GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1992, 19 June 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

William Kaiser, a St. Louis man, has obtained permission to change his name to William Travers, owing to the unpleasant witticisms of his friends.

Soldiers who took part in a great anti-prohibition demonstration at Boston carried banners inscribed: “We fought for democracy. We got prohibition and Spanish ’flu.”

“How did he die?” asked a Burges citizen of a German chaplain in held grey, who had been present at the execution of Captain Fryatt. The chaplain Avas at his food. He looked down at his soup and said; “Like an Englishman.” Herbert Smith, 22, deck hand on the Grimsby trawler Andes, said to the steward on getting out of his bunk, “I’ve just dreamt that I’m going to die.” While lighting his pipe, after dining with the skipper, he pitched forward on the floor, dead. The doctor at the inquest said Smith’s heart Avas thrice the normal size, weighing 21b, Many German newspapers are indignant at the numerous interview's given by the ex-Crown Prince in w’hich German generals and the German army are belittled and generally blamed. The Manchester Post states“ The spectacle that these ex-heroes give on neutral territory means shame for Germany before all the world.”

Complaining of the unnecessary telegrams sent over the military wires in France, Colonel Sir Frederick Hall asked in the House of Commons recently W'hothcr the M ar Office w r ere aware that on March 28th a telegram of 100 words from France to England dealt with a pri-vately-owned dog. Mr Churchill said he would have inquiries made. The future of the most secret museum in London has been exexcising the attention of the authorities." All manner of suppressed papers and documents and specimens of enemy propaganda literature have been carefully preserved by the Censor’s Department since the beginning of the. war. the ‘ Censors Museum,” as this remarkable collection is called, is now r housed at Strand House, and its secrets up to the present have been jealously guarded by its custodians. The ex-Kaiser’s horses were recently sold by auction by order of Hie Schiedemann Government. The Potsdam stables, once the pride of the Kaiser, housed 600 horses. Great crow'ds witnessed the sale. Among the public were two of the ex-Kaiser’s sons, Joachim and Oscur, in mufti. One of the ex-Kai-ser’s favourites, on whieh he had often inspected the Potsdam Guard, fetched £I,OOO. Most of the horses were sold to private commercial concerns, but five on which the exKaiser bad ridden during the war were bought by Prussian noblemen

as souvenirs. A baby without a birthday! Impossible as it sounds, it is a perplexing fact in the life of Peter Ilcybrook, now a month and a-lialf old. Peter Avas born in the China Mail liner Nanking on her December (rip. The ship Avas crossing the 180 Meridian. The day before bad been December 24tli. Peter in the natural course of events Avould have been a Christmas baby, but there was no December 25th on the Nanking. December 24 th Avas fofloAvcd immediately by December 20th. It js a Avcll-knoAvn fact that a day is lost in crossing the Pacific Ocean to the west. That day, apparently, was Peter's birthday. The record in fastidiousness must surely have been reached in the case of the GlasgoAV munition girl Avho, unfortunate enough to have lost a leg, asked that the artificial one might be finished in pink enamel, in order that she might continue to Avear opemvork stockings! An object of much interest in Picton last Aveek was a large sunfish, measuring 10ft. 9in. by 64 ft., Avhich was on viCAV on the Avatcrfront. The monster had been in the vicinity of the Grove for some weeks past, and it was caught by Mr H. M. France and his son, rifles and harpoons being used effectively after an exciting chase. The fish Aveighed approximately two tons.