ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Hastings Standard, Volume XII, Issue 5846, 9 May 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

There comes from the Canary Islands the story of a cruel carnival .joke—for such it apparently must bo regarded the victims of which are to be pitied. On Shrove Tuesday twenty young men of Las I'almas decided to array themselves as Indians, and instructed a tradesman named Francisco Alonzo to prepare them a coat of paint which should give them the regular redskin hue Francisco smeared their faces with a magnificent copper coating, on wliLh he painted all sorts of insects. This disguise obtained such a brilliant success that on Ash Wednesday eighty other inhabitants, flocking to Francisco's shr.p, asked him to metamorphose them similarly. When trie carnival fun was over the people started to remove their paint, but, to their horror, they could make no impression on it. They applied to a chemist for assistance, but all the comfort that the man of science could give them was to the effect that a corrosive had been mixed with the tatooing matter, and they would remain all their lives disfigured. The North Americans in their fury resolved to have at least Alonzo's scalp, but, warned in time, he had already made his escape from Las Palmas to Bayonne. In the matter of naval and military uniforms, King Edward, when away from the United Kingdom, follows the good old adage which declares that when at Rome you must do as the Romans do (says an exchange). This is, however truer of even the smallest German principality than of the great capital of Italy. The moment His Majesty sets foot in the Fatherland he must appeal- clothed in the imposing uniform of one of the Kaiser's smart regiments. When passing through Kiel the King appears in the quaint costume of a German admiral; when in Coburg his garments re-call those worn by his father when Prince Albert came courting the maiden Queen, and so on. The United States leads the way in tile Y.M.C.A- movement, having 1705 Associations and 383,289 members, and owning buildings valued at £5,904,088. Europe is very keen, and Scandinavia has W)\ Associations, Switzerland 495, and Holland 368. Even such places as China, Malaysia, Persia, Asia Minor, Balkan States, Russia. Finland (4.5), Iceland, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Madagascar and Hawaii have their Y.M.C.A.'s. The World's Centre is Geneva, and the total number of Associations under their rules is 7678, with 765,605 members and with buildings to the value of £8,150,000

The "British Australasian''' is responsible for the following remarkable production:—"Lionel Terry, the stalwart and crazy Oxford graduate, who shot a Chinese in cold blood with the object of helping to 'keep the British pure.' has turned the Seacliffe Gaol, where he is confined, into a pantomime." He escaped again the other day for the fourth time, but was easily recaptured, it being next to impossible, of course for a prisoner to get clear away fiom an island State. It costs the Government £4OO a year to look after him He refuses to eat rice or any food grown in New Zealand. He won't eat with the other prisoners, but sits at a separate table in the gaol library, with two personal attendants to wait upon him. Every day he runs for hours around the exercise yard, the menials in weary pursuit. He is training for his own escape. He is punctilious in honour, and if he would only give his parole the gaolers would accept it with confidence, and get a little much-needed rest. But he has made it clearly understood that he; means to escape, and the whole establishment is worn outwatching him. New Zealand regards its cultured prisoner with awe because he is an English gentleman, but one paper has burst out at last with the eminently sane suggestion that, to save further trouble the maniac should ba tied up in a strait-jacket." An English motorist, resident in Loudon and Switzerland, went for a tour into Italy. When leaving Genoa, in the midst of traffic, he was run into by a small boy, who wae hurt badly enough to need a few weeks in hospital. The Englishman drove the boy to the hospital, plainly showed that lie was in no wise to blame for the accident, liberally compensated the boy's familv for any possible detriment hereafter] and obtained a full legal indemnitv from any sort of claim for damages. The police, nevertheless, had sequestiated his car. The accident had happened on the sth of November. The bov was discharged from the hospital quite eurqd six weeks later. Yet, on the 4th of February, at the time of writing, the car was still held sequestrated at the expense of its owner, on the pretext that evidence as regards the circumstances of the accident was conflicting. The case, it was alleged, must he tried in court, but when no mar, could tell, though all the, assistance which the best legal advice, our Consul-General at Genoa, our ambassador at Rome and the Italian Automobile Club could afford had been invoked. Now the case has been settled at last. On 26th February, nearly four months after the incident, the motorist and his servant were caused to travel to Genoa to defend the action. Two and a half hours were spent in examining the witnesses against the motorist. Then the public prosecutor said he withdrew the charges, and judgment was given accordingly, exonerating the motorist fiom all blame. To add the last possible touch of ooniic opera to the proceedings, the president put the papers in his pocket and forgot MI about them. Days had to pass before the motorist could get the warrant for the release of his car. To enablo Messrs. Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, to proceed with tho construction of the steamships Europa and Gigantic, of 4-5,000 and 48,000 tons toss register, there has been constructed in Belfast Harbour a floating crane capable of raising weights exceeding 200 tons, mounted on an immense pontoon. It is in the form of a huge bellshaped tower supporting in turn' an adjustable jib capable of lifting any load with which it may have to deal to a considerable height above the water level, and at long outreaches beyond the sides of the pontoon. A special feature of interest is that the whole of tho crane will revolve on the pontoon, making a complete circle, and will thus have an unusually larger rangj. It is intended to moor the crane alongside the big ships for lifting heavy boilers, engines, and other big pieces of machinery on board after launching and during completion. It is entirely electrically driven, and is tho largest of its kind hi existence.