WORLD’S OLDEST WOMAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 10

WORLD’S OLDEST WOMAN

CELEBRATING 122ND BIRTHDAY. Mrs Catherine Brickland, the world's oldest woman, celebrated her 122nd birthday at Roscrea, Ireland, on April 22. When called upon in the morning by an interviewer, at her country home at Ballycommon, North Oifaly, Mrs Br'ckland was found in a very cheerful mood. She has worked hard all her life. “I always loved work,” she said, “ and I attribute my long and healthy life to it.” Mrs Brickland says she remembers the i introduction of the stage coach, and saw' it make its first journey. It was very dangerous to travel alone in those days, she said, as gunmen and bandits frequently held up the coach at the point of the pistol and robbed passengers of their jewellery. , If a woman had no valuables in her possesion the highwaymen would take her into captivity in the mountains and hold her for ransom. In the Irish Famine of 1847 Mrs Brickland saw hundreds of people die on the roadside. When asked for her opinion of “Miss 1933,” Mrs Brickland said; “I • suppose youth must have its fling, and we must be content with the times.”

A description of the bombardment of Paris by the special long range naval gun '• Big Bertha ” at the end of March, 1918, is given by the Lokal Anzeiger. It states that the ex-Kaiser was present to witness the firing J of the first shot at 7.16 a.m. on March 23. The gun was finally destroyed to prevent its falling into the hands of the French, but it is not known what became of the plans. Rear-admiral Rogge, who was in charge .of the operations, is still alive. During the firing the gun barrel was raised to 50 degrees, and the shell, it is stated, travelled the 80 miles to Paris in three minutes. In all 289. shells were fired at the French capital. The gun barrel was 111 feet long, and the strength of the charge was calculated on reports received as to the temperature, strength of the wind, and moisture in the air. Sixty men served the gun—and none of them, it is asserted, has ever disclosed any information about it.