GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 23 July 1913, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

POCKET TELEPHONES. A (serviceable pocket telephone is the latest innovation of the Hungarian Posts and Telegraphs Administration. The applicance weighs only 120 grammes, is no bigger than a card case, and can be had by anyone on payment of tho price of 40 ordinary telephone conversations, whi'h cost a penny each. The pocket telephone is adapte for insertion in a wall plug, either in a private house, on street walls, or in a lamp-post, etc. When the user has finished his conversation, he simply removes the telephone from the plug and puts it back in his pocket.

THE ADVANTAGES OF RED HAIR

- A Chicago lawyer has been convinced by experience that the best officeboys are those with red hair, the brighter the better. He wants an office boy just now, and in his advertisement for one he stipulates that the applicant must have red hair. "I have always been keen for the redhaired office boys," said the lawyer. "Up to the age of adolescence I find them livelier, more adaptable, more willing. They are good-natur-ed. They hare better digestions. They are more alert." A RECORD IN CHURCH-GOING. Wyoming, a suburb of Cincinnatti, beat the world's record for churchgoing on Sunday, May 25th (says the. Westminster /Gazette*. Out of its 3000 inhabitants not more than 30 stayed at home, and they wot? ill. The four churches of the suburb had to hold extra services to accommodate the worshippers. The golf links, usually crowded on Sunday, were .deserted. The owners of motor-cars gave their chauffers a day off, and trudged to church side by side with them. Cooks were excused the preparation of Sunday dinners, and were provided with seats in their employr ers' pews. Tliis anticipation of the millennium was the result of a house-to-house canvass made by the Moral Uplift Committee of the Wyoming Welfare Assocation. MAXIMS FOR CRIMINALS. Quotations from a diary found on the body of Bert Schultz, twentythree, an engineer of Parkhurst-rd., Manor Park, were read at the inquest at Waltham Abbey. He - was discovered at the foot of a steep hill in Eppfrig Forest with the skull fractured, loftded five chambered revolver and five cartridges in his pockets, and a wrecked free-wheel bicycle wiftiout brakes lying near. Among the entries in the diary were:—"The successful thief must in all respects live like an honest man. To put valuable property in a safe is practically to tell a thief where the property is. The man. who fears shadows is really on his waj r to ahadow-land. The impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner. It is poshible by a fairly powerful tame bird to smuggle diamonds out of the country. I really thmk and should prefer to steal for a living, provided I could find easy daylight cribs." The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

MARRIAGES IN GERMANY. A recent publication of the Imperial Bureau of Statistics in Germany gives some interesting particulars concerning tjie age of parties who contracted marriages during the year 1910. The youngest bridegroom was only 15 years" old; but of youths. a year older 16 were married and one was already a widower. Marriages at 17 years of age, were much more numerous ; for there were 63 youths married at this age, of whom one was a widower. At the age of 18 marriage is by no means an exceptional condition,' for 511 young men of 18 were married, six were widowers, and one was even divorced. -As. for the young women in Germany, the youngest brides are also aged 15. Sixtyfour girls of that age were married in 1910; while there were 539 married women of 16 years, of whom 12 were widows and one divorced. From the same report we derive the following figures concerning the number of centenarians in Germ&hy. Fifteen men were over 100 years old; 12 of whom were widowers, two old bachelors, and .one married with a wife still living. At the same time there were 48 women over 100 years old; of whom 42 were widowes, four old maids, and two married with husbands yet alive. The result of the figures seems fairly plain. In Germany, at least, women marry earlier and live longer than the men.