NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

"STORK CLUB." Men of Halstead, Minnesota, believe that fathers do not get enough credit when a baby is born. So they have organised the "Halstead Stork Club."' When a baby arrives the 50 members of the club meet in a hall, make speeches, serve refreshments and present the proud father with the club symbol—a fine baby carriage. ' ' ' i TOO POOR TO WED. Two hundred lovesick maidens of Ycria, Macedonia, are bewailing the tradition of the town that young men must buy their wives. The economic situation in Veria has been bad for a long time, and the youths of the town have l>een compelled to renounce the luxury of getting married, resulting in a surplus of 200 eligible spinsters. Hut in other parts of Greece, the girls complain the girl's dowry secures her a husband, and tliev are agitating for some revision of Veria's customs in this matter.

THE STUDENT GIPSY. A Czechoelovakian gipsy ha« qualified for entrance into the University of Prague. Anthony Daniel, a gipsy from Tisnov, Moravia, has just been given a school-leaving certificate. He is the first gipsy in Czechoslovakia ever to pass this qualifying examination. He studied eight year 9 at the Tisnov secondary school, and whilst there translated the New Testament into the Romany language. At the university he will study law. i LIGHTNING WEALTH. A poor farmer in Brunan, near Prague, has reason to he thankful to a violent storm experienced in the village. An old stone statue standing derelict in his farmyard, which he always laughingly referred to as his mascot, was struck by lightning. Gold, silver, money, jewels, bracelets, rings, goblets incrusted with precious stones, scattered in thousands of pieces as the etatue split asunder. Most of the money bore the date of the sixteenth century, and was doubtless hidden in the statue during the Thirty Years' War. The coat-of-arms on tlie goblets belonged to a Protestant nobleman who was forced to flee the country, and who, no doubt, hoped to retrieve his treasures later. The irony of this hidden wealth is that the back of the statue's head through which the treasure must have been secreted, had fallen out during its journey to the farmer's junk yard, and tho frightened peasants delivering it had pushed in a lump of wood to hide it, thus resealing the vast treasures.

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN PASSING.

IDLING IS ILLEGAL. In some of the Southern States of America loafing is a criminal offence, and police have powers to deal with habitual idlers. They are first warned to get a job, and if they don't they are clapped into gaol as vagrants and made to work there. It is claimed that this prohibition of loafing has succeeded beyond all hopes, but when unemployment is general there will not be jobs to go round, even for those who really want them, and so the gaols and prisons will have to exhibit notices of "full house." "ATLANTIC GRAVEYARD" PONIES. About 200 ponies will shortly be "rescued" from Sable Island, a barren inland off the coast of Nova Scotia and known in shipping circles the world over as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." Descended from full-sized horses shipwrecked on the island many years ago, the ponies have been fighting a losing buttle against starvation and inbreeding throughout the last decade. Arrangements have now been completed with the Dominion Government to find happier homes on the mainland for the ponies. A few will be retained for the use of the Government staff on the island, but the rest of the animals will be transferred to various districts of eastern Canada. WEATHER WEBS. Spiders, according to a well-known Hungarian scientist, are intelligent weather experts. If it is going to rain the spider promptly shortens the long threads which support his web. If it is going to be hot and fine he lengthens them, thus enabling him to iake a sunbathe more easily. Again, if the spider is observed inactive by the side of his web after a shower, it indicates there is much more rain to come. If he is seen busily spinning immediately after a shower there will be no more rain that day. This insect barometer alr<o knows all about the moon. When itjs going to be a bright night he promptly strengthens his web—presumably because there will be more chance food lluttering about at such times. FLAG PROTECTION. Gloves as a pledge of faith were used extensively in the Middle Ages. A king's glove wa« a guarantee of safe conduct through his realm. Flags too, play their part in protecting the subjects of the country they represent. The Union Jack throughout the world is a symbol of the strong safeguard of Britain; and "Old Glory" is an equally powerful protection to American nationals. The only place in the United States over which the American flag is permitted by law to fly each night in times of peace is the grave of Francis Scott Key, in Maryland. The purpose is to make true always the famous line in his song "The StarSpangled Banner," "Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." BIRTHS AT HIGH TIDE. Two scientists at Kiel are trying to solve a problem which, once regarded as superstition, has now been proved a fact—that more people are born at high tide than at any other time. In addition, it is said that giving birth to a child at high tide is much more painful for the mother than at any other time. Nor'does the "tide-birth"' apply only to humans. Peasants in certain districts in the Elbe make special preparations for the arrival of their newlyborn flock at high tides. Having established this one fact, the scientists are still perplexed as to why this should be so, and researches are being made to discover the cause of this curious happening though possibly there is a simple explanation of why more people are born at high than low tides.