THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1927, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) BEAVER! Boards are coming back.— Men'g fashion paper. The safety razor rustinp lies. The open blade is dead. Tlie bar her mops his streaming eves. And droops his arid head. No more the wife chops fifwoort with Her hnsband's favourite razor: Or sharpens pencils with tiie same To points that «i«ite amaze her. Hoards, whiskers, "sideboards" on the Pcnch. In business and profession. The barefaced cult alas! is doomed To early supercession. The tie trade withers on its stalk. All unemployed the weaver Of silken scarves for men's neckwear In this new ape of "lteaverr* N'< more the flapper flaps arainst The breast of barefaced friskers; I'm hides her bhishins powder in Her Bert's ambrosial whiskers. Ami then, of course, my I'hyllis fair Will once apa in prow tresses. Her lovely locks will soon prow down. As also will her dresses. A speed kin? who was trying to do a hundred and eighty miles an hour or a hit better in a car was killed, and everybody would 1m • sorrv that a THE PIONEERS. man so desperately brave should die. It was pointed out by the coroner and others that as speed was the very soul of transport that men who rush along the ground at so terrific a pace are in effect heroic pioneers who lay down their lives for humanity. In reality, of course, it is personal mania. When a speed king achieves a record (or immortality and a harp) most people praise and admire him, but the real speed king is cooped up somewhere in an oily workshop devising new speed gear. Who. fur instance, knows the name of the man who made little explosions of oil gas do such vast work? When the next record breaking motorist achieves fame (or death) the man to praise should be the man who invented the machine. Despite the opinions of admiring coroners, they are the pioneers. And tho man who first boiled the billy with the •jreasy in ml that oozed from Mother Earth might have his photo in the paper, too. He seems to have l>ecii essential to s]»eed. Again, if the inventor of resilient tyres had not thought of tying a rope round the iron rim of his little son's toy push bike, the speed merchants who howl round our own country oil motor bikes wouldn't howl at one-tenth tho pace. (Jive a speed king enough Tope, .ind he'll hang himself.

Here is a paragraph from the 'New? of the World"' : Driven to chewing leather cut from their hoots to allay the pangs of hunger, the crew of the floating STORY OF A SHIP, crane ship Rapaki reached Lyttelton. New Zealand, 110 days after leaving the Clyde, where the ship was built. A few days after they left Greenock they ran into a hurricane, and the decks were awash. The crew of fifteen had to take long sj>ells at the pumps. The weather improved for a time, but soon after passing through the Panama Canal heavy gales were experienced. Ihe stock of coal was exhausted, and rations were cut down to thu barest minimum. It was here that the crew were compelled to chew leather. The ship drifted helplessly to New Zealand, where Maoris provided three tons of coal, this enabling the rrovv to finish the journey. Mr. J. D. Walker writes: When the vessel mentioned reached New Zealand, with her coal supply very low. she first put in to Waipiro Bay, a small settlement south of the East Cape. From Waipiro Bay, after the crew had purchased some stores and tobacco, she proceeded to Gisborne. where enough coal was put aboard to enable her to complete her voyage to Lvttelton. We have heard about rubbing sand from Waiheke on a yacht's bow and that the sand will draw the yacht towards Waiheke. Perhaps the Lvttelton Harbour Board sent some clay from the famous tunnel there to be rubbed on the vessel's bow and that was enough to cause her to drift from Panama to New Zealand. It was a very hospitable act of the Maoris to make such a generous gift as coal, considering all the coal they would have had to be brought from Auckland. It comforts M.A.T. to know that other scribblers besides himself have their lejs pulled. After all, the cassock really does hide the sword (or at least the hook for the swordfish). It is pure accident whether a man becomes " a fisher of men T ' or a FISHERS OF MEN. slayer of them. At least, the lust for conquest is as natural to a bishop as to a general. The Bishop of London himself at one end and a fly at the other end of the fisherman's lethal weapon has landed large lusty trout, and has laughed. Hal Hal By history and association fishing is " the Gentle art." Izaak Walton, the "Compleat Angler," j got his hunting blood stirred by a two-ounce ! dace. The sparkle of victory is as common to the prelate's eye as to the optic of Zanc Grey. It is hardly j>ossible to think of old Izaak being wildly towed round the North Cape by a ton of swordfish. but it is quite ; possible to imagine any militant modern i minister; saying, "If thine enemy smite thee j oil the right check, turn to him the other also."' ' making a day of it with the makos. tilling the ' "Captain Cooks" with lead, or making the sixteen-pointcr bite the dust. Barring externals and unessentials. Mr. Man of 1927 is very like Mr. Man of 27 B.C. "Let us go out and kill something!" One of the most pathetic things to contemplate is the instability of fame. Here j is the Kaiser acljing to become an Iron Fist 1 ai:ain. and nobodv taking A SLIGHT SOUND, the faintest notice of him. Thv authorities, .n-cording to the calilcs, art- "" in;ijinp him languidly." It is as true of kings and ex-kings as it is of politicians and ex-politi-cians that to withdraw the limelight from tlum i- to extinguish them. A man who makes a noise for a short time is passed aloni: for someone cl.-e. and the obituary, sparring lor wind, falls back on the formula that "during hi.- long life he had manv friend-." or that he was a platcbearcr in his favourite bethel. Aggressive men. who for twentv year.- are nut to destroy a Go\ eminent or kill .i party, suddenly relapse into silence. One almost forgets about them until one has bu.-inc-s with the Government and finds an ex-Radical ha-, become Indor-Sccrctai v of a Go\eminent Department—-silenced with' a sop. The recrudescence of Wilhclm is probal.lv due to a disgruntled newspaper man who moonaround Doom h<iping again-t hope for a paragraph about the ex "Big Noise." Then i! he ileal s nothing he invents a slight sound. Ihe Mail From Fanning Island evidently extended the limb of il, c Man About Town who hoped that the remaik- might be taken lilt* 1 »t*< »\ 1 «• r;i in FANNING ISLAND o, salt, the M.F.F.I APOCRYPHA. wasn't quite .-urc whither tbe name of the owner <•1 tJie island was (;rev or <.rig;: or t.'rei" Mr. George Greig.' eldc-t „f Mr.'Wm ■ reig. owner of Fanning Island. -avs thai his lather did not marry a Gilbert Islander, nor did any of hi- brothers peiform anv of the teats assigned !•, them. Thev did' not lit •1U eW 1 ;; , |( } . )]V f t , u]; ever g.. ,!„«•„ I<Mlk ;lt , )u . I '"it improvised from a bucket and an old -ail. The Morv Kt _\ ■*} 'pet i te> 111 t ]„. fa I]lll \* j, j,,,; _ t«t r a*»i i a n". J lip v <-•* t i7l * i * * 1 f i * • tal •«- UlUrh « IJ.I litt ea s any other healthv citizen. h w.,at least clear that whether the M.l'.F I heard tilr ° r fourth hand hc * tUjf admired the Messrs. Greig.