HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16680, 11 March 1922, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

* A HUMAN MTJLTUM IN PAR VO. 1 Th© leaet important duties of an Itidian barber is to cut hair, owing to the fact that he has so many different s lines of trade. On of a birth the Hindu barber is the man emg ployed to carry the eventful new* to relatives, and at a funeral he shaves <y the heads of the living—and the dead. The Hindu hairdresser has no shop, and. unlike our barbers, he displays a no poles, signs or symbols. He can be seen strolling near the bazaars ■with a o small bundle under his arm or carrying a little bag. He bores the girls’ r* ears and noses for the various rings which are worn, while he will undertake ahnoet any surgical operation. Besides births and deaths, he attends n marriages. At a weeding this busy harber acts as '* best man.” Quite a human curiosity. t EXPLOSION AT CONCERT. An audience of 1300 attending a concert in the Govan Town Hall, Glasgow, t were startled by an explosion which occurred in the middle of a woman arti«*t’s song, and appears to, have been due to a boy’s intense interest in y chemicals. The explosion was accompanied by a dazzling flare of light and followed by choking fumes. People t began to rush to the doors and a disaster seemed inevitable, when two 0 members of the company rushed on to the stage, shouted that there was no y danger, and begged the audience to keep their seats. When the confusion was over it was found that one of a group of boys in the middle of the hall was considerably the worse for wear. r his jacket having been tom to Bbreds. while several who were setting nekr 7 him were scorched. It seems that he = had in his pocket two bottles of chemicals. whose oontents must, through the breaking of the bottles or in some other j way. have come in contact with each other and formed a highly excitable „ compound. • * l EARLY RISERS. There are many notable instances on record of early rising among great r, men. For instance. M. Clemenceau ts at his desk every morning while most of his fellow-countrymen ere still in p the land of Nod. The same may be said of Edison, who. when in the throes of a. mechanical problem, finds two to three hours’ sleep sufficient for las needs. Napoleon could stay up late and i get up early, a rnft possessed by the British Premier, who is said to be able to go to sleep almost at once. A BRET HAUTE ROMANCE. Through a kinema presentation of 1 “ Tennessee’s Partner,” the Bret * Hart© classic, the whereabouts of the 1 famous author’s elder daughter. Jea- ' samy Bret Hart© Steele, has become known, to the public under dramatic circumstances, says th© New York correspondent of the tl I>aily Chronicle The picture was being shown in the St Lawrence Hospital for the Insane ah Ogdensburg, on the American shore of I the St Lawrence River, when one of ' the woman patient* leaped to her feet, screaming, ”My father I On, my T father!” The performance had. to be * stopped, until she could be quieted. It ! was then learned that the woman, who. as Mrs Steele had been an inmate of the place for five years, waa in truth [ Jessomy. Memories evoked by the . visualisation of the story brought witn them, singular to say, a recovery of her wits to the point where she demanded the services of a lawyer, claiming that the film company had adapted her father’s story without paying her the royalties to which, she insisted, she was entitled. It appears that short!v before Bret Harte’s death, near London, in 1902, this daughter of the author of “ The Heathen Chinee,” “Th* Outcasts of Poker Flat,” and 44 The Luck of Roaring Camp ” came to this country and was married to Henry Milford Steele. Then began a career of luxury and folly, that led to the oouple'g divorce seven jjjears later. GTOLi’S CONFESSION’. Recently a workman named Ba 1 thauer, living in a Berlin suburb, was found murdered in his bed. There was no trace of the murderer. but Bathauer’s daughter Elizabeth, a quiet, delicate girl of twenty, was arrested on suspicion of "being an a-ocomplice. She confessed herself the murderess. Unemotionally she told her tale. Her father refused to work. He drank ani treated her mother brutally, so they determined to leave him, and the parents of the young man to whom she was engaged took a small flat for them. The plan was kerrt secret, and the diffieuity was to take away the household goods, which were the mother s property. Frau Bathauer was ill m hospital. and Elisabeth ™ alone ra the house on the night of the crime, when her father returned unexpectedly earlv and soon went to sleep. She felt she could not get the things out of the house unless she killed him. So, holding a hatchet in both hands, she struck at her father’s head blow after blow, afterwards severing the arteries of Ins wrists. At the end of her confession she said quietly that she was sorry she had had to kill her father, but she did not regret it. STARVED FOR TWO YEARS. Remarkable disclosures regarding the life of two aged sisters, who had lived together in Hull in straitened circumstances, were made at an inquest at Hull on Annie Lucop. aged fifty-eight, spinster. Medical evidence showed that Miss Lucop was terribly ill-nourished. She had had a stomach complaint during the past few years, and gradual starvation, said the doctor, must have caused her agonising pain. In all his experience witnesa had not seen such a contracted stomach., due to want. The cause of death was cardiac failure consequent upon chronic gastritis. A cousin of the woman stated that Lucop lived with her sister. They had no means but help from the parish, and during the past two years bad gradually starved. There was practically no furniture in the house, and she did not know how they slept. Witness had taken the other sister, who was daeed with suffering. A verdict of 44 death from natural causes ” was returned-