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Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

TWO COINS; TWO SHOES.

On, taking up an old floor of very wide planks in the Musician’s Gallery at Luddesdown Court, Kent, two • silver coins were found between the floor and the ceiling below* Th© first impression was that someone had lost four shillings, for on the reverse side wes the design familiar to us on the modern florin. These two silver coins are, however, slightly larger than our shilling, an© thinner; on the other side they bear the image and superscription of William the Third. The milled edges are merely regular oblique cuts, very faint, but the initial stages of modem milled edges. The chimney, which passes through the Musician’s gallery, once harboured two leather shoes which are similar m style to one at the London Museum. The two shoes were dislodged during some repairs at Luddesdown, and are being preserved there.

A PIECE OF' ENGLAND / FINE GIFT TO THE NATION. Tie National Trusj; has received another present, 28 acres of Stanton Moor 'Edge in Derbyshire. ■ This moorland stands 900 feet aJ'Ove sea-level, and gives a view ‘of one of the loveliest pieces of all England. On this height men lived and fought and were buried 3000 years ago. Here are huge monoliths where druids may be imagined standing to issue their decrees, and'two ancient stone circles. ' Among the monuments of remote ancestors one may look down on the Derbyshire Wye and the swift Derwent, over Darley Dale' with its famous quarries and Mill' Close lead mine, to the grandeur of far-stretching moorlands and grim Stanton Headland.

THREE WHALES AND A CABLE. During- his work of inspecting 27,000 miles of cable round the South American coast Captain Haine discovered that three whales had become entangled in a cable, probably mistaking it for an octopus, and were drowned.

LONG AGO STORIES ADA IN THE ASCENDING ROOM. Ada went to London with her mother in order to greet her father on his return from the Crimean War in the year 1856. They—and everybody else—had had a great shock upon seeing the soldiers. They all had waving beards! Everybody was accustomed to round, pink, clean-shaven faces, and these soldiers with their enormous beards, whiskers, and moustaches had an amazing effect upon London. “It was too cold to shave, and there was no time, either,” explained Ada’s father. From one day to the other young gentlemen began letting their beards grow, and the young ladies went a little wild about the head. But not only did Ada go a little wild in hairdressing,— she went upstairs in the ascending room! Ada's mother was extremely modern, and she went to a hotel to await the brave colonel’s return, - and hie was so pleased to see his family that he said nothing about this piece of daring. The hotel was a new one and fitted with one of those amazing ascending rooms which only venturesome gentlemen used. The ladies toiled up the

stairs to their rooms. Th© young , ones were taken to look at th© ascending room and they quivered to see the brave gentlemen pulling ropes and going up like lions in cages. Ada’s mother begged the bearded colonel never, never to step into the ascending room, which, she said, was far, far more dangerous, than the Crimean War, and he admitted frankly that nothing would induce him to get into It. Neither of them dreamed of telling Ada not to go near it, but directly she allowed her hair to go a little wild the rest of her seemed to follow its example. One day she crept to the ascending room, opened the door, stepped ihto the grim cage which was like a large coffin, looked at all the dangling ropes, and pulled one of them. She went up SO quickly that she pulled another, came down with a rush which sent her heart into' her mouth, screamed “Fire,” and became stuck between two floors. The commotion was dreadful. Nobody dared touch the ascending room, and the engineer was sent for. He was quite a young man,' and, not knowing what Ada had done to the ropes, he was obliged to get a long ladder and go down into the cage from the third floor. The long and short of it was that Ada and the engineer were at last extricated alive, but the awful sequel was the fact that Ada married her rescuer. Her friends were obliged to cut her, for one could not know an engineer, but a few years later he was knighted for inventing a marvellous hydraulic lift and everybody forgot that Ada ought to be cut. Engineers were getting into good society by that time, and being received by Queen Victoria. ' ' Ada and her house became the rage. She had lifts even for bringing food .up from the kitchen and people came from far and wide to look at them and wonder what the world was coming to.

“Charles says that we shall have shops four storeys high and lifts to go up and down in, soon,” Ada would say. But nobody could believe that!

BIG GAME HUNTERS’ TALES HUNTING A KILLER PANTHER. “The Indian panther," said . the biggame hunter, ‘‘is one of the most coldblooded and remorseless of all killers, of domestic cattle. I remember once ridinj in a district where a velvet-footed beast had killed more calves and goats than could be counted.” I sharpened my pencil and prepared to receive the hunter’s latest story. “I had shot a huge bear,” he continued, “and, having retired to my tent for the night, was disturbed about two o’clock in the morning by a panther prowling round my tent. He was probably. after the bear-meat and, failing to get it, he raided the nearby village, which brought a mob of unhappy natives to me the next day. “Killum!” they begged, ‘‘Killum queek.” “Then I heard that this particular beast had made wealthy cattie owners poor in a week, had carried off as many as five animals in a night,. and had been terrifying the villagers for months. “Tlie Hext night I organised the whole village and had men posted in trees, others behind boulders, and still others sleeping with the calves and the goats. For hours we waited; then swift-footed messengers cam© to my camp with news of tlie panther's movements, and, finally, he was driven from a cattle compound and I shot him stone-dead by the shady side of a ravine.” The speaker smiled. . I was very popular that night,” he said quietly, ‘and those grateful villagers would have done anything in th© world’for me. I had my reWard, however!” And he pointed to a fm© skin on the wall.

TWO WORDS. The word I like best of all Is very short, and very small! Of letters it has only three, But oh! they spell such joy to me! They tell me I can go and play. And toss my lesson-books away; That I can run, my friends to find.. And leave the school-room far behind That I can dance, and laugh, and sing. Enjoy myself, and everything. ’ The letters spell—now, can’t you gues; My darling favourite word is YES! ' There’s one small word I simply hate; It’s short, but most unfortunate! Its letters only number two; But oh! the mischief they c£n do! . They stop me having any fun Until my horrid homework’s done. They make me stew in school to see If I can learn my “jography.'" They stop me rushing out to play On every jolly rainy day. Oh, beastly word! I hate you so, You mean and spiteful little NO.