THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 26, 29 January 1913, Page 7

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

To receive 10,000 volts of electricity through his body and live was the recent experience of a Whittier (Cal.) resident named Gornee. The man had grasped the heavily charged wire with his right hand, when the current passed out of ins forearm, leaving a hole the size of a dime.

A Long Branch, N.J., woman, Mrs. Jos. Du by, was found dead at her home a few days ago, with her body in a peculiar position. She was suspended by her hair to the hinge of a door. The woman was apparently stricken with heart disease, and her hair caught in the door as she fell.

In a will which has been lodged with the Sheriff of Glasgow, Mrs. Ihrkmire, widow of the llov. Archibald Birkmire, of Kelvinside, Glasgow, directed her lawyer to “see that my heart is pierced with a lancet to ensure that I am dead. The physician performing the act is to receive £so."’ Mrs. Birkrniro bequeathed an annuity of £SO for the benefit of her pet animals. Her estate is valued at £39,020.

“If I went with my wife into a shop I should expect to have to pay for all she bought,” said Judge Lumfey Smith 1 to a man who repudiated a debt of two guineas for a mackintosh bought by his wife while he was with her in a Holborn draper’s shop. Defendant pleaded that he made his wife a dress allowance, and she had no right to pledge his credit. Judgment was for plaintiffs with costs.

At a very early hour the other morning a man was looking for His Majesty’s gaol in Picton for the purpose of “bailing out” a friend who had been misbehaving himself the night previous. He found a red building, as directed, and knocked loudly at the door. The 'occupants were roused from their slumbers, and the man of the house, on answering the door, was greeted with an enquiry about “getting his mate out on bail.” Explanations followed, hut it was some little time before the Good Samaritan could be convinced that he had mistaken the vicarage for the gaol!

A New York young woman, Misa McDonough, met with an unusual accident a few days ago. While crossing the street in the rear of a trolley car, her foot became in a long wire dangling from the end of the car. The car, going at full speed, dragged the girl for two blocks and a half before the din set up by passers-by finally attracted the attention of the motor man and conductor. Too young woman was and cut, the bruises having the nature of burns, and particles of stone and dust from The pavement imbedded themselves in her face, arms and hands.

This must be swallowed with a great deal more than the proverbial grain of salt: —A new dictionary of monkey language has just been issued through the French Academy of Sciences by Yves Do Lago, long a laborious student of ape jabberings. Tfce dictionary even contains grammatical notes for advanced readers, and an appendix giving in proper notation favourite songs among monkeys, which they always sing in the same rhythm when feeling particularly well. The monkey tongue has the advantage in that it comes unlearned to young monkeys, which is proved, says Do Lage, by a baby monkey taken away and isolated seven years, and which, when brought back to its companions, made itself understood perfectly.

Mr. A. Considine, who hails from somewhere in the Wairarapa, has been saying some strong things against prohibition. As a Justice of the Peace, he told a representative of the South Australian ‘Register’ ho had had ample opportunities of watching the movement, and considered it was far from being a success. In the prohibited districts people were constantly being brought before the Court for sly grog selling, and some of them were lined as much as £IOO. Still, the evil continued. Prohibition was having the elfect of producing a very inferior class of houses of accommodation for the travelling public. Business had also fallen off considerably in towns which had adopted prohibition, as travellers preferred to go to 'other places miles off where their comforts might be attended to. The system was impoverishing some and enriching others. Peo pie living in a prohibition town would drive a few miles to secure their sup plies of liquor and take it home in bulk. Then again, the police had free access to licensed houses at all times of the day and night, but they had to have substantial evidence before they could enter a private house suspected of conducting a sly grog traffic. Tinder the present system the drink evil was not reduced, and tire morality of the towns suffered.

A Babies’ Court has recently beer, established in Chicago. This Court, which is the first of its description in the world, is in connection with the Court of Domestic Relations in that city. A clerk has been appointed to the Court, a Mrs. Mary Leavitt, whose duty it will bo to endeavour to settle disputes between parents regarding the infants. The waiting room at tae Court has been arranged 'i 1 o a I-rge nursery, with toys, cots. bo< etc., for the entertainment of tin; eg idr n, and trained nurses are also in attendance. Mrs. Leavitt Isays a” Kngkah paper on this subject), v. 'o has c n connected with the Court of Domestic Relations for some time pad, is daubed by Chicagoan •; the mender cf broken hearts, as during the lire.;, nt; car she has, by her extraordinary tact and sympathy, satisfactorily settled 177 b cases of marital unhappiness cut of Court.

1 For having vexed her dead husband during life, a Parisian shopkeeper, ALne. Matiiilde David, recently set herself on fire after saturating her clothes with petrol. In a letter which siio wrote before her suicide she stated that she had chosen the most painful death she could think of to punish herself. innls or madmen, so :av untraced, have been busy recently in sending round to house proprietors in the City of Milan, Italy, thousands'of poisoned lozenges and capsules, in the form of sample advertisements purporting to be an infallible cure- for all kinds of stomach troubles. Many very serious cases of poisoning have followed. Over 2000 of these samples have been collected by the police, and have been found to contain cyanide of potassium and metallic salts. The outrages are supposed to be a form of revenge on owners of property for recent heavy increases in house rents.

Only a few days ago a poor widow, rained Mrs. Hunter, living near Glasgow, whoso husband died through a pit accident four years ago, was slaving for many hours a day in order to provide for her four children. It was a bitter sruggle, and one which seemed likely to continue till her dying day. Then suddenly came news that an uncle of the children, who emigrated to America thirty years ago, and built up a successful business in Brooklyn, had distributed his fortune among the children of relatives, the share of the miner’s orphans being no less than £60,000. Thus each ,of the children will received £15,000.

In a character sketch of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, a writer in the ‘News and Loader’ says There are two Andrew Carnegies:—at least. There is the business man, ruthless, hard as his own pig-iron, who is the maker of millions ; and there is the philanthropist, filled with an abstract love of humanity, who is the spender of millions. Neither has any dealings with the other. There is no conscious conflict between the two. There is no conflict because they never meet. Each comes into action at the word of command and vanishes when his task is done. “Business!” and up springs the Ironmaster as keen as a razor. “Humanity!” and up springs the Philanthropist bursting with benevolence. Jhe phenomenon is familiar. It was exhibited in its extremest form in the late Mr. Passmore Edwards, whose passion for economy, even penuriousne&s, m business was at least as remarkable,as his splendid generosity to the public.

The following figures of the girl and girl widows in India, taken from the tables of the census of last yqar;are quotedjrom the ‘Church Missionary G leaner’ for DecemberOf girls in India who have not completed their fifth year 302,425 are wives and 17,703 widows, while 2,500,000 girls in their second-* lustrum are wives and 112,000 are widows. '-In March, 1911, th&re were 9,412;542 girls fifteen years of age and under who had entered the marital state. The influence of Christianity on the lot ot women :n India is shown by the facts that while one in 1000 Hindu girls under five years is a widow, and one in 54 under five years is married, among Christians of the same age only one in 286 is married. and only one in 4700 is a widow. In Travancore and Cochin, where Christianity has had f idlest play, among 336,201 girls under five only 74 are married, and only five are widows; and among Christians, out of 85,481 girls under five only three are married, and not one is a widow.

Freak weddings are becoming more and more common in Sydney as a feature of various shows. Wonderland City set the example with a marriage on the back of an elephant, and quite recently the public were invited to behold a dwarf bride and bridegroom at Tiny Town. The other night another was added to the list by a wedding in a circus arena. The place was Bud Atkinson’s Circus, at Moore Park, the bride-elect being Miss Bose Jean Isabella Durack, of Sydney, and the bridegroom an American cowboy, by the name of Harry Murphy. By a happy omen the rain, which had been falling steadily throughout the evening, ceased before the procession, picturesque in red shirts and bear-skin trousers, and headed by “Colonel” Lavelle, paraded slowly round the ring to the strains of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.” A striped marquee had been erected, and here the ceremony was performed, the assembled cowboys celebrating its conclusion with a salvo of revolver shots, which compelled the' bride to put her fingers in her ears. The couple were then made the recipients of a number of wedding presents, amid the plaudits of the huge audience.

Dr. Burnett Ham, Chairman of the Board of Health in Victoria, writes a practical article in January ‘Every (Lady’s Journal’ on ‘The Pests of the Household.” Dr. Ham has some strong things to say about the summer fly, from which we quote: “Kill all flies. Take thought and pains to exterminate them. Deceptive beyond belief is the innocent appearance of these pests Science, piercing to facts, discerns the fly as the menace in our midst. Attention to its peculiarities gives startling results. The fly is veritably weighted with death-dealing forces not loss real because invisible to the naked eye. It enters your house from its birthplace laden with germs. It moves easily, with horrible intimacy, over foods, crockery’, and table linen. Nothing is exempt from its attention. Its touch corrupts. It taints and renders the daintiest morsel unfit for human consumption. On the most savoury dish, prepared perhaps for an invalid, it may leave bacilli of dread disease. To the fly may be traced fevers, cholera, tuberculosis, and illnesses innumerable.