GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

COPPER WORTH .£1,000,000 FOUND. The preliminary report of the Govern* ment engineers on the copper mine covered in April at Kirus jaervi, in .the province. of Kuopio, ia now issued. The minimum percentage of copper is estimated aft six, and the value %i the ore at present visible is estimated at nearly £1,000,000. CIGARETTES OF COCOA HUSKS. A certain Mme. Levillain in Paris has been convicted of manufacturing cigaja and cigarettes out of cocoa husks, in contravention of the tobacco monopoly, arid has been sentenced to four seperate fines of £160 each. The Court held that the manufacture was forbidden by law. It appeared from evidence that thro and a-half millions of these cigarettes, which Were capable of being smoked, had been placed on the market annually. STEEPLEJACK FALLS 80 FEET. Joseph Wilcox, a steeplejack, aged fifty, was killed by a fall of eighty feet from the top of a chimney stack at the skin-yard of Messrs. Sagar, at Nelson, Lanes. Wilcox: was engaged in demolishing the chimney stack when he slipped oil the top andl was dashed to death. In falling the top of the ladder by which he mounted caught his clothing and suspended him for a few. seconds in mid-air till his clothes wewi rent. THE GREATEST ICE-RIVER. The greatest known ice-river in this world is the Beardmore Glacier on the antarctic continent, discovered and traversed by Lieutenant Shackleton's party. It is a hundred miles long and fifty broad, is shut in between lofty sandstone mountains, and descends 6000 feet in it« course. It forms the only visible outflow from the vast expanse of the south polar ice-cap. One of the explorers narrowly escaped falling into a crevasse at least 1000 feet deep. He was saved by'his harness. - -

PROFESSIONAL "CHEERERS." The newest profession for women is vsaid to be the "professional cheerer." These ladies, for a salary, will undertake to administer comfort to the lady of the house in any of the hundred and one oc- : ' 4 . casions of annoyance that crop up in daily •';& life. Nothing is said to indicate the amount of success achieved by . the ladies, -y but one may take the liberty of believing > that professional chee.vers vail be as littlei V appreciated as mutes now are as profee-i sional mourners. . :'f.

CAPTAIN DICKSON. Jj Captain Dickson, the British aviator*v/ijj who met with a serious accident 'at the recent Milan meeting, is now out of danger.*''yS! He occasionally leaves his bed for an in- v/ 7 ! valid chair, but has not yet recovered the -&?|j use of his legs. He is only allowed to see -.10, his sister and brothers and his two me-< 'Ifjj chanics, who havo remained at Milan. Cap- -J]fj tain Dickson is anxious to return to Lon-. y'fj don as soon as possible;, but his doctors ; \ refuse to allow him to undertake such *}■>£$ long ■ journey for two months. Xi KING ALFONSO'S GIFT. § King Alfonso has iust_seut a present' to 'M the widow of a Paris policeman, which re- ' calls the bomb incident in the Rue de Rohan during bis first visit to Paris. One of ;§ the policemen, it may be remembered, was •••;. \ injured at the time by a fall from hia '}) He died recently after retiring from J the service, and someone sent a cutting : M from a newspaper, reporting the: ex-police-man's death to, King Alfonso. He answered at once in a .touching, letter, . through his.' - $ private secre^ry,; and' : enclosed. a ! cheque, -Is, lor-the -wdowu..." " 3

VANISHED BRIDE. The disappearance of an intended brid«» : under peculiar circumstances is reported OM from Caterham. The girl had been en- '-..i? gaged to a young, mechanic for two years, \ and a certain date had been fixed for y<?J the wedding. Having taken a cottage 'at?#! Caterham, the couple visited Croydon and : selected furniture to tie value of £80 for -ft their new home, paying a deposit of £10. | Early in the week the bridegroom, it is ' % said, handed his sweetheart, £70 to pay ': 4? the furnishing firm. She left .to visit Croydon for that purpose, but has not since been seen. The matter has been reported to the police.

ORIGIN OF "THE MARSEILLAISE." }f It was in the night of April 25, 1752, - J |» when war against Austria had just been de- ol] clared, that Rouget de Lisle, then a csp- j&jff taia in the Sirassburg Garrison wrote " The fipti Marseillaise," which he entitled " War Song ; . '•li of the Army of the Rhine." It was eung'Sm by Mireux, the Deputy for Montpelior, --i! who had accompanied some local volunteers • 'If at a banquet given them at Marseilles by ■}'%i| volunteers belonging to that town, and .so it was called "The Marseillaise," whereas }'• the name " Strassbourgeoise" would have ... •' been more correct. The last verse, which |j§| j ia the beet known after the first, was com- /vvJ'i posed by the poet Louis Dubois for the VSli civic festival of October 14, 1792, . V •!> ift

PORTER FOR THE COW. • During the hearing of evidence in a milk . case, before Sheriff Orr in Edinburgh 5 ® Sheriff Court, one of the witnesses an ex- J' j pert dairy-keeper, told a rather amusing " ":J----story in connection with the milking of v ; cows. Ho said that, many years ago & X s gentleman offered a very handsome prize, .%• to be awarded to the Stirling Agricultural' -.. Society, for cows giving the greatest quan> ; ii tity of milk. The prize-winner cove ant * abnormal quantity, though the quality was rather poor. He bought the animal, and -' $ after using concentrated feeding stuffs, he procured a considerable better article, but- . ifl not nearly so much of it. Later on. ha -i questioned the original owner as to the tactics he employed for winning the prize. r. : "Well," was the reply, "to tell the truth, I gave her twelve pints of porter and a, bottle of whisky the night before the competition."

FLIGHT IN A BALLOON Henri Dupre, an insane aeronaut, made a curious attempt to escape from the Pennyslvania State asylum, "where he has been confined for many years. While the inmates were at prayers he stole to the roof of the asylum and connected a gaspipe to a balloon which he had secretly manufactured out of pieces of silk filched from a tailor's shop. A few moment later the warders were alarmed at the sight- of the lunatic hanging on a trapes® formed of a broomstick and two ropes beneath the balloon, which was Home 15ft in diameter. He rose to the height of several hundred feet, shouting : " Ha, ha, I am flying away ! Why don't you catch me?" Several shots were fired at him, hitting the envelope, which, however, in the windless sky was in a quarter of .an hour high above the asylum. More shots were fired, and then the strange, ragged balloon slowly began to descend, settling finally on a grass-plot, where Dupre was seized and carried back to his cell.

DISASTROUS HOBBLE SKIRT JOKE. A hobble skirt, worn for the first time by his daughter, almost caused the death of Judge Alfred E. Austin., of South Norwalk, Conn., U.S.A., from hiccoughs. When Judge Austin's daughter appeared in her hobble it . was jokingly remarked that a woman in a hobble was like a giraffe in a barrel. The observation struck the judge as being so funny that he developed a fit of uncontrollable laughter., The laughter turned into violent hiccoughs, which lasted 10 days. Specialists tried to banish the hiccoughs, and have now succeeded in reducing them to infrequent periods, bo that the judge will re« cover. When the hiccoughing began the newspapers published the fact that specialists had been summoned. Hundreds o£ self-apoointed hiccough experts) from all pafts of the country sent suggested cures to Judge Austin. They varied from tickling the soles of the feet to sleeping on the bedroom floor with the feet on the window-sill. . . q