THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 35, 10 February 1913, Page 8

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Mr Hugh D. MTntosh, who purchased the interest in Richards’s vaudeville circuit some time since, has floted the business into a company, to bo called “Harry Rickards Tivo • Theatres (Ltd.).” This company will have absolute control of the big circuit from March 1 next. The company has been registered with a capital of £250,000, and Mr MTntosh is governing director. Sydney will be the headquarters, and new tkeatres are to bo erected in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. The governing director intends to work the circuit or connection with a big circuit in London and another in South Africa. Annual trips will be made to America and Europe in search of new specialities.

“Death,” Professor Metchnikoff holds, “is premature if it comes before the age of a hundred. Strong people should live to be 120. W e often wonder wha*t is the object ol life. I s believe the object of life is to complete a physiological cycle. We are born, we grow, we come to the fulness of growth, then we gradually weaken, and at last we ought to fade away peacefully and even gladly, the instinct to live having been replaced by the instinct to die.” For many years ho has been working at the problem of premature decay. It is closely connected, ho believes, with »tho food we eat. Certain bacteria cause fermentations in the body, and so poison us. If wo could avoid taking these into our system or find healthy bacilli which would war against them, wo should last much longer.

Recent judicial decisions tempt ore to ask whether there is any reason which the courts of law in the 'United States will not accept as grounds f ( -i divorce. In one case just reported, a man obtained a divorce from' his wife because she “gathered a'! tne children available in the neighbourhood and made an orphan asylum of his home,” which Judge Warner, of Cincinatti, agreed was a solid cau-m for annulment of the martial tie. The very next day a Baltimore woman was granted the dissolution of nor marriage because her husband expected her to feed him and herself and Lft-, clothe herself and infant, and piy rent on an allowance of six dollars a week. Bub there appears to have been a certain justification in this case, becaa.-'O the husband’s breakfast menu embraced such trifles as eight eggs, half a pound cf bacon, two mackerel, a loaf of bread, and several cups of coffee, and bo expected to be regaled with a similar banquet on his return m the evening.

,/■' Two bicycle thefts were reported to the chief detective at Christchurch by two very irate individuals, who < explained that a bold daylight robbery iiad teen perpetrated, fhe cl.iel actors were a well-kown lawyer and a court official. Both iiad left theb machines outside the Magistrate s Court, and both machines were missed about the same time. It was a mystifying case, but for their own protection the aggrieved parties had M.cuied other machines, which they stated had evidently been left by the tbi- f in lieu of th ir own. They rdnuWd that two wrongs did not make a r’ght. but claimed that ns tbeir own cycies were missing they were entitled to make use of the substitutes, however, inferior, especially as no one else seemed to claim them. The complaints were made Separately and in all good faith, but the chief detective found that the unravelling of the mystery was simplicity itself. He took a careful description of each machine, and impounded the despised substitutes as exhibits. Then he compaied them, and found that each man had been riding the other’s bicycle. He broke the news gently to the complainants, and restored the missing property. Now (says tho Lyttelton Times) he is endeavouring to find out which party made the initial mistake in selecting tho wrong machine, hiu it is not likely that proceedings will follow.

Recently a good shearing tally was put up at Taihape, namely, 011 twotooth wethers in eight hours 40 min-

utes by three men, but it has since been beaten at a Ractihi shed. Three shearers tallied 626 for a similar time, the individual tallies being 216, 205, and 205 as against 237, 216, and 161.

In the teeth of a south-wester blowing through the Golden Gate, San Francisco, recently, the ashes of the late Captain Pete Johnson were tossed

upon the waves of the ocean, while a knot of his old-time cronies of the sea knelt in the cockpit of the launch Monk as it rode the breakers just inside the bar. It was the skippers last wish that his ashes be spread on his native element, and it gladdened the hearts of his friends ■ that there was a little blow to go with the ceremony. When the American millionaires give an entertainment the money runs, hke water. Thus, at Philadelphia, | luo Stotesburys, who are members j of the Pierpont Morgan firm, gave a | ball which costs £BOUU. Tie entirei premises of tho new Ritz-Canton Hotel were engaged for tho occasion, uJ it, festivities being opened in the oar room, which had been converted into a reception room and most iav- 1 i.s ily furnished. Another feature of the ball was the provision of cigarettes to be smoked by the women, a l ol which bore Mrs Stotesbury’s mono-.

gram. Tho dinner arrangements acre conducted on tho new suffragist oiinciple. All the eligible bachelots were seated alone at a separate table, 'where they could be examined and ro rop.a red by the young women.

A heifer’s strange fondness for cream as a beverage created a little amusement in Aorangi the other day i •rays the Feilding Star). It is tho custom for those dairymen who work on the homo separator system to place their cream in cans On. a plat-

form about the time the collecting motor van may be expected. A certain dairyman followed out this rule os usual one day, leaving the precious fluid unattended. Meanwhile a wandering heifer, evidently suspecting something good in the cans, after investigation at once set to regale herself with tho contents of one. In her enjoyment tho fluid disappeared, her “lowering” head became jammed in the vessel, which discovery greatly alarmed the bovine, and with the can as a muzzle and head tilted she set up a wild and weird dance, the dfect being enhanced by the spread of “the richest in cream” over the head and back of the animal, difficulty being experienced in relieving her of her unbecoming muzzle. Of those interested in the incident, perhaps the dairyman concerned was the least amused.

In a letter received in Dunedin p few days ago (says the Otago Daily Times) Mr S. G. Smith, jun., who reicntly- left ‘Dunedin to take chaige ,f the Tabaka office of Messrs Adams md Harley, solicitors, <Xelson, gives .onto interesting particulars regarding he district in which ho is located,.; ile says the heat at midday is almost .nondurable, especially if there is no ,vind. “This place,” he. adds, “is /erv much like the Taieri Plain. It s a plain about 20 miles long by ibout ten miles at tho widest, nai•owing to about three miles at tlie iead of the valley. \ It is a great agicultural country, and there are some iplendid runs. The people do not ? o in much for fruit, except one place vhich 1 shall tell you about. Hops ;ro grown a good deal, also a few reaches and some lemons, and one or two people have a few orange trees. The other day Mr Adams and I drove down to Ellis’s fruit farm and , wine cellars, where they have about £SOOO worth of wine maturing. Then they turned us loose in tho cherry orchard! Just fancy, about six acres of cherry rees simply loaded with absolutely lead ripe cherries! It is no exaggeration to say that you could hardly see the leaves for fruit. It is a great siglit, and people come from all over the place to see it. The wine they make, Muscadine, is not bad stuff ut all. It is a sw r eet wine, but is very palatable.”