and threepence per acre. Oats compared in like manner show a
-balance of five pounds per acre; and here there is a further gain, for
-oats cut in the green state have not had the time to exhaust the soil
-as if they had been left to mature. There is still a further gain in
-favour of ensilage, when it is remembered that the ground is cleared
-before the usual time, and is therefore ready very early for new crops.
-The lecturer concluded by throwing out a useful hint that dairymen and
-cowkeepers in towns could be with great advantage supplied with the new
-form of fodder in casks, a sixty-gallon cask holding about thirty-one
-stone-weight of the compressed material.
-
-Mr W. F. Petrie, whose recently published book upon the Pyramids of
-Gezeh we noticed two months ago, has just undertaken some excavations
-in another part of Egypt, which are likely to bear fruitful results.
-Amidst a desolation of mud and marsh, there lies, in the north-eastern
-delta of the Nile, a place far from the track of tourists, and which
-is therefore seldom visited. This now remote spot, Sàn-el-Hagar (that
-is, Sàn of the Stones), was once a splendid city, in the midst of the
-cornlands and pasturage which formed part of the biblical ‘field of
-Zoan.’ Excavations were begun here in 1861 by Mariette Pasha, and he
-unearthed the site of the principal temple; but lack of funds and want
-of support generally, caused him to give up the work, though not before
-several treasures had found their way from his diggings to the Boulak
-Museum at Cairo, and to the Louvre. Mr Petrie, under the auspices of
-the newly formed Egypt Exploration Fund, commences the work anew in
-this promising field of research; and before long we may possibly have
-very important finds to chronicle.
-
-At the recent meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society, held in
-Edinburgh, an interesting account was given of the daily work which has
-been carried on in the Ben Nevis Observatory since its first occupation
-in November last, and which is telegraphed daily from the summit of the
-mountain. Several new instruments have been added since that date, and
-improvements in the buildings costing a thousand pounds will shortly
-be commenced. Referring to the new marine station at Granton, near
-Edinburgh, Mr Murray of the _Challenger_ expedition gave an interesting
-account of the work going on there. The laboratory is now in working
-order, and there is accommodation for five or six naturalists. It is
-intended to offer this accommodation free of expense to any British or
-foreign naturalist having a definite object of study in view.
-
-The French Academy of Sciences has just received an interesting account
-of a meteorite which fell not long ago near Odessa. A bright serpentine
-trail of fire was seen one morning to pass over that town; and the
-editor of one of the papers, surmising that a meteoric mass might have
-fallen from the sky, offered a reward to any one who would bring it to
-him. A peasant, who had been terribly frightened by the stone falling
-close to him as he worked in the fields, and burying itself in the
-ground, answered this appeal. He had dug the stone out of the soil,
-and preserved it, keeping the matter quite secret from his neighbours,
-as he feared ridicule. This stone was found to be a shapeless mass
-weighing nearly eighteen pounds. The fall of another meteorite, which
-in its descent near the same town wounded a man, was also reported; but
-it had been broken into fragments and distributed among the peasants,
-who preserved them as talismans.
-
-The visitors to Cliff House, San Francisco, had recently the rare
-opportunity of viewing a marvellous mirage, during which the headland
-of North Farallon, which is under ordinary circumstances quite out
-of sight, indeed absolutely below the horizon, not only came into
-view, but appeared to be only a few miles from the shore. The strange
-sight fascinated the onlookers for many hours, and marine glasses and
-telescopes were brought to bear upon these veritable castles in the air.
-
-It seems strange that Samuel Pepys, whose famous Diary is known to
-all English readers, should have been left without a monument in the
-old London church where his remains repose, until one hundred and
-eighty years after his death. This may be partly explained by the
-circumstance that Pepys’ Diary was not published until the year 1825.
-It was originally written in cipher, and the key to it, strange to say,
-was not made use of until that time. Although Pepys was a well-known
-man in his day, and occupied a good official position as ‘Clerk of the
-Acts’ and Secretary to the Admiralty, his fame is due to his unique
-Diary. At last, however, Pepys has a monument to his honour, which
-was unveiled the other day in the ancient city church of St Olave’s,
-near the Tower of London. The question has been raised whether Pepys,
-in using a cipher alphabet, did not intend his Diary as a private
-document. But still he left the key behind him, which he might have
-easily destroyed. However this may be, the book has delighted thousands
-of readers, giving as it does in a very quaint style a picture, and a
-true picture too, of London life two hundred years ago.
-
-A curious record of the year 1478 is quoted in the _Builder_, which
-points to an early case of water being laid on to a town-house. The
-ingenious individual who thus tapped the conduit or watercourse running
-along the street, seems to have paid more dearly for the privilege than
-even a London water-consumer has to pay to the Companies in the present
-day. The man was a tradesman in Fleet Street, and is thus referred to:
-‘A wex-chandler in Flete-strete had by crafte perced a pipe of the
-condit withynne the ground, and so conveied the water into his selar;
-wherefore he was judged to ride through the citie with a condit uppon
-his hedde.’ This poor man was nevertheless only adapting to his own
-purposes a system of water-conveyance that had been known and practised
-in many countries ages before his time.
-
-It is expected that nearly one thousand members and associates of the
-British Association will cross the Atlantic in August next to take part
-in the meeting which is to be held this year at Montreal. All visitors
-to the Dominion know well that the Canadians understand the meaning of
-the word hospitality in its broadest sense, and they are, according to
-all reports, taking measures which will cause their British cousins to
-long remember the welcome which they will receive. The Association is
-taking good care that the members shall be seen at their best, and no
-new members will be allowed to join the party except under stringent
-conditions. This will very rightly prevent an influx of people who will
-take a sudden interest in scientific research for the sake of getting a
-cheap trip to Canada. The names of the representative men under whose
-care the various sections are placed, are sufficient guarantee that
-plenty of good work will be done. We may mention that special attention
-will be paid in section D, under Professor Ray Lankester, to the vexed
-question of the supposed connection between sun-spot periods and
-terrestrial phenomena. This question has long been a bone of contention
-among scientific men, one side bringing forward figures giving
-remarkable points of agreement, the other side disclaiming them with
-the assertion that statistics can be made to prove anything. Perhaps
-this meeting of the Association may guide us to a right solution of the
-problems involved.
-
-‘The Mineral Wealth of Queensland,’ the title of a paper recently
-read before the Royal Colonial Institute by Mr C. S. Dicken, was full
-of matter which should be interesting to those who are seeking an
-outlay for their capital. Queensland is five and a half times larger
-in area than the United Kingdom. Its gold-fields are estimated to
-cover a space of seven thousand square miles, and it produces large
-quantities of silver, copper, and tin. According to the official
-Reports of geologists, coal crops out on the surface over some
-twenty-four thousand square miles. Hitherto, these vast resources
-have been comparatively untouched. Men and capital are required for
-their development; and as the climate is a healthy one, and the laws
-administered by capable and impartial men, there is every incentive to
-Europeans to turn their attention to the country.
-
-A Bill now before the House of Commons is of extreme interest and
-importance to students of natural history, to artists, and many others.
-We allude to Mr Bryce’s ‘Access to Mountains (Scotland) Bill.’ In the
-preamble to this proposed measure, it is set forth that many large
-tracts of uncultivated mountain and moorland, which have in past times
-been covered with sheep and cattle, are now stocked with deer, and in
-many cases the rights which have hitherto been enjoyed by artists and
-others of visiting such lands, have been stopped by the owners. It is
-now proposed that it should be henceforward illegal for owners of such
-property to exclude any one who wishes to go there ‘for the purposes
-of recreation, or scientific or artistic study.’ At the same time the
-Bill clearly provides that any one committing any kind of poaching or
-damage is to be regarded as a trespasser, and dealt with accordingly.
-Parks and pleasure-grounds attached to a dwelling-house are of course
-excepted from the operation of the Act.
-
-Mr Johnston’s book upon _The River Congo_ is full of interesting
-particulars of his wanderings through that part of Africa and his
-meeting with Stanley. He certainly throws some new light upon the
-climate of the country; for whereas previous travellers have described
-it as fever-breeding, and full of terrors to the white man, Mr Johnston
-tells us that the climate of the interior table-land is as healthy
-as possible, and that any European taking ordinary precautions as
-to temperate eating and drinking, need never have a day’s illness
-there. This is perhaps a matter of personal constitution and physique.
-Because one man has had such a pleasant experience of African climate,
-it is no reason why every one else should expect the same exemption
-from illness. Still, we trust that Mr Johnston’s deductions may prove
-correct.
-
-We are all of us now and then astonished by the report of some sale in
-which a fancy price, as it is called, has been paid for something of no
-intrinsic value, and very often of no artistic value either. Hundreds
-of pounds have been paid within recent years for a single teacup,
-provided that the happy purchaser can be sure that it is unique. Even
-thousands have been paid for a vase a few inches high simply because
-it was rare. The mania for collecting curiosities which prompts people
-to pay these large sums, is by no means confined to articles of virtu.
-Natural history claims a large army of such collectors. A single
-orchid was sold only the other day for a small fortune. At the time
-of the Cochin-China fowl mania, which John Leech helped to caricature
-out of existence, a single rooster fetched five hundred pounds. Only
-last month, in London, some enormous prices were obtained under the
-hammer for a collection of Lepidoptera, vulgarly known as moths and
-butterflies. Single specimens fetched three and four pounds apiece,
-and even more; whilst a common white butterfly, apparently having a
-particular value because it was caught in the Hebrides, was actually
-knocked down for the sum of thirteen guineas. It would be extremely
-interesting to ascertain the exact nature of the pleasurable sensations
-with which the owner of this butterfly doubtless regards his purchase.
-The export of a few white butterflies to the Hebrides might prove a
-profitable venture, if not overdone.
-
-It may be that the age of big prices for little teacups and vases is on
-the eve of passing away, for it would seem that the secret processes
-by which the old workers could endow the china with a depth of colour
-and richness of tone impossible to achieve by more modern hands, have
-been rediscovered. It is reported that M. Lauth, the Director of the
-Sèvres state porcelain manufactory, has attained this result. Moreover,
-his discovery does not, like too many others, resolve itself into a
-mere laboratory experiment, but represents a manufacturing success. The
-results, too, can be looked for with certainty, whereas there is little
-doubt that the old workers had many a failure as well as successes.
-
-The recent opinion of Mr Justice Stephen that cremation, if properly
-conducted, is not illegal, has again opened up a subject, which,
-although of a somewhat delicate, and to some people actually repulsive
-nature, is bound sooner or later to force its importance upon public
-attention. There is every reason to believe that public opinion is
-fast undergoing a very great change, as the subject becomes better
-understood. A like alteration of public feeling is also observable
-in other European countries. Sir Spencer Wells has lately published
-an account of the public cemetery in Rome, where, in the four months
-previous to his visit, no fewer than forty bodies had been submitted
-to the new form of sepulture. Dr Cameron’s Bill for the regulation
-of the practice of cremation will possibly come before the House of
-Commons before these lines appear in print, and we shall then have an
-opportunity of gauging the feeling for and against a practice which,
-after all, is not new, but very old indeed.
-
-Lovers of nature will be glad to hear that otters are yet extant in
-the Thames; but unless possessed of that unfortunate instinct which
-causes the average Briton to kill and slay anything alive which is not
-actually a domestic animal, they will be disgusted to learn that these
-interesting creatures are no sooner discovered than they are shot and
-stuffed. In January 1880, an otter weighing twenty-six pounds was shot
-at Hampton Court; another shared the same fate at Thames-Ditton in
-January last; and one more has recently been slaughtered at Cookham.
-
-We have recently had an opportunity of visiting the steep-grade tramway
-which is being laid, and is now on the point of being finished, on that
-same quiet Highgate Hill where tradition tells us Dick Whittington
-heard the bells prophesying his future good-fortune. This tramway is
-the first of its kind in this country, and will probably prove the
-pioneer line of many others in situations where the hilly nature of
-the ground forbids horse-traction. Briefly described, it consists of
-an endless cable, a steel rope kept constantly moving at the rate of
-six miles an hour by means of a stationary engine. This cable moves
-in a pipe buried in the ground midway between the rails; but the pipe
-has an opening above. Through this opening—a narrow slit about an inch
-wide—passes from the car a kind of grip-bar, which by the turn of a
-handle in the car is made to take hold of the travelling-rope below, or
-to release its hold, as required. This system has been in successful
-operation in San Francisco for many years, and there is no reason why
-it should not succeed in this country. The only question seems to be
-whether the traffic up and down Highgate Hill is sufficient to make the
-enterprise pay.
-
-The profits of the International Fisheries Exhibition amount to
-fifteen thousand pounds. Two-thirds of this sum will be devoted to the
-benefit of the widows and orphans of fishermen, presumably through
-the instrumentality of some Society or Insurance Association to be
-formed for the purpose; three thousand pounds will go to form a Royal
-Fisheries Society for scientific work in connection with the harvest of
-the sea; whilst the balance remains in hand, at present unappropriated.
-
-
-
-
-THE PROGRESS OF PISCICULTURE.
-
-
-Of late years, no feature of fishery economy has excited more attention
-than the progress we have been making in what is called ‘Pisciculture.’
-Fish-eggs are now a common article of commerce—the sales of which,
-and the prices at which they can be purchased, being as regularly
-advertised as any other kind of goods. This is a fact which, a century
-ago, might have been looked upon by our forefathers as something
-more than wonderful. Such commerce in all probability would have
-been stigmatised as impious, as a something ‘flying in the face of
-Providence.’
-
-But in another country there was buying and selling of fish-eggs more
-than a thousand years ago. The ingenious Chinese people had discovered
-the philosophy which underlies fish-culture, as well as the best modes
-of increasing their supplies of fish, long before any European nation
-had dreamt of taking action in the matter. A few years ago, a party
-of fisher-folks from the Celestial Empire, on a visit to Europe, were
-exceedingly astonished at the prices they had to pay for the fish they
-were so fond of eating. They explained that in China any person might
-purchase for a very small sum as much as might serve a family for a
-week’s food. They also mentioned that some fishes which we reject,
-such as the octopus, were much esteemed by the Chinese, who cooked
-them carefully, and partook of them with great relish. The capture
-of the octopus, indeed, forms one of the chief fishing industries of
-China, these sea-monsters being taken in enormous numbers at some of
-the Chinese fishing stations, notably at Swatow. They are preserved
-by being dried in the sun; and then, after being packed in tubs, they
-are distributed to the consuming centres of the country. In the inland
-districts of China there are also to be found numerous fishponds, where
-supplies of the more popular sorts of fish are kept, and fed for the
-market. These are grown from ova generally bought from dealers, who
-procure supplies of eggs from some of the large rivers of the country.
-The infant fish, it may be mentioned, are as carefully tended and fed
-as if they were a flock of turkeys in the yard of a Norfolk farmer.
-In the opinion of the Chinese fishermen, who were interviewed by the
-industrious Frank Buckland, hundreds of thousands of fish annually die
-of starvation; and if means could be adopted for the feeding of tender
-fry, fish of all kinds would become more plentiful than at present, and
-we would obtain them at a cheaper rate. In China, the yolks of hens’
-eggs are thrown into the rivers and ponds, that kind of food being
-greedily devoured by the young fish.
-
-It has long been known to those interested in the economy of our
-fisheries, that only a very small percentage of the ova of our chief
-food-fishes comes to maturity, while of the fish actually hatched,
-a very small percentage reaches our tables for food-uses; hence
-the desire which has arisen to augment the supplies by means of
-pisciculture. In the case of a fish like the salmon, every individual
-of that species (_Salmo salar_) which can be brought to market is
-certain, even when prices are low, of a ready sale at something like
-a shilling per pound-weight; and it is not, therefore, to be wondered
-at that the proprietor of a stretch of salmon-water should be zealous
-about the increase of his stock of fish. A quarter of a century since,
-the salmon-fishery owners of the river Tay in Scotland, impressed with
-the possibilities of pisciculture, had a suite of salmon-nurseries
-constructed at Stormontfield, where they have annually hatched a
-very large number of eggs, and where they feed and protect the young
-fish till they are ready to migrate to the sea, able to fight their
-own battle of life. This may be said to be the earliest and longest
-sustained piscicultural effort of a commercial kind made in Great
-Britain, an example which was followed on other rivers. The chief
-salmon-fisheries of Scotland being held as private property, are, of
-course, more favourably situated, in regard to fish-culture, than
-salmon-fisheries which are open to the public, and which, in a sense,
-are the property of no person in particular. These latter must be left
-in the hands of mother Nature. The salmon, however, being an animal of
-great commercial value, is so coveted at all seasons of the year, both
-by persons who have a legal right to such property, and by persons who
-have no right, that such fisheries have a tendency to become barren of
-breeding-stock; for although each female yields on the average as many
-as twenty thousand eggs, extremely few of these ever reach maturity;
-hence, it has come about that many proprietors are resorting to the
-piscicultural process of increasing their supplies.
-
-But the chief feature of the pisciculture of the period is that
-‘fisheries’ are now being worked quite independently of any particular
-river. There is, for example, the Howietoun fishery, near Stirling,
-which has been ‘invented,’ as we may say, by that piscatorial giant,
-Sir James Gibson-Maitland. From this establishment, the eggs of
-fish, particularly trout, and more especially Loch Leven trout, are
-annually distributed in hundreds of thousands. From Howietoun, and from
-some other places as well, gentlemen can stock their ponds or other
-ornamental water with fecundated ova in a certain state of forwardness;
-or they can procure, for a definite sum of money, fish of all ages
-from tiny fry to active yearlings, or well grown two-year olds!
-Sporting-waters which have been overfished can be easily replenished by
-procuring a few thousand eggs or yearlings; while angling clubs which
-rent a loch or important stream can, at a very small cost, keep up the
-supplies, whether of trout or salmon. In the course of the last three
-summers, several Scottish lakes have had their fish-stores replenished
-by means of drafts on the piscicultural bank, which is always open at
-the Howietoun ‘fishery.’ The distance to which ova or tender young fish
-require to be transported offers no obstacle to this new development of
-fish-commerce; thousands of infantile fish were brought from Russia to
-Edinburgh with perfect safety on the occasion of the Fishery Exhibition
-held in that city. The loss in transit was not more, we believe, than
-two per cent.
-
-It may prove interesting to state the prices which are charged usually
-for ova and young fish. A sample lot of eyed ova of the American brook
-trout, to the extent of one thousand, may be obtained for thirty
-shillings; and for ten shillings less, a thousand eggs of the Loch
-Leven trout, or the common trout of the country, may be purchased. For
-stock supplies, a box containing fifteen thousand partially eyed ova
-of _S. fontinalis_ (American) may be had for ten pounds. The other
-varieties mentioned are cheaper by fifty shillings for the same number.
-Fry of the same, in lots of not fewer than five thousand, range from
-seven pounds ten shillings to five pounds. Yearlings are of course
-dearer, and cost from fifteen and ten pounds respectively per thousand.
-Ten millions of trout ova are now hatched every year at the Howietoun
-fishery.
-
-The fecundity of all kinds of fish is enormous. A very small trout will
-be found to contain one thousand eggs; a female salmon will yield on
-the average eight hundred ova for each pound of her weight; and if even
-a fifth part of the eggs of our food-fishes were destined to arrive at
-maturity, there would be no necessity for resorting to pisciculture
-in order to augment our fish commissariat. But even in America, where
-most kinds of fish were at one period almost over-abundant, artificial
-breeding is now necessary in order to keep up the supplies. In the
-United States, fish-culture has been resorted to on a gigantic scale,
-not only as regards the salmon, but also in connection with various
-sea-fishes, many hundred millions of eggs of which are annually
-collected and hatched; the young fry being forwarded to waters which
-require to be restocked. Apparatus of a proper description for the
-hatching of sea-fish has been constructed, and is found to work
-admirably. Some of these inventions were shown last year in the
-American department of the International Fishery Exhibition, where
-they were much admired by persons who feel interested in the proper
-development of our fishery resources. In the United States, the art
-of pisciculture has been studied with rare patience and industry, the
-fish-breeders thinking it no out-of-the-way feat to transplant three
-or four millions of young salmon in the course of a season. In dealing
-with the shad, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries have
-been able to distribute the young of that fish by tens of millions per
-annum; the loss in the hatching of eggs and in the transmission of the
-animal being very small.
-
-Some writers and lecturers on the natural and economic history of our
-food-fishes have asserted that no possible demand can lead to their
-extermination or to any permanent falling-off in the supplies; but the
-economy of the American fisheries tends to disprove that theory. In
-the seas which surround the United States, certain fishes would soon
-become very scarce, were the supplies not augmented each season by
-the aid of the pisciculturists. The fruitfulness of the cod is really
-wonderful, individuals of that family having been taken with from five
-to nine millions of eggs in their ovaries. The fecundity of the common
-herring, too, has often proved a theme of wonder. That an animal only
-weighing a few ounces should be able to perpetuate its kind at the rate
-of thirty thousand, is indeed remarkable. But fruitful in reproductive
-power as these and other fishes undoubtedly are, it has been prophesied
-by cautious writers, that by over-fishing, the supplies may in time
-become so exhausted as to require the aid of the pisciculturist. If
-so, we believe the mode of action which has been found to work so well
-in the American seas will be the best to follow. No plan of inclosed
-sea-ponds, however large they might be, will meet the case; the
-fish-eggs will require to be hatched in floating cylinders specially
-constructed for the purpose, so as to admit of the eggs being always
-under the influence of the sea-water, and at the same time exposed to
-the eye of skilled watchers. It is believed by persons well qualified
-to judge, that the eggs of our more valuable sea-fishes may in the way
-indicated be dealt with in almost incredible numbers. We have only to
-remember that twenty females of the cod family will yield at least one
-hundred millions of eggs, to see that the possibilities of pisciculture
-might extend far beyond anything indicated in the foregoing remarks.
-
-In resuscitating their exhausted oyster-beds, the French people have
-during the last twenty years worked wonders; they have been able to
-reproduce that favourite shell-fish year after year in quantities
-that would appear fabulous if they could be enumerated in figures.
-Pisciculture was understood in France long before it was thought of
-as a means of aiding natural production in America; but our children
-of the States—to use a favourite phrase of their own—now ‘lick all
-creation’ in the ways and means of replenishing river and sea with
-their finny denizens.
-
-
-
-
-A PLEA FOR THE WATER-OUSEL.
-
-
-In a paper which appeared in this _Journal_, in June 1883, on the
-Salmon, a few words were said in defence of the water-ousel against
-a _fama_ which had found vent in newspaper correspondence, accusing
-that most interesting bird of destroying salmon spawn. An English
-gentleman, after reading those remarks, has written to us, giving a sad
-illustration of misdirected zeal, which had arisen from the reading of
-such newspaper letters.
-
-During the previous winter, he was one of a party that spent a few
-days on the banks of a favourite salmon river in Wales. The party were
-all enthusiastic anglers; and, fired by the recent outcry against the
-ousel, they made a raid upon these birds, killing thirty in one day.
-Like the ‘Jeddart justices’ of old, the party then proceeded to convict
-the slain; when, lo! on examination by one of their number—a well-known
-English analyst—not a grain of salmon roe could be found in all the
-thirty crops examined, though it was then the height of the salmon
-spawning season. Like Llewelyn, after slaying Gelert, they had time to
-repent, ‘For now the truth was clear.’ They had slain the innocent,
-which feed upon insects that prey on salmon ova. They had therefore
-killed one of the salmon’s best protectors.
-
-No better instance could be adduced of the caution with which popular
-theories in natural history should be received. But besides branding
-the innocent little ousel as a salmon-destroyer, some writers went so
-far as to assert that the bird had no song, and was not worth listening
-to. The best observers fortunately have defended the bird against the
-charge of being songless; and in respect to its alleged crime of eating
-salmon-roe, the evidence above given is surely conclusive in favour of
-its innocence.
-
-The water-ousel is one of our most unique birds. It is a wader and a
-diver, and though not web-footed, by using its wings it can propel
-itself under water. Its habits are always a delightful study to the
-observer. The domed nest, with its snow-white eggs, is a wonderful
-structure; and there is a fascination in watching the bird tripping
-in and out of the water in pursuit of its food, popping overhead ever
-and again, and reappearing for a moment, only to dive and reappear
-elsewhere. When rivers are largely frozen over, it is interesting to
-see how boldly the little bird dives from the edge of an ice-sheet
-into a stream two feet or more in depth, how long it can remain under
-water, and how often it rises to breathe and dive again without leaving
-the stream. The singing of the water-ousel is low, but remarkably
-sweet, and long-continued in the winter-time of the year, when no other
-bird but the redbreast is heard; and when trilled out, as the notes
-frequently are in the clear frosty air, as the bird sits perched on a
-rocky projection, or takes its rapid flight up or down the stream,
-they sound clear and melodious.
-
-
-THE WATER-OUSEL’S SONG.
-
-    Whitter! whitter! where the water
-            Leaps among the rocks,
-    And the din of the linn
-            Swelling thunder mocks,
-    Cheerily and merrily
-            I sing my roundelay,
-    Whitter! whitter! bright or bitter
-            Be the winter day!
-
-    Whitter! whitter! down the water
-            Speeding with the stream,
-    Snow around wraps the ground
-            In a silent dream!
-    Wood and hill, all are still,
-            Birds as mute as clay,
-    Whitter! whitter! what is fitter
-            For a winter day?
-
-    Whitter! whitter! in the water
-            Busily I ply;
-    Ice and snow come and go,
-            Nought a care have I.
-    Mountain waters flee their fetters,
-            So I feed and play,
-    Whitter! whitter! pitter! pitter!
-            All the winter day.
-
-    Whitter! whitter! o’er the water
-            Still and smooth and deep,
-    Round the pool, clear and cool,
-            Where the shadows sleep,
-    Snowy breast, shadow-kissed,
-            Whirring on its way,
-    Whitter! whitter! titter! titter!
-            Ho! the winter day!
-
-    Whitter! whitter! through the water,
-            By the miller’s wheel,
-    Where the strong water’s song
-            Rings a merry peal;
-    Wet or dry, what care I,
-            Sporting in the spray?
-    Whitter! whitter! twitter! twitter!
-            Flies the winter day.
-
-    Whitter! whitter! with the water
-            Where the burnies run,
-    ’Mong the hills, where the rills
-            Dance unto the sun,
-    In the nooks, where the brooks
-            Ripple on for aye,
-    Whitter! whitter! bright or bitter
-            Be the winter day!
-
-                J. H. P.
-
-
-
-
-BOOK GOSSIP.
-
-
-We have on more than one occasion drawn attention in these pages to the
-good work which Miss Ormerod is accomplishing by the dissemination of
-knowledge on the subject of insect life as it affects agriculture. She
-has now published a _Guide to Methods of Insect Life, and Prevention
-and Remedy of Insect Ravage_ (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.),
-which cannot fail greatly to advance the object she has in view. The
-_Guide_ was written at the request of the Institute of Agriculture,
-and its chief purpose is to give some information on the habits, and
-means of prevention, of crop insects. The book is written in a style
-which will render it useful to agriculturists, gardeners, and others,
-even although they happen to have no scientific knowledge whatever of
-entomology. The various insects, their eggs and larvæ, are described
-in terms as free from scientific terminology as is possible; and
-such scientific terms as must occasionally be used are explained in a
-glossary at the end of the book. The illustrations are numerous; and
-between these and the verbal descriptions given, no difficulty should
-at any time be felt in identifying any particular insect pest, and
-applying to it the treatment which the author suggests. The methods
-of prevention are mainly taken from the reports which Miss Ormerod
-has been in the habit of receiving annually from a large number of
-agriculturists, so that the reader has here, in one little book, the
-united experience and observations of a large body of practical men.
-
-⁂
-
-Last year we had the pleasure of publishing in this _Journal_ two
-papers on the subject of Shetland and its Industries, by Sheriff
-Rampini, of Lerwick. Since then, the same gentleman has delivered
-two lectures before the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, which
-lectures are now published in a neat little volume, under the title of
-_Shetland and the Shetlanders_ (Kirkwall: William Peace and Son). In
-the papers which appeared in our pages, the author confined himself
-to the industries of the island, its agriculture and fisheries; in
-these lectures, however, he gives himself greater scope, and treats of
-the history, traditions, and language of the people, introducing many
-anecdotes characteristic of them and of their habits.
-
-
-
-
-OCCASIONAL NOTES.
-
-
-AMERICAN LITERARY PIRACY.
-
-In the _London Figaro_, the editor thus writes: Those literary men who
-are agitating for a copyright convention with the United States have
-doubtless suffered in the following way, which seems to me particularly
-hard on some of the authors of this country. I am, let it be assumed,
-then, the writer of a number of short stories, which, at anyrate, for
-the purposes of my statement, I will conclude to have been good enough
-to earn sufficient popularity to bring them within the purview of the
-American book pirates. Very well—my stories are taken as quickly as
-they appear and published in the States, not only in a book-form, but
-in all the principal newspapers which devote some of their columns to
-fiction.
-
-For this honour I, of course, receive never a cent, and that is a
-distinct hardship, I take it. But that is not all. My stories having
-appeared in the States, slightly altered to suit American tastes,
-and without my name attached, are read and admired by the editors
-of English provincial journals, who straightway proceed to cut out
-the fictions in question, and alter them back again, to suit the
-idiosyncrasies of their British readers. Thus my handiwork appears a
-second time in this country; and in not one, but possibly a dozen or a
-score of provincial newspapers.
-
-The result is this. When I go, a month or two after, and offer a
-collection of my short stories to a London publisher, he reads them,
-and replies in effect: ‘Yes, I like your stories very well; but what
-is the use of my publishing them, when they have appeared in half the
-country papers in the kingdom?’ It is in vain I explain. The injury
-has been done; and an apology from the country editors is but a slight
-and unsatisfactory atonement for an act which has kept me out of scores
-or hundreds of pounds.
-
-Besides this, there are other publishers who, seeing that my fiction
-appears in the _Little Pedlington Mirror_ or the _Mudborough Gazette_,
-mentally determine that my calibre as a writer cannot be very great
-if I am reduced to dispose of my copy to such papers as these. And
-therefore, through no fault of my own, but, as a matter of fact,
-in actual consequence of my success, my reputation as a writer is
-positively injured in quarters in which it is most important to me it
-should be sustained. I have been describing incidents which have really
-occurred, I may add; and I think that the grievance is one that needs
-serious attention, with a view to its redress.
-
-    [The editor of _Figaro_ has our fullest sympathy. We, too, are
-    the victims of American malpractices. Many of the short stories
-    which appear in _Chambers’s Journal_ are copied into the
-    American newspapers without leave, and _without acknowledgment
-    of the source whence taken_. These papers reach Great Britain
-    with the purloined material, which our provincial press in
-    turn transfers to its pages. Expostulation is of no avail:
-    the British journalist sees a story in an American newspaper
-    which will suit his purpose, and at once takes possession of
-    property, which of course he believes to be American (and
-    therefore legitimate spoil), but which has in reality been paid
-    for and previously published by ourselves. We thus doubtless
-    lose many subscribers, who, finding our Tales and Stories given
-    at full length in the penny papers, are pleased to have them at
-    a slightly cheaper rate than the original.—_ED. Ch. Jl._]
-
-
-SOWING AND HARVESTING.
-
-Farmers, besides being subject to the risks incurred by all engaged
-in commercial enterprises, are in addition peculiarly dependent on
-the very variable weather of our climate. In 1877, Professor Tanner
-was deputed by the Science and Art Department to make an inquiry into
-the conditions regulating the growth of barley, wheat, and oats. He
-found that on a certain farm the portion of the barley-crop which was
-harvested in fine harvest-weather yielded per acre forty bushels,
-each of which weighed fifty-six pounds; while on the same farm the
-part harvested after some rain had fallen—in bad harvest-weather—also
-yielded forty bushels per acre; but in this case each bushel weighed
-only forty pounds—thus showing that there was a loss of six hundred and
-forty pounds of food on each acre. Barley is also peculiarly sensitive
-to the condition of its seed-bed. Two parts of the same field were
-sown with similar seed; but in one case the seed was got down in good
-spring-weather, and in the other, after heavy rain; and the result
-was that the former grew freely, and yielded per acre forty bushels,
-weighing fifty-eight and a half pounds each; while in the latter case
-the seed never grew freely, and yielded per acre only twenty-four
-bushels, weighing fifty-four pounds per bushel—thus showing a loss of
-one thousand and forty-four pounds of grain per acre.
-
-In the case of wheat, and particularly of the finer varieties, the
-losses arising from bad harvest-weather tell very materially on the
-prices. Of the same crop of fine white wheat grown in 1877 under
-similar conditions, the part harvested in good weather yielded per acre
-forty bushels, each weighing sixty-six pounds; while the part which
-could not be harvested before being damaged by rain yielded an equal
-number of bushels; but the weight of each bushel was decreased by five
-pounds, and this latter was sold at two-and-sixpence per bushel lower
-than the former. Besides this, if ungenial weather should prevent
-the farmer sowing his wheat in good time, the yield is still further
-lessened, if indeed he does not deem it expedient to sow barley instead.
-
-One would think that oats—the hardiest of our cereals—would suffer
-little from the effects of bad weather; but in a case in which two
-portions of oats grown under similar conditions were examined, it was
-found that the portion harvested in good weather produced thirty-three
-bushels, each weighing forty-one and a half pounds; while that stacked
-after some rain had fallen was found to give thirty-two bushels,
-weighing thirty-nine and a half pounds each.
-
-
-RUSSIAN LONGEVITY.
-
-From a correspondent, who has passed some years in Russia, we learn
-that in the village of Velkotti, in the St Petersburg government, an
-old woman is living who has just attained her one hundred and thirtieth
-birthday! The old lady is in the enjoyment of good health, but
-complains of her deafness (and no wonder). Her hair is still long and
-plentiful, considering her age. She spent her youth in great poverty,
-but is now pretty well off. She has outlived three husbands; and has
-had a family of nineteen children, all of whom have been married, and
-are now dead, the last one to die being a daughter of ninety-three. She
-lives with one of her great-grandchildren, a man of fifty.
-
-Our correspondent also informs us that a few months ago an unusually
-curious wedding took place in Ekaterinoslav, in Russia. The
-bridegroom was sixty-five years old, the bride sixty-seven. By former
-marriages, each of them have children and grandchildren, and even
-great-grandchildren, living in the same town. The bridegroom’s father,
-now in his one hundred and third year, and the bride’s mother, in her
-ninety-sixth year, are still alive, and were at the wedding.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Conductor of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of
-CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:
-
-_1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
-    High Street, Edinburgh.’
-
-_2d._ For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps
-    should accompany every manuscript.
-
-_3d._ MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author’s full _Christian_ name,
-    Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on
-    white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.
-
-_4th._ Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a
-    stamped and directed envelope.
-
-_If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to
-insure the safe return of ineligible papers._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
-and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-_All Rights Reserved._
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR
-LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 17, VOL. I, APRIL 26,
-1884 ***
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