GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13583, 12 September 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

BOMBARDING A BALLOON.

Tests of artillery atatck on a free balloon were carried out for tit© first time by a machine gun section at Augsburg recently. Within a short time the balloon was .hii and compelled to descend.

PUNCHED THE JUDGE'S NOSE. In the Aix Court the judgo, M. AngelTin, decided to postpone the hearing of a libel case until after the vacation, whereupon Maitre Juvenal, counsel for the plaintiff, declared that the judge's action was improper. A hot dispute was cut short by M. Juvenal punching the judge's nose. WOMAN LIGHTHOUSE-KEEPER. The only woman lighthouse-keeper in England recently surrendered her lighthouse, aftei 35 years' service. The Leasowe lighthouse, which is being closed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in favour of flashlight buoys, has been for 15 t years in the solo charge of Mrs. Williams. REVENGED ON HUMANITY. Louis Sevestre, aged forty-nine, ehot himself in Paris. A letter found in his pocket explained that he had invented a perfect aeroplane, but, as men had treated him badly, ho had resolved to revenge himself on all humanity by dying with • his secret. 5,500.000 FACTORY WORKERS. The report of the chief inspector of factories and workshops for 1907 shows that last year there were 107,321 factories, 146,91/ workshops, and 7210 laundries under inspection in the United Kingdom. The total number of workers was more than 5,500,000, and of these 1,643,824 were women and children. BALL IN A CHURCH.

The Mayor of Thoirette, in the departnent, of the Jura, advertised that a baU «vould be held in the parish church on the' eve of the national fete, July 14. On the -„th. at nightfall, accompanied by a number of his friends, the Mayor unlocked the doors of the church, and having himself rang t." a bells to summon the population, he started the ball. Under the separation law the parish church became the property of the Commune, and the Mayor asserts that he is empowered to use the building for my purpose that may be deemed useful.

THE OUTCOME OF THE LEMOINE " v " '-••• CASE.

News comas from Paris that Judge Poitlevin has been siupendtxi from the bench for three years for allowing Lemoine, the ~ ... diamond manufacturing swindler, to have |» bis freedom after he was arrested, thus en- >■„ ibj.ing hi. i to escape. Judge Poittevin jus-tifie>~*rt-«..30t,i0ii .on the ground that the diamond industry and the diamond workers ';',",. were threatened, by Lemoine's pretensions to be able to manufacture the gems, and he deemed it the quickest way to establish quietude to allow Lemoine to prove himself a swindler. , .

DEATH-TRAP FOR A LOVER,

An extraordinary tale of private venjeance has been told in court at Huntsrille. Missouri, where Irvin Carter is being tried for the murder of Thomas Bagby, „. lijcy lover of his (Carter's) 16-year-old sister Beulah. The defence alleges that Bagby had wronged the girl and refused %0 cake reparation. An ambush was set for ban by the girl's brother, who lay behind a bush on a moonlit night near his sister's window. Bagby crossed a lawn, set a ladder to the wall, and had climbed half-way up when Carter shot him dead, the girl at ' the window fainting as she saw her lover _.lalL \ PARTRIDGE AND WATERHEN. J -An interesting case of mixed nestling pomes from Sandbach, where a partridge brought off its brood with the exception 54. two eggs, which were addled. In rather ess than a week the bird was seen to be * ajrain sitting, and when it was put off the nest the two addled eggs were found and in. addition eight eggs of a waterhen; the nest, by the way, is in a fence some dis- \ tance from any pond, but there are numer- \ w««»*traterhens round the pits in the neighf boTrhopd. The questions naturally arise: ( Why did, the waterhen lay in a strange I nest? Why did the partridge return and ■' git upon strange eggs? And what has be- \ some of the young-partridges? It is sugi gested that the yonng have gone off with the mate of the bird which was sitting. **\ OUTLAW'S SECRET TRIAL. The "Apaches," or hooligans, of Paris habitually employ the death penalty as a measure of discipline among themselves, I ruthlessly stabbing or shooting, with or with- { out trial, any who infringe their own pecu- \ liar code. One of those outlaws, belonging ; to a band known as " Les Masques de SaintI Oufin," has narrowly escaped a deliberate , md carefully prepared execution. Suspected of treachery, he was haled before a tribunal of 10 leading members of the gang. . In the dead of night a regular trial was f held at a deserted spot on the fortifications. : The prisoner protested his innocence, but was condemned to death. Bound hand and foot, he was tied to a wall, revolvers were loaded, and the executioners were just about to receive the word of command when a couple of cyclist policemen, attracted by the condemned man's cries for help, appeared. Judges and executioners took to their heels, but not before firing their revolvers, some aiming at the police, others at their intended victim, who was slightly wounded. The rescued " Apache" will now appear before & more legally constituted court. SQUIRREL REARED BY A CAT. .A.correspondent of the Spectator tells a' pretty story of a squirrel taken from its nest/by a boy and adopted by the cat. 'VW« laid it before the cat (a very common /'-tortoiseehell), who was then nursing a kitL ten of the squirrel's age. 'She will kill it!'" *v cried my boys. But no; pussy gave it one eager glance, and then at once proceeded to lick it carefully all over, after which she placed it beside her other nursling and .-purred placiuly while she fed the two. One - day* we found her alone and waiting at the open window. He was her favourite child, and she had neglected the kitten for him. •i He was soon discovered skipping nimbly about the steep roof, whence pussy succeeded in tempting him back to his bed. Two . or three weeks later we saw a weird sight i**-the uncanny pair, mother and son,- slowly <t*-xmdihg the broad stairway side by •Vide, she with'the proud air of a chaperon L introducing a distinguished debutante. She ft4ed him to the garden and then left him. Ijpve never caged him. He lived a merry Blue, chiefly in a tall tulip-tree close to the m house, but he roamed freely even down to 1 the lake side. f: — V PRIZES FOR BIG FAMILIES. > It is possible that in the general disposil' n to wail over the declining birth-rate !'.-■ tome people will find a little comfort in the awards of prizes made to farm servants and labourers by the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society. Prizes to the amount of £10 /•'were offered to the labourer in husbandry I (or his widow) who had brought up and f. placed out the greatest number of children. I The first prize was awarded to James EastI' ham. of Know Cott: zes, Goosnarch, to I whom 15 children had been born, and who 1 lias 12 living. Edward .Smith, of Sandhole, a Halo, with nine children living out of 10, j %0.ml Kimm'er, of.Sefton Avenue, Lithwith eight living out of nine, secured (second and third prize. This record aß.eclipf 1 entirely by Lincolnshire, where Bast week fathers we're "awarded prizes for Iffamili*? of 23, 14, and .12. Prizes were also 1 awarded for the longest term of service I given bv men and women in any one place. if''.Oho winner of the first prize in the women's ''- competition had a record of 38 years' ser- - vice, and the second and third prize-win-p, ners 30 and 25 years. The first prize-win- >; ner in the male servants' competition show'ed a record of 51 years' • service . with one jpftomer> while', the second prize-winner had / 60 years t >- his credit, and the third 42.