From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 19

From Many Lands

tabloid reading for the week-end

CABBAGE RECORD HELD BY CHINESE More cabbage Is consumed daily in Shanghai than perhaps any other community of like size in the world. Hundreds of tons are marketed on Soochow creek each morning, the vegetable taking the place of meat in many homes. FIGHTING FOR TREASURES POISON GAS TO THE RESCUE Poison gas is being used throughout Austria on ancient art. This is happening not because the “moderns” are so opposed to it but because the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Works of Art has found that poison gas is the only sure way of saving much of the marvellous sixteenth century woodwork from the ravages of busy wood worms. COLLECTING THEM! LAUDER GETS A DIME Harry Lauder has a shiny dime from John D. Rockefeller, senr., who told him the gift was “just in case you ever do run short of money.” “Here’s another dime for your wife,” be said. “And here’s a couple for your childreu.” “Thank you, sir.” “And here are four dimes for your grandchildren.” “I’ll always keep them,” said Lauder. IN GREENWICH VILLAGE "CUT OFF WITH CUFF-LINKS” Charles Albert Perkins, of New York, District Attorney under Mayor Mitchel, in his will, filed for probate recently, designated three physicians to perform an autopsy on his body, bequeathing to them such portions as might be desired “for the advancement of learning.” His estate was left to his widow, and his son, Albert Rogers Perkins of Greenwich Village, is cut off with a pair of gold cufflinks.

CONVICT’S NEWSPAPER FOR THOSE SERVING “TIME” The first number of a convicts’ review called “Confidence,” has recently been printed In the prison of Vacz, Budapest. The paper, which costs 16 fillers a copy, or three peugo for a yearly subscription, gives a resume of topical events, and touches questions of art, literature, science, and morality. It is only obtained by those serving terms of imprisonment in Hungarian prisons. It is hoped that later on the convicts themselves may be induced to collaborate in the production of the paper, the originator of which is Mrs. Kmil Nagy, for many years a prominent worker in the prison missions, and wife of Mr. Emil Nagy, former Minister of Justice. MODEST TYPIST OMITTING VULGAR WORDS When he examined the copy of a letter typed by a woman, Judge Sir Alfred Tobin, at Westminster County Court, found that it differed from the original, particularly in the omission of vulgar adjectives. After making many additions, in accordance with the original document, Judge Tobin said: “We can’t have women interfering with papers for courts of law. These women must know—and the sooner the better—that they must not amend or omit any such expressions because they don't like them.” A man in the witness box said that the letter was copied by his wife. The Judge: Oh, I assumed that it was some lawyer’s typist. Well, your wife ought not to have made an inaccurate copy for me. A TOOTHLESS RACE? NO BUFFALO MEAT EATEN! Dr. Edward L. Wharton, president of the New 7 Jersey State Dental Society, which held its midwinter meeting in Atlantic City, predicted that in a thousand years people may be born without teeth, having no use for them. Signs of it are evident now. he said, in the failure of many people to acquire four wisdom teeth. Chicken a la king, tenderloin steak and other soft foods are depriving the teeth of the work they were formerly called upon to do, such as masticating fresh buffalo meat, according to Dr. Wharton. Extensive eating of vegetables is also deteriorating teeth, he added. PROLIFIC AUTHOR 16,000 WORDS IN 16 HOURS George Bernard Shaw has written about 30 plays in the course of as many 7 years—or an average of one a year. Mr. A. L. de Bruyne, a young Dutchman living at Northampton, obviously wields a more fluent pen. He has written no few 7 er than 19 Plays in five mouths—or about one a week —and is now engaged on a twentieth! And one of his dramas, “The House of Crooks,” is to be produced shortly I hy the Northampton repertory I players. "Up to the end of last July,” Mr. de | Bruyne said, "I knew nothing about writing plays. But I had had six ' books published in Holland. "I began play writing on the sug- j Kestion of a Dutch critic, who advised j me to write for the repertory theatres. ' “I represented an engineering firm. ] but I have given up m.v work and am going to use all my time in writing J Plays. “I can finish a 16,000-word play in i 16 hours.”

NO SALE! .FACE POWDER FOR POLICEMEN, “Buy some face powder, mate? It won’t cost yer much!” • . mau sta sgered up to two tall men j in Riley Street, Sydney, recently, with this request. One man went red in the face. ’’Where did you get it?” he asked. ! suspiciously. X got six packets for six bob, mate.” ! “Come with us,” suggested the two men. The stranger obliged and v.as escorted to Darlinghurst, where ,ie was charged with having hawked without a licence. The two were policemen. SMOULDERING SLAG-HEAPS WHICH WATER CANNOT QUENCH j Among the troubles of the great ' 1 industrial cities in the Ruhr are smouldering slag-heaps, oiack monsters with cores of fire that defy a T . e F orts to quench them. The. artificial hills contain coal, and -gnite * through spontaneous combustion. They smoulder sometimes for decades, and neither water nor earth avails against them. The suburb of Alstaden, in Oberhausen, has long suffered from the fumes emitted by one, and is now trying to remove it bodily. At Essen the slag-heap of Krupp’s cast-steel works has been burning J since 19X4.

MOURNING BEARDS BARBERS VOICE A PROTEST Barbers in Vizeu, Portugal, have begun a movement to abolish the practice among Portuguese men of wearing long beards when a relative dies. it is asserted by the barbers’ unions that this custom, which predates the Moorish invasion of Portugal, deprives barbers of legitimate trade and also is unhygienic. This custom of allowing the beard to grow when a relative dies is not confined to the villages, but extends to large towns, the length of the man’s beard being looked upon as a measure of the mourner’s grief. The mourners also wear black shir-ts as token of their sorrow. They give up this sombre garb only when they discard their beards. HYDROPHOBIA FROM A DOG’S SKIN In Szathmarnemeti, Budapest, a tanner’s assistant has died of nydrophobia, after biting two persons. It is stated that four years ago the lad was bitten by a dog; but as, in the opinion of the director of the Budapest Pasteur Institute, hydrophobia could not remain undeclared in the human system for that length of time, it is believed that the lad became infected from a dog’s skin which he was tanning when he became ill. Several cases of hydrophobia have occurred in the town of Baja, owing to dogs being bitten by infected dogs from the neighbouring villages, and the city doctor has advised the Town Council to order the innoculation of the 1,500 dogs which the town contains MIDNIGHT PROWLERS FIVE WANDERING LIONS The escape of a lion and four lionesses from their cage in St. George’s Drill Hall, Newcastle, where Chapman’s Circus and Zoo is quartered, created consternation recently. Toward midnight the animals were found to be prowling about the ring. Fortunately, there were people in the sergeants’ mess at the hall, and they went to the aid of the attendants. Circus horses were moved to a place of safety and the lionesses were coaxed back into the cage without much difficulty, but the lion gave more trouble. It crouched and snarled, but when the trainer whispered its name the animal recognised its master and went into the cage. INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE TO GO HATLESS IN WINTER Those who like to go hatless, even in winter, may find Wilkesbarre, U.S.A., inhospitable to their whim should the City Council adopt a resolution submitted’ by Mayor Hart, who thinks that not to wear a hat in winter is an insult to the intelligence of “God-fearing citizens.” So, Mayor Hart, admitting he wants to stimulate hat sales as well as get rid of a “new species of lunatics,” has drafted a resolution to the council which declares that “those who insist on going hatless in winter weather be declared insane and placed behind the walls of asylums." As a postcript, is added: “It is O.K. to go hatless in summer.” BEGGING THE QUESTION BERNADOTTE’S TATTOOED ARM End-of-term examinations have just been held in the high schools of Paris. In one of these, girls of 14 were set the following subject for an essay: “In 1793 Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s marshals, had an arm tattooed with the inscription, ‘Death to all tyrants!’ Having become King of Sweden and having fallen sick, his physician wanted to bleed him. Compelled thus to reveal the inscription, imagine the dialogue that followed between the doctor and the King.” As the essay had to be written at home, one of the girls sought counsel of her father. And this is what she wrote: “Bernadotte came from Bearn. The inhabitants of this section of France are renowned for their canniness. The very text of the subject of this essay specifies that he had ‘an arm' tattooed. It follows logically I that it was . the non-tattooed arm that j he presented to the physician who ] wanted to bleed him. Consequently I there was no dialogue.”