THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 164, 14 July 1930, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

A WOMAN'S DAY. And some of us women have a day like this: Awake at the bang of the old alarm clock, \ stir -iiul ii-busy attending li" flock. A-cleaniusr the House from the '™f A-washing the dishes; and, "V^J 1 ",. 1 * . . A-mendiug of jumpers, of • A-washing, a-starching. and Passing Of uotne.. A-making of salads, a-baking of^ cakes, A-testing receipts, of and makes. A-pressing of trousers, a-turninj? of frocks. Attending the door, and to answer the knocks. i-fcedin" the dojr, and a-minding the cat; An eve Sn the butcher to B ec there's nc> fat. Attending to cuts, and α-bathing a bruibC, A-paving of bills, and a-chnsing the blues A-sefving of dinner, a-washing more plates, A-hearing of dad, as the news he relates. Away and to bed. and the last thing.to ken— "To-morrow I shall do it all overlain -^^ Canine curled darlings who sit on pink cushions at Winter Shows make dog lovers "lad. They make one feel that at least some c ' dogs have a good time. PINK CUSHIONS. It is a pity the world wouldn't give the old working kuris a good time. M.A.T. read in a hoary oia tome the other day that about a hundred years ago the British Government prohibited" the use of dogs for draught purposes. They still draw terrific loads on the Continent. 'They have hauled the heroes' kits in the Arctic and Antarctic. Gentlemen who work sheep still hold sheep dog pups by the ear and swing them about to make them "speak up." Viewing the sleek and lovely dogs at that show, soporific with much tucker, one remembers the lean and hungry hunting dogs, kept thin to make them keen, the thousands of starving kuris kept on chains for the best part of their lives. There are cases of outback dogs who don't get half as good a time as the prize pug at a dog show; dogs tied up in broken gaps "of sheep fences and forgotten; tied there to keep the sheep back and to save the trouble of mending the fence. Anyone who has come across a dog skeleton chained to a fence, outback is very glad of dog shows and of dog lovers who are kind to the old things, whether they are pure "poms" or compounds of every dog that roams. Very likely you mistake the psychology of the people who etand up all night (in the rain if necessary) to achieve a football match ticket. A man who has been THE LAST DITCH, guilty of sitting up all night losing money at cards, gazing across at Exchange Lane and seeing the haggard watchers and waiters, sneered at them. In reality these are the people. They belong to the uplift grade of humanity. They are the souls who act on the assumption that there is always room at the top, lad. They are the persons who know you will get there if you only put your shoulder to the wheel. They are members of the amalgamated society who sing "There's a Good Time Coming," although we may not live to see it. They typify the modern Horatius who will keep the bridge, the heroes who will fight on, fight ever, the ake ake kia kaha warriors who hamstring an enemy with their last gasp. It was noted that the crowd which pressed its brisket against Exchange Lane was composed of ardent youths with a sprinkling of middleaged people who had possibly been footballers. Among the serried ranks of worshippers at the Shrine of the Egg there was no lady. Communicated from the Commonwealth, that constables recently dug up an interred bullock in order to prove that it was dead,

that it had been killed, DESECRATION, that it had been killed by thieves, and that it had been denuded of beef. It reminded M.A.T. of an exhumation party of long ago. The late Lord Kitchener, being apprised that there were too many graves in the South African terrain in which he was working, smelt a rat, and in specific cases ordered the exhumation of the remains. In a most picturesque kloof colonial diggers found rough stones carefully set within neat railings and reverently carved with the names of a veldt cornet and two burghers "killed in action." With great reluctance and feeling like veritable ghouls, the men dug six feet perpendicularly and found a sheet of corrugated iron. Beneath the iron were portions of bullocks emphatically unpleasant. There were other relics of various sorts, but no departed borthere of any nation. At the bottom of all were a large number of rifles, each carefully vaselined and wrapped in oil sheets. Piet and Co., those incorrigible humorists, peppered the grave diggers from the hills and cursed the desecration. Lots of exceedingly charming girls are going round worrying about their hair. Fashion, dictating longer locks, Lesbia and Company of course obev. TO BANG OR NOT? Some have arrived at the stage in which the hitherto despised hairpin is again a necessary adjunct of the toilet. One young lady telfs M.A.T. that ehe feels like the* Man in ihe Iron Mask. 'I'm going to have it cut short again!" she said. "What do you think?" "Don't!" said the man who longs for some hair of his very own. "That's what all the men say!" she countered. "But the women will never really go back to the agony of skewered locks." They will, of course, for these things run in cycles. It is understood that designers and manufacturers are sitting up late at night making millions of hatpins, for, sure enough, the clinging little cadies that make Lesbia look- so sweet are eoon to be numbered with the slain and the voluminous sunshade hat with its various anchors will be with us again. A poet in a rugged classic doffs his lid to the great army of people who have made good from small beginnings and drops a tear in the last line for the army WAY TO WEALTH, who never had a chance. In New Zealand we have men who came to the country Avith eighteen pence and now drop pound notes in the collection. It will occur to every potential millionaire, however, that he must first and last depend on his fellow man to get on. There was the man in Chriistchurch who, prior to the football Test match" there, bought two tickets for the auxiliary stand. He was'-an unemployed man and had, of course, waited in the queue to get the tickets. He paid one guinea for the tickets and instantly sold them, making a profit of £3 8/2. This is an example to boys of sheer enterprise, for the man borrowed the money to buy the tickets! It is not only enterprise, but it is commendable enterprise, for the man who on a small scale imitates what the State does on an exceedingly large scale deserves the admiration of those effete persons who still cackle "neither a borrower nor a lender be." THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. The hills are made to be climbed. It is by sweat and pain and stumbling that we gain our manhood. What is your hill? A barrier, an enemy, humiliation? Climb! Climb from the base! You will learn, as you rise, to kiss the kindness veiled in that vast opposition.—David Barron. • * * • I confess I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company and a very little feast: and if I were ever to fall in love again (which is a great passion and therefore I hope I have done with it) it would be, I think, with prettiness rather than with niajcstical beauty. —Cowley.