NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 21090, 30 April 1932, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

WHITE WHALE FOUND VERY RARE SPECIES The carcase of a white whale has been found on the lonely island of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. It is believed to be a Cuviers whalc-the rarest of the species-and Mr Percy Stammwitz, whale expert of the British Museum, has gone to the island to examine it. The whale measuies 20 ft., and efforts are being made to transport it to the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London. KNIFE ATTACK ON BOY FACE BADLY SLASHED Police in motor-cars and on motorcycles were hunting recently for a man who attacked and wounded Charles Bown, aged 16, son of the Rev. W. C.Bown, of Tilbury, Essex, as he was going to a dance. “My sou was walking down a lonely lane known as Orient Road when a man stopped him and asked for money,” said Mr Bown, “My son refused to give him any, and then, holding my son’s head under one arm, he slashed at him with a razor blade or a penknife. With blood streaming down his face my son groped his way to hospital, collapsing on the doorstep. He has a bad wound all the way down one side of his face.” MOUNTED MILKMEN CUSTOM IN COSTA RICA The milkman is an international character, though he varies in methods and appearance in as many lands as he plies his trade. In America he drives a spotlessly white wagon and has an extremely docile horse, which follows him along in the street as he moves from house to house. In Holland he delivers his merchandise in a two-wheeled cart drawn by dogs. In southern Europe he specialises in goat’s milk and drives his goats from doorstep to doorstep, milking them in view of his customers. In San Jose, Costa Rica, the milkman gallops from house to house astride a horse with milk cans strapped to the animal in much the same way that saddlebags are attached. Many of the horseback milkmen of San Jose carry umbrellas to shield the milk from the scorching rays of the tropical sun. BOY’S LOST EYE REMARKABLE COURAGE The courage of a 16-years-old boy at Bradford, England, who, because he did not wish to worry them, concealed from his parents for weeks the fact that he would have to have his left eye removed, was revealed recently. The boy, who attends the Hanson High School, Bradford, said, “I didn’t want to worry people with something I had to tackle on my own. Some time ago when I was trying to repair a clock, the spring flew out and cut my eye. I attended the eye hospital, and one day the doctor told me that the eye was not responding to treatment and would be better removed. I thought the best thing was to grin and bear it, so I arranged when I should have it done, and didn’t tell anybody. I had to wait a few weeks, and went through the school examination in the meantime. Then shortly before I was due at the hospital I told them at home. It was a bad operation and in a week I was. out again.” CANE AS PUNISHMENT CHAPLAIN’S TASK For the first time in the history of Britain’s lonely island in the South Atlantic, three inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha have been officially caned for theft. The caning was administered by the head man of the island, the Rev. A. C. Partridge, who recently returned to England. “The people are law-abiding, respectable, obedient, and most kind,” stated Mr Partridge in an interview. "In my three years there I had only three cases at all serious to deal with. They were cases of theft. With the permission of Parliament I caned the three offenders. There is no code of punishments. The ordinary penalty for small offences is temporary excommunication. Crime in the ordinary sense is practically nonexistent.” During his stay on the island Mr Partridge acted as chairman of the local Parliament, priest-in-charge of the church, the doctor, and dentist to the population of 163, teacher in school, and judge of the island court. Mr Partridge in traduced the fox-trot to Tristan, but, he explained, their old dances, based on the barn-dance, were much more graceful. LOVERS' COACH SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE There is a motor-coach service between the Forest of Dean and Cheltenham (England)—about 25 miles—which is run once a week, on Sunday night, especially for courting couples. The service, consisting of one coach, is operated by Mr W. T. Edwards, of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire. When he was before the Traffic Commissioners for the Western Area recently, his licence was opposed by two motor-coach companies. The representatives of these companies admitted, however, that their Sunday night services, if used, did not provide the special facilities which Mr Edwards afforded, and they withdrew their objection. Mr Edwards was granted his licence. The “lovers’ coach,” which arrives at Cheltenham at about seven o’clock, is filled chiefly with young men from the Forest of Dean, who go to visit their ‘sweethearts, most of whom are in domestic service. And so that these courting couples can spend most of the evening together, Mr Edwards’s coach does not leave Cheltenham again until 10.40 p.m. BOY’S THIRTY-FIVE DOCTORS TWENTY-SIX OPERATIONS. Mr Francis Alexander Lyle Harrison was carried into court at Belfast (Ireland) recently when, in the King’s Bench Division of Northern Ireland, he claimed damages from the governors and trustees of Campbell College, Belfast, for personal injuries. Mr John A. Costello, K.C., the Attor-ney-General for Mr Harrison, said that in March 1927, when he was 17 and a pupil at the college, he was accidentally struck on the head witli a spade while helping to level the football field. He was sent to the matron to have iodine put ~n the wound, whereas, Mr Costello contended, a doctor should have been called. No medical attention was given till a week later, the wound became septic, and Mr Harrison’s constitution was irreparably ruined. As a result of the poisoning be had been operated on 26 times in different parts of the body. Thirty-live doctors had attended him, and he had spent five years on his hack. His parents had spent £1947 in treatment, and even now doctors could not say when he would xccuver.

EFFORTS TO REVIVE CHILD BREATHED INTO MOUTH When a lire broke out in Bunns Lane House, a farm at Moorhampton, Herefordshire, England, recently Mr Roger Hope dashed through smoke and flames and carried out his 3-yea rs-okl daughter, apparently dead. Mrs Hope, following an old Herefordshire belief, breathed into the child’s mouth in an effort to revive her. The child was then taken in a motor-car to the nearest doctor. Under medical , attention she soon recovered. NEW PYRAMID DISCOVERED HAD BEEN BURIED IN SAND The new pyramid which Professor Selim Hassan, the Egyptian explorer, has discovered at Oizeh, where the Great Pyramid stands, appears to have been buried in the sand at least 200'0 years. It is smaller than the other three and differs from them in construction, as it is cut out of rock with granite blocks used as casing, whereas the others are of blocks of stone through, out. ICE GIVES WAY * SKATERS PLACED IN DANGER While hundreds ot women and children were skating on the canal in the Palace Park at Versailles recently the ice gave way and about 25 fell into the water. On the bank of the canal mothers whose children were in the water anxiously watched the remaining skaters rush to their aid, hut the hole became larger and soon there was a great channel down the middle of the ice. Rescue parties were hastily organised and a human chain formed, which crept forward and reached the children, who were clinging to the edge of the ice. One girl of 16, Mile Marcclle Nevuc, who had fallen into the water, held up three children until they were rescued. She was not taken out of the water until half an hour later, as the continual breaking of the ice rendered rescue work slow. TRAPPING THE FIBBER INGENIOUS MECHANISM Criminologists and police authorities in recent years have placed considerable reliance on the so-called lie detector in the questioning of suspects. All sorts of lie detectors have been devised to trap the cunning prevaricators and reveal the real truth so that justice can prevail in the end. In nearly all of the detectors the mechanisms are so put together that they expose any abnormal nervous reaction when the person being qnestinned utters an untruth. An increased blood pressure, speeded-up pulse, or any one of half a dozen other reactions tells the examiner that the suspect is falsifying. There is always the possible danger, however, that a truthful person undergoing an examination may react very much the same as a flagrant liar. The lie detector owned by the police department of Berkeley, California, will he on exhibit at the world’s fair in Chicago next year. SIDE-WHEEL HYDROGLIDER ATTEMPT ON ENGLISH CHANNEL French engineers are ever designing strange vehicles in which to attempt daring feats. No sooner does one complete some bold exploit, or lose his life in the attempt, than another thinks up something new with which to startle the world. One of the most recent inventions is the side-wheel hydroglider, if it doesn’t fall apart in its coming tests upon the smooth waters of the Seine, its designer, M. Remy, will attempt to cross the English Channel in it. The contraption consists of two floats, driven by side wheels. A few years ago Remy made a similar machine, with which he planned to cross the Atlantic ocean. That first of his hydrogiiders fell to pieces at Havre. The English Channel long has been a challenge to adventurous souls. First there was the balloonist, then the aviator, and then the swimmer. All negotiated that dangerous strip of water. VANISHED BARONET NOT TRACED FOR 19 YEARS Nineteen years of unfulfilled hope for the return of her vanished husband were ended by the death, announced recently, of Lady Barrow, wife of Sir Francis Barrow, at her home at Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, London. Sir Francis, a baronet and descendant of the Sir John Barrow who in the 18th century was for many years Secretary to the Admiralty and founder of the Royal Geographical Society, left his home 19 years ago, and has never been heard of again. Sir Francis was born in 1862 and married in 1890, Lady Barrow always hoped that one day. he would communicate with his family. “I feel convinced that he is alive and in England,” she used to say. “Something tells me that he will come back.” In January 1931, when her son, Mr Wilfred John Croker Barrow, was seriously ill at his home at Teddington, Middlesex, an S 0 S was broadcast asking Sir Francis, “last heard of 18 years ago, and whose whereabouts are unknown,” to go to him. There was no response, but a few days after the broadcast it was said that a man strongly resembling Sir Francis had denied his identity to people who approached him. CARUSO CANARIES TRAINED TO SING Canaries always sing at the Crystal Palace, where recently 126 Caruso canaries, including rollers from Norwich, blessed with a pouting profundity, Yorkshire canaries gifted with a fashionable slimness, and Lancashire canaries that wear frilly fashions, vied with each other for pride of place. Female canaries do not sing; they gossip about their husbands and lovers who are taken to the show in little black boxes—and when the box is opened the bird begins to sing—sometimes. But at the Crystal Palace show the birds sing for their seed because they have been trained to sing. One Yorkshireman told a reporter that he taught his bird to sing by using a flute and a policeman’s whistle. “The first encourages him and the other frightens him,” he said. Judges of singing canaries hide behind a curtain while the birds sing chiefly because, being Idndhearfed men, they do not wish to see the anguish of an owner when his bird breaks down in the middle of a bar. The canaries at the Crystal Palace arc as proud as popular tenors. A note from a flute or even a stimulating whistle from their owners, and they will sing anything from grand opera to an oratorio. But, whisper, they are jealous of the nightingale. Nightingales have been used as singing masters for canaries who folded their feathers about them and showed that they had no use for night dulw.