NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

COALS OF FIRE. A Chicago woman, Mrs. Antonette Ruppert, 44 years old, refused to admit, her husband, Otto, when he knocked at tlie door. Instead she called the police. Meanwhile, Otto kicked down the back door, dismantle*! a stove in which a fire burned merrily, and set it up in the backyard. When the police arrived Otto was warming his feet. They took him to the station to cool off. "LEARNING" HIM. A novel "punishment" for people who do not extinguish their lights during civilian anti-air raid drill has been devised in Germany. During a "black°ut" which was ordered in the Giesen district, all the towns and villages were pitch, dark—with one exception. Herr Schmidt, of the small town of Reinhardnhain, had not put out his light. Next day another "black-out" was ordered— especially for Herr Schmidt. He had to go through all the exercises alone, carefully watched by officials of the Air Protection League—and his fellow citizens. PRICE OF A NOSE. The sum of £1000' for a nose is being claimed from & Danish exhibition committee by R. von Liphart-Ratshoff, an Italian count. The nose belonged to the bust of Voltaire by the famous French sculptor, Jean Houdori. It was. to be exhibited at Charlottenborg in Denmark. On arrival at Copenhagen, the lmst was found to, have had its nose knocked off during transit. Count Liphart-Ratshoff thereupon demanded £1000 frbm th« exhibition committee. They refused, to pay arid the claim hks bfeen taken to law.

NINE-YEAR JOURNEY.

| A journey lasting nearly nine years by motor car across vast unmapped tracts of South America has now been completed by three resolute explorers who have reached Houston, Texas, on the way to Washington. The three men are: Leonidas de Olivera, Lopez de la Cruz, and their mechanic, Mario Fava. They left Rio de Janeiro on April 10, 1928, to collect data on a proposed PanAmerican highway. They were commissioned in the task by a Brazilian newspaper.. Since then they have travelled about 15,000 miles, at times menaced by wild beasts, hunger and often journeying for months without seeing another human being. On their journey they Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, 'Nicaragua, -Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico before they entered the United States.

129 MARRIES 37.

( A 129-yeav-pld Turk, Hassan Baba, has just made 37-year-old Fatinia Hanufil his seventh bride. The couple havei set up their home in the village 12 iniles from Kiglia, near Chanak, on the Dardanelles, where Hassan has lived all Lis life.' A<quarter of the village's population consists of sons and daughters of liia earlier marriages, and their descendants. Some of his children are themselves almost centenarians. Physically tit'and mentally alert, Hassan still has perfect eyesight and an excellent appetite. Three times a week he walks 24 miles—the 12 miles to the town of Bigha and back. He used to be a cowherd. Now he is employed by the community to run errands, and it is in the course of this work that h e walks to Digha and back three times a week. He served in the Crimean War—when he was a "voiing man" of 4G or so. He declares that he- owes his health and Ion"life to walking. c j

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN PASSING

TWO BLACK CROWS. Two crows so intoxicated that they could not fly was the strange sight seen at a village near l'atna. As the crows flew over some palm trees they noticed earthen receptacles placed so that the juice of the palm would collect and ferment for drinking purposes. They tested th© beverage, liked it, and had their fill. Afterwards they were unable to rise again. Both fell to the ground, where they walked about drunkenly until they recovered. ENGAGED 45 YEARS. After being ehgaged to each other for 45 years, 77-year-old Miss Signe Worm and 60-year-old Mr. Vilhelm Skjoldborg have been married in the little town of Bedsted, Denmark. The couple had known each other since childhood, but Miss Worm refused to marry her sweetheart before her twin brother died. Years went by, but the brother lived on, and Miss .Worm still refused to wed. Finally the three old people set up house together. After several years the twin brother died—so now the old sweethearts have been married.

COFFINS AS WARNING. As a warning to drug addicts 2000 coffins have been ordered l>y the Peking Pacification headquarters. Tliey wifl be used for the bodies of addicts who are executed under the new drug law which makes death the penalty for illegal trafficking i)i narcotics or" for drug addiction. Already a number of Chinese have been shot as incurable addicts since the Nanking Government began its drive to stamp out the habit. Many are also waiting trial for the same crime. The oJKns are a grim indication of their possible fate.