THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 218, 15 September 1930, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) . My memory takes me hack fifty yeare. Tho writer was a member of that crack volunteer company the Thames Naval Brigade. The on company attended mornTHE GIG'S CREW.ing service.at St. George's er :. „ one Sunday in every of month for years in full dress uniform. It 'h° was quite natural to elect the clergyman as " rC honorary chaplain.' to the brigade as succes>nt sor to the Rev. V. Lush.. The company at as, that, time owned a beautifully built cight-oared ?h, pleasure gig named the Isa Darling, after u *t Lady Darling, a sister of our captain, the late E. T. Wildman. It was used during sumiraer months to take honorary members out ve for pleasure trips. At the first opportunity the chaplain, his wife and family were n » invited to go for a pleasure trip up the Thames Kiver and along the foreshore of the gulf, sir On returning to the wharf he thanked the crew ve for the trip. At the same time he gave a he promise to perform the marriage ceremony 39, without cost to the first one of the crew to ,us get married. Though not a member of St. ,r< * George's, one of the crew decided on the JW great adventure. After. the ceremony the he chaplain cast a longing eye for his fee. The II P bridegroom noticed this and remarked, "Ye ken, sir, that I was one of . the boat's crew m- that took ye out for a sail in the gig when you re joined the Navals?" The clergyman, highly in Amused, shook hands and informed him that eh he had a good memory. That couple are still o- bale and hearty and still residents, of Thames, fh, The clergyman's son is still going strong in as Auckland. —Old Timer.

-a, .. ; to . If. A typisto who commands a view of a m populous city street recently had her attention attracted to a garbage bin standing on the ot corner of the street waitof WASTED PITY, ing the skilled attention of the street cleaners. She n was alarmed to see that a struggle "was going gd on in the tin. She called her office comjd panions.- "It's a cat!" said one. "It's a cat!" lie echoed the others. They all agreed' that a cat, 3d seeking food, had become caught in the lid m and hung there struggling. They waited a- anxiously, hoping that some passer-by might a- release the animal. Pe6ple passed. It was too cruel! Unable to stand it any longer, r * the girls descended from their office and ran m across the street 'to rescue poor pussy. They didn't release her. She was merely a piece of of par cr imprisoned in the lid and flapping in id tlx i w lad. Their pity was wasted on waste. >y , . . ' •... • ■ . * s, s " Mr. -Vcitchj of the Ministry, has allayed ie the fears of the public. He explains that in although politicians ibark at each other on ' . * " . the floor of the House AMIABLE FOES, they are really just friends a • • - off it. In short (although lit he doesn't say so) the game of politics is very d much like that other national pastime, football, the enmity being fierce while the war is on, all being forgotten when the game is 2 ' done. .Still, the public pays for enmity and 10 dearly loves it even if it is faked enmity. [' Dickens has set the feeling down in "Pickwick." Mr. Pickwick, sued for breach of promise, is in the Court before the hearing. s Ho has engaged eminent counsel. Opposing c counsel, passing Mr. Pickwick's barrister, nods brightly and says "Good morning!" "Whc was that barrister who said good moirning to our counsel?"' asked Pickwick. Pickwick's attorney told him. Mr. Pickwick was astonished at "the cold-blooded villainy of the ,f man" who dared to say good'morning to an

s opponent. •, \- t ■ ——— .' i . ■ ' 'VThe trainer and the punter conferred, and the trainer burst forth into loud praise. "I've c got a dark horse. She's a bay filly. v Nobody s knows about her 'cept r A DARK HORSE. you. I'm going to train her secretly. We tried t her out. She's a beaut, a bobby dazzler; one 1 out of the bandbox. Fastest thing on four - legs." The punter wore %it well-known - dreamy look. "Faster than;.: Mickey the s Mouse?" he asked. : "** ' ' j 1 "H.J.K." sends an extract from an Ausr tralian paper in which a correspondent sees a parallel between Sir Otto Niemeyer'e visit 1 to these Dominionf, and NOTHING NEW. the visit of Nehemiali, > the cup bearer of Arta- > xerxes, to Jerusalem. Nehemiah was sent by p the Persian king to Jerusalem, which was in a very depressed state. The bankers had been putting the screw on. "We have mortgaged > our lands, vineyards and houses that we might ; biiy corn on account of the dearth," says the J Bible record. "We have borrowed money for ! the king's tribute . . . we bring into bondage our sons our daughters." When '■ Nehemiah got to Jerusalem.he lost no time 1 in setting everything in order.- "Thus I cleansed them from all strangers," is Neliemiall's own summingup." I Philip, our infant, nearly two years old,has heard so'much from the older children about Kingsford Smith in connection with aero- _ ' „ planes that he evidently THE CHILD MIND, takes "Smith" for a gen- . eric name for 'planes. Every 'plane Hying overhead, every picture of a 'plane he comes across is hailed as a "Mit" (Smith). The other day, reciting the old m (^r Diddle-Diddle," he paused at the line "The cow jumped, over the moon," and, looking round, remarked seriously, "Mit will have to. get out of the way."—Rathbeg. A New Zealand man interested in literary matters has. recently returned to his own country. He mentions that literary giants al 'e not notably interestQUID PRO QUO. ing conversationalists.-ex-cepting,. of course, G. 8.5., Arnold Bennett and Sir James Barrie. He' had the advantage of meeting Barrie at a social affair and was invited" to take his little daughter. Barrie is, of course, very fond of children, and for half an hour talked with .the little girl from far-off Maoriland. The father, noting it, beckoned his daughter and said, "You must not stay too long with Sir James; you might bore him." ' And the ingenuous infant said to dad, "All right, dad, and if I stay with him much longer he- mi"ht bore me! I'd rather read /Peter Pan.'" I wonder how people make their money ?" a man who lias none of & man who lias far, far less. "Well," answered the last, "the ' instinct is born in the THRIFT. individual. There is the case of the lady well known in the highest Sydney circles who telephoned her butcher to send her instantly threepennyworth of cat's meat. Fifteen minutes after she rang him to countermand the order The cat had caught a bird." THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. Begin your web, and. God. will supply the! thread.—ltalian proverb. , > * * I Man will not be reasoned out of the j feelings of; humanity.—Blacks tone.'- j