HERE AND THERE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1921, Page 1

HERE AND THERE

£25,000 IN A GARRET.,

Rare United States postage stamps, valued at over £25,000, have been discovered among old letters in the garret of a house in Philadelphia. Sensational “finds” of rare stamps are few and far between nowadays. Most people are only too well aware of the marketable value of old stamps, hut beyond doubt there are reposing in the dusty garrets of old houses, and in the letter files of old-established businesses, banks, shipping agents’ and lawyers’ offices, old letters hearing scarfjp postage stamps worth many hundreds and thousands of pounds. Even modem stamps provide opportunities for tlie astute investor. A young clergyman in Newfoundland provided himself with the means to an Oxford career by buying about 50 per cent of the entire issue of tho one-dollar Alcock air post stamp. Only 10,000 specimen's were issued last year, and certain stamp dealers tried to corner the market. The padre, however, was first in the field, and was thus able to fix his own price..

THE UGLIEST WOMAN. "The ugliest woman in the world,” Mrs M. A. Bevan, has just returned to London from “showing” in America, and she is now at home with her four high-spirited and normal-featured boys and girls. Mrs Revan told a correspondent the story of her adventures —a pathetic narrative of a hard-worked widow really to do practically anything to rear her family. “Of course 1 am ugly,” she said, “and 1 never pretend lam anything else. When 1 was given a contract to appear as the ugliest woman I was delighted. It meant food and clothing for my family. My dehut was fit the Agricultural Hall, Islington, and the things people said made my cry, hut 1 became used to it. I like the Americans tremendously. They did not say nasty tilings. Everybody seemed to he the same there. Millionaires gave me dolls for my children. I don’t know what 1 am going to do next, but it will he either a tour in. France, Belgium or Scotland.” WALKING THROUGH FIRE. A striking demonstration of the lireresisting properties of a solution of which he is the inventor was given by a discharged soldier named Truro, at Stamford Bridge, London. Leading members of the Metropolitan Eire Brigade were present. The most spectacular item on the programme was the walking through fire by Mr Truro, dad in a suit of khaki treated l»v his fire-resisting solution. Shavings were soaked in petrol and set alight, and the inventor not only walked through the blaze, but knelt down in it without his clothing being ignited, or he himself, apparently, sullering the slightest inconvenience. BIG BICYCLE DEAL. A contract has been completed by the British Disposals Board with Mr Patrick Hearn, job-master, Grays Inn Road, London, for the. sale of all Army bicycles that become available during the next two years, ft, is expected that at least twenty thousand will be transferred under tin* terms of the deal. They are to ho handed over to the purchaser at* the centres in France and England where they ore now stoied. It is understood that the purchase price is Jos for each bicycle. While some of the machines are hadlv worn, hundreds arc in excellent condition. The contract also provides that all accessories in all theatres of war shall become (be piu|>erly of the purchaser. A moderate estimate places the value of Army stocks and accessories at about C 200,000.

LET IN THE LIGHT. Do not exclude the light from your rooms. Heavy curtains that make the room dark must he taboo. The dust that settles on the panes in the dirt.v atmosphere of the town must he washed oil'; the smuts on the panes are traps that imprison the sunbeams and pieveut them from cnrryjpg (,ut t,R ‘" benevolent work in the rooms. Choose tt light, wallpaper.. Have you over noticed how much brighter the room is when the white tablochith is spread out The light is reflected, instead o beiim absorbed, by bright surfaces. I hate gloomy rooms; they have a depressing effect on the nerves. I! there happens to he an outside wall that can be whitewashed so as to throw light ink the room opposite, please 'have a work done. And do not forget that a room is brightened by a smile. Light n „d smiles ltfep the microbes a wav A microbe never smiles-exoept when gets into a dark room where it can flourish undetected. TbKES ITNDKUl T NDKU CHLOROFORM. Sir Jagadlr Chiindw Dose, the wellknown Indian scientist and <Ht im 1 / on the subject of nervous 1 vegetation (writes a contribute, of a London paper), has told us in a 1 ‘ lecture that the chloroforming of tiers may he successfully earned out, much Z the same way and with the same object as when anaesthetics are apphed to animal life. For example * *U* which could not be transplanted .ntbou; certain death was safely moved while under the Influence ot chlorofonn, and that without feeling the shock. (Anaesthetics have also been used by gardeners in tbe forcing of early blooms. Tims it has been proved that lilac bushes submitted to the fumes of .chloroform dr other for twenty-four hours were thrown into a deep sleep, with the result that when they “came round” they behaved precisely as d they bad passed through their normal winter rest, nnd thitikjiig thp spring

had comc 3 immediately burst into leaf and blossom at Christinas- Hn the: light of these facts it seems highly probable that further investigations may enable us to apply nervous stub to plants in the interests of food production. Once we learn how to control these nervous impulses in vegetation which we know exist, to stimulate them or to deaden them at will, • then Hie practical application of that knowledge should produce results of incalculable commercial value.