GENERAL NEWS

Levin Daily Chronicle, 5 October 1918, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS

IFOGS FOB THE ARMY. While' aro trembling about -tKc .provision of food for their pets, the Wat Office is making renew'.ed appfcals for gifts of large dogs for itrmy purposes. It wants especially .Janes,., mastiffs, St. . Bernards, New■"ifouncllaiids,; bull-mastiffs, retnevers, collies, sheepdogs, large curs, Dalmatians, lurchers; Airedales, crossbred shepherds. -No dogs smaller than Airedale terriers, arc required, and they must fcie between 18 months and five ycars#f age. "... • , STREET ORGAN DESERTS LONDON. It is' quite seldom that a street organ is-seen or heard.in London nowadays,, .and , the very few ajb'oufr are no ground and trundled by an Italian or his wife. The Italians have left their organs and gone to fight their country. I 's'' r battles; their women folk trundled .and ground the family organ in London streets un- ; til air , raids decided. them; to '• start on country rounds. In the provinces have had, and are likely this summer again to' have more "music" than they ever bargained for. GERMANS' FORPEPPER. Tlie Swiss sentries on the German frontier were recently -witnesses of a ! dramatic fight, of a German soldier from his natiye soil. ; The man kept German "sentries engaged in a long conversation, and when he considered the opportune moment had arrived he suddenly gave one of the. sentries a terriffic blow in the face, and" threw pepper in the faces of others. By the time the men had gathered their scattered senses together the deserter was already on Swiss soil, whence he .waved them a joyful adieu. ARCHBISHOP'S STORY. The Archbishop of York, giving his experiences in U.S.A. at the London Mansion House, said that when, the largest ship Vaterland was launched the German chairman of tho company said genially to a Unted States naval officer, "I can. put 10,000 men on board ' this ship and some day I shall bring then across to the United .States." "Then," said tho naval officer, "if you do I hope I may be there to meet them: " Within a sho/t time that very naval officer put 10,000 American troops into the Vaterland and sent them across to fight the Germans. 54,000 DEFECTIVE SHELLS. , At the Court of Criminal Appeal, Mr Purchase- appeared before M.r Justice Lawrence and Mr Justice Shearman in support of the appeal of Bernard A. Kupferberg, who ,after being acquitted of the'charge of conspiracy was ordered a new. trial and" sentenced to three years' penal servitude for aiding and abetting James Samuel Eeardon wrong-fully-to apply acceptance marks to war material.- Mr Purchase contended that, prejudice was imported against Kupferberg. ; The judge said something about enough defective shell to - lose a battle. Mr. Justice Lawrence: "Isn't 54,000 shells enough to lose a battle!" Tor the Crown it was contended , that there could bo no excuse for stamping the broad arrow on material known to be. ineffective. The appeal was dismissed. A FAMISHING BAN*? DIRECTOR. Quite a sensation was caused in the Berlin courts recently* by the appearance of a" bank director, Von P., summoned for having illicitly purchased two pounds of butter. The accused is n veritable giant, standing about eight feet, and weighing seventeen stone. He brought several medical witnesses to state that he could not possibly subsist on his rations, and that be had, per' force, to buy .surreptitiously. He had become so ill that the doctor, had pTO» cured him a special Invalid allowance of a little porridge and a quarter of a litre of milk for breakfast. ' But even this was hopelessly inadequato for a man of that build. The court expressed its sympathy with the giant, but said that the law must be obeyed, and fined the bank director £3. The latter loft the court, complaining that his only alternative to avoid death by starvation was to. face the risk of perpetual prose,cution. AUSTRALIAN BIRD LOVERS. The wild birds of Australia when mating have each their own peculiar methods of courtship. For tenderness, the dusky wood-swallow (bee-bird), which snuggles u,p close to the lady of his choice after bringing her grass and other succulent insects. On the other hand, sonic of the parrot tribe make l<#e much after the -stone-age fashion, when the caveman,.simply clubbed t his heart's desire insensible and fragged her home by, the,,hair. A male rosella parrot, for instance, having found . a suitable partner, iuvarmbly, begins by biting her,' presumably to , inspire her with reppcct. -After this, operation, ,tlio gaudily-dressed suitor spreads , his ; tail fanwisc, .flirts his w.ings, , and displays 1 his points, in order to attract the lady 's admiration. ! GENERAL , PERSHING OF FRENCH ■ DESCENT. Some interesting associations may easily be woven into a news item telling- about a celebration which recently took place at Laclede, Mo. The town, one of the oldest in the oM South-west of the United States, was named after Pierre Ligueste Lacledo, a native of Bion, France, founder of St. Louis, Mo. Years ago a man named Pershing, a descendant of an emigrant who .left Alsace when it was a French province, settled in Laclede. His.son, tho present General Joseph Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, was bom there. The celebrated tion referred to,was, of course, in honour of General Pershing,, and it.was one of the most enthusiastic ever held m what used to be" ah almost-exclusively French section of the country,