GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2462, 3 August 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A girl named Marion Hands, employed at a tinsmith’s at Glasgow, was about to light a gas stove in a factory with a piece of paper when her apron which was soaked with naptha accidently caught fire. She rushed hysterically about the room, and eventually to the street, by which time she was enveloped in flames. A labourer seized her and wrapped his coat round her, and she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but died shortly afterwards. During Miss Hands’ exit a, barrel of oil was ignited by her flaming apron. This exploded and set fire to the building which was destroyed. The damage was estimated at £15,000. Three monkeys were involved in a fire which was caused by'the explosion of a lamp at a house at West Hendon, London, recently. They were kept as pets by Mrs Egelstaff the occupier. One of the monkeys was badly burnt on the face but another covered itself completely with a blanket, and was thus saved from injury. Little damage was done to the house, the flames being quickly subdued on the arrival of the fire brigade. There are probably 30,000 ablebodied tramps in England who never intend to do honest work, said Mr Arthur Howard Bonser, chairman of the National Vagrancy Committee for England and Wales, at the West Midland Poor Law .Conference at Malvern. By a system of communications with each other, he said, habitual tramps avoided unions where strict discipline was enforced.

Mr John Henry Patterson, of Dayton, Ohio, who introduced cash i-egis tors, died at Dayton recently in his 78.1 h year. Mr Patterson began life as a canal boy and ended as a multi-millionaire. He combined philanthropy with commerce and made i; pay. He was once known as “Crazy Jack.” An Irish-American named Ritty evolved the idea of the cash register about 50 years ago, and Mr Patterson adapted it for use in a store which, as a young man, he rah with his brother. At the end of the year the store, which had previously been run at a loss, showed a profit of £2,500. Mr Patterson acquired the Rittv patents, improving them out of recognition, and established a model factory at Dayton. He believed in comfort for all his workers. “Make them comfortable at their daily task,” he said, “and they do it all the better, while the dividend goes up.” ■ When ploughing in a field on Borewell Farm, Scremerston, near Berwick-on-Tweed, John Briston, a farm labourer, unearthed what appeared to be an ancient tomb'oontaining a human skeleton. There was also in the tomb the remains of what had apparently been an earthenware vessel, which was broken. The tomb measured 3ft. 9in. in depth, and consisted of four stones, one on each side. Mr James H. Craw, a noted archaeologist, examined the bones, which he stated were from 1,500 to 2,000 years B.C. The skull was well formed and unusually well preserved. The broken urn, Mr Craw said, was of “Tricken,” or the earliest type of the Bronze Age pottery, which was traced from the source of the Rhine. Allegations of drugging and robbery followed the discovery a few weeks ago of a young officer, dazed and helpless, near his lodgings in Newton Road, London. The victim, ■Lieutenant Cyril Malcolmson, of the R.F.A., had apparently been “doped.” It is believed that he drew a large sum from the War Office, but less than a shilling was in his pockets when he was taken to the hospital. He said he had been decoyed to a boarding house in the East End, and robbed of £2O. A cup of tea which was given him is believed to have been drugged, and he was apparently driven to Newton 'Road in a taxicab. The finding of the lieutenant was preceded by fwo mysterious telephone calls to his boarding house. The first said he was lying unconscious in a house, but no address was given. Two hours later a man, who ’spoke in a foreign voice, said Lieut. Malcolmson was being taken home.