GENERAL NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 September 1913, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

A SERPENT TONGUE. Twenty citizens; oi City, New Jersey, have succeeded in convicting a nagging neighbour as a "common scold" (says the Evening Standard). She is known locally as "the woman with, the serpent tongile" and the magistrates propose to banish her from the city. • * RUSSIAN B#y-SOOUT FIREMEN. The Russian Ministry of the Interior is considering the question of creating quite a novel type of Boy Scout. The official idea is to form brigades of boys who will be instruct-. Ed in> ill the duties of firemen arid the correct way to save life in case off an outbreak of fire. At the same time, the "fire scouts'* will be taught the supreme necessity of taking every precaution to avoid fire. The brigades will also serve to instruct the youngsters in the elements of' military training. :*. ■ ' CABLE-EATING SHRIMPS. In consequence of the damage, done by shrimps and other crustacea, the French Post Off ice has found it necessary to reinforce 'their s submarine telegraph, cable by roll of gutta percha arid hemp (says the Mail'B Paris correspondent). The cable from Naples to Palermo and the new cables between Sicily and Tripoli have had to be encased in a copper envelope, as the shrimps bore their way through the outer covering and so destroy the insulation. LATEST SNAKE STORY. While trouirfi&hing in a mountain stream, ltear Mountaindale, George Enser,■■"a well-known business nian of Piedmont, Va., was . attacked' by' snakes; and before*he could beat them" off,.the reptiles- had: entwined t themselves about him", binding his arms, hands and-feet/ The snakes, over a dozen in number, measured from 4ft to 6ft in length. The story goes that Enser had the presence of mind to roll down the hill into the fire that he had built to warm his breakfast. His clothing caught fire, and the snakes, scorched and sizzling, untwined from his body and escaped. Enser, though badly burned, ran to the trout stream and threw himself into the water, extinguishing his burning clothes. His body, arms and face were severely humed. THE FIRST MAP OF JAPAN. "An interesting story of the life and work of the first man to make a reliable map of Japan is told by Colonel B." B. Knobel. Ino Chuket, for such was his name, was a very remarkable man. Born in 1747, he oar--ried on business as a brewer until about 1800, amassing considerable money. Late in life he asked to be allowed to make a map of Japan at his own expense For eighteen year s he continued his labours, employing thirteen assistants, including four pupils, and the result of his work was afterwards incorporated in fourteen volumes. Air the instruments he made were of his own construction, and it was stated that the original instruments were on view at the Shepherd's Bush Exhibition last year. It has been ascertained, however, that only tho compass was an original, the other instruments having been destroyed by fire."