NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 851, 26 August 1933, Page 22 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

CONVICTS GO NUDIST. Nudism has come to Stateville Penitentiary. Between 300 and 400 naked convicts paraded from their cells, spread blaukets on the ground, and proceeded to allow the sun to make their faces red, their bodies tanned. Warden Frank D. Whipp explained: “ It’s good for the blankets and it's good for the men. The walls are 33 feet high, so privacy assured.” DAYLIGHT FILMS. Professor A. Emilio D’Argenzio, who has been engaged in researches for the benefit [ of the film industry, claims to have per-; fee ted a method whereby films can be! thrown on the screen in broad daylight | or iu a brightly lighted theatre with better results than are now possible in a I darkened one. He is to show a film in j broad daylight when the National institute for Educational Films has an exhibition in Rome next winter. A large Roman cinema theatre is installing his apparatus. FUTURIST BANQUET. Two hundred Italian futurists, under the chairmanship of Signor Marinetti, held a j futurist banquet of “ plastic eatables ” in j Milan. The meal opened with cocktails of the essence of mint and thyme served with a dasli of pepper For hors d’oeuvres there were dates stuffed with anchovies. After this the banquet proper began with rice flavoured with pineapple, followed by an “ astral synthesis,” which consisted of oranges stuffed with minced meat, and then by tomatoes stuffed with oranges and fennel. Rose petalled soup was then served, followed by a succession of dishes forming a scheme of “ gastronomic architecture ” which defies description. PINK LEMONS. Pink lemons are being grown in California. They are growing on one tree in a grove which has become a Mecca of astounded scientists, who gaze at this phenomenon with awe, and periodically anti gravely pinch themselves. The skin and fruit of the lemons are a vivid pink, but this is not the only strange feature about the tree. The trunk and branches are striped, while some of the branches are white and others green. The white boughs are quite barren. But it is unlikely that the London hostess who lias a hankering for exotics will be able to delight her guests with this fruitarian freak, for experts doubt whether the pink lemons can be cultivated to the point of being exportable.

DOG AS OUT-PATIENT. A terrier, appeared outside a general hospital at Valencia the other evening and whined pitifully till he Mas taken in by the staff for examination. A back paw was found to be broken and was bandaged, after which the dog wagged his tail and ran off. The next evening lie appeared again and took his stand in the queue of out-patients. On this occasion his leg was put in splints, and he hopped off apparently quite content. A FORGOTTEN HOSPITAL. Forgotten for half a century, a hospital has been found on the sea coast of Denmark. and Government officials are considering what to do with it. It was built in 1879 for cholera patients, _ there having been a cholera epidemic in Europe and a recurrence was expected. Soon after the opening a sailor believed to have had the dread disease, was admitted. He proved to have nothing more than measles. No other patients came, and the place was closed and forgotten. A young journalist recently found the hospital, with everything complete, from beds ready for use to medicines and salt cellars containing salt put them 54 years ago. The discoverer lias suggested that it be converted into a vacation resort for poor children of Copenhagen. HUNTING FOR BURIED TREASURE. •Economic conditions have turned the thoughts of many people in the United States to two new fields usually outside their customary existence—gold mining and treasure hunting. Courses in pan and placer mining are being given in some Western universities, and from Dr. Matthew Stirling, chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology at Smithsonian, comes the report that a new crop of buried-treasure legends is springing up. Dr. Stirling knows this last fact because he is the man who is called upon to decipher all manner of cabalistic messages found on rocks and caves, especially in the South. The hopeful treasure hunters believe these to be code messages giving instructions for the finding of some treasure. Treasure legends, be explains, have existed and grown enormously since they were first reported by early explorers and settlers. Dr. Stirling explains that most of the messages submitted to his inspection arc pictograplis, so common among the Indians. He doubts if they could be interpreted by any man now living, and adds that the majority probably had no meaning even to the Indians that made them. WOMAN’S TERRIBLE ORDEAL. After 30 hours in the v a tors of Lake Michigan, clinging precariously to an empty petrol tank. Mrs. Charles Rennie, jun., the only survivor of a seaplane accident in which three men (one of them her husband) perished, was rescued by the crew of a ferry boat from Ann Arbour. She told a tragic story. She said her husband and she left their home in Traverse, Michigan, on Thursday morning for a business trip to Milwaukee in a seaplane piloted by James Gillette, with Peter Keller as tiic mechanic. After circling over Frankfort they flew over Lake Michigan. They had gone only fifteen miles, however, when a heavy fog enveloped them. The pilot decided to alight on the water and wait until the fog lifted.' In alighting the seaplane was disabled and began to leak. The men lipped away a petrol tank, about 4ft wide. 4ft long and 4in thick. They drained the petrol from it. and plugged the intake. Then all four left the sinking seaplane on the improvised raft. Mrs. Rennie was placed on the raft, and the men clung to the sides; it would not support them otherwise. About sunset Gillette lost his grip and sank. Keller followed shortly afterwards. The Rennies could only watch them drown, being'too weak themselves to give any help. The night nassed and part of the next day. Then flennie. who had been encouraging his wife throughout the morning, began to weaken. After a while he handed his wife liis watch and his papers and money. “I‘m through.” he said quietly. “I can’t stay up any longer.” She begged him to hold on. hut he was too exhausted to make any further effort and lie let go.

A HORSE-FLY’S WINGS. According to a report presented to tli«i Academy of Sciences by three French, scientists, if man could construct a fljing machine with flapping wings with the same coefficient energy a fe that possessed, by a horse-fly. over 2201 b of weight could be propelled vapidly through the lair by 3V4 horse power of expended energy. They assert that the suspension of a horse-fly in the air and his propulsion through space are maintained by a very slight expenditure of energy, equal to 2.2 kilogrammetres per second and per kilogram of animal matter. LEMONS START A FIGHT. The police had to be called iu to restore order when the Padua (Italy) football team stopped at Mortara on tlidir way back from playing a match at Casale. Standing in a row in front of the municipal band, which was playing in the main square, the footballers ostentatiously sucked lemons. The bandsmen’s mouths watered so much that they could not blow into their instruments. Then the band turned on the footballers. When the police arrived the footballers were hustled to the station and locked in a railway carriage bound for home. WAR PENSION FRAUD. The allegation was made at Bootle (L&ncs) that a woman had drawn nearly £IOOO pension as a war widow in respect of a man whom she bigamously married during her real husband’s temporary absence.. Giving her name as Alice McMsstcr, aged 42, she was remanded in custody on a charge of bigamy. The chief constable, Mr. T. Bell, said that Mrs. McMaster married William John McMaster in September, 1913. In 1914 he joined the Army,, and was stationed in different parts of the country, and she drew an allowance. In 1917, the chief constable alleged, she met Sergeant Herbert William Kelly, and went through a form of marriage with him at Liverpool. Kelly was killed in action in 1918. When McMaster returned after demobilisation she lived with him as his wife, but, unknown to him. she drew a pension as Kelly’s widow until a month ago. In all she had drawn nearly £IOOO. "The case was brought to our notice by the Ministry of Pensions, to whom it came through the Director of Public Prosecutions,” added Mr. Bell. He intimated that there woukl probably be a further charge. •

LOOKING FOR ATLANTIS. A search for the supposedly lost continent of Atlantis began recently, when two Johns Hopkins University professors sailed from New Y'ork on the quest. They are Dean Edward W. Berry and Dr. Adolph H. Schultz, and they will make for Lake Tacarigua iu northern Venezuela. Throughout their stay in 'Venezuela they will be the guests of Dr. Rafael Requena, personal physician and private secretary to President Gomez, and who has just published a book entitled “ Traces of Atlantis.” SEEKING A KING'S LOOT. It is reported from Stockholm that tlu legendary medieval treasure that went to the bottom of the Baltic Sea with the Viking ships of the Danish King, Waldemar Atterdag, will be sought by Gurtnar Hull, a New York engineer. It was 600 years ago that King Atterdag sac-bed Visby, on the Swedish island of Gothland, then one of the Hanseatic League, and so •wealths', according to legend, that the swine ate out of silver trouglis. 'The Danish King placed huge vats in the market place of Visby ana ordered citizens to bring out their valuables. Then Waidemar's ships foundered in a gale off the southern coast of Gothland. Hall, the reports say, intends to use & diving bell equipped with electrical contrivances ia his quest. CAN’T TELL BIRD FROM BUTTERFLY. A mental specialist testified in • Kei* York Court Mr. Joseph W, ‘HarTinian, former head of the Harrimaa National Bank and Trust Company, ia unable to tell the difference between an ox and a horse, or a bird and a butterfly. Mr. Harrimau is changed with defalcations and misapplication x of funds totalling, over £460,000. He and liis -wife both wept bitterly during the doctor's evidence. His counsel says his mind coljapsed after the death of his son tn a motor accident five years ago, and that lie is incapable of defending himself against the present charges. The specialist also said Mr. Hurriman burst into tears whenever some death was mentioned, and that he could not explain the meanings of well-known proverbs. Although it is being suggested that Mr. Harriman's mind may only have given way after the arrest, the United States Attorney, Mr. Medalie. said that if he was in fact insane the Government would drop the case.