WORLD'S HAPPENINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15360, 8 October 1923, Page 9

WORLD'S HAPPENINGS.

17 YEARS IN POST. A picture-postcard posted at Bournemouth on November 25, 1906, to Master M. Maxwell (son of a former Mayor of Carlisle) Preparatory School, Silloth, Cumberland, was delivered recently at his home at Carlisle. He Is now a married man.

WAITERB' REVOLUTION. A revolution will take place In Germany on October 1, when in every hotel and restaurant every waiter will appear in a smart uniform Instead of the traditional dress >suit. Fritz's new dress will crnslst of a black tunic with high collar and black trousers, and will cost only one-quarter of the price of a dress suit. DOLE-DRAWING MOTORIBTB. At a meeting of the Holbeaoh (LanI cashire) Board of Guardians the chair--1 man said that he had seen men going to draw the unemployment dole on motor cycles. It was decided to bring the matter to the notice of the M.P. for the divlBlon. A CURE AT LOURDEB. I When the 1100 Lancashire pilgrims L, who had spent a week at Lourdes * reached Liverpool one of the first to step out of the train was Mr Jack Traynor, who had been paralysed and unable to walk since he was wounded at Gallipoli. When he left for Lourdes he was taken to the station in. a wheeled ehair. "I felt the effects of the cure at the seventh immersion," he said, "and at the ninth I had no doubt that I was ( cured."

•RAVEYARD "HOME." I ' A man, his wife and five children, the eldest a girl about 14, who were unable to get other lodging, took up residence h: a graveyard shed at Dartford. The man, employed by the Dartford Urban Council, is an exSefvioe man.

The guardians' ambulance was sent to remove them. It arrived late in the evening, and three of the children were found asleep in a wheelbarrow. In spile of their condition the family were unwilling to be turned out, and persuasion had to be used to get them to go to the guardians' institution.

If OLDEST MAN IN THE WORLD. , I ■-■■. The Chinese Government has recently granted an old-age pension to a deserving Manchurian, ■who has reached the age of 163 years. The Chinaman has perhaps created a record among living examples of longevity. There is a North American Indian, known among his tribe as "Wrinkle Face," though among the whites he chooses to pass as John Smith, who is declared to be 134 years old. Other survivors from old times are John Kraslnski, the Pole who claims to be the last soldier of Napoleon's armies, and who has reached the age of 132; and an aged Turk, Djouro Chemdlne, who reckons himself 150 years old.

DEAD AIRMAN'S RING. * A young woman has been ordered by the Bordeaux courts to hand over to the mother of her dead fiance the engagement ring, worth £512, which he gave her.

The engagement took place in 1916. Soon afterwards the man, a military airman, was ordered to Salonika, and asked that the wedding should take place before he left. The young woman, however, was not willing. In 1917 the pilot was reported missing, and-later he was presumed dead. In April 1920 the girl married. The dead pilot's mother asked her to return the ring, but she refused, agreeing, however, to return its cash value. The court decided that as the wedding with the young pilot had been postponed at her own request she was not antitled to keep the ring. ,

I "IMPRISONED" BOY STORY. A mother complained to the WHlesden magistrate that her boy had been "imprisoned in a cell in a large feouse at Neasden." She said that, having heard that her I>oy had been caught trying to steal apples, she went to the house and while waiting she heard cries. After a search she found her sou and another boy bolted in a small"ccll," a large retriever dog being fastened up near. She released them, and the other boy said that he had been there ior over six hours.

The mistress of the house said that she had authority from the police to "imprison" any boys caught in her garden.

The magistrate ordered the police to make inquiries.

ALTERING FACES. The film artists of the United States are flocking to "facial sculptors" for the purpose of having their countenances changed to suit their parts. The other day at Ghicago, in the presence or a number of newspaper writers, Mr Ben Bard, a well-known screen actor, had his nose "taken up" by a surgeon.

The operation lasted 45 minutes ( after which Mr Bard returned to the studio with the straight nose required by his new part. The doctor has arranged to perform a similar operation on Miss Fanny Brycc, one of America's most popular actresses, who says she has exploited her present nose and mouth for all they are worth and wants new ones for the comedy parts that she intends rlaying.

Is 3d SLANDER SUIT. What is said to be the smallest slander suit in the hißtory of American jurisprudence has been filed at Des Moines, lowa, where Mr Edwin Meredith, who was Secretary of Agriculture under President Wilson, seeks Is 3d damages from Mr Brookhart, a Radical senator from lowa. Mr Meredith has announced: Few people give credence to Senator Brookhart's statements. I estimate his effectiveness at about 30 cents, so I have instructed my attorneys to sue for libel and damages in this amount, my real compensation being to get Mr Brookhart oh record under oalh." The statement on which the action Is based is alleged to have been made by Mr Brookhart in a speech in which he charged that while Mr Meredith was Secretary of Agriculture "he sat in Wall street's game and helped to produce the greatest panic in farm prices in the history oi agriculture," '

£12,500 BACCARAT WIN. M. de Bittencourt, attache to the Chflian Legation in London, starting with a bank of 20,000 francs (£250), won 1,000,000 francs (£12,500) in the course of one game of baooarat at Deauville.

AFRAID TO FACE MIRROR. The familiar list of signs of drunkenness was enlarged at Brighton when Mrs Martha Meechen, 50, was charged with being drunk and incapable.

A constable recounted to the court all the usual details of such a condition and then as final proof declared that when the gaoler offered the woman a mirror to look at her face she refused to do so. She was fined 10s.

9 P.M. DANCE CURFEW. The Province of Vorarlberg (Austria) has devised very stnot regulations for dancing schools.

Persons under 17 must be accompanied by adults, and may in no circumstances dance after 9 p-m. Alcoholic beverages are not to be served In any school at any time. A keen watch is to be kept on all "modern" dances, and prosecution will follow if the movements or behaviour of any dancers offend the censors.

LARKS WHO LISTEN IN. Two larks belonging to Mr J. Cranshaw, water inspector, of St Martin's Road, Dartford, Kent, are enthusiastic listeners-in.

Their cage is near the loud speaker, and seconds before the human ear picks up the first note they rush to a position under the receiver.

The birds show immense pleasure at the music, it is said, always looking happy and attentive and generally either joining in the song with their whistling, fluttering their wings, or hopping about or doing all together.

FLYING HOME TO DIE. A Belgian woman, suffering from an incurable disease, flew from London to Brussels. She had expressed a wish to die at her old home.

The woman was a patient in a London hospital and was driven in an ambulance to Croydon Air station, where she was transferred to an air liner in which a bed had taken the place of the usual seating accommodation for eleven people.

The 450-horse-power engine had been specially silenced and the patient was carried the 200 miles between London and Brussels in 1 hour 40 minutes in absolute comfort.

ROADSIDE CANTEENS. A new feature of the trunk roads running out of London is the appearance of small refreshment bars, run usually by ex-service men, catering for lorry drivers, I van-men, cyclists, and. other road users.

Some are small portable huts, replicas of the London cofTee stall, but others are strongly constructed premises with covered seating accommodation for their customers and a "pull-in" for vehicles.

There was quite an "ex-service" atmosphere about one a Daily Mail reporter called at—"the spirit that one likes to associate with the country inn but never finds."

ACTREBB FALLB IN STALLS. Mile Cecile Sorel, at 50, one of the most beautiful and versatile of French actresses, fell across, the footlights on the floor in front of the first row of stalls at the Comedle-Francaise (the first French State theatre).

She was playing the part of Katharine in "The Taming of the Shrew" and was wearing shoes with very high heels. Towards the end of the first act she was near the proscenium whfin she tripped over a carpet.. She picked herself up before anyone in the audience could assist her, and, smiling and unhurt, resumed her p lt rt amid loud applause.

DAY PACKED WITH ROMANCE.

Few men have packed so much Into 24 hours as has "Count" von Hoheenau.

At eight o'clock one evening ,he took a furnished flat. At nine o'clock he fell in love with a girl in the next flat. At ten o'clock they were engaged to be married. The next day there were festivities, including a wonderful dinner from a restaurant and of champagne. At six o'clock in the evening the police arrived. At seven o'clock "Count" von Hohenau confessed that he was really a locksmith named Ransch. At eight o'clock the engagement was broken off and the ex-flance left for prison. He had stolen a motor-car, sold It for 200,000,000 marks (about £150), 'and had determined to enjoy one day of his life as an aristocrat.

HON-STOP TRAIN. A never-stop railway, the trains of which require neither driver, conductor, nor signals, is being experimented with at the Kursaal, Southend, where 600 yards of track have been laid for testing purposes. The speed of the train is automatically increased and decreased. When it arrives at a station the train slows down to about one mile and a half an hour, so that passengers can step on to a "landing-stage" -which is level with the station platform. The * principle is similar to that of the escalator. But once past a station the train gathers speed up to 24 miles an hour. Its speed is controlled by a screw, which is driven by a special motor. No noise is made by the train, and the wheels have rubber tyres. The cost of a scat-mile works out at 1-10th of a penny. Each carriage is capable of holding 8 persons sitting and 8 standing.

LONDON NIGHT LIFE. "There is more temptation for the average middle-class man in London than "in any city of the world which I have visited with the exception of Paris." This is the opinion of Bishop James Cannon, of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) of the United States, on his twentieth visit to England.

"The night life of London," he said "does not for open vice compare with the conditions which prevailed during the war period, but it is much worse than before the war."

Another thing which impressed the bishop was the freedom with which women enter public-houses. Turning to his own country, the bishop said there is more open loose living there than before the war. This he attributes largely to the demoralising effect of the French environment on the 2,000,000 young Americans during the wary -•

TRAGEDY OF POLITENESS. At an Inquest at Westminster on Ernest Broughton Gilkes. 28, it was stated that after giving up his seat in an omnibus to a woman he overbalanced and fell from the conductor's platform into the road. A verdict of Accidental Death was returned.

GIRL TIED TO LAMP-POST. Marion Crowley, a domestic servant at Rathfarnham, three miles' from Dublin, was found tied to a lmap-post in the adjoining village of Templeague. She is still unconscious. A young man has been arrested. v

In the same district in May the girl was attacked by men in women's clothes and left unconscious.

NEW AIR HEIGHT RECORD. The world's height record was broken by Sadl Lecointe, the famous French airman, who flew to a height of about 35,116 feet. The previous record, held by Lieut. Macready, of the United States, stood at 34,183 feet.

The airman stated when he came down at Villacoublay that he could have flown still higher but his supply of oxygen began to give out.

VANISHING "GIN PALACES." "In my early days nearly every street corner in London was oocuped by a gin palace with a pawnbroker's shop a few doors away. Now banks and insurance offices are' taking their place," said Mr John Pearce, presiding at the annual meeting of J. P. Restaurant's Ltd., at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, London.

Mr Pearce has been in the catering business for 62 years.

WIRELESS "MAN-HUNT." Fifty "listeners-in" in the London area identified one or other of the three fictitious criminals who set out from London in motor cans and clues to whose movements were broad-oast. This result of the wireless man-hunt, to demonstrate the use of wireless in tracking criminals, was disclosed at a British BroadcastingGonipany luncheon. Two of the "criminals," it was added, were traced six minutes after the search began.

VALENTINO'S BUSY "REST."

Mr Rodolph Valentino, film Idol and prince of dancers, is finding his "rest" in London a terribly busy affair. All day yesterday (says the London Daily Mall of recent date) he wrestled with the clock against . a host of callers —men who wanted to photograph him and his wife, women and girls who pleaded for his autograph, people who sought to sell him an amazing variety ot things, from hair-oil to wireless sets and plus-fours. To-day he will make a determined attempt to escape the shackles of his popularity and try to see something of London.

This evening Mr and Mrs Valentino will be the guests of Sir Oswald Stoll at a reception at the Stoll Picture Theatre Club, Kingsway.

SPORT OF SHARKS.

"A school of sharks Is playing with a human body in the sea 'off North Bondi."

This startling message was telephoned to the Waverley police. Sergeant Loomes and Constable Broghan went to the spot indicated, but were informed that the body had been carried off the shore in a southeasterly direction and was no longer visible.

Michael Russell, tram driver, residing at Paddington, told the police that, whilst fishing, he saw a man's body floating off the rocks near the sewer outlet at North Bondi. A school of sharks surrounded it, apparently enjoying some ghoulish sport, for Russell says he saw the body thrown into the air clear of the water.

The police have no record of a missing man.

TWICE TRIED FOR MURDER. At the Old Bailey the trial of Henry Griffin, 24, indicted for the. murder of Ada Kerr, a young married woman, whose body was found in Whitton Woods, near Hounslaw, ended in the jury disagreeing. Griffin was indicted for the crime previously, but the jury then also failed to agree. Griffin, who told his story for the second lime denied that there was any love affair with the woman. He said that he lost consciousness when walking with the woman and he alleged that she cut her own throat and attempted to kill him.

The jury were away for two hours after the judge had summed up. Thsn tlie foreman said that there was no chance of agreement, and so they were discharged.

Griffin was remanded in custody till the next sessions, which opens on September 4, so that the authorities can consider what action they will take.