From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 980, 24 May 1930, Page 19

From Many Lands

TABLOID READING FOR THE WEEK-END.

VETERAN OATH-TAKER , ONLY NINE YEARS OF AGE Charlie was only nine, but he J stepped into the witness box in the Divorce Court in Australia recently, and took the oath like a veteran. Asked by the judge if he knew what the oath meant, Charlie replied, “Oh yes, it’s to help me to tell the truth.” "He’ll do,” said the judge, "he’s been here before.” "THROWS A MEAN TRUNK” CHICAGO BAGGAGE DROPPER As a baggage smasher Willis Brunney, of Chicago, “throws a mean trunk.” That's Mrs. Brunney’s story Willis, she told a judge, loved his work and sought to improve his technique He would drive a truck load of trunks up to his door, throw them off, then throw them on again just for practice. When he began dropping them on her toes she sued for divorce, and she got it. PACIFIC OCEAN RESTS ON 25 MILES OF CRUST "Under the Pacific Ocean, the crust of the earth is only 25 miles thick.” So reports Dr. Jerry Byerley, of California University, to the United States Geographical Society. Dr. Byerley finds that the Pacific Ocean bed is not granite, as is the basic stratum of the land but some other rock, probably basalt, which is found below granite in continental areas. Measurements were made at Berkeley, California, by the “Love waves,” which characterise the beginnings and ends of earthquakes.

THE FRIGHT OF HIS LIFE DUELLO RULES BROKEN Anastasio Trejo, of Mexico City, received the fright cf his life when he was taken to the police station to meet the man he thought he had killed in a duel. Trejo and Bruno Caballero previously had decided to settle an old quarrel with pistols. They squared off back to back and started 12 paces in either direction. But Trejo, due to nervousness, he said, turned at the sixth pace and emptied his revolver at Caballero’s back. The latter fell. Caballero was revived and Trejo captured. MONEY CURSED CLAIMANTS FORFEIT £6,000 Because they believe a curse lies upon it, the heirs of a legacy of £6,000 refuse to touch the money. Recently Johann Jungmann, the village baker of Rakus, Czechoslovakia, received a lawyer’s letter informing him he was the heir of a wealthy uncle who had always disliked him. Soon after he received the money Jungmann was taken ill and died the next day. His eldest sdn, who, like his father, had always been exceptionally healthy, inherited his farther’s fortune, including the legacy of the uncle, and within a week he also fell ill and died. The property has now been inherited by the younger son, but neither he nor any other member of the family will touch the uncle’s legacy. It has accordingly been placed in chancery and will eventually revert to Cie State. THE MINSTREL PLAYING HIS WAY ROUND WORLD With an army pack strapped to his spare shoulders, and a much-worn mandolin in his hands, James Foley, 44. ex-stoker, petty officer in the Royal Navy, arrived in Sydney recently, on his journey round the world. In company with Bert Codman, a singer, he left Dewsbury, England, on June 1, 1928, without a penny, to strum his way round the globe. At the end of a week Codman gave up, but Foley determined to stick it out, and has been travelling ever since. He Intends visiting Melbourne and Adelaide, and hopes to work his passage back to England this year. HER WEIGHT IN MILK COW'S PHENOMENAL RECORD A net milking record for her breed has been set up by Dumpling, a Shorthorn cow owned by Mr. John Bay, of Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Recently she gave 10 4-S gallons of milk. This cow in 14 days averaged more than 10 gallons daily, the total weight of her milk in that period—l,4263lb —being approximately her own bodily vreight.

BRETON OR CORSICAN? NAPOLEON PUZZLES HISTORIANS So perhaps Napoleon Bonaparte was not the “litt?j Corsican” after all? M. Dagnet, president of an histori cal society at St. Malo. claims that the Emperor was born at Penanvers, near Mcrlaix, in Brittany. Visiting Ajaccio, in Corsica, Napoleon’s historical birthplace, M. Dagnet learned that no one could produce even a copy of Napoleon's birth certificate. No official proof was forthcoming that he was born there. It is true that Penanvers, too, can not produce a birth certificate, but that only enables M. Dagnet to point out that, in the local register, the pages recording the births in 1760 and 1770—Napoleon was born in 1769 —are missing. During that period Penanvers belonged to General Marbeus, who was tor a time Governor of Corsica. He was a friend of the Bonaparte family, the members of which used to visit his Brittany estate. During one of the visits, M. Dagnet maintains, Napoleon was born at the General’s chateau. Later someone stole the pages of the births register.

FOG RAY 70 MILES LONG A “fog beacon," said to be able to send a beam of light through the thickest fog, has been invented by a Los Angeles engineer, and will soon be introduced to the local aviation i fields. The device was recently tested at i Oakland, California, and the beam i was said to have been seen by pilots for a distance of almost 70 miles. DEAD CHINESE MEANS £3O TO SURGEON Dead Chinese, according to the doctor on one of the Far Eastern vessels trading to Australia, are really more interesting to him than live members of the species. Strange, but here’s the explanation: “Attending to the Chinese crew,” he says, “is without, any payment, and for the treatment of passengers I get only a nominal fee. “But there are compensations. If a Chinese dies there is a fee of £3O for embalming his body.” GALLANT TASMANIAN PREFERS ARISTOCRAT TO “PLEB.” Does it hurt less to be injured by an aristocrat than by a plebeian, by a high-powered luxurious car than by a “flivver”? There is one person in London who apparently thinks so. A young Hobart man, picking himself up in Piccadilly after he had been knocked down by a motor-car, discovered that he owed the mishap to an earl’s pretty daughter, who was driving a huge Rolls-Royce. He raised his hat and walked off smiling. “It Isn’t every Australian who is privileged to be knocked down by a Rolls-Royce or the aristocracy,” he says. “Anyway, it was my own fault." He did not discover that his nose was broken until he reached home.

PENNY-IN-SLOT ILLUMINATED MODEL CHURCH The famous church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields has a strange curio—none other than the architect’s model of the church and crypt, which secured for him the contract for the building of the church in 1721. For years the model has stood Inconspicuously In the porch or In the crypt, but now a system of internal lighting has been installed, and by inserting “a penny in the slot,” or indeed, any coin, it is possible to see the whole of the interior. PERISCOPE TRAP CAPTURES ERRING TRADESMAN A periscope was used as a thief trap by a shoemaker employed at a shop in E leetwood. The shoemaker told the magistrates he erected a periscope in the cellar and saw a man In the shop acting in a suspicious manner. He then signalled to detectives who were waiting outside. A joiner and undertaker, who pleaded guilty to charges of theft from the shop, was bound over. He said he wanted money to pay his employees. DOLL MENDER CLERIC’S BENEFICENT ROLE A little girl, hugging a battered doll, walked Into the vestry after early morning service at the Church of St. Richard, Hayward’s Heath, Sussex, recently, and asked the Rev. F. E. Coope to mend it for her. “All right, my dear,” said Mr. Coope, "it will be ready in a few days.” Mr. Coope expects many more battered dolls will be brought to him for repair, for he has advertised in the parish magazine for human hair with which to rejuvenate the bald dolls in the parish. "It is a hobby of mine, mending broken dolls," he says. , A SNAKE WILL TURN BUT THIS ONE WON’T AGAIN! Snakes at Taree, Aust.-alia, are a class above the usual “crawlers.” While Mr. Edwards, manager of “Money Saver” .store at Taree, was working in the drapery section of the store, the electric light in the grocery department was suddenly switched on. On investigation he found a fourfoot brown snake colled over tbe switchboard. As it wriggled it turned on two other lights. The snake will hunt no longer by electric or any other light in this world.

FOOTBALL’S ANCESTOR REVIVAL OF "CALCIO.” Picturesque ceremonies took place in Florence recently, accompanied by a revival of the historic game of calcio, which the Italians claim is the forerunner of modern football. It is believed to have originated In the Graeco-Roman times and was popular in the renaissance period when young Florentines staged a display during the Prince of Orange’s siege of the city in 1529, in defiance of the enemy who bombarded the players with cannon shots, fortunately missing. Calcio is a complicated from of rugger and there are 27 players aside, who are dressed in white and green, representative of the opposite banks of the Arno. The ancient procedure was scrupulously observed, including a procession and attendance at church. Ten thousand people were present when trumpeters announced the opening of the game. The sides changed ends after each had scored a goal. At the end of the game the winners carried a standard, which was unfurled, while the losers trailed their’s in the dust.