STRANGE STORIES PROM THE AMERICAN PAPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 271, 13 November 1909, Page 17

STRANGE STORIES PROM THE AMERICAN PAPERS.

GRAVEJDICUJBBS' fctUMOUB. Galea of laughter that swept the ballroom of tine Hotel A&tor, New York, the other day, made it hard to believe that the National AesooliitioA of Cenieterjr Superintendents was holding its annual obsequies there. There Was a hot debate ovet tiie respeetive'inefits of biirjrhig and cremation, the ole-tiinerfl clinging to the belief that six feet of earfih made a. better resting place th6n ail of en. It developed during the discussion that nine otit of ten mcii cremated are married men. N<s Jfeaeoa was assigned, but in one instance it was recalled that after a man who had been married three times was put on the flre he begged the attendant to close the door, as he felt a draught. POOR WOMAN'S FORTUNE. Mrs Mary C Keudregen, aged eighty, of ■San Francisco, and until recently ah object of charity, has ieft for New York, where she iwill receive property reported to be worth £200,000, left by her husband, whom she had not se°n for half a century. Kehdregen was arrested more than fifty years ago, and placed in the Tombs prison. After hie release he refused to have any' thing to do with his wife diid child, and they soon drifted apart. Kendregen later had their marriage annulled, but, according to Mrs Kendregen's New York attorneys, who notified heir Of the property due Qier, the annulment was illegal, and she Is now to benefit by Kendregen having prospered and accumulated a valuable estate, WITHOUT FUEL IN A GALE. The Canadian Government icebreaker, Earl Grey, on her maiden trip, left Barrow on September 1, and was forced Into Lough ewllly owing to some machinery getting disabled. She then proceeded across the Atlantic, aud intended proceeding through Beile'sle Strait, but found her coal consumption much greater' than had been expected, bo that although earrylug an extra week'e supply, she found herself short of fuel. The vessel was obliged to make for St. John's, burning all her loose woodwork to keep the engines going. On Saturday night, September 18, off Baccalleu lighthouse, the captain sent the mate With a boats-crew ashore to try to procure five tons of coal. A gale arose, and the boat was nimble to return. The mate telegraphed to Pt. John's to send a tug with a supply of fuel. When the tug arrived the hea was too rough to allow the transferring of the coal, so the lug towed the Earl Grey. The. boat's crew tried, after the storm had abated, to reach St. John's aleo, but the boat was damaged, and the crew were rescued when their craft was sinking by a fishing schooner. The Earl Grey suffered sevetely, having her cabins dismantled and her wireless apparatus demolished and one seaman Injured. SAILOR'S LOST BEARINGS. The police of the Wllliameburg district of New York will l»ng remember the visit of Wllllatn Mayhew, able seaman, of H.M.s. Duke of Edinburgh. Mayhew left his ship on the afternoon of September 20, for a holiday ashore, and after wandering about the streets all day, lost his bearings. So at midnight he climbed to the top of a lamp post, with his pine In hie mouth, and authored for the niffht. While he was giving loud expression to •his oplulone of the geography of New York he was discovered by the policeman on the beat, who invited him to descend. Mayhew replied that the view mis better where he was, and When the policeman tried to climb the Uam-p post he was compelled to make a hasty descent.

Two other policemen arrived In reply to a whistle for assistance. Thereupon Mayhew descended, knocked one of them down, and pursued the others With, their fallen comrade's baton.

■Meanwhile the police reserves had been called out, trad a dozen policemen reached the spot to find Mahew more than noldlug hie own. They took him In the rear by skilful tactics, and In a few minutes he lay stunned and handcuffed. As soon as he recovered his senses' he began, despite hie handcuffs, to fight the whole corps, and the fifteen had to elt on his body, Utttfl a patrol Wagon arrived. It was a penitent Mayhew who appeared before the magistrate nest morning. He was profuse In hie epologlee for disturbing the iharmony of the visit Tlie , magistrate gave htm some good odvice, end a stoilldng for his fare, and fifteen sore but admiring policemen watched him depart to his Ship. A veil Is dra-wu over what happened when he reached the cruiser. TYRANNY IN NEW YOBK. It Is questioned by many people whether the United States Customs authorities are legnlly entitled to treat leturnlng tourists from Europe more like pickpockets than respectable American citizens, and slinulta.neou«ly one heara the argument that It Iβ .better for the country to lose a few dollars In revenue than to search women's bodices and men's pockets for contraband. Mr Azecz Khayat, n wealthy American cltUen, according to the "New York Timer," Intends to test at law the alleged lights of the Customs to strip his, family when landing here recently from the White Star liner Adriatic, and treat them as smugglers. After his baggage had been landed nufl exnmtfied, Mi , Khayat .was told that a letter had been received from Collector Loeb, stating that Mrs Khayat and her five children had valuable goods concealed on their persons, and that this smuggling had been carried on for the last five years. Mr Khayat protested, but Mies Mooney and another woman Inspector were instructed to take Mrs Khayat and her children back on board the Adriatic and search them thoroughly. These orders were carried out to the letter, Mr Khayat says, and his wife and her five children were stripped to the skin, but nothing was The husband and father declares that his children became frightened and cried, while their mother, owing to her ill-health, was hysterical at the treatment. The women Inspectors oven made her let down (her long hair to see if she bad any jewels hidden In It, Mr Khayat alleges. Nothing was found, and Mrs Khayat and family were allowed to dress themselves and go, weeping hysterically, back to the pier. There Mr Khayat •was compelled to pay £10 duty on £16 worth of email presents he had brought from Syria as gifts for his friends. It Iβ asserted that the Customs officers declared that, because he was a dealer, he might sell the presents, and therefore must pay duty. .. Mr Khayat Is now suing for damages, and public opinion seems with htm. After the lenient treatment experienced In Europe in passing Customs, and more particularly In England, Americans bltteily resent the hanih treatment at New York, of which the Press has lately published manj lnatancaa,