GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18019, 18 February 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

FUR COAT AND RAGS. The Roman police have arrested a man who wns wearing a fine fur coat, a smart hat and gloves, but whose clothes were >n> rags and whose toes protruded from his boots. When taken to the police station he ' declared that he was Cristo Tehorirkorsky, a Bulgarian. Several thousand lire were found on him and in his room at an hotel many valuables were also discovered. Ho has now, it is stated, been rtiflgnised as a notorious international thief wanted for many frauds both in Europe and South America.

GENERAL'S DUEL CHALLENGE. Ocneral Ameglio meeting General Tettoin in a street in Rome, stopped him and uilied him a coward. Thereupon General Tettoni challenged General Ameglio to a duel. General Tettoni was entrusted to make an inquiry into the action of General Ameglio when 'the latter was Governor of Libva, and came to conclusions most damaging to the Governor. But as Ameglio at the time of the completion of the report wan chief of the Royal Guard, the matter was allowed to drop, though the deepest enmity has since subsisted in the hearts of the generals. •

EX BARMAN AS CHAPLAIN.

LATEST THEFT AUDACITY. ' Tho limit in fraudulent audacity j 8 a\, played by a man of 53, for w finm X Pans nolice aro looking. He has been n the habit of calling at the homes of ,»J who have just come out of hospital nre senting himself an a Poor Law doctor stmt to examine them and report on their pro pets. Having caused a woman to V dress, he gravely covers her head with her clothes, instructs her to count 40 slowly and then hold her breath. Wheu tfie woman's attention is thus distracted U l6 man snatches up anything of value and steals away.

RUINED BY SPORT. A passion for sport was said to be th» cause of the downfall of Frederick John Dart, a city postman, who was fined fK at Exeter for stealing a letter. Qwi'm solicitor explained that he was one 0 f the "Old Contemptibles," was wounded in the retreat from Mons, and also sy f service in the Dardanelles and |^- pt Dart had an exemplary character i n 'tli 8 Army. He belonged to several sports clubs in the city and travelled with his favourite football team when they played their away matches. In this wav he had spent far more than he could afford.

The Rev. Robert Rein, evangelist, and erstwhile bartender in " HellJ Kitchen." | « We dmm New\ork, who la* w.ntej advert.sedl or I ,„, ()(hei . . • J» «e «K of the RavmoKll Street M.Brooklyn a --J «g-JS Sit sj" u sjt firm , B f ■?"^ Island, a position offered him as a result I ° «£> ™ ' «»e sen out and to add , 0 of his advertising, said he wiU continue as jjf th « finger print of the designer. uluWarv chaplain of the Brooklyn Truant JJJmb original models, mrented at guch School and the New York Parental School, f^P c 'f- ™ continued, " aj'e frequently a service which he has rendered without Wt by agents of Germans, who copi compensation for several years. »'" d *' a ", d the » 1 I tO . America to be sold with our name ' stitched in them as genuine Paris frocks''

SIGNED FROCKS.

VICAR'S WIDE PHILANTHROPY.

Old age pensioners at Midhurst, Sussex, are to have a " rise" during the winter. Those who go to the vicarage during November, December, January, and February are receiving an extra shilling a week from the vicar, the Rev. F. Tatchell. Tin's is by no mean? the first time that he has shown his philanthropy. Possessed of considerable private means, the vicar has devoted largo sums every year to charitable. purposes. His total gifts at Midhurst amr.tmt to many thousands of pounds. He maintains many old folk, has organised schemes for educating some of his younger parishioners by taking them abroad; lio clothes, feeds, and houses others.

REWARD FOR VIRTUE. A romantic task is occupying the French Academy. They have to award a prize for virtue from funds bequeathed to them by a rich spinster. Mile. Huot. According to her will, this money prize has to be given every year to a beautiful young girl who. disdaining Hie attractions of luxury dishonourably gained, has preferred to live in lnodect retirement uy her own \\ork. Mile. Huot has stipulated that the recipient of the prize must be pretty and be in reduced circumstances, alter having been previously accustomed to the comforts of wealth. She must have shown that =he preferred poverty arid honour to n life of idle well-being which any woman can command at the sacrifice of her good faith.

LIGHTED BOMB AT DOOR. A 10-inch lead pipe bomb containing two sticks of dynamite with a 10-inch fuse attached and lighted was found just outside the door of Nicola Cerulli, at Brooklyn, New York, early on a recent morning. Cerulli, who owns a drug store and lives with his wife and nine children immediately above it, stepped out of his door to go downstairs when he say a newspaper bundle on the .loor. He reraernbcied bavins; received an anonymous letter seme time ago threatening to blow up his house unless he paid £2000. Cerulli ca'led Patrolman La Tour, who opened the bundle, trampled out the fuse and put - the bomb in a pail of water. Eight families live in the apartment house. Detectives begnn work on the case at once.

NEW WORLD WAR PREDICTED. An astrologer who signs himself " Sepharial," writing in the British Journal of Astroloey, fays that the year 1926 is destined to shake the world to its foundations, both physically and politically. After*general trying misfortunes, he says, 'there will be a battle of Armageddon, with the entrv six years later of " the Mifjhty One of Israel." The great final conflict, he says, will be waged against Mohammedanism allied with the Bolsheviki, which will push in the direction of the Holy Land, where, north of Jerusalem, the fight will be carried to its predestined end. Four great Powers will be allied against the Anglo-Saxons, which will he gathered again from al! parts of the earth. There will be a .British-Israel victory in the end and universal peace.

83 WEDS 81. Stepping briskly from a decorated wedding coach at the Grimsby Register Office recently, a bride of 83 helped.down her groom, aged 81, amid the cheers of the crowd. The bridegroom was Mr. George Woolis, who has been quarried twice previously, and the bride was Mrs. Sarah Ann Horn, who had been a widow for 30 vears and the'e'dest of whose 19 children lis a daughter aged 60. The bride went ! through the wedding ceremony similmgly, but tno groom appeared somewhat nervous. For ton years Mrs. Hom has managed Mr, Woolis' household, but, recently her ; daughter suggested that she should retiro jand live with her. On hearing of this Mr. Woolis at once proposed to his housekeeper and was accepted. " I like being busy. 1 can wash aud cook as well as ever," said the bride after the ceremony. " Work is the best thing on earth to keep you healthy and happy.'

A GOLDEN SPRING-CLEAN. London's gold merchants, the assayers of Hatton Garden, E.C., recently made their fourth "spring-clean" of the year. Four times a year the bullion rooms are searched for particles of gold that have escaped in the process of refining. The gold dust collected on these occasions is very ofteu worth a considerable sum. Flues, walls, ceilings, and floors are cleaned, every nook and cranny searched, and even the cobwebs (if there happen to be any) are examined for the precious dust. " The ' spring-clean' also consists of burning the mats on which the workmen have wiped their feet on leaving the piemises," a representative of one firm said. " After the mats arc burned particles of gold are found in the ashes. The uniforms of the workmen are also burned when they begin to wear out, and gold is found in their ashes. Some of the gold dust gets out by way of the flues and floats all over Hatton Garden."

MAKING A DWARF GROW. Some quite amazing results have recently been reached by doctors by giving preparations of certain glands as medicine. The most wonderful effect ha* followed a dose of pituitary," a gland that is the cause of "giantism." If i ■ living gland is too active in a growing person,' he or she may reach a colossal stature before the abnormal development proves fatal. A stunted, dwarfed child was treated recently with doses of pituitary gland by a provincial doctor, with results that surprised himself. The child grew instantly at a quite fantastic pee, like "Alice in Wonderland" when she nibbled the right edge of the mushroom, and though the doses were small the treatment had lo be discontinued because the hands and feet showed a tendency to excessive size. Great developments in medicine and in know-' h.dge of the human mechanism are expected from further investigation with the many glands, thyroid, pituitary, and others, which are less known than any other part of the body and more mysten- ' pus in their influences,

WOMEN'S COOL JEWEL RAID.

A daring theft of jewellery, valued at £300, was committed bv two well-dressed women from a shop in Victoria Street on a recent evening. While one of the women was examining articles on a fray that had been taken from the window by the assistant, her companion seized another tray and decamped. The articles stolen include 23 gold rings of various pattern! set, with diamond*, sapphires, and rnbi'ftj. By the time the alarm was raised both women had disappeared in the enwdt passing along Victoria Streef. Mr. W man. the jeweller, told a press represents, tive it was evident from the cool maimer in which if was carried out that the robbery had been carefully planned.

ORIGIN 01' THE "BOB." The man who speaks about spending « " bobe" is generally regarded as tipnuing himself in the language of slang, hi yet in the "bobe,*' sometimes "bob" meaning a shilling, we find a survival pf the very ancient name for the equivalent of 12 pennies Scots money. In reply to t letter regarding an old French .coin known as a " bobe" one of the coinage expert* of the National Library of Paris cxpbinj that the ' bobe" or douzain belongs to thj period of the fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries, and was value for 12 denier 5 or pennies. On such evidence the "bole" can claim quite a venerab'e pedigree, and may hold up its head in any company of numismatic rivals. ' ' "

CONVICT ROBS PRISON. Ernest Savy. who had just served 15 years in a penitentiary- in Central Franc* was recently called to the office of the chief gaoler and invited to sign a liberation form and receive 35 francs to enable him to " start afresh " in the woridand seek an honest living. Savy noticed tilt the safe in the office was open and contained a packet of bank notes. This vras too much for him. He worked so cleverly that the pile of notes found their way from the safe into his trousers pocket. Then he departed after shaking hands with the chief gaoler, who an hour later discovered that the scamp had made off with £2000 belonging to the orison, and about £1200, the chief gaoler's pen-onil savings.

BURGLARS RETURN MEDALS. Burglars who stole the family jewellery and the D.S.O. and 0.8.E.' medals of Colonel Levey from his house in Lonsdale Road, Barnes, returned the military decorations next day. As Colonel Levey was having a conference with the poliw inspector and a detective who were investigating the case, a letter was handed in by the postman. It was an ordinary envelope, bearing a twopenny stamp, and inside were the missing medals, unaccompanied by any note of explanation. Colonel Levey thinks That the thieves were sorry for him—having learned that ho had risen from the ranks—and sent hi! decorations back in a repentant mood. He was originally a private in the Scot* Guards, and during the war served with the Gordon Highlanders.

SUICIDE ON A GRAVE. Yet another tragedy was added recently to the vast sacrifice of young French lives which has been made at Verdun. For four years a beautiful girl has been mourning the death of her only brother, who fell defending the famous fortress. She was 18 when he was killed, and up t* that time brother and sister had been almost inseparable. Since the death of her brother Yvonne's gay beauty had • faded away. A few weeks ago, on the anniversary of his death she mado a pilgrimaee to one of the military cemeteries near Verdun, where her brother lies. After throwing on the grave an armful of flowers which she carried, and kneeling a Ion? time in payer, she shot herself through the head with a revolver, falling dead with outspread arms against his grave.

PATHETIC SEARCH JOS HOME. On a truck bearing the appeal, "Can anyone find us a home?" William S. Webbon, an ex-service man, wheeled liv© of his family of eight through the streeta of Brighton. By his side walked the two eldest children and his wife, carrying the baby in her arms. Webbon, who has been out of work for months, is to be turned out of his house on November 22 by order of the Brighton magistrates, for arrears of rent. His novel method of bringing his plight to the notice of the public attracted much attention. Many sympathisers dropped coins in the collecting bo.t, and a busman presented Webbon with a rabbit. Eventually the polico took the whole family to the police station on the ground of begging. On promising not to repeat the demonstration, however, they were allowed to go.

GUILLOTINE ON STAGE. The most ghastly scene ever presented on the French stage—a representation of » criminal being guillotined—was enacted at a Grand Guignol [wrforaance recently, and evoked the protssts of a large number of the spectators. The play, written by M. Andre de I.orde and M, Jean de Bernac, is entitled "At Dawn." In the first scene an apache murders his mistress. I" the second he is in a prison cell with the father of his victim, who has teen arrested as a forger. The third time the curtain rises it is to show the execution of the murderer. The guillotine stands up Bgainst the haze of a winter morning, and attended by the prison chaplain the apache U hurried to the scaffold. The executioner and his assistants bind his arms and throw bim down on the plank. He knife crashes down and the head of Uie mur derer drops into the basket. Nest morning the manager of the Grand Guignol and M. Jean de Bernac* were summoned ** jh* Prefecture of Police, where it was decided that the curtain should be rung down in future just as the criminal is pushed on to the sliding plank and that the decapi* tiou should not be shown,