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Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10502, 25 November 1901, Page 2

On our first page will be found interesting reading matter under tne following headings: — "Cricket," "GoldDredging Returns," "Condensed Cables and Telegrams," and "Sporting."

The Auckland Scenery Conservation Society is urging the City Council to plant more trees in the public streets.

Measles'- are very rife in Dunedin just now. Owing to their prevalence the Kaikorai school has been compelled to temporarily close down, over 200 of the pupils being away from this cause. Constable Campbell has been appointed Inspector of Fisheries for the Wanganui district, and it will be his duty to inspect all fishing grounds, creeks, etc.; also nets and gear, to see that the law is properly complied with.

James . Meridy, at' Barbourville (U.S.A.), last month married his fourteenth wife, an hour after being divorced from his thirteenth. He is forty years old, four of his wives are dead, nine have been divorced, and the fourteenth was widow.

A resident of Westport declares that there are a thousand seals at Cape Foulwind, that each seal consumes 2s worth of fish per day, that they are destroying tho fisheries in that locality, that they* are not a profitable kind of seal, and they should therefore be destroyed.

Amongst the passengers by the Waihora to Dunedin from Melbourne is Commander Scott, E.N., who is en route to Lyttelton to join tfhe Antarctic exploring . expedition. Captain Scott appears to be in good form for the arduous work before him.

A London cablegram in an Australian paper, dated November 7, states that Frank Slavin, tho Australian pugilist, who is now at Klondyke, is reported to have fought Peter Kcnney, and to have won on a foul after three rounds, which were all to the advantage of the Australian.

•'General" Booth, of the Salvation Army, has decided to open a home for inebriate men, licensed under the Inebriate Acts. He has purchased a large mansion at Thundersley, Essex, for the reception and treatment of patients under duly qualified medical superintendence, and this will be opened during the latter part of next month. - ■ At eleven o'clock lost evening on alarm of fixe was raised, the location being- London Street (fronting the railway line), and the building a fiveroomed cottage, built about eight months ago, owned by Mr W. H. Brabant and~occupied by Mr W. Hogg (labourer) with his three children. The Fire Brigade made every effort to save the building, but without avail, for it and the contents were speedily consumed. "

Tho Cheviot correspondent of Christchurch Truth says: — -"I was shown a resident's larder — a large room formerly filled with preserves, groceries, bottles, candles., soap, tinware, and a hundred other similar articles. The room was loft three feet deep in a sort of a stew compounded of these ingredients, which were smashed to. pulp, and as carefully mixed as if stirred by a big spoon. The whole presented' a most extraordinary effect."

To engrave the whole twenty-six letters of the alphabet on the head of an ofdinarv pin is a very large — or, rather, small — order. ,. Yet the feat has been accomplished once, at least. 'It is the work of a. young Birmingham engraver, who, bsin'g shown a three-penny-bit on which the Lord's Prayer had been engraved, wondered if it were not possible to outrival the feat. By the aid of a strong microscope and minute engraving tools he cut clearly" and lightly the alphabet on the head of an ordinary pin. Tho letters are so minute that they appear mere formless specs to the naked eye. During an interval in the United match on Saturday, Mr Goffe, President of the United Club, took occasion to present Mr George Simpson with a silver-mounted pipe, silver .match box, and silver-mounted tobacco pouch, as a small indication of the Club's appreciation of his efforts as hon. secretary to the Club for the past four years. Mr Goffe mentioned that Mr Simpson had been indcfatiguable in his efforts- for tho Club's welfare and its present position was due almost entirely to his energy. Mr Simpson replied and thanked tho Club for the presentation. Three cheers were then heartily given for Mr Simpson. Major Thomson, 1.M.5., tells an extraordinary story in the last number of the Indian Medical Gazette. A Chinese boy was brought into the Pekin Hospital terribly injured by a heavy 'log falling ujjou him. The doctors, to save his life, cut off his leg. The mother came, and Major Thomson thought she would help to nurse the lad. The patient, however, almost immediately afterwards died, and expert 'examination showed his own mother had given him arsenic. Her reason, it is supposed, was to prevent her son. from the disgraco of reaching the next world in a maimed condition. This is a very etrong point with the Chinese, who always pickle an amputated member to have it buried with thorn when they eventually die. In this instance, the family being poor and a whole leg difficult to pickle, the simpler course was taken of poisoning the boy, so that he and his leg might go together.

Tho Rev. W. J. Elliott, who has just returned from a brief visit to the Clutha district, writes describing the progress made there owing to prohibition. "Six months ago," he says, "I left Balclutha, and though the population of the town is just about 1017 tlrtj improvements in building, etc., have been at the rate of .£IOOO a month, or .£6OOO for the six months, There is considerable enterprise among some of the business men^ and everywhere I saw signs of progress. Mr Watt has rebuilt his water-gas works, the former ones having been destroyed by fire, and the gas mains are being considerably extended. Sly-grog selling is nothing like so rampant, and it i 8 being rapidly reduced to a diminishing quantity by the vigilance of the local police. I am quite convinced that a great libel was recently perpetrated when it was declared that .drunkenness was on the increase among the young men of Clutha. Though I spent nearly fivo days in Balclutha last week, I never saw a single person the worse for liquor, but I regretted 'to see some truces of it on a special trip I made with 150 others up the Clutha river." The Prilidelphia Press says:— "One of the most marvellous exhibitions' of human endurance ever witnessed in America took place on 6th September, when George Kistler, the swimming instructor of the University of Pennsylvania, swam from Walnut Street Wharf, Philadelphia, to Chester and return, during which he covered a distance of thirty-two and a-half nautical miles without leaving the water. He plunged from the port side of the tug-boat Mascott, which lay off tho Pennsylvania Eailroad freight wharves, at twelve minutes past nine o'clock. It was exactly twenty minutes past 8 o'clock in the evening when, in the darkness, and swimming in the course of excursion steamers and* outgoing vessels, he finished at South Street Wharf. Kistler astonished a party of gentlemen who accompanied him on his long swim by pulling himself out of the water and crawling i> to a yawl boat. Ho refused aid. Kistler's swim is all the more marvellous when it is known that he covered the distance in the face of most disheartening obstacles. Kistlor'a course was a mass of floating bits of timber and at places the odour from' refuse matter that floated on the surface was enough to sicken one. But Kistler swam through it all, and the hearty cheer that greeted him when he finished was well deserved.

The Normanby Athletic Club, which waß recently mulcted in heavy damages owing to an accident at the sports, whereby a lad was killed, acknowledges the receipt of £B 5s from the Caledonian Society of Southland; .£3 3s from the League of New Zealand Wheelmen, Christchurch; and £5 6s from the Wairarapa Caledonian Society.

The Stratford correspondent of the .New Plymouth News says the men who "went out on strike at Toko have somo excuse for their action, as, since the new system of two shifts a 'day started their hours of work have been somewhat inconvenient. He understands that some of the men- have agreed to resume work at the original rate.

A long run of a motor was recently accomplished in remarkably short time by Mr John Stirling, Hamilton, N.B. He left John o* Groats on the Tuesday and arrived, at Land's End on the Saturday night, the long journey of 900 miles being covered xn 59J hours, an average speed of fifteen miles per hour, or close upon 200 miles each of the five days. In the course of the journey, which was made without a hitch, the motor,- a phaeton, consumed twentyeight gallons of petrol.

We regret to record the death of Mrs Mary Jane Beck, wife of our respected fellow townsman, Mr James Beck, senior. The deceased, who had been a resident of the district for the past 29 years, had been ailing for some time past, and succumbed yesterday to that dread disease cancer, at the age of 52 -years. A sorrowing husband and a family of six (two sons and four daughters) are left to mourn the loss. The funeral takes place on Wednesday at 3 p.m. from her late residence, Glasgow Street.

A laughable incident occurred at the Palmerston Show Grounds in connection with an animated picture taken of an arranged fight between two ■ men. Sergt.-Major Bamßay and Constable Crozicr were unaware of the arrangement made and, at a critical moment, rushed .in and separated the contestants in a most effectual manner, the Sergt.Major at the same time declining in a most energetic fashion to listen to any explanation on the part of the management of the apparatus. Needless to say the operator of the machine had kept quietly at work during the scene, and the picture is likely to prove one of the most amusing of the many taken, a total of 1200f6 of film being used altogether. -

The very latest millionaire in America is Mr James Eads How, of whom some particulars are sent by the Mail's New York correspondent. "Recently, it seems, he inherited a princely fortune, but . refused to use it on the ground that lie had not earned it. Mr How, we are told, is highly educated, and spends most of his time travelling about the country, mixing with tramps and other outcasts and endeavouring to find the solution of various social evils. He recently founded a fund of £10,000 for distribution among the poor of St. Louis. During his trampß he offers to do any kind of. work, accepts whatever remuneration is tendered to him, and dresses shabbily, but always wears a clean white shirt. Mr How made his appearance in the town of Chillicotte, Missouri, 'one day recently, and found employment chopping wood for his board 'and lodging. A laigo crowd watched the young millionaire working for his living.