People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 77, 31 March 1931, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

Draughts Around The World : Charlie Chaplin Got His Best Reception At Sing Sing : Handling A Shovel Makes Pen Work Difficult. '

TO PLAY A GAME OF DRAUGHTS with a person in another town by means of the telegraph is quite a common thing in these days. To do the same thing with a person seven thousand miles away is quite another thing. Yet Detective N. W. Laugeson, operator of amateur radio station ZL3AS, recently spoke for several hours to another “ ham ” in Ecuador, a place known to most people only by the shipping lists, and to round off the night played a game of draughts with hini.

That was an interesting enough experience, but Detective Laugeson like most other amateur operators, has had many such. When the recent earthquake devastated towns in Hawke’s Bay he spoke with a radio friend, OM2PC, and thus the little one sheet newspaper of Guam, an oiling station of the American navy, thousands of miles away in the Pacific, was able to publish the news in its next issue. Recently, too, he spoke with 105 stations in Canada and America within twelve days.

JJANDLING a shovel or a hoe does not make men’s fingers supple, and this fact is brought home to those who have to pay out on relief works. There is, indeed, much delay in the signing of receipts for wages, although at the gardens, for instance, this work is done most expeditiously— by a lady—the three-day men being paid on Wednesday, and the two-day and four-day men on Friday without any increase in the staff. It is stated that some are “ drones ” among the men at work in the gardens, but the majority are honest men, and it is a pleasure to see them going off with a pa}' envelope which, if not bulky, is sufficient to keep the wolf from the door, and is a thing some wives have not seen for many a day.

'J'HREE COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS in honour of Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith were recently printed in Australia—two postage stamps and one air mail stamp. One of the first letters bearing the new stamps, and sent by the Government air mail service, has been received in Auckland by Mr A. P. Powell, of Shortland Street. The Tetter was sent by air from Melbourne to Sydney, and then posted, and it is all the more interesting as a souvenir because Kingsford Smith himself was the pilot on this flight, which inaugurated the service. The denominations of the stamps are sixpence, threepence and twopence. . The sixpenny stamp is purely for the mail service, but the two others are ordinary postage stamps.

thousand five hundred prisoners in Sing Sing Prison, including some of New York’s most notorious gunmen, racketeers, crooked bankers, and grafting politicians, gave Mr Charles Chaplin the greatest ovation of his career recently.

Mr Chaplin had expressed a desire to show his new picture, “ City Lights,” at the most famous State prison in the United States and to attend the presentation himself. The only inmates not permitted to attend the performance were 14 men in the “ Death House,” awaiting execution. Two incidents in the

picture made great hits with the audience. Howls of laughter went up when Mr Chaplin carelessly allowed one or two burglars to get his revolver, and the loud cries of “Wow!” were sent up when the little tramp’s rich friend, about to attempt suicide, placed a hangman’s noose round his neck. " Thank heaven that went over,” said Mr Chaplin. “ I was afraid these poor chaps would not see anything funny about a noose.”

WHILE THE PICTURE was on the 1 screen Mr Chaplin asked whether a certain ** lifer ” might be brought into his box. Ten. years ago Mr Chaplin knew this man in San Francisco. Seven years later, when Mr Chaplin was visiting Sing Sing, his friend was in the “ Death House,” awaiting electrocution, but the sentence was commuted at the eleventh hour to one of penal servitude for life. At the conclusion of the performance the cheering was so vociferous that Mr Chaplin, who the day before had turned down an offer of £130,000 to talk over the radio, was persuaded by the Warden to go on to the stage and make a speech. “ Well, boys, I don’t know what to say,” he said. “ You are the greatest audience in the world. I have sometimes wondered whether my profession is worth while, but if I can cheer you up and make you happy, I think I have accomplished a great dfcal.”

rrqXE KING OF SWEDEN, who recently arrived on the Riviera, won a building site at Cap d’Antibes in a lottery. lie attended the Franco-Russian gala and took 25 trckels, the last book. Much to his surprise, it was announced a few minutes later that he was the winner of the first prize.

DAY BEFORE GOOD FRIDAY is known as Maundy Thursday. It is so called because on tnat day for hundreds of years gifts of food and clothing in baskets, or maunds, were distributed to the poor. From the fourth century onwards a special ceremony alto took place on this day—the washing of the feet of the twelve, or more, beggars. This act was performed by the Pope and all Catholic sovereigns, priests, and nobles in memory of the washing of the feet of the Twelve Apostles by Christ. The Maundy Thursday ceremony in England now consists of the presentation of ‘‘Maundy Money” or “Maundy Pence” given to as many poor people as equal the years of the King’s age. These silver coins were first made in the reign of Charles 11. The service, which took place originally in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall is now held at Westminster Abbey.

THE SKULL of the African chieftain, Mkwawa, which was carried off as a war trophy by some Germans during the fighting in East Africa, is now on its way back from Berlin. This reminds one of the fate of other souvenirs. A clause in the Treaty of Versailles insisted on the return of this particular relic, but others have been returned voluntarily. A Hamburg man was watching the film “ Mons ” in London some years ago when he was much affected by an episode concerning the loss of a drum by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. For he had that drum at home! It had been picked up by a German mounted patrol, and after the war had come into his hands. He returned it to the regiment, and it is now in Stirling Castle.

CIXTY YEARS AGO. (From the " Star ” ° of March 31, 1871) The Culprit Cedeno.—The law will be allowed to take its course in the case of Cedeno, and he will be executed in a few days. It is reported that the Governor has received intelligence similar to that sent to the Earl of Belmore, warning him against the probable visits of American filibustering expeditions. I do not believe that in every thousand adults whom Paris to-night contains, writes the correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph,” there are ten individuals who entertain a single scintilla of hope that capitulation can be longer averted than for the next 10, 20, or 30 days. But such is the inability of Frenchmen to swim against the current, that nowhere can a man or woman be found who dares to pronounce the illomened words, “ Let us capitulate.”