The San Francisco call., 1896-06-21


liarly vivid and somber impression on the
public mind. Every body has been think
ing so much about South Africa of late
that this fatal break in the chain of COM
municatioE with the Cape becomes, in
Imagination, part OF the general unhap-
piness which England is getting out of
Africa. Editorial comment here was dis
posed at first to be very harsh on Captain
Pierce, but to-day's papers contain num-
Der of protests from old Biscay experts,
who agree that the currents off Ushant
defy all science and jealous care. Several
correspondents narrate from their own
experience the unsuspected drift OF YES
sci thirty or forty miles out of her course
in single night, which in thick weather
makes the rounding OF that dangerous
corner an absolute lottery. Attention is
also called to an ancient local belief that
there is some powerful mineral or other
influence in the submerged rocks off
Ushant which throws the compass all
wrong. This universal conviction among
seafaring Bretons has been treated for
centuries as a superstition, but now the
disposition is to wonder if there is not
something in it.
tria bv the news that the Archduke Otto
has been summoned to Vienna from his
garrison duties in Hungary, and that he
is to be installed in the Auggarten Palace
as visible heir to the crown. No one is
much surprised at the fact that this ar
rangement passes over Otto's elder
brother, Franz Ferdinand, because he is
known to be an incurable invalid, but the
formal elevation of Otto to this high place
forces some very ugly mutteriDgs into
prominence. He is we'll known to be
stupid, ignorant blackguard, whose gross
conduct toward his wife and toward the
decencies of civilization has before now
angered his imperial brother to the point
of personally thrashing him with stick.
Polite chroniclers pretend now to believe
that residence in Vienna and the sense of
responsibility will educate Otto into val
liable parsonage, but everybody knows
that this is arrant nonsense, and the
private assumption is that Otto's nine
year-oId son, Charles Francis, is really to
be the heir.
The German papers are eIpending for
them an unprecedented amount of space
on the visit of Ii Hung Chang to Berlin.
The court set the example by giving him
an official reception, which could not have
been exceeded for the Emperor of China
himself, and he is treated in every respect
like a royal parsonage. This is made sig
nihcant by the fact that Marshal Yama-
gaia, CHANGING 10 come to Berlin at the
same time, was barely noticed by the Off
cials and hurried to quit Germany in con-
sequence. The Liberal journals quarrel
with this as foolish blunder, but the
Government press prints excited columns
about China's greatness and magnIfcence
and of the part which Germany is des-
tined to play in her development.
1t is said that Ii is not only giving big
orders in Germany for warships arms and
the like, but that he has arranged for we'll
picked German officers to go out at large
salaries to completely reorganize and
train the Chinese army. The English
have not given up hope. however, that
when Lii comes here and sees the vast
shipping yards of the Tyneside and the
Clyde he will conclude to have the new
Chinese navy built here instead.
Yesterday afternoon the nuisance of
women crowding upon the riverside ter
race of the House of Commons at the tea
hour reached a point where every body
admitted that it was intolerable, and it
seems very likely that action will be taken
next week to put summary stop to the
abuse. The fashion is of quite recent
growth. l remember when only an occa-
sional American lady, in being shown over
the House, ever yielded to the suggestion
of having tea on the terrace. Gradually a
few of the more adventurous among
British females followed this trans
Atlantic example, but for years they
remained few. Then suddenly it became
the mode of the smart set and the num-
bers rose TO the neighborhood of a
hundred.
Now, this year, especially since the dis
cussion about the employment of wait
resses has advertised the thing, literally
thousands of women who long TO be
thought smart swarm upon the House
every bright day, lay siege to memb bers for
admission and crowd, not only the terrace,
but its approaches and the outer lobbies.
till it is impossible for the officials of the
House to move about. The feeling is at
last almost general in the House that an
end must be put to the folly in some way,
although probably many of those who
protest most vigorously would shrink
from publicly voting to stop the custom.
Hiram Maxim, in long letter to the
London Times, says that Professor Lang
ley's flying machine is really a small
working model of Maxims own big struc-
ture recently exhibited and tested here
Maxim seems to think that Langley was
more sensible in making small machine
and projecting it from boat, so that 1t
would not be smashed when it fell into
the water, than himself was in building
one twelve times as large and starting it
from rails on the ground, where every
tumble would involve three months time
and $4,000 for repairs. Maxim concludes, |
that the trick has really been |
learned and that it is now possible to make
a successful and practical fying-machine.
Since the rather extraordinary incident
occurred of Catholic seamen belonging to
The British Mediterranean squadron being
received at the Vatican by the Pope in
their uniform, the alarm at the previously
,,cnaofad Catbnlia A. .bo