GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1750, 8 November 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

HOW TO DISPERSE A CROWD. Parisians are not yet used to the kilt. “I have just come back from 48 hours duty in Paris,” writes an officer in a Highland regiment. “My servant and I, both in the kilt, were buying some stuff outside a shop, as one does in Paris, when a crowd of about 20 people gathered round and simply stared —some amused, some open-mouthed, and some (doubtless) in admiration, I was amused at first, but it got a bit too much of a good thing, and my servant, who is a wag, said, ‘Shall I hand round the hat, sir?’ So for a rag, and not thinking he would, I said, ‘Yes, do,’ and —if he didn’t whip off his Balmoral and take it round perfectly seriously with a childlike expression on his face. - They cleared off all right, some grinning and others looking very sheepish. But we got nothing.” STRANGE RECOVERY. Six months ago Private Stephen Conroy, of the Leinster Regiment, was knocked down and stunned by the concussion of a shell which burst near him. He was unconscious for five days, and when he recovered consciousness he could neither speak nor hear. Conroy had prayed without ceasing for the return of his senses. The doctor saw him at eleven o’clock on a recent Saturday morning, and his condition then showed no improvement. Twenty-four hours later the doctor found him sitting up, talking, and able to hear as well as ever; and Conroy then told a story of a strange visitation. He said that at 2 o’clock that morning he ivas awakened and saw the dim figure of a woman standing by his bedside The woman turned to him and told him to continue to pray. He became so alarmed that ho shouted, and then found that he bad recovered not only his speech, but his hearing. TUESDAY IN PARIS. Monday and Tuesday in Paris are meatless days; Tuesday and Wednesday are tealcss days; all days except Saturday and Sunday are bathless days; on all days except Sunday, Thursday and Saturday, the trains in the metro —the Paris subway—stop at half-past nine. Of all the days of all the week, therefore, Tuesday is the worst. It is meatless, tealess, bathless, and metro-less. RECRUITING PARROT. An American soldier tells of a parrot which is daily capturing recruits in the States. The bird, which is owned by a petty officer, has been trained to shriek “slacker!” whenever its tail is pulled. The sailor generally takes a walk along Fifth Avenue, New York, with the parrot perched on his shoulder, and whenever he meets a likely-looking recruit he tugs at the bird’s tail. Before the young man has time to recover from his confusion he is surrounded by a bevy of recruiting girls, and then, of course, he is done for. HOW TOMMY SPENDS HIS LEAVE. Some of our soldiers on leave give a new meaning to the “bushman’s holiday” idea. They go back to their old jobs on the vans of laundries, grocers, butchers, carrierspjven singing songs of exultation high-placed upon chariots of coal. There was recently noticed a great improvement in a grocer’s turnout, and the former driver was found on leave and in charge. “Nab, then,” he said on the last day to his substitute, “You put a bit more elber-grease into his ’ide and a bit more shine on ’is ’arness, or you’ll get a .thick ear when I ’ave my next leave.” WOMEN GAS-MAKERS. The South Metropolitan Gas Co. now employs nearly 2,000 women, who are taking the place of men called to the colours. Women now do the entire work of the retort house, making 3,500,000 cubic feet of gas daily. The work, which entails carrying great weights, is done in an atmosphere of excessive heat. Bricklaying, filling sacks, carpentry, fitting and turning, meter-read-ing and repairing, and lacquering and adjusting fittings are now all women’s jobs. The only task that they have been unable to perform at present is the clinkering of the furnaces;