THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1913, Page 2

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

An Italian Jew named Modigleani, a citizen of Leghorn, bequeathed a large estate to that city conditional on the proceeds being utilised to provide a vegetarian diet for his children, with the object of accustoming them to the advantage of abstaining from the use of meat. In bis will lie asked that his body should he left yinburied for eight days, but the sanitary authorities of the city declined to comply with the request.

At the Leeds Police Court’the other day Samuel Lowe (a miner belonging to Barnsley) and his wife Mary were charged with neglecting their three children. It was proved that the woman was nearly always drunk and of very dirty habits. The husband gave way to drink at week-ends, but he was away from home most of the time. There was only one bed for the eight inmates’to sleep in. Between £3 and £4 a week came into the house. The Bench sent the mother to gaol for. six months, but in the hope that the father would mend his ways ordered him to come up for sentence when : called upon. There is material for a humorous farce in a scene which has been enacted in a house in the Rue Victor Masse, Paris. A young, burglar, Alfred Boucher, selected in this street a house in which he thought he could commit gn easy burglary. He mounted to the sixth story and forced an entrance into a servant’s room. He had got his booty together when another burglar, Paul Pasquier, appeared on the scene . Each burglar was ignorant of the real mission of the oilier. Boucher concluded that his interrupter was the tenant of the room, and Pasquier imagined that he had stumbled on the occupant. Then began a fighjt with jemmies. The combatants made so much noise that the other tenants in the house were aroused. They appeared on the scene and arrested the burglars. At the police station the incident was explained, to the consternation of the burglars, who upraided themselves for their clumsiness. Traffic was temporarily held up in Union street, Birmingham, so far as crossing the road was concerned one day recently. An ingenious gentleman had tied the reel of a fishing rod to a lamp post near the bottom of the street, and had unobtrusively fixed the hook in the back of a friend’s overcoat near the neck. The result was that the victim walked up the street gradually unwinding the line, and causing the many people wishing to cross this much frequented thoroughfare either to duck under; the line (with frequently awkward results as regarded ladies’ hats) or to (wait until the fun was finished. The gqutleman bearing theJippk and unwi tiding the line walked up the street with great dignity and contentment until he reached Corporation street, where he wasi informed. :of tJitfl i'iiconveiucn'cc he was causing.

According to ilie statistics* published on December, 17th, America has more train accidents and loses more lives in railway accidents than any other, country in the World. During 1911 a total of 180,123 casualties resulted from railway accidents. The Interstate Commerce Commission suggests that “safety first” should be the future rule of train operation, speed being a secondary consideration where human lives are at stake. Defective roadways and lack of safety devices were blamed for most of the derailments of trains, and while the commission admits that its previous suggestion that all railway carriages be constructed throughout of steel is being carried out as promptly as possible it declares that so long as the railways continue to ignore the speed limitations, use inferior rails, and fail to keep the' roadways in first-class condition, railway travel in the United States will remain extremely dangerous. The commission urge that Congress should pass legislation requiring all railways to conform to certain uniform and consistent operating rules, and thereby ensure the safety of trains as far as is humanly possible.

Victor Cunningham, aged about 19. smiled brightly from his bed on the verandah of the accident ward at the Auckland Hospital on Thursday morning (says the Auckland Star), when members of the Hospital Board were given an explanation of the remarkable operation that saved his life some four or five weeks ago. The customary meeting of the Board in committee had just concluded, and the case was considered sufficiently unique to interest them. They were told that Cunningham was admitted to the institution just before Christmas suffering from aggravated stoppage of, the bowels of five days’ duration. Examination showed that the only hope of saving his life was the performing of the hazardous operation of removing his intestines. Thus was done by a prominent member of the honorary staff. The intestines were removed ,treated, and returned to the place from whence came, with the assistance of 470 silver stitches. Ro grave were the fears entertained for his recovery that it was thought Iho patient would did on the operating table, whereon be lay for an hour and a. half. But the following day he commenced to revive, and since then “he has never looked back” (to quote the words of Dr Maguire, acting medical superintendent). On the second evening after the critical operation, while being removed to a side ward, the youth was bright enough to ask that ho should be allowed to remain in order to hear a concert that was in progress near by. Cunningham, who is a resident of Rocky Nook, is expected to be ready to leave the institution very shortly.

A “model bourse” nr “exchange” has been established in Berlin. This schould not he construed as a model stock exchange, where yon can win hut not lose money. It is a “bourse” or market where artists and painters may buy the time and services of “models”—in other words, “living pictures,” which are to he conveyed to canvas or embodied in marble. Berlin’s stoadily-increifsing artist colony has found more or less difficulty in securing models. The supply has not been equal to the demand. Out of this grew the model bourse, which is located in the home of one of Berlin’s best known artists. The models and artists meet daily. As models must show more or less of their lines in order that an artist may judge whether suitable for his purpose, which they do with an indifference. rather startling to the novice, artists are often pestered by requests from friends for permission to attend these “beauty shows as “artists.” It is seldom granted.

Remarkable long-service records are to be found among the labourers on the farm of Mr F. C. Palkner, at Dippenhall, near Farnham, on the Hampshire and Surrey borders (says the Evening Standard). The most notable is Daniel Wilkinson. He is eighty-four years of age, and has been employed on the farm for seventy-five years. He is still at work there, starting at 7 a.in. every day, and keeps on until five o’clock in the evening. His father worked on the same 'farm, and died at work when between eighty and ninety years of age. Asked if he had ever lived anywhere else, Wilkinson replied: “No, I’ve never rambled about. I started here when I was nine years of age, and I’ve been here ever since. My wife (who is still alive) and I have had twelve children. Ten of them arc alive, and one girl has been at home with us for forty years, having been paralysed ever since she was a child. Now we have old age .pensions and we are able to rub along.” Another remarkable old labourer at Dippcnhall is Samuel Lawrence, aged eighty-eight, who worked for Mr Faulkner’s grandfather, but he is no longer at work, having given up a few years ago. George Miles is seventy-seven and has spent all his working life on the farm.

The now works fit the great Assuan Dam add not only to the marvel of this great work from an engineering point of view, but very much to its usefulness. What has been done is to complete the dam as originally planned. Its height has been raised by 10.4 feet, and the level of the impounded water by 23 feet. To provide against the increase of pressure, the thickness of the dam was increased by twenty feet. The latter part of the work was especially difficult from an engineering point of view. Twenty feet of solid masonry more than a mile long had to be built close ter, but not in contact with the face of the old dam, from which it was separated by steel rods projecting from the face of the old work. The interspace was subsequently filled up with grouting material injected by powerful machinery. The result of the new u'ork is that the capacity of tin? dam has been increased about two and a half times, having been raised from 35,300 million cubic feet to 81,190 million cubic feet. The original dam is stated by the Times to have repaid its cost over and over again, and it is anticipated that the new extension will mean an enormous difference to the productiveness and wealth of Egypt.

At a time like the present, when so much is talked and written about the high cost of living, it is interesting to note that in 1846 prices in the young township of Auckland were as follows: Tobacco, Is 6d per lb, as against about 3s 6d now; flour, £l2 to £l4 per ton, the wholesale rate to-day being £ll, less discounts. Bread was sold for 3|d per 21b loaf, but soon afterwards was raised to4Jd. Beef and mutton were each 6d per lb, but pork sold at 3d, and cheese was quoted at 9d, and butter Is 9d. Flax was selling for £lO to £l4 per ton, whereas to-day the quotation is £24 to £2B, and the average price for kauri gum in those far-off times was £l2 per ton, against which the ruling quotations now seem fabulous. Evidently farming was not much in vogue, for in 1846 wheat was quoted at 8s per bushel, barley 5s 6d, oats 2s 6d, and maize Is 6d. The low price of the latter grain is explained by the fact that the Maoris grew large quantities of it, as their low-lying plantations just suited the requirements of maize. Horses were worth £3O to £4O each, cows £8 to £lO, and sheep 16s to 18s, whiloj fowls could be bought at Is Gd per pair. There was, however, one great compensation: brandy was only lie per gallon, rum 11s, and gin 9s Gd, added to which prohibition was not in vogue.