The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-23
I. In England is
E + Ahead.
A FUNNY MOVEMENT
Line Of Steamers Between
j Manchester and Boston.
..e

Some crank reformer has just come
out in London with petition for the
equalization of English and Irish time,
and he has succeeded in getting some
representative and influential bodies
such as a few boards of trade or cham
bers Of commerce, interested in his
unique project. Not only that but quite
p discussion has sprung up in the lead
ing newspapers on both sides of the
channel as to the wisdom of the move
ment and it should not be at all sur
prising if the reformer actually sue
ceeded in getting his scheme into the
arena of parliament. Perhaps the mo-
mentous question may yet become the
direct cause of the downfall of the
ministry and Of an appeal to the coun-
try. %
There is just 25 minutes difference
between the time of England and Ire
land. When it is one o'clock at Green
witch, where the royal observatory is To-
Gated, 1t is % minutes of ! in Dublin.
: When the time balP' drops at Green
witch telling the captains along the
Thames that it is one o'clock the time
guns in Dublin and Cork, which are
connected by Wire with Greenwich, go
off at the same instant and the naviga-
tors in those ports adjust their chrono-
motors accordingly, taking no notice of
the fact that the watches and clocks
ashore are % minutes behind them.
This because, as everybody knows, the
captains sailing out of all British and
Irish ports navigate their ships by
Greenwich time. no matter whether the
port of departure be Glasgow or Liver
pool, Dublin or Cork, Waterford or
London.
: There is opposition to this proposal to
equalize the time, and for variety of
reasons. Chief among them is the argu-
ment that such change is entirely un-
necessary, and also the fact that it
would not be just to the factory opera
ttives, mechanics and wharf hands in
the Irish cities, who go to work at 6 in
the summer and in the winter, to be
Obliged to start work at 5.35 or 6.95 on
the ground that it is the even hour at
Greenwich. Commenting on the con-
templated change, the Cork Examiner
says:
IF the proposal is extended little
further, the absurdty of the project is
apparent Is half past six in New
York to be called one in the afternoon,
andcis today in London to be yesterday
-or tomorrow in Australia? OF course
these are extreme cases, and no one
would consider the extension of the
idea beyond the British islands There
is a sentimental reason, too. No mat
ter what politics we are, we like to re-
member, after all, that our country is
our country, and we are not in the least
disposed to inconvenience ourselves
looking for English time, when we are,
If not too swiftly, yet surely, consum-
ing the home manufactured article
s. -,eisT o.91
The long expected biography of Par
nell is on the eve of its publication. 1T
is from the pen of r. Barry OBrien of
London, who has been at work on his
task for the past three years. The
memoir will form two handsome Svo.
volumes of 400 pages each. The pub
fishers are Smith, Elder & Co. of Lon
don. fBftf
1t would be amusing, if it were not
so oft told a tale to, read the press
accounts of big fires in the cities across
the water. 1t is not the reports that
are amusing, for they are ably written,
as a rule, but some of the facts aSSo-
ciated with the conhagration. This is
especially true of the discovery of the
fire, the sending of the alarm to the
fire brigade Gas the fire department is
termedD, and the arrival of the appara-
tus at the scene of operations. For in
, stance, about a week ago there was a
disastrous fire in Dublin. Several large
business blocks We're destroyed, and,
ssfof tai: While. there was. grave danger of
: the IRE spreading and tapping up with
its hung rys tongues the other buildings
IN the mel ghborh6od,, Including the Off
Z ces of, two leading newspapers. The
fire was Well under way when a po-
licelnan discovered it, at 2 o'clock in
the morning. 1t was seen at the same
moment from the Office of the Free
mans Journal and other places. Then
we read: 3. Half dozen telephone
alarms were sent to the fire brigade,
which responded with excellent preci-
SION reaching the fire fifteen minutes
after the receipt of the call -
To vone accustomed to the American
idea of a fire department, it is simply
amazing to contrast the methods in use
here and those abroad The mighty
city of London with its millions of pop
mation and billions of treasure, is
without an electric fire alarm system.
So is Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow,
Birmingham, Leeds, Belfast, Dublin, to
say nothing of the smaller cities, Of
100000 down, whose fire service is too
ridiculous to speak Of
When the great fire occurred in Lon
don, last year, which wiped some acres
of business blocks i'll one of the leading
centres, the alarm was sent, as in Dub
lin last week, to headquarters by a
private telephone in a near by office,
and from headquarters the chief had
TO call up, one after the other, each
of his division houses, telling of the
fire and it's location. The result was,
as may be Imagined, the, destruction Of
offices and warehouses by the mile,