POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 83, 4 October 1941, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

There are slips and slips.

We wonder if Dr. Goefabels wouia say it "respit" or "respite." * # • * Here's a characteristic jest of the -<. late F. E. Smith. An M.P. said to him: "I've an 'ell of an 'cad today." "Try a couple of aspirates," advised F.E, * * * A husband said in one of London's Police Courts recently: "When I suggested I should sleep under the table for safety my wife replied: 'If you are in that state don't come home!'" * # * Dear P.F.,—Can you give me any inside information as to whether the Medical Bill contains anything about granting licences for the cure of soles? My bootlegger—pardon, I mean my bootmaker —desires to know. . OMADHAUN. * # * NAMES FOR GOD. In almost every language under the sun—except English, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish—the name of the Deity is a four-letter word:— French Dieu Persian .... Sera German Gott Arabic Alia Dutch Godt Sanskrit — Deva Spanish Dios Egyptian ... Amon latin Deus Inca Papa Ancient Greek .. Zeus Phoenician . Baal Modern Greek .. Teos Japanese .... Shin Assyrian Adat Chaldean ... Mebo Hindustani Hakk This was asked for by Joan and > Geoff, Hawera. * * * PLUMBERS AND DOCTORS. Dear Flage,—ln Mr. J. A. Lee's speech on the Medical Service Bill this quotation appeared: "That good plumbing had done as much for health as the medical profession had done." This statement will cause much concern and wonderment, seeing that both are on the same wage level. Will they both have the same peculiar habits? Whereas the plumbers leave their instruments behind .in the workshop, will the doctors leave theirs in the patients? We should have been assured on this point. No. 9. * * * INFORMATION. Dear Percy Flage,—ln answer to E. Pati's inquiry in tonight's "Post," I believe the prelate was George Augustus Selwyn—the first bishop of New Zealand, who, after several times refusing to accept the Bishopric of Lichfield, replied to those who drew attention to the miserable stipend he was receiving: "If I have to live on pipis and potatoes, I would go back," i.e., to New Zealand. (See "N.Z. Church History," Purchss, page 197.) The Church will celebrate the Selwyn Centenary next year. Yours sincerely, ANGLO CATHOLIC PRIEST. * * *■...' BACKING THE HYMN. It is said that every gambler has his own particular way of selecting the name of the horse or the number of the thing he is going to back. The strangest of all devices was that used by an English peer, who used to attend the morning service at the Monte Carlo church, and then stroll along to the Casino andrback'Ythe number? of ;-; the last hymn, if suitable. Surprisingly enough, he won several hundreds of pounds by adopting this method, and as his friends got to know of it,' so the congregation of the church swelled. Immediately after the last hymn there was one mad rush for the door and to the Casino. Needless to say, the chaplain was annoyed, and learning the causes, said that hymns from No. 1 to No. 36 should never again be sung. No. 36 was the highest number at the Casino! * * * SCHOOL'S IN. Do you know that— 1. A friend of Florence Nightingale has celebrated her 99th birthday by extinguishing an .incendiary bomb which fell on her house; she is Mrs. Lillian Halle? 2. The little mouse-like shrew's greatest enemy is his ravenous stomach, which must be filled twenty-four times a day? ' 3. Wherever he may be, every soldier requires one-third of a ton of supplies every month? , . 4. "Timber," according to a legal ruling, is the wood of the oak, ash, beech, and elm, provided the trees have stood for at least twenty years? 5. In its Ethiopian campaign Italy had to pay 15s for each soldier and labourer carried through the Suez Canal in addition to the regular ship tonnage? 6. Among the national courtesies . which travellers find in Denmark is that of men's raising their hats to the shop girl on entering a store? 7. More copper was produced in the last 20 years than had been produced during the preceding 7000 years? 8. A fiat chest, according to an American scientist, may be a sign of intelligence? 9. The famous Wrigley Building in Chicago is actually two separate buildings, joined together at the third floor like Siamese twins? 10. The earliest book on medicine, "Charak," written some 400 years before the Christian era, mentions cleaning the teeth twice a day with a piece of fresh* twig from a tree? * * * REVEALMENT. This poem is the work of Given Castle, an American writer. It was , sent to us by Hune. We went into the garden, you and T, And suddenly it seemed we felt the spring; Yet not because against the pale blue sky The plum tree twigs were full of buds; no thing Alone conveyed this thought, and yet we knew * The promise within the earth's warm breast Was near fulfilment. Could a thought imbue One moment with the whole of spring's bequest? Hold fragrance of all gardens in a flower, . The song of every bird in one bird s note, . The happiness of years m one short ( hour, The dust of ages in a single mote? It may be that beneath the blossoming tree We glimpsed, not spring, but all eternity. «■ ♦ * JUST THE MAN. A soldier asked for exemption from church parade on the ground that he was an agnostic. The sergeant-major assumed an expression of innocent interest. "Don't you believe in the Ten Commandments?" he asked mildly. "Not one, sir," was the reply. "Not even the rule about keeping the Sabbath?" "No, sir." ■ , The sergeant-major smiled. "Ah, well, you're the very man I've been looking for to scrub out the dry canteen!"