AROUND THE GLOBE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1706, 22 December 1919, Page 9

AROUND THE GLOBE.

I THE,FATEFUL. SPOT. ',A ease of "suicide,.by a man at the exact crossing where he lost an arm in u 1 railway accidont-vtwenty years ago was piesented before the Preston coroner at the inquest on the body,of. John Akers, 46. The. deceased, had been very much depressed since the .death. pf.his.juother six months ago. .He was seen to',-throw liiinself in front .of a trajn at a level crossing, near Leyland station. "He lost an arm .as: the result of an,accident at the Bame crossing, twenty years ago.

BUTTER RATIONS IN.ENGLAND, The reason why English people have been reduced to a butter ration of one and one-half ouncos a week, was made plain last month with the annouucoY ment that imports of butter for the year ended Juno 30 were rOjOOOtoris, as cpn'ipai;cd with- 210,00') tons in, an'avorage, year before the war. It may bo two years before the supply, will reach, tlie, normal demand. .Butter.seljs in, London at. 2s 6d, a. pound as compared with about 3?,1d in I<Yance, Sweden. erlapd and Germany, and 5s in Italy.

PASSING OF HA'PENNY. , A plague on the ha'penny ; who wants it nowadays? The ha'penny faro is gone; the. ha'penny, paper almost-gone. A low fares still call for a supplementary ha'penny, hut not for the stacks that are unloaded >on us in bus, tram and shopman's "change." : Wo, want-a coin, controller to rid us of | them and. supply. our daily need of pennies, of which there is a famine in some districts. Which, is not to be wondered at, when we learn that slot •machines absorb 50,000,000 a month.— London Chronicle. OFFICER IN CORSETS'. First Lieutenant Von Pluskow, son ol a former aide-de-camp of the exKaiser, has been discovered hanging from a hook over the door in a room at Potsdam. He was wearing a pair ol women's long white corsets and women's black gloves reaching to the elbow. He bought the corsets himself two months ago at a Potsdam shop. A coloured picture of a woman wearing {duck 'gloves was found in the room. The fact that a saddlestrap round the young otlicor's neck had cut deep into'his flesh seems to mak the theory of suicide improbable.

WHY SHAKE HANDS? ■ Although to-day we all shake Hands (hi meeting as a matter of course, there Wits n time when purists* .held, that friends of opposite sexes should not salute one another by Shaking hands. In 1828, Sir John Nicholl, giving judgment in a divorce c»se, remarked that "conduct highly blamable.and distressing to the feelings of, a husband had been proved; but, although thirty witnesses had been examined, no indecent familiarities beyond kissing had been proved. The shaking of hands when they met was now a practice so fitqueut between persons of different sexes, however opinions might differ as ta its delicacy, that no unfavourable inference could be deduced thence."

FRANCE SHORT OF COAL. France is confronted with a shortage of 41,000,000 tons of coal, and must resume the sale, of iron ore to Germany immediately in order to keep all her mines in operation, according to Professor P. H. Probert, dean of the University of California school of mines, and chairman of tho American Mining Commission that visited France in 1918. Professor Probert said that' the crimes committed against industry by Germany wore as cruel as any perpetrated against i humanity. Germany's campaign Vof industrial destruction :in Franco' included pro-estimates of the amount of explosives necessary to wreck mines and factories.

'•''lt is gooditoihearithat.private.as well' as public > retrenchment *-is ; now/v being adopted;\say> ;"A"Mah'About:Tmvn" in, ' J A certain .Addressing, her Hivo?: daughters :•; at one; :MioriJiing>slie*:expmsse(li'iui ahope,, . thatVthey^wojildf ndtfcpfess gtbgir jjt then; ;abs^it;father.;;to2takeHbom;to ! 'Scotland' •tlds!> autumn..*, >... ~ '- } , . .>f -i ■ ..''" I pad v a •glancevat" bis ;---.el)f*qiioA bppk* ■ hist /night,** myf dears,' '*\sberext)laiiied-.' ! 'a n'cP Hvas to \seo 'tliat- bo-; b»d? only two -..cheques left. We really must economise:" V ' ',

WHEN-DOES: WIFE'S DUTY END?; ' i ,Who'n'" does -a wj i'o' s' \ du.fcy,-' end ? < .Mr> Ryniinons,'.; at; ' North 5 London- Vmfjk OourLJ addressing < a woman cliargod - Svith ■'drunkenness,', said,/.; pared-:liiir,'• liiisb'uii'd!s/su pp'er,V.wh o<va\ id :', •. • u .You' , ouglifcCto ■liave»l)e.ej\i'ii.tt ihfiniG,; ,when.your InißbandUrrivetl.'aiid'giveii; liim> liis- Kupj)er', ; 'to.;]iavo .talked .;td ptiirii,^ *'i'< 11 eV\voii]d>wan mo) tell;,y ou what\,hej scored off the 'foreman, and done other things. (Laughter!) Donlt tell; me, that you did your duty as a wife by simply keeping his supper warm."

RESTORING THE LOOT. Tho work of recovering stolen Belgian machinery from Germany is proceeding with full swing. Approximately 3000 tons of machinery are being •shipped'£back, weekly to ,the,f original owners ? byiGerman industrial firms, who have set them up in .their own factories. The total tonnage returned .on July 1 was 18,000. V .Af FIGHTiNGJ^IAYOR.'/V' $* ,:V ■ >:; ; /£li_V.. ■" ■ •*> ■' ' '■• Mayor Ole Hanson, of.Seattle, lived tip to his reputation of always having a fight in Yakima when.be spent Saturday and Sunday as tho guest of the Washington Automobile Dealers' Association, says a San Francisco paper. As he was driving slowly in an automobile a spectator remarked: "He ought to be hanged to the nearest telephone pole." Hanson promptly climbed, out of the hiachine and struck the man a ringing blow. The fellow disappeared quickly, in tho crowd, which cheered the aggressive attack. "That's the way to deal with tho I.W.W. They're-all cowards," the Seattle mayor told the Yakima mayor, who ivas with him. "I ki)OW that fellow's face; he's been under arrest at Seattle." Hanson has visited Yakima five times in recent years, and says he haß-had'to "fight" tsack time,