HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17455, 5 February 1925, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. THE USEFUL HORSE. Very serviceable alive, a horse is of use even after he is dead. His leg hones are used for handles of knives, his tail and mane are made into horsehair cloth for furniture covers, and his ribs and bead are burned to make bone black. The hair of bis hide is used to stuff cushions and horse collars, and his hide' makes splendid waterproof leather. His hoofs, after being boiled, are made into combs and toothpicks. FLAMES ROUND A GASOMETER. Blyth (Northumberland) Fire Brigade. having been called to a fire at (he local gas works, found that th© flames had spread half-way round a gasometer, and hud risen to a height of 20ft. A disaster was averted by their prompt application of a lire extinguisher, which excluded the air and smothered the outbreak. When the brigade arrived there was danger thao the lower section of the gasoroet-«-r would explode, ow ing to the heating of the plates, hut this was. fortunately, stopped by the action of the fire- “ BOBBED” IN THE VESTRY. “Some women are so constantly changing their appearance that their husbands live in perpetual dread of being arrested for bigamy.” So writes the Rev A. Wellesley Orr. vicar of St Paul’s, Kingston Hill, Surrey, in his parish magazine. “Can you wonder there is so much demand for divorce?” he asks. * “ Even while wo arc signing the marriage register in. the vestry the bride may get in a few moment’s work before the mirror with a powder puff, scissors and a bottle, and then—may the Saints preserve us ! the man who came into church in love with a blushing blonde takes out on his arm a blooming bobbed brunette.” “ JN LESS THAN NO TTAIK>’ As the time of day at each place on the earth's surface is dependent on *the longitude and on the position of the place as the earth revolves in regard to the sun, all the clocks and watches to east or west of London must mark time different from that of Big Ben. Thus, at noon in London it is only just, past seven in the morning m New York. Business telegrams are not sent from London to Now \ork until at least one o’clock in the afternoon ; otherwise the offices on the American side would not be open. The message passes across the Atlantic in a few minutes. If sent from London at 1 p.m. a cablegram arrives in New York soon after S a.m.. or in nearly five hours less than no time! CAPTAIN’S “FAREWELL” IN A BLIZZARD. “ Farewell ” messages w ritten eleven years ago hv the captain of the motor ketch Fort Churchill when he had abandoned all hopes of saving his vessel, which was caught in a blizzard at Port .Perrique Bay, on the Labrador coast, have just been found. Captain J. R. Aloore enclosed the messages in a bottle, which was thrown overboard, but afterwards it was found possible to beach the ketch, and the captain and crew were saved. The skipper is now the landlord of the King’s Head Hotel at Falmouth, and he lias receiv ed news from the Hudson Bay Com pany to the effect that the bottle with the messages had been washed up on an island at Labrador, and had beeu forwarded to them. GRAVE INCREASE OF SLEEPY SICKNESS. The steady increase in the number of cases of sleepy sickness in England was referred to by Dr A. A. Tredgold recently in a lecture to the People's League of Health. lu 1918 we had only a few hundred cases, said Dr Trcdgold. We have now (3000. Tn London 300 children of school age have been seriously affected mentally as an outcome of this disease. Sleepy sickness was undoubtedly due to some germ which, lie believed, entered through a small plated and perforated bone of the nose into the brain, with which the hone was connected by channels. There were medical records of the disease dating back 300 years. AIOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES FOR FEMALES. It cannot be expected that everyone will agree with Professor Saiutsbury in his declaration that the three most beautiful of all names for women are Helen, Alargaret. and Isobel. Helen, he thinks, cannot he spoiled by alteration. “ Helena. Elena. Ellen, Elinor, Hollenore. Eleanor, Eleanore, or Nora, even Noll and Nelly, retain in different degrees the magic of the original.” But add “la” tot “ Isobel.” ancl the name loses grace* and distinction. Another abbreviated name. “ Eliza,” makes the Professor’s “ blood boil.” “ Looked at. it is rather worse than Alaria itself.” 113 parent “ Elizabeth” or “ Elisabeth.” the Professor considers to be. if not exactly pretty or beautiful, at least “ very handsome, and of curiously wide association.” Catherine, lie thinks, is one of the most beautiful names, and passes on its beauty to Katherine, Kate, and Katie, and even “ Cattern ” and “Cat.” LOVE AT LUD GATE. Until the reign of George 111. there stood near St. Martin’s Church at the sixth gate of London, known as Lud Gate, where there was a. famous prison for debtors. A romantic love stoiy originated in the debtors’ prison in the fifteenth century. A young man, named Stephen Forster, was imprisoned for debt. As lie was mournfully looking out, of the grated window a rich widow passed. SIIO was arrested by the sad plight of Forster, and asked him what sum would purchase h ; * liberty. Forster replied that £2O was required to free him from Lud Gate. The widow paid the money and too* Stephen For: ter into her service, w here he behaved most admirably. Friendshin between the two ripened into love, and Forster married his benefactress. To complete this fairy tale in real life, the poor debtor of Lud Gate became Lord .Mayor of London. After his death his widow enlarged the debtors’ prison and built a new chapel. She also had inserted in the wall a brass plate on which was the following inscription : “ Devout souls that pass this way For Stephen Forster, late Alayor, heartily pray ; And Dame Agnes his spouse to God consecrate That of pity this house made for Londoners in Lud Gate. So that for lodging and water, prisoners here nought pay. Au their keepers ghnll answer at dreadful Doomsday.”