NEWS OF THE WORLD

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6900, 4 May 1929, Page 13

NEWS OF THE WORLD

TO CHECK HYDROPHOBIA DOCTORS CLAIM DISCOVERY A serum which is expected to prevent and cure hydrophobia has been developed at the County Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Maurice L. —.'.tt and Dr. Samuel J. Hoffmar have announced that after a year’s research they have discovered an antitoxin which has successfully halted development of rabies in laboratory tests with animals and which they believe will cure human cases. The principle, it was explained, is the same as that used for treatment of scarlet fever and diphtheria cases, in which the serum of an immunised animal is used. MASTER AND SERVANT SLAIN ASSASSIN CORNERED AND SHOT

Father Joseph Pavnik, rector of St. Martin’s Roman Catholic Church at Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, a widely known leader of the Alovak party, has been killed by an assassin, who mistook him for a former rector of the church. In the pursuit that followed Father Pavnik’s personal servant also was slain. . The assassin, Geza Strochon, was cornered by a posse and shot to death after his own ammunition became exhausted. He was a former secretary of the church. Strobhon had sought vengeance against Father Josann Stefanek, who had caused him to be imprisoned for two years for robbing the poor box and stealing ecclesiastical objects. He met Father Pavnik in a dark passage and asked: “Are you the rector of St. Martin’s church?” Upon receiving an affirmative reply, and not realising that Father Stefanek had retired from the rectorship, Strochon exclaimed: “I told you two years ago at my trial that I would have vengeance. Now I have achieved it.” Then he fired, killing the priest. WATER PURIFIED BY SILVER PROCESS CHEAP MEANS OF KILLING GERMS

Sterilising water for drinking purposes will be an easy /matter if the method discovered by a Munich engineer, Dr. George Krause, proves feasible. All that Is needed to destroy the myriads of germs contained in ten million quarts of water is one and a-half grains of silver prepared by the Krause method. A professor of hygiene at Greifswald University, Dr. Rudolf Degkwitz, who has made a thorough test of the process, confirms the efficiency of the invention. Within less than an hour he succeeded in completely sterilising a cubic centimetre of water which contained a million germs. The new method Is said to have several improvements. It works independently of temperature, it can be applied to any quantity of water and needs no supervising. REFUSED A LIGHT r * SMOKERS GO TO LAW

A Judgment of Interest to smokers is reported from Dresden In Germany. In an unspecified Saxon town a wouldbe smoker .approached one who already smoked with a polite request for a light, and was sharply rebuffed. He sued the unresponsive stranger for contumely, and a provincial Court gave him the verdict. On appeal, however, the Dresden Court maintained that "refusal to grant a favour does not necessarily signify disdain or contempt. It may be impolite, but 'is not in itself contumelious.” The rights of ownership of matches have been confirmed, therefore; another great legal precedent has been established; and the suppliant’s case, unlike his cigarette, ended in smoke.

TUNE IN ON THIS! * INVESTMENT NETS 6,725% Three years ago Albert Anderson of Seattle, aged 80, accommodated a friend by giving him £2 for a share of Radio Corporation stock. He figured he had come out second best in the transaction. The other evening while he was visiting friends the conversation drifted to Radio stock. “I have one share,” he said. “A fellow sold it to me for £2. I guess it was money thrown away.” “Yes?” drawled the friend. "Well take a look at this quotation.” As a result of “the look” Anderson sold his stosk, making 6,725 per cent, on his £2 investment. ,

LEAP OF 3,000 FEET AVIATOR’S THRILLING ESCAPE Lieutenant J. B. Haddon, became a member of the famous “Caterpillar Club” the other day when he leaped to safety from his burning plane near New Carlisle. Haddon was saved by his parachute when he jumped at an altitude of 3,000 feet when the fire started. Only persons whose lives have been saved by a parachute leap from a crippled plane are eligible for membership in the “Caterpillar Club,” which now embraces about forty pilots, headed by Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, who has three leaps to his credit. Lieutenant Haddon was piloting s pursuit plane equipped with a supercharger when a connecting rod is believed to have broken, igniting the ship. The plane was at an altitude of 3,000 feet. He was testing the plane. Haddon had been flying at between 26,000 and 28,000 feet during the test and had dropped to a lower altitude for other test work,

NOT SO MAD FORTUNE EARNED BY WAITING James Posey, known as “the mad oiler of the steamer Alloway,” who refused to leave his ship when she was in imminent danger of going on the rocks and had been abandoned by the rest of her crew, has turned out to be not so mad. While the disabled Alloway was being towed by the steamer Montauk, the tow-line had parted in a narrow strait off Alaska. Neither warnings nor entreaties could induce Posey to desert his post when the ship was abandoned by the others on board. When the storm died down the Alloway was still afloat. Contrary to expectations, her anchors had held firm during the storm. Some of the crew returned to the ship, started up fires, and are sailing her to harbour. “The mad oiler’s” share of the reward for saving the ship will probably amount to a small fortune.

DOG SAVES MASTER RAN MILES THROUGH SNOW A man’s life was saved by his dog in the mountains near Lucerne last month. The man was overcome by the cold, and the dog went several miles to an isolated farm house and succeded in attracting the attention of the inhabit tants. They followed the dog and found the man covered with snow. He had lost his way while walking through the Forest of Dietsberg. TERRORISED GIRL WIFE SHOT HUSBAND IN HIS ,SLEEP

A tragedy in which an 18-year-old wife shot her husband while he was asleep was reported to the Paris police recently. Three years ago M. Jean Chaffour, advertisement manager of a big Paris firm, met and married his bride. She was then only 15, and according to French law special permission for the marriage had to be obtained. M. Chaffour, who was 12 years 01. ir, appeared to have been extremely jealous, and it is stated that on several occasions he quarrelled with his wife, accusing her of flirting. Finally, it is alleged, he kept her strictly secluded in their flat and refused her permission to go out except for the most urgent household requirments. Mme. Chaffour, when arrested, declared that she had become terrorised by her husband's violence, and fearing that his jealously would lead him to attack her and her baby girl she took his revolver from his desk and shot him while he was asleep. She wept while making this confession and declared that she had been distracted or she would not have done such a thing.

GROW FRUIT BY ELECTRICITY FRENCH HORTICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS At the last meeting of the Academy of Science of the French Institute the president read a paper expounding the experiments In fruit-growing without sunlight as conducted by MM. Truffaut and Thurnyssen, two scientific horticulturists.

In the course of his reading he presented his fellow Savants, on behalf of the horticulturists, a basket containing a number of strawberry plants bearing ripe and fragrant fruit. The plants, he had been assured, had never seen natural light until that moment They had been grown in a cellar under light of two electric lamps which were kept continuously revolving at a height of 41ft above them. The lamps employed were 1,200 watts and had Tungsten filaments.

Under these conditions the plants, which, if exposed to natural light, would have taken eighty days in which to grow, blossom and bear fruit, had budded after fifteen days and borne fruit after twenty-five more. The academicians who tasted the strawberries pronounced them to be of exceptional flavour and aroma, which the president said was probably due to the dominance of yellow and orange rays of the lamps. He added in reply to several eager questions: “There will be no revolution In fruit-growing, however—at least not just yet. It cost just 125 francs (£1) to produce each of these berries.”

SENTENCED TO DIE YOUTH WHO KILLED FOR THRILL A Superior Court jury at Atlanta found George R. Harsh, wealthy former collegian, guilty of the murder of Willard Smith, a drug store clerk, and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair. Harsh, member of a wealthy Milwaukee family, and frequenter of exclusive clubs here, while attending Oglethorpe University killed Smith, 24-year-old drug store manager, during an attempted robbery last October 16. He confessed, but a plea of not guilty was entered by attorneys who contended that ho was a “constitutional psychopath,” incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

There was no demonstration in the jammed court room when the verdict was read. The sister of the prisoner, Mrs. J. S. Disosway, of Atlanta, and his mother, Mrs. George R. Harsh, of Milwaukee, wept softly for a brief period, but controlled their emotions until the brother and son was led from the bar to a secluded room in the courthouse.

Just before she reached the haven of refuge from the eyes of spectators, that have been upon her for four days, as she sat beside her son, Mrs. Harsh cried:

“Oh, why do they kill people when they don’t know what they are doing?” Gallogly, whom Harsh named as his companion during the holdup, is under I indictment and awaiting trial on identical charges. - ’