FROM AMERICA

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 282, 6 December 1907, Page 3

FROM AMERICA

President Roosevelt, during the course of his recent tour, met in Michigan (says a New York message) a man and his wife who, although still young, are the proud parents of eleven children. Mr Roosevelt, who is an enthusiast for large families, offered the parents, who are poor people, a freehold farm of forty acres in Michigan when their progeny should have increased mto twenty-two.

An extraordinary scene was witnessed at the Third Avenue Theatre, New York, which is noted for melodrama, and, according to the critics, for atrocious acting. It was in the last act, where the villain, after trying the patience of the audience for three long hours, essayed to die in the usual fashion. Then, for the first time, the audience began to cheer. Laughter and catcalls became general, aDd the "dying" rillain, named Robinson, waxed wrath. For one, two, three minutes Mr Robinson stood it. Then he sat bolt upright in bed. "Say, give a fellow a chance, won't you?" he yelled. The gallery shouted in glee. This was too much for Mr Robinson, and, hopping out of bed, he strode to the footlights and bawled, "Ladies and gentlemen—l know there are some here—l want to appeal to your sense of fairness to stop this disturbance. We are here to deliver the goods, and I know we can if we only get the chance. But how do you suppose I can die if you keep up this racket?" The jeers turned to cheers, and Mr Robinson strode back to bed, covered himself with the sheet and "died," as his lines required him to do.

News comes from New York of the arrival of the steamer Baltic with more than a thousand marriageable girls on board. The human cargo was voted the most picturesque ever Been in New York Harbour. Each girl wore her prettiest frock, with hair beribboned and tied as bewitchingly as possible. Most of them had a definite idea that they wanted husbands, as they had heard that American girls were becoming too highminded and asked too much. Scarcely one in the company knew more than three or four others on board, but all frankly declared that they were on the lookout for husbands. As most of the girls expect to go west, says a local paper, their prospects of marriage are flattering.