NEWS OF THE WORLD

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3279, 14 March 1931, Page 3

NEWS OF THE WORLD

DUKE AND DUCHESS ENTERTAIN.

The Duke and Duchess of Portland recently entertained the members of the household staff of Wellbeck Abbey at a ball in the famous underground ballroom. The great room, which is 150 ft. long and 60f. wide, is part of the extensive subterranean mansion built at enormous cost by the fifth duke. The ball celebrated the 73rd birthday of the Duke.

BALL HELD UNDERGROUND.

GHOSTLY EVIDENCES.

MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS IN .OFFICIAL'S HOME.

Weird occurrences, suggestive of a Christmas ghost story, are reported to have taken place at the stationmaster's house at Roose, near Barrow-in-Furness, in England.

Mr. J. M. Jackson, the stationmaster, who occupied the house with his wife and son, states that this is what happened: Meat-safes in the living-room fell over, and eggs in them were not broken. A kettle boiling on the gas ringwas flung across the room. The top of an oil stove toppled over and later the bottom half also fell over. The tea table jumped six inches. A plate was thrown into the kerb, and a chair turned over. A large copper kerb, with box end, was overturned.

"My boy," Mr. Jackson said, "was coming downstairs and the kettle flew off the ring and hit him on the finger.

BIG AUDIENCE IN TEARS.

JEWS MOVED BY CANTOR'S RECITAL.

Sixty Jewish cantors from all parts of England listened spellbound to a recital by Mordecai Hersham, the king of cantors, at the Holborn Empire, London, recently. Mordecai Hershman is the highestpaid cantor (leader of the synagogue choir) in the world. At Philadelphia he received £3500 for one recital. But he was just a trifle nervous about London.

"Do you think they will receive me all right?" he asked a newspaper representative before he appeared. He need have had no qualms. The spell of his astonishing voice had his big audience rocking with emotion when he wailed forth, in, as it seemed, inspired fashion, prayers from Maariv (evening prayer at a synagogue service). Tears were followed by chuckles of delight as he sang some Jewish folk-songs. To the non-Jewish ear the recital was most remarkable for what might be termed the cantor's vocal gymnastics, and for the drama and poignant passion he was able to convey without gesture of posturings. His voice would ring out like a clarion note. Then it would sigh like the softest wind: would lilt and tremble, and sob and chatter. BLOOD-RED DIAMOND BOUGHT. PURCHASED AS "INFERIOR." Among a parcel of inferior stones purchased by a Johannesburg firm of diamond cutters on the Lichtenburg fields recently was a diamond of rare quality and most unusual colour. When purchased, the stone was six and a-half carats in weight, and looked fit for use only as "boorl" in diamond cutting. On closer examination, however, it was found that under the clouded surface of the diamond was something brighter. A cutter immediately set to work on the stone, and, after a few polished windows had been made, bright sparks were seen coming from different angles. The cutting process was continued until the stone had been reduced to one and a-half carats. It was a beau tiful blood-red diamond, which experts declare to be a gem of great rarity. In 20 years' experience of diamond cutting the director of the firm has never come across a stone of that colour. Its value has been assessed at over £SOO. AMAZING MEMORY. "Tell me your telephone number?" "Seven three nine six."

"And yours, and yours

Twenty telephone numbers, and Olgo will repeat them all after half an hour's interval, backwards, forwards, inside out. Olgo is the lightning mathematician from Budapest, Hungary, now giving nightly performances in London.

You tell him to square, cube, and find the roots of astronomical figures, and with scarcely a moment's hesitation he will patter them off. "What day of the week was September 17, 1917?" "Sunday" Olgo has a wonder brain inside his well-shaped head. Since he was six years old he has steadily developed his mathematical abilities, and now at 27 his head is his fortune.

No magic wand has Olgo brought with him, just his wife and a blackboard. It is on the blackboard that he does his best turn. You call out a number of eight figures and his wife writes it down. Olgo stands with his back to the board and when 64 figures are chalked up, he rattles them off like a shot.

"Figures mean something different to me," said Olgo, in broken English. "I see them standing out in my mind like letters in advertisement signs. It is just training, and concentration which made it possible for me to do this.

"Is your brain specially insured?" "No," said Olgo, "but I have just received the first deposit on my skull which is going to be handed over to science when I die."