NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

A SLIGHT HEADACHE SKULL DEFLECTS BULLET George Harris, 26-year-old farmhand, appeared at the General Hospital at Kansas with a severe headache which he wished to have treated. A bullet fired by one of two men who held up Harris struck him in the centre of the forehead, he told physicians, and the shock had left “a bi". of headache.”

was discovered at the hospital the bulled had been deflected by Harris’s skull. The wound was dressed, he was given headache tablets and released. SEEKING A “BETTER ’OLE” •OLD BILL” STAGES A REVOLT "Old Bill,” believed to be the finest American bison in captivity, has been demonstrating his strength at the London Zoo. - A keeper coming on duty at 6 a.m. heard crashing sounds from the cattle sheds, and saw the head of “Old Bill” protruding from his cage. He found that the bison had demolished half a dozen of the solid iron bars —fully 2in. in diameter—and was about to batter down the barrier. Fortunately, “Old Bill” allowed himself to be driven into the outer paddock, where “Bessie,” his mate,' and “Friday,” his recently-born calf, were calmly surveying “the ruins.” HE STOPPED THE TRAIN! WIRELESS GOT ON HIS NERVES Consternation swept along a full London to Southend train when it was brought to a sudden stand-still near Upminster by the pulling of the communication cord. An alarmed guard ran from coach to coach to ascertain what danger to passenger or train had led to the cord being pulled. He heard a torrent of angry words, and dashed to the carriage from which it came. “Yes.” said an indignant passenger, !1 1 pulled the cord. I object to this man’s having his portable wireless set on when I want to read. The danger is to my nerves.” An official of the L.M.S. Railway told a “Daily Mail” reporter: “The cause of the stoppage is unprecedented. It is impossible to state yet what action, if any, will follow.” FISH COMEDY “AT LARGE WITHOUT COLLAR” Traffic was held up by a fish recently in Edmonton’s main street. A jack, weighing over 31b, had escaped from an angler’s basket, and the owner did not miss it until he had gene a considerable distance. While he was retracing his steps, the flopping of the fish about the road caused a crowd to gather, and a constable had to hold up the traffic. As the owner was returning the fish to his basket, the constable threatened him with summonses for (1) causing an obstruction, (2) allowing a fish to bf at large without wearing a collar or. which the name and address of its ov ner were inscribed. In the end, he took the owner’s name and address. BEACH OF “DONT’S” WHERE YOU PAY TO SUNBATHE. “The beach at-Scheveningeu, where the English delegates to The Hague Conference had their quarters, is dragooned in the most alarming manner,” ■writes “Eve,” the social correspondent of “The Tatler.” “You are not allowed on the sands without paying, and if, after you bathe, you wish to sit and dry in the sun, you have to> buy an extra ticket. You must also take care that you do not run or play noisy games. “If you venture into the sea above your waist, it will only be to the accompaniment of shrill whistles of the coastguards to recall you immediately Yet, she adds, the beach is always black with people Mio seem to be enjoying themselves. RECORD NON-STOP TRIP TRAIN TRAVELS 775 MILES . What is claimed to be the longest, non-stop railway journey ever made has, states “Modern Tarnsport,” been accomplished in. South America, where a Beardmore Diesel-electric engine hauled a special train from Buenos Ayres to Cipolletti, a distance of 775 miles, in 20 hours 37 minutes. The journey, which-was undertaken to test the long-distance haulage capacity of the Diesel-electric locomotive —which was built by Messrs. William Beardmore and Co., Ltd., of Glasgow—was accomplished without mishap, no adjustments being eVen necessary before commencing the return trip. TRACED BY BRAND MOTHER REGAINS LOST SON A mother, afraid of losing her baby boy as the Christian deportees were driven from their homes in Anatolia in 1915, branded her infant by slashing him on the shoulders with a hajemet, a native knife. Mother and baby were separated as the deportees streamed over the snow-capped mountains into exile. As a result of that branding, the boy, Loris Vernian, was 1 found by the Near East rielief and has just completed a journey of 6,000 miles from Syria. The boy, is being entertained by his uncle, Suren Vernian; of 1233 Simpson Street, the'Bronx, before startiiig on the last lap of a 9,000-mile journey to join his mother, whose home now is in Fresno, California. 'T’he Near East Relief gathered up the baby boy with thousands of others and placed him in an orphanage in Urfa. At the time of the Christian evacuation in 1922, Loris was removed to an orphanage in Syria. His mother, meanwhile, had gone to America, but had never given up hope of finding her son. * He was eventually identified in the American orphanage by the marks of the hajemet.

JANUARY AND DECEMBER 22 MARRIES 84 The marriage took place at St. John's, near Woking, Surrey, of Mrs. F. C, Stevens, aged 84, and Mr. Cyril Mills, aged 22, the son of a local garage proprietor, , A friend of tho bridegroom’s family said to a “Daily Mail” reporter:— “Mrs. Stevens was taken to church-in a bath chair. She had a white shawl over her mauve dress, and looked very happy. She was previously alone in the world.” STOLEN BY EAGLES? FATE OF SWISS BOY Though it is generally disbelieved that children are sometimes carried off by eagles, a tragedy attributed to that cause has created a sensation at Chur, the capital of the canton of Grisons, in Switzerland. Sixty men were cutting corn in a valley and one named Furger left his son, aged four, under a thatch. The child disappeared, and’, every search proving futile, the police of the town were informed and sought their trained dogs, which found no scent to follow.

Four golden eagles were observed hovering over the fields during the day and are believed to have captured the child. A party of Afpine guides has set out to search the » eighbouring mountains. CAESAR’S “NEWSPAPER" MURAL TABLETS NEAR ROME Newspapers of ancient Rome in the shape of mural tablets have been discovered in tho excavations which have been proceeding for some years at Ostia, the seaport of Rome. They contain an intimation of the death [49 B.C.] of Pompey, Julius Caesar’s rival, the terms of the will of the great Julius with his bequests to the people of Rome, a list of the new consuls appointed, and an announcement of the passing of an enactment remitting a year’s rent to the poor. It was known that Julius Caesar was the father of journalism—that his special despatches from the front in Gaul, and elsewhere, were scribbled in charcoal on a background of whitewash in the Forum for the edification of the populace, to be republished afterward for the gratification of schoolboys—but no contemporaneous record of such Acta Diurna, the name given to the official chronicle of the day’s events, had hitherto survived. There were only scrawls on the walls of Pompeii, records on triumphal arches, and lapidary commemorations like the testament of Augustus discovered at Aucyra, in Asia Minor, Nov/ the archaelogolists have unearthed tho daily news bulletins of the past, the record of home and foreign news, of elections and battles, posted in the city, and thence reproduced in the provincial towns of Italy. THE "BLUE MAURITIUS” ALL PHILATELISTS SEEK IT Stamp collectors from many parts of Great Britain assembled at Birmingham for the 16th philatelic congress of Great Britain. Mr. Charles J. Phillips, founder of the Birmingham Philatelic Society and now of New York, in a paper dealing with reminiscences, said:— Fifteen years ago a man living in Hampstead, who was looking over books in his library, found his- old schoolboy stamp collection, and put it on one side to give to his grandson. A friend who saw the collection advised that it should be examined, and it was submitted to a firm of stamp auctioneers, who reported that one stamp was very valuable. ■ This gem of the collection was a Mauritius Post Office 2d stamp, deep blue, unused. It was bought for the King for £1,450. CHURCH’S POWER RIGHT TO IMPRISON The power of the. Church to send people to prison, which was revealed in the case of Mr. John Henry Stevens, was the subject of a request to the Prime Minister in Parliament. He has been invited to abolish it. Dr. Sidney Peters, the new Liberal M.P. for Huntingdonshire, has asked Mr. Ramsay MacDonald the following question:— - “Whether his attention has been called to the imprisonment of John Henry Stevens, of Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, by writ of attachment for contempt of a consistory court sitting recently at Ely Cathedral because he refused to pay money alleged to be owing by him to the Church of England; and whether he will introduce a Bill at an early date to deprive such Church of the power of sitting in judgment in a cause between itself and one of his Majesty’s subjects, and especially to take away its power tp order the imprisonment of any such person.” HIS “SEVEN LIVES” ADVENTUROUS FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY Seven escapes from death at the age of five is the record of little Peter Lancaster, of Ashwood Street, Rishton, near Blackburn, who is now in the Blackburn Royal Infirmary recovering from a kick in the face by a horse. The night before he received the injury he was taken home to his mother. soaking wet, but smiling. For the second time he had tried to teach himself to swim Jn a deep canal. When a baby in petticoats Peter scrambled on to his bedroom windowsill, fell to the ground, and dislocated his shoulder. More recently he climbed, to the roof of a mill and, while waving a cap at the crowds watching below, missed his footing and fell. He caught hold of a ledge and was rescued. He has been run over by a horse and by a bicycle. •