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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1954-04-08, Page 6Here's A Dog That Lived Like A King There are only about eighteen honorary Freemen of the City of London -- a distinguished band to which the Queen and other members of the Royal family belong. So does Sir Win- ston Churchill, President Eisen- hower . and, admitted a few weeks ago, Mr. Attlee. But, astonishingly, a dog, a little black Pekinese, is also on the roll. This isn't something that happened some hundreds of years ago, when, as we have come to accept, such oddities often occurred. (For instance, a number of unexpected types, including a criminal, are to be found buried in Westminster Abbey.) But this little dog was made a Freeman within our own lifetime. The dog belongs to Lady Munning's, wife of Sir Alfred Munnings, recently President of the Royal Academy, who is himself a character out of the eighteenth century. His wife is' also a most remarkable per- sonality. Her dog, Black Knight, goes everywhere with her in her handbag. He has been to places were an animal is not in any circumstances allowed to enter Hidden in the bag, he is for the most part unobserved, but a cutting in the bag provides him with a window through which to gaze on events. • The dog is now nearly nine years old. Of Chinese origin, as all Pekinese are,. he quotes in a diary just published — "The Diary of a Freeman, by Black Knight" — the Chinese philo- sopher's reflection that .. "God gave us one mouth and two ears so -that we may hear twice as much as' we say." Lady Munnings bought him when he was not quite a year old and one of the first places he was taken to was the "Sugar Loaf Inn" at Dunstable, the tra- ditional scene of the meetings between the wicked Lady Skel- ton and the -highwayman who was her partner in so many hold-ups of stage coaches, in the dead of night. The particular interest for me in this episode springs, of course, from the film I made on the life of Lady Skelton. It was called "The Wicked Lady," and few who saw Margaret Lockwood in that dashing role with James Mason as her accomplice, real- ized ealized that the story was based on fact, writes H. J. Minney in "Tit - Bits." The Pekinese shares the en- thusiasm of his mistress and of Sir Alfred Munnings for pull- ing up the car and getting out to poke about empty houses they pass, for taking buses to un- familiar places, for going to race meetings (indeed, he rides a horse himself about the Mun- nings' paddock) and for attend- ing City' dinners. At the first 01 these dinners as the dog records (for Lady M. sometimes insists with a laugh that the dog wrote his own notes for his diary on odd scraps of paper) : "We sat at the top table with the master, and after dinner people stood on a little platform and sang songs. But, getting hot, I carne out of my bag (I have a black satin and velvet one for even- ing!) and looking over the edge of the table saw Ices! "We sat next to some friends, but when the gentleman on my right (we had got to liqueurs), discovered our black fox fur was 'on the move,' he looked and looked, and looked. at :: ,a- sy bottles and half -full glasser1 on the table, aria became very thoughtful. I heard Violet (that's Lady Munnings) nay: It's only my dog, don't give me away!' And he didn't?' He next went to the Lord Mayor's Banquet. As they got in someone shaid to Lady M.: "Shall I take your bag, lady?" That must have been an awful moment. But Lady M. clung on to it and the dog went in — of course, completely unsuspected. Surreptitiously, he partook of all the courses — the chicken, ices, and even had champagne off Lady M.'s finger. His visits to race meetings were at times not without their embarrassments. They usually took their place at the starting gate where Mun- pings likes sketching the horses at the "off," The dog says the horses "pranced and curvetted about, rearing and sidling, and I wondered how those little men in the lovely bright -coloured silk jackets, with tiny legs, could stay on, and I got so terribly ex- cited I did not know how to con- tain my feelings. I know I made every kind tf queer noise be- cause the horse nearest to me looked disgusted, and the jock- eys looked, too, and alas I had Violet's coat put over my head. "But I squeezed out, and down went the flag. Bang! went the gate — they were off! — and so was II For I spring out of Violet's arms, and as I flew after them, I heard some- one say 'Also ran.' "And how I ran till I thought my heart would burst, after those galloping horses and shin- ing shoes, for all day my out- look is feet! I see the soles of everybody's shoes! How quickly they diappeared and I was left all alone on the race course!" And now as to how he became an honorary Freemean of the City of London. It happened on November 27th, 1946, when Black Knight was not quite a year and a half old. He was in his bag as usual, seated with Lady M. at a dinner at the Guildhall. There were many im- portant guests, including Lord Mountbatten. It was the Deputy Governor of New Zealand who, in referring to the guests, men- tioned that among them was "a gentleman of China of whom more anon." It was then that the dog was discovered, The Sheriff of London, notic- ing him, said in a horrified voice: "A dog in the Guildhall!" Lady Munnings was most un- comfortable for the rest of the evening. When the speeches were over "a large genleman in a red coat told us. in a loud voice to charge our glasses. 'We have among us tonight a gentle- man from China, a stranger, an uninvited guest!' "Silence, everyone looked up and down the table and waited to hear more. 'I do not know if I should call him a gatecrasher or a squatter!' Pause . . . tense silence. "I was held up. This is Black Knight. I think one of the small- est black Pekinese in Englond, so we now make him an honor- ary Freeman of the City of Lon- don.' "A cameraman instantly ap- peared, and took my photcgraph Sailor's Prayer -••• French cadets at the Naval School in Saint Maio Carry blessed models of sailing whips, during the annual blessing of fishing boats. The age-old custom in the harbor of Brittany precede* tailing of Breton fishermen to Newfoundland, Head Spinner — This streamlined spiralstaircase of a modern office building in Berlin, Germany, forms a pleasing pattern when viewed from the ground floor. Midway along the modern, twisting design are two spectators. on the table by a magnificent gold goblet and vases of flowers. I held quite a reception. There was much applause. I had stolen the show. I was told my honour gave me the right to feed goats on the Embankment, enter all public buildings, and hunt pole- cats in the precincts, of St. Paul's." It also gave him the right to call his book "The Diary of a Freeman, by Black Knight," il- lustrated with pictures by his master, Sir Alfred Munnings, past President of the Royal Academy. H neymoons poth Sweet and Sows Would you choose to',- spend your honeymoon on your, own? Plenty of presumably sane peo- ple do, though sometime& they part only for a few hours, Sometimes the pull of ahobby is strong enough to untie the wedding knotfor the the'' be- ing. An Essex woman ° otball - dare has never missed sekgA`her local team play. So, rightein the middle of her wedding break- fast, she left her new husband and dashed off to > support her favourite team. And why did a Chicago hus- band leave his bride alone on her wedding, night? Because he wanted to watch a wrestling match. These were at least only tem- porary absences. A French- woman dispensed with a honey- moon to go motoring with an- other man. An auto enthusiast, she announced immediately af- ter the ceremony that she was off on a motor etour with the lo- cal cycling champion. Not hobbies but plain per- versity is the sole excuse one can make for one Canadian bridegroom. On his honeymoon he locked his bride in a parked car for three days. One can feel only sympathy for the Chinese girl in Hong Kong who wrote to an Austra- lian airway company to' book a passage for her fiance. She explained, "We cannot af- ford to have our honeymoon together in Australia so he is going to have it there by him- self before we get married." Occasionally illness gives a couple no choice but to spend their honeymoons separately. Last year Miss Hannah Doherty, married at Devizes, had to leave her wedding reception and re- turn to hospital. Arrangements for the marriage had been made before she was taken ill and her doctor gave her four hours' leave for the ceremony. But she at least met her hus- band at the wedding, An Anne- recan bride didn't even have that comfort. Suffering from measles, she stood ata window of her home and watched the ceremony on the lawn below. She made her responses through a loudspaker and then returned to bed for a solitary honeymoon. Sometimes one party to a ' marriage has had to spend his per!ed to a young Portsmouth honeymoon in prison. That hap - soldier two years ago. He had left his unit without permission in order to get married, and im- mediately after the ceremony was escorted to the police sta- tion to await a military escort. Another man whose honey- moon was spent in jail is Ells- worth Medberry, an American convicted of murder and sen- tenced to life imprisonment. The wedding took place in jail, too, the couple exchanging their responses through a wire grille. Then there's the French couple, both of whom honey- mooned in prison, though sepa- rated from each other. First Georges was jailed for theft and then the girl, for receiving the stolen goods. They married af- ter conviction. An eighteen -year-old Roch dale labourer who spent his solitary honeymoon in the cells probably bears the police no malice. Without them he wouldn't even have been mar- ried. Held on a charge of rob- bery with violence, he was re- leased under escort to go to the registry office.ffi An spector act- ed as best man. Some honeymoons have been spent apart because bride and groom have decided, practically before the ink on the marriage register was dry, that • they couldn't . possibly bear to live together. A. bride at Atlanta, in 1912, occupied her wedding night in conference with her lawyers, whom she wanted to arrange a divorce. And a woman who was mar- ried in Tennessee at 4 p.m., w'ae by 4.30 seeking an annulment. In explanation she said: "The effects of an intoxicant wore off." But there's one wife, divorced immediately after her wedding, who never expected to honey- moon with her husband. She's the former Constance Fleet, of Las Vegas, It was a condition of her marriage to Alex Binney that they should part legally straight after the ceremony. Why such crazy behaviour? Only by marrying each other could they qualify for a bequest under a will. "Dead" For Two Hours Then Back To Life Paris.—One morning recently, the population of Neuilly had a sensation. An American lady, Mrs. Francis Leslie, was found lying lifeless in the middle of her dining room. The French doctor who was summoned wrote out the death certificate, and Mrs. Leslie would have been buried in due course if an American- friend of hers had not arrived suddenly. The friend rang the American Hospital and asked for a post- mortem examination. As Dr. L. S. North, the Medical Superinten- dent, was about to begin the ex- amination and touched the dead woman, he noticed that the body temperature was unusually high. He called in a famous heart specialist, and they found that Mrs. Leslie was not dead but in a trance. After two more hours, during which she was given two strong injections, the woman's heart res- ponded, beating at first very slowly, then in a wild tattoo. After another 37 minutes, dur- ing which her heart gradually resumed its normal beat, Mrs. Leslie opened her eyes. She could not remember what had, happen- ed to her, but seemed disappoint- ed to find herself back "on earth." "I was far away," she told the doctors, "floating in the air. First there was a dark, narrow shaft which gradually widened. I saw a beautiful red colour above, and •a blackish -blue in front of me which became brighter and brighter. A voice called my name, ke esti R�; e xi ••, • 11 taleif and it was the voice Of -some- body a long time dead of whom I have thought frequentirr heard footsteps, as if sonfel>ddy were going through a tunnel; • but I was not sure where the steps came from. "There were colours and tuned, dissolving in one, incredibly beau- tiful, and I felt happy as never., before. I hastened to reach 'the voice, "And then, all of a sudden, the cruel grip of an iron hand grasp- ed me, I felt a pain, the shining colours became dark again, and the faraway music stopped: "I believe I have been on the other side, and that somebody made me come back. I am so terribly sad. I did not want to return to earth." • Mrs. Leslie lived for precisely; another 12 hours before she died. • This time it was final. Medical opinion on this case: people suffering 'from a particu- lar <• . 1 kind of heart disease frequent- ly have dreams in which they seem to depart from their body, drifting in the air. Opiates, like hashish, and poisonous fungi, too, produce the same effect. It is caused by a changed blood supply to the brain cells by which col- ours and tunes seem to mix. But the youngest of the doctors present at the autopsy does not agree. "It was more than the mere illusions of a dying person," he says. "I heard that from the sound of her voice." In Charge — Lt. -Gen. Chung II Kwon is the new chief of staff of the South Korean army. He succeeds Gen. Sun Yun Paik, who was transferred to corn - mond the newly activated 1st South Korean field army. NJsw The Chinese National Undergrn nd Keeps Fanning Hopes 1f Liberation By FRED SPARKS NEA Staff Correspondent ON A NATIONALIST GUER- RILLA ISLAND Off Red China (NEA)—Mr. Woo was going to return to Communist China this night to gather more information _useful to the Allies. He stood naked in the stone house by the waterfront. Nationalist guerrillas examined every thread of his clothing, emptied the pockets. Even a pair of socks or match- box acquired outside Red China might cost Mr. Woo his life if stopped and searched by Com- munist coastal guards. One agent was cut down recently when searched, because a snuffed -out American cigarette butt had caught in his trouser cuff. Later, in the tiny harbor of this advance Free Chinese island base, I saw him board a special boat—with motor humming softly as a wrist watch—to be dropped at a lonesome beach. Mr. Woo's wife will greet him before bedtime in their rooms. above his soft -goods store and they'll discuss his "buying trip to Shanghai." She knows nothing of his underground activities. Mr. Woo is in fact a simple merchant, but if he fails in his double -game he'll not wind up in bankruptcy court, but. on the floor of a Communist police sta- tion. Chief of a 20 -man unit, he's one of thousands so working to defeat Red dictatorship. The underground mission is: Help chart Red Army move- ments. Organize for "D-Day"— when Nationalists invade from Formosa, Conduct publicized sab- otage and "punishment" to fan liberation hopes. Work with mountain guerrillas. As underground intelligence improves — radioed here from transmitters in cave or built into city roofs—Mao won't again win surprise in Korea or Indo-China. There are so many willing to help, each in his own way, that Mr. Woo was able to circulate overnight a printed sheet an. nouncing new U.S. military grants for Taipei. Recently a village director withdrew a woman's ration for denouncing Red "charity" drives. She shivered on the streets, beg- ging rice. The director confis- cated the borne of a family whose son, a Korean POW, refused re- patriaticn. to ".c•.eecl "punish- rncnt." The • director was seized in Boats Like This, with guerilla raiders on the alert, Free China's underground agents like Mr. Woo commute'between Red China mainland and Nationalist o:=tposts. as he left a CP dinner, zigzag- ging with rice wine. Slugged„ he was driven inside a fertilizer bucket to guerrilla headquarters. His head was later returned — wrapped in an anti-Communist pamphlet — to his own doorstep. Brutal? Yes. This is the Orient. Cattle seized by collectives from anti-Communists have a strange habit of chewing broken glass in their mash; Red coastal patrol boats often suffer "weep- ing rivets" and sink at anchor. 'ilnderground violence exists only in coastal regions where guerrillas from these islands can aid. A while ago the islan4 com- mand code -radioed Mr. Woo its interest in sprouting coastal for- tifications near Minhow. It was impossible to plant agents. Mr. Woo's young men noted the habits of a project engineer, entered his bedroom without knocking, sewed him in a rock - filled canvas and hustled him aboard a junk. Next morning the junk peace- fully joined the fishing fleet. If police launches spot-checked, the engineer would have splashed to Davy Jones' locker. At dusk the canvas was transferred to a saris - pan which sculled to this island. Experts cut free the hungry engineer for late tea and "con- versation" -and today ' the new fortification is on allied maps to the last gun turret. In similar, if less•forceful man- ner, Mr. Woo makes•.his periodic visits to island cotinnand. Mr. Woo, who looks renihekal5ly pas- sive in black, pajama -style busi- ness gown, says the underground railroad' can whisk elmost any person from China. Spies don't win mediett—or de- cent burials. One lad in'Wu-' ng- chun was caught photo -copying military maps. Except for unit leaders each agent only, knows two ethers, and his coirnrades were evacuated immediately. The sentence was: cut off his tongue in the public square. A half-dozen mountain guerrillas infiltrated the crowd and as the prisoner mounted a platform tossed hand grenades, killing the guards and granting their friend quick death. One guerrilla shouted: "Long Live the Republic of Free Chiba!" The sympathetic onlookers 'took up the cry. That's the kind of a thing men fighting tyr: nny have been shout- ing for ages.