STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 16, 18 January 1913, Page 17

STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

JAPANESE LOVE STOBT. The first action for breach of promise that has ever been brought by a man before the higher Courts of the United States has jnst been heard. The plaintiff was a Japanese, and his faithless nnancee came from Dai Nippon. He advanced uer close on 300 dollars in the belief that she would become his bride, and as she has since "wedded another, he claims 5000 dollars as damages. The decision of the Conrt has not yet been given. • DUG HIS OWN GRAVE. Joseph Tnrby, aged seventy-flve, unwittingly dag his own grave near Haakell. Otlahama, and when it was finished fell into it, dead. Turbj and another man started to dig a grave for an old woman who died the day before. They had just finished, and Tnrby. stooping over to gather up his tools, boasted of his physical strength for a man of his age, when he fell dead into the grave. Turby will be buried in the grave that he dog himself. Another grave was dug for the woman. SENATE TO TRY A JUDGE. The Federal Senate at Washington has been convened as a High Court of impeachment to try Judge R. W. Archibald on thirteen charges, constituting alleged '"nigh crimes and misdemeanours," arising ont of

negotiations to sell to railroads certain culm banks at the entrance to coalmines near IScranton, Pennsylvania, -where he livee, while he was serving as head of the Commerce Court, which has to do largely with railway cases. Judge Archibald appeared promptly before the Court, accompanied by counsel. The latter said that the judge would admit the acts complained of, but deny that there was any criminality in them. HOKETMOOIT AFTER 12 TEARS. Three t'mes sentenced to death and once reprieved within a few hours of the execution of the sentence, Albert J. Patrick, the New York lawyer who was convicted 12 years ago for poisoning William M. Rice, a Texas millionaire worth over £1,500,000, was pardoned In. December. Patrick was convicted on the testimony of Rice's valet, who was in league with him to forge a win leaving the residue of the estate to the lawyer. Patrick's wife married him in the Tombs Prison at New York the day before he was first sentenced to death in 1801. The couple have never been alone a single hour since. Sow they Intend to go on their long-de-ferred honeymoon. JUST OF WOMEM. Under a new Kansas law Juries of women may now be empanelled, and one of these juries on Monday, December 1. succeeded in bringing to a close a protracted land dispute with regard to which, a jury of men had failed to agree upon a verdict. During the trial several of the jurors wore their hats. Each drew a fee of 16/. When they retired to consider their verdict they ordered the removal of the spittoons provided for men jurors, devoted a few minutes to prayer, and then engaged in a wordy warfare on the pros and cons of the case. "It seemed as if all twelve of us were talking at once," said one of the Juro:s afterwards. "Bat we were terribly in earner For three days during the hearing we had not spoken a word about the case, so naturally there was a good deal to be said. We paid a great deal of attention to the Court's instructions. Some of the women read the voluminous instructions two or three times." HOMICIDAL MANIAC'S CONFESSION. A full confession by J. Prank Hickey of having committed the murders on October 12, 1911, of Joseph Joseph, a seven-year-oid Lackawanna boy, and on December 12, 1902, of Michael Kruck, a New York newsboy, was made to the District Prosecutor on November 30. The whole horrible story was reduced to a formal statement signed by Hickey. The prisoner attributed Hie crimes to the excessive use of liquor, declaring that when he was drunk he was possessed of an irresistible impulse to kill boys. He expects to pay the penalty of the law. When not drinking, Hickey is said to hare been a competent contractor's foreman. Hia £>"oclivity for writing postcards to tlie police proved his undoing. On one of these, dated from Boston, and nnsigned, he save details of the New York crime, and said: "Three times have I taken life, and twelve times have I tried. I cannot help it." On another card he told the Buffalo police of the Laekawanna murder, and where to find the body of the victim. Both the mnrders were done by strangling. The publication of facsimiles of the postcards led to his Identification, a friend recognising the handwriting. Hickey will be charged with murder in the first degree. MONSTROUS DISPLAY IW A CHURCH. Since the Rev. Mr Ward Beecher, to illustrate the evils of slavery, took a black g*rl into his pulpit and offered her for sale by auction, there has been, says the "Daily Telegraph's" correspondent, no such clerical melodrama in America as was enacted one Sunday night in Minneapolis, when twe chorus girls danced ragtime dances on the platform of thesj)nlplt of the Rev. G. L. Morrill, illustrating his sermon on 'Praise Kirn with the dance."

Most amazing dances were put on tie boards by the chorus girls, and the congregation fairly gasped. No matter how brazen the dance was performed—"tbe turkey trot," tie "crab crawl," tie "tortoise tango," the "jelly wobble," tie "angie-wonn wiggle." the "grizzly," the "seasick glide," the "Boston dip," and various other forms of <t—p— _oi_n monstrosity, 6ome of are still popular in America. Then began Mr Morrill's sermon, which was a long, fervent tirade against rag-time dances of to-day—dances, he said, that would make the devil blush, and which would hardly be tolerated In hell. Mr Morrill asked for legislation to fight the terpsichorean evils, which, he said, originated in low resorts on the Barbary coast, and were now sweeping like a plague over Christendom. 1 "The animal world is libelled," he dei clared. "Mr Bear aud Mrs Turkey were . never guilty of such antics, and doubtless look with surprise and shame at the dances wiich bear their name. Why, even when one goes down street one can almost tell the youths and maidens who attend dances . where these rag-times are popular. Their walk is a mixture of slide and wiggle, and i it is shameful. You may think that as ; long as these Barbary coast dances are done . among good people they are right, but they i have brought damnation to many, and the ; music that causes all these contortions is among the greatest existing evils." s As the chorus girts gyrated, now and then • a com was flipped towards the pulpit, while i the big organ of the church pealed forth ra-gti—n music to accompany the iMotm.