HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18332, 8 December 1927, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Listening With The Fingers. A man in Rochester, New York, listens to broadcast music with his fingers. Ever since an illness at the age of six, he has been deaf and* dumb. His receiver is home-made and comprises a unique cone-tvpe loud speaker, with an addition of an invention of his owii that is connected to the under-sized cone parchment. This man hears by feeling the vibrations on the parchment and is able to distinguish talking from music. He can pick out the various instruments the orchestra play, and depends entirely on his wireless receiver for his enjoyment. Loud Speakers In Church. The installation of loud speakers in a Calcutta mosque is not the first" instance of the equipment of places of worship with artificial voice amplifiers of this kind. It is quite usual on special occasions, says a London paper, such as Armistice Day, for the clergy of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields to place loud speakers in the crypt. More usually in England—the acoustics of the great cathedrals and churches are often deplorable— the sermon is made audible by means of a sounding board. There is a wonderful specimen in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and others in London are to be found in Southwark Roman Catholic Cathedral. Brompton Oratory, and St. Mary’s Abbotts, Kensington. “I Call It Swan*k." W ** Appearing at Stockton Bankruptcv Court at Cockfield, Durham, a coalminer, James Dickinson, attributed his failure to the fact that his income from unemployed benefit was not sufficient to maintain his position as an overseer and chairman of the parish council. He admitted having taken money from the. funds of a working men’s club, of which he was treasurer. A deficit of £196 was found, but as he promised to pay the money back by instalments the club refrained from taking criminal proceedings. Official Receiver: Why did you steal? Dickinson: To maintain my position in public life, of which I was proud. Official Receiver: I call it swank. Tha Soothing Lettuce. There is the story of a certain famous figure who, in the decline of life, found it hard to sleep. His remedy was to eat a lettuce in the evening. Not a few people, in fact, have experienced the soporific influence of the lettuce. Venus, after the death of Adonis, threw herself on a bed of lettuces to soothe her grief. A “ Mix-up ” of Babies. The national concern in the United States regarding Mrs Sam Smith’s " puzzle baby ” increases rather than diminishes. It was bom over a few weeks ago at Cleveland. Ohio, in a maternity hospital. Mrs Sam Smith still insists that, the nurse and doctor told her she had given birth to a b©v, and 4aserts that, her child, as a result of a mixing Up of, half a dozen little new arrivals, was given to another Mrs Smith, instead of a girl bbrn to her. Mrs Sam Smith refuses to leave the hospital until the alleged mistake has been solved to her satisfaction, and a boy substituted for the girl she is now nursing. She and her husband have begun legal proceedings against the hospital.