GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 July 1913, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

TAMING A WASP. The late Lord Avebury (eays the Evening Standard) was so fond of insects that he was able to tame a wasp, which he took from her nest in the Pvrcnees and brought home in a bottle. She used to feed from his hand and allowed him to stroke her. When she died her body was enshrined in the British Museum,

PLANTING PEARLS. Charles Frederick von Glahn, the fivi-year-old son of Herr von Glahn, of Berlin, who is staying at the Hotel Astor, New York, has inaugurated a new era in horticulture (says the Daily Express). He watched gardeners planting seed in the hotel roof garden, and when they had gone to dinner secured his mother's pearl necklace, which is worth £I6OO, and planted the pearls. His nurse caught him just as he was finishing his seedsowing, and when the men returned they had to dig up the whole garden. Eventually the pearls were all recovered.

INVERTED HATS. The rector of Camelford in a recent number of the Deanery Magazine, writes: "The rector must beg that no lady who reads this will again present herself at the altar in a hat a parasol,.or in that.other arid '"'more repulsive" shape which resembles a beehive or an inverted large and shallow basin. We should be glad if any lady of Camelford who feels that her head covering comes under the above description wrtuld take heed to this admonition. St, Paul's direction is that the head, and not the face, should be covered." DUEL BY AVALANCHE.

A duel by avalanche has taken place at Courmayeur, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Two young men, one a guide, who were in love with an Italian girl named Altinq,.,quarrelled, and it was decided that one .of them should depart this world. *They chose a novel method. As in the month of May many avalanches fall on the Cul du Geant, between Chamonix' and Courmayeur, at a height cf about POOO. feet, the rival? agreed to stand'in the most exposed places in&burn for several hours at Eventually the youn<r guide, was swept away by an avalanche over 100 feet'in area, but was only injured. The rivals will now be obliged to use another and handier weapon if they still desire a further cwfcest for the girl's affections; A CHIEF'S 300 WIVES.

~r . ..Vive-Consul,'<sa,st.etts.; in a, Wbite- ' paper just issued,"'■; describes : ,a- .visitto ,'■ ho:ne , of,'. iLupungu, 'chief and.'oae.; of -.thfe iri. the Congo: "lie is a' yilfoiiipuslookiaj? native. hawng but on-s eye, and .a countenance-scarred by smallpox. When quite a young man he dressed himself up in fantastic garbs, and, persuading the natives that hig blind eye gave him the power of dealing with the occult, or, in other words, that hs was a witch' doctor, he soon collected a many followers. About this period he. made, friends with- the Arab tradersj of whom there were a. number in the neighbourhood at the time, and assisted by tliem, ntade war upon his father,.. 'whom he conquered. He with installed as chief of the a oosition he has held ever since. He possesses some three h;mc\red, ojjnori wives", amf readily pays the tax of.le 8d pert wife domaudei-b.ythe State.

MOTOR CAB, POLO. | Polo with armoured "motor cars instead of ponies is one of the -latest forms of '.sport. Tvams have been brought over to England by Mr K. C. Klegiti'frohi America,,- where,,h:> told a representative of, the Daily Mail, "motor polo is already considered the most dangerous pastime yet invented. It is just the most thnl-, ling spectacle you can imagine. The cars,arc most of 20 h.p.' Thev -aw. geared so that they can 'get off tile mark' as if they had been kicked off., They are specially built, and' every important nart— axles, engine, radiator, wheels, hubs and the protected bv steel' trusses. An iron hoop is. fixed across the chassis, clearing the driver's liead, »:> that if an upset occurs he may have somd protection. The player stands on a run-ning-board by the side of .th* car.. Do we often have smashes? A good game is a series of smashes. Ihink of two cars rushing at each other from opposite ends ©f a 800-yard , ground to reach the ball. When'they meet over the ball I think you may say there is a kind of upset." . A PAWNSHOP IN DISTRESS.

The official pawnshop of. Pansj -the is in distress (the Telegraph says'.. It is out of funds, and before the. end of six weeks it will require 10,000,000 francs to continue to lend on people s watches, chains, and candlesticks. What has reduced the official pawn institution to such distress? It- has to hand over all its profits to the Assistance Publique, and thus it can form no-reserves. The absurd result is that tli? Mdnt-de-Piete has periodically to borrow money'; for which it ■pavs thfi current interest of 3£ per cent. This amount has to be deducted from the 8* per cent which it imposes on all articles pawned. Thus, in order to give profits to one set or poor p.ople protected by the Assistance Publique, another set of. poor people or oersons reduced momentarily to straits has to pay. The Mont-cle-Piete is "not .popular, anyway, as the whole Latin. Qutrrierjs of opinion that it ought .to be abohslred,; It accepts the watches of ~studem&~--and fiances, and never gives them, bacK~ unless the money is refunded, acting thus like a bad-uncle or "old aunt,", the name by which the institution is 'known. ■ > ■ '•''<