NEWS BY MAIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11449, 25 February 1931, Page 6

NEWS BY MAIL.

A REMARKABLE HYBID

A remarkable instance of hybridism which occurred under natural conditions is reported from Orkney. A bov caught a rabbit alive among some hire-e stones just above high-wa-ter mark" He was more than astonished to find that it had the long (ail and the feet of a rat. The bead and body were those of a rabbit, and tbe creature was about the size ot an onlinnry rnbmt. I animal was seen by several highly reliable towns-peop’e. who declared that they had never before seen such a creature. . . , „ From the situation of the pace where the animal was brand it is clear tb.at rabbits have little chance of travelling far. and there is even less chaimo of unrelated rabbits reachiim' the place. Consequently no fresh blood is imparted to the stock, ar.d inbreeding nuif-t- bo the rule Hats abound on the island, inis rate freak was evidently the result o> m-tor-lmeeding between a rabbit and a rat

HUAIOUR FRDA! JUDGES. , A French easliier accused roco'dlv of embezzling 55 Irenes, equal b* a little over nine shillings, admili'd on trial that during the last 13 y ( "”' s he had systematically made away with 750 030 francs (about £6000). }be comment of the judge was: ‘‘lt- is a pity that a mail of your excellent character should be m the position you are. A'ou have not only stolen your em])loyer s money, but you hate failed to make a return ol your illgotten gains for the purpose oi lucerne tax?" t . Bueli exercises in judicial humour seem to owe something to the famous speech of the Scottish judge. Lord Eskgrove, when be, condemned a tailor t'* death for murdering a soldier. “\nd not only did you murder him. wheivbv be was bereaved of lief. but. you d el thrust, or push, or pierce nr project, cv jirnijr* the U'llial weapon through the band of bis regimental trousers which were His Majesty s property !"

DATI ! Ell'B FATAL URROR. How a man gave bis three-year-old son a fatal dose ol poison in mistake for medicine wa- told at an inquest on Arthur Keith Barry, the son o-’ a timber merebant. or 1 badderton. England. Air. Parry .stated that' ho gave the bov ' hat- be- thought, was a dose of medi' ine. "I "a nt to the cupboard, lie explained. "t<> get the sugar winch J always promised him alter his tiiedieine. and wlien I turned round I saw be was choking. I looked at tlnhnttle ami saw .inst the word "Poison He added tlmt' at the time it was dark, and the bottles were together oil the top of some drawers. A verdict- "I \leaih from misadventure" was recorded. After the inquest Air. Rarrv "as >o overcome that he had to be taken home in an ambulance.

BORROWED BREATHES. She was all optician's daughter. J wo glasses, and she liiady a spectacle oi hcTsell. There is a great increase in tiie number of country house owners who make then' own electric light . I lie “Own Your Own Ohm Movement. ’ Tho correct clothes lor men playing midget- golf is, "u learn, ‘'minusfours.”

Prom a newspaper report: “Hie women in the crowd chattered about the bride's crock. - ' The old crock she married, we imagine. People arc no" photographed "bile hearing their favorite music. One charming study portrays a plumber listening to tkq gurgle of a burst pipe. After miniature golf v ill come, no doubt, miniature fishing. This will bo done with a yard of cotton, a bent pin, and an ant’s egg dropped into the goldfish bowl. A golfer is a man wlm lias never finished sowing his wild oats. The latest type of motor car body has a seat that, can by converted into a bed. Now all that is needed is an alarm clock for use in traffic jams.

“MOTHER” JONES DEAD IN U.S.A.

100-YEAR-OLD LABOR AGITATOR

“AHother.” .1 ones, the 100-year-old Joan of Are of the American Labor movement, died recently at a farm where she had been kept to her bed for a year. Born in Cork in 1830, Alary J fines inherited the spirit of revolt flora per father, who, like many other Irishmen, had to flee to the States. Alary hud to yarn a precarious living as a dressmaker. Then cam© the Civil War, and she served as a nurse. Her association with industrial agitation began over GO years -ago, when she joined the Knights of Labor—the forerunners of the One Big Union idea. . Since then, until almost the last, she was in the forefront of every big industrial struggle in America. She) lias been imprisoned and lias faced machine gnus. .In 1014 when she led the strikers at the Rockefeller’ mines in Colorado, 12 men and 21 women and children Afvo.ro killed in a conflict with the guards, ami “Mother'’ Jones was sent to gaol. This began a lend with the Rockefeller inlerests_which, how ever, was ended in tho Fast years of her life. On her 100th birthday in (May, Mr. Rockefeller sent her a message of congratulation. At a strike in 1900. “Mother” Jones led a small army of women, carrying relief to the Strikers, past the guns and bayonets of the troops who surrounded the pits. In 1920 she was arrested in Pittsburg during a steel strikebut 15,000 workers demonstrated outside (lie gaol, and slid was let out the same evening. “I hope”, said tho old lady recently*,' “that the young workers will go out and raise hell and get justice and not be satisfied with a pat on the head from tiny boss.”