NEWS OF THE WORLD

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6788, 20 February 1932, Page 9

NEWS OF THE WORLD

MEMORIAL TO HORSES MILLION KILLED IN WAR ■ France lost during the World War 1,100,000 horses, as compared with 1 400 000 men. French cx-soldicrs, remembering the" sufferings endured by these poor animals, have formed a committee to erect a monument to the horses hilled under bee. A memorial to the 375,000 English horses killed during the. war was built several years ago at London. SLIDING DOWN A MOUNTAIN VISITORS TO MADEIRA Visitors to Madeira go to the top of the mountain which dominates Fun-, dial the principal town. Once at the top ’ they have no worry about descending the necessary 3000 feet, as they slide down in huge basket-work sledges. These sledges are controlled by two natives, who grease the runners as the strange conveyance proceeds down the smooth path laid for it, ORIGIN OF “TOUCH WOOD” relic; of church Did voir know that the expression “touch wood” comes from the days when many old churches contained as a greatly venerated relic a piece of the true Cross? The relic obviously was used in for taking of solemn oaths, the person concerned placing his or her hand on the wood. Iu an age when the Church was all-powerful, all kinds of powers became associated with such relics, particularly perhaps the warding oft ot troubles and evils by “touching the sacred wood.” It is in the latter sense that the expression “touch wood is used to-day. LIONESS AND THE CALF MEAL DOES NOT TEMPT How a calf only a few days old scared Into submission a fierce lioness in the Leningrad Zoo is related in a message. The lioness, Lycnichka, began to ail and lose appetite. Experts decided that what the lioness craved was a change of diet. She wanted something to kill, the experts said. So the calf ,‘ " placed in the lioness s cage, and tenderhearted keepers turned away rha calf is still alive. Sensing danger, it he gan to butt the lioness, and Lyenichka retreated to a corner and refused to move until the obstreperous' meal was removed. DOUBLE MURDER IN DREAM FRENCHMAN ARRESTED “Yes, I murdered m y a . n 4 s]? son Roger. I only wonder that I did not kill little Jean here too. I did it in a sojt of dream. I must bave .been mad.” This was the statement made by Marcel Siavy, a Paris furrier, when he was arrested at Bressuires, in the south of Brittany. He was identified by gendarmes as he was wandering along a country road, holding his little boy by the hand. Siavy is to be put under observation by brain experts. SULTAN WHO FLED KING CANCELS APPOINTMENT The King has directed that the appointment of Muhathmadu, the ex-Sul-tan of Sokoto, Nigeria, to be Hon. Companion of St. Michael and St.. George shall be cancelled. This decision was announced iu a recent publication ot the “London Gazette.” . In February last year, the ex-bultan abdicated and" fled’ to French territory. He had been ruler of Sokoto for six rears, and in 1929 the C.M.G. was conferred on him. Later it was officially stated in the House of Commons that Muhammadu had been proved to have used his authority to procure two gross miscarriages of justice.. He had also shocked and offended his subjects and Moslems' generally by dealing with sorcerers. In November it was reported from Lagos that he had been arrested and taken to Kaduna, the British administrative headquarters in Northern Nigeria. WOMAN BREAKS BANK WINS £SOOO AT MONTE CARLO Ordered by her doctors to spend a •winter in the South of France, Mrs Celia Gauld, a London invalid woman, found herself short of money, went to the gaming tallies for the first time, and broke the bank at Monte Carlo. Mrs Gauld found herself with only £2 and her ticket home. To return to England meant grave illness. Then she went to the Casino and staked everything at chemin-de-fer. In threequarters of an hour she had won more than £IOOO. Then she staked the limit and won. Five times she repeated the limit, and won each time. Then,, after 25 unbroken wins, she left the Casino with £SOOO. Mrs Gauld is now in Vienna consulting a famous specialist about her health. HUMAN LIGHTHOUSE MAN WHO EMITS RAYS An Italian chemist with psychic leanings sat in a Kensington (London) basement recently and apparently emitted flashes of light. Before Mr Harry Price and the Council of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, Pasquale Erto, the 36-year-old “rainhow medium,” who goes into a deep and painful trance, moaning and writhing, and emits coloured lights, underwent his first test before British psychic experts. The Hashing of a tiny red bulb marked the seconds that the trance lasted. It flashed 7200 times before the seance was over. “It was 1 a remarkable seance, Air Harry Price said afterwards. U e all saw a pink and white light flash on the ceiling. Two members of the council declare they s>iw a blue light flashy for a second on Erto’s shoulders.’ EGYPTIAN STONE CUTTERS USED HARDENED STEEL Despite prevailing impressions to the contrary, the ancient Egyptians discovered and used hardened steel in stone-cutting. Scientists, . who have made extensive investigations of the Egyptian stone carvings, can refute m hat most writers on the subject say, that before 1300 B.C. the Egyptians did not have iron or steel tools.. To deny the use of steel for stone-cutting by the ancient Egyptians is, to a steel metallurgist, almost like denying the cutting Itself, for hardened steel is the only substance known to man which could have served the purpose. Before the dawn of history the Egyptians made amazing progress, for they were able to produce beautifully carved statues of hard stone an;' such a pile as the 200 foot high stepped pyramid of Sakkara.

JILTED GIRL’S SUICIDE BLOWS HERSELF UP A girl of 23, whose engagement to a European prince had been broken, committed suicide by blowing herself up in her apartment in New York,.recently. Siie was Miss Elizabeth 8.. Volk, granddaughter of Scnora Domicio da Giftna, widow of a former Brazilian Ambassador to the United States. She turned on the gas, which penetrated to the kitchen, where it became ignited from a lighted jet on the range.

INNOCENT MEN LYNCHED OFFENDED A POLITICIAN Of 21 people lynched in the United States last year, at least two were innocent, according to the Commission investigating the question of lynching in the United States. Eleven others were “probably innocent.” Certainly (here was no proof of their guilt. Grand juries seldom indict the mob leaders, it is added, although they arc easily identified. One man was lynched because lie offended political opponents, another —a negro—to prevent his appearance in court to give evidence against white men.

BUTTONS BY FARADAY RECENT EXHIBITION A number of polished alloy buttons was among the Michael Faraday relics recently displayed at the Royal Institution in London in connection with the ceremonies celebrating Faraday’s discovery of induction a century ago. They were shown as one example of his many interests outside the field of electricity, in which lie achieved his greatest successes. Faraday made these buttons in the course of some experiments in metallurgy. He used mixtures of steel, rhodium, silver, platinum and nickel. <" HUGE NEW YORK BUILDING '

EIGHTY-SIX STORIES HIGH

One of the biggest houses In the ever-growing world is the Empire State Building of New York. It is a huge structure of steel and bricks and is 86 stories high. About 25,000 .people live or work in it. There are. 58 passenger lifts for the 86 stories and three kinds of express lifts. Some, of these lifts run at a speed of 15 miles an hour. The passenger goes up to the nearest stopping floor to his and then transfers to a slow lift, which stops at every floor. Here again, however, he can make the last part of his journey on an escalator,' of which there are nearly a hundred. Six lifts entirely for goods are always in busy use.

BLUE-EYED BEDOUINS

* T.j ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

British engineers surveying the Transjordan, Syrian and Iraq.deserts in connection with the Ilaifa-Bagdad railway, report important archaeological and ethnographic finds. To the south of Amman they have discovered large caves containing potsherds, figurines and other relics of the prehistoric and bronze ages. The walls beaf inscriptions and drawings resembling the Assyrian. A Bedouin tribe, not large in numbers, but rich, was also found. They are all tail, fair and blue-eyed and have no Semitic features. Remarkable ruins, ineluding well-preserved 20ft high walls, were discovered on the site of the ancient Babylonian town of Ahnogfiube.

MILLIONAIRESS'S LOVE STORY

WIDOW WEDS TURK

A beautiful English millionairess, 26 years old and recently widowed, went to Stamboul to forget her grief. There she met a young English-speaking Turk and they became friends. On the day before her departure from Turkey the widow said to her new friend: “What is your opinion of me?” “You are a charming and noble lady, was the reply. y They exchanged addresses and agreed to write to each other. Aftqr some months of correspondence, the ' young widow confessed her love. As a birthday present she sent the Turk a cheque tor £30,000 and a motor-car. With the cheque he opened a hank account in her name, and the car he deposited yin a garage, disclaiming ownership. The young Turk then decided to marry his benefactress, and made his proposal on one condition: he would not leave his native land, and they were to live at Constantinople. She accepted, and they are to live in a villa on the shores ot the Bosphorus.

ART GEM DISCOVERED OLD MASTER FOR EXHIBITION Believed to he the work of an old French master, a picture found in an Irish judge’s house has been sent to the Royal Academy for the French Art Exhibition. Its discovery was revealed recently by M. Paul Jamot, a member ot tiie Exhibition Committee, at a luncheon in London. Judge Mernaghan, of Dunlin, he said, sent him a photograph of the picture, which is dated 1561, and represents Paris Aldermen at prayer. Special police precautions were taken to safeguard the second consignment of art treasures —valued at £3,000,600 which arrived from France destined tor the exhibition. The guard was arranged following an urgent cablegram from tile French authorities. A mounted policeman preceded the vans through the London streets, and constables on point duty along the route were warned to maintain particular vigilance. FILM “TORTURE” CHARGES BARBAROUS CRUELTY ASSERTED That the making of “nature films” is sometimes accompanied by -.the most barbarous cruelty was asserted at a meeting of the Performing and Captive Animals Defence League in London recently. . " Captain Edmund T. Mac Michael, hon. secretary of the league, read from a Californian film magazine about: Lions iortured into violence by being driven on to floors covered with a network of electric live wires.' Dogs driven mad by rubber bands round their muzzles to make them perform “comic” antics. Running horses tripped by concealed wires; thrown over cliffs and killed. The conference appointed a deputation to visit Mr Edward Shorit, ICC., chairman of the Board of British Film Censors, with a view to banning films “in the production of which suffering has been caused to animals, or depicting the suffering of animals.” Mr F. Messer, of the South Tottenham Labour Party, 'said film audiences witnessed animal films in sheer ignorance of the cruelties involved. He was convinced that no decent person, who realilsed these barbarities, would ever go again ,to such films.