NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6154, 11 August 1921, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL

THE EMPTY CHAIR. LOVER DROPS WEDDING ORNAMENTS IN GRAVE. At the funeral of Miss Howes, a nurse at Hanwell Mental Hospital, who died a few days before her marriage should have taken place, her liance dropped into the grave the floral ornaments that were to have decorated the wedding cake. The flowers'from the cake were not scattered pell-mell, but were worked so as to represent an empty chair. The most famous case of a bereaved man burying tilings in his beloved’s grave is that of Dante Gabriel Itosetti, the pre-Raphaelite painter and poet, who calused a manuscript volume of his poems to be put in the coffin of his wife, famous before her marriage as tlie beautiful Miss Siddai. These poems were afterwards taken out. Mrs Parnell, who died recently, was buried with tlie letters which the famous Irish leader sent her. SOCIABLE VILLAGE. EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OF BEER. White Notley (Nut-lea originally) a little old-world place tucked away among tlie hills west of Witham, Essex, has good claims to be called an ideal village, writes a correspondent. Residents describe it as “the most sociable village in England” and “an island of contentment in a sea of discontent.” But all its previous felicity was crowned by the formation last season of a football club. The club started playing in December, with tlie vicar, the Rev. A. W. Goodhart, at half back. It has just held its first annual dinner, at which Col. Scott, of the Hall (the president) remarking on the continual loss of matches at the beginning, said it was a curious fact that thev started winning after the village had a change of beer. White Notley folk, it is stated, live as long as they like. Oil New Year’s Eve a man over 80 sang two con ic songs and another of 76 performed a dance to jazz music. HIRED BABY. DECEPTION WHICH BROUGHT EXTRA COKE. By hiring out her babv at a penny a time a young mother has reaped a rich harvest at a Manchester gasworks and enabled hundreds of childless folk to secure a ticket for additional supplies _of coke "ranted to people with children. Scores of childless women assembled daily in the queues outside the gasworks, and the mother took up her stand at the head of the qi cue. She invited every lonely person to accept the loan of the child for a penny. For three days no one refused, and the clerks who issued the tickets cheerfully handed over an additional voucher. The mother, however, raised the hiring price to twopence. This roused the wrath of women in the district and the authorities were informed of the deception.

SHOE-FITTING BY X-RAYS. CUSTOMERS SEE FOR THEMSELVES. A novel X-ravs apparatus bv which one can actually see' whether new boots or shoes fit, has been installed in a bootmaker’s shop at Kensington, London. This latest application of X-rays has been invented by a London firm. The purchaser of the shoes stands on the platform of the apparatus and the X-rays view of the foot and shoo is displayed to the purchaser and assistant. . “The amount of X-rays used in the machine is so very small that it would require exposure to these ray s for very lengthy periods to produce any ill-effects,” said a member of tlie firm who made the apparatus. “The apparatus is perfectly safe for all ordinary circumstances.”

THRILLING CLIFF RESCUES. MAN AND WOMAN HANGING ON TO IVY ROOT. A man who was hanging by his hands to the ledge of a cliff 300 feet up and his sister who was supporting him, were rescued at Lynmouth, Devon. Their plight was seen by the iighthouse-keeper, who summoned the coastguards. One of the party climbed up and fastened a rope to the man and woman, who were then hauled to the top of the cliff. | Describing their escape, the woman 1 said: “We thought the cliff path i looked easy and would save us the i journey back over the rough beach, i My brother reached the ledge of a j rock, which gave way. He clung with S both hands to an ivy root. We shout!eJ and I waved a handkerchief, but | despaired of help. Both of us were ! afraid ho would lose his hold and i drag me down with him. He said: | ‘I shall onlv break my leg,’ but I i knew better-I—that he would he dash--led to pieces. .. f , “My brother frequently said: T can only last ten minutes more,’ and . then help came.” ; NOSE THAN CAN BE CAN--CELLED. MUSEUM KEEPER AND THE GODDESS. “Most people cannot enjoy a face ! without a nose,” said Mr A. Hamilton Smith, keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum to a Daily Mail reporter, with reference to the fixing of a plaster i nose to the statue of the Greek god--1 cless Demoter of Cnivos, in the Bnt- ’ ish Museum. , 1 Mr Smith stated that the fixing ot 1 the plaster nose is a “legitimate experiment which can be cancelled im- . mediately if so desired. The whole tradition of tho British Museum is opposed to the restoration of the • Greek Marbles, hut in certain instances the experiment has lately been tried of adding plaster noses, which "reatly conduce to the pleasure* of visitors. ' All that has been done can he removed in' two minutes, leaving tho head as it was previously.” ! Mr Smith said it was untrue that ' the surface of the face had been scraped. It had been washed only.