Around the Globe

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 122, 22 May 1920, Page 19

Around the Globe

London's ttteatres, music halls, and __emab number 388. Cleopatra's Needle, the famous obellak >n the Thames Kmbankrient, London, ta. »ne solid piece of stone, 70ft high, and ISA tons In weight. • CZAR'S SISTER. American Red Cross workers report har[ng found the Grand Duchess Olga, sister jf tbe late Czar, living in a railway van -ith a number of other refugees near Novorojsisk, Black Sea..THE ONLY DIFFERENCE. A woman, whoso husband bad deserted her, told the YVillesdcn magistrate tbnt she hrard he was the manager of a provision shop, and was given permission to go' and sec if she could identity him. Tbe man bore the same name as her husband, and was his exact double, except that he had one brown eye and one blue, whereas her husband had two brown eyes. "THE GRAND SECRET." A man with artificial feet, whose body was found In the Thames, near Waterloo Bridge, was Identified as Alfred Dean, 57, nn unemployed labourer. On hi- person was found a piece of paper with the words, "I have tried to get wort, but cannot. Now for the grand secret. Good-bye all." Verdict, suicide during temporary insanity. QUEEN'S LETTERS BURNT. The Hon. Horatio Charlotte Frances Stopford, who was maid of honour to Queen Victoria from 1557 to 1877, and who as bedchamber woman attended the Queen In her liiet illness, left the following instructions In her will:— All my letters from the Queen (Queen Victoria) to be returned unopened If tbe Queen should survive mc, and, if not, to be burnt nnread. The executors state that this latter condition has been carried out. "AS SAFE AS THE BANK." Answering the Official Receiver at her examination in bankruptcy, Mrs. Helen Hunt, widow, of {Birmingham, said she did not keep a banking account. "Where did you keep your money?" •'ln a safe place outside the house, With a f.-Utlrful -friend." "Who was the friend?" "The dog," said Mrs. Hunt. "I used to put the money in a cash box under the kennel, and nobody dared go near the kenBel." "Nearly £.".000 under a dog's kennel?" "Yes," said Mrs. "Hunt. She did not think a bank was safer. ICE A FOFtrXAR DAINTT. Americans eat more ice cream ana similar frozen desserts than the people 01 "any other nation, but the Japanese have them surpassed as eaters of Ice. One or their favourite dishes is small, cakes of Ice broken into tiny, pebbly pieces and. eaten ■with sugar and lemon. The commonest way of eating Ice In Japan, however, is to shave It Into «m>—' flalces and to swallow It with Bweetened water Into which fruit juice or sweetmeats have been thrown.

Ice cream, milk and eggs shaken with, ice and other, kinds of cooling "beverages are sold in an ever Increasing quantity, but the old -style of eating raw ice, in what the Japanese call the korlmizu fashion, is still ii the greatest vogue.

WANTS TO BECOME A FRENCHMAN. A Strasbourg message states that General yon Arnlm, former German Governor of Mets, anxious to become a Frenchman, has applied for naturalisation papers. Ttls act has caused a certain amount of sensation In Germany.' Apparently the General coneider- that, having married Mademoiselle (Elizabeth de Turckheim, very old Alsatian family, Ms elalm has a logical foundation. He is also closely related with, the Beth-nran-Hollweg and (Bismarck families, and with Count yon Donna, notorious for the part he played in the submarine war. It appears that General yon Arnlm is less anxious to feel himself a Frenchman than to keep his property in Lorraine, especially the Chateau de Grignan, near Mctz. HUGE MOULD FOR GUMS. One of the great -Pennsylvania steel companies not long ago manufactured the largest Ingot mould ever seen, says the New York "Tribune." It is octagonal ln shape, 15ft 7in high, with an average inside diameter of 91.1n. The thickness varies from 15 to 20 inches. The mould will be used In casting the 300,00(Kpound steei Ingots from which 16-inch and 18-lnch guns are forged. The Bessemer Iron for the mould "was ■melted in three large open-hearth steel furnaces, and suspended In three ladles over the mould at one time. The molten contents then mingled In a trough or runner so that the Iron -was thoroughly mixed before it entered the mould. It took 340,01)0 pounds of Iron to pour tne casting. After \ the mould was thoroughly cooled' two 110----ton cranes lifted' it from the sand pit. MURDERER'S CENTENARY. A m_n who In his earlier life belonged to a band of brigands, and achieved fame not only by the numerous murders he committed but by his escape from the extreme ' penalty of the law through the failure of the guillotine, has just celebrated his centenary In a home for the aged In Rome. Be is known a? Antonio Ventura. In 1862 he was condemnedi to death toy •Pope Pius IX., and was taken on to the scaffold. Be was placed la position, and the executioner pulled the cord releasing the cutter. The latter, how-ver, suddenly ( stopped on reaching the man's neck, which; was only sligHrtly cut, and the advocate stopped the executioner, explaining- that the law permitted only one attempt to be made to execute the same Individual.

: Ventura remained In prison "for fifty years, an* was released eight years ago.

WEALTHY FISHERMAW.

Tor Its size Grimsby is safcl to be the richest town In __gland, state- toe "Daily Man."

There is a skipper who pays income tax on £10,000 a year. There are deck hands who draw £30, £40, and even £60 for a threw weeks' voyage to the Iceland or Faroe fishing grounds.

Who gets the money? It goes with a bang. There are more taxicabs In this Bttle town than any of Ua size la England, more motor Wcycles and' sidecars. Owners at trawler- buy BJolls-toyce oars—not one, but two at a time. Skippers buy Fords, deck hands boy sidecars.

Grimsby men boast of the money made by the town and the money spent in Its theatres and cinemas. There are two new Picture houses going up and 2000 houses are Wanted.

"I've known a man draw £35 on a Friday nght and come round to 'sub' £5 on a Monday morning," said one Grimsby mas. "When I went to th* war there waa many a man I knew not worth £100, «nd to-day ttsjr are trorth £7000 to £8000.

I Eight years' perfect attendance at Bilsi»orrow school, near Preston, Is the record at Frederick Wright. Of the tobacco consumed In England, eeventy-seven per cent le made Into cigarettes, twenty per cent Is smoked In plpej, and three per cent In cigars. FATHER VAUGHAN'S DIVORCE STORT. 'Father Vaughan, speaking on divorce in London recently, said he remembered a fnnerai hi America when the five mourners had each In turn been the deceased's wife. Lately they were told of a wedding where the four bridesmaids were divorced girls. HUMMING BIRDS AS PETS. Humming birds are now replacing canaries as drawing-room pets in fashionable Parisian homes. Tbe movement started when Professor de Segur, of the French Academy, announced that after months of experiments be had succeeded in solving the problem of feeding tbe exquisite creatures that heretofore have invariably died in captivity. During the past year he bas kept alive a dozen humming Iblrds with unsweetened condensed milk and patent baby foods as substitutes for the nectar of tropical flowers. MUTTON FOR SOAP. Is the glut of imported mutton going to end in the same way as the glut of bacon — In the soap-boilers' vats? asks tbe "Dally ■Mall" of March 16. It Is stated that thousands of carcases are being thus consigned from the London storehouses because tihey have become unfit for food, and one Smith-eld wholesaler bas estimated that the number' of these condemned carcases \of mutton exceeds 70,000 a week. The Meat Department of the Board of Trade declared that the matter had been "very grossly exaggerated." EUROPE'S EMPTY LARDERS. The back-to-the-'land movement Is becoming a live economic issue In France as a result of tbe decreased farm production and the scarcity of lodgings in the cities. The "Matin" prints an article In -which it directs attention to tbe beneficial effects of life on a farm. It asserts that during the war an American opened an athletic school wherein the training consisted chiefly of farm -work. A. professor of Latin, it says, passed two months on this farm, and found the ■work profltaWe, enjoyable, and healthful. It cites that 'France is producing only enough to feed her population 115 days a year, whereas this population must eat 060 days a year. THE TANGO FACE.

The dancing craze is increasing all over Prance. In Paris beauty specialists and doctors are concerned at what they describe .as the "tired tango face." -Many young women in -the (French capital lead bnsy lives afll day of one kind or another, and then spend half the night at .balls or dancing clubs. 'For weeks they cut their sleep to a dangerous minimum, and the effects become visible in faces sallow and wrinkled under the rouge and powder. Eye trouble is a frequent result of this burnins the candle.at both-ends, 'but seldom win the young women -accept the remedy Offered to them, which is .to give up dancing, and have plenty of sleep, and rise early. ,

LABOURER'S "FREE LOVE" IDEAS. For neglecting his four children, John 'Mason, labourer, was sentenced to four months' imprisonment with hard labour at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Mr. D. "8,. Cunningham, Deputy Inspector of Poor, stated that accused was demobilised from the Navy in November, 1916, and got work at Kilbirnle, where, by his "views on "free love," he influenced a girl employee to go away with him. A hostile demonstration against him by the workers accelerated his departure. Mason and the girl were fonnd In Greenock, where they were living together under tbe name of Watson. His wife had been granted relief by Glasgow Parish. COMPANIONSHIP IN DEATH. Superstitions die hard, but it may surprise many to know that the 'barbaric custom of slaughtering a deceased chieftain's retinue that they might accompany 'him beyond the grave is still occasionally followed in London, though only .in a minor degree (says a "Daily Chronicle" writer). Mr. Edward iLovett, In a recent lecture, declared.that he knew of three Instances in recent years where a pet -bird had been killed and placed in a child's coffin. In another case which had come under his notice, an old maid's cat had been killed and buried in the . back garden at the moment of Its mistress' funeral. Mr. Lovett linked these humble examples with the ceremony of leading an officer's charger in his funeral procession, and the custom still. prevalent among gipsies of destroying a chiefs caravan after his death. MEAL-TIME DRILL. Some extraordinary charges against her husband were made by Mrs. Constance Martha Hackett, of Cowley, Oxford, before she was granted a decree nisi on the grounds of bis cruelty, and misconduct. Mrs. "Hackett stated that her husband had - Smashed up four homes; Sold two businesses her people had given to.her, and spent the money in drink; Attacked her twice with a razor; Ordered the children to sit under the table at meals until he was finished, and kicked them when_hey attempted to come •ut;

Locked her in the cellar for two days, and threatened if she screamed to cut her throat;

Threw a salt-callar at her and hit her In the eye:

Introduced a girl, Betsy Boulter, cited as co-respondent, Into the house, and sent his wife to bed. He had, she stated, already served six months' Imprisonment for assaulting her. REFUSED TO COME BACK. Mrs. Mildred Helen Sandys was, on March 16. granted a decree for restitution ot conjugal rights against her husband, Mr. George John Sandys, erstwhile of New Zealand, and formerly M.P. for the Wells Division of Somerset, says our London correspondent. The parties were married in New Zealand in October, 1905, and later resided In Eaton •Square, Mr. Sandys toeing Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1918. Mr Sandys suffered from neurasthenia. and was also wounded in the war, petitioner proceeding abroad to nurse him. In September, OBIT, she returned to England and put her son to school, remaining in England longer than antlctoat'ed on account of the boy's ill-health. When she joined her husband at Nice, :n November. t9IS, he told her to go back, as she had been away from him so long, .and refused to live with her. He had not returned, and In reply to a letter from her asking Mm to come tack wrote: "I tare come to the conch-ton iha* I cannot comply Iwttfc imu MS-at." _ .-_