RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 110, 3 February 1931, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

Lady Houston has coma to the conclusion that we are not worms. Nevertheless If we make it our life’s ideal no doubt we shall be able to rise above the ruck of civilisation and attain to equality with that Invertebrate. • * « A scientist has been asked to decide how long a man’s legs should be. This problem has been solved long ago, by Abraham Lincoln, who decided they should be about long enough to reach from his body to the ground.

*» » » ’ A dog which knocked over a rifle shot a pig hunter in the elbow. Fortunately the Injured man is reported to be doing well. The fact remains, however, that there, have been all manner of curious cases in which not only dogs but even moths have been respond sible for not mere shooting, but for murder. Two brothers were out camping in a tent with a view to protecting newly-grown crops. For this 'purpose they had a gun and an Alsatian dog. The dog was tethered to a post and the gun lay on the ground nearby. In the middle of,the night one of the brothers awoke to find his companion dead with a bullet through his heart. He was in an awkward position, for circumstantial evidence was very black against him. Indeed if the two boys had been in love with the same girl it is doubtful if even the best lawyer could have saved him from the deductions of the law courts. As it turned out? there had been no murder, except by the dog. The trigger of the rifle had caught in the dog’s chain and fate had arranged that the gun should be pointing at the doomed man.

In another case a rifle was arranged to be fired off by rats with intent to murder. The rifle, apparently laid down carelessly, in reality was made to point at a bed in which a certain individual was wont to sleep. A trail of corn led from a rat-hole through a hole in the table to the trigger and beyond. The rats in squeezing through the hole and the trigger-guard fired off the rifle. One cannot be too careful with a rifle. It is always wise to unload when the weapon is not wanted any more. If this had been done by a sportsman who returned home to be greeted by his dog he would be alive to .this day. The dog jumped up at him; its foot touched the trigger, and the sportsman was shot dead.

Even a moth has been responsible for shooting a person. Princess Caravella was shot by a moth at Naples. One of those huge moths so common in Italy had singed itself in the flame of a candle. As it fell it became entangled in the trigger of a revolver. Powdery dust from the moth, covered the trigger, and this evidence was considered sufficient proof that in its death struggles the moth had pulled the trigger, for the revolver was set to go off at the slightest touch. At the ensuing trial the husband was acquitted of murder. In another case a gendarme was actually shot by a dead man. Peasants reported finding the body of a man who had apparently just shot himself through the head. A revolver was still in his hand with a finger round the trigger. The gendarme touched the hand holding the revolver Muscular reaction caused the dead man to tighten his grip on the trigger. A shot rang out. The gendarme fell dead. But for the evidence of onlookers, nobody would have believed that he had been killed by a man already dead.

The present colliery disaster emphasises the fact that similar accidents in England have been few and far between. The death roll from mine disasters to-day is a tenth of what it used to be. This is partly due to the formation of the Safety in Mines Research Board by the mine owners of Britain. A penny levied on every ton of coal goes to pay for the work done by this board. The experimental stations are situated in the wilds of Derbyshire. Deadly fire-damp, believed to be the cause of the present disaster, has been experimented with in great detail. The difficulty with fire-damp is to detect it. The old safety lamp provided a ready means for’this purpose, hut the, almost universal introduction of electric portable lamps accentuated the problem. As a result of experiment it is hoped to perfect a device whereby the modern electric lamp may be made to give indications of the presence of fire-damp as readily as the lamp first invented by Davy.

As well as the presence of fire-damp an oil lamp will indicate the presence of black-damp, a mixture of carbon dioxide gas with nitrogen. After an explosion it is still customary to take down a-safety oil lamp to give indication of fire-damp and black-damp. There is, however, a much more deadly poison indicated by no lamp. Car- , bon monoxide gas, a fatal product of all motor engines, has no effect on a lamp and passes unnoticed by human beings until too late. To this day the onlv quick and reliable indication of this deadly gas is provided by the homelv canary. After an accident this bird, in its cage, always accompanies a rescue party into the pit. The slightest trace of carbon monoxide causes it to fall from its perch long before the fumes have affected human beings.

It is announced that a labourer by the name of Rowley, residing somewhere in Australia, has succeeded, as Lord Langford, to an ancient Irish peerage. Some people wonder why these peerage romances always seem to come to people living in \the Dominions. The answer is that'a century or so ago the bad boy of the family was sent there to get him out of the way. ‘As time went on his branch of the family flourished, in an obscure sort of way, while the reverse might be happening in England. In many cases holders of English baronys and dukedoms do not know from one moment to another when a claimant will appear from the back of beyond with better claims than their own to the title.

Nearly two hundred years ago the Fitzwalter Barony fell into abeyance because there were two sisters whose descendants were equally entitled to succeed. Neither branch could succeed without proving that the other was extinct. One branch of the family, ny name Dukes, settled in America. Ims side of the family was still lost in . tne back of beyond in 1844. Sir William Bridges, a representative of the Mglish branch, claimed the Barony The Committee of Privileges refused the claim on the grounds that insufficient efforts had been made to find the missing branch iu America. Eventually, in 1921 a M.. Pluniptre was given the Baronv. The position nevertheless remains" interesting, for some relative from the backblocks may yet turn up to oust the present holder- ,