NEWS BY MAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1920, Page 3

NEWS BY MAIL

PADS AND PADDLERS. . COWES, August 4. The great letter-writing season is in full swing, and it seems to be part and parcel of life at the seaside just now, like bathing, pierrots and the like. Why do people burst into an orgy of letter-writing by the sea P Is thei e something in tlie air which stirs a latent literary sense, or is it the jolly array of writing pads which in artistic variety fill the seaside stationer’s shop windows? The beauty of the latest writing pads certainly invites correspondence. As I write thousands of others are busy writing too. There is' the inevitable flapper lying full length on the beach pencil between lips and pretty thoughtful pucker on her brow. On the cover of her writing pad is another flapper of like beauty. The youthful scribe makes a pretty picture. Is this one of the secrets of the seaside letter. What happy thoughts are being translated on those pale blue sheets. Who is the lucky person who will receive the missive which caused so much pretty concentration ? Near-by a fat jolly man is also busy with pencil and pad. You can see that his is the merry witty type of letter for he is chuckling to himself as he writes.

MRS CHARLIE CHAPLIN, ' NEW YORK. Aug. 4. Mrs Mildred Harris Chaplin, wife of Mr Charlie Chaplin, the “film” star, yesterday filed a divorce petition at Los Angeles, California, against her husband, whom she charges with cruelty. Questioned, on the subject, Mr Chaplin remarked laconically: “Such is life in the Great West.” Filmland has known for several months of the domestic difficulties in the Chaplin menage. Three months ago Mrs Chaplin announced that the' comedian had deserted her, and that she would bring an action if he failed to return a specified time.

“MAIDEN MODESTY.” LONeDON, August 4. The moral decline which followed in the wake of the war was still present, said the Rev. Henry Day in an address at the National Catholic Congress at Liverpool yesterday. The kliaki craze had passed, but maidenly modesty and reserve in speech, dress, and conduct still left much to he desired. Unnatural separation of the sexes during the war and the contact of soL diers with Continental and Oriental depravity produced bitter fruits of coarseness and vice which were still present. Cardinal Gasqnet, who presided at a meeting of the Apostleship of Prayer and English Martyrs, said he lunched ( recently with the Premier, Mr Balfour, and Mr Bonar Law. Mr Lloyd George Was clamorous that Catholic records of Wales should be published. The mier said that the Welsh people were still Catholic at heart and had never as- , similated the Reformation, i MAN WITH 40 WIGS, NEW YORK, August 4. the inquiry in New York into the murder of Mr Ehvell, writer on bridge and man about town it came out that lie was bald and wore a wig. In liis house were no fewer than 40 wigs. So perfectly made were they and so well fitting that many of his most intimate friends never suspected that he had pot his own hair. I “Have you ever known a man have I 40 wigs?” I .asked my hairdresser, He bought for. a moment. “No,” lie to/ plied. “But one of my customers has ' quite a dozen, “The modern wig is quite different from the crude affair of a few years ago. Properly made it defies detect lion. The man who is careful of his personal appearance must have several wigs, showing the growth of the hqir. at different stages. “After he lias been wearing the longhaired one for a day or two ho remarks casually to his friends and daily associates: “I must get my hair cut.” Next day he appears in a, short-haired jvvig which gives every appearance of having been newly cut.”

MILLIONAIRE "RED.” NEW YORK, August 4. After a trial lasting nearly 3 months William Bross Lloyd, of Chicago, known ns “The Millionaire Red”, and 19 other members of the Communist Labour Party, were yesterday convicted of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government.' Lloyd was sentenced to-- 5 years imprisonment and fined £6OO. ; The "arrest of the Communists was the result of efforts throughout the nation to suppress Communism last January, when the Communist Labour Party withdrew from the Socialists. Lloyd, who is a millionaire and lives in Minetka, - a' suburb of Chicago, was arrested after delivering a speech advocating the use of dynamite to force the doors of banks in order to get funds to finance a social revolution.