OUR MAIL BAG.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1146, 12 February 1903, Page 6

OUR MAIL BAG.

NEWS FROM EVERYWHERE. ' TWENTY WABBHIPB FOB SALE. No fewer than twenty obsolete warships are to be sold by the Admiralty at the end of the year. This is an unprecedented number for an annual clearanoe sale. In all, the vessels represent a displacement of 56,061 tons. ASLEEP FOB TWO MONTHS. Twenty-four hours after a quarrel with her sweetheart, Miss Dora Meek fell into a deep sleep a trance at Centralina, Illinois. That was over two months ago, and all efforts made to revive her have proved unsuccessful. She cannot be awakened by a noise, however loud, but when touohed with a needle or pinched sharply on the ear her brows contract in a slight frown as if she were provoked. Food is given to her regularly, and her body shows no sign of wasting. Local dootors Btate that her sleep is due to a form of hysteria. A spiritualist, however, declares that the girl is obsessed, and is now endeavoring to remove the evil power by which he alleges she is controlled. A BIJiQINQ HEAHT. according to a telegram from Berlin, published in a London paper, Professor Roltter recently introduced to the Society for Internal Medicine, in Vienna, a woman with a musical heart. For the past four years she has suffered from palpitation, and about eighteen months ago she noticed for the first time a peculiar singing noise in her breast, whicb was also audible to other persons, and rose and fell in strength and pitch. The sound is said to be due to a malformation of the heartvalves, which sets up vibration. SLEEPING SICKNESS BPRKADINU. News received at Brussels states that the dreaded sleeping sickness is spreading with alarming rapidity in the Congo Free State. Father Handckyn, a Belgian missionary, says that in one village over thirty boys have been stricken. They were fine, healthy, intelligent negroes, but are wasting away to skeletons from the effects of the disease. Their eyes have become yellow, their lips ashen grey, they have grown dull and stupid, and stumble when they walk about. A SINQDLAB OBUEK. The lightermen, whose business it is to tranship cargo from one mail steamer to another in the port of Bridgetown, Barbados, have lately been between the devil and the deep sea. In consequence of the small-pox visitation, Sir Frederic Hodgson arranged that a disinfected vessel—the Ida —should be anobored in Carlisle Bay, having on board a supply of lightermen's elothes. When the work of transhipping was to be taken in hand, the men were to be conveyed from the shore to a distance of not less than 25 yards from the Ida, there to shed their clothes, and swim to the disinfected vessel for a new rig-out. Their work on the mail steamers over, tbey were to go back to the Ida, strip again, and swim ashore for their own clothes. Seeing that " Jack Shark " holds a mortgage on the waters thereabout, it is not surprising tbat the lightermen's wives in Bridgetown gave expression to some anxiety. Happily the peculiar order was rescinded before the Barbadians had an opportunity of seeing some anxious trials for the record for a twenty-five yards swimming event. BDBULABIKB IN AUBTBAUA. The 'Sydney Mail' says:—"All is not gold that glitters " will have a sad significance for one gentleman of the fraternity who has of late been so active in connection with the burglary boom in Melbourno and Sydney. A Swanston street jeweller bad in his window an ingot of yellow gold, labelled 70oz, and of an alleged value of £202. On Saturday night a man, feigning drunkenness, lurchod against the window and broko tbe plate glass, ii companion instantly seizing the ingot. Both ran off, and temporarily escaped, only to find tbat the prize was a hollow Bham. Later in the evening eight suspects, said to be " well known to the police," were arrested in one one place, but the disappointment of tbe principals can be well imagined; the subsequent intimation that the glass of the window was insured for £l2 10s should serve to further lacerate their feelings. This MelI bourne occurrence has given some comfort I to the numerous Sydney suburban residents | who have not got off so lightly. One of the curious features regarding Sydney burglaries is as to what becomes of the " swag." For instance, recent prosecutions have shown that hundreds of cases of jama were stolen, and large quantities of flour, ironmongery, and other bulky goods havo been taken. The other week £250 worth of boots, many of them only partly made, were cleared out of a factory. Such hauls should be difficult of disposal, yet they seemingly become absorbed. The " fence " system in Sydney must be particularly efficient. (The whole of the loot in the boot robbery was discovered in a private house after this comment was published. A boy found the proceeds of a big jewellery and fancy goods robbery under a suburban bridge, and another large "swag " was also happened on last week, so that the burglars' luck would seem to be turning.)