WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 284, 26 August 1922, Page 4

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

It does seem low down to keep on raking up this loyalty business just when the Labour Party wants to get some votes. Lord Balfour may have drawn wrong inferences about the possibility of international debt cancellation from the fact that America has a Mellon at the Treasury. Execution of social revolutionaries In Moscow is approved, by the Swiss Communists as the Soviet’s “only way or preventing revolution.” —What about trying an election? Tibet, which a British Buddhist mission has been visiting, is reported to be tired of its seclusion, and to have a fancy for railways and schools. The Dalai Lama seems to have been rather worried about tho Bolshevists, who deposed the Hutukhtu, or Living Buddha, of Mongolia, a most holy person, and to have felt that it might be Lhasa’s turn any day unless he made friends with Britain. Mr. C. A. Bell, the British agent who was in Lhasa last year, says the Dalai Lama is a friendly, frank man of 47, wno reads the Indian newspapers, and knows what is what in world affairs. Like many other people, tho JJalai Lama feels that he could do with a •biggeija income, and discussed with r Mr. Hell ways and means of waking things up hi his ancient domain on the root of the world.

The Dalai Lama seems to be distinguished from the rest of the population of Tibet by the fact that he believes in cleanliness. Although he sets his subjects an example,. h<j tactfully refrains from forcing any of them te endanger their health by having a wash. Tibet is generally known as the land where one wife has several husbands, but Mr. Bell tells us the general rule is one one wife. If it is safe to mentiori'-l’yaor in an election year without provoktv a correspondence between the licensed victuallers and the prohibitionists, I may add that the Tibetans are fond of drinking barley beer, but drink it moderately, except at banquet?., where it is a point of honour to go on until you fall under the table. If you take ill in Tibet you send for the priest, and he decides whether ,you are ill because an evil spirit is in you, or because of physical causes.. The doctor can only be called in when the priest approves. When, a Tibetan dies it is not the grave-digger or the undertaker who is called in ,but the butcher, who cuts the corpse into little pieces, and throws the bits out to the birds. With the ground frozen solid for six months, of. . the year burial would be difficult, and the Tibetan custom is said to be quite clean, as the scraps disappear at once. We feed the worms, but the " Tibetans prefer the birds as more deserving.

The new street guiding signs for motorists in the city are a great improvement, and 4 I hope the authorities will not become tired of them ana take them away again, as once hap- , pened at a certain place in Massachusetts where there was a road sign, “Dangerous Curve —Drive Slowly.” A visitor inquired why the local authority had removed it. and was told— 1 Oh. they had it there for five years, and there warn’t no accidents so they took it down.”

... A correspondent - writes: —A curious old. 'tale 'is told- of the Town 1 of Bandon, in Ireland, now much, talked ,of as the place where Michael Collins was shot. The old town was originally peopled by Irish Protestants, most bitter in their hatred of Popery; so much so, that on the gates of the town the following notice was printed: Jew, Turk, or Atheist enter here But let no Papist dare appear. Some wag. evidently of Catholic origin, wrote underneath: — ITie man that wrote tins, wrote it well, For ’tis the same that’s written on the Gatos of Hell.

This is similar to the witty retort of Father James Healy, the famous parish priest of Little Bray. Sitting one day at lunch next a Protestant rector, the latter remarked: “Do you know, Father Healy, I have been sixty ■ years in this world,. and I have not yet discovered the difference between a good Catholic and a good Protestant.” “You won’t be sixty seconds in the next world before you find 'it out,” was Father Healy’s famous rejoinder.

It is not given to everybody to be famous like Father Healy. Poets achieve fame occasionally. Adam Allsup, of Tangamomona wooed the verse for three ye>rs. “If I could only get a start,’’ lie would mutter to himself, “I would be made.” At. last the Tongamomona “Tatler” printed one of his pieces. “Hurrah!” he cried, “I am madel Fame and Fortune are mine from now cm” As the “Tatler.” in an unusual spasm of generosity Baid him 2s. 6dfor the poem, the Fortune he made was that sum, minus stamjis and stationery used on previous efforts —a net remainder of Hid. The Fame he acquired was a place at the. bottom, of. the “Tatler’s” chess column. Of the 3000 people who took the “Tatler,” 302 looked at the chess column. Of the 302 who looked nt the. chess column, 102 looked at the title of Adam’s poem. Of the 102 who looked nt the title, 54 read the first line. Of the 54 who read tho first line, 17 continued through the first stanza. Of the 17 who read the first stanza, 8 jogged indifferently through the second spasm. . - Of. the eight who jogged through the second spasm, only one stayed-to the end, and he exclaimed when he had finished: “What rotten piffle! How do they lot such twaddle into tho papers?”

A 7l Irish Republican nlayboy was handling dynamite intended to prenare a mine for tho benefit of a patrol of soldiers, who were expected to ’ pass along that particular road later on. Ho dronnod a stick, and the whole box exploded, taking him skyward on the instalment system. -‘Where’s Uassidv?” asked the-Commandent subsequently. . “He’s gone,” replied one of the surviving heroes. “When will he be back?” “Faith, if he cc-rnee back as fast ns ho went off, he’ll be back last night.”

OLD WOMEN. These women have known the passing of love .... The fading of delight ... I see it in their eyes above, Faces drawn and white . . » ’ These women have, felt Youth In their hearts die. These women know Truth — Beauty has passed them by ... These women understand What I have never known ... Ent some day their cold secret Will come to me, alone. —Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff.