NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 20996, 9 January 1932, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

FIRST FOUNTAIN PENS INVENTED BY CHINESE The idea of a fountain pen goes a ▼ery long way back, and no one man can be considered its inventor. Certainly a crude fountain pen was in use in England in the 17th century, but antiquarians go back a good deal fur-ther-than that in their history. It is ilaimed that the idea was Chinese—they were the inventors of ink—and fountain pens were in use in China hundreds of years before the Christian era began. BOBBED BY ; COMPULSION MODERNISING WOMEN The Bolshevik authorities at Uralsk, Siberia, lately announced that women there must be niodermsed, and ordered them to cut off their hair. The women refused, and were therefore assembled and their hair was forcibly cut off. The Bolshevik review “Soviet Justice” states that the hair has been “nationalised. It has been sent to the Ural branch of the State Office for Raw Stuffs, and will be exported. FINDS HERSELF IN MORGUE FAINTING GIRL RECOVERS Having fainted in the Grand Central terminal, New York, and been pronounced dead by a doctor, Ivy Rogers, 18, of Greenwich, Conn., was taken to a temporary morgue attached > to the emergency hospital of the station. Tne cold air revived her and she was terrified, to find herself in. a place which was totally dark and without ventilation. She jumped up and ran to the door. She hammered on it and screamed. She was so overwrought when an attendant finally unlocked the door that she ran, half-crazy and screaming through the station. PHANTOM-LIKE FISH ALMOST TRANSPARENT Some wee flshlets in the Zoo Aquarium have to be looked at for quite a long time before one can really see them ht all. They are Ghost Fish from India, and they are almost entirely transparent, only the faintest traces of bone being visible. They look just as though made of the .finest spun glass, and the largest of them is less than two inches in length, most of them being half that size. They have squarish fins and tails, and it is only by the slight flickering of these that the Ghost Ihsh becomes visible, after the visitor has patiently gazed for a long time at what appears to be an empty tank. They are certainly well named. ACTRESS ENTERS CONVENT SEQUEL TO THEATRICAL ROLE A well-known Parisian actress, Mile Suzanne Delorme, who made her name in a recent play which dealt entirely with life in a Dominican convent, has surprised all Paris by unexpectedly retiring to a real Dominican convent. In the play, entitled “Le Chant du Berceau,” Mile Delorme took the role of a girl'who was brought up in a convent and who left it, sobbing, to get married. For more than a year the actress played this part nightly. Then, during her holidays, she was suddenly overcome by a desire to retire from the world. Indifferent hitherto to religion, she became pious, and it; was reVealed recently that sne had entered a convent of the Dominican Order at Grenoble. SOMAN EJECTED FROM CHURCH PRIESTS APPEAL „ The Supreme Court of Cassation is being called upon to decide whether a priest has the right forcibly to eject a person from his church, i . The parish priest of Perano, a little town in Southern Italy, was about to christen a baby last year when he noticed that it was being carried in _the arms of a nurse whom he suspected of being a Protestant. Having vainly asked her to withdraw, he pushed her out of the church, the woman struggling and screaming. The nurse sued the priest for assault, and the Tribunal of Lanciano sentenced him to 20 days’ imprisonment and ordered him to pay 500 lire damages. Father Barnaba Pugliese, the priest, has appealed, and the case is exciting much legal interest, as the appeal is based mainly on Canon Law, which is admitted by Italian Courts since the Lateran Treaty. life of Adventure NURSED BY FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Stories of the'Crimea are recalled by the death, at Fulham, England, of Mrs Fanny Birt, at the age of 101. She was the wife of a doctor whom she accompanied to the Crimea, and at the birth of her first child Florence Nightingale,, the nurse heroine, tended her. As a girl of three she had been kidnapped, with her twin -sister, in the main streets of Bath, and was only given up when the town crier announced a reward. Mrs Birt went to Chile, and was in the bombardment of Valparaiso. She was put in a windjammer with another woman and rounded Cape Horn in a terrible storm. After an adventurous voyage, during which the two . women took turns to hold the binnacle lanterns over the compass, the vessel reached England. GANG QUEEN AGED SIXTEEN DECOYS FOR BURGLARS Many more women have become crim-inally-minded during the past few years than ever before, says Mr Cecil Bishop, late of the Criminal Investigation Department, in “Women and Crime,” published recently. “The better class woman now turns criminal more readily than her poorer sister,” he believes. “Twenty years ago the reverse was the case.” “Practically every burglar now uses a woman decoy, whom he trams as an expert driver. Usually the woman lives with the man and so is willing to help him with his ‘jobs’ in the hope of earning a little more money. “The pair buy a second-hand car, and the woman soon shows that she can greatly reduce the man’s risk.” Many gangs in London-and the provinces, says Mr Bishop, are led by women. “Recently a plague of thefts broke out in a London suburb. Despite a close watch the thieves evaded capture, and eventually became emboldened to attempt minor burglarie?. “At length it was found that the delinquents were a gang of lads under the leadership of a girl of 16.” Mr Bishop says Cardiff is the clearinghouse of white-slave traders, and Swansea “is almost as bad,”

EARL KITCHENER FINED BREACH OF DUTY Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, brother of the great soldier to whose title he succeeded, was fined £2O at El Doret recently for failing to destroy locusts at Soy, his estate. He gave notice of appeal. This was the first prosecution under the new rules, which require landowners to report the presence of locusts and to take steps to destroy the swarms which have caused thousands of pounds’ damage in Kenya this year. THE EVOLUTION OF SHIPS EXHIBITION OF PRIMITIVE RAFTS A special exhibition of primitive rafts and canoes was recently held in London. They were designed to illustrate the successive developments by which these primitive craft have given rise to the built boats of modern Europe. About 40 models and 60 illuminated phototransparencies showing native canoes in actual use were placed in the entrancehall of the museum, in Exhibition Road. Items of spebial interest included a comparison between the method used by the ancient Egyptians in boat-build-ing and that still employed in the almost exactly 1 similar boats of the Ganges; also a suggestion as to the origin of the Chinese- sampan as a development from the catamaran of the Madras Coast. PEER IN A COTTAGE CASTLE HOME CLOSED Heavy taxation demands are given as the reason for the decision to close indefinitely Chillingham Castle, the Northumberland home of Earl and Countess Tankerville. Lord Tankerville, who is a keen airman, succeeded to the title on the death of his father a few months ago. At present he is in residence with the countess at an estate cottage. The dowager countess intends in future to live in Edinburgh. Chillingham Castle, situated about 15 miles from the Scottish border, is famous for its wild whie Chillingham cattle, which have been on the estate nearly 700 years. Their future at present is uncertain. Lord Tankerville, however, is most unwilling to part with such a unique legacy. LOST BALLOONIST’S DIARY MORE WORDS DECIPHERED Andree’s second or last diary has for some time past been in the hands of M. Kohler, the young Swedish engineer who was sent to Tromso last year by the Swedish Government to look after the Andree relics. Dagens Nyheter has published the result of his fresh examination, which reveals that the closing pages, and there were only five in this diary, do not, as had been supposed, contain notes on the closing scenes of the author’s existence. The final lines on the fourth page are of interest, and these, read in the translation, are as follows:—“In the evening a bear was seen appearing from the sea but he avoided us and was not met with again. We can see no foxes. Our worst beasts of prey are the gulls who swarm round the camp and our meat Jarder, and with hoarse repulsive cries seem to be jealously fighting some civil war among themselves. They -do not give us the impression of being in. nocent white doves but of miserable birds of carrion.” M. Kohler, with the aid of a combination of chemical and photographic processes, managed to decipher no fewer than 75 words previously illegible.' WHAT IS A FOOT CANDLE? UNIT OF ILLUMINATION A foot-candle is the term used by scientists for the unit of illumination. Actually, it represents the light given by a candle at a distance of one foot. In the average restaurant or public hall the degree of illumination should be round about 10 foot-candles, while for a shop window the figure should be somewhere between 50 and 100. Whether any place can be described as well lit or badly lit depends entirely upon the foot-candles of the illumination. And how is one able to say just how many foot-candles the illumination of a street, a railway carriage, or a living-room represents? The task is easy nowadays, for a tiny foot-candle meter has been invented which. is carried easily in the pocket. This contrivance makes it possible to decide whether lighting anywhere is adequate or otherwise. FERRET ATTACKS BEARS SCENE IN LONDON ZOO A spirited battle was recently staged in the London Zoo, between a ferret and two polar bears. Daily rat-hunting expeditions are necessary in the gardens and a ferret plays an important part therein. After a particularly successful expedition, the ferret, it seems, felt an urge to seek bigger game. So he escaped from the keeper and slipped into a den occupied by two polar bears. ’ The ferret jumped on to the nose of one bear, which, not unnaturally, squirmed and grumbled. Deciding that his victim was mortally wounded, the intruder turned his attention to the second bear. Alas! he was wrong, as a heavy blow from a sturdy paw soon showed. It was a knock-out hit which sent him against the bars, whence, still game, he was plucked to safety. Some hours later the ferret felt wiser, sadder, 1 and far from well. PATIENTS’ FEAR OF DEVILS BLINDNESS RISK A Harley Street specialist, who has written many books on psycho-analysis, thus commented on the remarkable phrase in the verdict of the jury at the recent inquest on the Rev. F. W. C. Woollett, vicar of Leesfleld, Oldham, “that he was possessed of an evil spirit.” In legal circles the verdict is believed to be the first of its kind in England, at any rate for many years. “The medical name given to this condition is ‘Demonomania,’ ” the specialist said., “It is really a form of hysteria. It takes various forms, one of the most common being that the subjects believe themselves to be purued by a devil. Should the sufferer imagine that this supposed devil has caught him the shock might cause blindness or paralysis. “Other people believe that a devil will give them cancer or some other dread disease. “A doctor recently sent me a patient who, he said, was possessed of a devil, which the man’s vicar had failed to exorcise. I do not see how it is possible to dispense with this belief in evil spirits so long as you believe in the efficacy of good ones.” Students of folk-lore say that many country people, mostly old women, are still supposed to cast spell? and cause illness to mas and beasts