GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 243, 12 November 1903, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

A BELLMAN'S RECORD. Norwich boasts of a remarkable town crier in the person ol Bellman CMlderhouse. He has just stated to a, journalist that since his appointment in April, 1877, he has walked the streets on 8241 days, and travelled on an average eight miles daily, with an aggregate of 65,928 miles. He has made on an average two announcements per diem, with 35 to 40 cries each, a total of 576,870, with an equal number of bellrings. He estimates the average announcement at 33 words, giving a total of 19,030.700 words. He is one of the Corporation officials, and at all functions attended by the corporate body, including church attendance, officiates as sword-bearer, MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH. Mr Stead, F.R.S., Gold Medallist, Iron and Steel Institute, his wife, and two children, and a chauffeur, lave had an almost miraculous escape from a terrible death. One day they were driving in a motor car from Darlington, when a train of trucks came across a level railway crossing, without gates. Nothing but a frightful smash up seemed to face the party, but the chauffeur, with remarkable presence of mind, charged down on a heavy post, and • turning the car cleverly up the line, raced in front of the engine. Before the latter could be pulled up, how-

ever, it ran into the rear of the car.but, fortunately, beyond fright acid a few bruises, the party were no worse for the mishap.

—o— A NOVEL EXPLOIT. The English Channel has been crossed by many vessels, by two or three balloons, and by one venturesome swimmer. None of these methods of travel, however, can satisfy such an ambitious person as Mr S. F. Cody. Having a war kite, which has been adopted by the British navy, he is anxious to test its capabilities in the arts of peace aleo. With this object he intends to try a trip to France by a somewhat ingenious method of propulsion. After seating himself in a small boat at Dover a kite will be flown, and if the wind only blows favourably from tha north it is confidently believed tljat the craft can be towed to some part of the opposite shore.

CANARIES FOR THE KING. A South London tradesman, who lias had great success as a canary fancier, has asked for and obtained permission to make the King a present, which is believed to be unique. Having heard of His Ma-esty's love of canaries and his recent purchase of a large number for the rooms at Windsor Castle, hj« proposes to present the King with a couple of these songsters, one of which sings "Rule, Britannia" perfectly, and the other "God Save the King." He has trained them to accomplish this remarkable feat by confining them in a darkened room for several hours each day for many months, while an Automatically working gramaphone continued to repeat the tunes. The Queen, who took a pet canary to Ireland with her, is as much interested as His Majesty in these latest additions to the Royal collection. MAD MILLIONAIRE.

Mr George T. Cline, aged eightythree, has recently died at Chicago, leaving neither wife nor children. His estate was supposed to be worth about £SOOO, but the executor has already discovered deeds and other papers showing that he owned land in nine States and was worth at least one million sterling. After the World's Fair, Mr Cline bought a hotel of seventy-five rooms, and lived there alone. He occupied only one room, hut had all the others furnished. Under his bed he kept eight violins, among them an Aniati worth £3OO. He played the violin almost constantly day and night during the last ten years. Sometimes he was not seen for two days, during which he would go without food. Then hei would repair to a cheap restaurant and buy a meal costing od, furnishing his own tea, for which he paid tea pound. He allowed himself 12s a month for food. Besides collecting violins, the only known amusement he indulged in was seeking out Irishmen with rich brogues and buying food- and liquor for them in order to hear them talk. Mr Cline bequeathed his estate to his brother and other relatives.

tt. WORKMAN'S HUGE WINDFALL. Quoting the Vossiscke Zeitung the Berlin correspondent of the 'Daily Express says that a young Russian mechanic, Ivan Doroschenko, em-ploj-{8 on the railway works at Kharkoft at a wage of a pound a Week, has inherited a fortune of six millions sterling. According to this Journal the celebrated Russian netman Doroschenko, who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century, and died in 1750, left a will by which bis fortune was left to the care of the State for 150 years, and then to be divided among his direct descendants, according to a scheme included in the will. After exhaustive search the authorities have ascertained that the iuechasdc, Ivan, poroschenko, was entitled to almost the whole of the fortune, which assumed colossal dimensions through the accumulation of interest. A few flays ago two notaries appeared at tin workshop at Kbarkoff, and found young Doroschenko working hard in a eorduroy suit, with bare arms,and communicated to him the intelligence ol his good fortune.

—o— KYLEMORE CASTLE. The Duke of Manchester has purchased Kylemore Castle and the estate of 13,000 acres for £63,000, and possession was handed over to His Grace a few d-ays ago. The estate is in the heart of Connemara, and the castle has several times been assigned by rumour as a probable Royal residence. This new seat of the Duke of Manchester occupies a situation for beauty which is certainly unrivalled in the whole length fend breadth of Ireland. The residence, which was seven years in building, was planned on 'the most lavish lines. Built of granite, faced with limestone, it is in the Elizabethan style, and in the interior Cornienrara marble is largely employed for the pillars, chimneypieces, and in other wavs, with charming effect. It is an Irish home, generously planned, and the work of Irish labour, and is in the midst of scenery which is among' the glories of Ireland.

—o— A NEW TRAMWAY LIFEGUARD

Apropos of recent tram accidents fci Auckland, the following' is of interest. Few inventors, says the Morning Tost, can have taken the course adopted by an inventor in Cleveland, U.S.A., to demonstrate tlw value of his apparatus. He had claimed that his fender or cow-catch-er would strike ami would pick up an animal or person in the way of the moving car without inflicting the least injury. In order to prove this .valuable attribute he flung himself down in front of a traiiicur litter! with his fender when tin; car was moving at the rate of twelve miles an hour down an incline. The car was stopped as soon as possible, and the inventor taken from the basket of the fender. He came out without a scratch. fender in a lattice-work of iron pivoted at an unjjle of afrout 33 deg. in fro Tit of the car ; and at the lowest point in front is a hollow rubber cylinder designed to strike the object at about two inches from the ground. As the obstacle falls on * he inclined plane

of the tender, the fender Immediately tips back and holds the obstacle it has swept up as if in a basket. Another flexible screen in front of the car prevents shock from contact with the car, —o— A REMARKABLB STORY OF SELF-SACRIFICE. Twice condemned to death for a crime he did not commit, David Rutter has recently been released from prison after serving a term of 27 years. It was in 1873 that he stood in the dock at Ipswich Assize Court, with another man, charged with the murder of a game-keeper on the estate of the Mahrajah . Duleep Singh. The whole burden of the guilt was assumed by Rutter, who completely exonerated bis companion from blame, and, on his own confession, was condemned to death. Many, however, believed in his innocence, and on the plea of a deformity in the neck, which would make hanging a horrible torture, a respite was obtained. Medical examination failed to confirm the theory, and he was again ordered for execution. Petitions still poured in, however, and at last his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. Now, on his release, an old man, he tells a sensational story. It was the other man who shot the gamekeeper, battered his head in, and then threw frim into a pond. But there was a woman whose heart would have been broken, and whose children would have been left fatherless, while Rutter was alone in the world, and, in addition, more than hints that he loved her. So he took the whole guilt upon himself, and has just •rept out from beneath the burden oS it—endured for 27 years.