NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 23143, 17 December 1938, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

KILLED BY TAME LION

A lion which was so docile that it had been trained to sit in a sidecar in the “ Wall-of-Death Side Show ” escaped at Wildwood, New Jersey, at night recently when the owner came to feed it, and attacked a Japanese resident who was about to enter his car. The Japanese was dragged away and killed. Nothing more was seen of the lion for two hours. Armed policemen and firemen searched the beach with flares until the lion bounded back on to the promenade and was shot by a policeman at a distance of sft. The owner has been charged with manslaughter. A GEOLOGICAL GLOBE A geological globe, that is believed to be the largest yet made to show both surface relief and distribution of geological formations, has been installed at the Geological Museum, South Kensington. It is 6ft llin in diameter and electrically rotated. The scale is one inch to 112 miles and mountain heights are exaggerated 20 times. The various rocks of the earth’s surface are shown by a graded series of colours, ranging from deep purple for the oldest rocks, formed perhaps 1,000,000,000 years ago, through shades of blue, green, and yellow, to a flesh-pink for the large areas covered by deposits laid down during and since the Ice Age. A GREAT WORK Dr Barnardo’s Homes are entering upon their seventy-third year of work for destitute children and in that period they have admitted over 122,500 boys and girls. Every one of that great number was destitute, without a chance till the homes gave it. When Dr Barnardo founded his work in 1866 ho made it his aim that every destitute boy and girl should have a chance in life, a chance to grow up under happy conditions. Why should any be penalised just because they were destitute of friends? He would be their father and friend and he became known as “ the father of nobody’s children.” / This ideal of Dr Barnardo b never been set aside and to this day • destitute child is ever refused admission. BULLS TURN THE TABLES _ One person was killed and 16 were injured, some gravely, by bulls at the annual fair .at Vila Franca de Xira, in, Portugal, recently. The bulls escaped from their conductors in the station square and charged a large crowd, causa stampede. _ One bull' rushed into the railway station, paralysed the traffic, and confined to their carriages two train loads of people, who were "visiting the fair. It then ran into a waiting room, 1 shattered the doors and windows,. and forced the station master to climb a ladder to a room .above, from a window of which he directed operations. Meanwhile other . bulls caused panic and destruction in the streets; The chief item of the fair, to which people from all over Portugal flock, is the ancient custom of demonstrating the prowess of amateurs against bulls in a public square.

CHAPEL THAT IS NEVER SHUT

On one of the northern slopes of the high .ground of the Montague Noire, in Brittany, there is a small chapel dedicated to Saint Brigide. Its door is never shut.

Saint Brigide is the saint of motherhood, and in the hour of trial if suffering seems more than is usual a member of the family is despatched to the chapel to pray to Saint Brigide for safe and speedy delivery. As a thanks offering, when the happy event has taken place, one of the baby’s tiny bonnets is laid lovingly on the altar. Childless women pray to Saint Brigide. and dip a. nightdress in the fountain of the chapel. Saint Brigide is also supposed to cure all female ailments, a gift received from the Virgin Mary. They tell you in Brittany that when Saint Joseph went for help he found only a woman with no arms. She consented all the same to go with him to the manger, and as she entered the door she was made whole and her arms restored, and it was she who received the infant Jesus and washed Him.—From ‘ Les SaintsBretons,’ by Anatole Le Braz. SWEDISH ROYAL BIRTHDAY FUND The money collected for the national gift from the people of Sweden to King Gustaf V. on his eightieth birthday in June this year is to be placed to a fund for the provision of grants towards researches into disabling diseases and for the establishment of a special research institute. The King had previously decided that the gift should be used to combat such diseases, primarily infantile paralysis and the rheumatic diseases, and a committee appointed by him has now worked out plans for the practical realisation of his wish. The projected research institute is to be attached to the new Caroline Hospital at Stockholm, Sweden’s medical study and research centre. At the same time it is to comprise a welfare department where sufferers from all parts of the country will have an equal right to treatment at a modest, uniform cost. The collection for the fund is still proceeding, and it is expected the result will reach five million kronor (£257,700) a , ;