RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 68, 13 December 1932, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

As an economy there has been no recruiting for London’s police for the last six months. The idea it seems, these hard times, is to allow burglars to pick things up cheap.

According to reports the recent wool sales at Wellington went with a swing. Unfortunately for farmers the prices made on the swing left absolutely nothing over for the roundabouts.

An Eastbourne reader gives the following remarkable series of facts concerning the wreck of the Mataura off the Strait of Magellan. The captain of the Mataura was about to sail on the ill-fated voyage when a man named de Rougement asked to see him. The result of the interview was that de Rougement was allowed to work his passage to England. The day before the ship sailed de Rougement Insisted on seeing the captain again. When he was told that the captain was too busy to see him, he forced his way to the bridge. He said that he had a message from the captain’s wife, who had died some little time before under tragic circumstances in England. This made the captain more annoyed still, for he thought that the man must be drunk or mad. Nevertheless de Rougement insisted on giving his message. He said that the captain's wife had visited him and told him to tell her husband that on no account must he go through the Strait of Magellan on the trip home. “I would ask you, Sir, to consider this as a warning,” said de Rougement.’Tt is not an idle dream.” The captain brusquely ordered the man away. Nevertheless it is significant that de Rougement was sufficiently impressed himself with his message to abscond just as the vessel was leaving on her last voyage

Probably many readers will feel somewhat sceptical about the mysterious warning given the captain of the Mataura before his vessel was wrecked off the Strait of Magellan. Nevertheless, however sceptical one feels about stories of preternatural warnings, the cold fact remains that the present instance is not an isolated case. There is another tale of a similar nature concerning Cape Horn itself. For three full weeks Captain Griffiths, of the sailing ship Bianca, bad been fighting to round the Horn in the teeth of gale after gale. One evening tired out, he lay down to rest as there was every indication of the storm abating. Suddenly he opened his eyes. An utter stranger was standing beside him. A great hulking fellow, fair-haired and blue-eyed. He was dressed in deep-sea kit. His face was haggard with a small beard and a moustache. After poring over the slate upon which sailing directions were written the man went through the door. Griffiths rushed to the slate. On it were the marks of a wet finger that had spelled out the words, “steer N.N.W.” The captain did so after some deliberation. In three hours the.v sighted a derelict crew on an Iceberg. “We have met before, captain.” said the blue-eyed leader of the derelicts when he was rescued. “Yes.” said the astonished Captain Griffiths grimly, “yesterday evening in my chartroom.”

Experts who examined a picture gallery in Czecho-Slovakia are stated to have found 30 paintings that are claimed to be the work of old masters. This is not Improbable. Before now the works of the old masters have turned up in more unusual places than a picture gallery. A genuine Gainsborough, some three years ago, was found banging on the wall of the cottage of a villager who had lived out his long life neau the town of Nice. Just how the plot |-e got there is not known. Another famous picture, the work of a German painter, Cranach, who died in 1553, turned up among some junk found in a church in the suburbs of Berlin. A woman in London, anxious to raise every penny she could, took a picture she rescued from her garret to a man who sold old rags. While she was haggling for the price, a few pence, an expert in pictures happened to pass. Struck by the age of the canvas, he suggested that the picture should be properly examined. It was. Under the top layer of paint, depicting an outdoor scene, was revealed a genuine Turner.

We are told that doctors and actresses have confirmed the news that dieting is dying out. The slimming craze it seems is almost over. Dieting for some reason is always thought to refer to slimness. If our women diet to slim there are other women, considered just as beautiful, who diet to grow fat. After all beauty Is no more than a matter of taste. A woman of West Africa for exmaple would think you slightly mad if you took for granted that dieting indicated a desire to grow slim. Dieting to her Indicates an intense desire to grow stout. Her meals consist of rice, bananas, and yam ground to a pulp. She takes no exercise. When these women are about to be married dieting becomes even more intense. Tlie bride is sent to what Is called a "fattening house ” Here she is fed every two hours on chicken, eggs, soup, and oil. When the happy bridegroom comes for his “belle” he finds her so adorably fat that she Is unable to rise to greet him. Which, then, is the most pathetic? The slim girl nibbling biscuits and thinking of a juicy steak, or the African beauty in a perpetual state of being able to chew but not swallow?

As a matter of fact civilisation has proved to be the last straw in the downfall of the African maiden. Labour saving machinery, piiie borne water, and the motor-car have all helped to make her fatter than ever. For in the old days the daily household rounds, the fetching and carrying of water jugs weighing perhaps 601 b., helped to keep her mountains of fat within bounds. Grinding corn, and walking, cooking and spinning kept the belles of Africa in trim. The introduction of our lazy civilised ways into a country where fatness is fashionable is turning the women folk into helpless prodigious lumps of flesh. It is said that the African tribesmen are seriously alarmed at the deterioration of their women. Fatness it seems has its limits. Husbands who have to carry 22 stone of helpless wife, perhaps more than one, are beginning to complain. It would seem that just as it is high time to stop the thinning craze In civilised countries so it is high time to stop the fattening craze in Africa. White and black belles could exchange some priceless hints on the subject. They should have a conference.