NEWS OF THE WORLD

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6764, 23 January 1932, Page 5

NEWS OF THE WORLD

AIRPLANES AS HEARSES WILL SUPPLANT MOTOR-CARS Mr Charles L. Rcade, speaking at the undertakers’ meeting held recently at Boston, Massachusetts, declared that airplanes will supplant motor-cars as the funeral coaches of the future. Government authorities, predicted Mr Beade, will set aside large burying grounds as far as possible from centres of population, and the airplane will be the logical conveyance to use.

ALLEGED HOLY GRAIL

PLACED ON EXHIBITION

Fahim Kouchakji, owner of the socalled chalice of Antioch, which many believe to be the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend—the cup out of which Christ drahk at the last supper—has placed the sacred relic on exhibition in the Louvre. Kouchakji, who has kept the chalice in a safety deposit box, bought the chalice 21 years ago in Syria. Later antiquarians identified it as a relic which disappeared 600 A.D., when Julian the Apostate destroyed tile churches of Autioch.

THE CHOP WATCHERS

GIRLS’ UNUSUAL OCCUPATION

What is the most unusual occupation for a girl? A strong bid for the world’s championship in this direction is made by Dr Anne Reed, director of the Student Personnel Bureau of New York University, on behalf of certain students at that university who are helping to pay their way through college. “Several of our girls at New York University,” says Dr Reed, “have jobs ns ‘chop-watchers.’ A ‘chop-watcher’ supervises chefs as they cook chops in restaurants and cafeterias to see that the proper brown is obtained on the surface, of the chop.” Docs anyone know of a more unusual occupation for a girl?

SPORTS MATERIALS CHARGE

FAMINE IN WILLOW TIMBER

Britain’s willow trees are dying from a disease called “water mark,” with the consequence that there is a famine in willow timber for cricket bats. The result of a similar famine in hickory shafts for golf clubs was the substitution of steel shafts. In almost every outdoor game and sport the implements used are of quite different material from those used by former generations. The old-fashioned football was ’ made of an animal’s bladder covered with leather. The original golf ball was stuffed With feathers very tightly compressed. Then', about 80 years ago, came the gutty of solid gutta-percha. The first rubber-cored hall was the Haskell, which appeared in the late nineties of the last century.

DIED ON EVE OF FORTUNE

LONELY WOMEN’S £IO,OOO

Bearing to a poor and aged Englishman the news of a £IO,OOO inheritance, a messenger found her dead in her room in Paris recently.

She was Miss Minnie Common, for 40 years a milliner’s hand in the employment of a famous dressmaker. Her origin, except for the fact that she was born in London, is unknown. She went to France in 1880 and was engaged some years later by the dressmaker. Six years ago the linn granted her a pension and she retired to live in her little room at Courbevoie, a Paris suburb. Her fellow-workers say that she never spoke of England or of having any family there. The letter she never read contained an intimation of the bequest of a block of flats. But Miss Gommon, penniless in death, was even buried at the expense of her former employer.

GERMANY’S FATTEST MAN

WEIGHED 539 POUNDS

Following a heart attack, Bobcrt Roj'cndorf lias died, aged only 47, at Duisburg. He was Germany’s heaviest inhabitant. Bobcrt, who weighed 5391 b, earned his living by exhibiting his enormous size. He travelled about for this pose in a motor van specially designed to accommodate him. His colossal proportions necessitated various precautions. His bed and chairs were of extraordinary size and strength. The rfont door of his house was about twice as wide as the doors of his neighbours. No railway company would allow Robert to board a train, nor was he permitted to ride in a tram. There are no cars or compartments in existence with doors thorugh which he could pass. Ordinary motor-cars or taxicabs, of course, were out of the question. MYSTERY OF £IO,OOO TOMB MAUSOLEUM FOR TEN PEOPLE A £IO,OOO mausoleum with room for 10 or 12 coffins is being built in West Norwood Cemetery, London, by a distinguished public man, who desires to remain anonymous and is keeping his purpose secret. “This is a sacred matter to me.” he said, “and for the present I should prefer that my name is not disclosed. Later it may be possible to reveal my reason for building this monument.” The erection of the mauseleum, opposite the grave of Sir Hiram Maxim, has aroused the curiosity of local inhabitants for months. From time to time the owner and his architect have been seen together discussing details as the work has been proceeding. The exterior of the structure is of white stone, surmounted by a huge marble figure of Christ and a little child, and Is almost complete. Around the tower are engraved the words: “Love, light, life, truth.”

DOWN TO THE LUSITANIA

SALVAGE SCHEME PLANNED

A plan to salve articles of historic value from the Cunard liner Lusitania by means of a new invention was announced recently. It is proposed to lower a steel-enclosed stairway to the liner, which was sunk by a German submarine off Kinsale, Ireland, during the war. As the end of the stairway is an observation chamber from which the wreck may be lit up and the work of the diver directed. Photographs will be taken of all parts of the vessel with the aid of powerful lights. The steel tube, which has already been tested in the English Channel, is the invention of Mr Simon Lake, a submarine builder. He proposes to go to the scene of the wreck with Captain If. H. Railey, another submarine expert, and Mr D. B. Lewis, who is acting as treasurer to the expedition. The approval of the British Admiralty is being sought.

92-YEAR-OLD STUDENT TOOK MEDICAL COURSE Franz Kabina, the oldest student of Czechoslovakia, has just died at the :igc of 02, before completing his course of medicine at the University of Bratislava. In his younger days Franz was a lawyer. After the war he retired from the Bar and became interested in medicine. The medical students of Bratislava placed on his grave a wreath with the inscription: “To our oldest colleague.”

MURDERER CONFESSES

THIRTY-YEAR-OLD CRIME

An Englishman walked into the Philadelphia police headquarters recently, and accused himself of having committed murder 31 years ago. He gave his name ns John Baker and his age as 46, and told the police that he was “wanted” in England for the murder by stabbing a boy companion. He added that lie had been in the United States and Canada for many years, but his conscience troubled him so much that at last he gave himself up because “I want to go to England and be punished for what I did.” he said.

CENTURIES OLD CYPRESS

FAMOUS MEXICAN TREE

The oldest known tree is estimated at somewhere between 5000 and 6000 years old, and was “going strong” a few years ago. This is the famous veteran cypress of Santa Maria del Tule, in Mexico, on which Humboldt carved his name over a hundred years ago. The figures mentioned were calculated by Professor Asa Gray, who examined another cypress the circumference of which was 14 feet and, taking the number of concentric rings arrived at its age as about 670 years, the growth of this kind of tree being exceptionally slow. The cypress at Santa Maria del Tule is, however, 26 feet in circumference.

PUGNACIOUS BABY SNAKES

HUNDRED BORN IN ZOO

There was an interesting, if possibly somewhat unwelcome, addition to the zoo population recently when a Russell’s viper, which had just arrived in England from India, gave birth to over 100 young. The Russell’s viper is one of the most dangerous snakes in the world, not only because it is verv poisonous, hut also because of its fierceness. Indian snake-charmers, who think nothing of handling cobras, won’t touch the Russell’s viper. The young of the species are both active and aggressive, and though they arc little larger than earthworms when newly born, they will bite if they get a chance—and the bite will produce distinctly unpleasant results. There are other species of snakes whose young are just as pugnacious. The baby ringhals, or spitting cobra, of South Africa, sits up with expande dhood and tries to bite as soon as it is born.

EDWARD THE MARTYR’S BONES

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE

A discovery, which, it is believed, will clear up the mystery of what happened to the remains of King Edward the Martyr, has been made at the site of Shaftesbury Abbey, Dorset, England. King Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe Castle m 979 by his stepmother, and the body was interred first at Warchatn, and three years later at Shaftesbury. His tomb was found in 1861, but there was no trace of any remains.

During excavations Mr WilsonClaridge found a stone slap about two feet below the ground in the north transept. Underneath was a shallow leaden casket containing part of the skull and other bones. It is believed that when the dissolution of the abbey was threatened in 1539, nuns, fearing the tomb would be violated, dug up the remains and buried them in a secret place.

PRINCESS KILLS LOVE

WARSAW TRAGEDY

Accused of having shot dead her fiance, a 24-ycar-old princess was arrested recently at Warsaw. She is Princess Woronccka, a member of a very old Polish family, one of her ancestors having been King of Poland in the 17th century. Her fiance was Mr W. Boyc, aged 40, a wealthy rubber manufacturer. After tire tragedy, Princess Woronecka telephoned to Mr Boye’s office and said to his secretary: “I have shot your chief dead.” The couple, who lived in the same apartment, were unable’ to marry because Mr Boye had not obtained a divorce from his wife. A quarrel occurred, it is stated, when Mr Boye said that his brother was coming to Warsaw from Germany, and that she would have to leave the apartment, as he was afraid his brother would object to her presence there. The Princess then fired at her lover seven times, four bullets taking effect. She is said to have told the police that she asked her fiance five times if he would marry her, and each time he said “No.”

MATCHES FOR INDIA

WOOD TESTS BEING MADE

India is at present one of the largest consumers of imported matches, which come mainly from Sweden and Japan. The match-box, one of the prime necessities of life, has already found its way to every home and there is no doubt that the match industry has a bright future in India considering the variety of woods that can be obtained from the Indian forests. The forest department is on the lookout for an Indian wood which will be suitable for the manufacture of first-class matches. Species which are considered to offer success are tested experimentally at Dehra Dun.. Success has not so far crowned their efforts, and no wood has been discovered. which can compete or even compare with imported aspen, probably the premier match wood of the world.

LATEST TICKET PUNCH

WORKS LIKE CASH REGISTER

The present method of ticket punching on tramcars and ’buses may become obsolete if a new device being tested by the Leeds Corporation (England) is found satisfactory. This new machine, the “Bremcter,” which is worked on the same lines as a cash register, prints the ticket to the value of the fare offered, if it is not more than sixpence. Conductors need only to carry blanks.