The Strand 1913-10 Vol_XLVI №274 October mich

464 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. The ex-champion returned the ball into the net. The crowd remained chivalrously silent. \" Fifteen—love,\" proclaimed the umpirg. The next service skimmed over the net, and twisted away from the Higginbotham's left hand. It was only possible to return such a ball into a place where Mabel rushed in to receive it. She smashed it on to the back line, and the chalk flew. Nevertheless the linesman gave it \" out.\" \" Fifteen all,\" announced the umpire. There was a groan from the crowd who had just seen the chalk fly. A memorable rally followed. It seemed to John that the players had turned into machines. The ball was driven from back line to back line with astounding velocity. John put up his glasses, powerful binoculars. Mabel was still smiling, as if tennis were the best fun in the world, but John noticed that just as she hit the ball with that upward lift which distinguished her drive, she winced as if in pain. It never occurred to him that it might be physical pain. Fifteen—thirty ! Mab served a short one. The ex-champion banged it violently down the right side line. It was difficult to determine whether the ball was just in or just out \" Fifteen—forty,\" declared the umpire. Everybody howled with delight when Mabel won the next two points. \" Deuce.\" And then Luck—that diabolical factor in all games—took a hand in this game. Mabel served from the right court. The ball was well placed. Mrs. Higginbotham returned it fast and low. Mabel waited for it upon the back line. But it touched the top of the net and fell dead ! \" Curse it! \" cried Bott, in an agonized voice. Mabel served again. Once more began a long rally, each woman standing a couple of yards behind the back line. And 'again, with his glasses upon his wife's face, John noticed the odd little wince as Mabel drove the ball, the pressure of her white teeth upon her lower lip. An angry roar rose from the crowd, followed by shouts of applause. Luck for the last time favoured Mrs. Higginbotham. A fierce drive topped the net, and fell dead, The players approached each other; and the vast difference between them was tre- mendously impressive. Mabel showed no signs of the battle; the elder woman was haggard and gasping. Mabel held out her hand, smiling. Mrs. Higginbotham saw the fresh young face close to hers, saw the generous beam in the eyes, heard the generous words of congratulation. During her stren- uous life she had scorned sentiment, or any display of feeling in public. Always she had fought hard for victory, neither ashamed of showing keenness, nor disappointment when she lost. To the amazement of friends and

Does \"Raffles Exist? \"\"■•The Myth of the Gentleman Burglar. HE gentleman burglar is a myth. When, quite recently, I made this statement and was promptly invited to demonstrate the fact in your columns, I did not suspect how widespread was the opinion to the contrary which I should be By Monsieur ALPHONSE BERTILLON, Chief of the Identification Department of the Paris Police. M Bertillon. the celebrated inventor of the system of identifying criminals by means of fingermarks, having made a public statement that the gentleman burglar has no actual existence, has, in the following article, fully developed his theory for the benefit of readers of this Magazine. The result is a most interesting article from the greatest living expert on the subject, throwing a strong light on the methods not only of the criminal but of the detective. obliged to rectify. The opportunity is a good one for correcting a few other erroneous but popular beliefs about the world's thieves and \" crooks,\" who constitute a very ex- clusive social group, to which, with rare exceptions, only those are admitted who have proved themselves worthy of the privilege. Novelists write glibly about this confra- ternity of rogues, but they know it only on the surface. Either they invent their pretended facts or they borrow them. When they borrow, it is from the alleged \" memoirs \" of famous detectives, which are invariably publishers' \" fakes.\" The honest seeker after the truth will not learn much from occasional visits to the saloons and dens frequented by thieves. His appearance is the signal for a dead silence, followed by a general departure. The detective is, as a rule, much more friendly and communicative. Proud of his role as a protector of society, it flatters his

466 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. vanity to exaggerate, otten to a grotesque degree, the intelligence and multiple capacities of the quarry that he is hunting, of the criminal who is his real partner in this game of hide and seek. The true psychology of the detective has yet to be elucidated. You have little idea how modest they are when they talk amongst themselves. Modern scientific methods help them to unravel certain difficult problems which would have bewildered them some years ago, but what the police all the world over has mainly to rely on is paid information. In the United States, to judge from the promises of rewards which reach us daily, the system of paying for information is practised openly. Here in France if is carefully dis- guised. Now, the detective's chief business is to provoke talk, and then to test its sincerity. It is in conversations, cleverly and carefully prompted, with a certain class of people that he is most likely to find the clue he WHERE THE FINGER-PRINTS ARE STORED. The Service of Judicial Identity at the Parit Prefecture of Police, where more than half a million identificalion-cardi are kept. Fi om a Photograph. r is searching for. When he thinks that he is on the track of a conclusive revelation, what he next has to do is to test the good faith and the accuracy of his informant. The people whose loquaciousness is most precious to him are domestic servants. Give me the detective who has a special talent for worming himself, without exciting suspicion, into the con- fidence of a caretaker, an under-valet, or a chambermaid, and I will make you a present of Sherlock Holmes. The detective rarely has anything like the knowledge popularly attributed to him of the antecedents of the criminal he is tracking down. False names and disguises help to mystify him, and it is only when the arrest has been made and the prisoner has passed through our Anthropometric Department that his true identity and the record of his previous condemnations are made clear. Now, I have in my department—the Service of Judicial Identity — at the Paris Prefecture of Police more than half a million identification-cards, both of French citizens and of foreigners, which have been laboriously collected for twenty years past. And I can certify this : amongst them there are very few gentlemen by birth—so few indeed that I practically have the history of each one of them at my fingers' ends. And among these ex-gentle- men never have I come across one single professional burglar. The reason is simple. When a man of good birth covets his neighbour's goods, his first thoughts do not fly to the use of the \" jimmy.\" He takes up shady finance, which is likely to be more

DOES \"RAFFLES\" EXIST? 467 But you ask me : What about the degene- rate gentlemen who fall from the upper social ranks to which they belong, after losing everything they possess through the influence of gambling, women, and drink ? They never become thieves in the professional sense of the term. Either they profit by bitter experience or are reclaimed by their friends when half-way on the road to ruin, or they go on sinking lower and lower until they reach a depth of degradation which it is almost impossible to conceive. gentlemen. Misery and abjection have anni- hilated all ambition, all shame, and all will- power. They have no resistance left. The discipline and the uniform of a prison or an asylum may revive in them, for the time being at any rate, the shadow of former decent habits and correct manners, but nothing else will. There is a third type : the man of good birth, clever, active, but profoundly immoral, who has squandered his last cent in a life of dissipation and debauchery, and is ready to V EXAMPLES OF \"GENTLEMEN\" CRIMINALS. The one on the left all meant of cunning devices. a foreign nobleman who hat sunk to absolute beesary ■ the one on the riflht is a crook who catches his prey by rices. It wi.l be noticed that neither of these types ever becomes a buratar in the ordinary sense of the word. From PhoOfgraph*. Never shall I forget the shock that I ex- perienced when my professional duties first brought me into contact with a human ship- wreck of this description. A poor wretch, covered with nameless rags — this is what had become, in little less than fifteen years, Baron L. de B., a man of first-class education, and, what is more, of brilliant gifts, for he had passed with the highest distinction through the Ecole des Beaux Arts (the Fine Arts School), and had been awarded the most coveted of all prizes open to French art students, the Prix de Rome. The habitual vagabond, sprung from the people, never sinks so low as this. He main- tains a certain mastery over himself. Per- haps the unwonted caprice may seize him to do a day's work. In view of such an eventu- ality he is always provided with a little pocket \" necessary,\" containing a piece of soap, a brush and comb, needles and thread, so that if need be he can present a fairly decent appearance before a possible employer. Not so with the \" hoboes \" who have once been adopt any expedient which will help to main- tain him in his social position. Here is an example drawn from the gay circles of the smartest Parisian society. Count Georges de C. belongs to one of the most aristocratic families in France, whose ancestors are famous for having founded one of our oldest colonies. He was first brought under my professional notice in connection with a crime, provoked by jealousy, of which he came very near to being the victim. His inherited fortune had already been dissipated. He was handsome, with perfect manners, and

468 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. that the Count had been accused of cheating at cards. His two sisters with their titled husbands, all of them as smart and good- looking as himself, constituted a glittering centre of attraction to every moneyed \" mug \" anxious for social introductions who crossed their path. There was not a shady trick which they did not successfully practise. They sold old pictures and jewellery, they placed bogus mining shares, and acted as betting and matrimonial agents. It was this last-named expedient, a marriage affair, conducted with less than their ordinary prudence, which brought them within the clutch of the criminal law. Some poor ninny in their own rank of life had been induced by false pretences to advance money on the prospective dowry of a rich girl who had never had the least intention of marrying him. The victim had even supplied funds for the purchase of engagement presents, which the Count had pocketed. The penalty was not a very severe one—not nearly severe enough—but it sufficed to rid a certain society of the De C.'s. Do not imagine, however, that this gang will now be driven to commit burglaries. They will do nothing so foolish. A simple change of name, and they will seek further dupes in a social circle a little less elevated than that which they have hitherto robbed, and where they will not be recognized. What we police officials notice in a general way is that crime increases in proportion as its legal repression becomes less severe and the public feeling of reprobation diminishes. Moreover, each new development of civiliza- tion brings in its trail a novel form of crime. Take, for instance, the vast new palace hotels, the network of which, spread practically over the entire globe, is an innovation of recent years. The immediate result has been the spontaneous creation of a new type of thief —the rats d'hotel, as we call them—\" hotel rats.\" In view of their relative insignificance, I should hesitate to refer to them, were it not for the fact that many good people have declared them to be creatures of imagination invented by the police. Their modus operandi, which is always the same, consists in introducing themselves into first-plass hotels in the character of ordi- nary travellers, or more often still as domestics, and sometimes, when they hunt in couples, as master and servant. Having carefull studied the situation of the bedrooms and the system of locks employed, they select their prey. False keys are made and fitted, or an accomplice first saws the screws of the locks level with the door. Then in the dead of night the \" hotel rat,\" having enveloped his head with a black veil so as to be invisible when slinking along the corridors, and with his face hidden by a black velvet mask, creeps on all fours into his victim's room and rifles clothes and trunks of the valuables that they contain. The \" hotel rat's \" greatest triumph has been the invention of the ouistiti. In the

DOES \"RAFFLES\" EXIST? 469 in maintaining, in spite of the clearest evidence to the contrary, that no common rogue could have robbed him. In the first instance a man and a woman entered the jeweller's store and asked to be shown some high-priced gems. They left without buying anything, and as soon as they were gone the jeweller discovered the loss of a valuable ruby ring and a splendid sapphire brooch set with brilliants. What had happened ? The salesman whose special duty it was to exercise a discreet watch over new customers had noticed nothing. Then a little incident was remembered which tended to throw a light upon the mys- tery. Just as the lady was handed the ring to examine, the yelling of a dog, which was appa- rently being throttled, was heard coming from the street outside. There was a man on the side-walk, in the uniform of a porter, holding two dogs in leash. No doubt these were the pets of ladies who were doing their bar- gaining in some neighbouring establishment, and they had been entrusted to hiscare. Thesilly fellow had allowed the leads to get tangled up, and the dogs were having a desperate set- to. One was a poodle, the other a big Pomeranian. The poodle was evidently get- ting the worst of it. \" Oh, the poor little thing ! \" exclaimed the tender-hearted lady in the store, putting the ring down upon the counter; \" do go to its rescue, one of you men ! \" The attention of everybody in the store had been momentarily attracted to the agonizing scene. This was the thieves' opportunity. The \" porter\" in charge of the two dogs was, of course, an accomplice. This is the 1 as if by magi Here In the other case a couple, giving the names of the Comte and Comtesse de W., hired an apartment in a fashionable hotel near the Opera quarter, which happened to have two exits. The \" Comte\" visited F.'s famous jewellery store in the Place Vendome, and,

47° THE STRAND MAGAZINE. PR A DO-A type of the educated criminal—a robber and a murderer. SOMI CRIMINAL TYPES From Photograph*. that the two men were ex-valets and that one of the female accomplices had been a lady's maid and the other a dressmaker's mannequin, while all .had been in prison times out of number for similar thefts, merely sufficed to convince the victimized jewellers against their will. Rather than admit their own PRANZINI-Robber «nd lack of perspicacity or acknowledge nurderer. a representative .1 V _ j r cosmoDol.tan adventurer. the negligence and stupidity of their employes, they will continue to maintain among their friends and col- leagues in the trade that the rogues who caught them napping must undoubtedly have belonged to the highest circles of society. This sa isfies their amour-propre, and may calm the apprehensions of their financial backers, should they happen to be trading with borrowed capital. So the foolish legend of the gentleman thief is fostered and propagated. But the cruel limelight of the Anthro- pometric Department promptly chases away these aristocratic illusions. There it is discovered that the \" gentleman burglar \" and his lady accomplice are not content with rifling hotel bedrooms and thieving from a jeweller's stock, but they consistently cheat the poor washerwoman of her lawful due. Doubtless you have never heard of \" Monsieur Bob.\" Well, long before police dogs were invented a jeweller whose store was in the Palais Royal had trained a little poodle to perform very useful detective work. Less sure of his own judgment than some of his colleagues, he placed absolute faith in the pet's power of scent. It is unnecessary to insist upon the details. Suffice it to say that when a new customer entered the store Monsieur Bob had a sniff at his boots. No patent leather, however new, was proof against this canine inquisition. A sharp yelp, and Monsieur Bob's master was made privately aware of the personal habits of the \" aristocrat \" with whom he was dealing. There remains to be considered a special type of criminal ruffian who, without any pretence to an exalted social origin, or even elegance of manners, often possesses both enterprise and courage. Pranzini, guillo- tined in Paris some1 years ago for robbing and murdering a demi-mondaine, was thoroughly representative of this class of cosmopolitan adventurer—rastaquoueres, as the Parisians call them. Pranzini was born in Alexandria, of Italian parents, and \"was merely an EMU E HENRY, burglar and dynamiter, who, though

DOES \"RAFFLES\" EXIST? 471 interpreter by profession, but his success in feminine circles was amazing. Incredible as it may seem, the police, after his arrest, acting with the consent of the judicial autho- rities, handed back to a young Canadian lady, who moved in the best society and was of irreproachable character, an amorous corre- spondence which she had carried on with Pranzini, every line of which displayed an infatuation, combined with an ignorance of the world, which simply took one's breath away. As one of the rare exceptions to which every rule is subject, I will cite Prado, who, like Pranzini, was both a robber and a murderer, but was infinitely superior to him from the point of view of education. In fact, his intellectual attainments were nothing less than amazing. The accompanying photo- graph of him without collar or cravat, which I took an hour after his arrest—a most diffi- cult one—gives no idea of what his appearance must have been when free. The fierce eloquence of his defence before the Assize Court disturbed the equanimity even of the lawyers who were prosecuting him, and left an ineffaceable impression on the memory of those who heard it. In spite of all his efforts, and by very reason of the surprise occasioned by his transcendent talent, the verdict was against him. The proofs of his crime were overwhelming, and, the greater the gifts that Nature had endowed him with, the more guilty and the more dangerous to society did he seem to be. His real origin has always remained a mystery. It was widely believed that he was the natural son of the President of a South American Republic. However that may have been, it is undoubtedly among those who have been bora and brought up on Fortune's out- skirts, who as children have received a first- class education, followed, perhaps, on the .brink of manhood by an unjustifiable abandon- ment on the part of their natural protectors, that the type might be found of the gentleman criminal so dear to our novelists, a type we have searched for in vain in our judicial archives. How did the \" gentleman burglar \" come to be invented ? To answer this question we must go back to the period of social upheaval which, at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, accompanied and followed the great French Revolution. During the terrible civil wars which then prevailed in France bands of ruffians traversed the country under the command of real noblemen, who, on the pretext of combating the Republic, com- Vol. xlvL—eo. mitted the most atrocious crimes. Then, in the general confusion caused by the abdica- tion of Napoleon, a most singular impostor arose. An escaped convict, named Cognard, famous even to this day, having murdered one of Napoleon's generals, Comte de Sainte- Heldne, and stolen his family papers, succeeded in impersonating his victim, installed himself

PERPLEXITIES. ^/ltL Some Easy Puzzles for Beginners. By Henry E. Dudeney. 160.—THE BARRELS OF HONEY. A rich but honest merchant of Bagdad bequeathed all his possessions to his three sons in equal shares. The only difficulty that arose was over the stock of honey. There were twenty- one barrels. The instruc- tions were that not only should every son receive an equal quan- tity of honey, but should re- ceive exactly the same number of barrels, and that no honey should be transferred from barrel to barrel, on account of waste. Now, as seven of these barrels were full of honey, seven were half full, and seven were empty, this was found to be quite a puzzle, especially as each brother objected to taking more than four barrels of the same description—full, half full, or empty. How was the property fairly divided ? 161. —PAINTING THE LAMP-POSTS. Tim Murphy and Pat Donovan were engaged by the local authorities to paint the lamp-posts in a certain street. Tim, who was an early riser, arrived first on the job, and had painted three on the south side when Pat turned up and pointed out that Tim's contract was for the north side. So Tim started afresh on the north side and Pat continued on the south. When Pat had finished his side he went across the street and painted six posts for Tim, and then the job was finished. As there was an equal number of lamp-posts on each side of the street, the simple question is : Which man painted the more lamp-posts, and just how many more ? 162. —THE LUNATIC STAMP-LICKER. The case of Habakkuk Carey, formerly of Camden Town, now of Colney Hatch, is not without its pathetic side. A very little thing will upset the balance of some alleged minds, 3th Quart eT and in Habak- kuk's case it was his in- surance card. Those words, \" Fifth Quar- ter,\" settled his business. He experi- mented in innumer a b 1 e ways, but could not find a fifth quarter anywhere. In dissecting an apple he found that he could divide the rare and refreshing fruit into four quarters, but the fifth always eluded him. He called it \" x,\" and said it was a thing mathematicians were always trying to find, and by George he would find it. He sought assistance. The Post Office referred him to the Insurance Commissioners, who sent him to the approved societies, who sent him elsewhere. After he had left home for an indefinite period they found he had divided his card into two squares by a thick line, as shown in our illustration, and, as he had a supply of 2$d., 3d.,

ANY years ago there lived in a large town a shoemaker and his wife, Hanna, with their little son, Jacob. The shoe- maker did not earn enough to support his family, so Hanna helped out by growing vege- tables and fruit, in a small garden just outside the city gates. These she sold in the market- place. Little Jacob, who was ten years old, helped his mother and attracted customers by calling the wares in a sweet, clear treble. Everyone in the market-place liked the handsome boy, and his mother was exceedingly proud of him. One fine morning Hanna and Jacob had gone to market as usual. It was quite early, and no one had yet bought anything, when Hanna saw the strangest old woman she had ever beheld come crossing the market. Her face was all furrowed and shrivelled with age, and her neck was so thin that it could scarcely support her head, which kept wagging from side to side. The old woman's eyes were red, and, midway between them, was a nose so long that it overhung her chin. But, A Fairy Tale, Retold from the German by W. J. L. KIEHL. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. queerest of all, was the way she moved along ; it was not walking or hopping, but a sort of gliding, rolling movement, as if she had wheels under her legs instead of feet. Imagine Hanna's fright when this vision of ugliness stopped in front of her market-stall and began thrusting her spidery hands into the basket of rare herbs that Jacob had just arranged so daintily. For a long time she poked about in it, taking out bunch after bunch of fragrant herbs, crushing them in her brown fingers and holding them to her long nose. At last the old woman shook her head : \" Bad stuff, bad stuff,\" she muttered, as she threw everything back into the basket again. \" The herb I'm looking for isn't there; it's bad stuff, bad stuff.\" Then indignation overcame little Jacob. \" What! \" he cried, \" first you crush and spoil our greens and hold them to your dis- gusting long nose until no one who has seen it will buy them, and then you call our wares bad.\" The hag leered at the bold boy in her unpleasant way. \" So you admire my big nose, sonny ? Well, well, you shall have one like it ! \" Then she hobbled over to a basket of cabbages, which she took up one by one, crushing them between her hands, then she threw them all back again. By this time Jacob's blood was up and he jeered at her: \" Take care that your great head does not break off your spindle neck, if you wag your head so, for it might fall among our cabbages, and who would want to buy them then ? \"

474 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. At this she fixed him with her red eyes. \" So you don't like my neck, sonny ? Well, well, you sha'n't have any neck at all. The head shall sit firmly between the high shoulders so that the big head can't fall from the little body ! \" \" Don't talk such nonsense to the child,\" said Hanna, \" but, if you really intend to buy anything, please make haste, for you are driving away all my other customers.\" \" All right,\" said the hag, \" I'll take the basket of cabbages, then ; but I cannot carry the heavy basket. Won't you let your son take it home for me ? I'll reward him well, I'll reward him well.\" Hanna at once consented, but Jacob reluctantly picked up the basket of cabbages and followed the dame. It was a long, long walk to the farthest and most deserted part of the town. There, in a mean, winding alley, the woman stopped before a ramshackle old dwelling, which they entered. But what was Jacob's astonish- ment to find the inside a great contrast to the outside ; they were in a large hall, with walls and ceiling of marble, and furniture of ebony inlaid with gold and precious stones. The floor was of clear glass, and so slippery that the boy fell down two or three times before he got used to it. Meanwhile the old woman took a whistle from her pocket and blew a few notes on it. Instantly a crowd of little guinea-pigs came tripping down the staircase, walking on their hind-legs, on which they wore shoes of walnut shells. They were dressed just like men and women in the fashion of the day. They hurried up to their mistress, who waved her stick at them. \" Lazy servants ! lazy servants ! \" she shouted. \" Why don't you bring me my slippers ? Must I wait here all day ? \" Away scampered the guinea-pigs, and at once returned with a pair of cocoa-nut shells, highly polished and lined with the finest leather. In these they encased the old woman's feet. As soon as she had her slippers on all difficulty of movement ceased ; she threw away her staff and, taking Jacob by the hand, glided easily over the polished floor. through doorways, through numberless other splendid rooms with polished floors, until she came to the kitchen. She pushed Jacob into a sofa-corner and placed a table in front of him. \" There ! \" she said. \" Now you can rest a bit, for you will be tired after our long walk. To reward you for your trouble I'll prepare you some nice soup, a soup you will remember

THE DWARF NOSEY. 475 have everything you so admired in me. But a good cook you shall become, that at least I promise you.\" Never in his life had Jacob tasted anything half so delicious as this soup. He ate and ate until not a drop was left in his plate. Then drowsiness overcame him and he sank into a deep slumber. And he dreamed, so he thought, a strange dream ! He dreamt that the old hag transformed him into a squirrel, and he was taught all sorts of menial work. For a whole year he was shoe- polisher to the establishment. The next year's work was more difficult, for he had to polish the glass floors. When the fourth year was past, so Jacob dreamt, he was promoted to do kitchen work. There he served from scullery-boy upwards until he was the most proficient pastrycook in the world. When he had been with the old woman seven years, so he dreamed, she came into the kitchen one day and told him to roast her a chicken golden brown and stuff it with savoury herbs, to be ready by the time she should return home. Jacob went into the storeroom for the herbs, and there, to his surprise, saw a cup- board he had never seen before. It contained baskets of herbs that emitted a strong, pleasant odour which reminded him of the fragrance of the soup the old woman had pre- pared for him. He opened one of the baskets, and saw a herb he had never seen before ; it had blue-green leaves and stalks, and small scarlet flowers with a yellow heart. So strong was the scent of the herb that he had to sneeze; he sneezed, and sneezed, and sneezed so violently that at last he awoke —to find himself in the very sofa-corner in the kitchen where he had fallen asleep. How long he must have slept! He felt quite stiff and uncomfortable, and could scarcely move his head. But what a queer dream he had had ! How his mother would laugh when he told her about it ! His mother ? Yes, indeed, it was high time to run back to her, for she would no doubt be very angry that w he had left her alone so long. So he V got up and began to walk towards the entrance hall. But how drowsy V' he still must be, so he thought, for he kept on hitting his nose against cup- boards and doorposts. When he came out into the street ' the boy stood for some time blink- ing in the sunlight; then he walked quickly through a maze of narrow lanes and streets which were filled with a dense crowd; there seemed to be something amusing to see, for the people shouted to one another,\" Have you seen the funny dwarf ? Do come and look at the queer little dwarf ! \" When he reached the market-place there was no mother and no stall, and he learned, to his great sorrow, that both his parents had died through grief at his mysterious

47& THE STRAND MAGAZINE. that he recruited his cooks from every known country; so he went to the palace to offer his services. What a commotion the appear- ance of the funny little man created ! The stable-boys left their horses, the carpet- beaters their carpets, and all joined in the throng that fol- io w e d Jacob, calling to one another, \"A dwarf! a dwarf! Come and see the strange dwarf!\" When the Lord Intendant saw Jacob he almost burst out laughing, but just managed to control himself, for fear of im- pairing his dig- nity. With his whip he drove away the ser- vants and, coming down the steps, he took the dwarf by the hand and led him to his own room. There he took a good look at him. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined a more curious specimen of the human race. He must certainly try to secure this curiosity for the Duke. \" They tell me you are inquir- ing for the Lord Kitchen- master, but surely that must be a mistake; you are want- ing to come to me, the In- tendant of the palace, to offer \"the people your services as chief jester to his Transparency the Duke.\" But Jacob begged very hard to have his way, so the Intendant took him to the apart- ments of the Lord Kitchenmaster. Here Jacob pleaded his cause so eloquently, and prayed so earnestly to be allowed to make at least one trial, that at last the Kitchen- master gave way, so, followed by Jacob, he passed into the kitchen. \" What has his Transparency commanded for breakfast this morning ? \" demanded the Lord High Kitchenmaster. \" Your Nobleness,\" replied the chief break- fast-maker, \" our Duke has been graciously pleased to command the Danish soup, with red Hamburg dumplings.\" \" Do you hear ? \" said the Lord High Kitchenmaster, turning to Jacob. \" Can you prepare those

THE DWARF NOSEY. 477 single thing ; and that about the herb Magen- trost we did not even know ourselves.\" He gave orders that everything he required should be given to the dwarf, and two chairs supporting a slab of marble were placed before the table. Standing upon this platform, Jacob began his experiment. When all the ingredients were well mixed together, the pots were placed over the fire, and Jacob began counting; when he had counted up to five hundred he called \" Stop ! \" and ordered the dishes to be removed from the stove. A delicious odour filled the kitchen as the covers were lifted, and Jacob invited the Lord High Kitchenmaster to come and taste them. \" Splendid ! \" he cried. \" Splendid ! \" as he closed his eyes in rapture and smacked his lips. \" All honour to your art, chief break- fast maker, but this surpasses anything you ever made.\" In their turn the Lord Intendant of the palace and the chief breakfast-maker tasted of the dishes, and found them wonderfully good. Just then they were interrupted by a ducal chamberlain, who came to say that his Transparency demanded his breakfast. The soup and dumplings, served upon golden dishes, were taken upstairs. Shortly afterwards a messenger came from the Duke bidding the Lord High Kitchen- master come to him at once; so he put on his festal robes and went to the Duke's breakfast-room. The Duke was a man of portly presence. He had just finished every drop and every morsel in the dishes and was in the act of wiping his mouth, when the Lord High Kitchenmaster entered. In high good humour he called to him: \" Tell me at once who prepared my breakfast this morning, for I want to send that cook a handful of ducats. Never as long as I have sat on the throne of my fathers have I had such a delightful breakfast.\" \" Your Transparency,\" answered the Lord High Kitchenmaster, \" that is a strange story \"—and then he told him all about the queer little dwarf and his wonderful cooking. \" Bring him here instantly,\" exclaimed the Duke. Then Jacob was sent for, and when he appeared, and bowed so low that his great nose touched the floor, his Transparency laughed so immoderately that his whole fat body shook. \" You must stay with me,\" at last he managed to say. \" You shall have the position of special Court cook to my own Transparent person, and every morning you must yourself prepare my breakfast, for I always want to have such a good one as this morning. Your further duties will be to superintend the preparing of all my meals. I will pay you fifty ducats a month, you shall have your own private apartments, and as many fine clothes as you want.\" In token of his respectful acceptance of this ducal grace the dwarf prostrated himself

his broad back, and turned homeward. There it struck him as peculiar that only two of the geese cackled loudly, as healthy geese always do, but that the third goose did nothing but sigh, almost like a human being. So he thought, \" That goose must be ill.\" But what was his astonishment when the goose groaned aloud and lamented her fate. \" Who would have thought that I, Mimi, the only daughter of the great magician, Wetterbock, should find my death as a goose in some obscure kitchen ! \" But Nosey comforted her. \" Don't you be afraid, Miss Goose,\" he cried; \" I know better than to kill a rare bird like you. I will tell you what: I will take you with me now to my own apartments, where I will build you a comfortable little hutch, take you for a walk in the palace garden every- day ; then as soon as there is an opportunity I will let you escape.\" Mimi agreed to this, and soon she was installed in a nice little hutch of her own. All his free time Nosey spent with her, and they told one another their adventures. As Mimi had been enchanted, while away from home, by a wicked witch who was on bad terms with her father, she could sympathize with Jacob's troubles. At this time it happened that the reigning Prince of a neighbouring country came to visit the Duke. This Prince was just as fond of good eating as was the Duke, and there was considerable rivalry between the two Courts as to which had the best cooks. A few days before the guest was expected the Duke sent for Nosey. \" Now the time has come to show your whole art,\" he said. \" I want to astonish my rival with the richness and variety of my viands. During the whole fortnight of his stay you must never serve the same dish twice.\" Nosey promised to do his best, and when the guest came he prepared the first mea) entirely with his own hands. The foreign Prince had never tasted anything so delicious, but he was far too jealous to admit it. Unlike the Duke, the Prince was a spare, yellow dyspeptic, who could consume quantities of food without putting on any flesh. He grew greener with jealousy the longer he stayed, and at last he could bear it no longer. He pretended to be greatly delighted with everything, and requested the Duke to call the

THE DWARF NOSEY. 479 cook who prepared all those wonderful dishes. When the dwarf was presented to him he complimented him highly on his cookery. \" But,\" he added, \" how is it that in all those ten days I've been here you have never sent to table the pasty ' Souzeraine,' that is so aptly named the queen of all pasties ? \" Nosey had never even heard the name of that dish before, but he gathered all his courage together, and answered : \" Oh, Prince, I hoped that your Highness would deign to let the light of your countenance shine upon us for many days to come, so I reserved the queen of pasties to bring to table a.5 a speedwell on the day before your journey.\" \" And for me, you rogue! I expect you waited until I should take my last journey on earth,\" interrupted the Duke, laughing gaily. \" But to- morrow you must prepare this Souzeraine, and take good care it is to my guest's taste; for if not I'll have that big head of yours chopped off.\" Nosey promised that all should be as the Duke had commanded, but when he left the banqueting - hall he gave way to despair, for he did not know how to make it. When the goose saw his sorrow, she came up to him and asked why he was weeping. When he had told her she said, \" If that is all, I can most likely help you ; for the Souzeraine was one of my father's most favourite dishes, and I know something of how it is made. Perhaps there may be one or two little things I don't remember, but that Prince won't be such a connoisseur as to notice a small omission.\" Then she told him what ingredients he had to use, and how it had to be made. - Early next morning Nosey set about his task, using all his skill. It really looked splendid when it came out of the oven, so Nosey decked it with garlands of flowers and sent it to the ducal table. Then he put on his festal robes and entered the banqueting- hall. The Duke was just taking a big bite. \" Ha ! by the beards of my forefathers, this is indeed a glorious pie ! No wonder it Vol. xlvi.—61. is called the queen of pasties ! \" he cried, in ecstasy. But his guest smiled acidly when he had tasted a little morsel, and pushed his plate aside. \" I thought as much,\" he murmured, under his breath ; then aloud : \" It is not so badly done,\" he said, condescendingly ; \" but it is not quite, quite the Souzeraine.\"

480 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. So Nosey with his goose entered the garden and walked swiftly to a grove of chestnut tree ; near the lake, and the goose began her search. Suddenly she dug her bill deep among the grass and weeds, and plucked something which she brought in triumph to Jacob. It was a plant with blue-green leaves and stalks, bearing small scarlet flowers with a yellow heart! Jacob recognized it at once. \" This is the very herb I found in the secret cupboard ! \" he cried, joyfully. \" It is the herb Sneezewell,\" said Mimi ; \" there are quantities of it here, so let us pick as much of it as we can.\" But she advised Jacob to wait befon making the experiment whether a good sniff at the flowers would change him back to his former self again until they should have returned to his rooms; \" for,\" she said, \" then you can gather your belongings together, and it will be much easier to escape from the palace.\" So they gathered a large bunch of Sneezewell and returned. Once in his rooms the dwarf locked his doors; then he took the bunch of herbs in his hands and pressed it close to his face, inhaling the strong per- fume with deep- drawn breaths. Ha! what a twitching and creaking he felt all over ! He had to sneeze violently ; once, twee, and thrice he sneezed, and with every sneeze the goose saw him grow in stature, saw his great nose shrink, his back and chest flatten out, and his neck show up above his s h o u 1 d e rs. With the last sneeze he had regained his shape and coun- tenance, the only difference being that he had grown to the size he would have attained under ordinary condi- tions,, and that his face had \"HE HAD ONLY TO WAVE HIS WAND THREE TIMES OVER HER HEAD TO SEE HIS DAUGHTER RESTORED TO HIM IN '. ALL HER FORMER LOVELINESS.\" grown more manly, as the face of a youth of eighteen ought to be. Jacob—who was now \"Dwarf Nosey\" no longer—stepped in front of a looking-glass and—yes, in the features of the youth he could easily recognize the boy of former years.

CURIOSITIES, [ IVe shall be glad to receive Contributions to this sc Hon, and to pay for such as are accepted.'] HINT FOR GARDENERS. IAM sending you a photograph, taken in our garden, of a sunflower which is the largest we have ever seen. When the yellow flower fell off, leaving the white seed disc, I thought how easily it could be converted into a comical face to please some children I had visiting me just then. So 1 made one early one morning in a second or two with pen and ink, and was rewarded, when the children went out and discovered Mr. Sun smiling on the world at large. Two of the children thought it was a natural growth !—Mrs. W. Keith Banner, Thirteenth Avenue, Norwood, Penn- sylvania, U.S.A. A SCULPTURED MERMAID. THIS graceful bronze statue, representing Hans Andersen's \" Little Mermaid,\" was recently erected at the entrance to the harbour of Copenhagen. The figure is seated on a huge boulder, as though she had just emerged from the sea, and the effect, as may be imagined, is both pretty and original.—Mr. K. P. Nors, 19, St. Ann's Road, Brixton, S.W. NATURE AS SCULPTOR. HERE is a photograph of \" Old Man Rock,\" situated on the road through Mitchell's Pass, leading to the village of Ceres, Cape Province, South Africa. This is a genuine freak of Nature, nothing in any way having been done to the rock to accentuate the likeness to an old Bushman evidently enjoying life.—Mr. E. Rossouw, Holm Lea, Wellington, Cap* Province, South Africa. STRANGE FIND IN A NEST. WHILE the Way and Works departments men were destroying sparrows'and starlings' nests in the new extension shed at Parkeston Quay, G.E.R., they came across, on the top of a column about thirty feet high, a sparrow's nest containing two eggs and an old toy celluloid hen of small dimensions. The sparrow had undoubtedly carried it there while building the nest, as it was very light.—Mr. P. G. Branch, 7, George Street, Harwich, Essex.

THE STRAND MAGAZINE. WHERE ROYALTIES ARE MEASURED. THE stone column shown in this photograph is one of the greatest historical relics of Denmark. It dates back to the time of King Canute, and stands in the Cathe- dral of Roskilde. near Copenhagen, where all the Danish kings are buried. In the course of time] it became customary for all the reigning Danish mon- arclis to have them- selves and their most notable Royal guests measured against the \" Column of Kings,\" as it is called, and the mark and date carved in the stone. In 1716 Czar Peter the Great was measured on the column, and up to the present no other Royalty has been able to beat his immense height of six feet eight inches. Amongst other names and measures engraved on the column the following are the most interesting : King Christian X., of Denmark, who is the tallest prince in Europe—his measurement is given as six feet four inches, coming very near to that of Czar Peter ; King Christian IX. of Denmark, father of Queen Alexandra, five feet ten inches; King George of Greece, five feet nine inches ; King Edward VII., five feet six inches ; and King Frederick of Denmark, five feet eight inches. The smallest of all is King Chulalongkorn of Siam. His height is given as five feet three inches.—Mr. K. P. Nors, 19, St. Ann's Road, Brixton, S.W. Essex was deprived of a large addition to its number. Unfortunately the \" pieces \" of the matron snake did not lend themselves to being included in the photo- graph, which is by Mr. F. J. Kelley, of Aveley. AN EXTRAORDINARY HOBBY. THIS illustration shows the last page of what must be a unique book. It is a volume of five hundred pages, carefully bound, whose contents consist of one million dots, arranged in blocks of one thousand each. This extraordinary work was compiled about the middle of the last century by the then writing-master at Merchant Taylors' School, and it is executed entirely by hand. The book was ruled throughout in pencil before the dots were placed in it, and the whole task was the work of many years. The daughter of the author gave it to an old friend after the death of her father as a keepsake and as a memorial of his untiring patience. One cannot help thinking, however, that his time might have been better employed.—Miss Violet M. Methley, 9, Royal York Crescent, Clifton. Bristol. WHAT SNAKES' EGGS LOOK LIKE. MRS. SIMPSON SHAW, of Avciey, Essex, from whose pen there appeared in our pages some months back an informing article on \" The Dandie Dinmont Terrier\" in a symposium entitled \"The Best

THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 463A CANADA FOR THE WELL-TO-DO SETTLER. OME day, it is to be hoped, we shall arrive at a more sensible way of regarding this great Empire than people have at present. Properly speaking, we ought not to re- gard the going to a Dominion overseas as anything more than changing our residence from London to, say, Edinburgh. Though people are more and more awakening to a sense of what the Empire is, we are still a very long way from managing Imperial affairs in a business-like manner. Common sense would seem to tell us that if in one corner of the Empire there was a cry for men to develop the various resources that only await labour to be turned into wealth, and in another there was an overcrowded labour market with consequent lack of employment and poverty, it was the State's business to move some of the population from the crowded area to that in which labour was needed. Perhaps we shall reach this common-sense point of view, but at present we leave Dominions overseas to send agents over here to induce people to go to these new countries. Mr. Obed Smith, the Chief of the Canadian Emigration Office in London, set forth very ably in The Strand Magazine for September his views on the emigration question. His appeal on behalf of his Government is made in the following words :— \" Farmers, farm-labourers, and domestic servants are the only people whom the Canadian Emigration Department advises to go to Canada. All others should have a definite assurance of employment in Canada before leaving home.\" This does not mean that there is not room for others than the agricultural labourer and the domestic servant, though these are the two classes who are supremely needed. Canada needs men who will work with their hands as well as their heads. She has no need of clerks, being quite able to supply her own needs in that respect. But there are scores, nay, hundreds, of fine young men in this country who drift into office work not because they choose that life, but because they cannot see how to do otherwise, and who might with advantage turn their eyes to Canada. Fitted physically for an out-of- doors life, they first rebel against the life in the city and then they give up hoping foi anything else, and settle down without any ambition and without any heart in their work. In that frame of mind they cannot hope to succeed in a calling in which it is given to very few to earn a competence. Many of these make £3 or £4 a week and spend it all foolishly. The life too many of them lead not only saps their manhood but takes away from them the zest that should go with good work and all determination to succeed. To young men whose parents could afford

484A THE STRAND MAGAZINE. It is impossible to travel in Canada and not to be made aware of the fact that there are Englishmen out there who had far better have stayed at home. One does not want to lay too much stress on failures, but one cannot shut one's eyes to the fact that they exist. You hear more about one failure than you do about a hundred successes. The truth is that some men seem unfitted to adapt themselves to new conditions, and others there are who do not know how to work hard. Travelling through Canada, the writer met several Old Countrymen who had done remarkably well, and no one was more distressed than they were to see fellow-country- men earning a bad name for Engli. .imen. On the other hand, you meet in Canada Old Countrymen in all sorts of positions of life who are a credit to the land from which they come. To give an instance in humble life— the writer was riding in Toronto in a tramcar, and when the conductor came to take his fare, the writer, seeing that the man was, obviously, an Old Countryman, for his speech betrayed him, asked him from what part of England he came. He said that he came from Camberwell. He spoke so well and was so free from the faults of the Cockney dialect that the writer's curiosity was aroused, and he asked more questions. The man in reply went on to say that he had been educated in a Council school and that his father had once beon pretty well off. The Council school was, it is to be feared, not so responsible for the good English the young fellow spoke as was his home. He said he had come to Canada to work in some dyeworks. There, after a time, he began to suffer ill-health owing to the fumes, and the doctor told him that he must work in the open air for a time. \" That,\" said the young man, \" is the reason why I am doing this job.\" Asked if he liked the work, he said : \" No, but I shall not be long at this job. When I get better I shall go back to the works. I like this country, and I would not go back to England for worlds. Here there is always work to be got if you are willing to take it* In London work was always very hard to get. They will have to drive me back if ever I go. When you go home again, tell the young chaps over there that this is the country to come to if they want to get on.\" There would be no talk of Englishmen failing if they all had the cheerful grit of this young man from Camberwell. But, as a matter of fact, the failures nowadays are few and the Englishman in Canada is in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases in a thousand a success. Mr. Bruce Walker, the Immigration Commissioner at Winnipeg, told the writer that he had no better settlers through his hands than Englishmen. \" They kick and grumble at first,\" he said, \" but when once they settle down they show an amazing A LAKK-SIDE CAMP.

THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 485 a adaptability. In this respect they are better than the Scots, who are much more easy to please at first. The Englishman mostly begins by asking {or a certain job and insisting, for a time, on that particular job, however out of the way it may be ; while the Scot could not impress too strongly the need to warn them not to buy a farm without first seeing it. The man who buys a farm from an agent in the Old Country without ever having seen the country in which he means to settle, without understanding the conditions of life CASPLRBAUX VALLEY, BACK OK WOLKVILLE, N.S. begins by asking what jobs there are to be had. If a man be wanted to fill a .Methodist pulpit, the Scot is ready to take on the job. But in spite of being hard to please at first, there is no finer settler than the Englishman. He is the best colonizer in the world. The ' old remittance ' man (the man who was in receipt of a quarterly allowance from his family at home, and who had most likely been sent to Canada because he had disgraced himself in some way) who gave Englishmen a bad name in the West is dying out; and you will find that the men who growl most about green Englishmen were themselves green English- men only a few years ago.\" At the beginning of this article mention was made of the young man who could command a little capital and of the opportunities there were for him in Canada. It is to such young men especially that these words are addressed. We hope from time to time to point out to them what these opportunities are. Most young men, discontented with the confined life in the city, turn their eyes to farming. To these a word of warning is necessary. The Hon. J. D. Hazen, Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries, who was formerly- Premier of New Brunswick, in speaking of settlers going into that Province, said that he there, and without ascertaining whether he is paying a fair price for his farm is, in Mr. Hazen's opinion, going out of his way to find trouble. The proper course for a young man who wishes to become a farmer in Canada is to go out with the determination that he will not spend a penny of his capital until he has made himself acquainted with local conditions —and these local conditions vary considerably in the different Provinces. Canada is a very large country, and conditions, naturally, are not uniform throughout it. The sensible course to take is to work for a farmer for a year or so, learn Canadian methods and Canadian conditions, and wait for an opportunity of buying a farm. The Government authorities in the various Provinces will always give advice as to the purchase of a farm and as to the price that ought to be paid for it, and generally help the settler. Farms, of course, vary in price according to size, state of the land, and nearness to the railway, and also according to Provinces. In New Brunswick, for example, a man could make a fair start with a capital of £250—a sum which would not be anything like enough to start fruit-

4 So A THE STRAND MAGAZINE. something to say in future articles about the farming opportunities in each Province. Then there are various kinds of farming. Some settlers are content to raise wheat only, though this kind of farming is being slowly succeeded by mixed farming—that is, farming on lines similar to those prevalent here, keeping stock and growing vegetables, etc. Especially good opportunities are open, too, to the market gardener, and the capital needed is small. What about the climate ? That is a question that is frequently asked by people who picture Canada to themselves as a country perpetually covered in snow. The winters are undoubtedly cold, much colder than they are here. But there is this difference: that in these days,when Canada can be reached in a few days, more people in search of winter sports do not go here for them instead of to Switzerland. The sportsman who chooses Canada for his winter sport will not be disap- pointed. Moreover, he will have the satis- faction of seeing a part of the Empire that is growing more important every year, and if he has any patriotic feelings it ought to please him to feel that he is, by going to Canada, spending his money in the Empire instead of in a foreign country. Switzerland advertises its winter sports extensively, but Canada has always been reticent about the attractions of its winter, from some sort of fear lest too much talk about the winter should keep away settlers. But that feeling is giving way to a PICKING STRAWBERRIES, PICTOU COUNTY, N.S. that although the mean winter temperature in Canada is much lower than the average mean winter temperature here, it is a dry cold and far easier to bear than the damp, foggy cold of England. The air is brisk and invigorating, and winter, so far from being a drawback, is really an asset to Canada. It is quite a mislake to suppose that the winter in the Dominion is a dull, miserable season. On the other hand, in the winter people allow themselves more time for enjoyment than at any other season. Ski-ing, snow- shoeing, skating, tobogganing .and ice-yachting are sports so tempting that winter is looked forward to by many as being the gayest time of the year. Indeed, you can find all the winter sports for which Switzerland is so famous in Canada. It is a thousand pities more sensible view, and the greater intercourse between the Dominion and this country that has taken place in recent years has served to enlighten the public on the matter. It is proposed in these columns to deal with Canada not only from the point of view of the settler and the sportsman, but also from that of the manufacturer. British manufac- turers are not availing themselves of the ever- growing market in Canada to the extent they might, while Americans, who are keen to see where chances exist, are making great head- way in the Canadian market. The Editor of this special feature of The Strand Magazine will be glad to be of