Arizona republican., 1900-08-02
l><><<e>>>>>>~>~~~~>~>>>>> :; TOPICS OF THE HOUR :

The Pail Mall Gazette gives this | translation of the Arabic poem pre- sented by the khedive to the queen when he visited Windsor last winter. The poem was written by a well known Egyptian man of leters Ismail Assem-. 70, Lady of the Kingdom, O Thou Offspring of Those Mighty Suns who | Spheres under which roll as humble maidens the Heavenly Planets bright Around Thy Sacred Head do the An gels wreath their Love garlands, inter- woven with the Love jewels of human Souls. But art Thou a Goddess, too, that before Thee have Times flinched and knelt with an affrighted look. To the Countries of the Earth, and the mighty Oceans, with their rolling, foaming Plains, and the fearful des- erts, with their rolling, sandy waves, thunderstruck stood before Thee" The London Daily News gives a somewhat different, perhaps fuller translation and relates curious circumstance, remarkable tour de force: "The last hemistitch is quantitative' in an un-
 
 Arabic alphabet its arithmetic value. and if all the letters of this hemistich are added together the amount to 1900, the date of the sixty-third year of her majesty's reign"
 Outside a secondhand book store in Philadelphia, displayed over a miscel- 1aneous collection of volumes is a cio oh fr, ,ic lot, 10 cents." There are all sorts of things, ranging from medical works to volumes of fugitive verse, by unknown poets. Some are old and very worn, and look as though they had just come from the publishers. In this latter class is a volume from the pen of Will liam Waldorf Astor. who is just now rather conspicuous in the public eye. It Is called "Valentino: A Romance of Italy in the Sixteenth Century, It is a handsome specimen of the Scribners book making, and Is as good as new, although having been published sev- eral years ago. The man in charge of the stall says 1t has been there for quite a while, which would seem to in- dicate that nobody wants a book by William Waldorf Astor even at the price of 10 cents.
 A hotel man in Portland, Maine. made a bet of hat with a friend and lost. The loser telephoned to the win ner: Get just as good hat as you want; in fact, buy any kind of a hat that suits you and have them send me the bill" In day or two the bill of s32 from a well known Congress street milliner for a woman's hat was receiv- ed by the loser. The winner calmly in formed him that he was pretty we'll fixed for hats himself and so thought he'd turn the thing over to his wife. It was hat and the hotel man paid.
 ss+s
 At one of the continuous" theatres in New York the other night was shown a biograph picture of the depar- ture of the Fifth infantry from Gov ernor's island on its way to China. The main interest in the picture was the fact that the regiment did not go away till the morning of the Sunday and yet the apparatus for showing the moving picture in the theatre was completed in time for the evening performance. This is the easiest work of the kind on record. it is said.
 
 Thomas w. Lamble Is the official ste nographer and assistant secrstary of the chief of police of Chicago, and as sucL. wears the star of a sergeant. Before coming to America from Eng land, his native country, he was or dained a regular preacher in the Meth odist church. and still breaches in churches around Chicago, usually re-