The oddest Siamese twins
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1947.
DAB
AND FLOUNDER
Theatrical Costumes.
by Walter
Josefa und Rosa Blzeck: twins
HE birth of Siamese twins day. They also made money to a London mother last from pictures of the baby and in the Central printed accounts of their story. month Middlesex County Hospital re-
They were enjoying life im- calls the extraordinary known to me personally, of a mensely in Berlin, where I saw similar pair of girl twins born
in Prague.
case,
Doctors in Prague, Vienna and Berlin have left their docu- mented testimony that these twins were the strangest ex- ample of nature's caprice ever
embodied in human form.
The sisters were Josefa and Rosa Blazek. They weré join- ed together from hips to waist, and were possessed of four legs.
Mr. Pincher hypnotises a
HEN the boatman on
the bench at Folkstone saw Mr Chapman Pin- them on exhibition, delighted cher and me he called out that to have crowds about. them, it was a lovely day for a sail, proudly holding up the baby and as we thought the same we before the eyes of the wonder-hired him to take us fishing. ing musses.
They were both equally fond of the child; in fact, it would have been difficult to say, from mere display of affection, which half was the mother.
THE YOUNG FATHER
man of
It was Ike Rose, the American Impresario, who first escorted me to the flat in which the twins lived. With them was n young 22-the baby's father.
The young man smiled and looked over at the mother. She coyly returned the glance.
When children they were ex- hibited by their father at fairs and music-halls for £10 a week.
I
young vingly when, as women, they retired to live quietly in Prague that the big surprise caine.
WER
BIRTH OF A SON
Rosa married and became the mother of a fine-looking boy, healthy and normal
in every why.
The situation puzzled me, "What does Josefa think about this?" 1 asked. "Doesn't she object to'play- ing gooseberry all the time?"
Josefu's reply sweethearts didn't mind, she didn't object.
Wha
that if the
It appeared that Josefa was not at the unlon, There
Josera solemnly informed the doctor that what had happened had given her the shock of her life.
The "trio" were kept in hos- pital until the mother and her attached sister were able to get about.
Rosa had a temperature while Josefu stayed normal.
So far as demeanour could in- dicate, they were two of the happiest people in the world. From comparative poverty they had suddenly become thanks to the arrival of the baby.
rich-
For they had gone on exhibi- tion again, this time for £10 a
fall averse then site was in love with the boy, but he preferred Rosa.
PREFERRED GIRLS
At the end of the day, when our money was safe In his pocket, he cleared his throat and said: "I've been a fisher- man for 40 years, and I've heard Home mighty tali stories in my time, but never, no sir, never before have I had to sit and listen to so many of them in one afternoon."
When we first approached the boatman he may have put us down as a couple of nice London gents out for the
day, but doubts set in when Mr Pincher a picked the rotting head of dogfish from the beach and said: "Scyllium conicula.”
WRAESE
They
plaice!
IT'S FUN
FINDING OUT
"Each day he moved the hole
a little higher until finally he had the fish jumping from one to the other through a hoop three inches above the surface of the water.
by BERNARD compartment
WICKSTEED
BBC Shortwave
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A
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FROM INDIA AND,
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TUESDAY, SEPT. 23
"There's nothing very niarkable about it really.
re-
In
8.00 WEL. HALF-HOUR.
Are
"Oh," said the boatman, and the state of nature fish left it at that.
taught by necessity to do much more astonishing things than From non-protrusile tongues that. Take the local herrings, to dog for example. They have learn- Mr Pincher switched fishes'
"See how deep ed that when they lay their eyes, set they are." he said.
"All eggs on the Channel the tide Ash that swim fast have sweeps the young ones over to streamlined eyes. Pop-eyes France where the standard of give a wider range of vision but they interfere with speed. Flat fish have pop-eyes that can be pushed out turrets, but then speed doesn't
matter to them.
living is lower,
"So in order not to dopive the offspring of their rightful British on little heritage the adult herrings swim over to Boulogne and the mouth of the Seine and lay their eggs there. Then when the young hatch tides bring them back to England."
"It's a male, as a matter of fact," he continued. "you can see that by the teeth." are thin and sharp. The teeth "And talking about stream- of female dogfish are more flat. lining, hus it ever struck you With some fish you can tell the that a fish, is the opposite shape sex by their Bothas podas, or Mediterranean to a bullet? A fish is blunt in flounder, is one. The eyes of front and sharp at the back. the female are close together while a bullet is the other way She really admired her sister's und those of the male are wide bout, yet both baby boy, but she, sald that she
apart." preferred baby girls.
built for speed.
At Brat the authorities would not allow the marriage, but Josefe told me that when it did take place she would have liked to have husband, too.
had a
The twins did appens, at the Metropolitan Music Hall, Edgware read, London in 1804, but
later proposed exhibition was banned.
At one time it was suggested that they should be separated by opera-
dion, but their father would not hear of it.
W. Buchanan-Taylor
eyes.
The
Mr Pincher asked us to look his dogfish in the mouth and note its tongue. "All fish have tongues," he said, "but they're not protrusile."
"Not what?" said the boat man.
"Protrusile. In other words," said Mr Pincher, "fish can't put out their tongues at you."
Thinking Aloud
was drinking quite peaceably in the bar at "Bless the Bride" with the author, Sir Aan Herbert, when four large men entered. They were inscrutable and exclusive and clearly de tcctives.
They had come on a report that a clergyman in brown bonts (etc.) was in the front row. It might be that poor chap from Broadmoor. Cried Sir Alan in alarm: "But you're not going to arrest him until after the show, are you? It's a good show, you know......"
.by..
PAUL HOLT
query. In words of that grand old son quote Reddy can you spare
a dime
thern
query unquote yra
aletnily H. the Mole. pce ess tell the barrow boys to hang on stop help is coming end message."
Those babies
the
like each other any inore.
Adultery has tle to do with it, although the lawyers still try to make it seem
So.
If the law is willing to help Mr Edmunda in his desire why not Mr Walker?
OPAH
Perhaps it's because they
the
show
such thought for their young that
of them are infant mortality among herrings is fairly low. A herring lays about 30,000 eggs," which may seem a lot until you remember that a conger 100,000,000. eel layu 50,000,000, and # ing
Most
tish desert
"The reason is that bullets go faster than sound and at supersonic speeds you have to have a sharp point in front to
their eggs 115 break down the barrier of shock soon as they are laid, but in the few waves. The back doesn't mat species that don't it is usually the ter so much and is left flat so The that the explosive charge in the rather cartridge can
give it a good by the kick.
FIFEFISH
trale who
mole
looks afler them. Jumpsucker would be stranded on the beach tide than desert the family cigs, and the male pipefish has a pouch like a kangaroo ---in-which- the young can take sbeiter:
"Fish, on the other hand, never go at more than 70 m.p.h., and at these lower speeds the resistance in front is much less important than the drag caused by eddies and vacuums be hind."
Have
@
•
Now then how do fish NOW
sleep? you ever given that question any thought? Mr. Pincher them take hud and he's found that most of short naps. It is pos- sible that some never go to sleep at all. They bed a sharte In on aquarium at Sydney once that swam up and down in its tank for six months without stopping and cover- cd 200,000 miles.
Rather to the aurprise of the to be free, boatman we caught several fish
There's a big tropical Ash called during the afternoon. One of the opah that goes to sleep on the them was a fair-sized plaice, human being. Wrasse le down on
curface, lying on its side like and when we got it in the boat their sides at the bottom of the sea Mr Pincher said he would and trigger fish go to sleep standing
-and pride
ARRIAGE holds the oddest com-
MA surance assessor (late of the Navy) hypnotise it to stop it flapping on their heads.
plications. John, a bearded in-
.
*
Sea Ash are very heavy drinkers. There is 21⁄2 times more salt in the. sea then there is in their blood, and so the saltier water surrounding
about. In case loves racing. His wife Jane
stays
you should home of a Saturday to take the baby ever want to hypnotise a plaice for an airing while he goes to Hurst I'll tell you how he did it." Park. Occasionally a neighbour will take In baby and then Jane He took the fish in his two hem is constantly sucking moisture (sandwiches wrapped in napkin) hands and turned it white side from their bodies. gors, too.
up. Then he laid it on the The only way they can make up floor-boards and held it flat for for this is to drink like fish, which two seconds, saying as he did no, they do. Then they have the pro-
Pleuronectes pialessa, lie still." blem of ridding themselves of ex-.
cessive alt they have taken That was all, but when he took with all the water they've drunkt. his hands away the fish lay This is dealt with by a mechanism there as good as gold.
in their gills which returns it to the sea.
I'd say 19. By then THE loveliest age for a baby? child should have lost that factuous look, that Churchillon surliness, that The detectives settled for the gawkingss, tint dumpiness, that John is the expert. He knows first interval.
priggishness, superciliousness and an easy card from a hard one every prudery, that holy endeavour and time. He hangs around in the ring #aren't grown-upa
ale. talking to knowledgeable characters that was fldhood.
while June runs errands to and
They got their man neatly in the stalls gangway. But he turned out to be a real clergyman. I heard him saying ruefully as he put his Identity card away: "I wish I'd gene to the Victorià Palace now."
· terrible?"
be
By then the child shovid showing whether he or she has any chance of being a human being or
по
*
"That poor chap from Eiroadmoor? A küler today this all our
Hard on
Henry aykhpathy: If he is insane.
Our ancestors found Insonlly. PROTESTANTISM, saye the Rev. W. M. Parker of West Wickham. terrible funny. Now we find t pitiable. Perhaps there is a hope Kent, seems to have failed singu- suns and daughters will larly to keep England a Christian be able to say, in a tone of mild country, and the best solution is for
that our
irritation:
all to become Roman Catholics.
It seems a bit hard on the late
"Thero's 'that nice Mr Jones, Henry VIII. mad
again my
dear. Really, you know, the doctors should have cured him by now. One would
think they weren't trying.
ΑΝ
Harry the Mole
N urgent cablegram from my spiv friend Harry the Mole, who is holidaying in America Just now:-
Marriago-
from the bookie.
Now John is having a bad seasdh." He says things like "My dear fellow, you can't win if you don't have the capital behind you to start with, More you speculate more you ne- cumulate, you know."
.:
1
look. I don't think he approved The boatman pretended not to
of people who hypnotised fish in his boat.
in
crowns het her three pounds in the whole thing was
Jane does fine. Her hunch half- Naturally, Mr Pincher said
afternoon, Jolin used to joke with
perfectly FRESH water fish don't have this mechanism, which is why they her about it until the other after-simple. The plaice had merely noon. Then he had sent her to place gone into a cataleptic fit:de if you put them in the seo, and her anxiety she made it a £10 thing, he said. So do the golden ter. Female. a 10s. toto double. In her hurry Snakes sometimes do the same Shrimps are peculiar in this mat-.
shrimps don't mind toto double, was too shy to correct
fresh water, but their boy frienda her error, and came back miser-plover and bittern.
du. So you often find the females
uble.
EÇAÚSE Mrs Floyd Edmunds
The double came up and June knocked off her husband's hat came back waving the hundred or so in full view of the natives in India In a trill of exeltement. John re-
he was granted a decree.
Although Mrs Jessie. Walker fused to shop or cook for her hus- band and would not get up until he Had left the house he was refusedi a decree....
garded her coldly.
"You might have ruined us," he sald.
They don't talk much now, see his pride is hurt,
You
making their way up a river and then turning back when they dis- WHAT else can you make a cover they're not being followed
fish do?" I asked.
The boatman had sat in silence throughout this recital, but I think "Well, he said, "If you gave the story that really got him down. me enough time I could teach was the one about the tropical This it to jump through a hoop. It's green-loathed parrot fish. been done by a scientist before. from dental troubles that you or i cresture, sald Mr. Pincher, suffers
"He had a tank with
would
cure with a toothpick. But compartments and he put the do this because he hasn't any hands. the green-toothed parrot fish cannot fish in one and a worm in the they are starving repeat garving humiliation incompatibility, “des. MAN I know bought a parrot
So he lies in the water with his because our wiked Socialist Gov, will sertion or anything else you wish, A and tried to teach it to talk; other. To get to the worm the not buy at there prices stop can ho the truth is that people go to the But tie parrot won. Now the man fish had to swim through a hole thing bo'dorie for these póto men divorce courts because they don't says nothing at all.
In the dividing wall.
"Dear Frelnd urgently solicit yore support for poor American soft fruit. canners stop likewise tobacco brokers. Let's make up our minds about stop Paul dear friend do you realise this thing? You may call it cruelly,
Short short story.
two
·
mouth open end encourages smaller
sh to do the job for him. Ton't
nature wonderful? -
A
0.30 MURIC WHILE YOU WORK. 1,00 PLAIN ENGLISH
"Stop-Look-~Listen}" -
programme
it. t. Burton
about
punctuation
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7.30 BAND OF THE LEILY (Mounted)
br
IN THEY
+
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LE CAN YOU 19*** IT”'
143 AMERICAN DANCE BANDS, Agenmaonané: recorda).
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030 MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK. 7.88 TALK ON MUSIC
The Orchestra.
'The Brake
Trevor Harvey!
for.
An Illustrated talk by
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LAST MINE
SWEPT
All moored mines have been British home
ROYAL ANTIL | cleared -- from
waters.
Conductor: David McData.
8.00 THE NEWS,
1.1 BNC WELSH ORCHESTRA,
1.43 REGINALD
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PORTEN-BROWN
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WEDNESDAY. SEPT. 24
6.00 PLL PLAY TO YOU. 6.30 MUSIC, WHILE YOU WORK. 7,00 POPULAR SCIENCE. 7.13 SOUTHERN
CHESTRA
SERENADE
OR.
Players,
7.30 BALLADS OLD AND NEW. Margaret Bissett (contralto), Frederick
Entr'acte Harvey baritone). directed by Sidney Crooke,, .
8.00 THE NEWS."
8.13 NORMAN, GRIFFITHS, and his, Sextet,
The last sweep was recently car- ried out by a lollila off the Bull of Lewis, in the Hebrides,
The total of mines cleared from wn'ers by home end European British minesweepers was given s 145.283.
On VE Day all the British Isles were in a Red danger zone on the Admiralty mine charts. The only Red zone today is in the Thamra Es unry, from North Foreland to Walton-on-the-Neze.
All the main channels of the estuary are clear, but the search for magnetic mines ("Mogs" to the minesweeping men) must can tinue in shallows of less than three (athoms.
Sweeping for magnetic mines is expee ed lo continue in this are
another three years. It
ΓΟΥ
*
8.45 ARTHUR BERVENT (tenor). 2.00 FROM TODAY'S PAPERS, 0.15 FOR YOUR LEISURE'.
being carried out by motor launches 930 'OREEN FOR DANGER from the Frank Launder-Sidney Ganat perting from Sheerness, Bim, adapted as a radio seriai
All channels from London to the episodes by Later Powell, based on the open sea are buoyed and Admiral y novel by Christianna Drand. Episode minesweeping experts are satisfied
about their rafely.
'A Postman Dien. 10.00 THE NEWB.
10.15 THINK ON THESE THINGS. 10.30 LONDON FORUM. 11.00 MUSIC HALL.
in six
Artists Include: Radeikre and kay, Gene Crowley. Hatton and Manners. Anne Shelion, and Norman Cvane. 12.00 MIDNIGHT RADIO NEWSREEL.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 25
6.00 SCOTTISH HALF-YOUR, 6.30 MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK. 3,00 CULTURAL TALK:------
Sealed Till 1952 Although thousands of mines have heen cleared around Britain in the Baxt two years, not ang casualty has been suffered. But in the mine- infested Mediterranean about 30 British siflors have been lost on minesweeping dulles.
A large danger zone, still exista northwest of the Faroes-and-in-the-
Al
'Pleasure from Books.' 'The Spinater Denmark strait off Iceland. who Wrote Like a Man. Cellin Brookships will be informed of these areas, talks about Emily Bronte, with, extracts ich will remain sealed until 1932. from 'Wullering Heights'.
LIS SEUTTISI VARIETY ORCHESTRA.
1.45 MILITARY DANI). igramonbone records).
8,39 THE NEWS,
8.13 BLUE ROCKETS
CHESTRA..
JANCE
ok-
9.00 FROM TODAY'S PAPERS. 9.13 CAVAN O'CONNOR.
30 ACCORDEON CLUB, 10.00 THE NEWS. 10,13 A TALK.
1030 JAZZ CLUN,
11.00 BRITISH CONCERT HALL Conducted.
presented by
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and
Baxu
London Philharmonic Orchestra:, Overture: Roman Carnival........Berlioz Pavane for a dead. Princers Alborada del Gracioso
SIDE GLANCES
Navet Ravel
LARGEST CARPET
Thirty-five carpet weavers in Ashabad have completed a 200- square metre carpet, the largest ever woven in that centre of the rug in- dustry, which will be used as a drop curtain in Moscow's Bolshof Theatre. The carpet contains 250:000 knots per square metre and weighs more than half a ton..
COPK, 1947 BY KEA SERVICE, ONCE T. M. HER LËN PAT OFK
By Galbraith
"Isn't it just the most romantic thing ever? They first met in the back where she worked and found out about him having so much money!"