GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2266, 21 April 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Swansea Guardians have decided to prohibit the holding of dances in the workhouse in consequence of disclosures regarding the number of outsiders attending. On the last occasion, it is said, 350 outsiders responded to 200 invitations sent out on gilt-edged invitation cards. According to the master, (he dances were held to cheer up the inmates.

A legacy of £IO,OOO has been left to Mrs Morris, wife of a Swansea advertising agent. She is the eldest of seven daughters, who all benefit equally under the will of their father, the late Mr Henry Parcel, of New York. He left Swansea to seek his fortune in the United States 30 years ago. Mrs Morris, who was unaware of his wealth, did not see him during the last 20 years of his life.

After witnessing a him showing lassoing by cowboys, a Kettering schoolboy named Percy Willis, aged 9, playing with other boys in the street, lassoed a passing motor lorry. Putting his foot in a loop of the rope, he .rode with the lorry, but it suddenly backed, and before he could disentangle himself he was run over, and died as he was being carried to a doctor’s.

Ellen Adams, a widow of 81, was charged at West London Police Court recently with shop-lifting at Kensington, Air Conway, for the prosecution, said a customer in the silk department saw Airs Adams take a roll from the table, pul it under her coat, and walk out. The customer informed an assistant, and Mrs Adams was given into custody. When charged, she said: il lt is quitc right. 1 have nothing to say." All's Adams was sent for trial.

A heavily draped "hearse, containing whisky worth over £I,OOO, instead of a coffin, was stopped as it: was leaving Staten Island, New York, and the three “mourners’’ arrested. The suspicions of a sergeant and patrolman were aroused by the absence of a mourning procession, the heavy draperies of the hearse, and the fact that the attendants seemed more cheerful than the occasion warranted. Inside the hearse they found 00 eases of Kentucky whisky.

Burglars who broke into a detached house ut Kiimaird Park. Bromley, fried bacon on the gas stove, lit the bathroom geyser, and indulged in a hot hath. 'jTie woman who occupied the house is in a nursing home, and the husband was staying with friends. On entering Ids house 21 hours later, the husband found that the gas had been left burning in the stove. Valuable silver and six suit.- of clothes were taken.

To a man charged at Thames Police Court recently with using had language in the street, Air Booth, the magistrate, said: —We arc trying to educate this neighbourhood up to use better language. 1 am constantly recommending men to read the British classics. Have you ever read them? The Prisoner: No. Will you take a course of them? — Yes, sir. That is a promise"?—Yes. I think that is as heavy a punishment as I can inflict in the circumstances. Yon can go.

A performance of “Hamlet" at Dresden . recently was interrupted by u tragedy, real hut not less poignant than the simulated one. The actor playing the Ghost of Hamlet’s father duly appeared on the stage, hut failed to respond to the cue.

After a pause, which lasted a minute, and held the audience breathless, the player broke into a torrent of words having no connection with (he role. Then he collapsed on the stage. Removed to hospital, he died during the night.

A huge telephone cable drum, weighing two tons, broke from its moorings in Lionel Street, Birmingham, recently. Rolling down the slope with gathering momentum, it crossed the busy thoroughfare of Snow-hill, and, narrowly missing the rear of a passing tramcar, embedded itself in a tailor’s shop-front on the opposite side of the street. No one was hurt. The drum, which was one of many being used to lay a new • cable between Birmingham

and Wolverhampton, bad been kept in positiop on a sharp- descent by baulks of timber. It is supposed that boys playing in the street thoughtlessly set it free. German picture postcard productions before the war were 32,000,000 monthly; to-day they arc 7,000,000 monthly. Official figures show that of 277,GBO acres of devastated land in Belgium 128,41)2 have already been reclaimed. An airship is being built with sleeping and dining accommodation for 50 people, the cooking to ho done by electricity.