GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2157, 31 July 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

What is probably the queerest hotel and restaurant in the Avorld is that recently erected at Atlantic City, U.S.A. It takes the form of a monster elephant. Seen from a distance the resemblance of the structure to a live elephant is remarkable. It boasts of many beds, and a dining pavilion on the animal’s back capable of accommodating two hundred people. One reaches this novel restaurant by means of a staircase Avhich runs up through the animal’s legs and body. Here and there windows give the necessary light. Needless to say, the elephant hotel is causing quite an attraction and its oAvner bids fair to reap a good harvest as a result of his ingenuity.

A beautiful Hungarian girl snakecharmer avus crushed to death by an enormous python Avhile going through her performance in a Swiss music-hall. The girl shouted for help as she felt the folds of the snake tighten round her. Her cries Avere greeted Avith applause from the audience,' avlio believed them to be part of the slioav. In the end the girl fell unconscious on the stage, and remained motionless, still encircled by the snake. The manager, who realised that a tragedy had happened, hurried on to the stage, but avus forced to shoot the python to release the girl’s body from its deadly grip. All this was taken by the audience as part, of the show, and they applauded again as the bodies of the girl 'and snake Avere carried into the Avings.

“Robinson Crusoe seems to liuvc inspired a small boy of eight, Ids sister, and another girl of twelve, all boarded in a- good' class house, from which they attend school in Hitchin, to a great adventure. The trio disappeared, and two days latter a policeman, posted up in the details of an officially circulated description, hailed them on the highway at Potter’s Bar, bravely footslogging towards London. Potter’s Bar is twenty miles from Hitchin. The youngsters had spent one of the two nights since the start of their trek in a derelict caravan, and the other under the starry sky. They had all been reading and talking of “Robinson Crusoe,” arid their scheme to travel developed as they left Hitchin behind. The small boy is precocious, and reads the newspapers like a grown-up.- The child-, ren are none the worse for their adventure.