RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 34, 3 November 1933, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

LOCAL AND GENERAL

(Bj

Kickshaws.)

Our roads, it is revealed, can be cured iq three different ways. Well then, why aren’t they?

The shipbuilding slump, it seems, has now reached the bottom. It should provide Davy Jones with the surprise of his life. • • • It is all very well for a hen in Vancouver to lay 357 eggs in record time, but it is hardly the thing to egg it on by cheering. ; “P.N.”, Palmerston North, wants to know if any reader-can give him particulars concerning .the value of a book called “The Coinpleat Cook” that has recently come into his possession. The book, he says, makes a point of “expertly, prescribing tile most ready Wayes, whether Italian, Spanish or French.” It was “printed by Nath Brook at the Angel in Cornhijl, 1664.” In the back of the volume there are cures and remedies for all ailments with a note. to the effect that they have never been published before. V • • The girl with a £l,OOO smile who is photographed for “ads.” fifty times a week, mentioned in the Woman’s World, emphasises the fact that the pretty girls and handsome young men of the “ads.” are real. It is said that the famous picture on a certain brand of sardines depicting a white bearded jovial old skipper is not oply the picture of a real live skipper but the original actually inspired the name for that particular brand of sardine. The manufacturer, at a loss for a name, saw the photograph in a shop window. He went into the-shop, purchased the copyright of the photograph for five guineas; sought out skipper Anderson, the original of the photograph, secured bis exclusive services, and what is mope, paid him a comfortable salary for life. As a matter of fact Mr. Anderson was really a typical old salt. He ran away and joined the Navy at 13 years, and hunted down pirates in Chinese rivers before 1 e was 21. When age compelled him to retire fie inspired the name for a brand of sardines. What more could one want of life?

While on the subject of realistic “ads.” it is only fair to add that the well-known “Bubbles” bov that used to advertise a famous brand of soap, if indeed he does not still do so, was a real live boy. He was painted for the occasion by Sir John Millais; and is depicted as an angle-faced lad dreamily watching his soapy bubbles drift aloft. Captain W. M. James, C. 8., the original “Bubbles” boy, was blown up at Jutland in the Queen Mary. AH hopes of his survival Were given un but miraculously he escaped. Only a year or two ago he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral. His features must be known to nearly half the world. Even the famous Kodak girl is a reality. The original of the poster was submitted by a professional photographer. - Thousands have : doubtless marvelled at the amazing sense of movement in the wind-blown dress. Many experts have tried to imitate it. They did not know that the original Kodak girl, a professional model, had greased her body before downing '•he dress so that the folds held in position. Hundreds of black threads fastened to the folds and the ends of the frocks, and attached to a black background kept the wind-swept dress in position.

It may be true, that tfle peoples of the civijisefl world are anxious qbout the first great attack since the war bu organised peace. If there is anxiety there should, be no surprise because there has been no lack of warning that an attack on peace was coming. Thinkers, like Professor Soddy, a Nobel Prize winner, have pointed out tlisit unless the nations reorganised their selfish economic systems an attack on peace was inevitable. Dean Inge time and time again has pointed out that unless the peoples of the world could mend their ways war was inevitable. Mr. Rgmsay MacDonald and Sir Austen Chamberlain said six years ago that unless the nations mended their ways “Europe would move uneasily, slowly, but .certainly to . new catastrophe.” Even Mr. Lloyd George admitted that he was afraid of what might happen. The late M. Painleve warned the world that militarism was still a menace to the world. A famous journalist has pointed out that due to “fear, hesitation and suspicions, the civilised world will reach one of those situations which cannot be untangled peaceably.”

War can only be waged by the individuals that constitute nations. It seems absurd that they cannot unite to take heed of the lessons learned in the Inst war concerning the futility of a resort to arms. The last war must still be vivid in the minds of every nation. The civilised nations involved in that war have not even buried all their war dead. They have not yet paid their war debts. Until 1960 they will be paying war pensions to the men maimed in the war of 1914. Some experts declare that the effect of the breaking down of the whole system ot international credit caused by the last war will still be felt in A.D. 2000, as also will taxation due to the war. In spite of all this the peoples of the world are once again talking “war” as if the '5 years that divide us from the last war was a gulf sufficiently big to excuse another. If only the dead of the last war could parade before the generations now growing up perhaps they would realise where the world is drifting, if indeed they had the patience to watch so grim a parade. Marching four abreast all day and all night it would require four months for the procession to pass them. •- • • . “Inquirer" Greytown. writes;— “Could you please tell me the family name of the King of England before ir was changed to Windsor?" , With George 1 in 1714. the Guelph family came from Germany to the throne of England. Previously this family had ruled Hanover and Brunswick. On July 17. 1917. George V renounced all his German titles and changed the family, name to Windsor —“Kickshaws.” ■• • • Wonld’st shnne a noifle life? Then cast No backward glances toward the past And though somewhat lie lost and gone Yet do thou act as one new-born. What each day needs, that Shalt thou

ask Each day will set its proper task. —Goethe.