GENERAL NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 August 1913, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

A CUOUMISEU TRAGEDY. Intellect ual wfmu-a should be the most of foe: oni hoxsowivos, stud Mrs Flora Ann Sh-H, the novelist, in a talk at the Ljcwn Club; and domflKtic interruptions nood do no harm to their work. To prove her point Mrs Steel relate I an experience while writing "On Um Knee of the Waters." Just as sho was i" the middle of the account of Alico Going's death the luncheon bell rang, and she had to break off to go down to face a room full of people and hwr husband's agitated question ; "My aear why is thig cucumber so hittor r h "Never shall I forget the horror and confusion in my mind," said Mrs-Steel, "as I dragged myself back from the deathscene in India and forced myself to answer calmly, 'Because, my dear, you have cut it from the wrong end.' I don't think," she* went on, f'that the interruption did me any harm or that my readers ever detected where the cucumber broke into the middle of that chapter."

SPONGE-DIVER'S DISCOVERY. | How a shipwreck which is supposed to have occurred in 86 B.C. was discovered in 1907, is related by Professor Bosanquet. In 1907 some sponge divers found an ancient wreck on the sea'bottom at 25 fathoms four miles off the coast of Tunis, and the diving operations were carried on for five years. The shipfoad on board,a (»rgo•^.3maEble:eol^alms^«nd•woßks«l>f. ..aifcaitjyjtiw^ goading,as •were placed between A^aimi- ! lar -wreck in 1900 ioff. the Ckeek of «ri both bronzes wore parativety well preserved, piatcticUlarly'; a notable figure of Eros, which may be connected with thejehool of Praxtieles. In sharp contrast to- this is a group of very realistic statuettes which seem to represent dancers in an ancient cafe ©hantant. The vessel contained abundant remains of bronze furniture, braziers,' candelabra, and the feet and arms of bronze couches. LEICESTER BOOTS. The extraordinary rapidity with which the Leicester "boot," and shoe trade has developed is one of the most romantic incidents in the annals of British industry. In Leicester, until the last two generations, there was no establishecl traditions to mould-the aspirations of artisans. Hitherto the making of hosiery had absorbed almost the whole of their energies, the making of boots and shoes heing a new experiment. It is a striking comment on the resourcefulness of employers and -the singular adaptability of an ever-increasing army of workpeople that the new industry almost at once passed its experimental stage. To-day Leicester not only supplies nine-tenths of the British home trade in women's and children's footwear — the hranoh in which this district has always specialised—but her productions have a constant marget in almost every country in which British productions are known. Taken as a the county . of Leicestershire produces a gf eater quantity and value of boots and shoes thanany other like area in the world. HOT-DAY RESORT. The medical .museum, at; ~the Rojal College of Surgeons is an ideal place for a hot day, for the grimness 6|. some of the exhibits is bound"to make most people shiver or get that peculiar' feeling known as\'-making -your flesh creep" (says a London paper). A table iadeh with' j'awfcottes shows clearly how either, horses or kangaroos may have toothache very badly; there are examples of surgery as practised by New Ireland natives, with banana-fibre bandages all complete; relics of the Anglo-Saxons; object lessons in the construction of ring-, tailed lemurs, three-toed sloths, Mesicjan crocodiles, giraffes, blesboka, frogs, and seals, while an exhibition of the brain of the ■ Australian fish shows that this creature is much more intelligent than one would suspect. Looking down on this medley, arrogant in its completeness and superfluous feet of stature,"is the. skeleton'of an American-giant who was about three yards high when he was alive. ', From his special pedastal by the wall, near the doorway, he has witnessed .many .strange 'arrivals at the college, but nothing so awe-inspir-ing as himself. AN OLD SPORT REVIVED. For one afternoon the ancient sport of hawking was to be seen near Paris, when two of the last falconers in France gave an exhibition of the powers of the birds at the Juvisy aerodrome (says vthe Paris correspondentof the Daily Mail). Passenger flights in aeroplanes were also part of the programme, . and the contrast was somewhat incongruous. At one mo- - ment there was the green-clad falconer with a pair of hooded hawks sitting on his gloved wrist or whistling to lure'his tassel-gentle back again, wnd at the next mechanics an brown overalls were seen twisting an aeroplano propeller. While one of the falconers threw up a pigeon the othei-. would slip off the fy>od that blinded Jiis hawk and launch the bird into * the air. Swishing round in great circles thfl falcon sped after its prey in graceful flights. After overtaking it the hawk would pounce upon it either from the side or above and-frill with it to the ground. ' When the pigeon managed to escape the falconer whistled his bird off, waving a bunch of r black feathers or even a live pigeon atrjjhe end of a string as a lure. A pathetic kill was that of a timid rabbit which was hobbling away over the plain for some minutes before the falcon leapt upon it from the air.