MOW WAGS THE WORLD?

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1797, 18 May 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

MOW WAGS THE WORLD?

AVIATORS' BURIAL TRIBUTE. [When, Senator Antonio Pacinora, {to whom the world owes i*-**-* discovery of the electro-magnetic ring and [tho invention of the dynamo, was laid to rest beneath the shadow of the [Leaning Tower of Pisa, in whose university he had many years been a professor, scientists from all countries pi Europe flocked to the funeral, at -which Cardinal Maffi, himself a msiinguished man of science, officiated. [During the procession of over 30,000 mourners through the city two Italian aviators hovered at a height of 1700 ft, showering bunches of fresh violets upon the hearse. STARS AND AVIATORS' DEATHS-' A. new and startling aspect of the deaths of aviators, and one which most people will regard sceptically, as disclosed by an astrologically-in-clined scientific writer (says the Daily Sketch. He has discovered that the 'death of an aviator coincides with a conjunction of the heavenly bodies. Here i a a list of the circumstances bccompanying the deaths, while .flying, of British aviators, as compiled jby the aforesaid scientist: —• July 12, 1910.—Rolls, at Bournemouth. (Conjunction of Jupiter and jmoon on July 12.) ■ May 25, 1911.—Benson, at Hendon. (Double conjunction of Mercury and Saturn* with the moon on May 26.) August 1, 1911.—Napier, at Brooklands. (Conjunction of Jupiter *na ithe moon on August 1. '-August 18, 1911.—Ridge, at Aldershot. (Double conjunction of Mars and Saturn with the moon on August 17.) September 13, 1911.—Cammell, at Hendoni (Conjunction of moon with Saturn on September 13/ and with Mars on September 14.) December 6, 19lL—Oxley and [Weiss, at Filey. (Conjunction of Mars and moon on December 5.) February 17, 1912.—Gilmour, at Richmond. (Conjunction of Mercury and moon on February 17.) j A PREHISTORIC BANQUET. During an excursion,in the valley of the Danube, the/members of ananthropological society in congress at J Heilbronn, Germany, were given a j stone-age banquet by Edouard Hahn, an archaeologist of Berlin. A 6and bank in the middle of the river served as j the table, and all the utensils, dishes, etc., used were of wood, especially made for the occasion, in exact ' imitation of those used in the stone-age. The menu consisted of cabbage soup, cooked in a wooden bowl by placing heated stones therein; boiled "leg of horse," roast pork with stewed maize, turnips roasted in the ashes, and a dessert of dried berries served with honey. According to the guests at 'this unique banquet, .the human race of the stoneage period could have had no reason to complain of such.fare. A DYING RACE. Before the.Royal. Geographical Society, Mr Carruthers gave an account of his exploration of North-West Mongolia and Dzungaria in the years 1910-11. Speaking of tho Uriankhai, of the Upper Yenisei basin, he said they were peculiar people, shy, superstitious, and uncouth, and lived in isolated encampments. They were probably a dying race; sadness and melancholia were stamped on their faces, as was natural to a people who were in constant fear of the genii of the mountains, rivers, and forests. All through life the forest dwellers 'were in fear of offending the deities, and at death his corpse was carried out and placed on some lone hilltop, where the wild beasts.are expected to devour it if he had led a good life. ... TRAPPED BY LAUGHTER. '. Too strong a sense of humour led to the arrest of. a German postal employee \named Hoefer, who had absconded from Chemnitz (Germany) with. £8000 in money and papers, at Bale, under curious circumstances. By accident two Swiss detectives were in the restaurant of a large hotel, when a well-dressed man, carrying- a number, of newspapers, sat down at/the next table and laughed loudly as he opened .eacb paper when he saw a photograph. The laughter and curious attitude of the visitor, attracted the attention of .the detectives, one of whom politely asked rto see a pape*r, ; and found that the photo and description (with £50 reward) referred to the stranger himself, whom they promptly arrested. 'A large sum of money in shares and notes was found in his room.--' . . POLICE DOG'S CLEVERNESS. A story of a,police dog's cleverness, comes from Singapore. A Chinese prisoner, who was serving a life sen- j tence escaped from the prison by i climbing over a wall by means of a roughly constructed ladder. Two ; hours were, lost in searching the prison before Jack .was sent for. , The dog immediately took up the trail, tracked the man across the Sepoy lines golf course,- and ran him down in a piece c-f jungle. Jack is on patrol three or four nights a week, and it is said that there has been a notable falling off in the number of robberies. A YOUNG LOVER'S ADVENTURES. ' An amusing story comes from Morlaix, in Brittany, A. young and ardent lover tramped seven miles to see his sweetheart. At-night.he reached the house, and called, but got no

- answer. As the door was shut he decided to try the roof. On the roof he found the chimney, and it seemed to him that it was quite wide enough to let him down. He descended for some distance, but then, as he came near the fireplace, the chimney narrowed. He slipped and was caught in a narrow neck. He yelled so loudly that soon the whole village was in an uproar. The only way to liberate the captive lover was to pull down part of the chimney. . This was done by some masons, and he was presently released, but before being allowed his freedom a police report was drawn up, with a view to inflicting a series of fines for breaking into a private enclosure, damaging other people's property, waking up the authorities unnecessarily, and causing a public scandal. ADVICE TO FIANCEES. At a lecture in Paris, Mgr. 8010, speaking on marriage, said: "In America I.'have heard that engaged couples often go for a long voyage together. It is an .excellent idea, though for France I should advise a chaperon. Let the young girl take a sharp pencil and notebook, and take careful note of how her future husband meets the little worries-arid inconveniences of travelling. For if .in things important man shows himself as he would like to be seen, it is in small things that he is really himself. Do not marry a man of whom you know little. Remember always that fiances are the most delightful of liars." KILLED WHILE SCATTERING A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS. Mr C. P. Rogers, who attained fame as the first aviator to fly across the American Continent, met his death while flying at Long Beach, U.S.A., on April 3, owing to his biplane falling. from a height of 250 .feet into the sea. The disaster seems to have been very largely due to the aviator's own recklessness, as, when the accident occurred, he was endeavouring to scatter a flock of gulls byj flying through them on his machine. Long Beach was the scene of the conclusion of the aviator's famous transcontinental flight. 20 MURDERS AS SACRIFICE. Clementine Bannabet, a half-blood riegress living at Lafayette, Louisiana, who is the head of a mysterious "Voodoo" religious cult, has confessed to killing twenty negroes. She also gave the police the clues to fifteen other murders which have terrorised Southern negroes lately. The wo- - said ifee possessed a Voodoo charm which she believed would protect her from criminal consequences, because the murders were done ao part of the, religious rites in hei ■ Church of Sacrifice." -WANTED TO SEE AN ACCIDENT. Two Istrian (Austrian) shepherd boys were condemned on March "-2y to three and four weeks, hard labour respectively for trying to up set a car containing Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, the heir to the throne-, and his brother, the Archduke Max. The Archdukes were motoring from 'Abbazia to Pola, whei* they came suddenly on two large blocks of stone in the middle of the Toad; the" car, .however', was only damaged and not overturned. Matiheis and Butkovitch, the two boys, who were found hiding at the side of the road, confessed' that they had rolled the rocks into the road when they saw the car coming, as they wished to witness a real motor-car accident such as they had seen in the cinematograph theatre. '

" SOMETHING LONGISH AND SHARP WANTED." The Gibraltar Chronicle publishes a letter from an Englishman with the Spaniards fighting the Riffs around Melilla, in which the writer after describing a fight in which about a "hundred Spaniards were killed, says.: "Couldn't you kindly say in your paper in big letters that our sword-bayonets are no good for close-quarter fighting, which is becoming the order of the day here ? One prods and prods, but it is very difficult, to" find a Moor's ribs under the sand-coloured fighting haik which many of them wear. What we want is something longish and sharp with which' to welt them on the head, which is easy to hit, as a Riff always thrusts it forward. Something like the new English sword-bayonet yor/ showed me in Gibraltar, which can be used independently of the rifle." STRIKE BRINGS FORTUNE. The coal strike has brought good fortune to an old inmate of Clayton Workhouse, Yorkshire, Mr, Joshua lllingworth, who is Lord of. the Manor of Pudsey. The manorial rights, which he inherited, have been valueless hitherto, but the strike led to the discovery of a .surface seam at Pudsey, which is now yielding £10 worth of coal daily. When informed of his good fortune, Mr Illingworth's first thought was that the guardians would have to be paid for his maintenance. He took the matter calmly, and expressed no wish to leave the workhouse. NO RAG-TIME IN GERMANY. Whether European musicians are able to" play "rag-time" as it is meant to be played by American inventors of this peculiar rhyth is exciting discussion among composers, who incline to the view that only native musicians can interpret the notes in the spirit in which they were

written. The discussion was started by the experience of Gustave Kerker, the composer of "The Belle of New York." He was recently asked to compose a "rag--time" melody for a Berlin musical comedy. Mr Kerker sent the music to the German librettist', who, after working for a month, confessed his utter inability to set the music to German words. "The German language (Toes not lend itself to such curious syncopation," said the writer.

OUR PRINCE INCOGNITO. ] The Prince of Wales, after his■ official visit. to the President of the

French Republic oi. April 2, reassumed his incognito as Earl of Chester, and became simply a young English gentleman in Paris for the purpose of perfecting his knowledge of French and of studying French literature, art, and political sciences. He was being pursued by photographers, but it was hoped that these attentions would soon be dropped, and that he would be allowed to continue his studies and' excursions unmolested by prying eyes. The Dominion Government will invite the Prince of Wales-to ■■visit Canada in 1914 to dedicate the national monument to

•--W*i's3'3Jß) f Sir George Cartier, the. colleague of Sir John Macdonald, the first Premier of the Dominion. Germans view with interest the visit of the Prince of Wales to' Paris, and the hope is generally expressed that the Prince will pay a similar visit to Berlin later to study German life. It is considered that the stay would not only be beneficial to the Prince, but a testimonial of the confidence of King George in German culture and science. RED FLAG OUSTED FROM POWER. The Socialists, who have controlled the municipal government of, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the past two years, were overwhelmingly defeated at the elections there on April 2. Mayor Seidel, who stood for re-elec-tion on the Socialist "ticket, received 30,200 votes against 43,172 for Dr. Bading, the anti-Socialist candidate. The total vote was the largest ever polled in the city, being 14,000 more than in 1910.; The Socialists also lost control of the municipal council, electing only 11 out of 37 aldermen. The issue was the "Stars and Stripes against the Red Flag," coupled with the bad record of the Socialist government of the municipality. Since they took office, indications or municipal corruption and favouritism hurt the Socialist candidates. The Socialists came out in their true colours during the campaign, exhibiting a noisy, and vulgar hatred of anything savouring of patriotism. They tried to break up a mass meeting of antiSocialists, and when Congressman Corry, the chairman, raised the American flag, the Socialists showed their contempt for the flag by noisily withdrawing. During, the elections, thousands of. American flags waved over the homes ot ; anti-Socialists, while the Socialists proclaimed their creed by hoisting the red flag. Other crushing Socialist defeats took place at the elections at Butte and Helena, both in the State of Montana, where the Socialist party had lately developed strength.

Jessamine was brought, to England from the East Indies; daffodJs, carnations and pinks from Italy; musk roses from Damascus; ranunculus from Italy; gooseberries from Flan. The elder tree came ■ from Persia; apples, from Syria; oranges and lemons from Spain* cherries, -.from Pontus; currants from Zante; plums from tlaly; gooseberrie-j from ' Flaniers.

Fans are of great antiquity. In a basrelief' at tlie British. Museum Sennacherib is represented accompanied by female figures carrying feather fans. Ivory fans were used as far back as b.c. 900. France had always been justly celebrated for her beautiful fans, and the artist- Watteau excelled in exquisite scenes; most suit-

. bio r')r decorating these fragile articles. Mrs Edmund Davis (Mary Davis), who recently held an exhibition of fans at the Leicested Gallery, showed what might be done in this direction in the twentieth century.

Countess Brassey is a . famous traveller, like her husband. She has a big reputation as a hostess, and during Lord Brassy's tenure of office as Governor of Victoria her ladyship made many friends, among the

'•.elbourne ladies and-.gave somtj notable entertainments. ' Her house in Park-lane is a veritable museum or curiosities, collected from all quar-

-o-fl of th« globe, and a fine feature is the library, which, has walls of carved woodwork, with a gallery reached by a winding staircase.

The landowners.—The world wants to know whether it was for the virtue of meekness that the\ landowners have inherited so much of the earth.—Sir Albert Spieer, M.P.

No man.—'A man who does not avail 'himself of a chance of raising his position is not really a man. He is something walking about to says funeral expenses.—Sir William Lever.