HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16818, 22 August 1922, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. WEIGHT OF A PENCIL MARK. Scales are now made which are so nicely adjusted, says “ Popular Science” that they will weigh even the smallest hair plucked from the eyebrow. They are triumphs of mechaninm, and are enclosed in glass cases, as the slightest breath of air would impair their records. The giaf*4 cases have a sliding door, and as soon as the weight is placed in tho balance, the door slides down. The balances are cleared again, and made ready for further use by the prose, ing of a button which slightly raises the beams. Two pieces of paper of equal weight can he placed in the scales, and an autograph written in pencil on either will cause the other balance to ascend and the needle, which indicates the weight to less than a millionth part of a pound, will move from its perpendicular. One signature, containing nine letters, upon being weighed was found to be exactly two milligrammes, or the fifteen thousand five hundredth part of an ounce in troy weight. COMMUNISM’S FAILURES. The party of working men and women from America who have left Hull to found a Utopian community in the Kuznots district of Russia are not deterred by the sorry tale of similar efforts in the past. Here are a few of the dreamers and their dreams:—LotiiBlanc, founder of the National Workshops at Paris, 1848. A fatal experiment, which ended in the insurrection of the workers and much bloodshed. The Socialist councillors of Brest, who ruined the town in two years. The miners of the Loire. They ran the “ miners’ mine.” and fought over the division of profits. Failed in 190*. Robert- Owen, who supported the New Harmony Colony in America. Tt failed in three years. Abram Combe, the Owenite, who founded a. Socialist colony near Glasgow in 1825. The scheme was killed in two years. The nation of Paraguay began as an ideal Socialist State, and soon drifted into tyranny and bloodshed. It is now a capitalist countrv at peace. V My friend the ratcatcher has joined the unemployed. He explained it this way. “ Been out of the game now for a month or two. Nothing in rats. Too much opposition. What with the council holding drives and people using dustbins with lids on them, the bottom ha = dropped out of the business. You know when the scare started I did all righi. Beside? set-tin* me traps in the daytime I got a job down at- Smither’s pub. Tt, promised to be pretty cushy; *e was payin’ me threepence a head, and the first night T mustered forty, ten hobs’ worth. The number grew every night until the blimey nightwatchman put me pot on. You see the rats I was catchin’ didn’t come off Smither’s place at all. I’d bop down to one of the rubbish dumps, catch me sugar hag full, and then go back to the pub and sleep for the night, handin’ in me catch next morning. I’d have been at that job yet if the nosey watchman hadn’t cangbt me asleep on© night, using me bagful of rats as a piller. No sir. there’s nothing in the rat catching business these days.** ALL READY! In the back of the great Wild West there was to be a great concert. Tho producers had engaged an enormous hall, with a seating capacity of four thousand, and expected to make a profit of many hundreds of pounds. At seven o'clock the money-takers, ticket-takers, ushers and attendant© were assembled en masse in the hall. Then came tho following scene j —“ Money-takers ail ready?” “Yes, sir!” “Ticket-takers all ready?” “Yes, sir!” “ Ushers and attendants stand by the door!” “ Right, sir!” “ Now open the doors. * The iron doors crashed open. Ther~ was a terrific gust of wind as two small boys entered. “ Please, mister.” said a tiny voice, “ can we both get in on this free pass?” V * FLY TO THE RACES. There is quite a boom In flights to Paris. The other Sunday a large number of passengers went by air to the races, and it is interesting to note that it is now possible to leave London in the morning in a Handley-Page airplane and be back again in time for a late dinner. In the case of one air liner it did no less than 21,000 miles in the air in one month, or nearly an equivalent in distance to a flights round the world. • • CERTAINLY!

It is said that one Jones, by name, suffered from a weak heart, a weak liver, and a weak digestion—in fadt, he was one of those people who always hare, or think they have, something serious the matter with them. He went to stay with a friend at the seaside, in the hope of obtaining relief from one of his more chronic ailments. A few days after his arrival he wa* walking along the beach with his host when suddenly he remarked : “I drank a glassful of sea-water yesterday, and 1 really think I derived relief from it. I wonder,” he added, “do you think ] might take a second glass?” His host hesitated for a while, and then said, “ Yes, I think you might. I don’t fancy it will be missed.” THIEVES* NEW RUSE. * Attracted by the promise of a job, unemployed men and women in London, have recently been the victims of a number of frauds. The thieves’ method is described -by a skilled workman who after twelve months’ idleness advertised for a post for himself and wife in distress. A very affable man called and rnado an attractive offer to employ them at his house just outside London, where he had “some horses and poultry,” offering £2 a week, free quarters and an abundance of fruit and vegetables. Having “engaged” the man, the affable one said, “I felt so foolish in the post office just now. I pulled out what T thought to be a £1 note* to pafor a telegram to mv wife, and I found it was this” —producing a cheque. After further embellishment ot his “ place in the country.” the stranger borrowed a 10s note. The country house wa# later found to be non-existent. WHERE DIVORCE IS EASY. According to a White Paper, just ?*• sued by the Government, native marriages in the former German colony of Togoland, West Africa, may be readuv dissolved by the courts. There are no specific ground®, for divorce, the mere disinclination ot one of the parties to continue the union being sufficient to warrant a dissolution. Untaithfulness on the part of a wife is not considered particularly damaging to her character. unless repeated a number of times, and is atoned for by the payment of damages by the co-respondent-, the woman's word as to his identity and the truth of the accusation being accepted as proof of the offence. There is a fixed scale of damages for the different classes —viz., £5 in the case of a head chief, 50s for a- sub-chief, 30b for tho more educated and influential classes, and 4s 0d lor the proletariat. This applies whether the individual or the clu.ss mentioned is the offender or offended