THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 62, 15 March 1938, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

! (By THE MEN ABOUT TOWN.) i I Reunions seem to be the vogue nowadays, and one hardly ever picks up the newspapers without reading of some old boys | or some old girls who OLD OLD GIRLS, have fathered together to compare reminiscences. At a recent girls' school reunion a speaker dwelt upon the success in life of many of the past pupils. Said she: '"Some are lawyers, some doctors, some holding eminent positions in the teaching p;ofession. some in high civic positions, and." she added, "we even have an old girl in the Museum." The slip was appreciated by the audience. However, such a faux pas is pardonable when one realises that many of the dear old girls since leaving school have become mummies.—B.C.H. A little jest that is giving diplomatic circles a much-needed laugh has been "going the rounds"' (as the saying is) in England. It is said that recentlv SWISS SCORE. the Swiss Minister in Rome approached the Italian Foreign Secretary and asked him to agree to the appointment to his Legation of a Swiss naval attache. Count Ciatio looked somewhat puzzled. "But why?" he asked. "Switzerland has no navy."" "Why not?" retorted the Swiss Minister. "After "all, Italy has a Finance Minister!" Despite the fact that tipping has more or less been looked upon with disfavour, i continues, and is ijrmly entrenched. In Xcw Zealand tipping is not TIPS. stretched to the extremes reached in England and on the Continent, but it is carried far enough and at times can be very inconvenient and cause considerable annoyance. There are numerous versions of the origin of tips. The earliest prototype seem = to have !>cen in the practice of charity and goodwill offering-:. More generally, however, writers on the subject agree that the origin <>f the tip was the gift in appreciation of any extra-good services rendered. This seems to he borne out by the term itself. The French word for tip. "ponrboire," the Herman word '"Trinkgcld." and tinSpanish "para beber,"' mean drink money; but the Italian expression for tip, "buona inano," means good hand. In England, a tip was sometimes called a '"beer."' Even according to this' concept an element of inferiority seems to have been connected with the receipt of tips, for, ordinarily, one does not offer drink money to a person of one's own rank. One story has it that in England the word '"tip" originated in the latter part of the eighteenth century when a certain coffee house in London placed at the entrance a coloured box with a slit in it and with the letters "T.1.P." ("to insure promptness"). Anyone wishing quick service would drop a penny or halfpenny into the box, whereupon the waiter would rnsh forward to take his order. —Johnnv.

"The Merry-go-round Broke Down" is apparently the musical hit of the season. Milford sported a merry-go-round this, snmrner, and the strains of the NERVOUS above tune issuing thereBREAKDOWH. from were perhaps justifiable. However, nowadays the small boys whistle it, the dogs bark it and the crooners murder it. One night, on tuning in to a local station. I was greeted with the melody, so immediately switched over to another station, to wit. Suva. Believe it or not. but there it was again! The American warship had it. They were entitled to it. It was with some feeling of confidence, however, that one visited the French warship Jeanne d'Arc.*' During the afternoon reception the orchestra played some ' dance music. They played "The Merry-go-round Broke Down" three times during the afternoon—and played it in French, too.—B.C.H.

The writer Iroks for (and finds) a deal of "copy" in tramear*. Tliis afternoon three lovely young ladies entered the ear. Six young men jumped up and profSUMMARY fered their seats. The JUDGMENT, nearest lady to the writer smiled (ye gods, what an angelic smile!), saying, "Than-kew." with emphasis on the "kew." The youth blushed scarlet, and fingered his collar. The writer (aetat 74 —and looking a deal more and very bald) holds his seat in trams by removing his hat, and dropping his chin to his waistcoat. Even when he offers it to a lady the reply is: "You need it most." (Revenons a nos mon tons.) Presently there was a- pronounced odour of something hunting. The "than-kew"' lady's dress was smouldering. The polite hoy's cigarette had '"made contact." The lady quickly extinguished the burning frock as we reached a stop, rose in her seat, and smartly smacked the boy's face. "Yon clumsy fool." she shouted. The youth subsided in the seat and addressed this narrator: "What do you know about that. the -!" "Well, friend." we replied, "von sot off cheaply: it might have cost a new frock, but she put herself out of court by ■ administering *-n-nmarv judgment." "You a I bally lawyer:-'' asked the youth. "N't. friend." jwe replied. "We would not be. riding in a 1 tram if we were in law. hut in our own car." - 'A.A.P. j The newe-t suggestion >* that motorists who <b> fho-e things that they ought not to jdo should be put in gaol oxer the weekend. I The idea has pos-ih:l;tics. ALIBI. T know quite a number 1 of fellow- who oc.'.iisioiially invent week-end business trips to the !end that their long-suffering wive- -hall be deluded into the suppo-it ion that it is work and not the party spirit that occa-ions the absence. For such people summary gaoling over the week-end seems to have been invented as a special dispensation. After all. if the Law elects to put you in gaol, there seems t'i lw nothing that your wife can d > about it. And so a night out on Sat unlay will be robbed of most of its old terror-, and certainly will be rid of the necessity of inventing some eNci'-e for failing to -how up on the Sunday with the obvious evidences of dissipation to convict you. Of course, the-e is one catch about it —there always i- a catch even in the best of schemes. That w :1! be in convincing your wife that the action of the policeman in running you in was ju,t :• bit of official blundering. That, however, should b» fairly easy when one ponder* on the types of story that some men pet away with. HntiTlreds and hundreds of men. it seen:-, live 0:1 the theory that the only way to b> happy with a woman is to lie t > her. and the etT'«nat fiction that seem to serve the purpose .1: • a testimony to woman's amazing credulity In the ch-cumstances. therefore. -11 h a mi-hap as being run in over the week end -iionld t'.ide into insignificance so far a- any il'fli-n!tv in "putting it acros<" js eon-.-ernod. So one can hope that the new system will co-re into force just to see what happens next. — BOW. I — Just now when the farmers are bein™ p>i 1 a guaranteed juice, are nskinu for a con::.en sated price, and. incidentally, the price- of all commodities are -kyUNDER rocketing, it i- interesting THE TABLE, to know that among at least three-quarter- of tinpeople of the world goods bought and sold seldom have a fixed value. The price paid is determined only after negotiation* between buyer and seller. When the perties wish to keep prices a secret the ne :otiations arc carried on in a finger code under cover. In Persia, f.ir instance, prices for rues, and in Burma, prices for rubies, are nettled by the two men squeezing each other's hands beneath a table. The same thing goes on in Auckland, but not to fix prices for goods, but at bridge partieand in restaurant.- and where young men and young women sit for an hour or t w7, and dimon love and an asparagus mil.—Johnny,