GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2035, 30 September 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

In llie public library at Exeter is a copy orMlHon’s poems bound in the skin of a wife murderer. The criminal whose skin adorns the book Was George Cudmore, who was convicted with a woman associate of poisoning his wife in 1829. He was executed in 1830. The skin is 01. a dull ivory colour, and quite soft and nice to the touch. Immediately after preaching' a thanksgiving sermon at- Blackpool Parish Church before the mayor and corporation, the vicar, the -Rev. A. W. R. Little, left for Blackburn by train to preach at Holy. Trinity Church in the evening. At the conclusion of this service he Hew back to Blackpool in an Avro aeroplane, doing the *3O miles in about 20 minutes. He reached Blackpool in time to give an address at the great peace thanksgiving service on the Blackpool promenade. Little sense of fitness restrains the Germans in their haste to make all the Tnoney they can out of the Allied troops. They are now selling a large certificate, inscribed in English, “A souvenir of-my service with the Army of Occupation.” It is illustrated with the Moselle pouring out wine, which runs all around the edges of the certificate in the form of the river, with.the names of (he various villages clearly marked. There is a place for writing the soldier’s name, and the hope apparently is that it will be framed. Now Unit pearls are so rapidly increasing in value, it is sad to think some are perishing in the Louvre. Mme. Thiers bequeathed to that institution a marvellous pearl necklace, which within a few years fell victim to the mysterious disease defined by experts as a form'of starvation. Pearls live by contact with humanity, and for this reason Jewellers maintain that they should be worn on the bare skin. If the Louvre necklace could be worn for a time the pearls would recover their lustre. But, according to the will of Mme. Thiers, it must not be removed from its case, so the pearls are gradually becoming more unsightly and shrivelled, and mast ultimately be lost to the World.

“My food costs 8d per. day; prewar, 4d,” says Mr D’Avey Denny, of Prince’s Street, West minster. “I have no set meals; indeed, such a thing as a tablecloth is not seen in my house,” he said. “1 eat when I want to, my food consisting of raw greens, such as lettuce, watercress, etc*., brown bread, margarine, and dried fruits. I drink nothing but cold water. 1 have done this now for 10 years, ami only .wish'd- had started younger.” Mr Denny looks exceedingly well and strong.

v An extraordinary s-tory was (old by a well-spoken, middle-aged woman, who complained to the magistrate at Marylebone of unusual noises in her chimney at night. She expressed the conviction that the house was haunted. “At night,” she said, “we arc awakened by extraordinarvynoises in the chimney, and on getting up we find our sheets and dollies burned and torn and covered with a pink powder, while the rooms are filled with a vapour which has a most awful smell and makes you giddy.” She also had seen, a monkey’s tail disappearing up the chimney.

A farewell dinner in honour of Field-Marshal von Himlenburg. on his retirement took place at Main Headquarters at Kolbcrg. When darkness fell there was a tattoo, and the band played “Ein f'asteburg ist miser Gotly” “Ich bin pin Preusse,” “Deutchland ueber. alles,” and the “Wacht am Rhein.” When the tattoo ended cheers were-raised for Himlenburg. “The farewell assumed'the character of u truly patriotic festival,” remarks the “Deutsche Zeitung,” “and as the patriotic songs rang out Germany’s lost greatness and splendour again rose before the eyes of those present.” In Central South Africa, says a traveller,- the plume-hunters have made a clean sweep. ,Tn some districts you may travel scores of miles and hardly see a bird. When I came back from one of my travels, I went to the ducks and spied-a small oblong wooden box, on which was written: “One crate humming.” In that box there were fifteen hundred skins of humming birds. . . This year, as ever, is going to be a feather year. But there won’t bo many more of them. In a few years, the bird population of the tropics will be shot out as cleanly as though they were a single English plantation of pheasants.