THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 207, 2 September 1938, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MEN ABOUT TOWN.)

Even newspaper people in England have succumbed to the malady of collecting autographs and other mementoes associated with Australian Test cricketers. SOUVENIR. Among the latest items to find favour in this vogue are the news bills carried l>y paper boys m Britain. Early in the tour, a Northampton paper put out a bill on which was printed the outline of a kangaroo. Around this were the words, "Don Is In and Out.'' Bradman. seeing the bill carried by a young paper seller, was tickled by this reference to hi* dismissal for two run/3 at Northampton. He hailed the lad and autographed the sheet. Half a dozen team mates who were with liim promptly added their endorsement* to the news. The newsboy sped back to the office, refusingseveral offers of cash for the bill as he went. The precious rectangle of paper is now installed as chief souvenir of the Northampton Press.— Johnny. »

A par. hy "A.A.P." in this column has attracted my attention and interest, for he haa referred to a subject of great importance. Our gaming laws are, as FULL HOUSE. lie intimates, unique in

the extreme. At a recent ex-servicemen's smoke concert I was allowed to participate in a game of "House." Strange to say this was the only gambling game which was officially allowed on troopships, although many men will blushingly confess to having played more intricate games of chance upon troopships. Nevertheless, the calls of "Kelly's Eye," "Legs Eleven," "Clickety-cluck." "Twenty-one Days—and You" brought back happy memories of days when men were permitted to be "regular little tinkers." Times have changed but little, for apparently the law in regard to the "House" business remains the same. It is allowed by the Government, but the chances of a player yelling triumphantly "Hoiisev, Housey" are more remote than in those days. Of course. I a.m referring to the State housey-housey game.—B.C.H.

An out-of-town reader has addressed a question to "Touchstone" on the meaning of intransigent, which he has read in a letter on politics. Commonly, in INTRANSIGENT. English usage, it means uncompromising, irreconcilable or out-and-out. The word is a corruption of the French intransigeant, a noun masculine or an adjective whose most common meaning is ultra-republican. Fowler says that intransigent dates in England from al>out 18S0, but being now established, it should neither be pronounced as French nor spelt

"cant" any longer. Another authority, "Jackdaw," in "John o' London's Weekly," has sounded a warning against the use of either of the Anglicized forms, intransigent or intransigence. He says that lie has never dared to use them, leaving that to the pundits of the Press, "who are so fond of their sound that they have become careless of their sense." (That js too hard on Xew Zealand journalists of the first rank.) "Political leader writers," he goes on unrelentingly, "must be allowed their fine words, but I cannot see that intransigent fills a definite vacancy in our language. Words like stubborn, implacable, irreconcilable, recalcitrant and others surely meet most if not all needs, though, of course, intransigent is a more impressive word at breakfast or in the morning train."

I The blind man this morning pressed the button in the tram car. rose from his seat, and began to walk through the car to the platform. He hadn't gone THE WHITE two paces before a young CANE. fellow also rose, and, taking the Mind traveller by the arm, led hirfi not only through the car. but safely to the footpath. Once clear of the traffic, tlie sightless one tapped the asphalt with his cane a couple of times and then walked briskly down the street. The cane, or walking stick, has a long history. It took the place of the sword in Europe after the age of chivalry. There were some queer ideas held by people concerning walking sticks those days. Because gold-lieaded ones supposedly guarded against infection, they were carried by all physicians, and as barbers at times acted as surgeons, the professional sign of barber-surgeons was a stick about which was wrapped a bloody bandage. Actually- the history of the walking stick goes back to Biblical times when Hebrews carried long, crntched sticks similar to those of the shepherds. After the introduction of the walking stick to the French court under Louis Xl\\ it became fashionable for both men and women to carry the long, slender sticks, those carried by women being adorned with bows of ri 1.1 >on known as love-knots. The use of white walking sticks by the blind originated some years ago in Colorado Springs. Personally I have never used a walking stick, but as "a lad more than once enjoyed watcliin" the holder of one slashing right and a stuffed sock which in the darkness of the. night looked very much like a rat as it moved quickly across a footpath directly in front of the feet of the innocent passei*-bv. The sock would be attached to a black thread operated by bad boys hidden behind a hed<r e or fence.—Johnny. °

The ram poured through the leaking ~aol roof, and vivid lightning lit up our e'ejf as Bunyan (Convict 09) tied the precious manu-

THE PTT miM'Q rr ipt ' '71"* wi " lHfc PILGRIMS the world. Mac It lias PROGRESS. been worth while. I •, „ „ , r depend on you. Publish TKi r ~ 7 fi,lod with ' tears as I bade farewell; exhausted with the endless years of strain his life work finished, he sank back exhausted. My sentence had expired; a 7 ,/ ra , oler ' . a PP'ying the "flying mare" cat a pulted me into the street. Clutch in" the precious MS. and quivering with suppressed excitement, I timidly knocked at the editor's door. Opening it, he balefully glared at the precious message I had brought the world from Bedford gaol. 'What! This? Pilgrim's Pro gross? You insolent wretch." With a pantherlike spring he was at my throat. Forcing me to my knees, he rained shower of blows at me till my senses reeled. Flingimr me in a corner lie tore the precious manuscript to shreds, keeping but one page of it. which he rule an , d m ~" Ured with a carpenter's !,., ft' 11 *r o lon " ! be screamed, and ripped rest at me '"-T' Retainsn f J one . he flung the a , t 9 me ; • So y°" punctuated it yourself too. eh? And used caps?" He seized an axe this drivJ threateningly. "You'd Ul ,ioad Sd tw-UtJ'WV He »'v arm and twisted it. (,et out! D' Ve ], ea r» and crashed** t' V n"" PWI <I,ro,, S h window and crashed to the pavement below. I hid till the paper came out. Grabbing a copy I Ifever.shly .Anted for an hour* .Nothing Then I saw it In letters of scarlet it shrieke'd at nte —from the stop press "I« it a w •> "Sensational Story." "Alleged F«f? f Christian, the Notorious Mutineer." "Reported Making Progress as Pilgrim." "Religious Revival in Slough of Despond (•>)" \r,r W on fire, I rushed into th? and *wUh " maniacal yell, hurled myself at him. ' Utterlv merciiess, „,y fingers tightened round his wind- ' , pipe. He shrieked; I shrieked. "Here Mac wake up, man. It's me— Alf." I sat up' The : ghost and his cousin Fred were lau<*hin" hysterically. Mechanically I noted that Fred's , flax had chafed; any minute he would fall 1 apart. And far away, in Bunhill Fields. John ' Bunyan slept on in a narrow grave, his work ji <lone,—MacClure. i