It is well known that when people have travelled for years in various parts of the world they come across ohi acquaintances in the most unexpected places, but that it is unwise to boast of the multitude of one's friends is demonstrated by a tale I heard a short time ago concerning a Captain i the Indian Army, who said it was impossible for him to travel anywhere with-Out coming across someone he had Known previously. A friend who knew him well bet him £100 that if he would come and spend a week with him on his Lill station he would meet no old chums there. In.all good faith the bet was accepted and the gallant Captain paid his visit. The days passed most pleasantly but beyond the host and his wife and daughters he saw no Englishman of any kind until the day of his departure, when in the booking clerk at the station he saw a lace which to him seemed familiar. With an air of triumph he told the man ho felt sure he had seen him somewhere before. "Yes," replied that individual, "I too seem to remember you. I think we met in the days when Iwas a clerk at Attenborough's."
The Year's Art.
The August bank holiday always marks the closing of the Royal Academy and practically the close of all the summer art exhibitions. I am afraid this season has been a particularly poor one for artists generally so far as sales are concerned though most of the work exhibited has been quite above the average in merit. It is said that modern pictures are not the fashion now-a-day Americans are the best patrons of art for the time being and they profer old masters—as being a better investment. One wonders how half the artists one knows live at all; that some of them have trouble to make ends meet is demonstrated from time to time by sad adver-fisements of forced sales which one hears Mr. Frederick Goodall, R.A., whose death at the advanced age of eighty-one occurred last week, was a man who for many years tasted the sweets of success and lived to know the meaning of the word "adversity," through no fault of his own but simply because the taste of the picture-buying public had changed. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy as far back as 1953, and 1 suppose for many years could command four figures for his more important works, and yet not long ago he was compelled to Sacrifico all his art treasures in order to satisfy his creditors, and his last days were only free from care owing to a grant from the Academy board. Truly, art is a fickle lover to woo nowa-days!
The "Soul" of a Dox.
I suppose few novelists have thrilled and enthralled us more than the author of " King Solomon's Mines" and " She," and it seems that when Mr. Rider Haggard comes to deal with events which happen in real life he is none the less startling. Last week ho contributed a letter to the " Times" in which he told of a most extraordinary dream he had had in connection with a favourite dog of his daughter's, which had been aceidentally killed.
He said that in his dream the dog seemed to be lying by the side of a stream and that he appeared to be trying to tell him that he was in great trouble and needed assistance. On the following momning he made inquiries and discovered that "Bob" was missing and later on it was found that the dog, who had been rabbiting and evidently got tired, had gone tossleep on the railway line and been run over by @ passing train and hurled into a stream close by. Subsequent inquiries went to prove that the accident must have happened at precisely the same time that Mr. Haggard dreamed his dream. Of course the natural question one asks on hearing of such an experience is, docs this prove that a dog possesses a soul? That they certainly possess wonderful powers of reason and memory we all know, and men tell us that memory and reason both belong to our higher organisation and will be carried on by us to our future life—and if we can so store up our knowledge for further use, may not a dog use his in some way also? The subject is one of infinite possibilities, though of course only for speculation. Still the case is worth noting as it is bound to be followed by other "Experiences" of a hike nature. aK
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.