From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 19

From Many Lands

TABLOID READING FOR THE WEEK-END,

IN THE SWIM “HINEMOA/’ takes the plunge Terrified by tile ship’s whistle, a cat consigned to a Sydney owner uscaped from its cage on the Oruugai in Darling Harbour recently and, clearing the dining saloon with a couple of lofty leaps, took a header through the rails into the harbour. Members of the crew say she must have swum SOO yards before she crawled, exhausted, to a wharf pile at Miller’s Point.

LAST OF THE LEPERS

NORWAY MASTERS DISEASE The medical authorities, in a statement recently published, says that leprosy has been mastered in Norway. There are now only 72 lepers, and when the last of these dies—he can live another 30 years—the disease will have disappeared from the country. Leprosy was in all probability brought to Norway by the Vikings, who visited England and France, and has been a curse to the population, especially the fishermen, ever since. All lepers are interned in special hospitals, and some of the patients have lived to a great age. One had celebrated his 94th birthday before he - died, not of leprosy, but of decrepitude.

THE “HEATABLE” SHOE

J. ' A BOON TO POLICEMEN Jozse? Wolf, a provincial shoemaker, at Budapest, has invented a "heatable” shoe which is expected to prove a boon to policemen, sentinels, tramconductors, and other workers who are obliged to remain for any length of time in a stationary position. Between the inner and outer sole of the shoe an electric body is concealed, the connector being in the heel. Before setting out the wearer may heat the shoe by attaching to it an ordinary . wall-connector, and the moderate heat acquired lasts from an hour to an hour and a half.

“WHERE DO SWALLOWS GO”

THE SOUTHWARD TREK The inhabitants of the Adige valleys. Italy, are amazed to see that the flocks of swallows which passed over the mountains, flying north us usual, about the beginning of April, are now beginning to recross the Alps again In large numbers, returning to the plains. This is the first time that any irregularity has been noticed In the migration of the swallows, which have never been known to fly south until the middle of September, and everyone is at a loss to acount for the phenomenon.

ICEBERGS

AND THE 70 YEAR OLD GIRL Icebergs? There’s a woman over 70 year of age living at Manly who laughs at the small body of Bondi men who call themselves by that name. She, and she only, is the original refrigerated Arctic Iceberg. Almost every morning throughout the winter, says a writer in a Sydney newspaper, she runs and gambols the entire length of the beach. She is well-known, in fact, she is a famous figure. She is an early riser. When the average girl of 20 is stretching herself, just out of bed, she is paddling in the shallows and playing chasings with her dog. And more marvellous still, she has A figure the envy of many a surf siren. In her abbreviated green costume she makes an entrancing figure, so much so, that several young men have been attracted at a distance, expecting to Btalk a piratable flapper. Icebergs? There’s only one in the State, and she is it.

MODERN METHUSELAHS

158 CENTENARIANS IN BULGARIA The last census at Sofia has shown that there are 158 centenarians in Bulgaria. These modern Methuselahs are all peasants, mostly from the rough mountain districts. They are rather below the middle height, have power ful chests, and are rather broad. The majority married between 20 and 25. A woman of 103 was married five times. On the average, they have seven children. The parents of three-quarters of their number died between the ages of 80 and 100. Only twelve of the 158 can read and write. Ninety-five per cent, have been vegetarians all their lives, while 3 per cent, from time to time consume small Quantities of meat. Only 2 per cent, eat meat regularly; 20 per cent, only are teetotallers, but two-thirds of them never smoke. Women are slightly in the majority.

ALCOHOL OR LOVE?

INCREASE OF SUICIDES The increase in the number of suicides iu Turkey, especially among J’outig people, has attracted much attention in University and medical circles. A former French Professor of Sociology at the University of Stamboul, and Director of the Institute of Soci"Ogy. blames the new reforms. The lurks, he says, are experiencing a kind of romantic age. Never before “id young people of both sexes meet_ each other so freely as they do now." hove has become a question of more Profound sentiment, for the abolition of Polygamy has spiritualised love dud the meaning of marriage. The Turkish physician, Fahreddin Kerim Bey, on the other hand, ascribes the increase of suicide to Purely material causes. Alcoholism, be says, is at the root of the degeneration, and is responsible for that disgust of life whicli leads to suicide. He has formed a uew Association for Mental Hygiene. it must lie added that a powerful ugent of despair is the great state of poverty of the lower classes. A great number of bankruptcies has also oc•nrred among the higher classes.

A SCENE OF HORROR GUILLOTINE FAILS TO ACT A scene of horror worse than anything the Grand Guignol has ever* imagined took place at Marseilles recently, when the guillotine set up outside the prison for the execution of a condemned man, partly failed. When he was thrown forward by the executioner’s assistants to the pivotmg-plank, which should have brought his head into the “lunette”— the semi-circular aperture which holds the neck in place for the knife to fall —the mechanism failed to act. There was a moment’s hesitation, and then the executioner and his assistants sprang forward and pushed the plank down, hauling the man bv his hair along the plank until his head was in position. A moment later the knife fell and all was over.

BID FOR PRIESTHOOD

COLONEL’S WAR-TIME RESOLVE During the war a certain Colonel Richter, of Austria, who had distinguished himself on several occasions, made up his mind to become a priest. After the war he was pensioned off. Although he was 63 years old, he appealed to the church authorities to let him become a priest. In the meantime he had studied Latin and Greek to prepare himself for the University. He received permission from the Archbishop and the Pope and -went into a He has submitted to its strict discipline, and has studied sc hard that he is expected to pass his final examinations this spring, and be consecrated priest at the beginning of summer.

A LOVE OF FIRF.

SMALL GIRL’S MANIA Practically every day fires had broken out in the village of Laschkau, in Czecho-Slovakia. This went on for months, and the person responsible for the conflagrations could not be traced, though a large detachment of gendarmes was placed In the village for that purpose. Finally a little girl of fourteen went to the gendarmes and confessed. At her trial she replied to the judge’s queries in a timid voice. Asked for her reasons, she said: “I like the fire so much, and lit it to see the flames again,” or “I disliked that peasant,” or “The straw was in disorder,” or “I didn't like the straw,” or ‘‘There was too much corn.” The doctors declared her tri be quite normal, but the jury’s opinion was different. She was sentenced to two months’ Imprisonment.

MASSED INCARCERATION

RESULTS OF VILLAGE FEUD A curious story comes from Karabak in Central Anatolia. The village is situated in the neighbourhood of Konia, the ancient IcoDium. The largest and finest house in It belonged to Murat, a merchant. lshak, the hodja, was his enemy. One fine morning he declared to the peasants that Allah had ordered him to demolish the merchant's house, under the foundations of which there was a plan with the exact description of a spot where an immense treasure is buried. Without any hesitation the peasants seized their axes and mattocks, and in a few hours the once beautiful house was completely pulled down. No one of them was more eager in the work of destruction than was the hodja himself. The merchant, however, was not slow in taking action, and a force of gendarmerie came riding at full gallop to Karabak. Meantime, most of the peasants had returned to their homes, so only the hodja and a few of the villagers could be arrested and taken to Korda. Following the cross-examina-tion, the gendarmerie returned to the village and arrested some fifty other persons, so that about half of the inhabitants of Karabak are likely to sit in prison at Konia. The hodja endeavoured to give the impression of madness.

RELIGIOUS SLOGAN

“PAY NO TAXES” Several years ago a sect was formed in Moravia calling itself “Brethren of the Holy Spirit.” Each year they prophesied the end of the world, and committed many acts of violence, so that eventually the authorities were obliged to step in. A student, who had founded the sect, had to be interned in a lunatic asylum. Lately the “Brethren of the Holy Spirit” seems to have revived. Near Zdounek a watchmaker, who calls himself one of them, has incited the population to pay no taxes, since the world is going to come to an end. and to refrain from sending their children to school. His sermons have had some success, a number T)f persons iu six communities refusing to pay their taxes and resisting the authorities. They have been arrested.

HOUSE BOUGHT FOR DINNERS

AND A BROKEN AGREEMENT In 1920 Ivaroly Spitzer, a restaurantkeeper of Gyor. Hungary, bought a bouse from Andras Csepi for 50,000 kronen and the obligation to provide the late owner of the house with dinner every day for the rest of his life. In 1922 differences arose between the two, and the restaurant-keeper refused to provide Csepi with any more dinners. A law suit was started by Csepi to annul the sale of the house on the ground that an important condition of the sale was not fulfilled. The restaurant-keeper, in his own defence, claimed that the provision of dinner was an act of charity, which only Csepi’s behaviour obliged him to break off. The verdict, however, has been given to Csepi on the ground that 50,000 kronen was an inadequate price for a house at the time of its sale, and that therefore the daily dinner must be considered an integral part of the contract. The restaurantkeeper has been ordered to pay for all the dinners he had omitted to provide since 1922, and to see that they are furnished in the future.