CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 7 August 1937, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”)

It was during the empanelling of • jury that the following colloquy occurred:— ' , “You are a property holder ( “Yes, your Honour.” “Married or single?” “I have been married for five yeari, your Honour.” “Have you formed or expressed an opinion?” ~ “Not for five years, your Honour.

There’s money in letters, as many a breach of promise case has revealed. In London, recently, however, letters of another class brought high prices. A letter addressed by Oliver Goldsmith to an uncle. Rev. Thomas Cantarine, while in Edinburgh in 1750, was sold for £IBO at Sotheby’s. It is included in the collected letters published in 1928. It refers to Jack Goldsmith, and tells of a visit to the Duke of Hamilton. A letter from Shelley to Leigh Hunt, from Naples, resenting Southey’s remarks about him, was sold for £l4O.

AVinston Churchill, the American novelist, and AVinston Spencer Churchill, tho English politician, found that an ocean between them was not sufficient to prevent their mail from getting tangled. According to report, they had corresponded and arranged a meeting for the differentiation of their signatures. Then the American courteously gave the Englishman a dinner at the hotel where they were staying. It proved an amusing and successful affair. But. as the guest tells the tale, the Englishman got the bill for the dinner and tho American got the guest’s hotel bill I

New Zealand has recently entertained in Rektor L. Zilliacus, of Finland, one of the most prominent delegates to the New .Education Fellowship Conference, probably the world’s most cosmopolitan figure, famous uot only in his own immediate sphere. M. Zdlmcus, who it will be recalled spoke very highly of the standard of the New Zealand Press, has been associated for some years with the administration of the League of Nations, Always a vigorous member ot the Secretariat, he has been dubbed multi-national —and for a very good reason. He was born in Japan of a Finnish father and an American mother; he received his education in Sweden, England and the United States; he married a Pole, and is a naturalised Englishman ! He is a pocket edition of the League of Nations, a unique example of the successful integration of national characteristics into one dynamic whole—a splendid parable from which diplomats might take their text. * # * • •

The British schoolboy who on learning that in most cases the French put ! the noun before the adjective declared. ! that he did not want to study a ! language where they put the cart be- | fore the horse might have discovered many other instances where French and English a.ct in opposite manner. In games we find that where in England, when playing draughts, it is the player who has black who moves first, in France “white” plays first. I Cards are dealt in England to the left; | in France they are dealt to the right, j Traffic, which runs on the left-hand in England runs on the right in France, but the practice is general on the Continent with very few exceptions. AA’lien a lady and gentleman meet in the street iu France, it is the gentleman who is supposed to show the first 6ign of recognition. Although, of course, not the rule, it is yet quite common among persons of long-standing friendship for them to shake hands with the left hand if the right has just been given to another person. ■ • • • *

The ostrich is credited with a capacity of being able to swallow almost anything and survive; so is the goat. Some human beings with a queer taste in eating seem to have the same forte. A writer recalls the example of Edmond C. Nickels, former United States cavalryman, whose case was recently reported by “Believe It or Not” Ripley. In 1917 he became, mysteriously, unfit physically after less than two years in. the army and was discharged. The cause only came to light in 1934 when he developed acute stomach trouble. An X-ray examination revealed a foreign mass there. The surgeons, operating, found fo their surprise a collection of metal. They removed, altogether, 607 different objects, including 173 nickels, 151 pennies and 26 dimes, the patient evidently having had a special taste for money. In addition there were 50 nails, 22 watch parts, 27 pins and needles, 22 military buttons, 19 overall buckles, 15 screws. 8 metal can openers, and further miscellaneous items which included a couple of crucifixes, an empty cigarette box, a table-knife handle, a fork handle, a fork (whole), a lock key, a piece of glass, two chains and a desert spoon. A Canadian woman was recently found to have swallowed 2533 different objects.

“Death shall come on swift winjgs to him that touclieth the tomb of the Pharaoh.” This gloomy “keep off the grass” sign, known to the world at “King Tutankhamen’s curse,” was found writeen on the famous tomb of the boy-king at Luxor in the Valley of the Kings when it was opened 16 years ago. And. people started dying all over the place. They would have died if Tutankhamen had been left to continue his 3000-year sleep in peace, but still it is claimed that 24 among the millions who have since died came to their untimely ends because they dared to desecrate the tomb. Lord Carnarvon discovered the tomb in 1922 ; he died in 1923. Professor F. Lafleur examined the tomb; he died. Hon. Aubrey Herbert- was present at the opening ceremony : he died. Sir Douglas Reid X-rayed the mummy; he died. Twenty others who visited the tomb died. Prince Ali Fahmy Bey, a rich Egyptian prince, was shot and killed in London. Lord Vestbury fell to liis death from a window in his London home. Professor Arthur Weigall, the famous archaeologist, died iu London. Mr Harold Moynes, a British reporter who accompanied Lord Carnarvon, and one of the first eight people to enter the tomb, also died Dr. James H. Breasted, head of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, slept in the tomb for two weeks and defied the curse. He died, like all the others but one. Only Mr Howard Carter survives, still well, still unafraid, last of the original eight, and a good friend of Dr. Charles Currelly, director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, who also scoffs at the “curse.”

Jtgypt is a place of invalids, especially when doctors feel that they can do little more. They go there in the winter time to -live in the sun, and to give exhausted bodies a chance to rest. These people have little to do, and if anything dramatic happens they simply flock to that place. And the tombs of the kings are only a few -miles from one of the best hotels iu Egypt,” he has remarked. ! “Lord Carnarvon, who supplied the money, was a very sick man who was sent to Egypt for his health. He took blood poisoning, didn’t take care of it, | and died as a result,” said Dr. Currelly.