THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

Youno- Hopeful got a job—his first. He undertook it with youthful zest, and after work returned to his home full of the days • doings. Having explained THE -what he had done, he INDISPENSABLE, solemnly observed, "My word, we've been busy to-day. I don't know what they would have done without me." Now that is basic, eternal, universal, bedrock. If you, for instance, did »not wonder how the firm, or the job, the country or the world would get on without you, you wouldn't bother. The boy is father of the man. The. man toiling in the allotted groove for forty or fifty years retires from the groove. If he stays out of the old street he haunted for so many years for a while and then returns to look at the office, he is astonished to find it is. still there, that the firm hasn't failed, that the management is not panic-stricken, that the ordered routine proceeds just as if he were still on tap. It seems incredible to him. The grass withers, the flower fades, but there is plenty more grass and flowers wh»re grass and flowers come from. There is always to-morrow —and the 'other fellow. Where are Cincinnatus and Alexander and Seddon now? Confirmation of the recent news contained in this column that Monte Carlo was not too well is contained in a letter received by an Aucklander. Hero is "MAKE YOUR an extract: "I am afraid GAME!" that old sunspot, Monte Carlo, which we used to visit in bygone days, is now a city of the dead. None of the villas can be let, and the hotels are empty and all for sale. -The franc, of course, standing as it does, makes the position impossible, and I am afraid that dear old Monte is only to be known by its past records." 11l days (or ill nights) have overtaken the world's greatest gambling hell. Even the swells of society vho seek the croupiers in the principality go not thither," and there is no "man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo." It is assumed that the ladies and gentlemen who were invited "Messieurs and ruadames— make your game,'.' have no francs to make it, or maybe have to work like other people for bread. Curiously, perhaps, the gravediggers in the Suicides' Cemetery are short of a job.. Apparently people who don't watch the ball spin don't long for death. Mind you, the fact that Monte Carlo is on the wane does not connote the wane of other gambling activities. The Continent is still enormously keen on lotteries and allied activities—but many recent "consultations." attracted only a moderate portion of the expected totals. Are people becoming more moral? What's going to win the Waipukururu Handicap 2 Dickens once remarked of a fictional criminal, sentenced to be transported, that if he had appeared at his trial in a new suit and a clean collar he might THE DOTTED have had his sentence LINE, shortened by years. The human being, either as God made him or clothed in rags, is not only indecent—but adequate hiding of the human frame is actually the law, and therefore much more decent than flesh, or even shirt sleeves. An Australian judge presiding at the first pitting of the Supreme Court ever held in the Northern Territory at Alice Springs, a terrilic piece of Australia frizzling in almost perpetual torridity—insisted that jurymen - arriving without coats them. Like-present writer, several of these men had never even possessed coats for years. Nobody ever lowered his eyes in shame as these sunburnt backblockers stole past in their shirt sleeves, nor, did anyone ever aver that no man could aid or administer the law without being fully clothed in a shade temperatnre of anything up. to 131 degrees. It is cabled that the learned judge fined an iceman three' pounds for appearing before him coatless. Ice? Ye gods, how dare a man who may be called on a jury go around selling ice when he should understand that heat generated and kept in by good woollen coats fs an essential of British justice? One wonders if the learned judge did not argue thus: "Well, if I've got to wear robes and-a wig in a temperature of 121, why should not these jurymen follow suit with the addition of a nice warm overcoat?" Judges never smile at. themselves—it isn't done. . The age-old habit of dragging down willow branches for the sustenance of stock is proceeding in the South. Our forefathers did it before the reign of BREAKFAST Stephen—so it was bound FOR 100,000. to get into print sooner or later. The habit of climbing the tall trees to prolong the olives of ground stock is as common in Australians here. The notable arboriferous sustenance in South Australia is the sheaoak. Neither cattle nor sheep climb, so the mountain must come to Mahomet. The wandering Croweater, riding beneath these feed trees, himself nibbles 4he rather acid tops of the sheaoak and thus himself becomes a ruminating gramnivorous sexapod animal (counting the horse's four feet, of course). The sheaoakcountry cocky has sometimes razed every sheaoak tree on his land on the all-grass theory, and has come to the moment when there is no grass and no sheaoak—for there are sheepliko people everywhere. Other favourite drought diets for stock are saltbush and emu bush, which, however, are closer to the teeth of the eater. Can we cross Merinos with giraffes, think yon? Gentlemen of the plains imitate their friends the sheep and refresh themselves with either provender. When surrounded with whiskers these men of the plains do somewhat resemble their charges. Still, a visit to town, to the barber and to the restaurant eliminates from the human countenance that sheepish appearance. In Adelaide visitors from the waybacks are sharply watched in case they may ringbark the sheaoaks in the parks or bite the tops for breakfast. One waits with some anxiety the results of the marbles marathon in the United States, for these widespread schoolboy knuckle-down championships are fought BROTHERHOOD with tremendous vim and OF SPORT, may lead to inter-State complication. Riots over the ping-pong championships in London caused by the drawing of the "colour line" between Englishmen and Indians have recently been narrowly averted. One never knows—bodyline, a false movement in draughts, a little mistake or two at chess, may lead to bloodshed. Even brothers are hardly brotherly when it opines to, real ding-dong sport. For instance, when football was introduced to Spain—the hospitals were filled for weeks with friendly adversaries. One evening at one of the smartest and largest hotels in Madrid the great dining room was filled with fashionable people. A gay young man diner, having paid the bill for his party, crumpled up the receipt into a small ball, threw it to the carpet, and with the ball at the toe dribbled it towards the entrance. Instantly every hidalgo there present was on his feet, and the liveliest football match ever played in Europe took place. When the casualties were at their height the gendarmerie were ' sent for, and, advancing with menacing swords and holsters full of pistol, they succeeded in checking the riot. This action on the part , of the Madrid police mitigated to some extent the fury of the game generally. At a match between Spain and Italy thereafter only one player was killed, although fourteen were I injured. The casualties among sightseers were I trifling, and apart from the three fatalities, the remainder were merely broken heads and stiletto scratches. I