The Washington herald., 1913-02-20

IN his Life and Death OF a sailor.
Quote from memory:
His death, which happened in hh berth,
| At tosty-odd bsfeil. 49,.
The captain told the ssxton.
| And the sexton toled the bell.
The first aerial crossing of the Alps
was achieved more than 1,600 years ago.
At least SO says the tradition explain
ing how the Theodule Pass, above Ter
matt, got its name. Theodule. Bishop of
Sion. in the Valais, at the end of the
fourth century, was presented by the
Pope with a fine bell for hix cathedral;
but the problem of transporting it from
Rome to Sion proved insoluble. until the
devil came to the rescue. He offered to
bring it with the Bishop hanging to it.
on his back In a single night. on con-
dition that he should have the Bishops
soul. II they reached Sion before cock
| crow at dawn The devil few with his
passenger and freight over the pass all
right, but as they neared Sion the Bishop
sang out to the cocks who responded in
chorus; and the devil vanished, dropping
the bell which buried itself in the ground.
OF course. then, there was Dr. Faust,
| immortalized by the German poet,
| Goethe. with whom the devil flew"
| through the ceiling of Auerbach's wine
| cellar at Leipzig when the time limit
had expired of the contract by which
the old bookworm had been transformed
into a handsome young Don Juan" The
spots where the doctors brain was spat-
tered by the impact of his head with the
beams of the ceiling are shown to tour
lists to this day (0: also the famous
table with the cavity. from which Dr.
Faust. aided by Mephistolean black art,
dipped any kind OF wine asked for by
the university students. whose host he
was.
Hussars originally were scarcely re-
spectacle enough to include the Prince of
Wales among their numbers. For the
word 'hussar" is akin to "corsair,' and
the first hussars were freebooters. As
part Of regular army. the hussar ap-
peared in Hungary in l45s. when King
Matthias Corvinus raised a corps or
light horse under that name to fight the
Turks. Name and fame of the Hum
garian hussars spread throughout Eu-
rope. and Frederick the Great of Prus-
sia was not above dispatching an officer
to study their work. The British hussar
dates from 1865. when the Seventh Regi-
ment was converted from light dragons
into hussars.
In Prussia the Red Hussars. under
their famous leader. Gen. Won Ziethan.
showed their vaior in the seven years
war waged by Frederick the Great
against Maria Theresa. and the Black
Hussars, called the ''Deadheads, be-
cause of the skull and crossbones on the
"Tshakos." Were veritable dare-devils
In the darkest days of Prussia during
the Napoleonic days Uuetzow's mildes,
verwegene jagd. In Austria the hus-
sars of Radetzki and OF Prince Eugene
have been among the worlds most heroic |
troops.
The most talked about man in England |
to-day doubtless is the Speaker of the |
House of Commons. who in five minutes |
has changed the fate of great move |
ment
British speakers have had the habit OF |
Olympian decisions. Horace Walpole !
gives us a glimpse into their brain in
the description OF his encounter with |
Speaker Onslow. IL arose In 17i7 over
some trivial bill to change the assizes
from Alyesbury to Buckingham The |
Speaker requested Walpole to refrain
from discussing the merits Of the bill |
and stick to the amendments. Walpole ,
replied that he bowed to Mr.. Speakers |
oracular decision when he would refuse
to submit to complaisant peevishness."
This threw the Speaker into a great rage,
and he complained to the House. Wal
pole expressed himself astonished that
submission 10 the Speaker" should have !
been a way to offend him.
Dominique Hof. aged seventy-one, the
Cars trusted and personal engine
driver, died in the hospital at Often IN
Switzerland his birthplace. Hof had
served as engine-driver from ST. Peters
burg via Moscow 10 Odessa for forty
ears. and was placed in charge of every
train in which the imperial family
Russia. and even on short
trips. He could have retired long ago,
but would not, until forced by illness
Hof during his career. was offered
large sums to wreck the Imperial En-
press. but he always refused the bribes.
and it was well that he did, for some of
them We're made by the police to test his
honesty. FLANEUR