AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1204, 29 March 1895, Page 17

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

BAITING A FOOTBALL REFEREE • A severe punishment has been inflicted by the Council of the Football Association of England upon the Woolwich Arsenal Club for the assault committed upon the referee in a recent League contest at the Plumstead enclosure. Mr Brodie, the official in question, himself an old "international," had, in the exercise of hi* duties, to gi ye a penalty kick against the Arsenal Club, and from this kick the visiting team, who were a goal behind, succeeded in scoring, and so escaped defeat, for the game was over directly afterwards. Supporters of the home team, unable to take their disappointment with good grace, subjected the referee, first to insult and abuse, and finally to violence, For this outrage the Arsenal Club have now - to pay the penalty, and not only will the Plumstead ground be closed for six weeks, but during this time the eleven may not play anywhere within six miles of their head-quarters. Doubtless the lesson will be taken to heart elsewhere. THE BELGIAN POISONER. Madame Joniaux, sentenced to death for poisoning three victims, has written along letter to the Etoile Beige, in which she says that her emotion and bewilderment at the close of the trial prevented her from telling the Assize Court that she was not guilty, and that no more terrible judicial error had ever been committed than her conviction. " The same fatality, Madame Joniaux adds, "which willed that three deaths should occur in my house, causes me to-day, : despite my innocence, to wear fcUe garb of shame."

A CENTENARIAN. Mrs Sarah Thomas, centenarian, of Burryport, Llanelly, celebrated her 107th birthday on February sth. She is in possession of all her faculties, and is a very amusing conversationalist. Mrs Thomas was born at Whitland on February sth, 1788, has one daughter, eight grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She is very fond of a well-seasoned clay pipe filled with strong tobacco—a terrible lesson to smokers. the French president. M. Felix Faure continues to win public favour by his unaffected, hearty manners. He refuses to be bound by the Protocol unless on questions of international politeness and public ceremonial. The President, he says, should be his own protocol, particularly when he wishes to act according to the dictates of h is heart and of com tnon The courteous instincts of M. Faure were shown in the way in which he received at the Elysee the old boys of the Pompee Technical School, where he was educated. Those who called on him were his classmates, and are now all business men. The senior old boy, M. Chapron, a civil engineer, attached to the School of Arts and Trades, delivered an address. "When it was ended M. Felix Faure said, " Do me the pleasure of making yourself at home, I and putting away ceremony. Let us smoke a cigar in remembrance of our school days; drink a flagon of beer, and have a chat. But I expect all of you to use the old familiar ' thee' and ' thou' in talking to me; otherwise I shall feel on stilts, and I hate nothing more than that."