ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Evening Star, Issue 14054, 8 May 1909, Page 3

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

THE WORLD’S PRESS: When the members of the Parish. Council i ..of Weetnewton, in the Wigton Union, of 1 1 Cumberland, met' to transact business it i was found that there was only one ab- ; sentee, a veil-known agriculturist. It ap- ■ peared that that gentleman had refused ■ to accept the notice of the meeting from > , the, postman because it had been sur- , | changed a jienny. The vicar, who is chair- - j man, ruled that, as not all the members • j had received notice, the meeting was in- • valid, and an adjournment was agreed to I A decree has just been granted in the • New York Supreme Court to a woman ; annulling her marriage with a man on . the ground that at the time of the mar- ; riage he was suffering from consumption, i and was therefore incompetent to contract - a marriage. 1 In King’s Bench Division, London, ro- ; cently three Judges heard arguments in the i case of a man named Frederick Emery, . who at Stafford Assizes was found to be i mute by the visitation of God, and unable ■ to plead, and was ordered to be detained during His Majesty’s pleasure. Counsel • for the man contended that as he had not been found to be insane he could not be I so detained, and was therefore in wrormful i custody. The Court held that the order ■ was properly made on the findings of the i jury, and it was not necessary that the i jury should find the man was insane. The i application to have the man discharged i from custody therefore failed. A very odd patent has been originated in Holland, and is about to be exploited : in England—viz., an “ice-tumbler for holding cool liquids.” This is a tumbler actu- • ally made of ice, and at first sight indis- ■ tinguishable from glass. When slipped into a paper holder it lasts for about half an hour. The inventor’s idea is that it will be used for summer drinks in restaurants. The ice tumbler is made by pouring water into the space between two moulds, with an outlet to prevent bursting owing to expansion. The moulds are made of different materials, with different coefficients of expansion, thus making it possible to release the frozen-in tumbler. In a case at Greenock Police Court against a woman charged with being found on enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose, an inspector of the South Metropolitan Gas Company said that for a Ions; period the prisoner had been suspected of robbing meters. Accompanied by two dogs, rite obtained keys of empty houses, which she entered. The dogs barked if anyone came to the house, and thus the prisoner received -warning. He had received complaints in respect of at least 300 bouses during about three years. The prisoner, who declared that she had “ never done anything wrong in her life,” was committed for six weeks’ imprisonment. In one of the Basque provinces of Spain there is a prison which opens the dooi-s every morning, and tne prisoners go into town for housework, gardening, or some trade. Some act as commissioners. In the evening they quietly return at the appointed time to the prison, and the gaoler most carefully identifies them before withdrawing ihe bolts for their admission. Once a prisoner ventured to present him- I self at the gates of the prison in a state of inebriety, and the gaoler refused to admit him. “To punish you,” he said, “you will to-night sleep out of doors." And the prisoner, it is recorded, in spite of tears and entreaties, was condemned to pass the night outside. Quirkly surrounding a building in Southwark, a party of policemen felt pretty sure of catching the burglar they were after. He had been seen at the window of a warehouse in Warren's Yard by a carman. Stealthily the police proceeded to search. They found him in a horse trough, which was full of water, in the yard. He was dead. Among recent works by Gerrr.cn men of science is mentioned an investigation by Dr Alfred Kalischer of the senses of color | and tone in animals. He had made a lona | series of experiments with dogs, the result j of which shows apparently that although j dogs are supposed to dislike music, they distinguish musical tones more easily than colors. Mr KaJiacher found (says the ‘Westminster Gazette’) that he could train dogs to snap at meat only when red electric lamps were turned* on': hut they showed more hesitation in deciding between red and orange than between musical notes. When a lamp of a shade not far removed from red was lighted. Dr Kalischer’s terrier hesitated at first., but finally rejected it as not the real thing. Another dog trained by DrKalischer could distinguish the smell of real from imitation musk. One never knows whether to he grateful or otherwise to the inventor of a new saving {says a writer in the ‘World’). Mr Winston Churchill gave us “terminological inexactitude,” and for a while we retched exceedingly, then hated him when it met us at every turn. Mr Gladstone’s phrase, “within the range of practical politics," has been useful, and has ceased to bo a bore. We were delighted beyond woids at “little Mary” when Mr Barrie surprised us with it. It seemed at first as i; the joke could never be exhausted, anti i: took quite a long time to get it into the heart of the country, but now we should warmly wring anyone by the hand who had never heard it. and we cannot manauo even to twitch a corner of our mouths into the veriest ghest of a smile when it used by a facetious vicar. At this moment we are beginning to suffer from another of Mr Barrie’s little jocular phrases. I con- 1 fees I never again want to hear or read “what every woman knows.” | The order of the United States Court , releasing the convicted banker, Charles W. I Morse, by day, and returning him to the ; Tombs at night, has (says the New York I correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph’ll startled even this community. Morse, b I will be recalled, is under a sentence of six- j teen years’ imprisonment for violation of 1 the national banking laws, and an appeal j has been lodged on a writ of error. His : .release on bail has been refused, but in- j stead he has been granted ihe right "to! go in custody of a United States marshal I to such places in the city of New York ! as the reasonable transaction of his bun- I ness may require, provided he be taken j back to the city prison for safe kcepiim I during the night.” The United Spites I District Attorney (Mr Stimson) denounces ! the proceedings as “a revolutionary action j in the matter of court procedure,” while j the public generally regard the order with amazement. The torture that is inflicted by the Chinese mode of punishment of placirm the culprit where a drop of water will fall on his head for hours is proved by an experience that Colonel Fred Burnaby hud in Vienna several years ago. A school teacher bet him that he would not be able ) to let a pint of water, drop bv drop, fall j on his hand. Burnaby laughed" at the’very idea of his not being able to stand it, and the test began. Although the strong man talked and jested gaily at first, it was not I long before he began to show signs of drt- i tress. At about the 200 th drop—for the school teacher kept tally—an expression of pain crossed his face. When the 300 had been entered his hand began to swell and grow red. Then the skin hurst, and the pain became more and more excruciating Finally, at the 420 th drop, Burnaby gave ij up and acknowledged himself beaten. The romantic French Foreign Legion is said to be the most cosmopolitan corps in 1 the world. Political victims, deserters ! criminals, doctors, and professors of all degrees, officers of all countries who have i been “cashiered,” artistocratic “remittance men,” are all to be found in its I ranks. During a fight in South Oran j when the doctor was hit, and could not | attend to the wounded, no fewer than four doctors and medical students were discovered in the ranks of a single battalion ready to take his place. Desperadoes, too, 1 find a welcome in the merciless “Rurales” j of Mexico. They are chiefly employed in 1 running to earth bandits and other reck- 1 less lawbreakers, and on the principle of set a thief to catch a-thief,” converted robbers are eagerly enlisted. Captured murderers obtain short shrift with the “Rnrales,” and very freqnent is the report to headquarters: “ Bandit chief caught and shot whilst attempting to escape. M