GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2103, 16 March 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Authorities in Sin" Sing prison have been searching Lor clever thieves who opened the salt* in the prison oLfiee and look £BO in saving's stamps —property of one of the prisoners. They think it was an ‘.‘outside jot).” A Paliialna correspondent writon as follows to the Palmerston Tina's: —"Sir.—l am sending’ yon a ('lilting from the Pahiatua Herald, where the .editor proves conclusively that I he drapers are not profiteering. For example, tin 1 editor slates that a draper's slock at the beginning of ihe year cost £5,000, sold tor £(.000, price of replenishing -shelves with exactly the same slock at Ihe end of the year £7,500. Aow 1 would like lo ask yon, Mr Editor (yon being a humane man), would you open a column in your paper for a subscription list to help these poor starving, strngg 1 ing, eonseientious drapers, who are only keeping a shop to help tlieir fellow-creatures to keep down (lie cost of living.” K. W. Bowers, founder of (he London Thirteen Club, has just died. A remarkable dinner was held by ihe club on January 'LI, 18!)4. ft was held in room .18, there were El tables and. El guests sat at each. Balt was spilt, ladders were walked under, and looking-glasses wen 1 smashed, but nothing untoward has over been recorded of any ol the participants, A brave action by a land girl was recognised by the award of the Distinguished Service. Bar. This young lady saved a number of.pigs from drowning by suspending herself from the bough of a tree overhanging a pond, and lifting the porkers out by their tails. The old superstition hath it that if a guinea-pig be lifted by its tail its eyes will drop out. Fortunately the rescued in (Ids case belonged to Ihe common or garden variety of hog. In an effort lo protect himself with his family for playing truant from school and (hen staying away from home at night, Charles William Win Held, dr., of Brooklyn, got a friend to write a threatening letter to his parents, and then had himself lied up and gagged and delivered to the door of his home. These facts were adduced after the police, at the instigation .of the boy’s rather, had made an investigation of the threatening letter. Berlin beggars are waxipg wealthy. Playing on the sympathies of the public, (hey make 300 to 100 marks a day by capitalising their war infirmities. Ho profit able Ims (his begging become that some of the professional beggars of other years have donned soldier uniforms, iittd by dint of practice have developed “shell shuck cases which arc diHieult for the average mortal lo detect. The cases exciting the most sympathy are generally those of men minus an arm or leg, who in addition tremble all over from "shell shock.” The shell shock eases, however, can be quickly cured, and the government has physicians at its disposal who by applying electrical treatment ean soon eradicate the shaking. Cases before the courts show, however, that in practically every case of beggary where the shell shock affliction played a part, the beggar merely refused to have treatment, realising that by taking in 300 or-400 marks a day begging he could live like a prince.