MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 August 1923, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

“QUKMX OF KNIVES.” I’A IMS, May 2b. A woman variously known in criminal circles in Baris as "Ihc I igress of |,a C hapolle" and •The Queen ot Knives,” and whose real name is Lacoste. has been arrested for the second time for the attempted murder of allot her woman. In 1910 she stabbed a rival to death. After the crime she disappeared and was condemned to death in her absence. Nevertheless, she returned to Paris, and for some time lias been conducting a disorderly house. Recently the police heard of her return and two detectives went to ihchotiso to arrest her. Two great dogs sprang at them and wore despatched with difficulty. When the detectives attempted to handcuff Lacoste and another woman who was with her, the -Tigress” screamed “Burglars!” and a number of men working near by came to her assistance. The detectives, after a rough and tumble, explained the situation and took their captives away. At the assizes Laeoste’s counsel, on a legal point, secured her acquittal, and she returned to her old haunts. Last week, it is alleged, she attacked the woman who had been arrested with her and nearly killed her with a knife. The victim, it is declared, was so terrified of the “Queen of Knives” that

she n fused In divulge her a-saiiani’s id-ill ity. Tile laller visited her in hospital and. il is alleged,, stole her lur.s and jew cilery in,m her bedside. Then she worn to iheir join I abode and carried o!f i lie furniture. Vesterdav she was acrosied at her mot herbs house. NEW All? TRAVEL SAFETY' DEVICE. LONDON. April 11. Attention is home; directed to i the carrying of parachutes in aero]i!: lies. It .lias been staled that if the occupant.-: of the air express which crashed in France recently had hul P ■ i aeliutcs. the lives of some of them would have been saved, writes an air ci rrespomlent. Ty-vs i.f paiaclmtc.s are being tested by the Air Ministry, and every new war ’plane now being produced lias provide]! for parachutes. .Parachutes tested have shown themselves mure than 90 per cent, efficient, b: t the te-ts are directed to finding a i “100 ivr tent, efficient'’ pvaehute. [ A new safety idea is being in vest i- j gi-tcd ui regard to I’ig < mn.ioroiul : >. ] U.-lei"i of issuing a j::i I r.eliut :• lo each i imlividual ; i veller li -ngy-led Inat , in tie event of a mi-liap the | a--enaer ; saloon should he capable "1 immediate I detaoliiiieul Is" ui 111 - -tria-iitre el ill,’; aeroplane and tell m t’ ; e support oi ■' | sp-I‘l -icily <|i>igl!ed ] rra-’ oleo! excep- j li inlly large size. Mr E. I?. Caltlirop. the inventor, hi ; ! produced and suhniitied-to the iuithmi-j ties a, device by whan, within le- - th -u four seconds from the moment when tic j pilot pulls a lever, the cabin containing i its passengers i- freed front the in-.- : chine and is parachute-borne in safety ! to the earth. DOCTOR OF 98. LONDON. June 11. j Still vigorous and in good health. Dr. I tieorge Cooke Utfield, of lime, Sn-- j sex. who is in his 99th. year, is pro- I bably the oldest doctor in England. j J)r. Attfiekl, who was horn at Bath j on January 27. 1825. qualified at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1850. At that time antiseptics, he told a reporter on Saturday, were unknown, and the only anaesthetic in general use I was chloroform. Appendicitis and many j other modern complaints had not then ! neon discovered, and the age of anti- j toxins was not horn. “When I was a t Bnrt.’s.” Jie said, j ‘■there wore only 300 beds, and opera- j tinns wore performed, on Saturdays j only. Quo day a week wo«s set apart for admissions and only the worst eases | were, selected. Now there are more j tiian 600 beds and operaiions are car- I ried out at all times.” i In leaving Bart's he became medical officer of .Mill hank l’ri-ou and four years later was appointed senior medical officer of the pi ison settlements of Western Australia, where ho remained for 2-3 years until 1879, when the convict- settlements were abolished. Dr Attlield rowed how in the Bart.’s eight, which heat Guy's in 18-18 and placed cricelu for Somerset end later for Surrey.