POPULAR MISCELLANY 



7^7 



love of music especially the drum and the 

 pipe and a sort of rude violin was charac- 

 teristic of the people. There was abundance 

 of big game and the Waganda were capital 

 hunters, and their method of hunting was 

 quaint and original in the extreme. A huge 

 crowd, armed with stout sticks, beat down 

 the high grass level and tracked the leopard 

 or lion to his lair, and, getting him inclosed 

 within a space equal to a good-sized room, 

 literally beat the beast to death, and it 

 rarely happened that anybody was much 

 hurt. 



The Gothenbnrg System. In summariz- 

 ing his conclusions as to the advantages and 

 disadvantages of the Gothenburg or com- 

 pany monopoly system of liquor traffic in 

 operation in Sweden and Norway, Dr. E. R. 

 L. Gould insists that the system was not 

 originated with the idea of stopping the con- 

 sumption of liquors, but to combat drunken- 

 ness and reduce the evils consequent upon 

 inordinate indulgence in alcoholic drinks. It 

 is founded, too, upon the principle that, 

 since, taking human nature and practices as 

 we find them, it is impossible immediately 

 to eradicate the evil completely, it is better 

 to regulate it through the higher rather than 

 the lower elements of the community. Its 

 strength lies along the line of preventive 

 rather than of reformatory elements. Among 

 the advantages named is, first, the complete 

 divorcing of the liquor traffic from politics. 

 Further, the company monopoly has been so 

 administered that a general reduction of the 

 number of licenses has been brought about 

 everywhere, and, consequently, a lessening 

 of the temptation to drink. " It would be a 

 very strange condition of affairs indeed, in 

 any matter of this kind, if, when the element 

 of private gain was entirely eliminated, a re- 

 sulting improvement did not take place." A 

 series of effective checks is imposed against 

 a breach of trust, supposing there may exist 

 an inclination to commit it. The companies 

 have, in some measure, gone beyond the 

 legal requirements in the line of general in- 

 terest, particularly in raising the age of mi- 

 nority from fifteen, where the law puts it, to 

 eighteen, as regards selling drink to young 

 persons, and also in insisting immediately on 

 cash pajnnents. They have gradually raised 

 the price of drinks and reduced their 



strength. In Norway the saloons are closed 

 on Sundays and at those times of day when 

 the workingman is most tempted to drink. 

 All men employed are paid fair fixed salaries, 

 and there is no temptation to push sales. 

 All taxes are paid under the company sys- 

 tem without shuffling. The cause of temper- 

 ance has been assisted financially and other- 

 wise. The profits on sales of drink are 

 expended for the relief of society. No com- 

 munity which has tried the system has after- 

 ward abandoned it. The measure is sup- 

 ported by the temperance party, though 

 many of them would prefer prohibition. 

 The disadvantages are laid mostly to defects 

 in existing law, rather than to faults inherent 

 in the system itself. The monopoly does 

 not extend far enough, but should cover fer- 

 mented drinks ; the limit for retail sales is 

 not fixed high enough ; the sale of liquors is 

 often connected with general business, from 

 which it should be separated ; a monopoly 

 of production by the state does not exist ; 

 the question of profits is still too conspicu- 

 ous ; and, from the temperance view of the 

 case, it is feared that the upper classes of 

 society do not wish to go further than the 

 Gothenburg system. 



Volcanic Rocks in Eastern North Ameri- 

 ca. Mr. George H. Williams has insisted on 

 the presence, in the oldest geological forma- 

 tions, of igneous rocks, disguised, perhaps, 

 under a foliated structure, and has dwelt 

 upon the methods by which their origin may 

 be established. The object of a paper by 

 him on The Distribution of Ancient Volcanic 

 Rocks along the Eastern Border of North 

 America is to show that igneous, and volcanic 

 rocks as well, are widely disti'ibuted through 

 the crystalline belt of eastern North Ameri- 

 ca, and to direct attention to them as offer- 

 ing a new and promising field for work in 

 crystalline geology. His review of the field 

 leads him to the conclusion that this class 

 of material is abundant. It has been identi- 

 fied from Newfoundland to Georgia. For 

 many areas the evidence of surface or vol- 

 canic origin is conclusive, while in many 

 others it is as yet only probable. The areas 

 of these ancient volcanic rocks now known 

 fall roughly in two parallel belts ; of these, 

 the eastern embraces the exposures of New- 

 foundland, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the 



