STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 191, 12 August 1911, Page 17

STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

A CARGO OF MILLIONAIRES. The new White Star liner Olympic left New York on Wednesday, June 28, with what Is stated to be the greatest complement of millionaires ever carried by a transAtlantic liner. The newspapers speculated on the total wealth of the 600 odd saloon passengers, and some estimates place the figure at over 300,000,000 dollars. Fifty of these passengers are millionaires and, as may be imagined on such an expensire boat, the large majority of the others are very wealthy. Among the milllionalres may be mentioned Mr Edwin Gould, president of the St. Louis Great Western Railway, and cue of the famous railway king's family; Mr Frank Doubleday, the millionaire publisher and newspaper proprietor; General Charles Miller, one of the Standard Oil magnates; Mr John Morgan, cousin of Mr Merpont Morgan; and Mr Stuyvesant Fish, the famous banker and railway magnate.

AERIAL DAREDEVIL. Fifty thousand people stood spe'lbound on Tuesday, June 27, as they watched one of the most reckless aeroplane flights that has yet been made. Lincoln Beachey. the Callfornian aviator, was the hero of this foolhardy feat. He rose In his aeroplane to a height of 2000 ft over the Niagara Falls, and then descended at a terrific rate until lie was flying only 50ft over the edge of the precipice. Having twice circled the falls, he headed his aeroplane towards the gorge, and to the amazement of the onlookers sank between the rocky walls, at the foot of which boiled the rapids that proved even more than Captain Webb could conquer. Down, down he went, drenched by spray from the falls, until be was only a few feet above the rapids, which he skimmed like a huge white duck. Through the centre arch of the suspension bridge he went at 50 miles an hour, and followed the course of the rapids for a mile and a-half. Then he rose, missing the edge of the gorge by only a few feet, and landed safely on Canadian territory. ROBBED OF £300,000. Mrs Edward Seaman, formerly Miss Nellie Bly, a well known American journalist, has made a highly sensational appeal to the Governor of New York State to investigate an alleged conspiracy by which she asserts she has been defrauded of £300,000.

Before Miss Bly became iMrs Seaman she gained tame, making a dash round the globe for the "New York World." She made the quickest time on record ct that date, and on her return married the millionaire manufacturer Mr Edward Seaman.

When he died he left his wife a very rich woman; but Mrs Seaman now declares that she is nearly penniless, owing to a conspiracy between two Brooklyn banks and the employees of the manufacturing company which she inherited from ner husband.

Mrs Seaman declares that the efflcials of the bank arc to league with her late hus-

(band's employees, and thfct lEhey cash cheques which are forged by the employees, and that this conspiracy has been going on for some years. She says that she Is not a lousiness woman, and that tile accounts which have been rendered her have always appeared •to be correct as far as she can judge. Recently, however, n number of cheques came into her hands wiil-ch she states were forged, and on going Into the matter She found that since her husband's death she lhad been defrauded by this means of practically all her fortune.

BURNING MAN'S PERILOUS EXPERIENCE. Two hundred and fifty feet snore the ground, suspended by a rope that was burning, and his clothing blazing from naphtha and carbon oil, Chris Sinkas, a stack painter, 36 years of age, made his way down, hand under hand, to earth, wilile a crowd of men stood horrified at the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's plant in East Pittsburg on June 30. He held a rope in his left hand to regulate the speed of his descent, at the same time using his right hand in an effort to beat out the names. When Sinkas reached the ground his clothing was almost entirely burned from his body, he was terribly burned about the right hand and arm, chest and face, and bis left bond was raw and bleeding from •being torn by the rope as he .made the swift descent. Sinkas was painting a smokestack, built recently to a new addition to the power house. Before the tar is applied a mixture of carbon oil and naphtha Is applied to the | stack to cut off the rust. Sinkas went to the top of the stack. Before starting to work he lighted a cigarette and tossed the lighted match, he supposed, to -the ground. Instead, the match dropped lettr ■ bucket of naphtha and oil. An Instant later on explosion occurred, and Sinkas, aflame, made hie sensational trip down the burning rope.

HUSBAND'S ASHES LOST. An American widow, who Is so devoted to the memory of her late husband that; she always carries 'his ashes with her, was revealed by a curious mistake at 'the Fittsburg station of the Pennsylvania line. Mjs Mary White, of Chicago, who had 'been spending a holiday with friends at Pittsburg, left her portmanteau at the station cloakroom while she was saying goodbye. At the same time a mechanic named James Robinson, who <waa going -to seek employment at New York, left a similar valise containing his tools at the same station. Robinson was the first to call for his bag, accepted the one handed to him, and started for his twenty-four hours' Journey to New York. Here his quest for work was successful. "But I can't begin," said Robinson; "they've given me the wrong valise at Pittsburg, and my tools ore left behind." An examination of his luggage disclosed j the fact that the valise he had brought contained some woman's wearing apparel and a sealed copper urn, to which was attached J a coffin plate engraved. "George Shires White, died 1910." There was eiso a Civil War medal which liad belonged to Air White. At the same time the stationmogter at i Chicago was telegraphing throughout the Pennsylvania line: "Wanted, a lady's valise containing memorial tagged with the name of White; lady rerr anxious." The bags were exchanged as speedily as possible, and Mrs White explained to the Pennsylvania officials that she was never able to bring herself to inter her husband's ashes after his cremation. «sne kept them with her, and it always kwm as if be himself were still bet compeaueo.