HERE AND THERE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 56, 25 February 1913, Page 7

HERE AND THERE.

MINISTER'S DAUGHTER'S FATE. Mile. Malvine von Beoshy, daughter of the Hungarian Minister of Commerce, who was visiting relatives at Grosswardein, weijt along to a study after supper the other night and took a revolver from a drawer of a writingtable. The trigger, it is believed, caught some projecting object, and the revolver was-discharged, the girl being jlior through the heart. The girl's relatives say that they are convinced that it was a pure accident: FATAL LIFE-SAVINC. A tenant of a Paris flat was killed the other afternoon and five others .sere injured by an explosion following .he caretaker of the buildings forcing lis way with a lighted candle into a •oom, the occupant of which had tried to commit suicide by closing the crevices and opening the gas pipe. The suicide effort failed. IN CAOL FOR A " DOUBLE." A man at Verviers (states the Brussels 'Patriote') has undergone a term of six months' imprisonment for an offence committed by his brother, whom he strongly resembles. Despite the man's protests, the error was not discovered until he had served the sentence. AIR MESSAGES FOR WARSHIP. A German naval officer, writing in che 'Marine Runschau,' describes how lie dropped weighted messages from an aeroplane, at a height of a quarter of % mile, near to two battleships. His instructions were to drops the messages near the vessels and not on them, in order to avoid hitting anybody. The first message fell a yard away from the ship and the other 13 yards away. The officer thinks that the dropping of projectiles from aeroplanes can easily be accomplished, especially with the aid of a range-finder. The writer declares that at a height of half a mile and upwards an aeroplane is practically invulnerable from rifle or gun fire.

COMPULSORY POLITENESS. A Chicago man is perfecting a set of cutlery that will make polite eating compulsory for every one (says the 'Express'). He has invented a knife with a guard on the end that prevents it going into the mouth, and it cannot be used to spear a piece of pie. He lias also made a spoon that will not stay in the teacup. It is weighted in the handle, and automatically removes itself if the user forgets it. The inventor is now at work on a finger-bowl with sharp edges that will prevent careless people from mistaking it for a new kind of goblet.

£IOOO FOR TOY DOG. Just over £2O an ounce dias been paid for a niiniatare black pomeranian in America. The do?, wi>nse name it. "Wee Blackie," wis i»ed by Mrs V» ■ H. Bowler, of Pur ley, Surrey, and >veighing three pounds, has botu sulci for £IOOO. He has won hix championships in England, and has oene carrvu'g all before him in Amari a for some lime past.

TWO GOWNS FOR DINNER-DANCE.

A prominent American hostess iu Berlin created a stir at a dinner-dance at a fashionable hotel by anpearimr in the ballroom after dinner clad in a different dress from that in which she had dinner. Her costume of old lace over satin and chiffon, with a train, had given place to a simple evening gown of satin with a short skirt convenient for dancing. "Modish evening clothes for women are not designed for comfortable dancing, nor are they durable enough to stand the wear and tear of the twostep, 'turkey-trotting,' and other popular dancing movements," she explained.

"1 have therefore hit uuon the plan of bringing two costumes to a dinnerdance. I find the system enables me to do with one or two evening costumes a season, though two or four used to be necessary." \

SMALLEST OLD-AGE PENSIONER. A man named Rice, 3Qin tall, who was born at the Old Tower, Blackfriarsroad, Yarmouth, over 90 years ago, and claimed to be the oldest living dwarf in the country, is now in receipt, together with his wife, of an old-age pension. / Te began his career as a boy shoeblack on Yarmouth sands, and was often carried home in his mother's apron. HIGH-SPEED BONE-HEALING. In the 'Journal of Experimental Medicine' Dr Alexis Carrell, of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, announced a discovery by which he hopes it will be possible very shortly to heal flesh wounds in less than a day and to unite broken bones in four days. The 'announcement is made as there-' suit of five years' experiments, in which, by applying a mixture of thyroid extract and pulp of various organs of the body to- injured parts, «. process of repair took place at a speed 40 times greater than normal. | SUICIDE'S LOST COURAGE.

Divesting himself of his coat, a young carter named " Pierre Chabot climbed on the parapet of a bridge over the canal at St. Denis, just outside taris. He was about to leap into the water but passersrby intervened. Struggling desperately, the man freed himself. He was pulled back a second time, and then when he brutally repulsed a woman who threw her arms round his neck and implored him not to commit suicide, the crowd released him. When he finally stood on the ledge abov*e the water he hesitated and the attitude of the spectators , suddenly changed. They reproached him with cowardice. "Go cjn; take a header," tihey shouted. The man would have turned back, but lather than face more jeering he let himself fall into the water and be drqwued.

I FORTUNE LOST BY 12 HOURS. j How a fortune was lost and won by l 12 hours was told'by the Islington coroner, Mr Wnlter Schroder, at an inquest to emphasise the. need for going into certain details. "Quite recently information was required in connection with a case in 1870. I looked up the records and was able to supply the information. And a big "estate depended upqn whether the person died at three o clock in the afternoon or at three in the morning. The property went from one branch of the\family to another, so tliat it is very important sometimes to be particular about the time of death."

NO "TURKEY-TROT." The following notice has 'been placed on the notice-board of one of the hotels at Murren (Switzerland): — "The turkey-trot allied dances are prohibited in this 'hotel. Visitors wishing such dances will kindly avail themselves of opportunit.es elsewhere." PICTURE PALACE PANIC. Twelve people were crushed to death and 50 seriously hurt in a fire panic at a cinematograph entertainment at the village of Menin, on the French frontier of Belgium. A spectator cried 'Fire" on seeing a spark shoot from the operator's box, and the audience of 700 men, women,* and children' made a wild rush for the door. People threw themselves over the gallery and increased the confusion among those on the ground floor. Calm was only restored When the hall was' nearly empty. Then it was found that spectators were lying crushed on the chairs and benches all over the hall. The dead were mostly woman and children. There was never any r,eal danger, for the operator had himself extinguished the fire.

£l2O FOR LOSS OF BEAUTY. Claiming £BOO for two .scars, the result of a motor-car accident,, which she said affected the aesthetic lines of her face, Mme. Voraz was awarded £l2O damages against two chauffeurs at Paris. AIR ROUTE TO TIMBUCTOO. Lieutenant-Colonel Estienne, of the flying section of the French Army, is ao present in the Sahara inquiring into the possibility of establishing an aeroplane route from Biskra to Timbuctoo, a distance of 1425 miles. It is proposed to form a chain of camps in the desert to serve as landing stations. When Timbuctoo can bo reached by aeroplane it will be onlv a few days' journey from French North Africa, instead of several months as at present.

LAZY CLERGY. The Bishop of Carlisle (Dr Diggle), in h s New \ear pastoral says: "Two" or three of the clergy are approaching the brink of exposure for their habits. Others seem afflicted with incurable idolence. The less they have to do the worse they do it. Others are dull and listless. They get through Sunday, but Sunday does not shine through them. "Their ministry is not ministry, but mechanism. They do not visit sympathetically. They take little loving interest in their people, and consequently their people take little loving interest in them, except to write to me when vacancies occur and say how dearly they would like to see them promoted. Their churches are shut from Sunday to Sunday, and on Sundays they are empty." '

DRESSMAKERS' SPELLS. The superstitions of the Paris midin-ett-e form the subject of an interesting article in the 'La Revue.' If a young dressmaker sees a mounted municipal guard she must lift her left foot and spit three times. She will then receive good news. The first young man who on May 1 offers a girl a bunch of lilies of the valley is to be her husband. If a midinette finds a white thread in her hair a fair young man is thinking of her; if the thread is black the young man is dark; if it is red he is auburn. In some rooms the bad luck ascribed to the falling of a pin-tray is averted by throwing three pins over th© shoulder, saying each time, "I don't care."

A SHARK'S DINNER. When a ( 12ft 6in shark caught in Mauritius was cut op?n a dog, a pjoat, and a. large collection of bones of animals were found inside. The shark was caught with a 2in line from a 20ft open boat, and was hauled to the surface after a desperate struggle, says a writer in +he 'Field.' "Durhig the fight the scene had been exciting—the boat rolling, the men puliing and hauling for all they were worth, the shark plung'ng wildly in all directions, my host shouting advice and enand I doing my best in all this turmoil to keep cool and shoot straight." Four bullets were required to kill the shark.