NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1924, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

TELL-TALE EYES OF PICKPOCKETS.

BOTTOM LEY EPIGRAM

LONDON, Feb. 13,

‘‘Thirty Years at Bow-street Police Court” conatins an interesting budget of memories which Mr W. T. Ewens has preserved in his reporter’s notebook.

The infamous CL J. .Smith who drowned his unhappy wives—the “brides in the hath”—“possessed a peculiar fascination for women.” When he was on trial, females of all classes and ages.besieged the court doors, and pleaded hard for admission. . . Some of them completely lost their self-possession. One' of them—a trongly built woman about thirty years of age—turned back abruptly on reaching tiro inner door and, exclaiming, “I am afraid to look at him,” fainted away.

Even though, owing to the crowd, they cannot see his hands detectives know by a pickpocket’s eyes when he is really “at work.” Directly they see bis 'eyes assume a

certain cunning,' anxious expression they know lie is opening a lady’s handbag, tapping a pocket, or stealing a watch.

The curious lack of originality about criminals has 1 often been noticed.

A mail who starts as a pickpocket remains as a pickpocket until the end of the chapter. In the same way a man who starts his criminal career bv stealing lead from empty houses goes on stealing lead until lie is reformed or dies ; in prison.

Tn a case against a husband-heat-ing wife it was stated that the' woman lurched her husband every time he offended her, which was pretty often.

This mail, it is said, posed as a conscientious objector doting the war and his wife bought a now birch to emphasise her opinion on the subject.

An ex-constable and his wife had quarrelled and were settling their dilferences in court.

“Tie’s no class,” said the woman. “Why, he was in the Essex Constabulary for three months and never got a watch.”

vVn epigram is ascribed to Bottomley. He is reported to have been busy in prison making seeks. “Sewing, I see,” said a warder. “No! Reaping,” replied Bottomloy. Good feeling on'the part of a woman who has been wrongd towards a woman who has wronged her is, Mi Ewens assures us, in the light ol his long experience of police courts, “extremely rare.”

A man will often say of another man in the dock, “1 think lie is sorry for what lie has done. Give him another chance.” A woman, however, seldom pleads in that way for one of her own sex.

ENGLISH WORKMEN. LONDON, Eeh. II Mr W. R. Morris, the motor-ear manufacturer, speaking at Coventry on Saturday night, said' that lie -was a great believer in paying men a sufficient wage to enable l them to enjoy life reasonably and to have recreation after their day’s work, was finished. English workmen had more : “gin-, ger” in them than Americans if it was properly directed, and it was nonsense to sav that the American motor manufacturers had greater facilities for quantity production than English manufacturers - .

Although .he was a Conservative, li» was on’the side of Labour. Ho was paying his men at the rate of 2s 3d an hour, and producing n better and cheaper article than a French manufacturer who was paying (id an hour. His output of cars lor' the next year was going to he at the rate of 1 200 a week. This was unprecedented in English automobile manufaetui-

mg. He had done everything, from sweeping the shop to what lie was now, the governing director ol six irptur .manufacturing ciuncerns, and the reason he started the business he now controlled was that when he was earning 5s a week he asked for a rise of Is and could not get it. CONCRETE HOUSES. LONDON, Fob. II The concrete buildings at the British Empire Exhibition, \\embloy, show the Government a possible way of attaining its programme of 200,000 houses a year, which, is jeopardised by the shortage of bricklayers. The Wembley buildings, which are built to Just, have been erected quickly and cheaply than it they had been of brick.

The contractor at Wembley, Mr E. 0. Williams, an expert on new methods of building and a believer in concrete, said on Saturday: “There is no question that concrete, as it material lias no inherent defects that preclude its use in the construction of the homes. It can be made absolutely damp-proof and it also has the advantage of great durability and strength that increase with time.

Concrete is six or seven times as

strong as brick. There is need for a considerably smaller percentage of skilled labour for the concrete, house. Concrete could be used on a large scale and still leave the bricklayers as much work as they can do.

The pei-centage or unemployment among skilled workers being low and among unskilled high, the unskilled can only he employed by adopting methods which do not require the noimal percentage ot skilled labour. Here is concrete’s contribution to tho unemployment question. Concrete can do anything that bricks can do, and move.

Lady Terriiigton, JI.P., has ~c" come a director of a firm which intends to build concrete houses on the holloa- walls' system, providing five or sis rooms at an estimated building « cost of about .£<4oo. JAZZ BANT) IN FIGHT. VIENNA. Feb. 13. Jealousy between a trio of violinists and a jazz band which played alter--1 n atelv at a restaurant in the Graben, ■ in Vienna, culminated in a fight, which compelled tile proprietor to ' close the restaurant and grill room last evening and to discharge all the musicians. Guests in evening dress lied in a panic when the preliminary skirmish with fists developed into furious fighting, with a banjo, a saxophone, and a megaphone used as weapons against men who were armed only with violins. Ashtrays, glasses, and bottles were hurled to and fro across the restaurant.

PENNY-IN-SLOT TIRELESS. .WASHINGTON, Feb. 13. ' A penny-in-the-slot wireless receiving outfit has made' its appearance here. The receiver is equipped with special apparatus which gives patrons ad-vance-information as to the immediate availability of wireless entertainment, and posts a warning 20 seconds before another coin is due, so that they may enjoy an unin torrupled performance. ,