HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 18 July 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. £3OOO FOR SWATTING A FLY In “swatting” a fly with a boos.. . Mrs Henry Gantling, wife of a painter a-, Dallas,' Texas, hit a wall with such i force that tho weapon broke the wall. I facing and revealed a recess that had been covered with a very thin board j Mrs Gantling found the hole was fille*. ; with currency notes, some of large de- ' nominations. She is now richer by : about £3OOO, probably placed in tho hole ] by her father half a century age. BURGLAR SHOT DEAD A burglar, surprised early one morning robbing a flat at Argenteuil, a Pari* suburb, was shot dead by the son of the occupant. Mme. Jean Jean wa# awakened by someone moving about. and roused her son Maurice, who took u revolver to investigate. Opening another door he saw a man breaking open a writing desk. The intruder sprang at him and tried to throttle him, but Jean fired point-blank and killed him. The police are now seeking to find out •. who he was. ! PLEA FOR ROOKS. Rook slaughter, now in full swing in England, is condemned by an old Devon j farmer, who describes it as tempting Providence. “ Fifty-five years of care- ■ ful observation convinces ine that the I rook is a friend, and not a foe, of the farmer,” he told a reporter. “On taking a farm I found it infested wnth. I wire worm, leather jackets and simitar ! pests, which seriously damaged my corn ; and root crops. After three years J encouraged and protected rooks in every | possible way, allowing them to do juat | as they liked after the planted corn was 1 harrowed in, and when ploughing was : in operation they were allowed to foi 1 low the plough at every season- As a result my farm was completely cleared of ground peats. which have not been • seen since.” NUTCRACKER LlPii That Nature can enable one part of the body to carry out the functions of : another which has been lost is demonstrated in the case of Otto Friecison. a native of Em under.. Germany, who j lost all his teeth at the age of thirtyone, and presumably could not afford a ) set of false ones. Friedson’s lips are now so strong and hard that he can crack nuts with them, and can do nearly everything that ih© ordinary j person can do with his teeth. He has i been examined by many medical men. j who attribute his wonderful power to : j hypertrophy of the muscles of the lips. : | which have increased enormously in ■ * thickness and firmness. This man has < been an inveterate pipe-smoker all hi* life, and much of the power of his lip.; is attributed to holding a heavy pipe between them. MEN OVER NINE FEET HIGH. In the Bible (I. Samuel xvii. 4) it i* said that the height of Goliath, the, Philistine champion, was six cubits and a span. Josephus reckons the Hebrew cubit to be equal to two spans—about 17-iin. Op this estimate, Goliath was nearly 9ft Gin highl This makes him so tall that very iew authentic a< counts can be found of men who can 1 be compared with him. “ The tallest man that hath been seen in our days,” says Pliny, “was one named Gabara, who, in the days of Claudius, the lata Emperor, was brought out of Arabia. He was 9ft 9in high.” Josephus says r ’ “ Viteilius sent Darius, the son of Ar tabanus, an hostage to Home, with divers presents, among which there was a man seven cubits, or lOft 2in, high, . a Jew bern. He was called a giant by ' reason of his greatness.” Mercia, who , succeeded Justus Lipsius as professor - of history in tho University of Leyden, ■ asserts that in the year 1583 he saw in France a Fleming who exceeded 9tt if. (height. “ Delro,” says Calmet, “ af- • | firms that, in 1572, ho saw, at Rohan, 1 a native of Piedmont, above 9ft high.” Again, “In the year 1719, near Salis- ' j bury, in England, a human skeleton was found which was 9ft 4in long.” >! j OUGHT OUGHT | The ploughboy whistled behind hi* ! plough, For his lungs were sound and he haO no cough; He guided his team with a pliant bough. And watered it well at the wayside trough. The toil was hard, tor the laud wus rough— It lay 011 the shores of a Scottish loughBut his well-fed team was stout and • tough, And lie plied his bough to flank and hough. He ploughed all day, and the crow and ‘ chough Flew around his head, though he oft cried “Shough!” But his plough at last struck a hidden sough With a force that sent the share clean through. Then the team took fright and ran off with the plough. With the speed of the wind from the ploughboy. though jHe shouted “Whoa!” and into a slough I It plunged, where the mud vas soft as dough. BEAUTY AT ANY COST. Speaking at the social hygiene conference in London on the psychology •of adolescence, Sir Frederick Mott said (tho “Daily Telegraph” reports ‘ that from the most humble to the most elevated conditions of life, at all time* and among all peoples, young women did not recoil from anv means, and would submit to any form of physical discomfort or suffering to increase their attractiveness. “ She punches her feet in tight shoes,” he said, ‘she wear* short dresses and thin stockings in winter, pierces the ears, and even the lip* and nose, in order to attach ornaments, and brings to her aid besides jewels and ornaments, emotional reactions which make her mere interesting and attractive.” He urged the enpeople healthy in mind and body. Addressing the congress on “Education and Social Hygiene,’ Professor J. A. Thomson said the problem was education must help social The solution must be Eound by experiments. “It is probable that lore ha? suffered considerable materialisation.' !he said It. is probable that the ides.!-: j of chastity, faithfulness, control, and , cleir-rr.ir.dedtess hare been weaken*^ | setd that men. in particular—-rwez in z i country with our traditions—lib* pless- ! ure more and endure hardness lees’ than j their forefathers did.” He strongly 1 suspected that some devoteess of psy-cho-analysis were doing harm by f bringing into everyday life and conversaticn a. method appropriate to the | laboratory and L •'pits..