GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2180, 23 September 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A native of Martinique was lynched at Marseilles in mistake for a Senegalese who had been seen in his company. A policeman was taking the latter’s name for carrying iiroarms without a license. Tim latter drew Ids revolver and shot the policeman dead. Cqn fusion resulted, in the midst of which the Senegalese escaped while the Martinique hum, who was mistaken for him, was lynched by the mob. What was in many respects- possibly a unique operation was performed on the American liner, St. Paul, which recently arrived at Southampton from New York. When the vessel was travelling at 1(> knots an hour, the third engineer, Mr Hugh Ferguson, became ill, and the ship’* doctor, diagnosing the case as one of appendicitis, decided on an immediate operation. A temporary operating theatre was rigged up in the ship’s hospital, .and the operation was successfully performed.

A newly-married couple who could not pet apartments at the seaside have just finished a happy fortnight's holiday on the Basingstoke Canal in Hampshire. They travelled and lived in a large punt drawn by a donkey. .Starting with a stock of.' provisions, a paraffin stove, and a gramophone, they spent, the days gliding beside willow and rhododen-dron-covered banks. At night a xvaterproof awning was erected over the punt. The gramophone concerts which they had nearly every evening proved great attractions to the inhabitants of the villages near which they moored. A "young Hoiks!one woman has planned to “cycle” across the English Channel. Miss Leila Hills, who has announced her intention ot making the attempt, says she will do it on an ordinary push-bicycle, supported hy two floats. Her machine will lie propelled hy revolving the rear wheel, which, has paddles allaciied. The star! may be made from oil her side of Ibe Channel, but this depends on the tide and wind. A motorboat will accompany her, so that she can,he supplied with nourishment. Miss Hills, who is an expert swimmer, thinks she can accomplish the task in ten hours.

Aii extraordiiiary scene was witnessed at a Vienna music hall, where an international wrestling compel it ion was in progress. The Italian -world's champion, Biancld, I>cgan a match with a Viennese wrestler shortly before. the legal closing time for theatres, ami as the two wrestlers were well matched, (he contest was still undecided when lime was called. The police insisted on closing the theatre, whereupon the audience started breaking up the furniture and tittings and throwing them against the mm curtain. The interior of the theatre, was completely wrecked, and (lie police had to clear the building by force.

An octogenarian abandoned almost at the last moment his intended marriage with a Bridgwater woman of 50. Arrangements had been made! lor the couple to be maiiied at Bridgwater Baptist Chapel, and the bride had provided for the breakfast, to which she had invited nearly 100 friends. During the morning the bridegroom came to the town, without the bride, and for reasons unexplained cancelled all the arrangements for the wedding. Before returning home he visited various tradesmen, and paid all the expenses that had been incurred for the marriage, hi.> outlay being over £SO. Several hundred people hud assembled outside the elm pel at the time fixed for the wedding.

“I have a beautiful eat, anti a woman who lives in the same house had a canary,” remarked a woman applicant to a London magistrate. “My eat ate her bird, and she wants me to kill the eat and pay her i2 l()s compensation for her canary. Must 1 pay. ill” “What’s the £2 10s lor —the funeral?” inquired the magistrate. “Xo, there was no need for a funeral; the eat saw to that all right,” was the reply. The magistrate said lie'did not think tlm cat could be held altogether responsible, because it was only following its natural instincts. He certainly did not advise the death penalty, and with regard to compensation a claim would hav£ to be made in the County Court.

An 18-year-old boy a I a large Paris restaurant, whose principal occupation is the opening and closing of the doors of motor cars, was recently run over and had his leg broken. He was detained for three months in hospital. Recently he claimed 50,000 francs (nominally £2,000) damages from the owner of the ear. It was proved that the claimant was making oxer francs (£10) daily in tips, and had paid into a bank more than 20,000 francs (£800) during the last three months. Counsel for the defendant remarked that the annual salary of

(he Premier was recently increased to 80,000 francs (£3,200), and even that was less than the income gained by this boy in opening and shutting the doors of motor cars.