GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2118, 22 April 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

“I was the inventor of the phase, ‘AVh.it did you do in the great war, daddie?’ declared Captain C. E. Briggs, formerly military representative at the Battersea Tribunal, at a meeting of the Middle Classes Union at East Sheen. The police of Montpellier are investigating the mystery surrounding the death of a young, pretty and elegantly dressed woman, whose body was discovered in a sack on the beach, the legs having been sawn off. The woman had been gagged with a pair, of silk stockings. Burglars recently broke into the Mausolenm of Chariot tenburg Castle, Berlin, forced open the lid of Queen Lo.uise’s cotlin, and removed the Jewels, They failed to open

other coffins, but removed the gold, silver, and gilded crowns from the lids of the coffins of the Emperor William 1., the Empress Augusta, Prince Albrecht, and the Princess of Liegnitz. Three months ago Robert John, an ex-serviee man, cycling near Trowbridge, was robbed with violence, and reaching the police station was found ttfbe dumb. Recently he was cycling near the same spot when he accidentally knocked down a woman coming out of a side lane. Jumping oit 'to her assistance he inquired if she was hurt —his speech being fully restored. An ex-soldier, Richard Henry Platt, was committed for trial at Blackburn for breaking into an establishment of jewellers. Platt is the father of two children recently burnt: to death in bis parents’ furnished room, and Platt also lost all Ids belongings. The police collected £l3 10s for him.

Among a list of “obsolete” vessels advertised by the Ministry for disposal is the battleship Canopus. This is the ship that was sent to reinforce Admiral Craddock’s ill-fat-ed squadron in the Pacific. She was on her way there when von Spec’s .ships sunk the Good Hope and Monmouth. She tired the first shell in the immortal battle in which Admiral Sturdee , annihilated von Spec’s ships. Vindictive wills like that of Mr Randolph Wcmyss, forbidding bis son to admit his mother to Wcmyss Castle, are, unfortunately, not uncommon, and it is generally a wife on whom the testator seeks to vent his posthumous spite. A wealthy American, Air William (’bighorn, who died some years ago, left his pretty wife £60,000, with a stipulation that she.should forfeit £2OO every time she appeared in public unveiled, and another £2OO every time she smiled at a man. Probably the meanest will on'reeord, however, was that of the man who.loft bis wife the sum of one farthing, with instructions Dial it should be forwarded to her by post in an unstamped envelope. The mystery of a British schooner, the Marion Douglas, which was recently found boating off the Scilly Islands with no one on board, has been solved. It seems that the ship bad been so buffeted by storms that (be crew were utterly exhausted, and were taken off by a steamer bound for America, which intended landing them at Queenstown. Heavy weather prevented this, and., the crew, after having' crossed the Atlantic, have now been landed safely at Halifax, Nova Scotia. What is the magic that clings round the name of Alexander? That there is some subtle properly in the name that boys possessing it stand greater chances of fame than mere Williams and Jacks is made clear by Part 2 of Harmsworlb's “Universal Encyclopaedia,” says an English reviewer. Alexander the Great we all know of, and adequate space is devoted to his life. Nor does a biography and picture of Sir George Alexander surprise ns. But when the sections are read which are devoted (o the eight Popes, 5 Macedonian. Kings, 3 Tsars, 3 Kings of Scotland, a King of Servia, King of Greece, a Roman Emperor, the Prince Regent of Jugo-Slavia, a Russian saint, and an Irish divine, then we begin to realise that there is, after all, something in a name. Alexander is clearly a good tip for young parents in search of ip really useful name.