GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2627, 1 September 1923, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A young man who was sentenced at East Derebam, Norfolk, to three months’ hard labour for stealing a bicycle, was betrayed by a blackbird when he attempted to hide. The policeman was looking for the lliief when he heard a blackbird scream in a pit. He searched the place and found the man hiding there with the bicycle.

Dozens of mice, released by students disguised as Ku Klux Klnnsmen, created a panic among girl students during the ceremony of presenting diplomas at University College in Reading. The girls jumped on forms and tables with shrieks of dismay, but it is doubtful whether they were more scared than the mice.

Bulgaria has a labour army of conscripted workers. Everv man between the ages of 20 and 50 is liable to obligatory labour. They argue that this is the only way that Bulgaria can get back on her feet economically, and restore the value of her currency. No man, no mailer what his rank and wealth, is excused from eight months’ compulsory service. The law will apply to women soon.

That he was singing hymns all day was one of the reasons why a landlord applied to the Market Bosworth magistrate for an ejectment order against-a tenant. The landlord, Richard Thirlby, of Ibstock, said that John Granger, who occupied one of his houses, had lately joined the Salvation Army, and that his hymn singing was a nuisance to the neighbours. The application was granted. Goats -are well-known for their tendency to eat anything and everything and the authorities at an American gunpowder factory in the State of Maryland have made use of this fact. A small herd of Rocky Mountain goats is kept on the grounds so that they will devour any old pieces of inflammable material that may be littered about. The idea is working out very successfully and the goats are becoming the pets of all the workers. Does Great Britain or does America own the largest liner? The controversy has arisen over the American claim that the Leviathan is the largest ship in the world. British shipping authorities tenaciously cling to the belief that the honour is held by the White Star liner Majestic. The figures for the two liners show that the Leviathan has a greater registered tonnage but that the Majestic wins on other and more essential points. The Majestic can carry nearly‘4,ooo passengers; the Leviathan -2,602 passengers and 1,100 crew. The Leviathan is 22 feet higher than the Majestic. Both ships were made in German shipyards and were taken as part of the reparation payments. This story of remarkable agility in a snake is from a Hampshire village. A station lorry was passing down a slight incline when the driver saw a two-foot snake lying in the road. He drove his car, as he hoped, over it. But the snake was too quick for him, for it twined itself for an instant round the spokes of one of the wheels and then shot itself into the gear box of the car. As the driver drove into a yard the head of the snake was to be seen

projecting out of the gear-box. A little later, while the driver was passing through the village, the snake fell out, and was run over and killed by a car which was passing at the moment. An unusual incident occurred outside St. George's Register Office, when Miss Vena Galt, the young actress playing in the revue “Rats,” at the vaudeville, was married to Mr Reginald W. Haeberlin, a young city merchant with an income of £14,000 a year. When the bride and bridegroom drove up they found awaiting them Mr Haeberlin’s sister, Mrs Freedman, his brother-in-law, and two other members of the family. Oil alighting from his car the bridegroom was surrounded by his relatives, who engaged him in calmest conversation, while the rest, of the wedding party entered the register office. Looking very pale, the bridegroom after some minutes talk with his sister, also entered. An impression appeared to prevail among the large crowd which had gathered that an effort had been made to persuade Mr Haeberlin not to go through with the ceremony. This was denied later by the bridegroom, however. “My sister,” lie said, “certainly did not try to persuade me against the marriage; in fact, she waved me ‘Good luck.’ ”