Around the Wide World

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19990, 5 November 1927, Page 14 (Supplement)

Around the Wide World

—■ Clippings from Varied Sources

OLDEST WEDDED COUPLE MAN AND WIFE OVER THE CENTURY. Married 66 years itgo, Air John E. Taylor, and his wife, Mrs Sophia Taylor, of Farnborough, Kent, are believed to be the oldest wedded couple in England. Mrs Taylor recently celebrated her 103rd birthday. Her husband was 103 last April. They are living with a son whose age is 63, have another son aged 65, and a daughter of 69. Mr and Mrs Taylor are both in good health. Mr Taylor often goes for long walks, but his wife is compelled to keep to her room. Mr Taylor was born in Kennington, and his wife in Suffolk. Mr Taylor, who is a retired master carpenter, helped in the erection of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851, and shook hands with the Duke of Wellington, when he visited it. He was present at the first cricket match at the Oval, has seen people in the stocks at Kennington, and remembers when London was lighted with oil lamps, and when the watch called out the hour and the state of the weather. Unitil ho retired he worked 12 hours a day. AN UNUSUAL WILL ESTATE LEFT TO ANIMALS. By leaving 'her villa at Budapest, with all its furniture and equipment, and her beloved animals —12 dogs, 12 cats, and 45 canaries—to the Hungarian Society for Protection of Animals and opposing vivisection, Frau Johanna Popwlka greatly .disappointed her relatives. All the rest of the estate is to be devoted to turning the villa into a home for sick ami ownerless dogs. DOWN THE MINE PIGEON’S STRANGE ADVENTURE /A very odd thing happened at Wheatly Hill Colliery, in Durham not long ago. Hearing a noise in his enginehouse, 1200 ft. underground, an engineman made a search and was startled to find a homing pigeon with a numbered ung. The puzzle is, of course, how the pigeon got down the mine, but there is a simple answer. It probably roostjcrl in a cage waiting at the surface and 'was taken down below in it without anyone being the wiser. “PRISON GARDEN” MUTINY TRANSFEB TO DARTMOOR. Malcontents at Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, who caused trouble some months ago, have been visited with stern disciplinary measures. The ringleaders have been transferred from Parkhurst, “the Garden Prison,” to DartmOor, where they will experience a discipline as strict as any in the prison service. During the ‘■mutiny’’ the men indulged in “comm mity singing,” broke windows, and banged cell doors all night by lying on their back and kicking them. It lasted some days and climax was two of the convicts setting fire to their cells, and one of them climbing to the roof of the prison, chapel and defying capture for hours. A HIGH TRIBUTE i PRAISE FOR ENGLAND’S SINGING. A great tribute has been paid to English musicians by Dr. Furtwangler, the famous German conductor. The Bach Choir from Newcastle has visited Frankfort, and after he had heard them the doctor said: “You should tour Germany and teach us how to sing.” In criticisms, everything depends on the critic. No one values praise from an ignoramus, but a musical compliment from so eminent a man as Dr. Furtwangler, whose nation is far-famed for its music, is a tribute which must make the English choir intensely proud and happy. A LIFELONG MEMORY

NEVER TO DRIVE AGAIN. Proceeding through Horsmonden, Ki'nt, a motor-car suddenly shot across the road, collided with a pillar of a Avail and an old lady, hurling her 14ft. over a garden fence. A portion of the pillar weighing 2cwt., was afterwards discovered 32ft. away. The unfortunate woman, who died a few minutes after admission to a hospital, was Mrs Harriet Roberts, 65, the wife of a railway plate-layer. The driver of the car, William Alfred Tilling, declared at the inquest that he was only travelling at 17 miles an hour. Following the collision the car turned over on its side. He attributed the accident to faulty steering gear. When the car swerved on to the wrong side he tried ot rectify it by turning the wheel in the opposite direction, but this was not effective. He admitted that he had been involved in a previous accident, in which a young woman was ratally injured. Following further evidence, the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death,” and severely censured Tilling. They also cautioned him as to his future conduct on the road, as they were of opinion that he must have been driving at a considerable pace. The coroner commented that he thought the fact that Tilling had been the cause of the deaths of two women would be a lifelong memory to him, and should cause him grief. Tilling, while declaring that he was a careful driver, vowed that he would never touch a driving-wheel again.

LONGEVITY RECORDS FATHERS AND SONS. When the Rev. W. V. Vickers, of Edynead, Bovey Tracey, who is about to celebrate his 72nd birthday, claimed that the life of his father and his own covered a. period of 140 years, it was thought to be a record. This, however, was promptly challenged by Mr William Lancaster, of Putney. “I can beat Mr Vickefs,” he wrote, “for my father was born on April 4,178 G. My father and mother were born in the 18th century.” It has been pointed out that the suggested record is eclipsed by the case of the first and second Earls of Leicester, father and son, whose joint lives covered a period of nearly 157 yeats, from May, 1752, to January, 1909. A WOMAN STUDENT MYSTERIES OF BELL-RINGING. Miss Norah Johnston, the daughter of an English bellfounid;er, has just gone to a school in Belgium, the famous school of Monsieur M. J. Denyn, the Master Carillonneur of Malines. She is the first woman to enter this school, and she will learn the mysteries of bellringing. Miss Johnston could not have chosen her place of study more wisely, for Belgium is famous throughout the world for its beautiful carillons. SHAKESPEARE’S MSS HANDWRITING SCRUTINIES. None of Shakespeare’s works in the poet’s own handwriting are now in existence. But there are in existence books which belonged to Shakespeare and in which he wrote. These two conclusions have been reached by Dr Samuel A. Tannenbaum, the Shakespearean authority, and are published by him in a weighty volume, “Problems in Shakespeare’s Penmanship,” issued by the Modern Language Association of America. Dr Tannenbaum says he has made a close scrutiny of the six indubitable specimens of .Shakespeare’s handwriting; the three signatures on the will at Somerset House, and n the three documents, one on each, at, Guildhall, British Museum and Public Record Office. Applying his discoveries to the volume of Montaigne’s “Essays,” containing a Shakespeare signature, preserved at the British Museum, and regarded by many as questionable or not genuine, he affirms unhesitatingly his belief in it, and point by point shows its consistent Shakespearean character. The poet, as all the world knows, was .steeped in Montaigne, and it seems reasonable to deduce that this particular copy was his own. Again applying his test, Dr Tannenbaum takes that portion of “The Booke of Sir Thomas More,’’ which more than one expert, has contended is in Shakespeare’s handwriting. After microscopic examination he pronounces against it and shows that the script is not by Shakespeare. He demonstrates that the poet’s handwriting shows characteristics which belong to sufferers from angina pectoris, and that the poet died of this disease, brought on, probobly, by domestic worries, his younger daughter having married a man unworthy of her. IN PASSING SAYINGS AND WRITINGS OF PROMINENT PEOPLE. Our pride misleads, our timid likings lull:—Wordsworth. Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent. —Euripides. To ridicule philosophy is truly to be a philosopher.—Pascal. Beautiful speech should be a habit.— Mrs Patrick Campbell. The Press is the greatest agency in the world for promoting peace. —Mr T. P. O ’Connor. For about a hundred thousand years man used the same stone tool.—Dr L. S. Palmer, F.R.S. Things alter for the worse spontaneously if they be not altered for the better designedly. —Bacon. I imagine the letter files of no other man in England can vie with mine.— Archbishop of Canterbury. Those who present the world’s news exercise an incalculable influence for good or harm. —Sir Rowland Blades. You will find plenty of people willing enough to do the Good Samaritan without the oil and the twopence. —Sydney Smith.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that ho is wiser to-day than he was yesterday.— Swift.

Mr Podsnap settled that whatever he put behind hint he put out of existence. He had even acquired a peculiar flourish of his right arm in often clearing the world of its most difficult problems by sweeping them behind him. —Dickens. Italy does not want to be any longer the grand historical museum of the world. —Signor Turatt If the country is going to the dogs—well, I know some very nice dogs.—The Bishop of Barrow. The really first-class men are the men who have been good at second and third-class work. —Sir Maurice Craig.

Civilisation and all that civilisation means depends in the most ultimate analysis upon the recognition of proprietary right.—Lord Birkenhead. It is the same with men as with horses; those which do the most prancing are generally the ones which make the least progress. —Baron de Stassart. The drop of dew which hangs suspended from the grass blade reflects a heaven as vast and pure as the ocean does in its wide azure plains. —Lamartine.

I have sjjent some time in Russia, and I confess that had. I been born under the Soviet system I would have been a revolutionist against it, —Mr Herbert Smith.

STILL IN THE CHOIR SINGING FOR SEVENTY-TWO YEARS. The Elizabethans believed that singing was good for health, so they sang marigals instead of doing physical exercises. They were probably right, and Mr E. Colby Evans would make a good witness for the defence of their theory. Mr Evans is eighty, and still a choirboy. Singing has been his delight for more than seventy years, and has given him perpetual youth. He joined the choir of St. David’s Parish Church, Carmarthen, when he was eight, and ‘he has remained in it for 72 years. His voice is a rich bass. BROTHERS MARRY SISTERS NOVEL WEDDING FEATURES. Two brothers and two sisters, all English people, were married recently at Lakeview, near Toronto. The bridegrooms were George Henry Wren, aged 27, and Albert Thomas Wren, aged 24, and their brides were Sarah HutchinSon, aged 26, and Henrietta Hutchinson, aged 21, respectively. Their parent! live next door to each other. There were other novel features about the wedding, for two brothers, Ajrthur Jones and Bert Jones, of New Toronto, acted as best men, and two sisters, Florence Banks and Rita Banks, of Lakeview, were the bridesmaids. The flower girls were also sisters, and the ushers Were two brothers. The Wren family went from England 21 years ago. The Hutchinson family consists of the parents, three sons, and the two daughters in Canada, and one son in England. The girls went to Canada from Northumberland, England, in April, 1926, and the other members of the family followed later. A HUGE SCHEME GAS FOB A WHOLE NATION. A huge scheme is being developed for supplying all Germany with gas from the Ruhr coal mines. Great conduits will carry the gas along the five main routes, running north, south, and east, from which smaller pipes will radiate till every district has been supplied. * Enormous saving in cost is expected from tho concentration of the work of gas production in a single area, making it a mere by-product of other manufactures, notably coke. So cheap will it become that Hamburgh and other northern towns are expected to cease to import British coal for gas-making, ami to depend upon the Ruhr mines for their supply of gas. POUNDS FROM PENNIES VICTORIAN SCHOOL BANKS. State school children in Victoria have increased their savings in the school banks this year from £140,000 to nearly £lBO,OOO. In a year they have added £40,000 to their savings. In more than 1800 State schools there are banks. Pennies that would have gone toward the decaying of many small teeth have gone into the bank. Pennies have grown to pounds. The lone banker at Rhyll, with his credit balance of 2s 5d and the 622 with their record of £lBBO at Golden Point, have gone with the rest to make their State the richer by £178,741, 13s 9d. Names that never appear on the maps appear in the bank lists. Children in the distant corner of the lone new shacks in the Mallee; cnildren in the fire-stricken areas; children of the construction camps and children in the big city schools learned the value of thrift. The Savings Bank officials say they are amazed at the success of the savings scheme. STEVENSON AND DARWIN GREAT SUMS PAID FOB MSS. Many manuscripts of importance in English literature were sold at Sotheby’s recently. The letter which Byron wrote after the Eton and Harrow cricket match in 1805 was properly bought by a few Old Harrovians for their school. R. L. Stevenson’s complete autograph manuscript—much of which was never published—of his “Records of a Family of Engineers,” a pious task which caused him an infinity of pains, realised £l6OO. A, series of letters to Charles Baxter, Stevenson’s legal adviser, sold for £l2s'. A set of letters of much value in studying the development of the Darwinian theory consisted of 175 communications from Da.rwin to his close friend, Sir Charles Lyell. In the.se occur detailed answers to the criticisms and attacks made by contemporary sciCfitists. For this valuable dossier the final bid was £llBO. The collection of autograph letters, etc., known as the Colonel Mark Wills collection of Napoleonic data, including the manuscript signal book used at St. Helena during Napoleon’s captivity, brought £344, given by Mr Gabriel WellSj of New York. As for the books in a three days’ sale, totalling over £14,000, a first edition of Kipling’s “Schoolboy Lyrics,” Lahore, 1881, in the ofigifiAl brown paper wrappers, made £450, and “Echoes,” 1884, in which arc eight poems by his sister, Miss Kipling, fetched £355.

Christie’s also held an interesting dispersal of historic and literary relics. The original logbook, for example, kept during the Battle of Trafalgar on Collingwood’s flagship, the Eurvalus, by captain Blackwood, in which there is a reference to Nelson’s famous signal, realised £250. Two long letters, 1871-Z, written by Sit Henry Stanley to Jafties Gordon Bennett, dealing with the expedition to find Livingstone, and its successful issue, brought £9O.

FOR THE WAR DEBT A BIT FOR THE “OLD COUNTRY.” A man born in England who emigrated to America 50 years ago has sent £950 in Exchequer Bonds to help to reduce Britain’s Wat debt 4o his adopted country. This is the fourth contribution that this idonor has sent td the Chancellor of Exchequer for this purpose in the past few years. His name is not stated. BEES AND PROHIBITION AN AMUSING COMPLAINT At Gallipolis, Ohio, William Harper, a farmer, has made complaint to the prohibition authorities about the crisis that confronts his bees. The bees on duty go out in the morning to gather nectar. But instead; of gathering nectar they stray off to some still in the neighbourhood, fill themselves up on sour mash, and come home drunk. Then the bees which have stayed home promptly attack their inebriated Companions and kill them, so that Harper’s hives are being so reduced in numbers that shortly he will have no bees at all. w A GOOD STORY SEVENTY MILES ON AN APPLE. A good story has been told nf LieutColonel Sir Martin Archer Shoe. Once, when he was a subaltern, he landed at Dover from Paris with sevenpence in his pocket. It was imperative that he should return to his barracks in Loudon. On board the boat he met a millionaire who knew his family well, but he was too shy to ask the rich man to lend him the money for his fare. So he gave sixpence to a man who directed him on his way, bought an apple with, the remaining penny, and walked the seventy miles back to his depot. FAT AND LEAN MEN AN INTEBESTING STUDY. After a study of 450 students at fffe University of Chicago, Dr William H. Sheldon, psychologist, announces that the bulkily-built men with “bay windows” are jolly and companionable, but “dumb” when compared with the lean ones. Dr Sheldon says:—“While no definite conclusions can be drawn, the bulky type of man seems inclined to be loss intelligent than his slender opposite. There seems to be no relationship between height and intelligence. It is rather a matter of how tho various parts of the body are proportioned.” MONEY IN TOURISTS ENTEBPBISE OF GERMANS. An interesting experiment carried out by a German fishing village—Deep, on the Baltic —in which the native population was none too wealthy, is arousing the attention of similarly situated people in other picturesque spots. The village ciders, emphasising tjje beauty of the scenery, announced Inst winter that they would be willing to give land away to anybody willing to build upon it—half an acre to each applicant, but more if he were able to show that he was able to exploit it financially. The result has exceeded all expectations. Not only have people living on the satnc coast begun to build houses large enough to accommodate guOsts in summer, but a tourist association has begun to build a hostel for two ftunftrea people and a holiday homo for children. It is calculated that within two years a new seaside resort will be opened up with American celerity. STRANGE ADVENTURES TRAVELS OF A NEEDLE. A girl has had a strange adventure with a noodle, and* doctors are amazed at it. Dora Wntkinson, of Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, trod on a darning needle which broke off in her foot. Although the foot was X-rayed, the needle could not be found, and as flie girl did not suffer soon forgot the incident. Thirteen months after the accident the girl’s tongue revealed a scratch. Putting her hand into her mouth she found the needle point bettween two teeth in the lower jaw. and managed to ?iull It out. The fragment, of needle, mlf-an-inch long, had travelled round her body for thirteen months, and had done her no harm. BABIES FOR ADOPTION Fivp bonnie babies were lately awaiting adoption at the institution controlled by the Board of Guardians at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.

The annoiiheenient was made at a meeting by an Aiderman, and he added that the clerk would be glad to receive inquiries from persons who can provide good homes fbt the youngsters. Oh two Occasions whoa a simlftr paragraph was published, the guardians werd inundated with applications, and over 500 people desired to adopt one boy. Each time the guardians carefully considered the various letters before handing over their Charges to persons who undertook to fulfil their obligation* toward the adopted children.