Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-13

to make more use of this branch of the
service. Volunteer cyclists were tried with
great success at the last maneuverS, and
regular officers expressed their amazement
at the speed with which the cyclists COW
cred the very rough ground selected for
them.
The Grip i'm London.
influenza is rife in London, and its eff
feet may be seen in the Times, where
there We're two columns of deaths the other
day-au extraordinary number, even for this
season of the year. Happily. the disease
is rot violeat in its action, but it is very
infectious. Quite a number Of my friends
nave told me that nearly every one in their
fouse is laid UP with il, but. seriously
enough. it has spared the head of the
house in all these cases, while every one
else, from the lady of the house to the
maids in the kitchen. has been effected.
Many Christmas parties have been partly
spoiled, owing to numbers of the invited
guests being unable to leave their homes
The weather has been altogether in favor
OF the disease-damp, dark and foggy. with
chilling cast winds. and only occasional
snaps of good dry frost.
LOndOn's School Children,
Some idea of the immensely of the oper-
atoms of the London school board may be
gathered from the annual statement which,
IN view OF the new year. has been placed in
the hands of members. The officers sched-
ulcd last year 81 ,o10 children between the
ages of three and thirteen years This
number. though strikngly large was less
ny @.Vo than in the previous year. a fact
which may be taken to show that more
ana more persons in a comparatively hum
Die walk of life are removing their families
SO far into suburbs that they no longer
come under the London school board. The
BOARD estimates that it ought to provide
at least IS4,lN school places but noty-ith
standing its continuous expenditure in new
buiiolngs II has only accommodation for
'ish children. 1t has spent in sites alone
schools We're opened, accommoda ting S.342
cnlidren. at a cost of f24O.239 including
SITES building and furniture which works
OUT at t26 11.3 per head The board en-
pc w" teachers, and their salaries in
ne year ending Lady day last amounted to
i '@6, W. The net expenditure of the board
ioI the year was t2,64S Alb, but fool S:;4 of
'hls amount was for repayment of loans.
Decidedly Interesting.
"A Livingstone exhibition has been opened
IN LONDON. which is of the highest interest
Inc exhibition has been arranged in st.
Martin town hall. To some extent the
name does not adequately reveal the ma
lure OF the undertaking. 1t is a Living
stone exhibition so far as it has been organ
ized by the Livingstone College, and con-
talnS many Interesting relics of the great
pioneer missionary: but the primary object
Is TO show how disease may be combated
by travellers in unhealthy climates, and
now the miseries of residence either in the
frozen north or i'll the tropics may be
greatly alleviatcd. To this end much space
Is devoted to the display of portable COM
forts, devices for reducing camp baggage
i TO me minimum, all sorts of clothing and
lnnumerable medical and food requisites.
But visitors who are not experts in regard
10 matters of equipment-and no doubt they
VIII form the majority-will he chiefly in
terested in the loan section The collection
or relics Is very comprehensive.
South African Mathematics,
The Wesleyan missionaries, who have
been scattered from the Transvaal through
Cape Colony by the war, have already
proved serious burden on the funds of the
Wesleyan Missionary Society. and up to the
present have cost it some fl 500 Six are in
Boer territory, and no news has come
through from them for weeks; but several
more We're politely but forcibly asked 10
leave when the war broke out and are now
in Cape Town, Grahamstown and Durham.
In each of the bcleaguered towns of Ma
feking and Kimberley there is a Wesleyan
minister, of whom no tidings have come
since the investment AT Durham where
are some six or eight refugee Wesleyan
ministers, they are doing good work in aid
ing the relief committee, by whom their
standing has been recognized. A hall has
been set apart where they may always be
found, and there those lay refugees who
are Wesleyans come and have their tempo
rary wants relieved. Before the war closes
the Reorganization of the self-supportng
Wesleyan churches of the Transvaal will
have cost the central society several thous-
and pounds, and other denominations find
themselves in similar financial situation.
The New Century.
There are evidently very many yet who
are deaf to the arguments of those who
would convince them that yesterday was
not the first day of the twentieth century.
Wise In its generation, one of the largest
firms in the trade brought out whole
series of New Year cards for the special
satisfaction of the heretics. These cards
bear within the customary greetings of the
season, but on the outside carry the legend
''Ie Good Old Wyshe for Ye Newe Cen
tury." 1t is a thoughtful act on the part of
the publishers thus to provide for the needs
OF majority and minority alike, so that
whether for us a century was over on Sun
day night or not were able to send The
right cards to our friends
Apart from such serious matters as New
Year cards, the immense Importance at
tached to the automatic operation of a me-
cltanical device for measuring time is per
haps worth the attention of those who have
Il taste for philosophical speculations. From
earliest days of education we are confused
in our IDEAS by the ha bit Of cutting his
tory into centuries, as though with every
century new order began and ended. In
stead OF talking SO much about THE dying
century and fin de steele thought we
should be considerably nearer the mark ii
We regarded ourselves as at present about
fifty years forward in an age that COM
menced with the general spread of rail-
ways, the abandonment of wooden walls"
for steel plates on battle ships, and the net
ting of the world with telegraph wires by
land and sea.
The Wrong Cause Won.
An amusing encounter of the pugilistic
order was yesterday witnessed in the neigh
bcrhood of Fleet street. A couple of cost
ers, after a fierce dispute as to when the
century began, started fighting. After a
round or two one gave in, and the victor
the champion of January l, 1900 remarked
derisively of his fallen adversary as the
latter, in a somewhat battered condition,
led away his donkey and cart: "A higher
ant hass, e is! Doesn't know a moo Gentry
from a blessed bunch of carrots!' Evident
ly the ordeal of battle Is not always in
fallible. l.. H. MOORE.
DEATH OF MAJOR GUTHRIE.
Suffered From Severe Wound Re.
t. u.~.