LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 7, 19 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tlio official opening of the Stratford Amateur Swimming Club will take place on Thursday next, December 21st, at the baths. An interesting programme of senior and junior events will be presented. A sensational gas explosion occurred the other week at Warrnambool (A ictoria), at the residence of Mr G. B. Moore, manager of the local branch of the Commercial Bank. There is a gas stove in the kitchen, and by some inexplicable means one of the taps was turned on, and allowed the oven to become filled with gas. Mr. Moore’s eldest daughter, not knowing that the gas had been escaping, lighted one of the burners for the purpose of heating a kettle of water, wham the flames came into contact with the imprisoned gas in the oven, and an alarming explosion occurred. Miss Moore had a narrow escape, being hurled to the further side of the room, while the iron , stove was blown to pieces. Miss Moore experienced a severe shock, but her injuries are not serious. It is stated that at the time of the strained relations over Morocco, the Germans had packed in the frontier towns and cities hundreds of automobiles armed yith quick-firing guns. Kiaeh of the chauffeurs had enlisted men, who, in citizens’ clothes, had explored every highway of Eastern France. It was figured out that eight men could be transported at a speed ot 40 miles an hour in each machine. At Malrnedy there were 800 cars, at Metz 850, at Saarburg 600, ■Oul at smaller places cars in proportion. Within an hour word could he passed that 28,000 seasoned soldiers were to he at preconceived points well inside French territory at daybreak. They were to be reinforced by a smaller number. The meteoric career of Ernest Bonzon, whose death was reported recently from London, was at its zenith at the time of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887, lietifc bis sobriquet the “.Jubilee Plunger,” or the “Jubilee Juggins,” as some have it. He is credited with having gone through a fortune of £250,000 in two years. Yet •lie occasionally won in his racing investments, and won heavily. It is said that lus winnings over Exmoor’s victory in the Northumberland Plate wore £16,000; and when Ormond:' beat Minting and Bendigo for the Hardens tie Stakes at Ascot, the “Plunger” is credited with having won £20,000. “1 remember” (writes “Tliorinaiibv” in “Sporting Stories”) “his taking a bet of £IOO to a sovereign about Mr John Wingrove Smith’s Miss Dollar winning the Duke of ork Stakes at Kempton Park and pulling it off. But a man who could drop thousands at baccarat in a single evening scarcely needed plunging on the turf to bring him to ruin.”

Mr. Newton King lias received the following cable from his Sydney Agents re hides;—Heavies scarce, firm. Mrs. Mary Carter, of Shouldhnm Thorpe, near King’s Lynn, who recently celebrated her lUlst birthday, has never seen a railway train. The '. enerable lady has never left Shouldham ’1 horpe since her marriage, except on one occasion, when she had to go to Norwich Assizes as a witness. 'I hat was nearly seventy years ago, and the journey of about* fifty miles was accomplished by road. Air John Al. Harland, the oldest Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and its strongest personality, died suddenly of acute bronchitis at the age of 78. He retained -he habits of Jus Kentucky boyhood the end, and Jiis borrowing a “(hew of tobacco” from a colleague during the hearing of a prosy case classic of Washington gossip. Iho Judge, however, asserted tiiat another Judge borrowed the tooacco from kirn. Once he was playnig golf with a bishop, who missed the ball three times, and then barked his shins without saving a word. The Judge finally remarked: “Bish■>P, that is the most profane silenco I have ever heard.”

1 ne Reichstag has read a first timo and sent to a special committee the new bill providing for tiie compulsory insurance of employees. The purpose of the bill is to extend—without State aid—the advantages of compulsory insurance against invalidity and old ago to practically all categories of employed persons wOio are not subject to the provisions of the “workmen’s” insurance scheme and whose incomes do not exceed £250 a year. It is calcinated that tlie new law will affect just over 2,000,000 of employees. The contributions of employers and employees will be equal, and, according to the Government bill, are graduated up to a maximum joint contribution of 8 per cent, of the insured income.

i!ie Duke of Devonshire is to be Mayor of Chesterfield during the coming municipal year. It is practically certain also that the Earl of Derbv will be Lord Mayor of Liverpool, so the peerage will be well represented among the chief magistrates of 1912. During the last few years there have been an unusual number of titled mayors. The Earl of Dudley set the fashion a decade or so ago by becoming Alayor of Dudley, Snefiield’s first Lord Mayor, the Duke of Norfolk had previously been Alayor of that city, and also Alayor of Arundel and first Mayor of the _ City of "Westminster. Lord Cheylesmore served Westminster twice, and the Duke of Marlborough occupied the civic chair of Woodstock for two years in succession.

The career of Sir William Edward Smith, the new Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty, reads like , a romance. Sir William began life in a Portsmouth rope-making factory at the age of eleven. The ropewalk was- 4-10 yards long, and he tramped this 112 times every day—a walk of twenty-eight miles for a boy of eleven. After four years of '.ins he became an apprentice in the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth, ultimately entering the Naval Construction Department after spending some years at the Royal School of Architecture, at South Kinsington. In tile early ’eighties his lectures, on the, armouring of battleships, published by the Admiralty, became the recognised text book on the subject, and later Sir William was appointed superintendent of the building of battleships in private yards all over the country.

Here’s a chance for one of the generous British M.P.’s anxious to dispose of the superflous honorariums now attached to this position. The following appeared in the “Times” : “To an M.P. who is ‘thinking’ or ‘talking’ of giving his £4OO a year to charity. ‘A man in a hole’ would ,be glad of it and would repay to any charity stated £450 by April 1, 1912. —‘Opportunist.’’’ In'case the M.P. should not be ‘thinking’ when he replies to this advertisement, let us, remind him that the Ist of April is known as “All Fools’ Day.” ' But some advertisements must not be taken too seriously, or at all events, that’s our outlook. Why, the other day over the shop of a tailor appeared the following notice: “Come in here and have a fit.” It is reported, however, that his last customer had convulsions instead.

It is not easy to Imagine Mr. Thomas Hardy, the famous novelist, who lias generously "given a number of his manuscripts to various museums, as a writer of love-letters for illiterate village maidens. Some time ago, however, he confessed to a friend wno marvelled at his wonderful knowledge ( of the English country girl, that when he was a young man ho used to write love-letters for the village girls to their soldier sweethearts in India. “That, naturally,” said Mr. Hardy, “gave me a good insight into their nature and characteristics.” Unlike the majority of writers, Mr. Hardy did not begin his literary labours until fairly late in life. He was thirty-two when his first successful book, “Under the Greenwood Tree,” was published. Prior to that he was an architect.

An interesting incident in the life of Lord Kitchener was recorded some yeais ago bv Mr Hermann Klein in the “Century Magazine.” Referring to the rehearsals of “Human Nature” at Drury Lane, in the days of the late Sir Augustus Harris, Mr. Klein savs:

“Actively assisting in arranging an African fight was a gentleman in a frock-coat and a tall hat, of undeniable military appearance, who impressed me by both his quiet masterful manner and the imperturbable patience with which he directed manoeuvres to be repeated over and over again until they were satisfactorily executed. After the rehearsal was concluded I went upon the stage. Augustus Harris was talking to his military adviser. He beckoned me to approach. ‘Klein, I want to introduce you to my friend, Major Kitchener, who has been kind enough to come and help me witji this ‘soldiery’ work. What do you think of it? Did you ever see such fighting and marching on the stage before?’ ”

The frequency with which whales have been seen off the Australian coast recently would (says the Sydney “Evening News”) suggest that there are leviathans in plenty down south; sufficient to supply the material of a very large Australian industry. if it were entered upon in a comprehensive manner. Low prices of whale products may have knocked the bottom out of the old-style whaling methods, but there seems to be money in the modern system, whereby an effort is made to use up the "hole carcase. The Norwegians, at all events, are reported to be making it pay. Australia was once very active in whaling, and it is surprising therefore, that some effort has not been made to investigate the possibilities of the old industry under the new methods. .At all events it would not cost a great deal to make an inquiry, which would enable some estimate to bo made on a business basis.

Tho monthly meeting of tiie Stratford County Council will ho hold tomorrow morning. The School Committee and the Chamber of Commerce moot this evening. The formal declaration of tho recent poll in the Stratford electorate appears in this issue. The nearness of Christmas is clearly shown by tho amount of people travelling on the railway, the trains during the past few days being appreciably larger than they have been for some time past. The .secretary of the Stratford A. and P. Association, Mr Edward Jackson, has received some very battering letters from exhibitors and prizewinners at the recent Show, complimenting the Association on its excellent management, and the promptitude with which prize-money has been paid cut. Joseph Ryan, a middle-aged man, while carrying a Christmas hamper consisting of several bottles of spirits, and having apparently liberally imbibed thereof beforehand, slipped while boarding the Toko train tins morning, and fell backwards, striking bis head against one of the carriages. Ryan sustained a severe cut on the back of the head, and was removed by Constable Weasel to Stohr’s pharmacy, where Doctor Carbery attended. It was found necessary to sew the wound up, and Ryan was then taken in charge by the police. M. Joubert, professor at the Agricultural College at Fontainebleau, claims that he has discovered a new and simple method of making hens lay. He feeds them with wine in addition to their ordinary food. The professor has not allowed his discovery to be made known lightly. He.has been experimenting with fowls of all kinds for several years, and finds the same result in every case. In cadi case he experimented for the four winter months with two secs of twelve fowls of the same breed, adding bread soaked in wine to the food of one of tho two sets of twelve. In every case, after six separate trials, .the winefed hens laid more eggs, in the proportion of, 20 eggs a month or thereabouts. The Patea pilot’3 residence, owned by the Harbour Board and occupied by Captain Tinney, was burned to the ground between 9 and 10 o’clock on Sunday morning, says the “Press.” The fire originated in the dining-room, where a fire was burning in an open grate. It is thought that a spark from the fire must have sot fire to some inflammable article, for the room had not been vacant many minutes before it was discovered by Mrs Tinney enveloped in flames. The Captain and his boys, who were at the sheds near by, made a strenuous attempt to subdue the blaze by means of buckets, but it had too firm a hold to make this possible. The strong wind which was blowing made the flames spread rapidly, and within half an hour of the outbreak the place was in ruins. Few of the household effects were saved. Almost all the furniture was lost, including a 100guinea piano. The furniture was insured for £2OO, but Captain Tinny will still bo a heavy loser. The house was insured by the Harbour Board for £l5O. • ■,