General War News

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 March 1918, Page 1

General War News

MOTHER OF 23 AS FARMER.

| A. small farmer, named Mrs Mcj Carthy, fro 111 Athlone (Ireland), givI ing evidence at the Land Court, stated that she was the mother of 23 children (12 living) and had 22 grandchildren. She still superintends farming operations on her land, and transacts cattle sales at local fairs. JACK'S ROMANCE. Sailors of the United States flotillas stationed on the Irish coast have been wooing the Irish maids, and during 41ie last months marriages have averaged about one a day, says an English paper. One which took place on Christmas Eve was of a romantic character, a sailor named Groff being wedded to Nora, second daughter of Lady Carroll, whose late husband was a leading figure in the civic life o£ Queenstown. The bride made the acquaintance of Groff shortly after his arrival in Ireland. Many wedding presents were given by the sailors of the Fleet. £100,000 FOR A PEERAGE. Explaining that tho matter required more consideration than the Government at present could give it, Mr Bonar Law told Colonel Rawson that he could add nothing to a previous reply regarding the sale of honours and the system of secret party funds. Major Hunt: Will people be able to go 011 buying honours as usual? (Laughter.) Mr Pringle: Is it true that a prominent shipowner with a German name got a peerage for £100,000. Mr Bonar Law; There is absolutely no truth in any such statement. CONVICTS FARM 65,000 ACRES. The biggest farmer in the world is the State of Texas. It farms approximately 05,000 acres, the operations being conducted by the State Penitentiary convicts. The crop principally raised is cotton, the net profits from which for 1917 arc estimated to be about £400,000. The total yield is expected to reach al>out 16,000 bales. The sugar cane crop is estimated to bring in a net revenue of £8000; pigreaving profits amount to £10,000; while corn and various other kinds of produce are expected to add about £80,000 to the total income for 1917. The total expenses for running the several plantations in this gigantic State farm aggregate approximately £20,000. FIRST WOMAN SHIP-WORKER KILLED. At Greenock, Isabella Crowthers, aged 10, was killed by falling into the hold of a vessel under construction at the establishment of Messrs Hamilton and Co., at Port Glasgow . This is the first death of a woman-worker in a shipyard. iSTo less than 4G6,376cwt of herrings, were landed in England and Wales during October, compared with 91,585cwt in October, 1916. Their value was £458,647, approximately 2d a lb. An annual income of £2400 for the wives of Presidents of the United States is provided in a fund from the estate of Mr Henry G. Freeman, an American millionaire, who recently died in Philadelphia. "The reason I make this fund," he explained in his will, "is because I feel that the President of the United States receives such a miserable pittance for the man holding the greatest position 011 earth." FRIGHTFUL SPEED OF 15 MILES AIT HOUR. Alexander Wells, an old citizen of Wellsvilln, Ohio, has a copy of an interesting and novel document Issued by the school board of tho town of Lancaster Ohio, in IS2B. The question of steam railroads was then in its incipient stage, and a club of young men had been formed for the purpose of discussing their value and feasibility. They desired the use of the schoolhouses for purposes of debate. This was looked upon.by mem- 1 bers of the school board as an innovation bordering on sacrilege, as indicated by their reply to the request, which is the document in the possession of Mr Wells. It reads as follows:—"You are welcome to the use of ithe sehoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs arc impossibilities and rank infidelity. There is no word of God about them. If God had designed that His intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful rate of fifteen miles an hour, by steam, He would clearly have foretold it through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell." —"New York Railways Magazine. SMOKING AMONG WOMEN. Deuttng with the question of smoking among women from the purely medical point of view, a doctor assured me (says tho "Liverpool Post" London correspondent) that he attributed many of the nervous complaints for which ho has recently been treating a number of patients in a well-known war work district largely to tho cigarctte habit. He cited me the case of a young girl of nineteen, now in a munition factory and previously a shop assistant,' who confessed that she probably smoked thirty cigarettes a day. Other cases of the same sort, though not quite so bad, have convinced my friend that there exists a very real need to make more widely known among women and girls tho harm which may result to them from excessive cigarette smoking, Jjut it seems' as difficult for a girl who has acquired the habit to break herself off it as a man.

Meanwhile, anyone who is unconvinced of the extraordinary increase _of smoking among women should visit some of the munition areas around London before and after working hours. They will see girls smoking not only in railway carriages, but also on the trams and in the streets.