GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 6 April 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

£18. FOR HALFPENNY STAMP. A St. CinusTOi'HKn halfpenny green stamp of 1887, with inverted surcharge Id, whs gold for £18 lit. Messrs. Glendining's rooms, London, recently. LEGISLATING AGAINST TIGHTS. A Hill litis lirai introduced in the Wisconsin State Assembly prohibiting actresses from appearing in tights unless wearing skirts reaching four inches below the knee. GIGANTIC SALMON. A spawned male salmon was found (lead *n the Net'herby water of the Usk. The weights at. hand amounted to 401b, but they were not nearly enough to weigh the iish. it- is estimated that, before lie went up from the Sea to the breeding beds lie must liavo weighed net ween 701b and 801b. Till-; LINK OF " ONES." The most curious railway in the kingdom is, perhaps, the Harnpton-in-Arden to VVhitncre branch of the Midland l'ailway Company There are only one train a day, one engine, one coach, one season ticket'•alder, one station, one route, one set of metals, and one station official. Sometimes there is only one passenger in tho train, mid hardly ever more than three. TOO MANY• EXCUSES. A man who was convicted at the Cleikenwell Sessions of defrauding boaiding-hou>e keepers, pleaded in excuse that lie suffered from brain fug. eczema, bronchitis, influenza, curvature of the spine, rheumatism, liver complaint, abscesses, sciatica, diabetes, dropsy, heart disease, paralysis, consumption, and blood poisoning. The chairman prescribed twenty-one months' hard Jiibour as a cure. FROZE HIS CUSTOMER. Geneva, February 17.—The tribunal of Lausanne yesterday sent a wine merchant to prison for live days for having deprived g. customer of his liberty. The :ustomer called to explain that he was unable to pay a bill which ho owed, and the merchant seized him and hustled him into his icecellar, locking him hi for two and a-lialf hours. The customer was half-frozen when released, and made a complaint to the police. PICKPOCKET AS PRIEST. Paws, February 17.—Fred Monaghan, a. notorious American pickpocket, who has reaped a rich harvest here disguised as a priest, has been arrested with his accomplice Ebenezer Brown. Monaghan, who is 70 years old, left America because the police knew him too well. In his operations here he wore a venerable grey beard, gold sjneotacles, and the usual clergyman's dress. When the police raided his hotel they found a large collection of wigs and false beards, which, Monaghan explained, he wore to protect himself from draughts. £3000 WRANGLE OVER STAMPS. Paris, January 31. —M. Lebon and his wife have spent £3000 on law in Paris in a ■wrangle over the possession of a collection of postage stamps. The two decided to procure a divorce, and everything was arranged amicably as regards the division of their money and household effects. But both were ardent philatelists, and when the stamp collection was mentioned M. Lebon claimed it. because he had started the collection when a boy at school. The courts decided to-day that an expert shotid be engaged to divide the collection equitably. MAN WANTS TO BE HANGED TO ESCAPE HIS WIFE. Berlin, February 17.—A Lubeck tradesman named Hugo Devel is so unhappily married that he desires to escape from his matrimonial miseries by being hanged 111 place of a murderer now wanted by the police. A murder was committed at Haniburg recently by a man named Holz, who escaped. Devel gave himself up to the police with the assurance that he was Holz. whom he resembled closely. When investigation revealed his deception he stated that he preferred being hanged to living any longer with his wife. HUSBAND SOLD FOR £50. Vienna, February 15.—Hungarian husbands have a playful habit of selling their wives when they are fascinated by a new face. A certain Frou Foros, the wife of a farmer living at Nagy-Bajon, has boldly turned tho tables by disposing of her husband to a rival s after some haggling about the price. The Foros couple have liver happily for twenty years, but latterly tin husband fell under the charms of a younj widow with a considerable fortune. Hiwife tried to coax him back, and, -sentiment failing her, she turned to the business as pect. Sho boldly approached the widow and offered to sell her husband. The widow offered £25, but Fran Foros wanted £100 Ultimately they compromised for £50. MILL OUTRAGE. An amazing outrage has been perpetratei at the Commercial Mill Company's Albert Mill, Great Harwood, near Blackburn. Dur ing the night an entrance was effected int< tho weaving-shed through the roof, and tin beams on 750 looms were slashed from em to end with a knife, rendering the loom: temporarily useless and throwing 20( weavers out of work. The actual daniagi to the looms is put at about £100. It n thought that the malicious act was com mitted by some person or persons well ac quainted with the interior of the mill and able to move about in the loom alley without the aid of a. light. It is statu that no dispute or dismissal from any o tho company's three mills in the towi would account for anyone committing th outrage from motives of revenge. MINISTER'S DILEMMA. Bf.iiun", February 19.—The Magdeburgli er Zeitung, which is invariably well inform ed of doings behind tho scenes, report that- the former Colonial Secretary, Di Stuebel. has challenged the present chic of the Colonial Department, Herr Dernberg to a duel. Dr. Stuebel considers liimsel insulted, because Heir Dernberg, since takin office, has publicly uttered scathing crit cisnis of the former regime. The challeng is almost unprecedented, and there is nine curiosity as to Herr Dernberg's attitude. H is an anti-duellist, but duelling is an essei tial feature in the code of honour of thos in the high official circles into which th ex-bank director has now entered. If Hei Dernburg refuses to fight his feudal d< tractors, who detest his reforming energ, and mistrust his business-like methods, wi probably attempt "to boycott him social! as a coward. ACTRESS AND YOUTHFUL LOVER. The story of a Hamburg schoolboy's ri niance is amusing the people of the Oct man seaport. At his father's house, dui ing the holidays, the 15-year lad met a actress and fell in love with her, not darin to tell his parents. In due course lie rt turned.to school. One day the headmaste met tho boy's father—a rich merchant t Hamburgin the street arid inquired at'te the son's health. "He is quite well," ai swercd the father. "He has not been ill. " But your son has been absent for th last five weeks, and your wife liersel wrote the letters excusing his absence. There was surprise on both sides and it quiries were made into the mystery. I appears that the actress and her boy love had been faced by it great obstacle in tliui • romance. She had to go to the theatre t. night; lie had to go to school in the daj time, and thus they could not meet. But way was found out of the difficulty, an the actress wrote letters of excuse to th headmaster, signing them in the name i the mother. For five weeks this plan wa successful. The father in his wrath lia instituted a prosecution against the actio for forgery.