GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

VEGETARIANS THE STRONGER. . , (Professor Irvin Fisher, of Yale University, las completed a series of tests extending oyer a period of two years with 49 ~ . persons,-indicating that non-flesh eaters or vegetarians have far more i endurance than those accustomed to the ordinary diet. The •;... .;..- test consisted in keeping the arms extended : as long as possible, of deep knee-bending, and also of leg-raising,; the subject' lying on his back. THE WRESTLING GIRL. ... ..- At Chicago recently Mr. W. X. -Innes challenged his daughter, lona, aged 19, to wrestle. The girl was home from college, and had boasted of her physical prowess, which, she '.. said was the result of.playing basketball for the Rensselaer College team, the champions of Indiana. In three \ minutes the father , was thrown. % The physi* ■; ciana found that one of his legs was broken and his kneecap split. .He sustained other ' minor injuries, and was taken to the hospital. CAMELS TO CARRY PETROL. The Chinese Foreign Minister has au- ; thorised the motor-car race from . Pekin to / Paris, and -the start will be made from *'*^^':?fllci)&, r on June* 10.** Probably seven or eight . ; cars will start. One ■ of : the racers ii al- : ;;" ready on his way out; by ; the Trans-Si-berian railway to arrange for supplies. A caravan of t camels,: carrying . petrol ; and ■■.other ; necessaries, : will start ■■■ from Pekin three -weeks before the 1 race, so as to pre- * pare things as far as possible, and through;Hc out Russia every help is to be given to the ---•::« racers; f';»-'V £■■"••■ ■•""« : --.'-a; ; '<(';^fV;''; BURNT ON THE STAGE. A'; terrible ' burning accident ; (says an Odessa correspondent) has taken place at , ;a charitable theatrical,performance at " the Hotel Saint Petersbourg. ; The garments of ~, vseveral children, who figured as snowflakes, caught fire. Immediately there was a panic in the audience, while the shrieks of the children increased the commotion. The fire ; : was ; finally got under, ? but ;it was ■:■ found that no fewer than nine children had lost 'their lives. Ten other children- are in great : I* danger.': Several of the little ones' mothers, who witnessed the scene, became mad. SARCASTIC TRADESMEN. The following bit of rich sarcasm has been addressed to the Health Committee ; ; of the Sunderland Corporation by the shopkeepers of a certain' thoroughfare' in that town:—"The shopkeepers in Vine Place .' wish to inform the corporation officials that . the roads ;in the neighbourhood are now ( ' made thoroughly. clean by the wind, and . they need not trouble to risk the -water- ! carts out until the wind subsides. ' But we beg them; to favour us with a call. with j their dustcars to our shops to collect what ' - , dust we have on hand, as we have difficulty ( .; to find our goods amongst it." V HERMIT'S ELECTRIC CAVE. A strange hermit has been arrested in a ' ■ cave called "The Devil's tGrotto," near , < Beauvoir en Royans, France. The cave j was not known to be inhabited,, and the residents of the neighbourhood held it in , ■ superstitious awe. Lately they were terrified by reports.of mysterious;lights having . been "seen in the cave after nightfall, and ( n police assistance was sought. A magis- j - : irate and several policemen visited the cave, } .'.'. -and-on penetrating to the interior found a , * " ; , maft-with long matted hair and beard, who ■ ■- ■ -"said bis name was Andre Faure. The cave ', '•"-. contained an electric generator, and was , *:;.; brilliantly illuminated. . , V- TINNED MEAT FOR THE ARMY. < ■'- - The ban has been removed from Chicago j tinned meat as food for the British army. s '■■'■: Jn reply to ah unofficial inquiry from Washington on the subject, the War Office re- j plied in a letter \ signed by R. M. Brade: -— ] ■"Referring to the reports of the officer re- j '*.'" ceritly Sht on inspection duty to .Chicago, , ,;* lam commanded by the Army Council to . acquaint you that, although such .reports \ are ; of .'*; confidential nature and, .cannot • tbereforc" bo. communicated to the public, , they have .hitherto been satisfactory v With t "'"■ reference'to your second inquiry, lamto , add that no bias exists on ! the part.of the , War Department against Chicago meat, fo j " . long as its manufacture is properly super- , , ■"' Vised."• .■;■.■-■ ' • j ■ i STOWAWAY AS GHOST. ? The steamship Hamburg, from Genoa,' i .. arrived at New York on March 26, - and ; I the passengers reported , a strange";" occur- ,.' .rence.pn board during the passage. When J ; "the"vessel had been about.a day but faint cries were from time to time heard by the crew and the steerage {passengers, •> but all i . efforts.were for a day or two unavailing to ] '"'"' "locate their place of origin. The super- i sthious steerage people became vastly < alarmed, declaring their belief that it was ; •a ghostly cry of warning of impending ] I s danger. >- On the. fourth day, however,{one i ■of the crew uncovered a ventilator, and . found -a very stout stowaway wedged in , the scanty space therein. He was in an , '. exhausted condition. : :-~-- THE NEW LONDON CAB. ' After some delay taximeter motor cabs ; were put on'Che London streets towards . '. the end of March. The taximeter auto- : • matrcally records the amount of the fare, " which is 8d a mile, as against Vis, for two ' "■'• miles, charged for the horse-drawn vehicle. 1 . - The new cabs were in great demand from i the start. On one day the driver of a 1 taxicab with the highest takings received . "credit for "£l Bs, as his 25 per cent, share, and out of this sum he had to pay for five gallons of petrol, of wfoich he had left ; nearly a-half gallon. His net earnings were ■ ..■'■ £1 3s sd, but this does not represent his ; ■■'■ entire ■ gain. Londoners still cling to the : tipping habit, and this driver nearly "■ - doubled bis takings by means of the tips ■ '„ he received from fares. ... DREAM FULFILLED. Dr.' Robert Nicoll tells a strange . story of a dream in the British Weekly. He . says:— Tuesday night, March 19, I happened to be reading about a prize competition in the Westminster for .the best lyric of the 20th century. It came into my mind that if T. B. Aldrich had written any recent lyrics he would stand a good , -chance : of being named as the : most successful. Then I began to think of my ' ."' meetings with Aldrich in America, of ; his comparatively advanced age, and particularly of a certain poem lie wrote; anticipating his death. I; do not know how it was; but the thought' pursued me,' and next morning I ! woke to find that I had been . dreaming of Aldrich, dreaming in particu"Jar that hia charming wife showed me a - little volume in which he had written: 'To ;- my Wife, Lilian, after 17 happy years with - her.' I thought, too, of the lyric," adds Dr. Nicoll, "and then I opened my daily paper. The first thing my eyes fell upon ■ was an announcement :of Mr.' Aldrich's ■death." PATIENT AND THE AMBULANCE. An unlucky patient, who was to be taken ; to one of the city hospitals in Paris recent- *. ly, had an experience which he will !ong ■'-- remember. §{ The ambulance in which he - was being conveyed was drawn by a rather young horse, which shied at a railway train near the Bagnolet viaduct. The horse tore madly up the viaduct, and finally jumped ' "over the wall, i The shocks sustained; by •. ! the unhappy patient in the course of this . race may be; imagined. But his troubles were hot yet at an end. When the horse ' jumped over the wall it remained suspended by traces some ten yards from the street' below, while the ambulance hung on the ! other side of me wall, in such a way_ that the patient could not be removed until the ambulance and horse were sundered. The firemen 'of , the quarter were called, and at once proceeded to the rescue. They decided that the horse had to be sacrificed, and cut the -traces. But, to everyone s surprise, the horse, instead of breaking its neck on' the pavement below, landed on its' feet and was uninjured. .The ambulance was " then" righted, and the patient 'taken, more dead than alive, to the'hospi- ' I*U,