NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1922, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

PLUCKY NUNS, o NEW YORK, Dec. 12. Tlie connige of a number of nuns and of several policemen saved 200 blind men, women, and children from a terrible death when St Joseph’s Home for the Blirid; Jersey City, was burned out this morning. When the alarm was given the nuns and two priests began leading the inmates down the staircase and the fireescapes. In long lines, each blind inmate with his hatnd on the shoulder of tha one in front, and each line led by a plucky nun, they were brought down to safety. One nun insisted on working the lift and bringing down sightless children, until she was overcame by smoke. Mean while tbe flames were fought by three policemen, two of whom fell unconscious before the arrival of the firemen.

MARIONETTE WOMEN. NEW YORK, Dec. 12. The secret of the “stupid films” is revealed in a scathing denunciation of the methods of film producers delivered by Mrs Lydia Hoyt ,one of New York’s leading women of fashion and a renowned beauty, who some time ago adopted a film career to escape from what stie described as the intolerable boredom of the “social round.”

Mrs Hoyt has now abandoned kinema work and joined die legitimate stage. Describing her experiences in film acting. Mrs Hoyt said in an interview to-day: “T went into pictures full of hope and enthusiasm. I wanted to utart unheralded and unnoticed. Too soon I realized that I was the centre of a blaze of publicity. I was relegated to a fashion plate, made to wear smart clothes, look as nice as T could, aind enact the role of a snobbish and, in the mind of the director, a supposedly smart Society women whose “movie manners” were in point of fact those of •in -ostentatious, discourteous female. Sho was so great a lady that she never allowed herself to smile or be charming; she carried her chin in the air, her breeding in her jewels, and her brains Heaven only knows where. “My disappointment at lieing given this kind of role, however, was nothing compared to the fact that I soon realised that I was not even expected to understand the story or play. In fact, nobody who took part in th"c picture was expected to know what it was about. They were ‘directed’ : told to move here or there, do this or do that: to register one emotion or another. We were not expected to be actors or actresses. “I soon discovered that to obey the instructions implicitly, to be a perfect marionette, was the one road to success in the studios. Tt is not a question of initiative, characterisation, or even thinking for yourself. You perform, imitate, and give a perfect demonstration that beyond doubt the first moving picture director made Darwin s tbcom- the cornerstone of his success.”

WOMEN SMUGGLERS. PARIS Bee. 10. Revelations of the means by which cocaine is smuggled into France continue to be made by the Intransigeant, which has detailed one of its reporters, under the disguise of a purchaser of the forbidden drug, to investigate the traffic. A smuggler near the Porte Maillot to whom he applied sold him a package of newspapers which had just arrived from Germany through the post. The inside of the package, which had been hollowed, contained parcels of cocaine wrapped in silk paper. Cocaine is also being sent by post in tubes labelled vaseline. From Switzerland and Monaco, which are among the principal sources of the cocaine traffic, the drug is sent inside cushions of railway carriages and the pillows of the sleeping cars. Bogs sent by train are also used, being fitted with spcial. hollowed collars in which 8 ounces of cocaine is concealed. A regular traffic is said to be carried on by well-dressed women arriving by aeroplane from Belgium. The Customs investigation'at'the aerodromes is insufficient to" reveal the stocks concealed in the sleeves of their fur coats.

CASTLE MURBER. TRIAL

BERLIN, Doc. 10.

Frau Eckhardt, the grandmother of Dorothea RollrbCck, the lb-years-old heiress of Keppelsdorf Castle, Hirsoliberg, Silesia, was the chibf witness yesterday at tllfe trial of' Peter Gruppen, who is charged with the iliurder of Dorothea, his niece, and her cousin, Ursula Sdiadb, 10 years of age. Her evidence chiefly turned on the question whether Gruppen had left the upstairs room in the castle at the time of J ' murder and gone downstairs or not.

.Gruppen’s i2-yenrs-old stepdaughter Irma liad said in her evidence that he had left the room. Frau Eckhardt, on the other hand, maiiitained at the preliminary inquiry into the case that he had not. Yesterday this little woman of 75 sat close to tile judge’s table, and it seemed at first as if he would have to decide between the grandmother and the grandchild. Irma had said that she had gone out of the room to throw a had apple into the sink and that Gruppen had followed her. Frau Eckhardt said yesterday that she did not see the child leave the room but had seen her throw the apple into the stove. Then she added that at least she thought she had. “Perhaps you dozed off,” said the

judge. _ „ • “It is quite possible that I did, answered Frau Eckhardt. “I was sib ting there and crocheting, and one does go to sleep over the crochet once in a while when one is an old woman.

The judge questioned her about Gruppen’s movements and asked Whether it was possible that he had gone out of the room, “I did riot 80$

him go, but I know that I lost him for a little,” she said. ‘‘How long may he .have been out of the room ?” asked the judge. “ Afew minutes,” she replied. “All I know is that in the meantime Fraulein Mohr was playing with Irma.’ “Do you think,” said the judge, “that the time was enough for him to go down to the murder room and to come back?”

“After the experiments at the castle, which showed that the time wanted was 59 seconds, I have been feeling that rl was; he may have been a couple of minutes.”

MARRIED FROM PRISON

BERLIN, Dec. 19

A strong-minded young woman visited the Public Prosecutor a few days ago. “My young man,” she said, “is in prison waiting his trial lor burglary. But I want to get married, and therefore I beg you to let him out for 12 hours. I promise faithfully to bring him back in good time.” The Public Prosecutor hesitated, but the young woman was so firm that he finally arranged matters for her and the young man was released at 8 a.m. Punctually at 8 p.m. a cab drove up to the prison door. Out stepped the young woman in bridal dress and helped out her exceedingly intoxicated bridegroom.

“I am sorry,” she said, “to bring him back in such a condition, but the only way to get him here at all was to make him drunk.”

FIRES quickly extinguished if you have “UNDERWRITERS” Fire Extinguishers on premises. Country districts particularly need suoli. Always ready for use. Always deadly effective. Chemical smothers flames. Manning Machinery Co., 5 Bedford Row, Christ church.