BABIES BURNT IN TENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1926, Page 3

BABIES BURNT IN TENT.

Because he had children. Richard Hughes, n Pontypool miner, could not get rooms, so lie had to live in a bell Lent with his wife and their three children. While he had gone to meet his wife, who was shopping, sparks from a fire outside set the tent on fire, and two of the children, both babies, were burned to death. At the inquest the coroner commended Llewellyn Reed, a collier living in a neighbouring hut. who pulled the children from the blazing tent and saved the life of a third child. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death. Hughes was wounded and gassed 111 France. His wife was formerly a private governess, and passed through Swansea Training College. SILK FROM SPIDERS. The weaving of gowns from gossamer, which is now so much in evidence, was suggested in the eighteenth century. Le Bon of Languedoc prepared a “ silk ” from, spiders, which was afterwards woven into gloves and stockings. Bonis NIV. of France possessed a coat made of cobweb, and in 1877 the Empress of Brazil presented Queen Victoria with a dress composed entirely of cobweb. which for fineness of texture and beauty of fabric, surpassed the most valuable silk.

Nevertheless, cobweb “ silk ” is not likely to become a commercial proposition. for the voracious spider eats every day 27 times its own weight of insect food, which is, of course, expensive, and produces in return only half a grain of “ silk.”