GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2373, 29 December 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A novel Shakespeare day was celebrated at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, a few weeks ago. All people bearing the name o,f Shakespeare in the London district were invited to attend a matinee -performance of “Now and Then,” and, numbering about fit), saw Miles Malleson’s representation of the original Will. Tt is asserted that there are only about Hit) families in England bearing the 1011111'. They live in widely-separated districts, but there is not a single Shakespeare left in Stratford.

A wedding which had been arranged to take other day at Chalfont St. Petek, Bucks, was indefinitely postponed. The banns had been published, and all the necessary arrangements made. When the taxi-cab which was to convey the bridegroom to the church arrived at his house, the driver was astonished by the appearance of a head out of a bedroom window. It belonged to the expected bridegroom, who sifnply said: “I shan’t gel married to-day —I am 100 tired

I n peculiar circumstances a new K -Koyce motor car, valued a 1 ,C3,l)ir\ was destroyed by fire in Souohiehi 'I Street, (llasgow, recently. The car, which was delivered 1 nly six weeks previously, got jammed between two irnmenrs, causing the petrol lank to leak. A crowd gathered, and, while the chauffeur -warned spectators against fire from lighted cigarettes, Humes burst out. Within a few minutes the car was entirely destroyed. It is supposed lh.nl someone dropped a lighted cigarette end, or a match.

Whim a train arrived at one of the stations on the Uganda railway a lew days ago it was discovered that the slat! had disappeared from their posts, and that three lions had taken possession. One was in the refreshment room, another in the telegraph office, and the third paced the platform. Shrieks of the engine whistle caused the lions to decamp, and about half an hour afterwards Ihe staff, who had taken refuge in a building some distance from tin 1 station, reappeared and attended to the train, .

A hoard of over 200 pieces of Scottish silver money, believed to be of the period between 1320 and 1-137, has been found at Cow/iill Farm, Whitburn, West Lothian. Included in thr* find are a groat, a Imlf-groat, a penny, a halfpenny, and one gold coin—believed to be a noble of the reign of David II. —the size of a modern florin. Turned up In a plough in a field, formerly the site of an old farmhouse, the treasure was contained in a canvas bag placed in an earthenware jar, of which only a small piece remained.

After 43 years’ service, PolieeInspeetor Evan Davies, of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, has retired. ITi.s name recalls a curious old local practice, in which illicit drinking played a part, and which was suppressed mainly owing to the . inspector's endeavour. When lie went to Ammanford it was a custom, on the occasion of the marriage of the daughter of a colliery ollicial, for beer to be sold to workmen at the pit-bank for about (wo months before tin 1 event. After the wedding the proceeds of this traffic were given to the couple to help them establish their home. The practice was illegal, and Inspector Davies effected its abolition by ;i series of prosecutions.

Hundreds of unscrupulous people, mostly women, tried to profit by the lire at the great Priutemps store in Paris to obtain delivery of goods for nothing. “I bought a fur cloak on Monday at your new shop, and it was to have been delivered within two days, I have not go it, and suppose it was on account of the fire. Please give it to me now,” is a sample of the claims made by hundreds. However, those women were ignorant of llie fact that all accounts arc taken to the old buildings, which were not destroyed, at the end of each day, so that it was easy for the cashiers to look up the hooks and point out to the supposed indignant client that her memory was certainly at fault, as the register of fur sales did not bear her name.