GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

1 SOUR GRAPES. • Six hundred elderly, women of Appenzeil, Switzerland, have organised a crusade against excessive dancing, and a superabundance of fetes in the canton. They have forwarded a petition to the cantonal officials pointing out that numberless balls, dances, and other demoralising entertainments were given last year, and that the young people devoted too much time to pleasure. TRAMS WITHOUT RAILS. A Swiss company has been formed to construct a train service without rails between Basle and Huningue, a town on- the Swiss-German frontier, 'die motive force will be electricity suppliedby aerial wires. An ingenious device allows'the cars to be guided- lift 6in on each side of the aerial wires without cutting off the current, so that two cars travelling in opposite directions may pass at full speed. The cost of the scheme is stated to be 50 per cent, less than if an ordinary tramway line with rails were constructed. 'BUSMAN'S LEGACY. In his 45 years of life Albert Windle has experienced many tips and downs. The son of a Burnley cotton manufacturer, he early* conceived a rooted dislike for mill life, and left home in search of something more congenial. His search was not a huge success, and after trying various things he ' , drifted into looking after horses. Then he got to driving them, and. for 20 years he drove a 'bus in Blackpool. For some time, however, ho had been out of employment, and it must therefore have been with very jubilant feelings that he heard a short time ago that, under the will of his late father, lie had become entitled to £3,600. ENGLISH GIRL SHOOTS A THIEF. Miss Nellie McCarthy, an English girl of " nineteen, who had gone to Paris to take a --> situation as a governess, had an exciting ; adventure with a would-be robber in the Rue Rambuteau. She lost her way among : the Paris streets, and asked a woman named Bassett to direct her to her hotel in the ' Rue St. Honore. The woman offered to > show her the way, and led her instead to her i own apartments". The woman induced her • to enter, and then locked the door and de- ) inanded Miss McCarthy's jewels and money. ' The English girl answered by producing a i revolver and shooting the woman in the i shoulder. The police were called by the < neighbours, and explanations at the police I station led to the release of Miss McCarthy. ( _____ ( STRANGE LOVE TRAGEDY. j An unusual drama of love took place in Lisbon not long ago. A young work* 1 man of good character learned, during his ( absence on military service, that a cousin 1 of his wife was living in his home. In his ] shame he asked to be sent to serve in * Portuguese East Africa, but before leaving j arranged that his wile should have half his * pay, on condition she returned, to her % mother. This she agreed to do. The hus- •' hand sailed from Lisbon. The cousin, mad J with anger and jealousy, visited the mother's home, shot the pretty young wife as < she lay in bed, grievously wounded the < mother,' and committed suicide. This is f the terrible news that awaits the soldier's < arrival in a foreign land, which he had i sought to hide his grief over a ruined' l home. . t " , s CURIOUS TELEPHONE FATALITY. J ■•-. Miss Anna Greenwood, the young daugh- c ter of a wealthy citizen of Marlborough, j Massachusetts, was killed at the telephone c s- in her own home the other night. She had c risen from the dinner-table with laughter on her lips at some witticismof her father's. a and bad gene to the' hall to ring up a friend. T There is an electric light directly over the instrument. With one hand she was turning on the light, and with the other was j ringing for the. exchange. Instantly all the lights in the house were extinguished. Mr. Greenwood heard his daughter fall. He , hurried to her,' but she was dead. There j was a slight burn on her wrist, indicating c that a cuff button had touched the switch ''as she.turned on the light. This somehow ] caused a circuit between the telephone and ( electric light wires. a • " " " __ e JAW MOULDS. ■ " } •' ' Jaw moulds, instead of thumb-prints, are e recommended by Dr. Paul Prager, a Vieni nese dentist, rfor identification- purposes, j He took hundreds of . moulds of human r jaws, and found such striking differences t : and easily discernible individualities in each t specimen that ho suggests jaw moulds in- j. stead of thumb ; imprints for police" identifi- c •cation of criminals. Out of thousands he v found no two that were identical, or even t resembling each other. The doctor especially recommends his system, however, not -y so much for criminal as for persons engaged a in dangerous pursuits, such as miners, ex- j plorexs, arid mountain climbers. In the t case of mishap and mutilation of the re- c mains they might, nevertheless, be recog- r nised by the jaw mouldsoften even when n nothing but the mere skull remained. c r ' b ' ADVENTURE WITH A BULL. » An exciting scene was witnessed at ], Cockermouth Station, in the North of Eng- v land, recently. A massive Shorthorn bull, j ."• purchased by Mr. Walker, Sellafield, to v send to Newcastle, attacked a herdsman, named Davidson, and pinned him against r the side of the pen. Fortunately the bull's s horns entered the rails, and the man, with , 3 •assistance, ascaped with a dislocated shoul- t der and severe bruises. A sack was then v thrown over the bull's head, but notwith- n standing this, the trucking of the infuri- n ated animal was. attended with greatdanger. Two men who attempted a to lead the bull with a stick q attached to a nose ring were knock- j, . ed .down, but as a further precaution a long rope had been fastened to the nose- j, ring, and, this being wound round a pillar r the bull was gradually hauled into a track. « - v * . MAN FALLS THROUGH A LIFT. * An accident of a very alarming nature t occurred at the. Holborn station of the Pic- t cadilly Tube, in London, recently. The lift g shafts at this station are about 180 ft deep, v the actual fall of the lift being about 140 ft. 0 At the top of the shaft is the engine-room. s A lift had just descended, and the man in t charge was about to open the gates when j the body of a man came hurtling through v the roof, colliding with one of the passen- v gers and knocking him to the floor, while j, others sustained kicks and blows. The man 0 turned out to be one of the company's employees, and it was said that he.had fallen (, from the engine-room down the shaft, the j, roof of the Otis lift—a mere covering of tin v —collapsing under hi« weight. The man, c a station foreman, received injuries which caused almost instant death, and two pas- v sengers, a young man and woman, were n slightly cut about the head, and were re- p moved to King's College Hospital, but not „ detained. h EMBARRASSED OFFICER. [J A strange story of three brides waiting {■ ■ for a British officer comes from San Fran- v cisco. It concerns Captain Herbert Holford t; Brabant, Holland, who is described as "late h ■' of 'His Majesty's 7th Colonial Cavalry." n Captain Holland met Dr. Margaret Croze, h niece of Judge Olcott, three years ago in fi Vienna, where she. was taking a post-grad t ate course in medicine. They were engaged 6 to be married, but-aiter a lover's quarrel she a -left for America. He determined to follow fc and find her and effect a reconciliation. n They met again by accident at Beatty, in n - Nevada, and a few days later, at the Alex- v . andra Hotel, Los Angeles, "here they were p married by a justice of the peace. While n the pair were obtaining the marriage license t< the mother of a Miss Wilhelmina Bartz shook her fist in the captain's face, denouncing him as a scoundrel, and declaring , that he had promised to marry her daughter. " She threatened to stop the wedding, but the p. couple, by a strategic movement, escaped in an automobile. Later in the day some- g body representing Miss Ella Woods, of San tJ Francisco, publicly accused him at the Alex- e( andria Hotel being engaged to her also, tl But by this time he was safely married to p . "Miss Croze. The captain was not perturb- si cd, and said he was the victim of a black- ai inaili__ scheme " • .. *"