NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1920, Page 8

NEWS BY MAIL.

£IOOO HAT DECLINED. Paris, May 22. An association of American milliners in New York recently, as a token of their friendship towards France, hit upon the expedient of presenting a hat to Mme Deschanel. The hat was intended to "lick creation." It was to he one of the most beautiful specimens of the milliner's art, and was to cost ;CIOOO. N Mine Deschanel, however—realising that in these days of "luxury" it was hardly fitting that she should accept a present of this kind—through her husband wrote a polite note to the American Milliners' Association declining the gift, and saying she hoped they would quite understand the .reason that actuated her. CONVERTED CONVICTS AT DINNER. New York, May 23. Details of a dinner, unique in the annals of New York hotels, given on Saturday evening, have since leaked out. In a small private suite in the Hotel Pcnnslyvania, fifteen former Sing-Sing convicts gave a dinner to James M. Reynolds on the occasion of his resignation from the Christian Science Committee. Reynolds, in the course of seven years' work as parole officer and welfare worker, won the hearts of these men, who have all made good since their release on parole in,.his custody. One ex-forgcr is now a cashier; a former burglar is a bond salesman. Another man, whose speciality was robbing saloons, has since won a war cross, and is now an employer. Reynolds says that of 400 convicts paroled in his cutody, only two have gone wrong again. VIENNA CHILDREN LEAVE FOR ENGLAND. Vienna, May 21. Two hundred Vienna children, girls and boys, from fi to 14 years of age, left for England this evening, via Rotterdam, to be better fed for a length of time than is possible here. They are mostly .children of brain workers, professors, teachers, physicians, authors, and musicians. Further departures of children are to follow. Many thousands of Vienna children already have been sent to Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and a number also to Italy, but the British benefaction finds the greatest interest here, since everyone feels that this means more than the resumption of • diplomatic or commercial relations, the return to the friendly relations which always existed between England and Austria before the war.

MILLIONAIRE'S ESCAPE FROM ' PRISON. New York, May 22. A scandal rivalling that attending the escape of Harry Thaw from prison is likely to be occasioned by the escape from 'his gaolers of Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, the convicted millionaire army dodger and deserter. £ On Friday Bergdoll induced the War Department to let him leave the military prison at Governor's Island, New York, to make a motor trip, under guard to Hayerstown, Maryland, where he said ho had hidden £OO,OOO in gold in a mountain cache. Stopping at his home in Philadelphia, he entered the house, and afterwards eluded liis guards and sped off in the same car. The War Department, which is making strenuous efforts to recapture Bergdoll, holds his attorneys responsible. One of Ihem is the ex-Adjotant-Goneral of the army, Samuel Ansell. KAISER RELICS ON SALE IN NEW YORK. Now Y6rk, May 2fi. American millionaires will soon have the opportunity of furnishing their palaces witli the household belongings of Knii-er Wilhelm. The Anderson Galleries in New York to-morrow will place on private view sixty-five pieces from the Imperial Castle and Chateau Bellevue, in Berlin and the castle at Munich. Authentically these imperial effects, which include the hangings of the throne room, diapers, lamps, clocks, chairs, couches, .and tables, are vouched for by Valdemar Povelsen, a Danish American, attached to the American army, who says the Government took theiji over after they had been seized by tradesmen for the Hohenzollerns' unpaid bills, and permitted the export of a limited number, on the promise that- Mr. Povelsen would use the proceeds of the sale for the purchase of foodstuffs for resale in Germany. The normal value of 'the collection is estimated *t £OOO, but the purchaser [hopes to iell it for an emperor's ran--4081,