NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 21636, 3 February 1934, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

; HEARING A PIN DROP ORIGIN OF EXPRESSION Many years ago, in London, it was ; , customary to hold ship auctions at . Lloyd’s Coffee House on Tower Hill, ' and a pin was thrust into a lighted " candle, about one inch from the top. The last bid made before the pin fell •out of the melting tallow_was accepted. ■ When this critical stage in the “candle auctions,” as they were then called,was • /;: reached, a deathlike calm came over • the assembly to enable those present “to hear the pin drop.” LESS CHAMPAGNE DRUNK ~; v .. DUE TO MANY CAUSES Champagne consumption is decrcas- •• Ing throughout the world. There are to-day no fewer than 170,000,000 bottles ’■ of wine stored in the champagne cata- , , : combs at Rheims, waiting until “better I, times” to be placed on the market. Since the war, although production has . continued at a normal rate, the consumption of champagne has steadily declined. This decline is said to be due to Prohibition in the United States, the collapse of the Russian market, and high tariffs. RATS ATTACK MOTORIST HORDES INVADE HIS CAR ' While changing a front tyre of his car beside the road near Girvan, Scot■'land, Charles Christie, of Edinburgh, saw a large swarm of rats making for - . his machine. He fought the rodents, •; but. they invaded his car. and he ran ,’••• for help to a house 150 feet away. Returning with several farm hands armed with stout clubs Christie found nearly 40 1 rats inside the machine fighting over his lunch. The food was thrown into a field and the rats followed, leaving 16 dead in the machine. A THOUSAND PROPOSALS “CAVE-WOMAN’S” EXPERIENCE A thousand proposals in three years was the fortune of Miss Patricia O’Hara, of Brentwood, Great Crosby, England, ••'•• who played the part of a cave-woman . in the Railway Centenary. Pageant at Liverpool. For a week she was cap- • • tured twice daily by a cave-man dressed . in. a leopard skin, clubbed into submission, dragged along the ground by her .-.ebony-black hair, slung over her cap- . , 'tor’s shoulder, and carried off to his . cave. Photographs of Miss O’Hara as she appeared in the pageant were given in newspapers and magazines in all - parts Of the world, and then the proposals rolled in. She has now announced her-engagement to a London " : schoolmaster, Mr J. A. Lightowler. ; WOMAN WHO CANNOT BE KILLED THREE. MIRACULOUS ESCAPES A “Sunday, Express” correspondent at ' Bracknell, Berkshire, says: “I have met the. woman who cannot be killed. On ■ three occasions in her life she should, ' by every natural law, have been killed outright.' She is Mrs Cooper, and this • is the story she told me: t “My first escape was when I was 16. -,r.; The house I was living in at Dover was smashed to pieces by a great fall of the chalk cliffs. I was buried and had to be dug but with pickaxes and shovels. My rescuers could scarcely believe I was unharmed. . “The second escape occurred in Hyde Park, when a car knocked me down and passed right over me. I had four crushed ribs, but otherwise I was intact. “The last miracle was in America, I ,was standing beside a large maple •• "tree ,at Albany. New York, when it ■Was struck by a thunderbolt. The ground under my feet shook, and the tree was . . split from top to bottom. I did not even suffer from shock.” COMEDIAN WHO LEFT HIS PROFESSION MYSTERY BEHIND MAN’S DEATH ; What was the reason that made a V successful young music-hall comedian throw up his work, wrap his identity in mystery, and take a job in a furniture shop?. Only chance has brought the, story of his . strange behaviour to , light. Hewin Thompson, aged about, 40, died at Sunthorpe. England, recently, and was buried unknown and unmourned. He went to the town about L five weeks previously as manager of a 1 furniture business. His employers 1 knew nothing about him beyond the fact that he had been employed in a similar capacity at Doncaster, Rotherham, and Worksop. • A further search of Thompson’s papers only added to, the pathos of the affair, for they revealed that the man '.. was Sid Sudden, a former well-known comedian, who made successful tours of music-halls in Britain and in Australia. AIRMAN WHO SAVED LONDON • . DURING THE WAR MEMORIAL TO BE ERECTED To-day, 14 years after his death, a move is being made to establish a living memorial to the airman who saved London from destruction. He is Leefe ' •Robinson, the famous wartime V.C. air’man. After a two-hours’ battle in the air with the first of a fleet of German Zeppelins, Robinson sent it crashing to the earth at Cufflcy, a flaming wreck. ■ ■ But for Mr Robinson’s daring, says a ■l. London newspaper, large areas of London would probably have been destroyed. He was acclaimed a national' • hero. His name became a household world. Now he is almost forgotten. The. aerodrome from which he set out on his victorious flight is seldom visited by an aeroplane now. The very quarters in which he spent much of his time are used to house pigs and chickens. Negotiations are being made to restore this famous aerodrome, and to make it a memorial to the aviator by establishing a training centre for young aviators. “We are negotiating for the old aerodrome, and, if successful, will establish a permanent memorial to the airman by the formation of a squadron of young airmen at Woodham Ferries,” said an. official of the British Flying Corps.: “We are also considering holding a special service at his grave on each anniversary of the great airman’s death.” . Leefe Robinson was only 21 years old when he set out to save London from the bombs of the German raiders. According to a fellow-officer of the Royal Flying Corps, he came to close quarters with the airship after a chase 12,000 ft above the earth. ... A huge sheet of flame casting a bril- > Rant glow over the black sky was the signal to the thousands of helpless people below that Great Britain had won and that they had been saved. • Shortly after Robinson was taken pri- ; soncr by, the Germans, and he died soon after bis release;-

CONVENT AMONG COLLIERIES The first convent to be established in a mining area in Great Britain has been opened in South Kirby, Yorkshire, by the Order of the Blessed Virgin, which lias taken over a century-old mansion. The new convent, is being used to train nuns whose work will take them abroad and at the moment there arc 12 occupants, many of whom hold university degrees. They are going to teach the children of miners the arts of painting and music. RELATIONS REUNITED HOTEL CLERK’S MISTAKE Confusion of initials led to a reunion in a large London hotel recently. _ A woman guest whose husband was dining in the grill sent a note to him from their suite and it was delivered to another guest of the same name, but different initials. When he opened the note he realised that it was intended for a nephew of whom he had not heard for 15 years. A waiter found the nephew, and the two men immediately celebrated the unexpected reunion. COW IN A HOTEL RESTING IN BEST BEDROOM A terrifying racket disturbed the residents and staff of an hotel at Ypughal, Ireland. A maid ran up to inquire and in one of the best bedrooms she saw what she thought was a bull ransacking the apartment, so she hurriedly made her way down again with the news. After a time the noise ceased and a man went up to investigate, only to find a cow resting peacefully on the fine carpet. It appears the rear entrance had been left open and the animal wandered in. A COT UNDER THE SEA IMPORTANT DISCOVERY The sharp eye of a British Royal Air Force pilot was responsible for what is said to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years. While flying near Nelson Island Group Captain John T. Cull saw something shaped like a large horseshoe beneath the clear Mediterranean, He informed Prince Omar Toussoun, the Egyptian archaeologist, who sent a diver down. It was ascertained that the horseshoe is made up of columns of marble and red granite and the foundations of ancient buildings. Experts believe the ruins may be those of Canopus, a fashionable seaside resort during' the Roman rule in Egypt. SECRET MISSIONARY IN RUSSIA HONOUR. FROM THE POPE A : cardinal who is not a cardinal; a crusader whose heroism and exploits surpass those of the knights of the Middle Ages; a secret missionary whom the Pope has helped to hide. Such is Monsignor Michael d’Herbigny, who it is believed will one day be officially proclaimed a cardinal, and very probably a cardinal “in pectore” now, says the “Sunday Graphic.” Persons in high esclesiastical circles in Romo say they believe that the Pope has secretly created Monsignor d’Herbigny cardinal because if it were publicly proclaimed he would have to abandon work which involves great personal danger and is of the most vital importance to the cause of Christianity throughout the world. Monsignor d’Herbigny is the head of a group of young priests who are carrying on perilous missionary work in Russia, striving to keep alive the spark of Christianity which still remains, _ despite the efforts of the Bolsheviks to stamp it out. At groat risk to his life Monsignor d’Herbigny : has repeatedly visited Russia in disguise. As the head of the Pontifical Commission for Russia he has secretly ordained priests and bishops, and has had many narrow and exciting escapes from discovery. “PRISONER’S SONG” TRAGEDY CONVICTED WRONGFULLY AND MARRIES IN PRISON Behind the death of' Guy Massey, an English musician, which occurred in New York a few weeks ago, lies a tragedy of fame and fortune won too late. A native of Liverpool and known in London soon after the war, Massey went to America some years ago. Convicted there of some offence, he was sent to Sing Sing, and while in the prison was permitted to marry, a girl who had befriended him. In prison, heartbroken after parting from his bride, he wrote an emotional ballad, “The Prisoner’s Song.” This eventually found its way, through a friend of the wife, to a fellow musician, who had it published. After Massey had served six months of his sentence a firm of lawyers engaged by his wife, with money obtained from royalties, had his case re-opened, and proved his innocence. The result was his release a few weeks before his death. Mrs Massey is now reaping a fortune from the song her husband wrote for her. POOR BOY’S AMBITION TO BE A DOCTOR REALISED ASSISTANCE FROM LORD MAYOR The Lord Mayor of Hull, Alderman Arthur Shepherd, gave an “At Home” in the City Hall recently, arid there was no grip in the hand that gave him more pleasure than that of a young man whose unemployed father died from the effects of war wounds in a poverty-stricken home in one of the city’s poorest districts; That young man is a doctor to-day, due to his own determination and the financial aid which Mr Shepherd was able to secure for him. The smiling face of that young doctor, son of a man who came back from the war to find that he could not even earn a living and would not apply for a pension, means a lot to me,” the Lord Mayor said after the ceremony. “There was no doubt about his father’s death being due to war service, and we got the widow a pension and helped her to keep the children at school. “One day the headmaster of a Hull college told me that this lad was a brilliant scholar and wanted to be a doctor, and in bis opinion would achieve that ambition if he had been born in different circumstances. That was the beginning of one of the most romantic stories of a fulfilled ambition I have ever beard.”

The boy was then only 16. The Lord Mayor secured contributions from the United Services Fund and the Hull Great War Trust Committee which enabled the youth to receive his medical training at a London hospital. After passing his final examination he opened his practice in a Yorkshire town, renting an inexpensive house which he fitted out with second-hand furniture.