QUEER STORIES FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LV, Issue 8581, 15 October 1906, Page 7

QUEER STORIES FROM THE FOREIGN PRESS.

LOVERS SOARED HY A GHOSTLY BATHER. A couple of Hamburg lovers who had gone for a moonlight row on the Alster were, the other evening, the victims of a cruel jest. Out of the dark water there appeared a white object, which tloated slowly toward the boat. " A dead body," exclaimed tho young lady in terror, and her sweetheart at once seized the oars and made an effort lo escape tho uncanny thing Suddenly the body rose half out of the water, and in a sepulchral voico said : " Give me your boat," and at the same time a hand was stretched out to seize it. This was too much for the sweethearts, who sprang out of the boat into tho water, screaming loudly for help. This brought several other boats to the scene, and the couple were rescued; but the bather who had played this cruel hoax had vanished. DCn: AS DETECTIVE. The sagacity of a dog has brought, to justice a man now awaiting execution for murder in Valencia gaol. The owner of the dog was killed iv a sudden quarrel, and his body was secretly buried by the murderer and'his confederates. The dog witnessed the crime and the burial, and succeeded in escaping from tho criminals. The animal returned to the master's house, and by barking and running to the door induced the dead man's son" to follow. The dog made its way straight to the grave and began scratching up" the earth. The police were called, and the body unearthed. The dog was still unsatisfied, and led the way, following a scent apparently, to a cafe in the town, where it sprang at the throat of a man seated at a table. The man was arrested, and confessed to the murder of the dog's owner. THE SIMTLE LIVE. Joseph Salomonson, who calls himself " Meva," is exciting much amusement in Paris, where he parades the streets dressed only in a flowing white robe reaching to the knees and wearing a gilt circlet on his head. His hair and beard, of a rich golden colour, have never been cut. He carries a long stall', and wears sandals. He says he is an apostle of the " simple life," and has walked all over France in his singular costume. He always sleeps on the ground, whatever the weather may be, and lives entirely on vegetables. He'believes that man should eat no animal or mineral product, and will not even use salt with his vegetables. Fl .[IT WITH A TU*EU. A native employed on the Chutliamaial estate was returning, one recent night, from a shooting excursion, and saw what he thought was a ja.kal. He shot and wounded tbe animal, which made oil into the jungle. Early the next morning, while proceeding for another shoot, the man suddenly came across a wounded ti_e-r lying in a patch of ]angle. Presumably it was this beast, and not a jackal, which had been hit the previous night. The tiger immediately made for the man, who had no time to reload his rille. Finding no other way out of his diiliculty, the man threw down his rille and resolved to fight it out with the tiger. The tiger opened its jaws to seize the man, when the latter shoved his arm right into the tiger's mouth. With his disengaged arm he levelled blow after blow at the tiger with all his might, and at the same time yelled for help. Hearing the man's cries, a Paniyan, who was on a neighbouring hill, hurried down, and, taking in the situation, went and fetched an estate writer, Mr Ladwin. The latter came with a gun, but could do nothing at the start for fear of hitting the native. However, the native managed by a powerful effort to throw down the tiger, whereupon Mr Ladwin put in a shot, The shot was not fatal, and the tiger made another rush at his victim, who was able this time to dodge away. Mr Ladwin now fired again, and the tiger dropped dead. The wounded man was conveyed to the estate, where the hospital assistant in charge attended to him, and it is satisfactory to report that the man is progressing towards recovery, in spite of his wounds and his terrible experience. RATS INVADE A I'ARIS SAT.!'*.!'.. Saint Oven. a suburb of Paris, has been invaded by an army of rats, which have been dislodged by the demolition of the General Omnibus Company's vast stables. The rodents have temporarily elected upon residence in the cemetery, and the keepers are afraid to venture along the walks. .TAI'ANESE BABY-EARMINC—A " IIfMAN DEVIL." Some remarkable disclosures were made in a case of baby-farming at Osaka, Japan, where (according to the Japan Chronicle) the wife of a jinrikisha man is accused of having murdered a number of babies, 200 of whom are said to have passed through her hands during the last few years. The case was first brought to light through the discovery of a dead child floating on the top of an abandoned well. Upon further search, four bodies of children were found in the water. Suspicion fell upon the woman and belli usband, who were arrested. She confessed that she had received the children, and had thrown them into the well after suffocating them. From the medical examination made it appeared that at least one of the infants were thrown alive into the water. Large crowds at Osaka assembled lo witness the trial of the woman, and she was received with loud shouts of "Human devil!" ■ : Kill the deviiish woman!" and similar \ execrations. j AN AMAZINO W.'EL. j Duels, like everything else, have had a certain amount of humour mingled with them, and the colloquialism of a duel with cream-puffs at -10 paces becomes less of a myth and more of a reality when we learn from records that some ten years ago a duel took place in Paris between a French Count and an American college man, in which the weapons were base balls. The affair arose through a slight fronts in an art school, and the Frenchman sent a dial- j lenge Each was to have three shots, and the count won the toss, and thereby the privilege of leading off. Perhaps he had never seen a base-ball before, and at any rate the man from Yale had no difficulty in dodging the adamantine sphere which the son of Belle France sent in his direction. Then the American opened lire. The first ball grazed the Frenchman's shoulder; the second lodged in the pit of his stomach, and the third, an inshoot, caught him full on the point of the chin. He went down and out, and never challenged another citizen. DESTRUCTIVE HAILSTORM IN FRANCE. A tremendous hailstorm broke over Verviero and the surrounding country on 13th August. Some of the hailstones weighed four pounds. Enormous damage was done. All the telegraph and telephone wires are down, and numerous plantations have been destroyed or damaged. Several persons have been injured. KILLED I!V A ,\IA1) (.'ENDARME. A Hungarian gendarme named Stefankovac (telegraphs lieuter's Budapest correspondent), stationed at Ludaspuszta, near Szabadka, suddenly went mad, and, armed with a rille, roamed for some time over the country roads, shooting four persons dead, and severely injuring fourteen others. A force of gendarmes, which set out in pursuit of the madman, were fired upon by him, and were finally obliged to fire a volley and shoot him down. " MEDIUM AS DETECTIVE." The bicycle of the lost Abbe Delarue, of

Chatenay, who disappeared some time ago, has been discovered in a thicket a mile and a-half from Etampes, by Professor Devah, a Hindoo medium, who went to Paris with letters of recommendation from London. He carefully examined tho photograph of the missing priest, aud then began to walk in a direction which had not been explored by tho police. Near Etampes he announced that he had a vision of a thicket, and plunged into the woods to find it. The bicyclo was found leaning against a tree, and the woods in this direction are now being searched for the priest's body. A WEDDINU DAY ELOPEMENT. At a wedding party in a country district near Paris, the bridegroom discovered that the bride had eloped with his father. A few hours later he received a letter from her, in which she explained that her love for his father made it impossible for her to be happy with his son, and that she had therefore run away with her lover !