IRISH TIMES ODDITIES:
ADVERTISEMENT HOAX: A 15-YEAR-OLD boy who hoaxed scores of unemployed men in an attempt to "spite" a firm which had dismissed him, was placed on probation for two years at Wimbledon. He was summoned for obtaining 4s. credit by false pretences from the
Wimbledon Borough News.
Captain WH Stoakley, of the Wimbledon Borough News, said he received an advertisement on a scrap of paper on October 8th. It appeared to be signed by someone he knew, and was to advertise vacancies at a local business house. Mr William Henry Curtis, manager of the New Cathedral Press, Wimbledon, said he found 50 people waiting outside his office. They told him they had come in reply to an advertisement stating that his firm required employees between the ages of 15 and 50. The firm had no vacancies.
Det Sgt Long read a statement made by the boy, in which he said he was formerly employed by the New Cathedral Press, and was very upset when he was discharged. He inserted the advertisement to annoy the firm, and hoped they would have to pay for it. Mr Curtis said that after the boy left the firm over 300 letters which should have been posted by him were found under his mattress at his home. None of them had been tampered with.
November 9th, 1934
WEASEL VERSUS HAWK
A hawk was seen yesterday to swoop down on the bog at Miltonpass, near Mullingar, and fly off, bearing in its claws a weasel. Suddenly it fell to earth. The hawk was found to be dead; the weasel, alarmed at the approach of onlookers, scuttled hastily to its heather retreat.
May 10th, 1928
COW’S STRANGE DIET
When at Tulla District Court Mrs Conheady sued Michael Long and Thomas McAllen, Gortaveha, for damages sustained through the trespass of their cows on her land.
She said that in three visits the cows had done £6 worth of damage by eating clothes which she had out drying. These included five men’s shirts, socks, silk stockings, towels, handkerchiefs, pillow slips and a silk dress. The Justice gave decrees for £3 against McAllen and £1-10s against Long.
November 5th, 1938
A CURE FOR INDIGESTION
Because it has no chewing teeth and swallows its prey whole, a snake needs strong digestive juices. Rich Chinese in Hong Kong use these to aid digestion after heavy banquets at Christmas and other festivals. Three snakes are used, all highly poisonous.
They are the Black-Flesh Snake, the Tree Jumper and the Triangle Snake. At the end of a banquet, a basket of live snakes, with their poison-sacs removed, may be brought to table. Each guest is given a small glass half-filled with rice-wine. Then a snake-handler selects one snake and slits it expertly so that its gall-sac is pierced and the emerald-green liquid pours into the wine. The guest quaffs the triple-sac cocktail in one draught, and goes home to sleep off the food – and probably grows very fat! The “cure” is also sold in bottles in Hong Kong.
December 28th, 1956
Two collections by Allen Foster,
Foster’s Irish Oddities
(2006) and
Foster’s Even Odder Irish Oddities
(2007) are available from New Island books, www.newisland.ie