ITEMS OF GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17294, 18 October 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF GENERAL NEWS.

■ BELATED OAIIBRAX HERE. Twelve persons have been killed by the explosion of a mine near Cambrai, including six German prisoners of war. THE SACKED ARCH. Orders have been issued by the Military Governor of Paris, on the instructions of M. Clemeneeau, that in future troops must march round the Arc de Triomphe, and not through it. The chains barring the way through the arch are to be replaced. A WORLD-PEACE STAMP. Under the patronage of Princess Marcrethe, a Danish committer has now sent out the first 400,000,000 world-peace stamps. These stamps may be purchased all over the world, and the money thus collected will go to a fund for the rebuilding of the ruined Cathedral of Rheims. 'DANDY'S" TWO WARS. Dandy, the charger of Colonel Snider, "27th Battalion Canadian Infantry, is returning to the home farm at Portage le Prairie. He went through the South African War with his master, and until mobilisation in 1914 worked on the land. Dandy has been in France since 1914He was never hit.

KITTEN SAVES MASTER. "White Paws," a kitten, saved the life of H. G. Mills, of Colorado. The kitten, which follows its owner as constantly as a dog, was riding with Mills in his automobile when engine trouble developed. Mills crawled under the car to investigate, and found himself within striking distance of a giant rattle-snake coiled. The kitten leaped from the car and* sank it<s teeth into the rattler's head, killing it The snake, which measured 9ft in length and had 12 rattlers, was sent to a taxidermist for mounting. Pioneers declared it to be the largest rattler ever seen in the district. REAL TRAGEDY IN PARIS. A real tragedy, unbeknown to the audience, occurred behind the scenes at the Theatre rdes Arts during the performance (of a military drama entitled "Verdun." The principal actor in the play is supposed to fall after being struck by a bullet. At the same moment that this was taking place on the stage the chief electrician of the theatre, standing a few yards away in the wings, drew a revolver and shot himself in the same place where the actor is supposed to be hit. The screams of the dying suicide mingling with the actor's cties gave the scene extraordinary realism. ILLICIT PHOTOGRAPHS. Amateur photographers who managed to secure illicit pictures during the war are likely to be a little perplexed at the offer of tne British authorities who are now beginning the task of appraising the value oi several hundreds of thousands of photographs taken during the war, at the front and elsewhere, the cream of which are to be arranged for the benefit of historians and book illustrators of the future The authorities state that the photographs they are anxious to get hold of "are those taken illicitly by amateurs, large numbers of which are known to exist." Forgiveness is promised, but will the clever amateur with good pictures be willing to reveal just how clever he was? SCOTS' HALL OP VALOUR. A committee of distinguished Scots appointed by the Secretary for Scotland recommends that Edinburgh Castle should be the site of a national war memorial to the 100,000 Scots who fell in the war i They propose that a dedicated building or shrine should be erected on the apex oi the Castle Rock, practically on the snot on which stood the ancient church built by King David. In the building, which could be used for devotional pur- ! poses, would be memorials for all the Services. They also suggest that the old barracks on the east side of Crown Square should be adapted for a Hall of ! Valour, in which might be blazoned on the walls the roll of Scotsmen who have won the Victoria Cross since its institution ; and also the names of specially distinguished Scotsmen who have given I their lives in the war. The scheme is estimated to cost £250,000,

100— STILL DANCING. f Betsy Arnold centenarian, joined in 3 a dance round a tree planted for peace orations by the Mayor of Aberga- i venny. 5 PISH USED AS FUEL. Owing to want of coal in Soviet Turkistan, the locomotive furnaces are now fired with dried fish, 8.000 tons of which have been requisitioned from the fishermen of the Aral Sea. SUBMARINE IN T2IAWL NET. The steam trawler Boyhat recently en« tered Lowestoft with a nortion of a" German submarine with a machine-sun attached to it. The prize was fished up i.i the Boyhat's trawl-net. It is 10ft long, is very rusted, and has the appearance of having been separated from th« rest of the hull by fire. THE EMPEROR'S PHOTOGRAPH. Because he took a picture of the, Japanese Emperor and Empress in the couise of a passing parade, a press photographer was recentlv thrown into jail, while the society editor of Jiji, who printed a picture of the Emperor, was grilled by the police. The Tokio newspapers are highly critical of the action ot the police. WHEN THE ESKIMOS HEARD. News of the Armistice (November 11) reached one part of Labrador on February 27, when three dog sleighs with flags flying arrived at the mission station. A message from a member of the Overseas Club says the Eskimos had a bonfire on the ice, and brought out all the bunting they could find ; the National Anthem was sung. DEAD MAN'S HUMOUR. A Parisian, with a sens*, of humour, recently bequeathed 300 francs to each relative who abstained from attending his funeraL Only, one poor relative insisted on following the deceased to the grave, and her loyalty was richly rewarded, for by a codicil to his will, the deceased left the residue of his large forj tone to those relatives who were prepared to sacrifice the 300 franca. REVENGE BY BOMB. A bomb explosion at Los Angeles, followed by a fire, has destroyed the home of the ex-Assistant Federal AttorneyGeneral, Mr. Oscar Lawler. who, with his wife, is probably fatally burned. The outrage is believed to bo an act of revenge on Lawler for having prosecuted a. group of dynamiters several yeans ago. It is added that Mr. Lawler's three children were also seriously burned. FARMERS USE GAS MASKS. jGas masks are in great demand in Indiana for threshing and shipping the wheat infected with Australian "takeall.** All the grain is so saturated with formaldehyde that the workers cannot stand the fumes. It is being shinned to the United States Grain Corporation at New York, where all grain from infected districts in Indiana and Illinois is being held * pending an investigation. GOES TO GAOL BY AIR. The first man to be conveyed to prison by airplane departed from Stamford Conn,, en route to Mineola, where he was to be given in custody of the commanding officer at Haalehurst field. Private Charles Lowden, a member of the Third Aero squadron, was the prisoner, &nd though he is to be held on a technical charge of desertion he did not appear freatly disturbed. Lowden waved his ands gaily to the crowd that assembled to see him off as the biplane took to the air and hummed off across Long Island! Sound, STRUGGLE EST A WELL. While being shown round places of interest at Lumley Castle, a man named Fisher had a narrow escape from death. In orfder the better to examine the his- ' toric well in which the examine the his- ' torio well in which the Lily of Lumley— a member of the Lamley family in the Middle Ages—was supposed to have been murdered, he got on an old disused ladder, which broke. He fell into 9ft of water. There was no rope in the well and Fisher bad a great struggle to keep from drowning, but was finally rescued by means of a tree branch and a ropa thrown to him. STRANGE CHURCH INCIDENT.

A motor-car drove tip in the morning to the Roman Catholic church in Dorchester Road, Weymouth, and there alighted a fashionably attired woman and a little boy. Just as they were entering the church two men appeared, and without any ceremony bundled the two back into the motor-car. The woman made some resistance, and her cries and the screams of the boy, who clung to her. attracted the attention of passers-by. They were driven rapidly away from tha church, and nothing more has been seen or heard of them. POLICE TRAP COMEDY. A remarkable trap was set by tha Pontypridd police in connection with a betting raid- A constable in plain clothes entered a newsagents' shop, removed his coat, and took up his stand behind the counter. Other policemen removed John Beer, the shopkeeper, to tha kitchen. A number of men afterwards entered the shop and handed betting slips and money to the constable. The constable accepted the slips, and prompt- ' ly passed the men over to the policemen concealed in the kitchen. Beer was charged at the local court with using the premises for betting purposes, and the other men with aiding and abetting. MISSED FIRE. A Londonderry man visited a circus and neard a comedian, with a. knife in his hand, say: "The Lord have mercv on the last man I used it on." He thought it a good joke, and it stuck i n his mind. This was the story he told the magistrates when he found himself in the dock as the result of trying the ioke on his wife while he was cutting tobacco. She had him arrested and wanted him sent to an asylum. The doctors refused to certify him insane, and the police charged him with assaulting his wife, who told the court that when her husband madu the remark he was staring wildly, and she thought he was mad. The husband said he was upset by losses owing to the war, and he was bound over. MAD COW COMEDY. The diverting comedy of a mad cow, which began .at Brulais' Hie et Vilaine, has had its epilogue at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The cow was killed and eaten. Then the report was spread that the animal had been afflicted with rabies. Immediately those- who had eaten of its flesh imagined that they were doomed to madness, and 44 of them took train for Paris, travelling in a luggage van, as the other passengers would not allow thereto enter the carriages. Those who remained behind insisted on a veterinary inquiry, which established the fact that the cow had been really mad. At tha Pasteur Institute the 44* people were immediately examined, but it was not found necessary to put them under treatment, because none of them showed any symptoms of the dread malady. They were informed that the fact that they had eaten the flesh of a mad cow presented no danger, since the flesh was rendered harmless by cooking. They were therefore urged to telegraph at once to their friends, who also imagined that they were afflicted with hydrophobia, and to save them & useless journey to Paris.