The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-28
GERMAN CRITICISM WORRIES ENGLAND Comments on Titanic Disas-
 ter Are Resented THE GAMBLING HOUSES In Fashionable Districts--Members of Parliament Must Pay Same Price
 for Dinners-Royaf Seal Is
 Outline of Battleship
THE GAMBLING HOUSES
By PAUL LAMBETH


 tions on the theme, This could not have happened to a steamship on any German
 line" It Is a bitter pill for John Bull
 to swallow. and. swallow 1t he must, be- cause it is everywhere known that the
 Tueton commander is always ready to
 sacrifice speed to safety even at the cost
 of being dubbed a .slowpoke," as the
 British writers have been fond of doing.
 Signs of mourning still eontinae. Flags
 are kept at half mast and the number of men and women in black Is astonishing. Business has fallen off tremendously at
 all the theatres and restaurants and can
 oellations sent out for scores of private l functions. The fact that the rescuing
 vessel was a Cunarder brings especial
 attention to the proud boast of this line, 1 We never lost life
 The other great topic of interest in the | English capital is the continued indiffer- ence of the police authorities to the many l all night gambling houses that now infest 1 the fashionable Mayfair and West End sections At least 20 private houses and an equal number of expensive flats have 1 been hired tat tremendously high rentals l by the way) and tany fairly we'll dressed person who can show fairly well lined | l pocket book can gain admlttanee to any
 one of the clubs without the slightest
 trouble.
 Many newspapers have been printing | letters from heartbroken wives and moth- 1 CTS whose husbands and sons have been drawn into the gambling maelstrom, but | the upholders of the law have made not a single arrest in the fashionable section although they have been doing the old l famliar cuttleiish act by raiding half dozen cheap gambling dens | One proprietor openly boasts of having | l cleaned up since the first of the year s75 GOO from the 10 per cent rake off, he | gets from his chemin de fer tables, This | game is a form of baccarat in which the | bank passes in turn to each player.
 A fair sample of how brazenly unscru- pulous these club owners are is found | in the case of boy of only IS years, | just up from Eton, whose J. o. Ms were ] accepted for 5000. His widowed mother had to take them up to avoid public scandal.
 There will be no reduction in the price of 1 shilling charged to members of par
 iament for their dinners. Colonel Lock wood the chairman of the kitchen com mittee says that as 1t stands, the honor able gentlemen are eating daily about l | shilling 6 pence worth of food According | to the menu the shilling diner has his | choice of three joints tnnlimited helpngs) | with vegetables, cheese, butter bread and choice of two sweets. That the par
 liamentarians appreciate a good thing when they see4it is shown by the fact f that 2o90 of these dinners were served last week.
 The publishers of "Burke's Peerage," Messrs. Harrison & Sons, are defending curious action, claiming damages for
 defamation, brought by Mr. Herman Muuro an insurance agent of COldhar- bourlane Camberwell.
 Mr Munros grievance is that it was stated in the Burke of 1911 that his father. MT. Harry Munro, died unmar- ried This, said counsel. represented that the plaintiff was llegitmate.
 All the reparation made was that in the next issue of Burke" there was no ref erence at all to the question whether Mir Harry Munro was married or not.
 The judge pointed out that on John Hampden's tombstone his three wives and 12 children are described. yet 1t is stated that he died unmarried"
 Many seals used during the reigns of previous monarchs have represented the episode of St. George and the Dragon, but the design of the present one re- veals the outlines of an armored battle ship Not everyone is aware that on che death of an English sovereign new great seal of England is prepared and that an interesting ceremony Is gone through to symbolize the destruction of the old seal. The act of breaking or
 rdamasking' the seal consists in the sovereign giving 1t a gentle blow with a hammer, after which it is supposed to be broken and has lost all it's virtue. 
 Since the tearing down of the Pope's Head, Norwich, which has been consid- cred the oldest public house in England, great interest has been taken in fixing it's successor to that honor
 This month ceremony was performed which only occurs at intervals of 20 years. This is the comparison of the standards of weights and measures
 The official standards in use at the of flee of weights and measures compared | with the original standard yard measure | and pound weight which repose in the walk of one of the inner staircases of | the house of commons
 The hole in the wall where the two standards kept Is rather like small tomb. and it can only be opened by ac- tually tearing down the wall.
 The yard measure is a bronze bar 3S inches long, on which 36 divisions of one | inch--i. e., a yard-have been marked off | The standard pound is of platinum, and | deapite it's weight and the fact that metal of which 1t consists is worth E40. in size | It is no more than a cubic inch.
 No variations were detected when the | standards were last compared fin April | l 1892 and none was found this time. Eighty years in one coliery is the rec |
 ord of Yorkshire miner, John Inman |
 who Is still at work at the low shaft of 1 the Denby Grange eolleries. Although | l s5 years old, he is in charge of an engine | and is able to give the machinery all the | l attention it requires. working full time |
 each day and sometimes seven days a
 week.
 1 lnman was only 5 years old when he began work as "trapper,' opening and | | closing the underground doors through | which the trucks pass their way from | l the working face to shaft For these | duties he received fourpence a day. All though offered an opportunity of retiring 1 on pension, he prefers remaining with | | his engine. | After spending over 61 years as royal | servant at Windsor castle, Benjamin Holt | has just retired, at the age of s4. MT Holt has many interesting recollec- tions of his long term of service with | royalty. He distinctly remembers King William ". and Queen Adelaide, and their visit to the "Montem," an Eton | college festival which has long since ! ceased to be celebrated Their majes- ties also visited Egham races. which are also defunct