GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

PARTED AT THE rHTTRCH DOOE. At Southwark Police Court a few days ago a solicitor applied to Mr. Paul Taylor for a summons for maintenance on behalf of a deserted wife. The Magistrate: Very well, I will grant it if there are no special' circumstance;;-. The Solicitor : He never lived with her after they were married. The Magistrate: Then there are special circumstances. The Solicitor: There was a chili born shortly after the marriage. He was the father, but there may be some difficulty as they did not live together. The Magistrate : Unless you can prove cohabitation since the marriage there has been no desertion. The Solicitor: She has lived with her aunt ever since the marriage. The Magistrate : She must have been a very silly young woman to quarrel with her husband at the church door. The Solicitor: It is not a question of a quarrel. It is simply that she is very poor. The Magistrate: Unless you can prove desertion you can't have a summons for maintenance of a wife. The Solicitor.- Can I have a summons for the maintenance of the child? The Magistrate : There is no such thing hnown to the law. The Solicitor: And I can't have an affiliation order, because she is married The Magistrate : You can go to the Guardians. The Solicitor : Then you don't grant me a summons. The Magistrate : No ; go to the Guardians, and if he does not support the child they can prosecute him in the ordinary way. I should communicate with the Guardians at once about the matter.

FISHERMEN S TERRIBLE experience. The Hamburg-American liner Graf Waldersee, which arrived at New York from Europe, brought two French fishermen, who have had a very trying experience. On October 2 the two unfortunate men left Brest for the fishing grounds in a small aory. Owing to a change in the weather the fishermen found it impossible to return, and they were driven well out to sea. They were without food for five days, were tossed about in the Atlantic, and the marvel is that their frail craft survived. When picked up by the liner the fishermen were half dead from starvation and exposure.

OPEN-AIR TREATMENT FOR CONSUMPTION. The open-air treatment for tuberculosis is astonishingly successful in Germany. Out of 142 attested cases in Hanover 121 are pronounced cured ; in Saxony out of 98 patients 60 are cured, while in "Baden, where the treatment is given in the pine woods of the Black Forest, 205 cases have been cured out of 240 under observation. Leaflets describing the best method of combating consumptive tendencies are distributed wholesale by the Government.

THE FUSSINESS ABOUT HEALTH. One wonders sometimes whether the new fussiness about the body really tends as much to human happiness as' the old ignorance or stolid resignation. It certainly increases greatly the objects of fear, and* every fear tends to impair the serenity which "is the base of happiness. It also* helps to keep alive the feeble, who are often in the way and who do not improve the race, and it very decidedly interferes with that "even flow of promotion"' which is almost as necessary to society at large as to the army or the Civil Service. There is too some diminution of courage, however slight, in facing risks, and a great increase in that habit of selfpity which is apt, especially with the frail, to enfeeble character. Upon the whole, however, we fancy the result is beneficial' especally to those" at the two ends of life. Children are not only happier but positively better for the new healthiness secured by sciencean opinion which will be endorsed, we believe, by every manager of a good preparatory school— to the old the benefit is indescribable. They will die as of yore, though later, but they are spared half the old aches and pains, so that " cheerv old age" instead of being noticeable is the" common and expected condition.—Spectator.

, A ROTABLE SMOKE CONSUMER. Berlin*, October 15.— most practical and important German invention, an apparatus for consuming smoke, is arousing much interest. A simple contrivance applied to a furnace saves 25 per cent, of the coal and consumes all the smoke. The invention, which entails only slight expense, has already been applied to several large works in different parts of Germany, with the most perfect success. For torpedo boats the invention is most important, and experiments made on a torpedo boat proved most satisfactory, so that the system is expected to be adopted in the German navy. The company- which is working the patent already has so many orders for the apparatus that business premises are being opened in every town in Germany. Large orders for America have also been carried out. EASY TRANSFORMATIONS. By one thing even the most casual observer of international manners must have been struck, and that is the ease with which an American turns himself (when caught young) into an Englishman, and the rapid manner in which a Briton (or, rather, the Scotch and Irish variety of the race) can transform himself into a patriotic American.-This great fact argues volumes for the cheerful doctrine of the final amalgamation of all the white English-speaking races of the world. —Ledger, Philadelphia. THE NOVEL'S DEADLIEST FRIEND. About a century has passed since woman's fondness began to spoil the English novel. Fielding, Thackeray said, in tears, was the last novelist in England "that dared to paint a man.'' The modern novel simply flatters woman's egregious vanity. But what to do about it? How to prevent woman reading and buying books'' As long as she does so the manful efforts Of the novelist to uphold his art must come to naught.— Bookman, New York. THE SERVANT GIRLS' AMUSEMENTS.

Ripon Diocesan Conference, sitting at Leeds, discussed the topic of " The Amusements of the People." The Rev- D. Addison asked why domestic servants should not be allowed the use of a pack of cards, or be provided with other innocent games. " I have," he said, " played dominoes and other games with my maid-servants rvei and over again. (Laughter.) In consequence I have had one of them ten years and the other seven. Again, Ido not knowwhy ' followers' should always be refused admittance. A girl once said to a lady in my parish, 'Well. I don't know how you managed, but how 1 am going to get married if I don't see anybody, 1 don't know.' " DEATH DUTIES' SUDDEN" RISE. The receipts in Great Britain from the death duties during the financial year, ending September 30 last, were £6.340.000, as compared with £6,765.000 in the corresponding period of last year, showing a decrease of £425.000. Up to October 12. however, the receipts had increased to £7,410,000, as compared with £7.055,000 last year. The income from the death duties had thus increased £1.070.000 within a fortnight. The crreater part of the increase is understood to have been derived from the duties on the estate of the late Baron Moritz Hirsch.

BIG I.IN'ER "HELD IP." New Yoke October 17.—0n her hist hip West the big Hamburg-American liner Au-custe-Victoria was " held-up" on the banks of Newfoundland bv a small fishing vessel which flew the signal "8.M.5.," meaning, "Will you take mail for me?" Captain Kaempfi "'as so struck by the cheeK of the Frenchman that he stopped the liner and the letters were sent on board on a dory. The Frenchman said that they left Brittany a. v<-.ir ago, and not having touched shore for many months the skipper thought that his wife might be worried. The letters were to ease her mind. •

.MP.. GLADSTONE** handshaking. The announcement from Canada that the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have had to five up promiscuous handshaking on the ground that though the spirit is willing the flesh is weak recalls an incident of Mr. Gladstone's memorable Midlothian tour. On one occasion there was a great handshaking ordeal at the window 01 the old man's railway carriage, and he was rapidly getting the worst of it. A stalwart young policeman, who accompanied Mr. Gladstone, proved equal .to the occasion. Crouching behind the great man. and thrusting his hand under Mr. Gladstone's Inverness cape, the muscular " peeler" gave each comer in turn a "rip thai had no lack of cordiality. " The auld man's uncommon veegorous at his time i,' life," observed one unsuspecting Scot, as be stroked his fingers. "He is that." concurred another of the policeman's victims; " but did ye notice his nails?"