GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10127, 9 May 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

MR. CKCIIi RHODES AND TUB YALUB 0? TIHR It is. evident Mr. Ceoji Rhodes places immense value on timo. When the steamer Kauzler, by which he was travelling to Beira, met with a mishap in the Suez Car: d, Air. Rhodes, thinking that the steamer would bo refloated in a day or so, contented himself on shores but when two 01 three days elapsed and the prospect was still uncertain, he chartered the steamer Orestes to carry him direct to his destination, it is said that this " saving of time" cost the late Cape Premier no less a sum than 1'3500. DASIEr, AND THE MOSS' DES. Was there such a person as Daniel! Such is the singular question suggested by n sermon published by the Rev. Bernard Snell, of Brixton Congregational Uhureh, in which he insinuates that reasonable doubts may be entertained of the existence of such a person. In fact, lie plainly states that it is quite immaterial whether man, woman, or child believe in Daniel or not, Worse still, he treats the lions in the same sceptical manner. "If your children ask you," he says, " if this story of Daniel is true, say just what you believe about it. If you think it is true, say so. If you are in doubt, say you do not know. If you do not believe it, then toll them that you do not. It is not of vital importance that they should believe in Daniel or the lions' den." "X" RAYS IS COOKT. The new Rontgen rays penetrated into the As.size Court at Nottingham, where Mr. Justice Hawkins was silting at Nisi Prim, Miss Gladys Ffolliott, an actress, claimed damages from the Nottingham Theatre Company for injuries sustained through a faulty staircase in the defendants' theatre. During the hearing of the case a London medical practitioner produced negatives of the plaintiff') left foot taken by Profeesor Ramsay at London University by means of the new X rays. The negative showed the bone of the foot had been displaced. Mr. Justice Hawkins remarked that nowadays a man might be sent to an asylum by photographing his head. After other evidence the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff, and assessed the damages at £76 10s. A CUIUS' JOAN OP ARC. A striking account has been received from Havana of tho tragic death of a young Cuban horoine, who lei' a force ot armed men and women in an action near Olayita. When the fighting began she placed her back against a tree, loading and firing her carbine, and taking her cartridges from the bosom of her dress, which was the only garment she wore. After the usual wild firing at long range the combatants gradually drew nearer to each other, whon the insurgents, following their usual tactic?, took cover. A party of the Spaniards made a rash at the yo.ng Cuban girl, who had not sought shelter among the trees, but was standing her ground, uttering loud cries ant;, encouraging her followers. She succeeded for some time in keeping the Spaniards at bay, but finally her rifle became clogged. She then threw it away and drew a revolver from her belt. As the Spaniards made a determined rush for her she waited until they were within a few yrrds of her, when she brought down, tuiße with her revolver. The soldiers replied with a volley, and she fell with four bullets in her breast. As a Spanish officer leaned over to examine her she raised herself on her elbow, and with another shot killed him. She then fell buck crying, " Long live free Cuba !" and within a few moments expired,

"really awful" wife.

At the conclusion of the afternoon business at the Westminster Paliee Court a few days ago, a young postman in uniform •■ ith his bag over his arm, somewhat excitedly complained to Mr. Sheil that he had a wife who led him a horrible life. She called him all the vulgar names in the dictionary. (Laughter.) Mr. Sheil: I can't help you, Applicant: If you only knew what I have to put up with you would do something. Mr. Shoil: You took her for better or worse. My experience is that at Westminster it it generally for worse. Applicant: She keeps me up till two in the morning, she beats me with anything she can lay hands on, and she bit me through the hand on Friday. Mr. Sheil: Nearly a week ago. Why did you not come here before ? Applicant I humbled myself to her and looked over it. It is really awful. (Loud laughter.) Mr. Sheil: The biting is condoned. You will have to wait till she do&3 it again. Applicant: Wait! Perhaps it won t be long, bf't to-day she threatens to hit me with a steel. Mr. Sheil: I can'b help you. Stand down. Applicant: I shan't give her any money. I'll see her hanged first. (Loud laughter.) No more money ! I have had eleven years of it, and it is about time something was done for me. SEQUEL TO A BEACH OF PROMISE. The case of Harper v. Henderson came before His Honor Judge Smith in the Westminster County Court lately. The application was for the committal of the defendant, a traveller, for the non-payment of £14, arrears under a judgment summons in rogard to a debt for damages for breach of promise. The plaintiff said she acted as servant to her father. His Honor What u the judgment for? Plaintiff: Damage* for breach of promise. I wasted ten years ol the best part of my life on that men. ] have only been able to get £20 in five ysars. Ho married a widow with a lot of children, the youngest being seventeen years of age. He can well afford to pay. His salary is 30s a week, and his commission comes to quite as much. Defendant said he would pay 12s a month regularly. I'laintiff: You have wasted and ruined my life, and the very least you can do is to pay this money. I have given you plenty of grace, twelve months to pay 24s in. His Honor did not see how he was to pay the £14 now due, and made k new order for 12s a month, remarking, il If he doesn't pay his first month bring him here." Plaintiff (emphatically) : I will. (Laughter.) AN OLD GEOGRAPHY BOOK. The two schoolboys who discovered t geography book of 1718 in a cave in Kent, where presumably it had been left by some studious smuggler, must have rubbed thier eyes over the maps. California is an island • Australa and New Zealand are incomplete outlines; the interior of Africa is supplied with a few lakes ; and the whole of Central Asia is a blank. The political configuration is still more startling. Canada is French, a few plantation States English, and the rest of North America Spanish. In Europe, Turkey—then in the rudest of health— occupies Hungary and Greece, which we are told, "doth groan under the Ottoman yoke." Poland and Sweden are powerful nations; Germany is made up of three hundred little States ; while Holland " has recently advanced itself to such power as to become terrible even to crowned heads." Peter the Great is patted on the back for his laudable interest in shipbuilding, recently exhibited. Among a great mass of miscellaneous information, we gather that the " Japanners" are tall, California is cold and sterile, and Chili rendered almost uninhabitable by the devastations of the condor. The planters of Jamaica ara warned against the "vulgar idea that baptism of slaves means giving them freedom." Yet the author had travelled, was in possession of the most recent information, and even ventures now and then to bo sceptical. Geography, like all the sciences, ages very fast. HORRIBLE STORY. Certain speculators some years ago made artificial swamps on the banks of the Garonne, and filled tho swamp with leeches. To be profitable these leeches must multiply themselves by millions; to do this they s.usb bo liberal./ supplied with food. To thus supply them tho Bordelais speculator ( buy up old and worn-out horses, and drive or drag them into the swamp, which hav« wooden compartments, so placed that) when these unhappy. animals have been forced into the mud there is no escape fur them. The leeches fasten on them by thousands. The horse is in a few moments black with crawling ccatures; the blood-suckers fix themselves most of all on the open wounds and galls. ... Tho frantic terror of the poor animals is indescribable, a?, bleeding from all their sensitive parts, they try vainly to shake off the leeches, but are at last sucked down into the noxious slimes, and seen no more. Nearly 20,000 horses are said to be sacrificed in this way annually at) Bordeaux. It has been pointed out that leeches, nourished on agonising and often . disoased horses, are very likely to convey ulcers, inflammations, and scrofulous maladies into the human system. This explains what before was a mystery, why so many old horses are shipped from England to France. Most people think that it is to meet,a quick and merciful death, and be turned into cats' meat. -