"LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 32, 7 February 1914, Page 4

"LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An autograph love letter of King Henry VUl.td the unfortunate Anne' Boleyn has been unearthed in the Vatican library. Iris in French, and in the approved style of the love-sick swain.

Damages amounting to £6O. Were obtained by a young woman named Lobenlieim against a dentist at Schokken, Prussia, who had deprived her of a sound tooth instead of an aching one.

He had been playing cards in a hotel till the small hours , .of the morning. He explained to the Wellington Court that.he had- been . a guest of the licensee. The police-in-spector in charge of the case wished to test the defendant's memory on the point of explanations. "That,"

said the inspector to the defendant, "is the explanation you have given the Court. Will you tell us what you said to your wife?" ''Well," interjected Mr T. Young, counsel in the case, "it might be far more interesting to hear what his wife said to him."

For twenty years or more thousands upon thousands of buffalo hides have been shipped from the Territory to find their way to the European and London markets. No one appears to know with certainty (says the Northern Territory Times) what may be their ultimate destiny, or to what particular purpose these hides are eventually put. It is said that several attempts to tan the hides in Australia have proved abortive. However, the tanning problem seems to have been at length successfully solved, as Mr W Lawrie has just received from a Sydney tannery portion of a hull buffalo bide—beautifully tanned. This sample of buffalo leather is 6-lGths of an inch in thickness, and resembles Russian leather in smell and color. ~Slv Lawrie is having an engine belt made from a portion of this sample.

Speaking at the Sydney Anniversary Regatta last week, Judge Backhouse had something to say in reference to present-day foibles and fashions. "There was a proposition,"' lie remarked, "to have races this year for women, or, as some people prefer to have it, for ladies. .1 am glad to say the I suggestion was negatived. We have quite enough undressing in the streets J —(loud laughter)—and I notice a I Pennsylvanian professor has bop;i sayj ing that women are beginning to eat more 1 because they have to keep up their temperature—(loud applause)— I indeed the Pennsylvania!] professor goes into details about things which an ordinary professor ought to know nothing about. (Laughter). The men, also, undress a great deal too much, and 1 would recommend to thorn and to self-styled Adonises who 101 l about our beaches, to -ear in mind the sage old warning, "1" the first place your clothes were meant to keep you warm. and in the second place to prevent I 'his horses shying at you." (Loud la lighter''*.

Gerald Lockhart, a hoy of twelve, who was rescued unconscious from the river at Pikeville, Kentucky, complained that he had been disturbed in a beautiful dream of circuses and theatres with grand musical accompaniments. The almost appalling carelessness <:i* the public was once more demonstrated yesterday afternoon, says Tuesday's "Dominion." when Messrs Thompson Bros, sold by auction some stacks of goods which had been left unclaimed on the Union S.S. Co.'s steamers during the past year. Included among these goods were such trifles as bicycles, go-carts, perambulators, several trunks, 'ravelling bags, am! ; uit-ca.s.s, -apparently stuffed full of clothing, rugs, suit lengths, and a great collection of walking-sticks and umbrellas. The prices realised were appreciably below market price, as far as one could judge. Half a dozen -umbrellas and sunshades went for as many shillings: travelling bags, more or less travel-worn, went for a iew shillings, and a man's bicycle , realised 14s. Some of the purchasers obtained genuine bargains and others bought "pigs-in-poke." Mr A. W. Jones, an Australian ariator, has had a run of bad luck, says the Melbourne correspondent of a Sydney paper. Recently he fell from a height

of 70ft, when returning from a successful night over Adelaide. His machine was smashed and he sustained injury to his shoulder. A few days ago, in mistake for a tonic, he drank a quantity of embrocation, and suddenly became ill. A doctor was called in, and the young aviator was given an emetic.

A day or two later he was informed over the telephone that a cheque he had handed in at the office of the Criterion Hotel was valueless. He protested that he had never been in the hotel, and knew nothing of the cheque, personated the aviator, and had sucpersonated the aviator ,and had succeeded in passing off' the valueless cheque on a member of the hotel staff. Mr Jones's machine has been repaired, and he will attempt more flights shortly.

The crematorium at the Western Necropolis, Glasgow, the only one in Scotland, is making steady, if slaw, progress in popular favor. Last year there were forty-five cremations, being one more than in the preceding year, and ten more than in the year 1910-11. As usual, it was open for inspection on Sundays from May to October, and the Society, which lias now attained its majority, reports that there ' wa.i "a satisfactory increase in the number of visitors." | Among ail nut ;the more leisured classes, the. report notes, cremation: has not yet been adopted. This is the more remarkable as it is precisely in the case of the working classes that its advant- : ages are most striking. In Germany there are working men's cremation clubs, with large and increasing membership, which provide for- cremation at death on payment of a small auaual subscription. In some towns on the Continent no less than onehalf of those ; dying, are cremated, and in St. Gall, in .Switzerland, the muni cipality prohibits within its jurisdiction all interments except those of the ashes of cremated persons. On Sunday afternoon (says the Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times) a group of people were idly watching Lake Rotorua when they noticed a strange commotion in the water off Kaiwaha Point. There were various conjectures as to the cause, and finally it was agreed that it was the work of an awhiowhio, or whirlwind. To the consternation of the spectators spindrift appeared in the clouds, and the troubling of the -waters incerased, while travelling at a good speed in an easterly direction. Eventually the connection between the water and the clouds became complete, and a genuine waterspout was formed in front of the interested and excited onlookers. The flexibility of the column of waters was clearly demonstrated. Sometimes it was curved, then it straightened and lengthened itself, being followed by a waxing and waning, with an almost constant billowy motion. At times it appeared as if the waterspout was composed of a number of slender and distinct columns, each one of which was gyrating on its own basis. The sight was aweinspiring.