NEWS TIT-BITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 15

NEWS TIT-BITS.

A Leeds Napoleon has been arrestod in Waterloo Terrace on a charge of drunkenness. Italy has joined several other European nations in prohibiting the manufacture, importation, and sale ol absinthe. A -twelve mont-iis" supply of tickets for ■the London County Council tramway ea-rs absorbs about two hundred tons of wood pulp. Even the Mormon pastors at Salt Lake City have opened a campaign against the "indecency" of modern dress'for women, which they describe as "abominable." A five-dollar bill was lost In a Montreal court and it was proposed to search the newspapermen and lawyers. Why the newspapermen? asks the "Daily Mail." Counsel for the defendant in a case heard at the London Sessions the other' day asked the jury to remember what an ass his client looked when in tbe dock! "Have you ever bought a business before?"' was a question put to a man at Shoreditch County Court recently. "No," he replied. "This is my first offence." The Marylebone Guardians are at present brooding over a requisition by the workhouse, inmates that in future they may be allowed to have sugar with their porridge. So many young men have emigrated to the United States and Canada that the armies of Austria-Hungary are short oi recruits to the extent of about 100,000. A law has been passed in Philadelphia forbidding the employment of girls undei 21 yifers of age after 9 o'clock at night. The chorus girls in the theatres are not ! worrying. Five thousand investors in Florida have commenced a suit to get their money back. Instead of land, they found, on investigation, that they had purchased aquariums. While LO3 Angelos was celebrating the opening of ts new municipal water sys tern recently, a number of Oregon townt were equally jubilant over the fact that they had gone "dry." -A Chinos-e Christian -has been granted a divorce at >Sin-gapore on the ground that:,'his wife preferred a Heathen Chinee. She eloped with him on the afternoon of her wedding day. It was stated at a Stroud inquest that a man had a birthmark on his chin resembling a bunch or grapes. When grapes were iv season the mark appeared, but at other times of the year it was not ' visible.

Mrs. Grace Foss has died of starvation at Palo Alto. California, after a voluntary fast which lasted sixty-seven days, during which she took nothing but water. The act is attributed to melancholia.

A citiizen of Grasso. France, who w.i 6 supposed to have been buried a year ago, has now turned up alive and well. He circulated his own death -notices in order to escape his creditors, -and -is now being charged with making fa-lse. death declarations.

A Khodesian native herd boy, who said that three lions had seized three of the cows in his charge, pluckily beat them off. He threw his boots at the nearest lion, says "South Africa." and then made a rush for the others with a stick, compelling them to retreat.

When a policeman, in response to an urgent telephone cal\ was sent hurrying io a house in Pitt--burg recently," litfound that his services were required by Robert Nortou, aged live, who requested him to arrest his nurse on a charge ot having administered an unearned spanking. Red garments, especially underwear, form the best cure for laziness, according to a. statement made by Dr. Albert Abra-ms, of San Francisco, at the annual meeting hi Chicago of the American Association ifor the Study of Spondylothe.rapy. A red woollen nightshirt stores up a day's energy for the wearer: and a red undervest. or even a red chest protector, will banish "the tired feeling." Although she is only 19. the bride-elect of Mr. Albt. Ensell, a professional weight-lifter and the son of a Birmingham licensed victualler, turns the scale at 40st ,11b. Her name is Nellie Lambert, and she is a great grand-daughter of Mr. Daniel Lambert, whose weight was 52st 111b. She bus a waist line of "ft 4in. while her arm is 26in in circumference. The prospective, briderrroom weighs between 14=t and lost and stands 6ft high.

James Arthur. a fireman of the Canadian-Pacific liner Monmouth, who was attacked in mid-ocean with severe internal hemorrhage, owes bis life to wireless telegraphy. The Monmouth carries no surgeon, and her commander. Captain Griffiths, securing wireiess communication with tlie Allan liner Hesperian, gave details of tho symptoms :ind received prescriptions daily from the doctor on board the Hesperian. Arthur was well on tbe road to recovery on reaching Montreal.

The prank of a girl named Elizabeth Kingston, who escaped from Pewsey Workhouse, Wilts, disguised as the master's son. had a romantic 6equel at a meeting of the guardians, when a letter was read from a Welsh miner named Brandon, who made an offer of marriage to the girl. "I will take her and her baby, and make her a good husband." he said. "I am in good work, earning good wages in the mine, and do not drink or smoke. If she accepts the offer I will marry her on Christmas morning."

Recently the remarkable case of a man who for many years masqueraded as a prima donna in Hungary, came to light. Tho "lady" was known as "Aronka

Gyongy," but her real name was Stefan Mosci. .Since the age of twelve, Mosci had appeared throughout Hungary as a soubrette and prima donna, and the trick was only discovered at a small town in the 7.0.1 a. district. "Aronka Gyongy"' appeared with her company, and applied for a license to perform. The official was suspicious, however, and had her examined, and it- was then announced that the prima donna was a man. Mosci was arrested.

Pierre Guise. e!even years old, the son of an army captain garrisoned at St. Grieve, has just saved his aunt from having ijier arm amputated. The woman was badly burned on the band some time ago, and the wound refused to heal. The boy overheard the surgeon tell his aunt that the only chance of avoiding amputation was by grafting a new skin on the hand, and the next day he went to his father of his own accord and offered to allow the surgeon to remove the three square inches of skin necessary to heal the wound. Owing to this devotion of the boy to his aunt she has now recovered-