Minor Matters.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XII, 16 September 1899, Page 482

Minor Matters.

A pneumatic safety gaol is the name of a recent navel application of compressed air which, almost needless to say, is reported from America. The walls of the vaults or cells are steel tubes spaced about 4jin. apart, and the floor and ceiling are of double steel plates with an air space between. These tubes and air spaces are all in communication, and are kept filled with compressed air. In case the bars are cut in an attempt to escape, the reduction in the air pressure at once sounds an automatic alarm at any desired point. The door is also built up with air tubes, and the lock is also protected by a hollow hinged bar swinging across its face. This must be removed before the lock can be reached. The tubes contain in their interior octagonal bars about Jin. diameter of hardened tool steel. These are pivoted at the ends and readily turn, so that even if the air pressure were removed it is claimed that the cell would be as difficult to escape from as any other. •fr ♦ ♦ An exchange tells of a man in Australia who was killed by ants. Such an occurrence is said not to be so very uncommon in that country. It is described as more dreadful than the horrors devised by the most ingenious of the Grand Inquisitors. The man was a prospector, and while digging in the side of a hill was injured jiy a fall of earth. As he lay partly covered and unable to move he was attacked by, a nest of ants, and for more than an hour millions of the voracious insects simply fed upon him. He died shortly after being rescued. + + * There is a ease on record of a Ballarat woodcarter who was found under his overturned dray, suffering fearful torments. He had been attacked by ants, and would certainly have succumbed had it not been for his dog. The animal, a cattle-dog, only discovered what was wrong after several hours, and then, by persistently scratching at the stream of ants on the ground and licking them from his master’s face and arms, kept him comparatively free until help arrived. ♦ ♦ ♦ Miss Mary Kingsley, the intrepid explorer, has recently related a personal experience in "The Woman at Home,” which shows the disadvantage at which a “feminine bachelor” finds herself in a cannibal country. Not, we hasten to add, because a spinster is less toothsome than a matron, but because cannibals do not understand the bachelor woman. Miss Kingsley had to answer many embarrassing questions in West African wilds as to why she had not a husband and family, and found it awkward to explain her position. On one occasion she was being rowed to Andaude by a native who called himself Samuel. His wife sat in the stern of the boat. Presently Samuel began a conversation in his best English. “Where be your husband, ma?” asked he, after looking at Miss Kingsley curiously for a time. “I no got one,” she answered. “No got!” said Sam, paralysed with astonishment. After an interval he recovered himself and returned to the charge. “No got a husband, ma?"

“No,” said Miss Kingsley, furiously. “Do you get much rubber round here?”

“Me no trade man,” replied Samuel, refusing to fall into her trap for changing ,conversation. .“Why you no got one, ma?”

“Because I haven't,” retorted Miss Kingsley.

But this intensely feminine reply failed to satisfy Samuel, and she had to run the gauntlet of further questions and comments until her adventures in wading swamps, shooting rapids and penetrating forests, in which she had hitherto felt pardonable pride, paled to insignificance besides the greatest of all adventures, to the cannibal mind, that of getting married. Then, to cap all. it was not long before it was generally believed in West Africa that she was a sort of Dido, Queen of Carthage, in search of a husband! * ♦ ♦

Here is a story of strange coincidences in which a New Zealand lady plays a part. It is the Rev. J. H. Crofts, of Waldron, Sussex, who tells the story. Many years ago his father gave him as an heirloom a ring containing the hair of the Duke of Wellington, and in 1879, when on a visit, his wife lost the ring. Nothing more was heard of it until about a year ago, when Mrs Crofts received a letter from her half sister, Mrs Hodge, in New Zealand, saying that a church in which she was interested there had received help from a very unexpected source.

A friend in England had sent her some gloves purchased at Bides, and on trying on a pair of these Mrs Hodge discovered inside one of the fingers a ring containing the hair of the Duke of Wellington. Unable to find the owner of the ring, which had evidently been drawn off by someone trying on the gloves at Bides, and knowing nothing of the loss of the ring by her half sister, Mrs Hodge sold it to a gentleman in aid of the church fund. By another coincidence the purchaser was a grandson of the lady who had originally given the ring to Mr Crofts’ father, and at last, after having travelled round the world and being lost to its owner for 18 years, the ring had found its way once more on to the finger of Mr Crofts’ wife. The absolute truth of this story is vouched for by Mr Crofts. * * * A ease which will be of interest to tradesmen was decided in the Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, last week. A tradesman had been entrusted with the repairs of some leather polestraps, and the customer, considering the charge exorbitant, refused to pay. The Magistrate said that the Court could not interfere in these cases unless the charges were manifestly outrageous. If the customer did not take the trouble to ascertain the price before giving the order, then it was his own fault if he considered himself overcharged. •fr + ♦ A glance at the specifications of patents accepted at the Patent Office, and as published in the “Gazette,” shows (says an exchange, the “Graphic” forgets which) how some people spend their spare time. A Wellington letter-carrier goes in for improvements in whipping-ropes. Two Auckland residents, a carpenter and a clerk, have devoted time and money in the direction of an improved hair curler, for which the ladies, no doubt, will profoundly thank them. An Auckland printer's weakness is a coupling chain, while a Christchurch journalist’s hobby is dehairing hides and skins for tanning purposes. What between spring clutch doorlock spindles, improved sleeve links. compressing gas and air, the distribution of electrical power, portable fire escapes, wet separations, and improved bullet-re*

listing garments, we should think that New Zealand will ere long boast of a few millionaires. ♦ * ♦

The eminent pianist Herr Friedenthal, who recently toured the colony, has been much upset by the inaccuracy of a Christchurch scribe, who gave the much travelled musician's age as 47. The announcement provoked the following somewhat quaint remonstrance fron • Herr Friedenthal:

“Sir, —I got an awful shock. The mutton-chop I was just bringing into details came near entering into a wrong pipe. Forty-seven! Seven is not a nice figure; but forty! On September 25, I<S9l, I crossed the 180th degree of longitude, coming from America and going to the land of Japt>es. It was my birthday. The next day the captain marked the same day on the blackboard. I almost went for that captain. Imagine the attempt of putting a whole year more on my back than I naturally could bear. It irritated me so much that when I was to visit the Australian colonies I at once decided to go home the other way, i.e., crossing again the 180th degree in order to get rid of that nasty feeling which came on to me in the veur l-til. And now, in Christchurch, in New Zealand, a man gives me graciously forty-seven years! Please. I cannot bear so much generosity. Be so kind as to take back ten years. Upon the honesty of my passport 1 may assure you that on September 25 I shall complete thirty-seven years, and that’s quite enough for me.’’

Here is another “ad.” for the ’Frisco mail. A striking instance of the irregularity of the mail communication with London was afforded last week (says the Otago “Daily Times”). Our London correspondent’s budget of news, dated 21st July, was posted on the afternoon of that date, and specially addressed via Italy. This duly reached us by way of Sydney, on Saturday. But we had received on Friday, by way of San Francisco, our correspondent’s budget dated July 29, which thus canv to bane a full day earlier than that by the Federal mail service, although the latter had a start of seven clear days.