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Show GOSSIPS FROM OLD LONDON London, Nov. 11. The heavy rains which have broken the exceptional drouth which has prevailed this year In England may hae done more dain-age dain-age than gocd, according to reports made by uumorous landlords. Thoy assert that the long drouth has played the part of a long-sus-talncd earthquake with the heavy rains actlug as tho final shake. So severe has been the action on mari.ii buildings that the repair bills will equal the rental for tho next two cars The shrinkage of tho clay and other oth-er subsoils has been so great that In some places whole streeta of housod have developed threatening cracks, drainage systems havo been disorganized disor-ganized and building inspectors are having the busiest times of their ca leers. The damago to the London suburbs su-burbs has been especially severe. Thoro has boon a wholesale subsidence subsi-dence in a number of Herdfordshire Mages, and some of the fineBt old homes in tho clay districts of the Midlands are threatened with destruction. de-struction. Architects and builders attribute at-tribute tho disturbances solely to the shrinkage of the subsoil, which Is much worso on the clay soils which normally hold tho most water. General regret Is felt that Dr. Harvey Har-vey W Wiley, chief of the bureau of chemistry of the United States department de-partment of agriculture was not able to accept the Invitation ot the council of the Puro Food and Health Sociotv of Groat Britain to preside at their national congress to bo held here next March, Dr. Wiley In well known In England both for his advocacy if pure food laws at homo and for his attendance here at numerous congresses con-gresses hold In connection with applied ap-plied choralstry and food adulteration. adultera-tion. It la hoped, at the coming coogress. to formulate practical proposals for tho standardizing of foodstuffs, for the definition of what uro legitimate and Illegitimate manufacturing processes proc-esses for the proper distribution of food for sale, for tho codification of existing laws, and for tho centralization centraliza-tion of the work of Inspection in the local government board. The society will endeavor to present pre-sent a strong legislative program to the government, tho chief feature of which will seek to correct the abuses alleged to have grown up on account of the food and drug Inspectors working work-ing only under local authority. So las havo some of the local authorities become that It is aald the law Is a dead letter In several places. An ago limit and not the length of residence at tho college or university from which they roglotor may soon bo the rule which will regulate tho eligibility eligi-bility of Rhodes scholars for'athlotic teams At present the rule Is that no athlete ath-lete is qualified to gain the coveted uan or iuii niuo uy ropreaeuiiut; vj.-ford vj.-ford on tho playing field, after ho has completed four years' residence. Some Rhodes scholars have already completed com-pleted two or three years at some foreign or colonial Kinlverslty before reaching Oxford and through them lnter-Varslty play tends to develop into a caso of men versus boys. In considering this ovll the authorities at first thought of ruling that In the future tho four-year rulo should apply ap-ply to any university at which tho scholars, were In nttendance, so a Rhodes man, who had been in college three yearB boiore reaching Oxford would only be eligible for ono yoars' play there Owing to the difficulty of determining what constitutes a school of university standing this solution so-lution has been dropped. Tho plan now most favored Is the substitution of an age limit and It Is beljevod that before long a rule will be adopted adopt-ed that no man more than 25 yoars of age may represent cither Oxford or Cambridge This ruling would still give tho Rhodes scholars an advantage of two years over the students matriculating ma-triculating from United Kingdom schools. c Tho new submarine cable telephone which the British postoffice Is laying between this country and Belgium ia said to possess speaking propoitlos markedly superior to any now In existence. ex-istence. Eighteen months ago considerable attention was attracted- to the new Anglo-French cable, which was tho flnst submarine telephone cable to be fitted with what arc known technically tech-nically as "loading" colls. In this cable ca-ble at Intervals ot one nautical mile throughout the who'e lenrth. there are Inserted serios of four colls, two above each other, tho electrical effect of which Is to Increaso tho capacity of the cables by anything from 250 to 270 per cenL This cablo, which has two circuits, w.iB of an experimental character, and so much doubt having been expressed ns to tho feasibility of tho coils, was designed so that tho ''loaded" coils could bo cut out of uso altogether, leaving It an ordinary le'nhopo ra'Oo, So successful Is It, however that the dc'gners of the new Anslo-Eelglan Anslo-Eelglan cable have provided that thp "loaded" coils must bo essential fo-Its fo-Its use. By doing this It baa beon posslblo to roduco the weight of the Insulation from 300 to 150 pouudg per mile, an-1 as gntta-pcrrha Is used exclusively, ex-clusively, a considerable saving ovor tho cost of the Anglo-French cablo will be made. |