NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2456, 20 July 1922, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

At Spalding, England, two blackbirds built their’ nest in a broom standing in a hovel, and the hen bird sat on four eggs. The latest novelty for women is the use of real rose petals instead of rouge. The petals are. shaped to fit the lips, and then pasted on. White coats are being supplied to constables on point and traffic control duty in Huddersfield, to make them more noticeable.

Cigarettes made up in papers of different colours are said to be popular among New York ladies, who match their '• cigarettes to their frocks.

A Chicago: doctor has equipped his motor a radio telephone, so -that he can be in touch with his/ office' while making his rounds. ;

The statue of Sir Charles Waterlow in the grounds of Westminster City School,- is said to be the only one in London, which depicts an umbrella. !

“Pig! and Whistle,” foiind as the name ofveountry:inns, is said to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon “Piga Wassail,” which meant “a. lass and a glass.” By means of a new electrical machine, claims an American doctor, the. disease, sex,, and-race of a patient can be told from a drop of his or her blood. t

During'a recent period of 26 days the Sevenoaks ; Workhouse master saw. nearly 300 casuals. Of these he says that not one was a man genuinely seeking work. A gift of “at least” £IOO,OOO has been bequeathed to Gray’s Inn. for legal educational purposes by Lady Holker, 1 : widow of a distinguished bencher of the Inn.

Owing to the ravages of the pink bollworm nearly all the cot ton plants of- Antigua, British West Indies, have been burned down and replaced by sugar cane. Italy'owns the longest stretch of electrified railway in Europe, covering a' distance of about 170 miles, over which the trains travel in two and- three-quarter hours. • Although'apprentices in the City jof London may still be punished for misconduct by being confined in Bridewell Prison, the custom is seldom. observed; but there was one case in 1916;' .

i In .a little- room under the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, the St. John’s Ambulance Association have, during the past nine years, attended to. more,-than 10,000 cases.

j Swiss M.V P. will only be paid in future if they attend Parliament, absences being excused on the grounds of illness, or Government business •only. The daily salary is £llos-,- j

A‘ Madrid woman is in the singular, position--.of being legally dead until she can prove her existence by discovering-the identity of another woman who was buried under her l name.-

Anew mo tor’.lifeboat, built out of a legacy left to the Royal National Lifeboat) Institution by the late Mr Joseph Adlam, of Worcester, has been launched a* Blyth, England.

j Beira, in Portuguese West Africa, is built-on sand so deep that horses cannot travel on it. Mechandise and passengers-are carried in trolleys running on rails and pushed by natives.

Three .great ■ Asiatic rivers, the Yangtze Kiang, the Mekohg, and the Salwen, which at one point in China are only a few. miles apart, discharge'through' mouths 2,900 miles apart. - : y.

Lemberg, the Polish town, is spelt by the Poles themselves, Lwow; by the Ukranians, L’viv; by the Russians, L’vov; and by the French, Leopold: Lemberg is really the German for of the-name. When.a tree- 1 20ft. in height'was removed and . replanted at Ealing, London, a blackbird stuck to her nest of eggs as long as possible, and resumed sitting as soon as the tree, which' the men kept upright and in position,.'had been replanted. A dog belonging to a Sevenoaks, Kent, inhabitant. has diqd as the result of copper poisoning. It was a common practice to give the animal a penny which he carried in his mouth’to the baker’s shop, where he exchanged* it for a bun. One.hundred, and fifty red-haired, large-eared men are required to at-tend-ithe United States Naval MilitiaSchool', for wireless operators. Experts: have 1 discovered that" men with red hair have-an added alertnes|S, and that large-ears are an advantage • inyituning; the wireless, instruments.

The youngest wireless operator in the world is probably Robert Garcia, the seven-yea T-old son of Charlie Chaplinis-. director, Mr Allen Garcia. Ever since his fifth year Robert has been keenly interested in wireless;.. He-persuaded his father to teach-him to work his set, and he soon knew-as much about itas his parent-.:. Robert is now buildings unaided,., a set for himself.