NEWS OF THE WORLD

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6912, 18 May 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

NEWS OF THE WORLD

“THE KITCHEN STAKES” ELEVEN MILES A DAY How far does a housewife walk in doing her daily tasks in the kitchen? An American county farm bureau decided to find out, so arranged for a number of farmers’ wives to carry pedometers for a week and see the result. The champion walker did eleven miles in one day, and the one walking the shortest distance chalked up three-quarters of a mile. “NUTSHELL” AT SEA FAILURE OF AMBITIOUS VOYAGE A message, transmitted by Central News, says that a Spanish steamer bound for South America has picked up, 400 miles from the Canaries, the lifeboat Schuttevaer, with its crew of three in a starving condition. They had been without food and water for a week. Their patent lifeboat had been constructed by the Dutch Captain Schuttevaer, who claimed that it was unsinkable and able, with the sails, to navigate any seas. Captain Schuttevaer, with a crew of three, sailed from Amsterdam 13 months ago in his three-ton lifeboat, first going to London. He set out from London at the end of March IS2B, but a gale in the Channel damaged his sails and rigging, and he put into Plymouth for repairs. It was January 3, 1929, when the boat finally sailed on its long journey with two men beside the captain. They were to call at Lisbon and the Azores, and then make for New York. They had provisions for 65 days. A SLANG CONTEST MANCHESTER’S QUAINT SEARCH American slang predominates in England. Such native expressions as “wangle” and “blotto” are obsolete. These facts were ascertained by means of a popular competition in the “Manchester Guardian." Prizes were to go to the two best lists of the six most expressive slang phrases. First prize was awarded to the list below, and second to one “constructed on similar lines”: — A pain in the neck. To get away with it. To let in on the ground floor. Bats in the belfry. To bump off. To spill the beans.

“It is clear,” says the judgment, “that American slang predominates and, incredible as it may seem, no one quoted any of the good old British slang phrases, perhaps because they are no longer known.” Most competitors obligingly translated their pet phrases. "A covered wagon” meant “an elderly rotund woman who aped the .flapper.” WOMAN DOCTOR’S DEATH SHATTERED HOPES OF CAREER Shattered hopes of a distinguished medical career are believed to be responsible for the death of Dr. Marion Lois Grimmer, who was found dead in her bedroom at her father’s house in Balham. Dr. Marion Grimmer was a member of a family of doctors, her father, Dr. George Kerr Grimmer, and her sister, Dr. Mary Isabel Grimmer, being both well known in the medical world. Dr. Marion was 33 years old and obtained her degree two years ago. She was a student at King’s College and then at Westminster and Charing Cross hospitals. She was regarded as a brilliant student.

Three months ago she underwent a severe operation to the throat and had since been depressed. She frequently told her father that she did not believe that she would recover and that her career as a doctor was ended, because she had lost her hearing in one eai’.

Early in the morning she sent for her father who went to see her and reassured her that she would recover. . When a servant entered her room later she was dead. A bloodstained table knife was near the body. Her throat had been cut and one artery in the wrist severed. NOT MINUTE TO SPARE POLICE SERGEANT’S PLUCK At risk of his life, a Blaenavou police-sergeant dashed through a wall of flames to save the life of a 13-year-old boy. The officer, Sergeant Carter, with another constable, discovered flames coming from a combined garage and shop over which the occupier, Mr. William Timmins, was sleeping with his'family. Breaking open a door, Sergt. Carter dashed in and, fighting his way through fire and smoke to the rooms above, found his. way barred by a wall of flame, beyond which lay the bedroom. The sergeant ran through and, finding the bedroom, rushed in and picked up the boy, whom he slung under his arm. By this time the other occupants were aroused and escaped to the street. Within a minute the whole of the Interior of the building fell in. The damage is estimated at £5,009. HIS THIRD VENTURE MARRIED THREE SISTERS When Joseph Schmidt, 48, of Portland, Oregon, married Mrs. Teresa Rippel, 47, he espoused the sister of his first two wives. The bride’s brother signed the licence as a witness. the third lime he has performed that service for a sister who was to marry Schmidt. Mrs. Rippel is a jyidow. Schmidt’s former wives died, I

THE FUNERAL FUND! SMALL CHINESE BOY’S ORGY Full of lollypops and ice cream, and marching at the head of a well gorged army of youngsters, Lee Chong, a six-year-old exponent of Chinese flaming youth out on a good time, was found by the police and returned to his agitated grandfather, Wing Song, merchant of San Mateo. On his person was found the remnants of £l2, which Grandpa Wing had saved up for a proper burial, for he had felt age creeping upon him and desired to make certain that the amenities sux’rounding his demise, when it came, were duly observed. The burial money, in gold and currency, he had secreted in an old lacquer box and there, it seems the adventurous Lee had found it. The little Chinese boy from associations with American playmates had gathered that money was made to be spent. First, he had the bills and gold changed. And then began a spending orgy such as candy store proprietors in the vicinity had not enjoyed in some time. As Lee moved from store to store spending his grandfather’s funeral fund boys and girls just naturally gravitated to him and he rewarded them with a lavish hand. He had spent £1 10s in this manner when the police, responding to a frantic call from Grandpa Wing, broke up the parade and sent Lee home, BULLFROG CHORUS DISTURBS KANSANS’ REST The citizens of Brookfield, Kansas, have asked for State help to drown the frog chorus that makes sleep almost Impossible there. A street that is to be paved, as soon as the weather permits, has become a frog pond and big bullfrogs have started spring rehearsals. The mud is too deep for the sleepless residents to snare the frogs, and a Brookfield ordinance prohibits the shooting of firearms within the city limits. The State will be asked to take up the job of driving off the bullfrogs or draining the mud-filled street. FETTERED ESCAPEES SIKHS’ BRIEF SPELL OF LIBERTY Ten convicts v no escaped from the gaol at Montgomery (Punjab) were recaptured by the police after 24 hours’ liberty. Investigation showed that the prisoners, mostly Sikhs serving long sentences, had painstakingly and over a long period made a tunnel between their cell and the outside walls of the gaol, a distance of 75ft.. The head of this passage was concealed by tire grinding mill at which they were employed. The convicts were fettered when they escaped during the night, and this, preventing freedom of movement, led to their capture. HALF-MILLION DISHES SCIENTIFIC WASHING-UP TEST William Nauer, burly and blond Lithuanian, has washed nearly 500,000 dishes here since August. He is doing some scientific dishwashing to discover how soon soap and water and a dishcloth will eat or wear off the surface of trays made from carbolic acid and an odourless formaldehyde. Engineers decided that the hardest wear to which the trays could be exposed was dishwashing. A woman, the first dishwasher, left because too much soap and water was marring her hands. Next came aD Italian steel mill-worker. The monotony sent him back to the mills. Then came Nauer, who yet shows no sign of weakening.

DACOITYI THE INDIANS’ MISTAKE The pitfalls which beset the path of the film producer in India are amusingly illustrated by an Incident reported from the Gujorat region. Members of a film company were staging a scene showing parties engaged in warfare making an early morning attack through a village. Unfortunately no previous intimation had been given to the villagers, who had never heard of cinema pictures. They mistook the raiders for “dacoits (armed thieves), and turned out to repel them. They also sent a message asking for the help of armed police, and the latter arrived just in time to rescue the film actors from the irate villagers’ hands. DANCER’S SURPRISE GIFTS FROM THE “COUNTESS” A pretty young woman servant who called herself Countess Gabrielle <le! Granados, and wore her mistress’s j dresses and jewels, was arrested in j Paris recently and charged with thet't of goods valued at £BOO. The girl, it is alleged, fell in love with a professional dancer whom she 1 met at a cabaret in Montmartre. She gave him a pearl tiepin belonging to | her mistress’s husband, and many other presents. The young dancer, Charles Alinie, declared that he thought Gabrielle a ! real countess who was immensely rich, and that he had made the conquest of his life. Despite his protests, he has been sent to prison to await trial with j the girl,