RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 104, 27 January 1938, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events l (By Kickshaws.) Maybe the charter that Parliament may grant the Standards Institute will provide a standard excuse for rising prices. If we understand the situation the amateur status of the Trinidad team has not been endangered owing to the absence of any tape except, it seems, red tape. Beowulf's manuscript that had remained unreadable for 1000 years has yielded its secrets by violet ray photography. A fellow with a writing as bad as that should have used a typewriter. » • • "In one of the films at present showing in Wellington, the word ’ski’ is pronounced as it is spelt, but I have heard many people pronounce it as ‘she’, says "Ski-shoe.” "Could you, or any of your correspondents tell me which is the correct pronunciation?” [Both “shee” and “skee” are correct.] • » » Rosamond Pinchot, who became internationally famous in Reinhardt's painting "The Miracle,” has died. A few days ago the original of "Bubbles” passed away. The last named was painted by Sir John Millais and sold to a well-known soap firm, who made the boy depicted known throughout the world. During the Great War it Is probable that many enemy commanders heartily wished that the boy had stuck to blowing bubbles instead of blowing up their ships. One by one these originals are passing away. Famous for their portrait, their personal name, nevertheless, is rarely known. The famous fox terrier that is so wellknown in gramophone circles must have died years ago. This picture was painted by Francis Barraud. It was the painter’s own fox terrier that was depicted displaying interest in his master’s gramophone. The advertising possibilities of the picture came later. In company with “Bubbles” this fox terrier appears destined to go down the decades for all time, or at any rate until the firms concerned go out of business, or change their policy or their names. » • • Possibly the portrait that produced the greatest sensation, and disapproval in some circles, was the famous picture "September Morn.’’ This depicts a naked girl posed in Lake Annecy. She is contemplating some prickly looking grass, twigs, or is it seaweed? Her hair is waved, bingled or permed, suggesting that her last thought is a bathe. Suzanne Delve, now nearly 43 years old, still smarts under the scandal of 26 years ago which, Mie says, "wrecked my life completely.” In these days of abbreviated swim suits this mav be difficult to understand. Paul Chabas. who painted the picture, flatly refused to disclose the identity of his model. The nude conscious public of 1912 thereupon began to ask “who is this girl?” Legends sprang up. Madame Delve herself declares now that but for the attention drawn to the picture in America by the reformer Comstock, she would have received little publicity. At the time she had been about to make her debut into Parisian society. The painting was actually made in the artist’s studio under the eye of the girl’s mother. The lakeside scene was fille t in later. It was not until New York saw the picture that it was displayed in every newspaper, and on chocolate boxes, until eventually the "Watch and Ward Society,” two aged spinsters, made the girl’s life intolerable and broke the heart of her father. * * • There is rather an amusing story behind, the publicity picture of a wellknown railway company in England, in which a tiny tot of a lad is depicted looking wistfully up at the enginedriver of a huge locomotive about to start on its run. A certain celebrity was due at Waterloo station, and a press photographer had arrived to take a photograph. ' While waiting, the photographer noticed a grown-up little fellow trot along the platform carrying a tiny attache case and engage the driver of a train in conversation. The railway company subsequently issued a poster of the photograph that was taken." They were besieged with queries as to the identity of the little boy. The company appealed for the boy’s parents to come, forward. Scores of fond mothers journeyed to Waterloo convinced that their child was the original. The boy, it seemed, had u hundred mothers. Eventually, the boy was proved to be Ronald Witt, now living in California. Maybe some readers have noticed a bewhiskered old salt whose portrait adorns the lid of a certain brand of sardines. His name is Duncan Anderson. Born at Oxford, he became “boots” at a local hotel. At 13 years be went to sea, hunted pirates in Chinese rivers, and then settled in a fishing village in England, where he was found by Mr. Angus Watson, who paid him a comfortable salary for life for his exclusive use on a tin of sardines. • » »

The Scottish centenarian who has recently died in Southland after living in six reigns was certainly helped by the fact that during the last few years we have had three kings. Queen Victoria, it might perhaps be pointed out. conspired considerably to spoil his average. If we take a man of 100 years to-day he will have lived through five reigns almost exact to a year, as Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. In contrast, a Frenchman of the same age could claim to have lived through one and a half dozen assorted sovereigns and presidents, not to mention a republic or two. An American of the same age has seen 28 presidents elected. Yet a Spaniard has only six kings to his credit, a dictator, and two or three dozen civil wars. A Swede would have bagged half a dozen kings, a Russian four and one revolution, and a Turk but three rulers if we exclude dictators. Centenarians who elected to be born in the Netherlands would have bagged one more On the average, so far as Britain is concerned, 100 years sees about five or six different sovereigns, two score years and ten about four. From 1660, when Charles II came to the throne, there had been, however, no fewer than eight sovereigns before the 100 years was out.

“Will you please . give me some information regarding the trade dispute between England and the Irish Free State? What was the value of exports per year from England to her Dominions, including the Irish Free State?” asks "Wager” [England's Empire exports amount to about £300,000,000 a year: to the Irish Free State, about £25.000,000 a year.]