GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

POX HUNT IN PARLOUR. Exciting adventures with a fox occurred near Welshpool. White the. housekeeper a* White. House Smithy was working m the parlour a fox dashed in. He immediately started chasing the cat, and the frightened housekeeper ran out, slamming the door. Finding himself locked in the parlour the fox became violent, so the itecksmith fetched a gun and shot him. LIFE LOST FOR A TOOTH. After he had had a single tooth extracted, Albert Rowley, aged 24, of New-Caotlerunder-Lvme, slowly bled to death. For ten davs the bleeding went on, although doctors tried all known remedies. The man was taken to hospital, but on the tenth day he died. A verdict of death from natural causes was returned at an inquest, the dentist being exonerated. MOTORLST DIES AT WHEEL. While driving a motor-car at Bteckheath, near Dudley, Mr. Bernard Swa - low, 56, works manager, of Old UiU, Staffs, suddcr.lv released the wheel and fell backwards.' The car mounted the footpath and dashed into a shop windowf Mr. Swallow was found dead at the wheel, having apparently had a heart j seizure. His two sisters, who were passengers in the car, escaped with a tew cute and bruises. NEW « GLEpPATRA'S NEEDLE." A huge obelisk. 162 ft. in length, that I is more than twice as high as the | obelisk in the Place do la Concorde, has been discovered by M. Englebaeh, ot the {jervice of Antiquities in Egypt, at Assouan. A funeral chamber, with painted walls, and containing a largo sarcophagus, ;aaa beer, opened up at Saggarah, while a ■ burial place for wolves, worshipped as deities in the province ot AssioUt, lias j also been unearthed. HURLED THROUGH WINDOW. A wonderful escape from death in one of the principal streets of Coventry is reported. As a woman was passing slong with her child in a perambulator a motor lorn- mounted the pavement and hurled her'with the child and the peram-1 bnlator through the plate glass window of a draper's shop. Both were senously injured. The accident was' due to the driver of the lorry swerving sharply in order to avoid colliding with a motorcar. KEPT ALIVE TO READ NOVEL. The late Sir Henry Thompson must have felt himself well rewarded for his care of one troublesome patient who at his death left him £70.000. That exceeded the reward, but not the romance, of a French doctor, who had as patient Mile. Lenormand. She was dying when Eugene Sne's " Mysteries ot Paris " was appearing in serial form, and promised him 20,000 francs to keep her alive long enough to read the last chapter. She had her wish, and he his 20.000 francs.

BETROTHAL SHIRTS. The Scandinavian bridegroom presents to his betrothed a prayer book and many other Rifts. She. in "turn, gives him, j especially in Sweden. a shin, and this | he invariably wears en his wedding day. Afterwards he puts it away, and under no circumstances would he wear it again while alive. But he wear.-, it in his grave, and there are Swedes who earnestly believe not only in the resurrection of the body, but in the veritable resurrection of the betrot'iai shirts of such husbands as have never broken their marriage vows. The Swed ; ..,h widower must destroy, on libe eve of his" second marriage, the bridal shirt which his first wife gave him.

POFT'S NIGHTDRESSES. Gabriele D'Annnuzio, the well-known Italian writer. has in his wardrobe, according to a Neapolitan journalist. 72 nightdresses, 12 d'>zen pairs of coloured socks, some of cotton and others of silk. 48 pairs of gloves for the street, and 24 pairs for evening dress, eight light blue parasols and ten green umbrellas. 20 dozen pocket handkerchiefs. 150 neckties, ten vests, 14 pairs of shoe?, four or five, dozen pairs of soft and noiseless slippers, and & large number of hats, smoking jackets, evening dress coats, silk dressing gowns, find owner garments. There was only one other Italian within living memory, it is said, Who had such a large and costly wardrobe, and that was Mascagni,

BURNED WHILE AT PRAYER. Through her nightdress catching fire as ghe was kneling by the bedside saying her Brayera, Mrs. Cecilia Maria O'C'o'nnell, a doctor's wife, she was so severely burned that she died the next day. Dr. Patri' k O'Coimell. of Seven King's, Uford, said that his wife was alone in her bedroom ar- the time. A spark from the fire fell upon the back of her nightdress. She was not aware of her danger until the garment burst into flames. She rushed out of the room into a corridor and the burning nightdress dropped £rom her as she. ran. " She collapsed and died next morning. If she had only had the presence of. mind to have rolled herself On W.& floor, added the doctor, she would have saved her life. A verdict of accidental death was returned. > HILLED BY TENNIS BALL. An 11-ycar-old schoolboy, Leonard Harold Reginald Mills, of Plumstead Common Boad, Plumstead, was watching a match on Plumstead Common early in August when he was struck en the head by a tennis ball, which caused his death in October from meningitis. At the inquest at Greenwich his mother said that when he returned home the boy comElained of severe pains, and a fortnight iter a lump of " tremendous size " appeared on the forehead. Th s was lanced, but the boy got no better, imd he was taken to Plumstead Hospital. Just before he died he told her that the previous day he had knocked his head against the bough of an apple tree in the garden. A verdict of accidental death w.js returned. SWALLOWED RADIUM. From Naples comes the report of a enrioug case. At one of the hospitals a woman patient was being treated for a tumour in the mouth, and swallowed a particle of radium worth 70.000 lire (normally £3000). At first the doctors re- ■ iosed to credit the woman's story, believing die had hidden away the valuable element. They even reported the matter to the police, who thereupon took charge of the case. Later, however, the patient complained of violent interior pains, and the doctors concluded she had rivalry swallowed the radium. They operated npon her immediately, and were able to instruct the radium, but they also discovered that a {.art of the woman's in(iestine had suffered a severe lesion. The patient has now sued the debtors for damages. MQNOCT-ED WOMEN. 9"* he demand bv women in* 1 monocles is increasing, and may .- >mi become a fashioa. A word of wiirninft. however, is uttered ftgauift l tho danger (hat kijcli ■women, before they are 50. mi.'iv he unable to read with the en so they should, A leading Loudon Wrel Kml (iptirbiti was very emphatic in declarinc; that monocle wearing affected the sij;lit. "I' women," ho said. " take to monocles, just to look smart, if. will be ;i most . fooHah thing. Monocles are meanl for bad sight; they were never intended for ornaments. Unless an eyn is abnormal and requires artificial help. » monocle throwß an unnatural strain nn i!. which in time \n likely to result in grave injury, and posiriblo blindness. T think." he added, "apart from the f l H „ a ,.,. t„ s ijji lt jjooh.B fashion is most unbecoming to tmoMp

BITTEN BY MAD PUPPY. At Issor, in the Basses Pyrenees, » two-months-old puppy bit his master, six children of his master, and .a neighbours servant. It was found that the little animal was mad, and the eight persons s bitten were sent to th« Pasteir Institute a*. 1 Bordeaux. ' , — i BOY ROBBED OP CLOTHES. ' An extraordinary outrage is reported ( from Dundee. A four year-old boy, on a ] promiso of sweets, was enticed by ag'r, , aged 12 vears. to a dark lane in the -North i end, where she is alleged to have stnppeo him of his clothes and mado off with them. ; The bov was found by a passer-by, who wrapped him in a coat and took him home. Subsequently his clothes were four.u. in » garden. £1400 TO DISOOVER AMERICA. ! The davs of good investments are gone j by. The'discovery of America, according to documents found in the archives of ! Genoa, cost a little more than £1400. Ihe fleet of Columbus was the value of about ' £600. while the salary of the admiral - amounted to £60 a year. The two cap- ' tains who accompanied the expedition received a salarv of £40, and the members < lof the crew were paid at the at the rate pi < 10s a month each. Columbus evidently J got nothing for his share of the joke. 1 RARE COMMUNION CUP. , ! One of the most costly and beautiful ( ! Communion cups in the world was made , some time ago for use at Holy Angels Church, Buffalo. The rector, the Rev. J. Quinn, asked for gifts of Jewels . and sold for a new chalice, when he re- ; ceived a remarkable response. The list _ of gifts included: Diamonds. 83: pearls, 145: fold bracelets, 82; gold medals, 17: . "old watches, 8; gold rings (208 wedding rings), 396; gold" ornaments, 600; gold ' coin. '£2a Nearly all these precious .; stones and gold have been utilised in this marvellous Communion cup. NO HOLIDAY FOR 25 YEARS. Abraham Xewland, the chief cashier of the Bank of England, who lies buried in I St. Saviour's Church, London, was no be- : liever in holdiays. Upon his appointment, after some 30 years of subordinate service in the hank, to the post of chief > cashier, apartments were assigned him within the building, and from that time until his retirement a quarter of a century later he never slept away from the bank. Newland's fortune of £60,000 he be- , bequeathed to his landlady, whoso gratitude found expression in a modest tablet to his memory within the church. PAINTING ON HUMAN SKIN. Marcus Lorenzzo, an Italian painter, who flourished in the last century, once paid 200 francs for a piece of human skin no larger than a dinner-plate, upon winch to execute a landscape in oils. The skin which was chemically prepared to receive the paint, was taken from the back of an woman, whose body had been sold to j ! a medical man for dissecting experiments. The human parchment was drawn tightly over a metal frame, and the artist spent* nearly seven months in producing a painting that was afterwards exTubiicd in various saloons and ultimately realise"? i i the sum of 84.000 francs. ' PADLOCKED MOUTHS. | History records sundry criminal proceedings reporting the affixing of padlocks to a human being's mouth. In Hungary this was the. ecclesiastical punishment for uttering blasphemy. The same crime was punished in Spain by tearing ' out the culprit's tongue, in France by branding the tongue, in Holland by piercing the tongue with nail", etc. In an ancient grave a padlocked human face was discovered, and was put on exhibition in the National Museum in Budapest. The staples are driven through the bony parts of the face at both sides of the mouth. Antiquarians say the lock is dated from the end mi the sexteenth century. MEN IN PREPONDERANCE. While in nearly all European countries the females outnumber the males, it is interesting to learn that with few exceptions in the cities of India the males outnumber the females. According to the census of 1921 the proportion of females to males per 1000 in Calcutta is 470. In Bombay the sex proportions of the inhabitant* have fluctuated greatly from time to time. At the 1911 census the number of females to males was 617 in 1000, and, taking the average of all the Indian cities, there were only 963 females to 1000 males in 1911. In the opinion of the census authorities,, the.reason for this disparity is said to be that in India the great majority of the domestic servants, shop hand*, and factory employees are males. RIVAL LOVERS' DUEL. Two youths who had quarrelled over a • girl at one of the popular Sunday' afternoon balls later fought a duel to the death in a Paris street- After heated words in the ballroom the two decided to settle their dispute with knives, and left the room followed by a crowd of other youths and girls." After removing their coats and rolling up their sleeves, they drew their clasp Knives, and a fierce fight followed.-They circled round each other and each one inflicted several wounds or his opponent, until one of them, Charles Bazin, aged 22 years, with a loud shriek, threw up his arms and fell back, his knife clattering to the ground. His rival's weapon had pierced his heart, and wher. the witnesses of the fight rushed to his side they found him dead. His opponent took to flight, and is now being hunted by the police. A FLY BRINGS LUCK. A Monte Carlo paper tells that a fly alighted on No). 13 on the roulette table recently at a time when the players had suffered a persistent, run of bad luck. The superstitious gamblers exchanged covert glances and searched their pockets for money with which to stake. In a few moments the " middle doyen.'* that is to say, the numbers 15 to 24, was liberally covered with stakes. Then an elderly , gambler arose and piled napoleons round the square on which the fly had alighted, thus backing the numbers from 10 to 17. Less confident players staked small amounts on the "trtinsversales." The ivory marble was s*nt spinning round the roulette wheel, there was a moment of snss penae, and then he croupier announced the t winning number, 13. But. what is far 1 more extraordinary, the same number i came up three times in succession That I fly cost the Casino £5000! > KISSING UNKNOWN. 9 I There arc millions of human beings who do not know what it is to kiss—Japanese, Chinese, many Africans. Malays. Burmese. I many Esquimaux, and the native races c.f | North America. One reason given for this absence of kissing among s the Japanese is that the women - and girls have always used pig. s ments to redden their lips, mnkine: kissi i inf.' anything but attractive. A mother - I will bid (rooclbye to a young son who is • | poiog 'o Europe for years to he educated ' | without an embrace of any kind, t j When children wish to creet a playmate 1 ; (bey bend low with their hands resting . j mi their thighs and sliding them down to t j their knees as thev utter their greetings. r | If the meeting takes place indoors the '' children kneel down upon the mats and I bow until tb"ir faces touch the floor. 0 Chinese children clasp their hands in h front nf their breast«. then rai.se them to their faces, and. inclining their bends, ine ouire if thn others " have eaten rice.'* ' | Grown people kneel and bump their heads 3 in the ceremonial " kow-tow.*' J haps the most striking articles.