GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2427, 11 May 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

An automobile bandit who said frankly that all he wanted was cash, held up Harry Thatcher, oil salesman, near New York recently. Thatcher’s car developed engine trouble about two miles from Northport. He was tinkering with his head half under the hood when a touring ear stopped a short distance down the road. “What’s the trouble?” inquired a voice. Thatcher looked up to see a man, about 6ft. tall, with a levelled revolver. “What have you got on you?” said the bandit, dispensing with preliminaries. “My gold watch and chain,” began the the salesman. The other interrupted, saying that all he wanted was cash. Thatcher was forced to empty his pockets. The result was a small sum in silver. “If that’s all you’ve got on you you can keep it,” said the hdld-up man as he walked back to his automobile. Thatcher finally got his engine started. Mayor Frank Pulver recently had a request from the St. Petersburg (Florida) Purity League that he appoint a bathing suit inspector, a formal communication from the organisation stating that “the league intends to protect the married men from the wiles of the sea vamp.” The Mayor said he would personally visit the beach and look them ever.

Before trying to kill his wife with a hatchet, after which he cut his own throat, Richard Bolun, of Newark, New Jersey, took her a wreath of white carnations inscribed “To my beloved wife from her loving husband.” The wreath was found in the home of the couple at North Broad Street, Newark. Mrs Bolmi is recovering at the home of a friend.

Even the hotel clerk lost his poise when Msss Rae Creswell, Texas “oil princess” arriving at Miami, Florida, recently, to spend the winter, asked for an extra 'bathroom to serve as boudoir for “Warts,” her alligator pet. Wherever she goes—even in swimming—the ’gator goes along. It is a common sight to see Miss Creswell with “Warts” on the beach at Miami.

An annulment plen on peculiar grounds was laid before the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, when Anna Morris asked the Court to annul her marriage with Robert Morris on the ground that he had married her six months after his first wife divorced him, ignoring the law’s decree that he must not remarry without permission from the Court. The Court reserved its judgement on the case.

Water, heat and light from a single well less than 250 fee£ deep has made John Schaeffer, an Allegany County New York farmer, envied by all his neighbours. When Schaeffer hired drillers to sink the well he was after water. The workmen tapped a considerable pocket of gas and a gas pipe was run down beside the water pipe. The gas has continued to flow steadily even in perioas of low temperature.

Business men in Jamestown, Kansas, have raised funds for installing a complete wireless receiving outfit. Aerials will be placed on the Oddfellows’ two storey building and the receiving apparatus will be available in the city hall for the use of the public. Daily market reports and weather forecasts will lie a feature of the service furnished to residents in and near that city and if, will be a daily-event to “listen in” on musical concerts and grand opera recitals in distant cities.

A luminous owl, it is said has been seen at Foulsham, North Norfolk. The reports suggest that its appearance is identical with that of a bird seen at Rushall, Harleston, South Norfolk, in .1908. It is declared that several people have watched the bird come from a hole in "the tower of the parish church on dark nights and fly across the church meadow to an oak tree, the branches of which it illuminated. Inquiry in the neighbourhood failed to discover any person who had actually seen the bird, though plenty had hear<s of it. Controversy has begun to rage over the story, and facetious comments are being made about persons who see such tilings as glowing birds.