NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

BRANDY BONFIRE. I All entire wood near Aiigoulene, I 1 ranee, I has been destroyed by brandy. More than 2000 gallons of the brandy were being conveyed in a lorry which came into collision with another vehicle at Chadurie, department of Charente, and overturned in a ditch. The brandy <aught lire and burnt the lorry. The flames then spread to the wood, which was completely burnt out. HIS NINETEENTH WIFE. An Egyptian man aged 130 is about to marry again—for the nineteenth time. H;s bride will be a girl of 25. All his other wives are dead, but his 23 children object to his marrying again 011 the grounds that there is a difference of 105 years in the ages of their father and of his bride-to-be. The old man indignantly affirms, however, that he enjoys perfect health and therefore has a right to marry again if he wishes. THE RABBI AND SHYLOCK. On the grounds that the character of J Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" is [ the "foulest slander ever penned by the j hand of genius," Rabbi Irving of the ITackensack Hebrew Institute, New Jersey, is attempting to have the play omitted from the English course at Hackensack High School. As a result, two Jewish students, one of them cast as Shylock, have withdrawn from a school production of the play. SHE CANNOT STOP TALKING. Ruby Poole, a 16-year-old girl who cannot stop talking, is baffling doctors at the hospital at Shreveport, Louisiana. The girl was brought to hospital and has continued to talk ever since. Her father explained that the "talking spell" began after art attack of influenza. Before that, he said, she was a quiet girl. Ruby seemed perfectly rational despite her perpetual chatter. She discussed many subjects intelligently. Her vocabulary impressed her doctors —but they could not stop her talking. At school she was top of her class, and edited the school magazine.

CITY OF BIRTHS. Germany's "richest town in babipo" • tJie title of honour which has Km* bc-stowed 011 Cobur;;, in North Bavarfrf Jhe title was granted in recognition nf the town's increase in the birthrate t 1932 Coburg had 216 births; in 1033 tl number was increased to 401, and in Km to 456'. Last year the number of cliilrlrf! born was 532, and this is hailed as a "increase of 100 per cent in three years nf National Socialism." TRAGIC WIDOW Saw her husband shot dead by unknown assailant . . . was herself accused of his murder . . was then released on the charge being withdrawn. A woman who underwent that grim ordeal only • month or so earlier was recently hit again by tragedy. Her only son died in hospital from injuries received in a motor eyclinz accident. Tragic widow is J Irs. Janet Young, of Crockemioch, Argyllshire. Her son, William Edward, who 'was 25, was buried in his father's grave. Mrs. Young's husband was shot dead last January. She was accused of his murder, but on the eve of her trial, she was released from prison the authorities having dropped the charge' THE MILKY WAY. ' -'A A milky trail across the Atlantic wm left in the wake of the steamer American Farmer, bound from London to New York with a cargo of 117 Guernsey cows. The'' cows were on their way from Guernsey to a farm in New York Stated They had to be milked twice daily. Five hundred gallons of milk a day were thus available for the eight passengers and crew of 6(M about eight gallons per person. At first they were delighted to have fresh milk at sea. Later they gre-T? somewhat .tired of it. At every meal large jugs of cream were 011 the table. Milk was served free iu the ship's bars. Butter and cheese were made. Milk and butter were used wherever " possible in cooking. In spite of every effort quantities of milk remained unused and were dumped overboard each morning.