HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16449, 10 June 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

GORILLA IN A BED After sharing a bedroom in a West End house with a large gorilla for soim-. ion days in order to make friends with it, an American circus representative, Mr John T. Benson, has temporarily abandoned the attempt owing to a savage attack made on him by the animal. The gorilla in question is “John Daniel,” and lived at Sloane Street for some time, where it was a great pet of its mistress, sleeping id a bed and behaving itself as a civilised being. It has been described as tho world’s most wonderful animal.” Mr Benson, who is a representative of Ringlirig and Barnum’s, the American circus combine, bought the gorilla fer the firm and is to take it to the United States shortly. A list of the fittings and food bought from a large West London department store for the monk iv includes:—One iron bedstead. I electric heater, 4 grey blankets. 2 bottles of brandy, 4 bottles port wine, 20 bottles infant food, milk chocolate, peaches, aoricots. “ The gorilla is a very valuable animal,” said Mr Benson. “It ha 9 cost more than three elephants, which are also expensive animals. Over in the States it will just be shown living in a- drawing-room. It is a remarkable animal. It can use a knife and fork.’’ NAMING THE*LITTLE ONE. Tho new census will reveal hundreds of names of parental invention (says a London paper). The war seemed to set a new fashion in baby naming— ** Haig Jones,” “Beatty Smith,” '“\pr.*s Robinson,” and “ Dnrdanella Davis ’* were a few examples. “ But now,” a London registrar told a reporter, “ parents are coming back to the old names. For the purpose of helping them we keep a list in parallel columns in our registers of plain, good English names. “ During the Prince of Wales’ colonial tours we had a big increase in

‘ Edwards.’ One mother wanted a complete list of the Prince's Christian names. When they were given to her she merely said. 4 Well, stick ’em on the register. They are the names for my youngster!*’ The Prince’s Christian names are: Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David. £9.000.000 AT* NINETEEN. Few men have known the power '/f money from so early an age as Hugo Stinnes, who is from Berlin to have added the' “ Deutsche TagesZeitung ” to the long list of German journals of which he has acquired control since the cessation of hostilitiesHis father died when Hugo was only nineteen, and the young man not only became sole heir to about £9,000,000, but succeeded in obtaining permission from the Court* to administer tho enormous estate himself. SUN WORSHIP RITES. A weird story of a midnight funeral conducted by women sun-worshippers has come to light in Chicago, where tho poliee are investigating the death of an aged woman, Mrs Nancy Chamberland, who disappeared last June- Recently the dead woman’s granddaughter called at tho police station and said her grandmother was buried in the garden in r-i'ar of her mother’s house. The police obtained the,, girl and sent men with spades to investigate the story. After a few minutes’ digging the policemen came on the woman’s body in a geranium bed. “We do not believe she is dead, but dwelling with the majesty ot the sun in happiness and peace.*’ said the girl. “We could not have an undertaker to bury licr. as no profane hands may touch ns after death.” Tho girl and her mother kept the bodv tor sixteen days, preserving it with towels scaked in chloride of lime, “ until the mystic hour, set down by -secret mur.- ” Then the two women spent the night, by the light of a solitary candle, in the. age-old ceremonies of Ohalde.ui sun' worshippers, singing chants to the sungod, prostrating themselvas to fore the corpse to which they offered up supplications. On the stroke of midmgivt they lifted the body and bore it to t*e grave in the geranium bed and laid itto rest. THE WHITfQST MONKEY. “ Inkoos,” the only pure white monkey known to be in existence, arrived in London recently ou board the Armadale Castle from South Africa. “ inkoos ” is the Zulu salute to a king. The monkey was found by an exploring party dwelling in the kraal of a chief in the heart of Zululand. His black owners held him to be sacred on account oi* his colour, and much persuasion and influence had to be brought to bear before they would part with him for a lugh price. He is covered with silky white hair from his crown to the tip of his extremely long tail. • • ENTERPRISING BURGLARS. Some enterprising burglars recently stole the lightning conductors from the twin towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. How they did it and got away with their booty is a mystery, but why they did it is explained_hy the fact that the lightning conductor* were each topped with 200 grammes of platinum? which at present would bring something like 14,000 francs. They also removed a considerable weight of copper. The burglars, according to the guardian’s theory, must have passed the night in the tower, hiding themselves in some corner when the keepers made their rounds alter the last visitor was supposed to havo left. Their work shows that they were not amateurs, and must have been something of steeplejacks For the lightning conductors overtop the towers by ten or fifteen foet. When removing the platinum, therefore, the burglars must have had only a precarious hold on the slender rods, which, standing at the corners of the tower*, added th* peril to thf enterprise of a drop to the pavement several hundred feet below. As no trace of the thieves lias been found, the presumption is that they waited with their | booty until some group of visitors was leaving next day. and quietly walked out with them.