STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 177, 26 July 1913, Page 17

STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

. DTVAMITE PLANTING CASE. Mr. William Wood, president of the American Woollen Company, who was placed on trial last month, together with Mr. Frederick Atteanx and Mr. Dennis J. Collins, on a charge of conspiracy to plant dynamite in the town of Lawrence during the geuenil strike in January, 1912. was at Rosion on Saturday. June 7, found not guilty. The Jury were unable to agree in the case of Mr. Atteaux, bnt Mr. Collins was found guilty.

AN UNNECESSARY E_OP_M_NT. Mr. Herbert R. Estes and Miss Adeline firitrcan, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, eloped recently and were married at midnight, in the approved fashion of romance. Then they went to the bride's parents and begged for forgiveness. They were told that no forgiveness was needed, as in getting married they had merely fulfilled plans made by their respective families fifteen years before. The bride and bridegroom had been betrothed when tbey were only two and five years old respectively, but their mothers bad Thought it wiser not to reveal their matchmaking plans.

BOMB MADE IN PRISON. At Dannemora. New York State, a man named Reynold Fosbrey, who is undergoing a long lerm of imprisonment, was discovered ou .Inly 6 in hits coll busily manufacturing a bomb. Fosbrey had planner! to blow up the prison and escape iu the cunfnsion to a spot where his sweetheart was waiting for bim with horses and snppUes. The pair would then have made a dash for the C.-wiadion border. Fosbrey, who was secured before he could do any harm, has murdered four men during his career, and is regarded by the police as the most dangerous criminal alive.

ORDEAL BY FIRE.

A woman who recently arrived in Winnipeg from Gallela. accompanied by her husband, is suffering from terrible bnrns. due to her undergoing a superstitions rite known as "the test of fire." Having been, accused of unfaithfulness by her husband. the woman submitted to having her clothes saturated with kerosene oil and then set alight by her hnsbaud. She was persuaded thai, in accordance with am old Galiclan tradition, she would snfTer no injury* if she were innocent. When the unfortunate woman was wrapped in flames her husband became alarmed, and summoned assistance. By the time the (lames were extinguished the womaa was terribly burned.

ri_"l_ YEARS' _AW STTXT. From the land of "hustle"' comes the news of a lawsnit which has teken fifty years to decide. It was an action brought by Mr Charles L. Appleby against the city of New York for damage done to his property by a mob during the Civil War. Settlement has now been reached by a compromise, the plaintiff receiving the amount of his original claim. £1-100, and dropping the demand for interest. When the suii was filed Mr Appleby was a comparatively young man. He is now eighty-eight, and has survived most of the judges and lsiwyers who have been connected with the case Near the close, however, evidence was heard from twelve witnesses, all over seventy years of age, who had seen thc mob wreck the house. S_ EMT £40,000 _* EIGHTEEN

MONTHS. Kansas City's "smart set" can talk of little else than the forthcoming marriage of Miss Norah Chetwynd, the pretty girl wiho, through thc local Press, taught her fellowoitizeus and the United States in general "how to get rid of money against time " Miss Chetwynd is to marry Mr. Harvey. Michaelson, a reputed millionaire, and her friends ask what allowance she is to receive j and how long she will be in getting through the Michaelson millions. Mr. Michaelson is reported to have said that his money will have to be spent some time anyhow, and that no one can be better qualified to spend it than his pretty fiancee, for. but little over eighteen months ago. Norah inherited £40.0UU from her father. The money was not tied up, and in dresses, hats, diamonds, and the lavish entertainment of her friends the fair spendthrift squandered every cent of her fortune within a year and a-half of receiving It.

PARKS FOR COURTING. "The Right of Every Girl to be Courted Cnder Decent Conditions" was one of the subjects discussed on Tth May by the Recreation Congress, ie. session at Richmond, Virginia. "Courting" came np for discussion, in connection with the demand for more open spaces and parks, where, iu addition to providing recreation grounds for children, young couples could do their courting "in God's pure air. and under the blue sky." as one speaker put it. Among the most interesting papers read were "Play for the Tired Brain." by Dr. Richard Cabot, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and "The Possibilities of the Recreation Movement in Lessening Vice," hy Rabbi Leonard Levy, of Pittsburs. Athletic standards for boys and girls and tbe extension of gymnastics and physical drill in thc schools, storytelling for the very young, aud garden classes were also subjects under discussion. A MANIAC'S CRIME. ! A tragic affair, more than usually pathetic , in character, was reported- at great length , in the American newspapers on June 3. Three young children, playing upon the sands at Atlantic City. New Jersey, were captured by a maniac, who bound them and carried them behind a huge rock, where he dug a grave, into which he placed the youngsters, then as they lay prostrate covered them with sand. They were the children of George Walls, a leading politician of Atlantic City. The father he-ird screams, and. proceeding tc . the sands, found they had disappeared, Thc maniac misdirected -him regarcHng thc whereabouts of the children, brrt Walls, suddenly espying a small heap, suspecteo what might have happened, and for ter minutes laboured desperately to remove -th< sand. All the time the maniac strove tc prevent the work of rescue. Finally Walls i who is powerfully buirt, hit the man a hare blow between the eyes, which rendered hilt i momentarily unconscious. I One of the children will probably die, but ! the other two. though seriously injured > show signs of recovery. By the time Wall: > had excavated the apparently lifeless bodies, t the mania,: revalued consciousness, auc • limped away. He was soon caught, and wai . committed to a lunatic asylmn.