Around the Globe

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 19

Around the Globe

A m.in pmployed by a London firm of has worked on the same ni.i-l.in; , for ivi years. Siikp the sijrnnture of the Treaty of Yers.iillp.s a tliousanil Germans have entered Paris, according to the figure furnished by the Prefecture of Tolire. '1 ho only wound Napoleon Bonaparte ever r<"'f-ive.l in battle was at Hatisbon in 1809, tthen lip was struck by a pteiw of shell. The emperor hastily bandaged the wound and paid no further attention to it till the battle was won. The splinter of shell is hmvv in tbe Array Museum in Paris. SINN FEIN HUMOUR. ".loin the R.A.1 , , and see the world." reads a big recruiting poster for tbe Royal Air Fi.rre in Dub,in. And underneath a Sinn l'einer, with an obvious v gift of humour, has added: "Join the 1t.1.C. iKoyal li'i-h Cuusta jularyi. and see the u ;..er world"". WAR BABY SECRET. Violated -by a lierman during the occupation of Lille, a young girl named iSfepretre, who is now only IS. has been arlested for the murder of her child. Its lilrih was kept secret, and she is now a.-' used of having buried the baby in .1 garden. Her father is charged as an aceom-1-iiie. THE POILU'S HEIGHT. The French Ministry of War has recently published n;ures showing that the traditional idea of the French poilu as a little man is quite without foundation. In 1914 the average height of the 255.437 conscripts who presented themselves for service was jft s*iu. There were ISIS of 6ft or over, and U73S over sft Win. Only 1533 men ot as the war went on, this number, of course, increased. WEAVING FOB ETERNITY. Buyers of new suits may well sigh for the days when cloth was spun and woven for eternity. We ("Daily Chronicle") have just seen an overcoat which was "'built" at the 'SI Exhibition, and has been In years' wear left, 'both In cloth and lining. It is tremendously heavy, almost too weighty now for the wearer, who is approaching the days when, an extra ounce becomes a burden; but its cut does not give away its age—sixty-nine years. JUNKERS' IDOX SOLD. The colossal statue of Hindenburg idolised by the public of Berlin, which wa: encouraged to drive nails into it at a pric< m support of war charities, lias been sole to America for exhibition purposes, accord Ing to a special telegram to "i'lntransi geant." The German Government is said to hav< sold it to a private firm which has resolt it to enterprising Americans. German Monarchist circles are horrifiet at this prospect of such an ignominiou: end to the wooden Hindenburg, and questions have been addressed to the Govern meut as to the "measures which it pro poses to take to protect this symbol of i great German epoch." WOMAN AND A MOUSE. St. Thomas' Hospital, London, has Jus treated a patient who told the doctors that she Jiad swallowed a mouse, says tin "Daily Mail." She is 'Mary Watson, o: Lambefi, a young married woman. "I have swallc-wed a mouse and am ver] sick," she said to the doctor who attendee her. She explained that she vr&s asleep al 3 a.m.. with her baby, -when she w>! eawakened by the child moving. "I saw a mouse coming along my breast The mouse slipped into my mouth, befort I could stop it. I always sleep with mj mouth open." It -was thought unnecessary at the hos pital to put the woman under X-rays, ai she was suffering from ordinary elcfcnee only, end she left easier in mind. FATHER'S DRASTIC REMEDY , . Frank Plnano, 17 years'old, lay on a col in the County Hospital serionsly wounded while his father, who shot him "to saT« his soul," awaited anxiously the outcome of the boy's struggle for life, eaya at American paper. The father used his volver to Seep his wayward eon froir crime. "I am not sorry," the elder Pinano tolo lhe police. "Bather than have him hanged er shot I shot him myself. I was always afraid he would turn bandit. My boy was In bad company." The elder Plnano found, his sou on the street in the company of a sang, and aftei a few irords with him tired three bulleti into his 'body. He waited over- the wounded boy until the police -arrived. ■■MONKEY GJJANDS." The discovery by Mr. Julian Huxley regarding the secrets of rejuvenation haa secured unrivalled American publicity for Robert George Laws, a retired London stockbroker, who arrived in Xew Xork recently Jn the Cedric, claiming to be the first person in the world to experience the revivifying elects of "monkey glands." Mr. Laws' 72 yenrs look 40, and he feels— in his own words—like 20. From his pocket Mr. Laws produced for the edification of "he reporters a box containing some capsiles. He explained thai it was quite unnecessary to inject glandular extracts into the spine. A year ago, he taid, he was on what was believed to be his deathbed in Kingston 'Hospital -when a Dr. Paul came in and gave him a box containing a hundred capsules made up ol "'monkey glands." Alter taking them regularly for fifteen days, he said, he got up, end since then he had made a complete "return to the land of youth." EIGHT WEEKS IN ICE. buffering from intense cold, suppliec with insufficient food, for eight weeks locked fast in the Ice, the 165 persons on board the British steamer Prospero have lad a terrible experience. With a crew of aOS and bO passengers, the*vessel was on a voyage from St. John's, New -Brunswick, to St. John's, Newfoundland. "When the I'rospero first got fast in the ice floes, a rescue steamer, in response to signals, endeavoured to reach her, (but without sue out. and the commander of the vessel was driven to the necessity of placing all hands on short -rations. Altogether eight weeks passed -before che ice pack eased its grip The want of the bare necessaries of life later on t>":a.Tie so acute that signals for food bad to "i>e made, with the result that provisions for the suffering people were with great difuculty sent by sledges over the ice to fl? ship. To add to their sufferings snowrtcrms swept over the steamer in quick su«.vesrion, causing intense hardship ironi cold. About the middle of February the See broke up somewhat, and a passage was made through it, which enabled the steamer to rea«h the open *ea anJ make for Port Wellington, New-

NO HOPE FOR THE BALD. Tor selling, at 4/ a bottle, an "infallible remedy" for baldness, pro-red of no value. costs. Expert evidence .was given that no remedy exists for 'baldness. TIGHT WITH P-ATS. At an Inquest at Coventry, on Priscilla 25 years, it was stated that she had probably died of shoct while flsrbtin s rats, which bad bkten her. She was found dead In bed with peculiar wounds on her arm. The tody was left In the house, which was Infested with rate, and next day inure wounds of a similar character were found. PYJAMAS AS SHROUD. Gad in pyjamas, at his own desire, inof Walter Sharpies, an eccentric Darwen contractor, was removed for burial. Pour years before his death foe arranged every detail of the burial obsequies, and took out a cremation certificate. His dying wish was that the Corporation should reopen au old well at Whitehall Park. Darwen, said to possess curious ophthalmic properties. CHILD MURDER CHARGE. Charged at Slough with the murder of her 11-months-old son, Elsie Maud Saunders, 23, married, was said to have suffocated him by inserting paper In the moutlj and nostrils. The woman was found lying in a ditch with her hands and feet tied and her mouth filled with mud. She said she bad been struck by two gipsies who stole her child. The baby was found In a gully 20 yards away. The , woman was remanded. ' ENGLISH STYLES IN U.S. An amusing discussion on the sartorial habits of American officers who auring the war became infected with English Btyles added variety to the proceedings of the House of Representatives at Washington. Mr. Connolly, deploring the adoption ot foreign fashions. Introduced a resolution, which was defeated by 39 to 21 votes, to abolish the title "Under-Secretary of State" and to substitute for it the title "Counsellor." In justifying the motion, Mr. Connolly censured General Pershing. The general - ! trousers are bagged like the English uniform." "He kept his American 'head.' , interposed a member, -but I, too, noticed his tail was very English." THE RUM ISLAND. Jamaica, which the Prince of Wales visited on his way to New Zealand, is generally associated in the minds of Englishmen with rum. It"has a wider claim to distinction than that. It is the largest sions, says the "Daily Chronicle." • The Spaniards were entirely expelled" in 1 1655, and from 1670 the British title t< the island has never been successfully 1 challenged. Only about 2 per cent "of the large population are white, but all grades • of colour are intensely loyal, as when the recent proposal to sell the eolonj to the United States was suggested. Kingston, at which the Renown cailed, was almost destroyed by the great earthquake of 1907, but West Indian buildings, like the vegetwSion, are very resilient, and jlig ' port has long been itself again. GERMAN 'WIFE'S PETITION DISMISSED. ' j Judgment -was delivered recently in London in a divorce suit brought by a youns German wife, Mrs. cWanda Stuart, agalnsl , her husband, Mr. iVyvyan Stuart, his lordship finding that there had been nc misconduct or cruelty toy the husband, and dlsmlsiing her petition. i "When the respondent was called in the i afternoon he denied misconduct with a young lady at a hotel. His wife always refused to have a child by him, saying she wanted to retnrn to Germany, unfettered with & child. ■Hβ did not call her a spj until he fonnd a letter to bis wife, which he considered was absolutely asking foi military Information. Eβ called his wif« a dirty German because she held the Geri mans Justified "in sinking the Lusitanla. She also mid that Cavell, being a spy, got what she deserved. He was prepared to take her back provided he could control her correspondence, and was given the rights of a husband. Cross-examined, he still wanted her back, although he maintained she was a epy. £150 PLANES. 1 "Experiments indicate that it will be possible to construct aeroplanes half the size of the proscne ones "with 2o .horsepower instead of 100 horse-power, whlcb will -be able to carry a pilot and petrol foi five houTS at a speed of 110 miles pel hour," said Mr. F. Handley 'Page, in a recent lecture. "Such a machine," he said, "will eosi from £150 to £200. It would mean a smai machine which can be housed in the coal shed and dragged out on a fine Saturdaj ' afternoon for any destination you choost within a voyage of 500 miles at a cost nt greater than that of running a small motol car." It also meant, he added, that instead oi the big twin engine machine, of 700 and . SOO horse-power, carrying 10 to IS pas sengers, they would have machines of 2CK to 250 horse power, and a l'ylng price com parable with the price of travelling in ai omnibus. (Mr. Handley Page was the man who during the war, constructed the largos' aeroplane.) NOTORIOUS FEMALE CRIMINAL. ' Helen Aileen Sinclair, aged 2S. describeas a nurse, was at Durham Assizes charge .with being a habitual criminal. An Edit burgh detective said she had lived b means ot fraud, posing as a ward in Chat eery, and taking advantage of gentlemet She represented, herself to be a highlj educated lady of high parentage. On on occasion she was nursing an old lady i Edinburgh, and the room in which she wa tending her was set on fire. A hotel nea Edinburgh where she was staying wa gutted by fire. A considerable sum o money was stolen, and traced to the a< cused, though they had not been able t prove she was connected with the fire. Sh represented herself as an IM.A. of Edit burgh, and etole a cap. gown, and hood t attend a convention at Oxford Unlversitj The witness described the accused as th most notorious criminal he had ever com across. She could make doctors or anyon -believe anything, and was utterly vi scrupulous. ■Mr. Justice Bailhaohe said he had neve ■heard a stranger or sadder story. Th accused hai considerable power of fasel nation, and had deceived all kinds o people. - The Jury found her guilty, and she wa sentenced to three years' penal serrltud and five years' preventive detention.