From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 19

From Many Lands

tabloid reading for the week-end.

TO CHECK HYDROPHOBIA POCTORS CLAIM DISCOVERY A serum which is expected to prent anil cure hydrophobia has been 'ifvploped at the County Hospital rhirago. Tir. Maurice L. Hiatt m . Dr Samuel J. Hoffman have announced that after a year’s rearch they have discovered an antitoxin which has successfully halted development of rabies in laboratory tests with animals and which T® . believe will cure human cases. L 0 principle, it was explained, is the * me as that used for treatment of scarlet fever and diphtheria cases, in which the serum of an immunised animal is used. master and servant slain assassin cornered and shot Father Joseph Davnik, rector of St. Martin's Roman Catholic Church at Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, a widely Known leader of the Aiovak party, has be en killed by an assassin, who mistook him for a former rector of the church. In the pursuit that followed Father Pavnik s personal servant also was slain. The assassin, Geza Strochon, was cornered by a posse and shot, to death after his own ammunition became exhausted. He was a former secretary of the church. Strochon had sought vengeance against Father Josann Stefanek, who had caused him to be imprisoned for two years for robbing the poor box and stealing ecclesiastical objects. He met Father Pavnik in a dark passage and asked: "Are you the rector of St. Martin’s church?” Upon receiving an affirmative reply, and not realising that Father Stefanek had retired from the rectorship, Strochon exclaimed: •'I told you two years ago at my trial that X would have vengeance. How I have achieved it.” Then he fired, killing the priest.

WATER PURIFIED BY SILVER PROCESS

CHEAP MEANS OF KILLING GERMS Sterilising water for drinking purposes will be an easy matter if the method discovered by a Munich engineer, Dr. George Krause, proves feasible. All that is needed to destroy the myriads of germs contained in ten million quarts of water is one and a-half grains of silver prepared by the Krause method. A professor of hygiene at Greifswald University. U*r. Rudolf Degkwitz, who has made a thorough test of the process, confirms the efficiency of the invention. Within less than an hour he succeeded in completely sterilising a cubic centimetre of water which contained a million germs. The new method Is said to have several improvements. It works independently of temperature, it can be applied to any quantity of water and needs no supervising. THUG BITES PLUG THE SCIENCE OF TEETH-PRINTS A plug of tobacco on which a bite had left perfect imprint of teeth was among the few clues officers had to more than forty unsolved burglaries—unsolved until the Sheriff at Aurora, at a card game with prisoners, invited them to “have a chew.” Len Hudson »'aa the only one to accept. His teeth prints corresponded to those on the clue. Officers said he confesse'd.

TUNE IN ON THIS! INVESTMENT NETS 6725% Three years ago Albert Anderson of Seattle, aged 80, accommodated a friend by giving him £2 for a share of Radio Corporation stock. He figured be had come out second best in the transaction. I]he other evening while he was rutting friends the conversation drifted to Radio stock. “I have one share,” he said. “A fellow sold it to mo for £2. I guess *f w as money thrown away.” “Yes?” drawled the friend. “Well take a look at this quotation.” As a result of “the look” Anderson sold his stock, making 6725 per cent on his £2 investment. LEAP OF 3,000 FEET AVIATORS thrilling escape Lieutenant J. B. Haddon, became a r . e ®7 er of the famous “Caterpillar f ut) other day when he leaped safety from his burning plane near Carlisle. Haddon was saved by his parachute e jumped at an altitude of o was test -i n £ tlie plane, sav w persons whose lives have been crin i * a P ara chute leap from a h*r k- plane are eligible for memvhi k iQ the "Caterpillar Club,” Dilnt u UOW embraces about forty I inrfu a ' ?a ded by Colonel Charles A. tre^ er Bb, who has three leaps to his a bieut enant Haddon was piloting tn'h lrSUit Plane equipped with a supar^ er when a connecting rod is ship' e( * *° bave broken, igniting the

■Mi\ Q plane was at an altitude of Hariri feet wll en the fire started. 2$ ann been flying at between anri k f ee t during the test fnr topped t 0 a lower altitude ° r other test work.

dog saves master

*an miles through snow

life was saved by his dog toonth mounta i DS near Lucerne last

a Qa Wa s overcome hv the cold, ’•solatpri went several miles to an attract * arm bouse and succeded in lant* 1D& tbe atten tion of the inhabi-

followed the dog and found H *an covered with snow, ibronrk*! lost hls wa N w bile walking fia the Forest of Dietsbcrg.

NOT SO MAD FORTUNE EARNED BY WAITING James Posey, known as “the mad oiler of the steamer Alloway,” who refused to leave his ship when she was in imminent danger of going on the rocks and had been abandoned by the rest of her crew, has turned out to be not so mad. Y\ bile the disabled Alloway was being towed by the steamer Montauk, the tow-line bad parted in a narrow strait off Alaska. Neither warnings nor entreaties could induce Posey to desert his post when the ship was abandoned by the others on board. When the storm died down the Alloway was still afloat. Contrary to expectations, her anchors had held firm during the storm. Some of the crew returned to the ship, started up fires, and are sailing her to harbour. “The mad oiler’s” share of the reward for saving the ship will probably amount to a small fortune.

REFUSED A LIGHT SMOKERS GO TO LAW A judgment of interest to smokers is reported from Dresden in Germany. In an unspecified Saxon town a wouldbe smoker approached one who already smoked with a polite request for a light, and was sharply rebuffed. He sued the unresponsive stranger for contumely, and a provincial Court gave him the ver&ict. On appeal, however, the Dresden Court maintained that “refusal to grant a favour does not necessarily signify disdain or contempt. It may be impolite, but is nqt in itself contumelious.” The rights' of ownership of matches have been confirmed, therefore; another great legal precedent has been established: and the suppliant’s case, unlike his cigarette, ended in smoke.

TERRORISED GIRL WIFE SHOT HUSBAND IN HIS SLEEP A tragedy in which an 18-year-old wife shot her husband while he was asleep was reported to the Paris police recently. Three years ago M. Jean Chaffour, advertisement manager of a big Paris firm, met and married his bride. She was then only 15, and according to French law special permission for the marriage had to be obtained. M. Chaffour, who was 12 years older, appeared to have been extremely jealous, and it is stated that on several occasions he quarrelled with his wife, accusing her of flirting. Finally, it is alleged, he kept her strictly secluded in their flat and refused her permission to go out except for the most urgent household requirments. Mme. Chaffour, when arrested, declared that she had become terrorised by her husband's violence* and fearing that his jealously would lead him to attack her and her baby girl she took his revolver from his desk and shot him while he was asleep. She wept while making this confession and declared that she had been distracted or she would not have done such a thing.

GROW FRUIT BY ELECTRICITY FRENCH HORTICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS At the last meeting of the Academy of Science of the French Institute the president read a paper expounding the experiments in fruit-growing without sunlight as conducted by MM. Truffaut and Thurnyssen, two scientific horticulturists. In the course of his reading he presented his fellow savants, on behalf of the horticulturists, a basket containing a number of strawberry plants bearing ripe and fragrant fruit. The plants, he had been assured, had never seen natural light until that moment They had been grown in a cellar under light of two electric lamps which were kept continuously revolving at a height of 41 ft above them. The lamps employed were 1,200 watts and had Tungsten filaments. Under these conditions the plants, which, if exposed to natural light, would have taken eighty days in which to grow, blossom and bear fruit, had budded after fifteen days and borne fruit after twenty-five more. The academicians who tasted the strawberries pronounced them to be of exceptional flavour and aroma, which the president said was probably due to the dominance of yellow and orange rays of the lamps. He added in reply to several eager questions: “There will be no revolution in fruit-growing, however—at least not just yet. It cost just 125 francs (£1) to produce each of these berries.”

SENTENCED TO DIE YOUTH WHO KILLED FOR THRILL A Superior Court jury at Atlanta found George K. Harsh, wealthy former collegian, guilty of the murder of Willard Smith, a drug store clerk, and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair. , , Harsh, member of a wealthy Milwaukee family, and frequenter of exclusive clubs here, while attending Oglethorpe University killed Smith, 24-vear-old drug store manager, during an attempted robbery last October 16. He confessed, but a plea of not guilty was entered by attorneys who contended that he was a ‘ constitutional psychopath,” incapable of distinguish- 1 ing right from wrong. j There was no demonstration m the j jammed court room when the verdict j was read. The sister of the prisoner, 1 Mrs. J. S. Disosway, of Atlanta, and his mother. Mrs. George R. Harsh, of Mil-; waukee. wept softly for a brief period, but controlled their emotions until the brother and son was led from the bar to a secluded room in the court- 1 h °j*ust before she reached the haven . of refuge from the eyes of spectators, I that have been upon her for four days,, as she sat beside her son, Mrs. Harsh • *oh why do they kill people when thev don’t know what they are doing? j Gallogl.v. whom Harsh named as his companion during the holdup, is under I indictment and awaiting trial on iden tical charges.