GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2396, 23 February 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

London’s gold merchants, the assayers of Hatton Garden, E. 0., recently made their fourth “springclean” of the year. Four times a year the bullion rooms are searched for particles of gold that have escaped in the process of refining. The gold dust collected on these occasions is very often worth a considerable sum. Flues, walls, ceilings, and floors are cleaned, every nook and cranny searched, and even the cobwebs (if there happen to be any) are examined for the precious dust. “The ‘.spring-clean’ also consists of burning the mats on which the workmen have wiped their feet on leaving the premises,” a representative of one firm said. “After the mats are burned particles of gold are found in the ashes. The uniforms of the workmen are also burned when they begin to wear out, and gold is found in these ashes. Some of the gold dust gets out by way of the flues, and floats all over .Hatton Garden.”

A romantic task is occupying the French Academy. They have to award a prize for virtue from funds bequeathed to them by a rich spinster, Mile. Huot. According to her will, this money prize has to be given every year to a beautiful young girl who, disdaining the attractions of luxury dishonourably gained, has preferred to live in modest retirement by her own work. Mile. Huot has stipulated that the recipient of the prize must be pretty and be in reduced circumstances, after having been previously accustomed to the comforts of wealth. She must have shown that she preferred poverty and honour to a life of idle wellbeing which any woman can command at (lie sacrifice of her good faith.

A 10-inch lead pipe bomb containing two sticks of dynamite with a 10-inch fuse attached and lighted, was found-just 'outside the door of Nicola Cerulli, at Brooklyn, New York, early on a recent morning. Cdrulli, who owns a drug store, and lives with his wife and nine children immediately above it, stepped out of his door to go downstairs when he saw a newspaper bundle on the floor. He remembered having received an anonymous letter some-time ago threatening to blow T up his house unless he paid £2,000. Cerulli called Patrolman La Tour,'who opened the bundle, trampled out the fuse, and put the bomb in a pail of water. Eight families live in the apartment house. Detectives began work on the case at once.

An astrologer who signs himself “Sepharaial,” writing in the British Journal of Astrology, says that the year 1926 is destined to shake the world to its foundations, both physically and politically. After general trying misfortunes, he says, there will be a battle of with the entry six years later of “the Mighty One of Israel.” The great final conflict, he says, will be waged against Mohammedanism allied with the Bolsheeviki, which will push in the direction of the Holy Land, where, north of Jerusalem, the fight will be carried to its predestined end. Four great Powers will be allied against the Anglo-Saxons, which will be gathered again from all parts q.f the earth. There will be a British-Israel victory in the end, and universal peace.

Stepping briskly from a decorated wedding: coach at tlie Grimsby Register Office recently, a bride of 83 heli»ed down her groom, aged 81, amid the cheers of-the crowd. The bridegroom was Mr George Woolis, who lias been married twice previously, and the bride was Mrs Sarah Ann Horn, who had been a widow for 30 years, and the eldest of whose 10 children is a daughter aged 60. The bride went through the wedding ceremony smilingly, but the groom appeared somewhat nervous For ten years Mrs Horn has managed Mr Woolis’ household) but recently her daughter suggested that she should retire and live with her. On hearing of this, Mr Woolis at once proposed to .his housekeeper, and was accepted. “I like being busy. I can wash and cook as well as ever,” said the bride after the ceremony. “Work is the best thing on eai;th to keep you healthy and happy.” • Old pensioners at Midhurst, Sussex, are to have a “rise” during the winter. Those who go to the vicarage during November. December, January and February, are re ceiving an extra shilling a week from the vicar, the Rev. F. Tatchell. This is by no means the first time that he has shown his philanthropy. Possessed of considerable private means, the vicar has devoted large sums every year to chgritnhl? purposes.- His total gifts ;\t Midhurst amount to uiau.y thousands of pounds. He maintains many old folk, has organised schemes for educating some of his younger parishioners by taking them abroad; he clothes, feeds and houses others,