NEWS CURIOSITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS CURIOSITIES.

JOTTINGS FROM WORLD'S PRESS. A man hung up a pair of trousers in an attic at Adenau, Rhineland. Some time later he -went up to get them and discovered that a pair of wrens had built their nest in one of the pockets. He left the trousers to the wrens. After ten years of involved diplomatic negotiations the United States Government has agreed to pay Norway £ISOO for a cargo of spoiled fisli. The loss was suffered by a Norwegian fishing steamer which was seized as a suspected liquor smuggler in the days of prohibition.

While cattle-dipping was being carried on at a farm near Buluwayo, Southern Rhodesia, it was noticed that a blue wildebeest, or gnu, had joined tlie cattle in the pen, waiting to be dipped. Without any fuss, the gnu entered the dip, jumped out at the far end, cleared a wall and vanished from sight.

A monument to Ulysses has been erected on the rocks of the Nymphs, near the village of Nydri, on tlie island of Leucas. In ancient times the island of Leucas was known as Ithaca, generally regarded as the home of Ulysses. Standing 17ft high, the monument is in the form of an obelisk and is surrounded by a. park. It is visible from the neighbouring islands. An inscription 011 the obelisk in Greek reads, "The monument of Odysseus (Ulysses)—the rock of the Nymph, Homer's Ithaca."

Armed with scissors, the police at Pingliang, Kansu, are stopping all men wearing pigtails and snipping them off. Many "conservative" country folk proud of their pigtails, have ignored the ban placed on these adornments fifteen years ago by the Republican Government. A new official is now trying to enforce the ban. Pigtails first became a vogue in China in the middle of the 17th centurv when the Manchu conquerors forced the Chinese to let their hair grow as a si"ii of submission. They are seen only in remote districts in China now.

A memorial to a water-carrier who lived 100 years ago is to be> erected at Hamburg shortly. He was WilhelM Lenz, whose ambling gait earned him the nickname "Hummel Hummel," which was shouted after him by small boys* Tho words have since been a form of greeting among the Hamburg citizens all over the world, and the words are to be engraved in stone.

"I'll live as long as they maTce whisky and tobacco," said an old tramp, when taken to hospital in Siilt Lake City* U.S.A., after a heart attack. The old man, who gave his age as. .102, was "Colonel"- James A. Handcock. He said that he was born in Scotland in 1834. "I've got six children," he told his nurse. "Two in Australia, two in Glasgow and two in Africa."

Women over sixteen years of age are to be prohibited from wearing "shorts, bathing suits or like apparel" on the streets of Yonkers, New York. Signs to this effect have been posted up- o ne man is responsible for this crusade. He is Alderman William Slater, who last summer personally caused the arrest ot several girl hikers as they passed through Yonkers on their way to New York. An organ which can be suspended from the ceiling and used simultaneously for lighting purposes was a novelty on view at an exhibition of musical instruments at Berlin. The object of _ the "hanging organ," as it is called, is to save space. Its 13S pipes radiate from a circular centrc-piece, and it can he operated either mechanically, electrically or by compressed air. The keyboard can be moved about and used in any position.

Stating that he had driven "well over 2,000,000 miles'' in his life, Mr. 0. Ochs, a motor engineer at Sydney, claims the world's motor mileage record. The previous highest record known in Australia was 1,000,000 miles, covered by an official of an automobile association in the Commonwealth. Since he was 16, Ochs says, he has practically lived in motor vehicles. Much of his mileage was done carrying explosives and supplies to Hi.ll 60 duripg the Great War. Ho has never made an insurance clan" nor had his license endorsed.