RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 50, 22 November 1930, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

Milk the cow which is near. "Why par* sue the one which runs away.—Theocritus. ♦ • • The American Bar has expressed Itself in favour of the repeal of the Dry Laws. If this refers to the saloon model surely the answer was a foregone conclusion. • • • A reader gives a curious case of coincidence. He says: “A certain wellknown Wellington professional man, whom we will call “A,” was occupied, during the middle period of the Great War, in patrolling the coasts of Belgium and Holland in one of the small coastal motor-boats familiarly called C.M.B. He had with him an assistant, whom we will call “B.” One dark night, cruising, of course, without the lights, they found themselves unexpectedly in the presence of several formidable German destroyers, which at once opened fire with machine and other guns. The C.M.B. had to run for it at full speed, which was not less than 40 knots. “A” sat hunched up over the wheel, trying to make as small a mark as possible for the enemy’s shots. They had nearly reached safety when a machine-gun bullet struck A below the shoulderblade, piercing the chest, wounding the lung, and emerging just below the collarbone. For some time he carried on, but the bleeding from the mouth was fairly severe, and at last he was compelled to hand over the wheel to P, who brought the little C.M.B. safe to Dunkirk harbour. A was sent to hospital and recovered so quickly that he returned to his job again in 18 days. On his return he found that P had been transferred. He neither saw nor heard any more of him. Three or four nights ago, to his surprise, he perceived among the. guests at a social meeting in Wellington his long lost companion in danger, “P,” who had been in many lands since the war. The meeting between the former friends can be better imagined than described.” Perhaps some other participants in the great mix-up of 1914-18 can give instances of curious reunions of this nature.

It has been suggested that a Scottish girl who died only a few years ago is to be canonised by the Pope and thus made a Saint This will be the first Saint from Scotland for about 700 years. In spite of the long list’ of saints in existence to-day their creation is by no means a common occurence. It was not until the fourth century that persons other than martyrs were canonised. Nobody was inscribed on the Roll of the Saints until A.D. 608 when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon to St. Mary of the Martyrs. The first Saint nominated directly by a Pope was St. Swidborg in 752. Some 40 years later St. Alban was made a Saint in England by Hadrian I for political reasons and to please Offa, King of Mercia. i

Originally every Pope automatically became a Saint, but the custom was changed in the fourth century. Since then six or seven well-known Popes have been canonised. Numerous royal personages have been made saints, including over a dozen well-known figures in history such as Edward the Confessor, Louis IX of France, and good King Wenceslans of Bohemia. One of the more recent saints is Joan of Are. She was beatified 36 years ago and made a saint by Pope Plus X in 1909.

There are also a whole host of socalled saints, accepted by popular tradition, who in reality either never existed at all or were never made saints. It is something of a saintly paradox that April 23 should be dedicated, from Saxon days, by common consent to the memory of a shadowy hero called St. George. This gentleman won hazy fame and unwarranted saintdom at an unspecified date for slaying an equally imaginary dragon. St. George's nationality and career in reality remain an unsolved problem of history. Indeed the only thing we know of this patriotic emblem of all that is English is that he was an alien. One historian identifies him as a ruler of a littleknown Turkish province in Asia Minor. ,

Modern fashions are stated to be defeating their own ends. It is difficult to understand just what this means. Perhaps the best thing is to see what women who may now be considering anything but modern were in the habit of wearing. In B.C. 7000 statues of women reveal that they wore evening dresses very similar to those worn today. Even in those days women used vanity cases, rouge, and all the other • fal-lals. In addition, they were not above using a combined ear-pick and head seratcher neatly made up into one dual-purpose gadget.

In the Bronze Age small waists were the fashion—primarily for men. Women in those days merely aped man in dress. This is not unknown to-day. In order to grow enchantingly narrow men had their belts riveted on when boys. On special occasions women wore a short zouave jacket, decorated with fancy designs, their flounced skirts closely resembling the fashions of IS7O and ISSO. By the time the Romans came on the scene women were wearing shoes, carrying fans, parasols, using hair-nets, indulged in beauty culture, and even permanent waves.

Tn order to be fashionable women of olden times submitted themselves to treatment which would be considered unduly drastic, even to-day. The permanent wave of those days, for instance, necessitated three weeks immersion in a hot bath. The hair was put in curlers, and packed with clay for the whole period. The fashion, of eyebrow plucking, so up-to-date in 1930, was resurrected in B.C. 300 from the fashion traditions of B.C. 3000.

It must not be thought, however, that the censuring of the dyess of modern women is a new habit. Ever since dress was invented women have, beet censured for their dress. The attire of the Hebrew women was censured by Isaiah somewhere about 760 8.0. The Romans restrained dress excesses by strict laws. Moreover, since the beginning of this century even the biggest critic of women’s fashions cannot complain for lack of variety. The centurj opened in a cloud of dust caused by trailing skirts. Special corsets pushed tlie bust forward and the lower part of the body out behind. The neck was armoured with whalebone stiffened collars. Puffs and frills ran riot. By easy stages this lias given way to trouser skirts, tight skirts, spilt skirts, short skirts, low waists, high waists, no waists, tube dresses, and resurrected bloomers. Until a woman of 1930 looking at herself even ten years ago must (tender it she is for ever doomed to defeat her own ends. One short; glanec should be quite enough, to decide the fwlai.