THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1930, Page 8

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) Dear M.A.T.,—Heard a good story of a clergyman who, during the gold rush on the Thames, conducted services, for the miners. Approaching a tent m THE FIGHT!" which a noted "bruiser" v . dived, the late Mr. Calder invited hhn to the service. "I will come," said the bruiser, "on condition you stand up to a couple of rounds." "Agreed," said tiie parson, and, peeling off coat, and vest, he laid them on the ground. Then, pointing to them, he said, "There lie the parson (and pointing to himself), here is the man. Now come on." He made it so willing, it is said, that he gave the bruiser a'.pair of. black.eyes. The vanquished went to church.—J.E. the week.

Sip Otto (Ernst) Niemeyer, G.8.E., K.C.8., the eminent financial authority who is in New Zealand consulting with the Government, has been at the Bank of EngNO. 167. land since 1927. He , has been a njember of the Finance Committee of the League of Nations since 1922. Born in 1883, Sir Otto w.ent to St. Paul's School and to Balliol College, Oxford. He was with H.M. Treasury from 1906 to 1927 and Controller of Finance from 1922 to 1927. He has three daughters and a eon. . Schoolmasters have the excellent plan of. inviting children to bring anything curious ■from their homes in order that the whole school (or the whole THE CHILD MlND.class), may see it and* i have it .explained, .thus, ■adding to their store of real knowledge. One little lad the other day took to school-a book of some antiquity bound in parchment and thus to many children something of a novelty. The class teacher briefly explained the book, and, having .done so, laid it.on the headmaster'sta'ble, hoping, no doubt, that from his larger experience he might expand the lesson to be gathered from the unique tome. The small owner, however, seized an opportune moment, to retrieve his returning it to his bag. Asked by a classmate why he did it, the young diplomat said, "Do you think-that I'm going to listen to him. (the headmaster) telling me about me own book for hours and. hours, and hours?" ■ • • • Greatness is often allied- to robust health. The illness -of an-.-eminent personage .seems more poignant than 'that of a man in' the groove. ■An instance ,is GENIUS ABED, that- of the celebrated Lord Birkenhead, the admirable Crichton whose amazing career of progress is much more romantic than that of any hero in a novel. He had never had a day's sickness until 1920, and it was through an accident.- In high diving some water .penetrated an ear, leading to an illness. At Biarritz only a few months ajjo he broke a blood vessel, which led to the -illness that removes him from the intellectual world 'in which he is so bright a light. It is said that the chief characteristic of this fighting lawyer as a patient is a remarkable meekness and obedience, a distinctly opposite trait to his usual demeanour. :,

"People we know so well in fiction have their prototypes (at least in appearance) in real life," said Constant Communicator. "There

were two old gentlemen, THE CHEERYBLES. evidently twins, who

used to live in Hobson Street—the Cheeryble Brothers straight out of 'Nicholas Nickleby.' These two old gentlemen, about eighty years of .age, Avere obviously twins/ They were never seen separately, and it was their habit to walk -.about arm in arm smiling like a pair of dear old Cupids. One day they were walking past a boardinghouse just at the moment when a Great Dane, standing about as high as a table, came bounding down the footpath after a.dog of.no pedigree whatever. The small dog rushed in between the linked twins without disturbing their poise, but the Great Dane followed, He threw one twin into a garden and the other into the gutter. I rushed to pick up the old gentleman off the garden. H e was not much hurt. He smiled gratefully and-said, 'My brother/ and I didn't see the little dog coming. . The 'little dog' (about as large- as a calf) was at the moment trying to eat the small mongrel."

A trained eye witness, speaking of distinguislied guests who..come to see us civicallv or nationally, calls, attention to the vocal „__ habits of our own leaders. ME AND YOU. Mentions that although it is not invariable,' it "is common Tor our zealous ones to partially forget the guest or the visitor and to pour forth local statistics (swatted up for him by the staff) at the terrified visitor. He thinks that perhaps gentlemen coming from older countries rarely really care whether the main street is. a mile long, whether the harbour is punctuated .witli so-many hundred thousand tons of .concrete, or whether it has had its ■chief natural features destroyed by the-Pro-gressives., The trained eye witness (who may have had a liver when he,said it) thinks tha't if the/local eminent civic, or'national noticed the. visitor as well as himself visitors would go away with even a more glowing: opinion of us; Mentions, too, that the soft of public speech within our own borders might be revised. The method of seizing the opportunity of a public gathering to push one's own little barrow appears to him to be. not in the best taste. Then, of course, as one says, he may be-struggling with a liver.. He may not eee the immense interest in a column about, one's own affairs and two. lines about the other fellow. The other fellow is merely dazed

Another excellent habit of school masters is to. ascertain what' influence the ; . dailv newspaper has on the hoine life of the children THF 'STTmFWT f^ ei f y Children in one IUE STUDENT, school were asked to

wnte an essay .on the newspaper, and one boy mentioned that each one:of the family read some portion, of it lather, , wrote the boy, "always turns to one part of: the paper every night. • He reads for about ten minutes ..-and then he gives- us three certe for the races."