HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 108, 23 September 1912, Page 1

HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

A MODERN LOCHINVAR. A romantic story of a modern Young ' Lochinvar who carried off his sweet- ; heart in a motor car is reported from |' Innsbruck. Fraulein Charlotte Phillippi, i a pretty girl of. nineteen, was spending j the summer in the Tyrol, whither her; parents had brought her in the hope that she might forget her fiance, Herr Dans Dobrits, whom she had left behind at Charlottenburg. The parents objected to the marriage on the ground that their daughter was still too young, but the lovers thought otherwise. The girl wrote to her fiance that she would not forget him, and the result wa3 that, a» the Phillippis were making an excur-' sion to the Toblach forest, a motor car drove up and stopped in front of them. In the car was Herr Dobrits. The girl ran forward to greet 'him, and before the | astonished parents could interfere she I had stepped into the car, and the pair j were speeding away towards Vienna.

SUICIDE AT COMMAND. I The dead body of Nathan Swartz, a young man of twenty, was found in a : slum boardinghouse on the East side of j New York recently. He had asphyxiat- j ed himself with gas, and by his side wa« a written confession of the murder of a twelve-year-old girl, Julia Connois. In his confession Swartz stated that ihe must have 'been insane when he killed the child, and that he was so remorseful that he felt compelled to take-his own life. He stated that he told his father of the commission of t>he crime, and that the latter's advice was to commit suicide. Swartz bought a pistol, for this purpose, but declared that, he preferred to die by means of gas. The confession stated that he lived ten days in the house in which his body was found, which is only a few yards from a police station. He had been coming a«d going to a neighboring factory, where he worked under an alias, and ia doing so was obliged to pass the police station twice a day. He was never recognised by the police, although they were searching for him.

FUNERAL OF A DOG

A chemist in the Rue Canon, in Toulon, named M. Aubert, buried in strange circumstances his dog Phoebus, a fine Newfoundland animal, of which he was very fond. For the occasion the chemist closed his shop all day, and posted a notice on the shutters: "Closed on account of the death of Phoebus, poisoned by some brute." About eleven o'clock a hearse arrived, in which a small coffin, containing the remains of the animal, were placed. The coffin was covered witli white cloth and a dozen wreaths. M. Aubert seated himself beside the driver, and the hearse, drawn by two white horses, proceeded to the chemist'? garden in the suburbs, where the animal was buried.

A TAX ON FAT PEOPLE.

A small French town in the Pyrenees district has struck* a novel way to increase revenue from taxation. The ordinary channels not bringing enough to carry out certain projected improvements, the municipal council decided to place a tax on the physical weight of the citizens, arranging the following scheme:—Below 1351b, no tax; from 1351b to 2001b, 12s annually is demanded 1 ; from 2001b to 2701b, 18s; for all weights above this figure the tax increases at the rate of 24s for each 201b. Trouble came when the local authorities tried to collect the tribute. Most of the fat people formed a committee to appeal tp the prefect, who represents the federal authority in the district. Thus a stay w*s gained. But it appears probable that the town" could put" into J execution the new law if it should fight the case ia the courts. Most of the opposition came from the women, who held meetings and torchlight processions to signify their opposition to the measure, which struck thein harder than their husbands.

A MARTYR TO BEAUTY. Charles Beab, the chef of a fashionable restaurant, and notable because of his fine complexion and striking figure, accidentally electrocuted himself during his daily work of beautifying himself. He 1 was' in the habit of devoting two hours daily to his elaborate toilet. One' Sunday night Beab went to his room and began his beautifying work. As later examination showed, he massaged his face with cold cream, then evidently began to use an electric needle for buit development. His reason for wishing to enlarge his bust is supposed to be 'his desire to make his shirt sit better. He attached a needle wire to the electric light in his room, turned off the current; worked the needle over his breast, and dropped dead. The occupants of the adjoining room heard the fall and found the 'body. The doctor said it -was a clear case of electrocution. An examination of the cupboards disclosed an array of beauty lotions. The man was not effeminate, but was actuated merely by a desire to preserve his handsome appetrance. j

PALACE OF RADIUM. A radium palace is being built in Paris, and will be formally opened by the Minister of Public Instruction in October of next year. The palace will cost £16,000 to build, and will consist of three small pavilions joined together. One will be a radium laboratory in which Mme Curie will experiment. Another will belong to the Pasteur Institute for experimenting purposes; while the third, which is to be between the other two, is being built as a great safe, with walls of lead, and every possible precaution against -burglary. In this pavilion there will never be less than several hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of radium itored, and there may often be much more. ,

A DESPERATE EXPEDIENT. The management of the Hotel Virgina Long Beach, issued urgent invitations to one hundred "eligible" young men of Los Angeles, offering practically free room and board for a month, as an inducement to liecome guests. The cause of the unusual offer is the fact that fully 160 young and healthy

maidens, with their chaperons, or parents, are guests ;it the hotel, and not many more than half-a-dozen young men are registered.

The young women issued an ultimatum to the management and to their parents and chaperons that unless sufficient young men as eseorts arid companions at swimming, tennis, golf, motoring and dancing appear soon, they will leave for other parts. The hotel offered a rate of £5 a month for room and hoard to a list of "perfectly nice" young men. The regular rates are £1 a day and up, the lowest £23 a month.

HISSING A COFFIN. A scandalous scene took place at Breslau in. connection with the removal of the remains of a 'bankrupt banker named Knappe from the- mortuary to the station. Several hundred people assembled in front of the mortuary, and when the coffin appeared the crowd began to hiss and use abusive language. They were the victims of the banker, and they considered that they had a right to give vent to their indignation. The hissing was kept up until the coffin reached the station. The police found it necessary to intervene and clear the ' approaches to the station. ( I LANCASHIRE YEOMAN'S RECORD. 80 YEARS ON ONE FARM. Mr. Robert Edmundson, of Cottam's Farm, 'Hesketh Bank, a rural village on the West Lancashire coast, about midway between Blackpool and Southport, can boast of the wonderful record of living on his farm for nearly 80 years. "I was born in April, 1832," said the old man, "and came 'here with my father ! and mother when I was four years old, and I have been here ever since—and ; likely to be until the end of the chap--1 ter." 1 Mr. Edmundson farms 100 acres of ' land on Hesketh Marsh, all of which ■ have "been reclaimed from the sea by Sir ' Thomas Hesketh, two huge banks, which ' Mr. Edm'ondson helped to build, having ! keen constructed for this purpose. He ' distinctly remembers the time when Southport was little more than a fishing village, and in those days the only market towns in South-west Lancashire were Liverpool and Preston, whither farmers had to convey all their produce- ' by road, there being, of course, no railways. He himself assisted to make both the railway from Preston to Southl port and from Preston to Liverpool. "I was the only son," continued the 1 old yeoman, who, despite his years, enj joys perfect health, "and for quite nine months of the year I was'continually on tihe road between Hesketh Bank and Preston, a distance of 12 miles, taking j produce to the market. Prices, of course, were much better then than now, but, on the other hand, crops were only half as good."