HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16497, 6 August 1921, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

“TOMMY THE LAWYER.” 44 You cannot prosecute me. as I am only thirteen,” said a boy to a man who caught him stealing tennis balls at Highgate. and he added that his captor 44 would be exceeding the law if he i. id hands on him.” Air F. Beale, the clerk at Highgate Police Court : He knows more of the law than I do. The boy s Christian name was Tommy, and later in the case he was referred, to as 44 Tommy the lawyer.” BUDAPEST LIMITS SKIRTS. At a meeting of the union of Hungarian women’s associations in Buua- ' pest it was resolved to urge upon the | Government the necessity of taking rigorous measures against the short skirts. It was proposed to equip all ! policemen with sticks with a metric scale, in order to measure the distance of the skirts from tlie ground, if necessary. In ail cases where this distance is found to be more than 25 centimeters the wearer of the skirt shall be prosecuted for having sinned against the public decency. Men who are found in the society of such women will be boycotted. The meeting was presided over by Countess Apponyl. IF GERMANY HAD WON. All Paris is laughing over a German propaganda motion picture, edited in 1917 bv the political section of the Gorman Government and found in the enemv trenches on the Italian front. Tlie film was designed for exhibition in German army camps, and was intended to keep up the morale of the troons. Now it is amusing the Parisian the-atre-goers most effectivelv. No actors took part in the production, which is composed entirely of animated drawings. and shows wbot would happen wh°o the Germans had conquered the world. At first a map of the world is shown. This fades, and a great white hear, representing Russia, comes up on one side, and a. giant John Bull, representing England and the Allies aopen rs on the oth.or. Between them rises a small grey figure—a German soldier, armed with a sword. With the pr*-nrd he ring open the stomach of John B’dl, and a stream of gold pours out at the feet of Germany. John Bull then collapses. * * TARRED PASTOR. An action for the annulment of her marriage, brought by a young Frenchwoman, Mrs Emilie Simon White, of Now York, has had a melo-dramatic sequel—the tarring, feathering and horsewhipping of her husband by a band of masked men. According to accounts given by an hotel proprietor, with whose wife Mrs White had taken shelter, twelve men in three motor-cars stopped at the house of a self-styled pastor of the Revolutionary Church, tied a rope round his waist and hauled him out of bed to the roadside. After whipping, tarring and feathering him, they took him to a desolate place outside the town of Newburgh, on the Hudson. There, half-stripped, he was ejected from a car, two of his captors taking him aside and asking: 44 Will you promise to treat your wife properly?” Mr White gave the promise and was left to walk thirteen mile* back to what he calls his 44 monastic retreat.” He has promised to pay hia wife's passage back to Paris. Young Mrs White is described as the daughter of M. Marcel Simon, a former chemist of Rheims, now superintendent of the Pan hard Levassor works in Paris. THE NAVY’S HYMN OF HATE. The memory of Scapa Flow will not be early or easily forgotten in the British Navy, but, for all the disagreeable characteristics of tnat remote harbour, many who fought in the war will wish to have Mr C. W. Burrows’s admirable photographic record of it ( 4 ‘ Scapa and a Camera,” just published, with introduction by Vice-Admiral F. S. Miller). The only humorous remark credited to a German in the war was made by an officer in the interned German fleet after the Armistice, who declared, we are told, 44 If the English have stood this for tour years they de- / serve to win the war.” The seaman's opinion of the spot was conveyed in unflattering terms in 44 Tlie Scapa Hymn of Hate,” of which this is ths last Now the Navy’s been at Scapa ever since we’ve been at war. And whenever it is over, they don t want to see it any more; But for years and years to come, whenever sailors congregate You may bet your life you may hear them sing that Scapa hvmn of hate. Of the sinking of the German a very full account is_ given by the author, who witnessed it, and thi« ia valuable material for the future historian. TEAR GAS PANIC. A wave of phosgene cr 44 tear ” gas, escaping irom a tank at a paint wt-ras near Bound Brook, New Jersey, drove hundreds of residents irorn their Twelve men were overcome by the gas and four men died of the effects. ino leakage of the “tear” gas was discovered about 3 a.m., and the people residing near the works were warned by bell-ringers and others, who went fiom door to door urging everybody to .run tor safety. There was only a Slight breeze blowing at the time, but the gas moved slowly and spread out fanwise until it spread over the greater part of Bound BrooK, which has about 5000 inhabitants. The chief I hemist at the paint works, who lived a mile away, had been aroused by the fumes. He found his wife struggling for breath and groping her way to the front door. Then there was a telephone calx from someone who called over the wire: "We can’t stop the leak in the gas tank. Get people out! The gas is spreading over the town ... it will choke . . - The chief of police, a Air Nash, threw a cordon of his men around the graduallv enlarcrinrc area tilled by the gas, but they had to retreat before the fumes. Two men. weorinc gas masks, volunteered to go in and stop the leak, rvHkh was thought to be near the va ve of the tank. They struggled to the tank about s down times, and ffnaliv found the leakage to be due to an open ralve. They succeeded in closing it. SNAKES AS PETS. Paris has a new hobby. Snakes of nil sizes and species suddenly are appearing on silken cushions in the most fashionable hotels as a result of a revival of “ Cleopatra ” at one of the State theatres. The more timid members of the social set content themselves with chameleons, but to be a topnotch er it is the rage to visit a real reptile dealer and purchase young garter or water snakes or even small sized cobras with their poison fangs extracted and a golden leash attached. the price of these runs as high as I WU francs each. Tthe new pets promise to have an astounding vogue, as the couTts recently have ruled that cats are in the same objectionable category as docs and parrots, both of which are frequently specifically forbidden m apartment leases. Not content with adoring C’eopatrian adders in their own homes "some persons have adopted the custom of carrying reptiles wrapped around the wrist to fashionable dining places, where a small dish of chopped fruits is especially provided for them. Concierges, however, are feeling that apartments may become unpopular if fbe rentiles start breeding, end are indicating that they will apply to the Minister of Finance to put a prohibitive tax on snakes, they being about the onlv things animate or inanimate which have not been taxed to date.