A CURIOSITY IN JOURNALISM.
In the case of such a curiosity in official journalism as the Police Gazette, formerly known as the Hue and Cry, the public will be interested to learn a little more than the newspapers have briefly announced about the changes made in it by government authority. The paper itself, which was commenced shortly after the formation of the metropolitan police force in 1828, is not allowed to circulate beyond constabulary circles; but its efficiency of management unquestionably concerns the general community. Previous to the year 1828, the metropolis, like other centres of population, was under the care of the old parochial Watch, who, as corrupt as they were feeble, became an absolute street nuisance. Far from being a terror to evil-doers, their notorious negligence and inefficiency enabled the midnight burglar or daring footpad to pursue his criminal avocation with comparative impunity. Peel’s Act introduced a greatly improved régime; and the new police, nicknamed after their originator, were for a long time popularly known as ‘Peelers.’ The newly established force required new methods of working, and one of these was the starting of an official newspaper which, though it is perhaps the only one the public never see, has nevertheless often done them good service, and is now to be made of still more value.
It is probably known to few that there exists in connection with the Detective department at Scotland Yard a regular printing establishment, from which sheets are issued four times a day containing information as to persons ‘wanted,’ current offences, property stolen, lost, or found. A daily list of property stolen is also printed, and distributed to all licensed pawnbrokers. Particulars received from country constabulary forces are inserted in these publications, which are carefully read at parades and studied by the detectives. This, however, only applies to the metropolis; and a strong desire has long prevailed at headquarters to make that larger medium of publicity, the Police Gazette, more useful as a means of intercommunication between the whole of the two hundred and ninety police forces of the kingdom. Until the beginning of the present year, that wretched print had shown scarcely any progress or improvement since it was commenced. Its direction has hitherto been nominally in the hands of the chief clerk at Bow Street police court. In the past, much of its space has been wasted by the frequent repetition of details as to trifling cases; and no systematic arrangements were made for the widespread circulation of the paper among those for whom it is specially intended. The editorship has now been committed to Mr Howard Vincent, director of criminal investigations, who will be assisted by Chief-inspector Cutbush of the executive department at Scotland Yard. It is to the initiation of Mr Vincent that the improvements now made are chiefly due; and it may be remembered that in his presidential address to the Repression of Crime Section of the recent Social Congress at Huddersfield, that gentleman explained his intentions. The proposals he made were so favourably received, that subscriptions amounting to nearly one thousand pounds were placed at his disposal. These, however, have not been needed, as it happens that the improvements have been accompanied by an actual reduction of expense; and the Home Secretary has determined that the costs, limited within a certain moderate sum, shall still be borne entirely by the public funds.
In addition to being much better printed, the new Gazette already shows decided improvement both in the selection and arrangement of its contents. For convenient reference, particulars are not only grouped according to the usual categories of crime, but are now classified under special headings for the various districts to which cases belong. Illustrations have also been introduced as a new feature. These take the form of woodcuts from photographs of persons ‘wanted’ on various charges, or of valuable articles stolen. The first number of the Gazette contains the likeness of several criminals of whom the authorities are in pursuit. In one instance, so as to aid identification, the subject is shown not only with beard and moustache, but also as he would appear when clean shaved. Some of these faces, it is true, seem decent and commonplace enough, such as one sees almost every hour of the day in the public streets; but others, ‘an index of all villainy,’ are unmistakably those of dangerous characters whom none of us would like to meet alone in a quiet road on a dark night. But it is in the police album[1] that we can best study the variety of expression by which the human countenance can betray every shade of criminal depravity.
Meantime our business is only with the Gazette, which, among other changes, has altered its days of publication. Hitherto it has been issued three times every week; but now that the space is more carefully utilised, twice a week is found sufficient. The War Office and Admiralty have always had the privilege of inserting in its pages a list and description of deserters from the army and navy. In future, the Tuesday’s issue will be entirely devoted to these matters; and when it is known that last year the total number of deserters was only one short of six thousand, it may be inferred that the weekly list does not leave much space to spare in a small four-page paper. The Friday’s issue extends to eight pages, and is reserved exclusively for police information, with the exception of two pages now set apart by contract for advertising purposes. As far as increased circulation is concerned, arrangements have been made to send supplies of the Gazette not only to every police force in the United Kingdom, but also, through the government offices, to the guardians of the peace in the British colonies and India. From the public generally, the Gazette is withheld.
The early issues of the Gazette, especially between 1829 and 1831, bear significant testimony to the labour disturbances and political excitement which immediately preceded the passing of the great Reform Bill. Every number was then largely occupied with royal proclamations in the cause of order, and offers in Lord Melbourne’s name of government rewards for the arrest of incendiaries and disturbers of the public peace. Again we are on the eve of parliamentary reform, but without any symptoms of rioting; and the improved columns of the Hue and Cry are now left more free for ordinary police information as to the appearance and lawless doings of the ‘incorrigible’ class.
THE MONTH:
SCIENCE AND ARTS.
From the Report issued by the Committee appointed to consider the best way of rebuilding the houses at Casamicciola destroyed in the recent earthquake, we learn that that terrible catastrophe occasioned the deaths of no fewer than two thousand three hundred and thirteen persons, and injury to seven hundred and sixty-two more. Although these unfortunates did not all actually belong to the island, there were among them only fifty-four who could be called foreigners. It will probably be found advisable to rebuild the ruined habitations on the pattern adopted in certain places of Central America, where earthquakes are common. The houses there are built of such light materials, that when a shock comes, they rattle down like a veritable house of cards, and can almost be rattled together again as easily when the danger has for the time passed. In London and some other of our cities and towns, the houses are so shamefully run up that a very mild shock of earthquake would suffice to shake them to pieces.
We are apt to look upon these jerry-built houses as the result of competition and the continual cry for cheap houses. On the other hand, we regard our cathedrals as solid monuments to the more honest work of former times. But this notion must be dispelled. The Peterborough Cathedral architect has been examining the foundations and piers of the tower of that fabric, which it will be remembered he some time ago reported to be in a dangerous condition, and they turn out to be as perfect an example of jerry-building as could be found in our own enlightened times. The piers were found to consist of a thin facing of stone, the interior being filled in with small rubble-stone and sandy earth. He tells us that ‘it is impossible to conceive a worse piece of construction, and it is equally impossible to understand how it is that these piers have stood so long.’ The piers have simply been enabled to hold together by the strength of their exterior clothing. It is some small satisfaction to the modern householder that dishonest building has not been invented for his especial torment, but was practised as long ago as the fourteenth century.
Another far more valuable relic of the past is, as we recently indicated, exciting attention on account of its decaying condition. Westminster Abbey, which may justly be regarded as the most important ecclesiastical building in the kingdom, is wasting away piecemeal under the effects of London smoke and atmospheric agencies generally. The sum required for its restoration is estimated at eighty thousand pounds, and this is probably short of the real amount which will be required to do the work effectually. For such a national purpose, the purse of the nation ought undoubtedly to be responsible.
The complete Report of Professor Hull’s labours, as chief of the little band of scientific explorers who have just returned from a geological survey of Palestine, will be looked forward to with unusual interest, for he brings back with him materials for constructing a far more complete map than has ever before been possible. The ancient sea-margins of the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah have been traced at a height of two hundred feet above their present surfaces—indicating that the Mediterranean and Red Seas have been at one time in natural connection with one another. Professor Hull believes that this was the case at the time of the Exodus. The terraces of the Jordan have also been examined, the most important of these ancient margins being six hundred feet above the present level of the Dead Sea. Besides his scientific Report, the learned Professor is preparing a popular account of his pilgrimage, which will duly appear in the Transactions of the Geological Society. His journeyings will cover much of the same ground traversed nearly fifty years ago by David Roberts, whose drawings of the places visited aroused so much interest at the time, and which have never since been surpassed.
Not very many years ago, a map of Africa presented in its centre a blank space, which was explained to inquiring children as indicating a country so hot that nobody had been there or could live there. This benighted region has now an atlas all to itself. Under the auspices of the Geographical Society, Mr Ravenstein has just completed their map of Eastern Equatorial Africa; it is of large size, and contains altogether twenty-five sheets. He will now commence a similar work for Western Africa, and has proceeded to Portugal in order to take advantage of the materials in the possession of that government bearing upon the subject. This work is also undertaken for and at the expense of the Geographical Society.
The official Report of the late census in British Burmah is not without interest to dwellers in Britain. Only two languages had to be used in the process of enumeration—namely, Burmese and English. The people at first thought that the strange proceedings heralded the advent of a new tax, and one tribe fled across the frontier so as to be out of the way. Another idea that occurred to the people was that the English made use of human heads for inquiring into the future. But these difficulties having been smoothed over, the census was taken satisfactorily. British Burmah is, roughly speaking, of the same area as Great Britain and Ireland, with a population less than that of London. This population, under British rule, has doubled in twenty years, and there is every sign of its continued increase. The males are far in excess of the females, and what seems a very important key to the wonderful prosperity of the country is the fact that there are ten acres of cultivated land for every eight persons living in it.
It is reported that Baron Nordenskïold, whose recent explorations in and around Greenland aroused so much interest in scientific circles, is contemplating a voyage next year to the south polar regions. The cost of the projected expedition is nearly two hundred thousand pounds, but this seemingly large sum will include the expense of building a ship of special construction, to meet the requirements of the explorers.
International courtesies are so very few and far between, that when one occurs it is worthy of the most honourable mention. Many years ago, a band of English Arctic explorers abandoned their ship, the Resolute, for it was hopelessly frozen into the ice-pack. The ship, however, at last floated free, and was taken by an American whaler to New York. The gallant Americans thereupon put the vessel into splendid order, and presented her to Queen Victoria. It was but the other day that the old ship was broken up, when a desk was made from her timbers and presented to the American President. The British government have now presented the Alert, which has also seen Arctic service, to the United States government for the use of the Greeley relief expedition. The ship has long ago been strengthened with teak for protection against the ice, and is thus well fitted for the purpose in view.
The recent experiments at Folkestone once more proved the value of throwing oil on troubled waters, the efficacy of which operation in stormy weather we described last month. In addition to the oil-shell there mentioned, another invention falls to be noticed, by which the same gun from which the oil-shell is discharged may be also employed for projecting a heavy solid cylindrical shot, to which is attached a flexible tubing. Upon firing the gun, the shot is carried a long distance out to sea, pulling the tube after it. The shot sinks to the bottom, and the tube thus anchored can be used with a pump for forcing the oil to any spot in the neighbourhood. This contrivance, like that of the oil-shell, is the invention of Mr Gordon.
The preparations for the International Health Exhibition to be opened in London in May next, proceed very rapidly. The eight water-companies which supply London, and which just now are being so roundly abused on the score of overcharges, will exhibit the various apparatus employed by them for the supply, filtration, &c., of water. They will also combine in erecting an immense fountain in the grounds, the jets of which will be brilliantly illuminated at night by electricity.
An American paper gives an interesting account of the manufacture of ‘Yankee sardines,’ which may be explained to the uninitiated to mean small herrings preserved in oil and flavoured with spices, to imitate the sardines of French preparation. To begin with, the fish are laid in heaps on long tables, where they are rapidly cleaned and decapitated by children. The herrings are then pickled for one hour, to remove a certain tell-tale flavour which they possess, after which they are dried. The next operation is to thoroughly cook them in boiling oil; and finally, they are packed in the familiar square tins, and duly furnished with a French label, such as, ‘Sardines à la Francaise,’ or, ‘A l’huile d’olive.’ The free, or rather the true translation of this latter inscription would be, ‘cotton-seed oil,’ and, sad to say, not always of the first quality.
A paper dealing with an outbreak in a German town of that terrible disease known as trichinosis was recently read before the French Academy of Medicine. It is worthy of attention as going far to prove that this disease, usually contracted by the consumption of unwholesome pork, is avoidable, if the ordinary precaution of thoroughly cooking the food be resorted to. In the case in question, more than three hundred persons were attacked with the disease, and of these nearly one-sixth died. It was proved beyond question that all the victims ate the meat absolutely raw, it being the custom to chop it fine and to spread it like butter on slices of bread. One single family, which consumed some of the same meat in the form of cooked sausages, exhibited no trace of the disease. It may be mentioned that a certain dose of alcohol exercised a most favourable effect in diminishing the virulence of the complaint.
A new system of railway signals which is worked by electricity, instead of by mechanical leverage, has lately been experimented upon with great success, but like most other things of an electrical kind, its ready adoption must depend upon its expense as compared with that of the older-fashioned plant. Hitherto, the ordinary electric magnet has been found unequal to this class of work, principally because its power of attraction is only great when very near the object to be attracted, and also because its impact on its armature is so violent as to lead to risk of deranging the apparatus employed. By use of what is known as the long-pull electro-magnet, recently invented by Mr Stanley Currie, these difficulties have been obviated, and signals of every kind can be worked most perfectly through the medium of conducting wires. The system has been at work for the past two months at Gloucester, and is being adopted experimentally in other directions.
The volcano at Krakatoa will long be remembered, if only on account of the wide area over which its products have been distributed. To say nothing of the dust particles which are supposed to have found their origin there, and which are credited with having been the active cause of our late gorgeous sunsets, undoubted volcanic particles have lately been found at Philadelphia. By melting and evaporating the snow upon which these tiny fragments were found, a residue of solid particles was apparent, which the microscope at once pronounced to be of a volcanic nature. It seems difficult to believe that solid matter could thus be carried in the air for four months, during which it must, if it came from Krakatoa, have covered the enormous distance of ten thousand miles. Another supposition is that the volcanic particles found at Philadelphia may have been wafted thither from Alaska, in the north-west corner of North America, where a great eruption has occurred. According to our authority, a submarine volcano shot up there last summer, and has already formed an island in the Behring Sea, from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high. It is therefore possible that volcanic dust may have found its way, from this source, to the southern states of America, and even to Great Britain. The enormous distances traversed by these glassy particles may be thus accounted for: when steam is forced through a mass of glassy lava, the molten material is shot up with it in the form of thin filaments, just like spun glass. These, like so many pieces of spider web, would be borne aloft by the air for a very long period.
It seems only yesterday that iron furnace slag was looked upon as a waste product, for which no possible use could be found. It is now made into bricks, into cement, into wool-packing for steam-boilers, and more recently it has been found a most effective material for making all kinds of vases and other things of an ornamental nature. For this purpose, the slag is freed of its coarser particles, mixed with a certain quantity of glass and colouring matter, and when in a molten condition, is stirred about so as to present a veined appearance. It is then moulded into various forms, and is ready for sale.
We lately had an opportunity of visiting the Fine Art Loan Exhibition at Cardiff, which has been opened for three months, for the purpose of collecting funds in aid of the projected Cambrian Academy. The Exhibition includes works by some of our most eminent artists, both living and deceased, as well as a collection of such articles as can be grouped under the head of Art. But a novel feature of the Exhibition is its complete array of telephonic and telegraphic apparatus. By the co-operation of the telegraphic authorities, communication has been opened up by telephone between the Exhibition and Swansea, a distance of fifty-two miles. Not only is speech quite easy over this distance, but the voices of those acquainted with one another are readily recognised. At the time of our visit, the apparatus was connected with the theatre at Swansea, and we had the curious experience of listening to chorus, band, and solo voices, which were rendering a popular opera more than half a hundred miles away.
Mr J. C. Robinson, in the course of an interesting article contributed to the Times on the conservation of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pictures, concludes with a recommendation which all owners of valuable oil-paintings should take note of. He strongly advocates the use of glass as a covering for such pictures, and is glad to see that the practice of thus framing them is on the increase. ‘This plan,’ he says, ‘almost entirely obviates the necessity for the periodical rubbing up and cleaning the surface of pictures with the silk handkerchief or cotton-wool, inasmuch as the protecting glass, and not the painted surface of the picture, receives the rapidly accumulating deposit of dust and dirt.’ But even this he considers to be only a half-measure. The back of the picture should be stretched over with a damp-resisting sheet of india-rubber or American cloth, for it requires protection only second to the painted face of the canvas.
In presenting the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Mr A. Common for his wonderful photographs of celestial objects, the President of that honourable body gave a most interesting history of the medallist’s gradual progress in the difficult work in which he so much excels. Mr Common commenced work with a modest reflecting telescope of five and a half inches; but he was not satisfied until he had obtained one measuring no less than three feet across its mirror. He has also turned his earnest attention to the clockwork for driving the instrument, so that as the busy world turns on its axis, the objects focused remain stationary. This is highly necessary, when it is remembered that sometimes a star photograph occupies as much as an hour and a half in the taking, even with the most sensitive plates. This long duration of the action of the feeble light from stars so remote that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, has the effect of impressing the chemical surface so that the invisible is pictured! It is evident that a new field of research is thus opened out; and the President did well in pointing out what great services can be rendered to knowledge by the amateur worker who, like Mr Common, has the means and the ability to employ his time so well.
In these days of oleomargarine, bosch butter, and other mixtures which are supposed to furnish excellent substitutes for the genuine article, it becomes highly necessary to have some means of distinguishing the true from the false. A contribution to microscopical science towards this end is a test discovered by Dr Belfield of Chicago, which will at once identify a fat if it consist either of lard or tallow. Pure lard crystals exhibit thin rhomboidal plates, while those of tallow are quite different, and are of a curved form somewhat resembling the italic letter f.
A paper on the Ventilation of Theatres was lately read by Mr Seddon at the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, London. In some crowded theatres, the air has been said by a competent authority to be more foul than that of the street sewers. The intensely heated air would seem to act as a kind of pump, and to extract the vitiated atmosphere from the drains below the building. The successful introduction of the electric incandescent system of lighting to more than one metropolitan theatre has done much to mitigate the evil complained of; but it is quite certain that the ventilation of public buildings generally does not receive the attention which it so imperatively demands.
Another important consideration that is too often neglected is the acoustic properties of public buildings. Even in the last great work which has, after years of labour, been finished in London—we refer to the new law-courts—complaints are constant from those who have to work in them, of the great difficulty both in making their voices heard and in appreciating what is said by others. Public speakers whose duties carry them to various towns and cities throughout the kingdom, know very well that it is the exception, and not the rule, to find a room which is comfortable to speak in. Either the voice falls dead and flat, as if absorbed by a screen of wool; or it reverberates from every wall with such confusing echoes, that the syllables must be uttered with painful deliberation. A Committee appointed by one of our learned Societies to inquire into the reason why some rooms should be acoustically perfect, while others are quite the reverse, would do a vast amount of good. Until such an inquiry is set on foot, architects will continue to design buildings in which this necessary property is quite neglected.