ITEMS OF GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17662, 24 December 1920, Page 2 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF GENERAL NEWS.

HONEYMOON IN GAOL. Three hours was tho extent of free married life enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs. Victor M. Marcelius, of San Diego, California. They were married at 1.30 p.m.', and at 4.30 were in gaol charged with having stolen the wedding gown the bride was married in. RATS EAT A FORTUNE. Rats have eaten up about £2600, the whole of the life savings of a farmer in the village of Sackingen, in Baden. The farmer, who had stored his wealth in a flour-bin, discovered on opening it that all that was left of his fortune was a number of bits of paper. MAYOR IN" A CATHEDRAL PULPIT. Bristol Cathedral pulpit was occupied one recent Sunday night by the Lord Mayor. A crowded congregation gathered to hear him. He advocated better pay for the clergy and improved industrial conditions. An employee, he said, must not seek the maximum of wages for the minimum of work, and an employer must not ask for the maximum of work for the minimum.' of wages. They should not worry about the difficulties of the times, but trust in God and seek to do good. He begged' employers to find work for ex-Service men and other unemployed, and appealed to the people generally to pull together through these anxious times.

A BLIND BRIDEGROOM. The wedding of a bridegropm to a bride he has never seen and never will , see, aroused much public interest at the village church of Newston St. Loe, Somerset. Mr. John Henry Bond, who led to the alter Miss Grace Florence Kansom, aged 23, enlisted in 1915, served in the Somersets, and lost the sight of both eyes in the Somme battle of 1916. He first met his future wife after the war. Trained by St. Dunsten's, he is now an expert boot repairer, and when the young couple left the church the traditional old snoe followed them. _ _ TRACED BY INVISIBLE INK. A postman thief at Eath was trapped by the use of invisible ink. Many complaints having been received from the Ola Held Park district of the city regarding the loss of letters containing valuables, suspicion fell on Frederick Price a postman. It was decided to lay a trap f° r ni-5 l ', J a S d , a tesfc . letter Posted to Ulanela Park containing currency notes and two penny stamps, the latter being marked with invisible ink. The letter was not delivered, and nest day the three missing notes -were found in Price's home,. while the tell-tale stamps were in his wife's purse. Price pleaded guilty to the charge of theft at Somerset Assizes and was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. AN EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT. An extraordinary accident, rivalling a cinema, thrill, occurred near Swanley Junction. A painter named Frank Hawses was painting the Swanlev Junction signal-box when the express train to Deal carried away the staging on which he was standing. He fell on the roof of <a-coach without being observed by either the gnard or driver, and Some distance up the line rolled off the coach. He was found later by an up train, and taken to hospital. Ha-rkea regained consciousnesp later, but was suffering from eliock and a dislocated shoulder. He did not remember _ details of the accident. The attributed to the fact that the platform.was only temporaiy iaa Itegi tiai&

A YOUTHFUL GENIUS. Edward Rochie Hardy, aged 12 years, of New York, who is the youngest boy ever in Columbia University, is said to be a master of 12 languages. His hobby outside languages is Assyrian and Babylonian history, during the study of which he mastered ancient hieroglyphic tablets. FRENCH ECONOMIC RECOVERY. The strides made by France towards economic recovery are shown by official figures issued by the Ministry of Finance. Normally, French imports were between IS and 25 per cent, in excess of exports. In 1918 this excess had reached the huge figure of 372 per cent. For the first nine months of 1920 it amounts to only 39 per cent. PADEREWSKI'S HANDS CRIPPLED. An account of an interview with M. Paderewski has been published, in which he is reported as saying :—" I shall never touch a piano again. Not only the situation of my country makes me "Unwilling to_ continue my career as a public entertainer, even as presenting tho highest form of art, but the shock of the repeated misfortunes of my country has so affected my nervous system that I am unable to touch the piano even for private satisfaction." M. Paderewski expressed the hope that the treatment he was undergoing in Paris would improve his hands enough to permit him to play occasionally for Mme. Paderewski. The piano which had travelled with him for 25 years was, he said, now for sale, heing of "no further use to him.

DRUNKENNESS OR ILLNESS. At an inquest on John William Morley, of Grimsby, who was found dead, the tenant the house ■where he lodged said deceased was brought home, as ' «he thought, "dead drunk," and at. first he refused him admittance. Eventually he consented, but as the men could not carry Morley upstairs, he had to remain downstairs. Witness laid on a couch downstairs until 3.30 a.m., and; on looking fcit Morley was shocked to find that he waa dead. He thought Morley was drunk and not ill, otherwise he would have summoned a doctor. Dr. McKerchar said he found Morley's heart to be dilated and full .of blood. There was evidence of alcoholism in the other organs, but tie condition of the heart was th© cause of death.

WATERSPOUT 5000 FT. HIGH. A gigantic cylindrical-shaped waterspout, 90ft. in circumference, recently shot out of the sea to a height of 5000 ft, some ten miles off Savona, in the Gulf of Genoa. The phenomenon was accompanied by a dense cloud of black smoke, which gradually assumed an opal colouring, and subsided after half an-hour, leaving the surface of the waters covered with snow-white loam. Italian seismologist's believe the outburst to' be closely connected with the recent Apennine earthquake, which also caused a fierv eruption on Pisanello Peak, in the Apuan Aip3, the whole being attributed to another undersea collapse of strata in the eastern section of the Gulf of Genoa. The_ whole of Italian earthquake history during tne past 3d years, experts say, goes to prove that a seismic snectr® is slowly advancing in the direction of Ixorthem Europe, athwart the Swiss A..ps. _ Remarkable evidence in support of this_thesis is now divulged in the fact that 13 hours before the serious nature ot the last earthquake was known and realised in Italy itself, the Italian Red Cross headquarters received a. telegam frotn the international centre at Geneva offering to despatch instant aid. And this came about because, on the basis of the aforementioned hypothesis, tha central meteorological institute at Zurich where 19 successive shocks were regis- ,, their vivid passage across the Alps, had been able to give wamin«T as to the exact locality in which the eatas.iiagke~s«sEi£rft& •