NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2052, 8 November 1919, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Borneo yields the most remarkable range of coloured diamonds found anywhere in the world. From thence come not only yellow stones, but rose red, bluish, smoky and pure black stones.Torchon laces, popular in America, were first made in Chcfoo, China, 25 years ago, when missionaries taught the Chinese lace-mak-ing. Chinese now compete with Belgians in making laces.

In a case at the London sessions a sergeant* giving evidence against a soldier, said that in the army a man was either drunk or. sober, and in a military sense the prisoner was not drunk. Counsel: “.What was the prisoner's condition in a civilian sense?” The witness; “I should say he was highly intoxicated.” Among the novel uses of raw products to which the war has given rise is the making of a useful paste from garlic, the preparation of certain fungi to serve as a substitute for cork, and the production from heather of briquettes of high heat value. Down in the Madras district in India there arc fillies that grow leaves of phenomenal size. Indeed, these leaves are several feet in diameter, and have turned-up edges to form a shallow bowl Avhich floats on the water. The buoyancy of these leaves is such that they will readily carry the weight of a small child. During the middle ages the Venetians controlled the sugar trade, bringing the product from Egypt, Syria and India. So important was the industry considered that when in 1420 a Venetian invented a new process of refining sugar he was presented by the government with a sum of money representing an enormous fortune in those days.

Tom Gurley, an ex-convict, who has charge of the Slate park at Jefferson City, U.S.A., is worrying the prison board. Under the merit rules his term of -imprisonment' expired two weeks ago, but he has no home to go to, and does not want to leave the park and his pets there. He has been allowed to stay at the park and draw his rations from the prison. hie says he never had such a good time in his life as. since he ciime to the penitentiary for a minor felony, and that it he is forced to leave, it is probable that he will commit a small theft for the purpose of being sent back. He is a great favourite with the children, who swarm in the park, and it is expected the governor will ho asked to adopt such steps as will permit him to remain.

The French arc showing symptoms of alarm at the great exodus of French women since the war. The Paris Journal says that 100,000 Frenchwomen have married Americans, and the Portuguese Legation slates that Portuguese soldiers have married 3,000 Frenchwomen. If the proportion is the same for the British, Belgians and Italians,-about one soldier in 30 has taken home a French bride.

'Pendrating ii sheet of cathedral glass nearly a quarter of an inch thick, a bullet missed by only a few inches three "iris working in a factory- at Croydon. Apparently it came from the direction of East Croydon railway station. Several mysterious shots did damage on (he same premises about five years ago. The police took the matter up then, but did not discover the culprit. This time the owners of the factory offer a reward. The oldest man in the world has celebi’ated his 13,15 t birthday. He is John Shell, who is at present staying in Kentucky. He is described as about sft. (Jin. high, and weighs Hist. His only impaired faculty is his hearing. He sees well, and his mind is alert. His skin is stretched over his face like that of a mummy. His hands are long and knotted. The veins stand out all over them. His daughter is 07. A large bonded warehouse, containing about a million gallons of whisky, and various other buildings, were totally destroyed by fire at Perth, Scotland, recently. The fire broke out in the bonded warehouse, and within a few minutes great flames were leaping skyward, and ail entire street was threatened by the flames. A stream of burning whisky ran down the street, and, entering the main sewer,'caused many explosions. More than twenty families are homeless.

A private message from Pekin to the president of the Chinese National Welfare Society of San Francisco states that several Chinese patriots tried to commit suicide in the presence of the President of the Chinese Republic as a protest againsl the transfer of the control of the' Shantung Peninsula to Japan under the terras of, the Peace Treaty. The men were members of a delegation consisting of merchants, teachers, and students. Three succeeded in wounding themselves before the palace guards could stop them.

To fulfil the terms of a will made 14 years ago, Dr. 0. R. Austin and his 15-year-old son, Harold, turned out on an American running field in full track uniform and competed in a 100-yards dash. The father won. When Harold Austin was a year old his father boasted to mother that he would be able to run faster than the boy on the latter’s fifteenth birthday. Mrs Austin doubted the statement, and the bet was made. Dr. Austin, who recently returned from overseas with the rank of major, proved army life had kept him in fine trim. For Bronchial Coughs, take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.