GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

BABY'S REMARKABLE ESCAPE. Mr?. Edith Daisy Miles, aged twentyeve years, of Warfield Road, Hampton, fell down a flight of stairs and fractured icr skull when leaving the bedroom of a, woman friend. She died in hospital. A fiue-months-old baby in her arms when she fell escaped unhurt.

SWALLOWED A DRAWING PIN. While, attending school, Stanley Pearson. an 11-year-old boy of Higginshaw, Oldham, swallowed a brass drawing-pin. Ho was removed to the Oldham Infirmary lie following day, and an operation" was performed. The drawing-pin was extracted, but the boy died.

TAX-FREE AT THE AGE OP 107. Mrs. Delia San ford, aged 107, is "hovoiid the taxing age" in the opinion ~f the City Council at Nor walk, Connecticut, and 'her taxes have 'been abated perpetually. . i-.ni Mrs. jSanfnrd is infirm and without, means, although she owns the modest 1-,n.e where she lives with her daughter. It' is on this property that the tax has been abated.

SPRIGHTLY PATRIARCH. Charles Lucius, aged 91 years, a ragPicker, of Rav City, Michigan, is the father of thirty-three children, the oldest of whom is v-seven and the youngest fourteen months. The list includes four pets of twins, one >pt 11v his present or fourth wife, and he others by a second wife. ' Lucius hears bis 91 years lightly. He ■locs his " daily dozen " exercises and with ease lie "can rap his knuckles on the P.or-1- without bending at the knees. SNAKES HIS ONLY FRIENDS. Caiman Magill. a recluse, who lived with "snakes in a log hut in Missouri, has hist, died, leaving property valued at £/000 .. • Mail's body was found beside his bed by relatives. He had always described' the snakes that occupied his hut ns bis friends, and denied visitors the rieht to approach. His wife and two children died fifty rears a«.o and he had -,since. refused to eat a woman's cooking. He lived on birds, wild animals, and herbs.

GIRLS' LONG OANOE VOYAGE. Two girl students from lowa, Universitv have paddled their own canoe for 2000 miles down the Mississippi River from lowa to New Oilcans. The Miss Ivy Lester and Miss Lilian Panielson. ramped 011 the river hanks nt night, and their onlv weapons cf defence were two ash paddles. '• W? were well treated by everybody," said the girls. "We met many bootleggers (liquor-smugglers), but we can saV ore thing for them, they were courteous and hospitable. One bootlegger at, St. Louis painted our canoe for us and others we met on the way down the river gave us provisions."

NEW FASHION IN RINGS. Many English, women are having their wed, rings altered V> the slender hoop, bevelled almost like a thin curtain ring.' which is now in vogue. •' We have altered hundreds during the last few months," said a prominent London jeweller. " The exceedingly narro? ring now in fashion seems to have, Greater fascination than any other kind made during the last fifty years. The same pattern was worn about a hundred years ago. Women, at that period, grow stout at an earlier age than they do now, and a fiat ring became painful. •' It as considered unlucky formerly to alter a wedding ring, but the superstition seems to have been forgotten. Some women have . the original inscription engraved inside the remodelled ring, but the majority do riot bother."

UNCANNY COINCIDENCE. A series of strange incidents at Eastbourne, England, has set the townspeople talking.' Every time John Blackmail, a well-known labour worker, is committed to prison bv tie local magistrates in connection with arrears tinder a wife main tenance order, there follows, it is alleged, a tragic death of one of the magis trates sitting on the Bench at the time of the committal. The man called attention to this himself. He pointed out that lie has been senfenced to imprisonment on four occasions, and, he continued, " It may be a coincidence, but the judge who first sentenced me was the first to die. Followin? each separate commitl.il by a magistrate, one of them died suddenly." Black/nan has been committed once more under the same order, and people &ve ■wondering what is going to happen nest.

WONDERFUL CHILD POETESS. Dr. John A. Hutton, Dr. Jowett's successor at the Westminister Congregational Church, who has vouched for the authenticity of some wonderful poems by Helen Douglas Adam, the twelve-year-old daughter of a Dundee clergyman, contained in a volume called " The Elfin Pedlar." gives a fascinating picture of the child. " She is a mere baby, with a mind brimming over with beautiful ideas," said Dr. Hutton. "It is one of the most wonderful things I have ever encouutered. She will weep over a bruised flower, nurse it back to life, and then express her emotions on paper in language of great beauty and perfect rhyme. _ " A still younger sister of the little poetess is a brilliant violinst. Psychic influences have nothing to do with Helen's writing— her the world is full of beautv."

ADOPTED A FAMILY OF 23. The largest adopted family in the ■world is that of Mr. R. E. Beals, an engine-driver, of Edge wood, U.S.A. The children range in age from fifteen months to as many years arid they go to bed in shifts mid eat in detachments. After Heals' wages have been exhausted and there is 110 food left in the home the. family always resorts to prayer for succour, and has yet to he disappointed. Such is their confidence in prayer that the homo is known as "Faith Home." The man and his wife have no help in caring 1 for their large foster family, hut Mr:;. Beals is a painstaking, motherly woman of the old school, who loves children and cannot have enough of them about her. She has been married for sixteen years, and during that time has never passed by a child when she knew that it had lost its parents.

JOURNEY BENEATH TRAIN. The Orient express, on its way to Pan's, stopped for a few minutes in the station of Troves, "when an inspector of the railway company noticed that a hand was hanging down below the luggag; van at the head of the train. Investigations showed that a boy was lying on the bogey. When taken from his perilous position he was found to be covered with dirt. All that he could say was that he had come from Buda Pest, Tie had in his pocket two paper crowns (worth a - twentieth of a farthing), and the address of a farm near Verdun, where doubtless he. hoped to obtain work. He had taken up his position on the bogey in Buda Test Station at 10 p.m. °:i a Wednesday, and was discovered at 1 p.m. on the following Friday at Troyes. Ho had thus travelled for thirty-nine hours, the distance covered being 1000 Ho was handed over to the Hungarian Consul.

FINE FDR WEARING HAT. For putting on his hat in Greenwich County Court while Judge Sir Thomas Granger was on the Bench, Harry Wood, of Catford, was fined ss, the Judge saying that he inflicted the penalty as a warning to others.

ACTIVE LITIGANT OF 90. A woman of 90, Mrs. Rebecca Norgrove, appeared at Oxford City Court in support of her application for an ejectment order. In the witness box she read the form of oath without glasses, and she refused the assistance of a police official when descending from the box.

BLOWN FROM HIGH CHIMNEY. Blown over the edge of a chimney which ho was repairing at Copperhouse by a gust of wine', John Thomas Fleming, a Rochdale steeplejack, has died in the Halifax infirmary from shock following injuries received He fell over 100 feet, and when picked up he was conscious, although he had sustained a broken arm and a broken leg. Fleming, who had been a steeplejack for Over thirty years, had had falls on three previous occasions. After ono of them ho was unconscious for three weeks.

DIED ON THE SAME DAY. Having died the same day, Mrs. Emily Charlotte Francis (61), and her husband, James Francis (67), of Sutton, England, weie buried together. The man -was employed at the local gasworks, and was being removed from the lions© to a London hospital for an operation, when his wife collapsed and died. He expired the same night in the hospitaL

MUSIC FROM WOOD SAW. A musician at a London restaurant is able to produce melody from an ordinary saw such as is use'! for cutting wood. Holding the handle of the saw between his legs and the blade between his fingers, he produces a large volume of sound by scraping the saw with a violin bow. Accompanied by the orchestra, the artist plays saw-solos in a wailing tone of considerable beauty.

WORLD TOUR WITH A BARROW. A wheelbarrow that has been pushed by " Happy Jack Caves through nearly every civilised country of the world, has arrived in Washington, U.S.A., on the last lap of its tour, after which it will win for its owner, a prize of £7000. Mr. Caves, who is tanned by four years of exposure, expects, when he reaches his own city, Boston, Massachusetts, to receive that award from the Pedestrian Club.

AN UNLUCKY BRIDE. A woman -whose two husbands died aftc* motor accidents while motoring home from the wedding, has been awarded £90 damages in Paris. She told the judge that after her first husband was killed her misfortune attracted the attention of former suitors, who renewed their advances. _ , She chose one, but out of consideration to her late husband put off the marriage for a year. Ten minutes after the second marriage her bridal car carao ir.to collision with another vehicle, and her second husband was killed.

REBUILDING THE MINT. Bit by bit the Royal Mint, in London, is being re-mouJded, in order to bring it up-to-date. The present mint, standing under the shadow of the Tower of London, has been in existence for more than 100 years. At first it was suggested that the mint should he transferred elsewhere and the valuable site sold, but the Government valuers advised that the money realised for the site would fall far short of the cost of a new factory; in addition, houses might have had to be built for the workmen if the mint were taken into the country; and further the Bank of England did not like the mint to be too far away.

MAN EMBEDDED IN ASPHALT. One of the strangest mishaps on record has befallen a workman of Canton, Ohio, named Hassan, who silent a night embedded in a mass of solid asphalt. He was walking in the darkness along a road in which an asphalt plant was stationed, and fell over a small embankment into a pool of warm asphalt. He made frantic efforts to free himself from the grip of his novel and unwelcome bath, but the substance held him like a quicksand and, becoming exhausted, he fell back and sank in it till only his head, right arm and shoulder were visible. Soon the asphalt hardened, and Hassan found himself in a position somewhat, similar to that of a fish frozen in a block of ice. "When morning came the cries of the unhappy man were heard by a workman, and a. rescue party soon began operations. Hasson, who remained conscious throughout and even directed the cutting away of the asphalt, buffered no serious effects..

THE PASSING OF A WHITE CHIEF BELOVED BY THE MAORI RACE.

THE GENERAL ELECTION IN GREAT BRITAIN LAST THURSDAY: LEADERS OF THE PARTIES.

COOKERY EXHIBITION IN LONDON: A MODEL OF THE EIFFEL TOWER MADS IN SUGAR,

ANNIVERSARY OF TRAFALGAR OK OCTOBER SI: MODEL OF THE VICTORY SENT - FBOK _ MEWrO¥BDMIID TO £ONDQ£L. Mirror

The Rev. F. H. Spencer conducting the funeral service at Ohinemutu, where the, late Captain Gilbert M&ir WHS laid to rest on Sunday last. '' R. G. Marsh. '