GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

PBEfEBBED PRISON TO A HOKE. A servant aged 17, charged at Willesden with theft/ said she preferred prison to a home. The magistrate told her sna was a very stupid girl. As she bad been previously convicted, he sentenced her to six weeks' imprisonment. KEEP UP ATHLETICS. The Duke of Conna'aghi, presenting the prizes at Dulwich College, advised the boys not to give up their athletics when they left school. ""I am getting on in age now," he said, " but still do my physical exercises every mooning. I do not think I should be happy without them. ' THE LOHDOHEB'S LUHGS. " The man's lunffs were as black as a miner's," said a doctor at an inquest on a Shoreditch old-age pensioner. The Coroner : Is not it found that Londoners lungs are a dark slatey colour, and that people who live in the country have pink lungs? Witness: Yes, but tbis was a very exag ; gerated case of black lungs. , BSQDEST OP AEROPLANES. An interesting item appears in the will of Mr. Arthur Pilkington, class manufacturer 'of Lancashire, who left £386,076.

He bequeathed to his wife his motor vehicles and accessories, and his aeroplanes and aircraft. This is believed to be the first time the word aircraft has appeared in a will.

THE HEW COMMANDMENTS. "Don't marry," "There shall be light,'' " Thou shalt not hi* thy father or mother"' and " Don't swindle" were recently given among the Ten Commandments by a number of New York schoolchildren. SAVED BY A TELEPHONE GALL. A chance telephone call from a fellow M.P., was the means of saying Mr. W. G. Howard Gritten, M.P., from serious injury. While he was dressing at his London residence he was called to the telephone, and immediately after be left his bedroom the ceiling collapsed, some hundredweights of debris falling on the spot where Mr. Gritten had a few moments before been standing.

GXBX. BASHERS' DILEMMA. Three Basingstoke, Hampshire^ girls left their. clothes raider a bosh while they bathed in Fleet Pond, near Farnborough, and when they came ashore they found their clothes had vanished. The girla told a passing cyclist of their dilemma. He found sitting under a wall a rag and bone collector inspecting silk stockings and other garments, and carefully placing them one by one in his little perambulator. It was not long before the cyclist returned the clothing to the delighted girls.

DWARFS STRANGE FATE. An_ acrobatic comedian, Thomati Jones, who'appeared in public under the name of " Little Tommw," was suffocated in bed at his lodgings recently. Although a dwarf Jones was very powerful, but the shortness of bis legs and arms made it impossible for him to turn over when he was on his face. It was thought that Jones rolled over on to hi* face, and couJd not alter hi position. A verdict of accidental death was. returned.

PIOUS AND PRETTY, In recognition of her piety and prettiness Miss May Gough, the seventeen-year-old aaughter of a postman, of Holsworthy, England, has been presented with 50s under the terms of a bequest made many years ago by a former Hector of North Petherwm, who also left £l a vear for presentation to a spinster over 60 possessing «the like virtues." It is some years, however, since there has been any claimant for the =£1. It was stated that Miss Gough has not missed an attendance ; at church for 12 raontaa.

FREE TBAMOAR BIDES. Walthamstow, England, has begun an experiment that wilTbring joy into the lives of thousands of children! 'possessing a Labour chairman and a Labour majority on the district council, the local authorities, who own the tramways, have decided in y „*J nl t travelling by tram between lO and 4 during the school holidays may be accompanied by two children, not over 12, for whom no fare will be charged This concesion means that during their period of summer freedom the children from this crowded, working-class district can be taken out even as far as Epping forest under proper supervision.

THIEF - PROOF JEWELS. As a result of the recent armed, daylight robberies in Pans, culminating in an attack on a dealer's shop in the heart of the city, when £20,000 worth of diamonds was stolen, the Prefect of Police has ordered all policemen to be armed with revolvers by day as well as by night. To protect the gems at a certain jeweller's thin and almost invisible wires have been placed behind the plate-glass. If the window is broken the wires make an electric contact and the show cases immediately fall into a steel recess, while the iron shutters which at night guard the shop front are released.

DANCISO AS A ORIME. A village priest of Briec, France, has been prosecuted by the owners of a restaurant and a dancing hall, who accused him of urging young people not to go to dances m then- .hall. The priest told a young couple about to be married that if they intended to go to the restaurant and dance after the ceremony he would not marry them. The justice of the peace decided that the priest had acted to the prejudice of the restaurant proprietor; he was ordered to pay 200 frs. (normally £8) damages. The priest appealed to the Quimper Court, where he obtained a reversal of the judgment on the ground that his remarks w«r« made privately and in & religious capacity.

.■•>-. - ■ _ mditiget TKfmS. i~ 'i Moonlight lawn tennis parties have bees held at the Bellevue courts at Lerwick. £ " Assembling at 10.30 ;m., the pirtaeg "A* have played games up to midnight, whan ~i v tea was served, and thereafter dancing wag >** indulged in. A large peat fir© supplied t^«. '■■ : : -3 warmth which the nights failed to "■- ~~~~~~~~——— ——— -V WANTED, AH ISLAHB, v§ The personal column of the Times can* M tains the following advertisement :Tw<j • s S public school and 'varsity men, bored, and S depressed by limitations of careers otherwise open to them, wish to purchase smalL - cheap, inhabitable island, thus combining 'M solitude with profitable employment. Warm *H climate essential. " - .-; A CATHEDRAL TRAGEDY. A Swiss clergyman, Professor StosssL aged 67, was preaching in the cathedral at Basle, when he dropped dead in th« <~; middle of his sermon, his body falling from ■■} the pulpit on ths pews beneath. A docfcos - among the congregation examined th« body, and announced that death was due to heat apoplexy.

EAT PERIL IK PARIS. Rats to the number of 500,935 have bees destroyed in the Paris Municipal Crematoriums since the city authorities embarked recently on the systematic destruction of rodents, who are doing enormous damage throughout the city and endangering health. Four large cromatorioums continue the. destruction at the rate of 1200 to 1*503 daily. Up to the present th» destructioa has. cost the city about £6000.

A BANNED WEDDING, Arrangements had bean made for a wedding at the Battersea Registry Office, but the parents of the bride intervened and the ceremony was stopped. Liter; the bridegroom, Arthur Thomas Wilkms, was arrested and charged with forgery. It was alleged against him that, in order fc» marry a 16-year-old girl, the daughter of Richard Allen, he had forged the signature of her parents to a document certifying that she was 21 years of age, SMALL-POX CASS IK THAIS, *A virulent case of small-pox was dis* covered in a crowded holiday train return. ing from the Lincolnshire coast to Nottingham. As the compartment is which the sick person -travelled could not be identified the whole train had to be fumigated.' At fin* the case was regarded as one of chicken-pox, and it wag not onto the woman reached Nottingham that it was diagnosed as smallpox in a severe form. j

TONGUE, TWTBTEft EEVXVAi. <« Tongue twisters seem to have acquire*! % new popularity through the recent ieat of : Mr. H. J. Nias, J.P., of Ideworth, who ! v»>n a prize at a local fete by repeating 7; A the phrase, "Some fountain, pen" 78 - : S times in 30 seconds. He challenged all ,-'•= comers to beat his achievement, and in re-, n M ply has received acceptances from a young ill Honnslow journalist, and aJso from-a 3* speaker of the Labour party from Kings- ■-; ton. Arrangements are being made tea . M ', #,6 contest. The first rival suggests thafc -i' the phrase for repetition should be "sixthick' thistle sticks." and the second, ?"§ .** Isleworth's rotten roads." v: o.b.e JOB KESBO. •--■ '■' ■■?•% A humble servant of the British E* '' " ' bassy at Washington, Queries M. Brans, * has the distinction of being, according t* ■ ; official records, the only negro in &■ . United States to reoeiv-s the medal of IS*! . Order of the British Empire. The jresen- - ; ?: tation" was made m. the presence of the':i."; full staff of the Embassy, gathered on the lawn of tiie Embassy. Brown- has been J | j t© the Embassy as a messenger }%£ I and clerical assistant for 35 years, during -~;« j which time ho has served under nine S i Ministers and Amhasadora. Sir Auckland M, i Geddea himself pinned the decoration on 5 Brown's breast, and delivered a felicitoa* S i speech reciting long senrios. ' -S

"FREAK** WAGERS.

Some remarkable "freak" wagers ai* * Jf now being paid as the outcome of Carpea- -f| tier's defeat by Dempsey, says & New I York message. . A barber in Wisconsin, I because of Dempsey's victory, mast shavs 1 Mr. Arthur J. Haugen and or.', his haul 's whenever required until July 2, 1926. He I must also give him a 50-mile motor-car ride - 3 every Sunday for three months. Mr. *v'f Haugen, an employee of the local post -«§ office, had wagered a two-acre crap of M runner beans on the champion.' Polica .8 officials intervened a* Ottawa to prevent 1 fulfilment of another variety of wager when , il they notified Raoul Mercier thaf they '* | would not- permit him to'roll a monkey- I nut four city blocks along Sparks Street, ■§ the main business thoroughfare. "i

A BAB? WANDERER, With a penny to spend, g S-yearol4 boy. named Thomas Stanley England, wandered through the streets from hi» home in Plaistow to Barking, where be was killed by a passing vehicle, The) story was told at the inquest, when a verdict of accidental death was recorded. When a baby in the care of the Salvation Army he was adopted by a couple named Hall. He- was given a penny to spend one morning, and in his wanderings reached Barking in the afternoon- H« was seen to be in danger when crossing the main road. People tried to save him, and motors swerved to avoid him, bet ha was knocked down, death being instan» taneons*

MARIA FOR BOILERS. A singular instance of kleptomania is reported from Orleans, where a wealthy wine merchant has been arrested. The police had been baffled for a considerable time by a series of burglaries committed at Orleans ironmongers' shops. The articles recently stolen included a large copper boiler. Suspicion eventually fassenea on the wine merchant, who finally admitted the theft. A search carried "out at his castle, situated on a magnificent estate not far from Orleans, revealed the stolen boiler, a number of other simila'- boilers, and a large quantity of hardware, all of which the kleptomaniac admitted he had: stolen in a moment of weakness and hidden in the cellar.

WAR OH BOBBED HAIR. An insurance company of Hartford, Con* necticut, employs 6000 girl clerks. Hereafter none of them will wear bobbed hair £ *™y_ **& to keep their jobs. Mrr. K. Daniels, director of the company, nsis announced that no more voung women with bobbed hair will bo employed, and he intimated that those alreadv" on the P*y roll would be gradually eliminated. "•The reason for this order," said Mr. Daniels, " is that -we want workers in our offices, and not circus rid«;r3." Managers of other businesses in Hartford haw taken the same stand, the general opinion being that girls with bobbed hair are frivolous and careless.

ARCTIC ELDORADO. _ An Attempt to reach an Arctic Eldorado is to be made by r.he Donald B. Macmillaa expedition, which leaves shortly for Baffin Land, says a New York message. According to Eskimo tales, there exists in the interior one of the richest and most alluring islands in the frozen north. It is said to have great mineral deposits, and tft possess high mountains and beautiful lakes which have never been seen by white- men. The region is believed to be an immense breeding ground for water fowl, whose nesting habits will be the subject of study, while the programme of the scientists of the expedition also .'alls for field work in zoology, botany, geology, meteorolgv. and terrestrial magnetism. Specie! observations will be taken of th* magnetic pol* \