News from All Quarters

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 19

News from All Quarters

Though only fourteen years old, James Hoskowitz, of Roman Koud, London, E., is 6ft lln ln nejght and weighs ten stone. There are said to be 1-JC.O private houses In Hackney, London, where work is done— usually in kitchens it lhlnp rooms—for large firms, who j:h i' the work out. East Elding (Yorkshire) farmers are proposing tbat the hours of farm workers should be increased afler February 23 from 60 to 55} per week without extra pay. When the Guernsey schooner Cobden was soak In collision lv the llumber recently her skipper, George Henry Hush, of Lynne Regis, had the exporleuce of being shipwrecked for the sixth time. 51. Stefansson announces that he will give up exploring and -devote himself tn development of I ho Arctic country as a path of commercial nir routes. An Arctic route from London to Tokyo would be only two-thirds the length of ono charted from West to lyrist. HIS OWN HANDWRITING. A doctor giving evidence at Edmonton County Court -.vas handed some notes in his own handwriting, which he confessed he conld not rearf: "My secretary can read It very well," he Mia. FIBST NEWSPAPER IN ENGLAND. The first dally newspaper published in Jerusalem ln I-ngllsh 1* the enterprise of an' American woman, Mrs. Catling, who 13 l>oth proprietor and editor. It Is an Independent dally with an Arabic and Hebrew edition as well. Mrs. Gatllng was formerly an American suffrage worker. CROCODILE EATS GIRL. After swimming In the Crocodile River ln the Northern Transvaal, three European girls sat on the bank with their feet ln the water. A crocodile appeared, snatched one of the girl's legs and dragged her down into the river. She reappeared for a moment later, thrusting her hair from her face, and then disappeared. HOSPITAL PATIENT BOILED ALIVE A mole nurse named Gustave Mallart etood his trial in Paris for manslaughter by boiling a patient alive. Mallart, who wae employed in a private hospital in Parts, was instructed to give o. warm bath to a patient named Leport. The patient was placed in a bath with a zinc cover containing a hole for the head to pass through. Mallart turned on the hot water and went »way for twenty minutes. When he returned the patient was dead. BEGAN WORK AT FOUR To have been married for over sixt.v years, to have been a Baptist preacher for •"nearly half a century, and to have rleeu from a humble half-timer to proprietor of a factory employing hundreds of bonds. Is the remarkable record of Mr. William Srhoflelrt. of Lawnswood, Ansdcll. Lytham. who recently celebrated the sis.ty-se?ond anniversary of his wedding. Mr. Schofleld commenced work as a handloom weaver at lie early age of four. He became a half-timer at seven, and a fulltimer at eleven. He told the certifying doctor ho was then two years older, that he might adi* to the family Income, which at that time was less than 9/ a week. XIFE-STORY IN THREE LINES. At an Inquest at Westminster on Harry Robe-rt Humphries Holland. 44. who was round poisoned ln his flat, his valet stated that for the past three weeks he had drunk two large bottles of champagne dally and a bottle of whisky every three days, eating little food. The coroner said letters left by the dead man showed him to be self-centred and neurotic. On a piece of paper he had written : "False position, social, combined with illness. No incentive. 11l health, a rotten marriage, bad luck." It was stated that his wife had divorced him. A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned. LONDON'S CLOCK STIM. UNBEATEN. 6an Francisco has erected a great newtown clock, which, it claims. Is the largest I 5 the world. But the Big Ben clock still holds the record, as will be seen by the following comparisons : — 'Frisco's Timepiece. Big Ben. Minute Hand, lift. 14ft. long. Weight of hand, 2001b. 2241b weight. Dial figures, 2tt Oln. 2ft. The San Francisco clock is electrically operated and automatically set every 24 hours. The London clock Is automatically checked twice a day by Greenwich Observatory. It Is lighted by 2S electric lights of 10,000 candle power in all. The "weights" of the London clock are 2i tons, and the hour bell, which weighs 131 tons, is struck with a 4cwt. hammer. RILLED BY PIECE OF FAT. A remarkable cause was assigned at a Tottenham inquest for the death of Bernard Walter Reeks (22), whose body had been The police surgoon who conducted the post mortem examination stated that deceased had been In the water for about three weeks, but death was not due to drowning, there being no water in th* lungs. The stomach wns distended, and inside was a whole piece of fat beef, which measured 31n by 21n, and several smaller pieces, all of whlrh were undigested. 'He expressed the opinion that the man became faint when by the riverside and fell Into the water. The undigested food hail set up acute cardiac syncope, which was She cause of death. A verdict of "Death by misadventure" fas returned. HISSED TO DEATH. A tragic story of the persecution of an JValian actress by a lover whose advances she had rejected comes from Florence. The Countess di San Fiore, of Padua, under the | name of Lina Murari, has for some time | pest been earnins her living as a singer and [ dancer on the music hall stage. Beautiful l> and popular, the countess hnd hosts of j admirers among the male members of her | audiences, and one man was particularly i' ardent in his professions of affection for her. The countess, however, was unable to reciprocate his love, and rejected his suit, whereupon, in a spirit of revenge, the man ; started a campaign against her. Every 1 time she appeared on the stage the countess ' found herself vigorously hissed, and this bo Preyed upon her mind that, after one mi- 1 usually venomous attack of the kind, which 1 caused considerable commotion in the hall, 1 <*c committed suicide. She was found i dead ln the room she occupied In a small, j hotel in Florence, having swallowed a 1 •trong dose of veronal. 1

A working man who was dealt with by the Lambeth magistrate on a charge of drunkenness had upon him at the time o£ his ai-rest 344 £1 notes. To test how far he travelled during a football match, the referee carried a pedometer In the Yorkshire Rugby Cup flnal at Headlngley. It registered 200 yards short of seven miles. Miss Ann Lucy Nlcklin, daughter of the late Dr. T. Nlckltn, of Foleshill, Warwickshire, died recently m the house In which sue was born and out of wiilch she had never slept a single night. She was 79 years of age, and bad never seen the sea. ETON COLLEGE FEES. In order to prevent sons of rich parents from obtaining free education at Eton King's Scholars, after the next election to scholarships In July, will be required to par £150 a year. Hitherto King's Scholars have been educated free of charge. A small committee will deal with exceptional cases. The fees for the rest of the boys, who arc known as oppidans, are i 230 a year, In addition to an entrance fee of £21. HOUSE WITH SILVER BATH. No. 40, Orosvenor Street, Mayfair. London, the mansion of Sir Edgar Speycr, the banker, was offered for sale not long ngo. but was withdrawn at £24.000. When it was put up at auction in 1920, bidding stopped at £64,000, and the property wa» bought In. Sir Edgar Speyer, who was naturalised in 1892, was found guilty of trading with the Germane during the war, was denaturalised, and his name removed from trie Privy Council. He now ljvee in the United States and does not use his title. This palatial house cost £150,000 to build, and there is a bathroom with marble wall* and a sunk bath of sliver. LUCK IN A GARAGE. A Tonbrldge man about twelve months ago bought for 30/, a Japanese cabinet, which was in a neglected condition. His wife refusing to give it house room, the man placed the cabinet in his garage, and used It as a tool cheat One day, while the husband was out, a motorist, who had had a breakdown, visited the garage and offered the woman £5 for the cabinet, an oiler which she gladly accepted. The stranger motorist, a woll-known writer on antiques, recognised the cabinet as a good specimen of the -work of the most sought after period of Japanese art and. sent it for sale to Christie's, where it fetched 650 guineas. FLAYING MANY PARTS. From his writings one would not gather that Maxim Gorki, the famous Kussian novelist, was a humorist. But some time ago, asked by his publisher to write his own biography, Gorki sent in the following account of his career: "In IS7B I was apprenticed to a shoemaker; in IS7O I was apprenticed to it designer; 1880, scullion on board a packet boat; ISS3, I worked for a baker: 1884, i became a porter; 18So, baker; 18SC, chorister In a troupe of strolling opera players, ISB7, I sold apples in the streets; 188S, I attempted to commit suicide; 1800, copyist in a lawyer's office; IS9I, I crossed Russia on foot; 1802. I was a labourer In the workshops or a railway. In the same year I published my first story." A concise record of a variegated career, at any rate! OPEN MOUTH AND APPENDICITIS. Dr. Pierre Robin, head surgeon of the Children's Hospital of Paris, has found a new cause of appendicitis. He ascribes most cases to the fact that the patient, particularly if a child, sleeps with his mouth open, Instead of breathing through the nose. This causes drooping of the tongue, which lets certain microbes into the body, developing tuberculosis in frail systems as well as chronic enteritis and appendicitis. Dr. Robin has made a report to this effect to the Academy of Medicine and says the remedy is simple, consisting in the frequent examination of children's noses to keep them clear of any possible growths. A FORTUNE IN HIS POCKETS. With no faith In banks, a cab proprietor named Bradford, ..of Idle, In Yorkshire, who has just died, carried most of his fortune about with him. He was 84 at the time of his death, and had amassed a considerable amount of money, but resolutely refused to deposit any of It In a bank. He was known to have large quantities of notes and sovereigns on his person, and when a friendly policeman pointed out the danger of carrying so much money about with him, Bradford produced a couple of revolvers, saying he was prepared to defend himself. When his first wife died Bradford offered his daughter a considerable sum of money If she would remain single and live with him, but the young woman preferred to get married. HONEYMOON TRAGEDY. A strange honeymoon drama. In which a bride who had been married only six days killed her husband and then committed suicide, is puzzling the Paris police. Revolver shots were heard coming from the flat occupied by M. Albert Llebaud and his 20----year-old bride, Germalne Seigneur. The neighbours sent for the police, and when the door was broken down Mme. Llebaud -was found seated In a chair, dressed In her white wedding dress, with her wreath of orange blossom on her head. She was dead, and the wound in her bead showed where the bullet had entered. On the bed, undressed, lay the body of her husband, also with a bullet wound In the bead. Pinned to the coverlet was a note, apparently written by the woman, to the effect that she feared she was going mad. It said:— "I love my husband and I do not want to leave him behind mc. Therefore I am going to shoot him first and then kill myself. It is bett<l for us to die while our love Is sMll young. * COOL MURDERER. With a cigarette between his lips and crying out "Aα Revolr" to his mother as the knife fell, Marius Gounaud was executed in Paris last month for the murder of his uncle, whose body he took in a trunk to the left luggage office at the Gare de Lyon. "Have courage," exclaimed the magistrate who awakened him. "Courage," retorted Gounaud, "I have no need of courage. I am the man of the century." At the gate of the prison Gounaud expressed astonishment that he hnd not been offered the customary cigarette. When given one he lit it. and exclaimed, "And now, some coffee please." As there was no coffee in the prison a warder was dispatched to bring a cup from the nearest cafe. Goanaud had barely been handed the cup before he called for nun. This desire, too, was granted. "Mighty small glasses these," he grumbled, and coolly took four more classes of the liquor. ,