NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1929, Page 7

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

MUSEUM LOVE STORY. The recent baptism of a six-weeks-old child at the City Temple, London, recalled a romance of the British Museum. The child is the daughter of Or J. Wesley Bready, the Canadian author and lecturer, and Mrs Bready, who 'met in unusual circumstances about 12 moo His ago. Or Brcauy was correcting the MS of his book, “Lord Shaftesbury and Social industrial I’rogress,” in the British Museum Library, when a young woman accidentally dropped a heavy book on his toes. Friendship and marriage followed this informal introduction. JILTED MAN’S VIEWS. The romantic story of a brokenhearted man’s vow never to have, anything to do with the other sox was revealed by the death of Mr Edwin Robert Jones, of North Kensington, London. Mr Jones an elderly but bene \olont recluse, had for many years kept a chemist’s shop, over which he lived. Twenty years ago according to local belief, in consequence of a disappointment in love he made a vow that he would never have anything more to do with tTie other sex. The vow was kept. He was one of the host known figures in the neighbourhood, and his ucts of generosity towards children and the poor generally endeared him to all. He had no housekeeper hut did everything in the house himself. BREAK-NECK BY-LAW. A young woman rider of Reading who chose to break the law rathei than risk breaking her neck had to pay 5s for her safley-lirst policy des pite the openly expressed sympathy ol the Bench. The victim was Miss Joan Allcroft, of Sowerby Court, Mouksford who was summoned for riding her horse on the footpath at Streatley. In a letter to the Bench, Miss Allcroft said that two horses had fallen under her recently on slippery macadam road and that it seemed impossible to compromise between breaking one’s neck and breaking the law. “I am afraid she is quite right,” said Mr C. E. Keyser, a magistrate.* ,iii imposing a 5s lino. “It is a question of breaking her neck or breaking the law but we must administer the law. A MUSEUM OF BANK NOTES. The Institute of Bankers, Bishopsgate London, possesse a unique collection of bank notes illustrating the history of paper currency in the British Empire. Amongst them is a Bank of Scotland note dated 1732, for £l2 Scots, equivalent to £1 sterling, which which is still open for payment in that hank’s hooks; an Irish note for 13 pence, issued in 1804; two notes of 5s and “s (id, issued by the Birmingham Workhouse; and others issued by a Wcdnesbury ironmaster which are icdeem able in pounds of rod iron. There is also an early coloured design for a Bank of England note, intended to make forgery less easy; and many “skit” and “(lash’” notes as they were formerly called, manufactured on tlm sly for the use of confidence men and racecourso tricksters. WHERE CAPTAIN KIDD PAID ITU 1 PENALTY. Execution Dock, Wapping, occupied a site adjacent t owhere is now tli Tunnel Pier. Here the notorious Cap tain Kidd was hanged in chains in 1701, and many losses sea-rovers sutler ed a like fate in times nearer our our Timbs, in his “Curiosities of London’ first published in 1855, states that he remembers to have seen the gihhlets on which the bodies were left to decay and Thornbury, the author ol ‘Old and New London,” quotes a friend of his as having actually seen a pirate hanging in chains there, and a enr on his shoulders picking his flesh through the iron netting that enclo: ed "the body. In Stow’s time the place of execution was at low-water mark, and the. bodies remained until the tides had overflowed them. HOUSE BENEFITED BY GALLOWS. The King of Denmark tavern, in tie* Old Bailey, almost directly oppos'd •• the present Central .Criminal Court, was formerly known as the Magp.** and Stump, the windows of which used to he let out to view public executions outside Newgate. Here as recorded by Dickens in “Oliver Twist” people assembled to see Fagin hanged Here too, Lord Tomnoddy and his friends hired the whole first floor of inn on the eve of another execution, •uid then proceeded to get so gloriously drunk that sleep overtook them and they missed the “show” as narrated, by Barham in “The Ingolds by Legends. In those days taverns could keep opor. all night and the landlords of Magpie and Stump used to reap golden harvests on “Execution nights.”

KNfiLAND’H FIRST “(WITI'A!/ 1 LEVY. Scvon luimlml mxl tr.iriy-four years

ago England raised 150,000 silver marks for the liberation of King U-ich-ard C'oeur do Lion from captivity in Austria. The money was paid and with it a wall was built as a defence for Vidnna. That wall stood until 70 years ago; it was then torn down to make the Inner King which is a feature of Vienna’s charm and beauty. At the time the city council claimed the ground on which the wall had stood. The Imperial Government, However, rejected the claim. The dispute went on and still continues /The money was raised by a real “capital levy. 1 ' Everyone had to forfeit one-fourth of his possessions. The" monasteries had to contribute a year’s wool from the backs of the sheep they bred. l r rom many churches were taken silver vessels and ornaments to bo coined into marks. SPENDTHRIFT LOVE. •A young man, wishing to assure lib fiancee of his undying affection, sem a telegram from a London post office reading, “Omnivorous Happy Siam Venom Newer Arms.” lor which lie was charged one shilling. .It was noi until after he had gone that one of the operators realised the message actually road: “I am never so happy as 1 am when J. am in your arms,” for which tho ingenious young man should have been charged an extra eightpcnce. The telegram was sent to an address in Scotland. THE PRIMATE’S THRONE. The wonderful old Chair of St. Augustine in which the new Archbishop of Canterbury was enthroned, has had a long history. Tradition asserts that it was formerly the throne on which the old Kings of Kent were crowned hut it is generally agreed that it dates at any rate from the commencement of the thirteenth century. It is composed of three pieces of Purbeck marble in the design of a Roman state chair and stands in the Chapel of tile Corona in Canterbury Cathedral. Each Archbishop of Canterbury is enthronin this chair, thus signifying his assumption of the Primacy of England. PETS IN SHIP’S CREW. A real menagerie, including parrots and monkeys, was aboard the Friend Ship when she recently sailed up the Thames to her moorings off Charing Cross Pier. They were, moreover recognised members of the crew, the reason offered being that as this is perhaps the only organisation in the world of which animals can become members, they slmld also take part in tho staffing of the vessel. < So, when the three-masted-clipper used as a club house by members of the “Friend Ship” organisation, arrived in London Fred, the fox terrier, Old Man Monk, the monkey; Claude the cat; Bill, the Parrot, and the tortoise, were all aboard, ready to receive animal members who accompany their young masters or mistresses. But a regulation has just been issued that all animal members who come aboard must be on a, lead. A BEETLE AND A WORM YARN The following little gem is taken from a journal of wide circulation uno concerns a beetle and a worm. Student; of naturo are familiar with instance:of an animal making an effort to protect another when in danger; here b •an example. The worm, about fiv< inches long, was proceeding across a path; the beetle jet black and resembling a eatterpillar, was seen run liing around it and jumping upon ii in a state of great anxiety. As tin observer came near the beetle with drew to shelter and the worm proceeded on the path, which was plainly th path of danger. But the self-sacrific ing beetle could not bear to see a fellow creature running, such risks. J rushed again to the worm, seized it by the head, turned it round and con ducted it tenderly to a hole in t,lnground Into which, gratefully, wo hop< it at once retreated. That worm oi the open path might at any momenl have been picked up by a keen-eyed blackbird. It probably owed its lil to the disinterested efforts of a friend 200 LOVE LETTERS. More than 200 love letters written by a .school mistress to a D.S.O. lieu tenant-colonel wrero referred to in tho King’s Bench Division, when Mr J. P. Eddy asked for an injunction to restrain Constance Wilson a school mistress, of St. John’s Road lun bridge Wells, for annoying Lieutennir Colonel James Willes-Jennings, D.tt. ()., of the Junior United Service Club Charles Street, W., by communicating or attempting to communicate with him by fetter or otherwise. There was no defence. Mr Eddy said that Colonel Willes-Jennings was a retired officer of tiro Royal Army Medical Corps, and since 1923 to the present time Wilson had continuously and persistently annoyed him by writing and sending letters addressed to him at the eluh where lie lived, expressing her affection for him, and requesting him to meet her. She had also sent telegrams to the colonel at the club, telephoned to him there, and called there to see him. Air Justice Talbot granted the injunction.