GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

GOLF PROBLEM. The latest freak incident to call for a ruling by the authorities of the game of golf is the embedding of a golf ball in a cow's foot. It happened on the links of the Bishopbriggs Club, Glasgow, where the cow was grazing. The animaf trod on the ball, which was carried in the hoof for abcut 30 yards before it could be dislodged. The rules of golf committee of the Royal and Ancient Club, St. Andrews, decided that the cow must be held as "an agency outside the match," and that the ball should have been dropped near to the place from which the ball was movecr. REMARKABLE SURGICAL FEAT. A remarkable operation has been performed in a.hospital at Prague.on- a girl of sixteen, named Marie Hubaoek. She was suffering from a diseased bone in her right arm, and was sent to Prague to have the arm amputated. ■ The doctor, however, decided to replace the diseased part of the bone by a corresponding part taken from a dead person immediately after death. For his purpose he utilised a gin who died in hospital from a bullet' wound m the temple. The dead girl's right arm was amputated and part of it used to replace the. diseased portim • which had been removed from the girl Hubacek's arm. The operation was so successful that now Hubacek uses her right arm as well as before her illness. AN IDLE EXECUTIONER. Among the strange customs honoured in Persia is one which empowers an executioner, after performing his dread office, to claim the payment from the parents or relatives of the victim of a sum not exceeding 500 tomans, or £178. Rarely, however, is this sum forthcoming, and, as a consequence, the murderer is often imprisoned for life on account of the refusal of the executioner to work for nothing. The sentence is, therefore, mechanically commuted more often than not. A man was recently sentenced to death for the murder of a merchant's wife. The father of the victim is too, poor to -pay the executioner's fee, and the merchant is averse to making the payment on the ground that his wife was a bad woman. It. is possible that the sum necessary for the payment of the executioner will be collected by subscription among the relatives and friends of the victim, otherwise the murderer will escape beheading, and will linger out his days in prison.

NATURE'S MONUMENT. . It is seldom, perhaps, that Nature erects a monument to a person's memory; yet in a, small cemetery a few miles east of ! Nashville, in Brown County, may be found . an object bearing that distinction. More , than 75 years ago a man named Allcorn became a resident of Brown County, and for several years lived near Salt Creek, , in the eastern part of the county. While J residing there Allcorn met with an acci- , dent which resulted in his death, and He was buried in the cemetery near his home, -, The coffin was hewed out of a part of a i poplar tree, and made into two sections, a few years later a small sprout began ] to shoot from the crude coffin, and not < long afterwards a small poplar tree began 1 to spread its branches over the grave. : Within a few years it had grown to large < proportions, and during the long period 1 since it first appeared above the ground the ' tiny poplar sprout has grown into a tree 1 that measures several feet in circumference ; and towers above all others in the vicinitv. Its branches spread far out in all directions, ! and many perhaps who pass near by are j attracted by the towering poplar, though | they may be unfamiliar with its history. i THE [ GOOSE KINO. ! There is plenty of money to be made , from goose-iarming if you have enough i capital to commence the business and sufficient patience to conduct it properly. ; Probably the biggest goose-farmer alive , is a resident of Illinois, U.S.A., who dis- , covered that breeding and fattening these birds was more profitable than owning a ' private bank. He is a banker by pro- ' fession. Ten thousand is the average : number of birds at the farm, which has its own goose hospital and gander prison. ( Birds that neglect to conduct themselves j iii a becomming manner are promptly incarcerated in prison, a separate cell for ] each wrong-doer. Should a bird break ; its wing or meet with other misfortune, * it is hurried to the hospital, where surgical attention is given. " The Goose King" m.akes his greatest profit by fattening the . birds; breeding them is such a slow pro- 1 cess. He buys them, young and nag- , gard, from all parts of America, and generally clears half a crown profit' on ] each bird when the stuffing operations i are concluded. Often when purchased ] the geese are separated from the nearest , railway station by many miles of rough,, ] and stony roads. In.such a case, before, • the long march to the ,:station, .is . conic < menced," the, geese are shod,, being driven through a bed ~of pitch and then immediately, into a; , sand-heap • i They can Jhen ! I undertake'the arduous march without .any I danger of getting foot-sore,;,: " " J