NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 57, 8 March 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

KISS YOUR WIFE. A man who won't kiss his wife is guilty of "neglective cruelty" more deadly than occasional pain inflicted in anger, and 'he should lose his wife. This view was expressed by Judge Joseph Sabath, of Chicago., Mrs. Mary Kenyon was granted a divorce on the ground that her husband had kissed her only once in seven years. FAT MEN BATHE MOST. That fat men are more. attracted by bathing than those of slimmer build may come as a surprise to many people, but statistical authority for this statement is ready to hand. "I would never have believed it possible that so many f-tout men went in for bathing," says an expert 'in "Men's Wear," who points out that while there are thousands more men in the world with 34-36-inch chests than there are with 46 and 48-inch measurements, yet more bathing garments are sold in the larger sizes. ORDEAL BY KILT. Inhabitants of Millport, on the Clyde, watched with amusement a "duel" between Councillor F. B. Freebairn, a publican, and Mr. C. L. B. Davie, a newsagent, who challenged each other to discard trousers for the kilt until the end of February, which is considered the coldest period of the year. The one who capitulates first is to pay £2 2/ to the funds of the local advertising association, but despite the bitterly cold weather neither shows any sign of giving in. SNOBBISH TOWN. A Bournemouth correspondent writes: The town has the name of being snobbish. In conversation with a prominent local pastor, he said he did not know of a town where there was so much snobbishness. Asked the reason, he replied that, having no old associations, the town was made up of people who' came south to retire and live in ease. The working-class was not wanted, and so. to overcome the difficulty, working-class houses were built as far out of the town as possible. It is well known that the Bournemouth housing scheme was confined to the outskirts of Bournemouthout of sight. DOG BUYS HIS OWN LICENSE. When an Airedale terrier walked unaccompanied into Fairlie (Ayrshire) post office the postmaster was surprised to see him place on the counter three halfcrowns from his mouth. The dog then squatted suddenly and with lolling tongue, looked expectantly at the postmaster. The latter, in turn, looked at his intelligent customer very much puzzled, whereat the dog gave a sharp, impatient bark and again squatted. Then it dawned on the postmaster that 7/G was the price of a dog license. This was made out and given to the Airedale, which immediately seized it in his teetli and trotted off home to his master. CHOKING MAN IN 'PLANE. Two airmen, Mr. A. J. Stevens, of Cedar Cottage, Addlestone, and Mr. Ruty Rees, of Brooklands, received critical injuries when the aeroplane in which they were flying nose-dived into a meadow about three miles from Brooklands. When found both men were unconscious and seriously injured. The pilot, Mr. Rees, was. taken out of the wreck suffering from shock, and a fractured wrist. For some time the second man was unnoticed, and but for a piece of his coat being visible he might have succumbed to suffocation. His head was wedged between his knees and the helmet was fixed tightly round his throat. He was on the point of strangulation. The men were taken to hospital. CEMETERY SCENE. Remarkable scenes took place at the funeral at Welford Road cemetery, Leicester, of Mrs. Lilian Ball, of Herrick Road, Leicester, whose body was recovered from the canal. About 300 people, chiefly women, had assembled at the cemetery in spite of the heavy rain, and there was loud booing- as the husband alighted from his carriage. For a few minutes a number of policemen who were on special duty vainly endeavoured to stop the shouting. After . the dead woman's four sisters had entered the chapel at the cemetery, the police closed the door, but not before a dozen or so women had rushed in. After the funeral the crowd followed the husband, but the police prevented a further demonstration. At the inquest on Mrs. Ball her husband admitted that he left her on Christmas Eve after wishing her a merry Christmas and went away for the holidays with another woman.

BLIND MAN WATCHES FOOTBALL

How .0 enjoy a football match although eighties* was described to a press correspondent by Mr. William Laehlan, a young Dairy (Ayrshire) man, who lost his sight and both hands in an explosion fire years ago. The pressman met Mr. Laehlan at, a local match, and as he appeared to be following the run of play as* easily as the ordinary spectator, I asked him how he did it. "I follow the games," he said, "by listening for the thud of the ball on the ground, or of its coming in contact with the players' boots. A still, dry day, when the ground is hard, is the best day for me, as I can" hear every sound on the field, but on any day I can follow the game very well. Anything I may miss I can get from the comments of the spectators around me." The secretary of the local football club said that only on very rare occasions did Mr. Laehlan miss a football match when the local team was playing at home.

ROBOT PAGE BOY.

At a new £1,000,000 hotel to be built on an island site near Mafble Arch the voice of the page boy, going his rounds of the public rooms in search of a guest who has been called on the telephone or by a visitor, will not be heard. Indeed, it seems that the London hotel page boy is doomed. Electric signs will do most of his work at this new hotel. Each one of the 2000 bedrooms will have a bathroom. Even as guide to a guest the page boy will not be needed. Guest and visitor will be safely and reliably led from one part of the hotel to another by automatic directional signs. The maids will be summoned by light signs, instead of by bell. The hotel will have frontages on to Oxford Street, Edgware Road. Bryanston Street, and Great Cumberland Street. It may take neai-lv two years to build, Restaurants and a grocer's store, library, po.st office, and a bank, as veil as clothing and hosiery emergency stores are to be included. It will be the largest hotel in Europe, and as far as possible noise of the outside world will be excluded from it.

— By George McManuj

96 AND NEVER AN ACHE. A reporter recently interviewed a 90-year-old woman who has never had toothache, headache, or rheumatism, and can crack nuts with her teeth, read without glasses, and do her own housework. She is Mrs. Bridgett Mary Richardson, of 14, Day Street, Barnsley. It is not on- her authority that her age is given as 96, "for." she said, "I stopped counting my birthdays a long time ago. I am satisfied now to be alive, without knowing how old I am." Her son, however, said that her age, judged from that of her own relatives, is not less than 95, and is probably 96. FALL STOPS SUICIDE. George Crossfield, 61. an inmate of the City of Westminster Institution, left his bed with the intention of jumping from a window, as he had no relations and no friends. Instead, however, he tripped on some stone stairs, received severe injuries, and died in hospital from pneumonia. This was the evidence given by Dr. Kenneth Waters at the inquest at Chelsea. "The man," he said, "told me with what intention he got oxit of bed. and an attendant told me how he fell." Mr. H. R. Oswald recorded a verdict of death from' pneumonia, accelerated by accidental causes. . BOY WHO RAN AWAY. The school clock was turned back more than 50 years at Thomas Street Central School, Limehouse. -when the old boys held a dinner. The finest old boy of them all was Mr. Ashton Gill, who carries nearly 80 years with wonderful vivacity. He was appointed headmaster in 1886, and five of his pupils of 50 years ago sat at table immediately beside him; Mr. Gill promised one of them a spanking 53 years ago. Hearing what was in store for him the boy ran away from school—and did not return until that evening. His old schoolmaster decided not to administer the thrashing after all. COUNCILLOR BRINGS BABY'S DUMMY. There was an amusing incident at the Cardigan Rural District Council meeting when Mr. Gwendraeth James, the senior member, produced a child's dummy, and, brandishing it before his fellow-council-lors, remarked, "I knew you were going to quarrel again, so I brought this for you to amuse yourselves with." The discussion was concerning a dispute between two farmers about a piece of roadside waste. The chairman, Rev. 0. J. Robinson, was reading extracts from the High* way Act when Mr. James interrupted. The chairman: "Listen, Mr. James, and you will find it interesting." "Yes," retorted Mr. James, "like one of your Sunday sermons." MS. HIDDEN FOR A CENTURY. The manuscript of 150 pages of the unfinished novel, "The Siege of Malta," by Sir Walter Scott, has been sold at the highest price ever paid for a Scott MS. Although the existence of this manuscript has been well known its contents have been hidden. For nearly a century it has been at Abbotsford with the author's descendants. The present owner of Abbotsford, General Walter Maxwell Scott, Sir Walter's great-grandson,' has sold the manuscript to Mr. F. J. Sheed, the publisher, who, before leaving for America last week, left the manuscript in a London bank. Although Mr. Sheed is the head o£ the publishing firm of Sheed and Ward, ha has not apparently made any plans for publishing the MS. TREASURE IN OLD CHEST? Everybody in the district is on the tiptoe of excitement to know what a certain old oak chest contains which has been found in the possession of the Plymstock Parish Council. Is it treasure? The chest has not been opened in living memory, and no one knows what it holds. ' It was passed on to the Parish Council some 40 years ago by another parish authority, probably the churchwardens. The chest is 3ft long by 2ft high and 2ft broad, is strengthened by heavy iron bands, and angle clamps. It is something that would defy the cleverest burglar to open, and was obviously constructed to safeguard very valuable treasure. The council have not yet appointed a day to open it. Up to the present it has been found impossible to get a key to fit the lock. CHILDREN HE HAS NOT SEEN. Arrested on a warrant, Antonio Pecan o (60), an Italian, protested in broken English, "I know nothing of the children, and have never seen them," when he appeared at North London on a strange charge. The man was remanded on bail on a charge of neglecting two children. Mr. Clifford Watts, for the Islington Guardians, explained to Mr. Bertrand Watson, the Magistrate, that the children belonged to a widow, Margaret Walters, who was admitted to the institution with two children in April, 1929. She left during the following month without taking the children, and in August she married Pecano, who keeps a cafe in Church Lane, Commercial Road, London, E. The children are still in the institution. Mr. W. F. Bullen, the prosecuting officer to the Guardians, said after he heard of Mrs. Walters' marriage he communicated with Pecano, and asked him to "remove the chargeability." He had neglected to do so. Pecano said that he had no accommodation for the children.

OLDEST "TOM" IN BRITAIN. Donald MacGregor Erskine, a native of Leuchars, Fifeshire, has thrown out a. challenge to readers of the "Sunday Chronicle," who possess cats. Donald is now celebrating his seventeenth birthday, and claims to be the oldest cat in Great Britain. Donald is a wise cat, a cat of experience. He keeps young by walking twice a week from his home to Leuchars Junction railway station. But, realising that he is an oM fellow and that he must not overdo things, he jumps into a railway compartment for his homeward journey, and does the thing properly. Every tooth in Donald's head has gone, and the butcher, who for the last 12 vears or so has come from St. Andrew's every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, had had to alter his habits accordingly. He used always to carry a lump of beef specially for Donald, but recently vt has become evident that Donald's gums were unequal to the task. The butcher now sets aside a little tee of minced meat for his old friend, who comes to the doorstep as soon as the butcher's whistle is heard outside the village.

LOVE-MAKING SERMONS. Scores of courting couples are speaking and writing their thanks -to the Rev. J. H. Bodgener, the Wesleyan minister of Wallasey, Cheshire, for his series of pulpit addresses on love, courtship and marriage, in place of the usual Scriptural sermon. Mr. Bodgener said: "My church is being crowded by young lovers iff l search of guidance and by parents who wish advice to pass on to their adolescent children. My aim is to raise the sex question to a higher level instead of leaving it in the hands of the novelist and the cinema producer to present a distorted and hectic view of love. The close-up, lingering kiss on the cinema screen has an exciting and demoralising effect on young people; the flirtation in the novelette also is dangerous, showing as it frequently does a young man or girl using the emotional, pleasure of the grand passion in a harmful and degrading way. Let us be frank. It is cleaner than suggestiveness. In my addresses I am being intimate, but I am saying nothing that could bring the blush to a maiden's cheek. What I desire Is a revival of the old romantic presentation of love which, with its chivalry and tenderness, is quite as interesting, and tunning as the baser version depicted by the sex novel and the passionate nlnv