GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

HOW A PLUCKY GIRL TiXniE» BRIGANDS i© DEATH. The orgie of lawlessness in the Caucasus has Jed to the wreaking.of a frightful revenge by the long-suffering peasants. A bandit named Schimeradze has been caught by them and lynched. For about three months past ne had terrorised the country around Gro/ni, . carrying off over a dozen young girls into outrage and slavery. It was observed that f,l; n cnmes took Place on the road between Gro and Veteno, which finally became impassable for women without escort. S , Be ™»f fruitier attempts had . been made to Cap *' the brigands, the Russians tZI,X? m * emous top. Armed to the teeth they set out at night towards the robbers if™\ brmgnig with them a plucky girl, who volunteered to act as decoy At sitting upon a rotk by the roadside, singing a national lovesong, and behind every tree and hillock waa hidden an armed man. The brigand and two followers came gaily along the road, and seeing-the defenceless girl went politely up, - passed the time of day, ami seized her laking her terrified scream as signal the peasants rushed from their hiding-places and captured the brigands. Half an lour later a frightful drama was being enacted. Bound) • to stakes the brigands writhed in a slow "'"'•' fire, and around them danced their peasant captors, jeering and clapping their hands. ( Just before the tortured wretches became unconscious the young, girl who had been the cause of their undoing sang ironically the passionate love song which had lured th« robbers upon their fatal enterprise. STUDENTS STEAL FAIR BATHERS' CLOTHES. An amusing trial has just taken place at Kazan. While on a walking tour along a small tributary of the Volga two medical " students came upon three little heaps of feminine clothing, and somewhat further on discovered the fair owners deporting themselves _in the stream. Wita a somewhat v crude humour, the students saw in this the occasion of a practical joke. Removing the clothes. to a wood close by, they hung themhigh among the branches of a pine tree. 1 hey .then concealed themselves and waited for the bathers to emerge, agreeably spending the next hour in watching their victim? making desperate efforts to rescue the garments from their inaccessible eyrie. But, m spite of the poor girls' acrobatic, attempts to scale the tree by climbing on one another's shouldeis the garments remained - beyond their reach. At last, in despair,they returned to the river and waded dis- i consolately home. The students unwisely waited to watch developments, which arrived ,m the. shape of an angry father and two sturdy brothers armed with sticks, who marched the culprits off to the nearest police station and charged them with theft. Thu Court decided that, there was no intent to steal, and advised a prosecution for "insult- ■ ing conduct,'* BURNT our of HOUSE ami HOME seven 1 '■'TIMES.. • There is a man named Harry Baker, who lives on Vancouver Island,, who is most evidently pursued by a fire fiend. The other' night he was aroused by a, man siting alight to his home, and on putting one the incipient blaze found the woodwork soaked with kerosene. Baker has been burned out of house and horns no less than seven times, in spite of his unconscious efforts to cludi'. the pursuer, for until this last affair he has regarded his periodical and persistent visit ,- tions as no» more than a very remarkable. ' very unpleasant, coincidence. It was eight years ago, .in Massachusetts, that the incendiary singled him out first, and on thai. ' occasion, he was left without a home. Then' he came west and settled in Seattle, wherebe went into the boarding-house business. Again ho was burned out, and on restarting' the business in auofhei part of Queen City once more his enemy tracked him out, and hw "residence was, gutted by fire.- Then he -came a little higher up to' New Westminster, with the. result that inside of 12 months the ;fire fiend once more cleaned him out.' After • that he came to Vancouver Island and settled on a ranche near South' Wellington. Last year the same calamity that had afflict- ' ed him so many times scourged him again, and his little home was burned to " the ground. Then he became discouraged; says a Morning Leader despatch, -in -his attempt to build up a nest, and accepted a position with a lumber company, living In one of its houses. Two months ago the planing mil! ■ adjoining went up in smoke,, and Baker'* ' pied-a-terre only escaped by a miracle. . j \ ' LOST ioCOMOJIVE. ' . ■ It is scarcely, credible, but it is neverthe-; less a fact, that the London and South-west-ern Railway Company have lost a locomotive. Engine sheds are being searched and. every mile of the line examined from London ; to Cornwall, but no trace of the missiiiff - ' ' engine ran be found. How it could have vanished'the railway officials do not know,' but they have two explanations to offer,' One is that the engine may have been'shtthted on to some branch line in Cornwall or Devon and its existence forgotten. Another theory is that) a new" number niay have been given to it, and thj eld number still retained on the company's books. At any rate, a locomotive & not 'easily over- ' looked, on account ot its sisse, am 1 is too immobile to go easily astray on its own, account. It does not appear ever to have happened before, although carriages and waggons are frequently lost." WOMEN'S SUICIDE CLUB. The police at Lerida have raided at Madrid what is believed to hi ? women's suicide club, and have made several arrests, Becently a young lady named Isabel Rodriguez, belonging to a well-to-do family, was Found wandering about, the streets at night in a state of great excitemeint. When questioned by a policeman she stated that she had drawn a number at the dub which, according to the rules, bound her to commit sui- ' cide. She added that at the last moment her courage had failed her. ting on this: information the police watched tin* premise* used as a clubhouse. They found it was attended by weli-direflfced ladies, who met ostensibly for social purposes?. An attempt is . being made by the authorities to hush vp the affair pending further inquiries. ;t;.'7;K^:K|;V/GFtTCkAt CAT WANTED. ! ■ An amusing incident is reported by a j correspondent of the Daily Express, who describes the adventures of a box of pigeons despatched by parcel post from Norwood to the Scilly Isles. The box survived all rough usage on rail and steamboat, but the pigeons, excepting certain boK.es, had vanished on their way. Compensation was allowed by the post office, and inquiry revealed that the pigeons had been eaten by mice in the old postal building at Penzance. The local officials, it appears, had previously made formal application to the higher authorities for an official cat; but the request was either refused or "pigeon-holed" i for consideration. Meanwhile, as no olScial permit was needed for the mice they asserted themselves, A RADIUM CLOOK. The radium clock of Harrison Martindale practically gives perpetual motion through the dissipation of negativelycharged rays. A small quantity of radium, supported in an exhausted glass vessel by a quartz rod, is placed in a small tube, to the lower end of which is'attached an electroscope of two long strips oi silver. ■ The activity of the radium causes an elec-' trie current minus beta rays to be transmitted to the silver strips, which expand until they touch the sides ot too vessel, ' when earthed conducting wires instantly discharge them and they fall together. This is repeated every two minutes, marking time in beats of that duration; and theoretically the fiction will "continue until i exhaustion of the radiumin this case somi puted tc be 30,000 years in the futur*. , ATTACKED BS A LIONESS. A lion-tamer named Carrere was savagely attacked while going through a performance , in the menagerie on the Boulevard de Batignolles in Paris. • As he entered a cage in which there were- five anhntils v lioness struck him down, and holding him to the ground with her 'paw began to tear away'. his flesh: The spectators rushed panicstricken to the entrance, many bem trampled under foot. darrere, whose Vac and hand were badly If derated, managed t« drive off the tvuimal and to make his escape from the cage.