POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 133, 3 December 1930, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

BY PERCY FLAGE '

Chronicle and Comment

"Bettykins" discovered this "snip** in real estate: — Cheap Sunny Sections, Karori, reduced Is Gd, now Is; large size 2s 6d, now 2s from £850 to moderate prices. Wise buyers will purchase now. thanks. We'll have two of each, while the.slump holds. *' * * Authentic news item from the homa of the movie r/Mmmers. "A mechanical . man that talks, sings, laughs, and walks is being used in the streets of Hollywood to advertise the latest picture. The film Btar usually leads him on.his mission." But somotimes,,it appears, the robot escapes. We've seen, heard, and suffered him on the screen. * * « Big thought for this, the third day of the last month of a most momentous year:—. We have no wish to rob Our noble Mr. Cobbe Of any praise for saving/ real ani sensible; , Still—as things are to-day, Can we not- justly say His handling of Defence is indefensible! , -::- « « This is what may be termed a postscript alliteration. It . comes v via "Q.P." (Coromiftulel street), who culled it from a back date magazine. "Q.P." in an. appreciative covering note, says he has been following us since we began persiflaging, expresses the opinion that Percy Fleur ' should have been our full name, and concludes by assuring us that he has "answered roll call regularly at the G.K.S." and his "cerebral muscles have developed accordingly." Here is "Q.P.'s" offering:— Entertaining elderly enthusiasts easily exhausts energy, egadl Ermyntrude expecting Emma's early entrance-, experiences extreme ennui. Epochs (estimated) elapsed. Eventually Emma entered, effectively enwrapped. Even eons end! Ennyntrade eyed Emma's ermines enviously; Eternal Eve! Eleemosynary exchanges effected. "Everything eventuating encouragingly?" enquired Ermyntrude, "especially, Edward's engagement?" "Excellently," ejaculated Emma, "every entanglement escaped." "Eureka!" exclaimed Ermyntrude erroneously. "Edward's excesses eke expurgated?" "Entirely expunged." "Excelsior!'* Excited elocution ensued, each, enactment expounded elicting enthralling examination. Emma's endearing essence enraptured Ermyntrude. Exquisitely entranced, Ermyntrude evinced ecstatic enjoyment; eagerly enticing Emma's enouncements. Effortless Emma enlarged endlessly. Elate, electrified, Ermyntrude earnestly evaded ending. Eheu! Eleven entailed Emma's exit. Egtsoons empty echoes encircled Ermyntrude. Ego evaporated—enchantment endured. •* » ' « This from a would-be out-of-doors he-man who humiliatingly finished up a miniature trek along the more or less merry Catchpole stream on a leg and ft half and an impromptu crutch: — We belong to a Tramping Club (It's great to belong to a Tramping Club!), Off we go with a bite of grub, An apple or two'and apiece of cheese, Shorts very short above the knees, Cow hide boots with a pound of nails, To keep you afloat when foothold fails, Packs set square on our vertebrae —■ Off we go for the day. We belong to a Tramping Club (It's great to belong to a Tramping Club!) Plunging ahead through fern and scrub, Mottled and pink and swarthy legs Sturdy or slim or like clothes-line*pegs, Ankles aggressive or nicely turned, Cheeks that the hammering wind has burned, Eyes and laughter to mateh —its fun. Footsloggjng under the sun. We belong to a Tramping Club (It's great to belong to a Tramping Club!) •Veteran bronzed and the soft pink cub Mamie and Mac and Jack and Jill, Swinging along down dale, up hilL A great life —never to be derided So long as you don't do, friends, what I did: . Twist your foot and have to creep Home like a doddering sheep. « * ♦ Are you one of these? A Southend motor coach driver was summoned for not wearing his licence badge.. He declared that No. 13 scared people. When- they saw the number they refused to enter the coach. If they saw it en route they demanded to be allowed to get off. The number was gradually ruining him. The Magistrate dismissed the case, and suggest-> ed that the authorities give the unhappy man another number. Quaint how this superstition survives. Take the case of Woolley, a happy wee village in Somerset. It contained at the time of the outbreak of war thirteen houses. Thirteen men went from Woolley to France, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, and thirteen came back alive, thanks for which ara recorded on a brass tablet in All Saints' Church. Dr. Nanseri, the Arc tie explorer, had every reason to believe in the luck of thirteen. That was the number of his party on the Tram, He left his ship for the North Pole on 13th March, 1895; the Fram. brok? from the ice on 13th August of the following year, and Nansen himself ai* rived at Tromso on that date of a following month. A banquet in his ho* our was given by thb Royal Geographic cal Society on 13th February, 1897, at which Nansen stated that on 13th December thirteen pups were born oa board the Fram. *• * * Sporadic correspondence has proved that at least two of our local philatelists scan this variegated feature of ours. Deciding it was just about time the craft had,another par to itself, wo lighted on this. For every philatelist who knows the value of a one penny; post office Mauritius, there are probably a small army which has not heard of that stamp's engraver, J. Barnard. No such anonymity is the fate of stamp engraver, Sanchez Toda, designer of the Spanish Goya memorial stamps circulated several months ago. When they reached the States reformers - held up their hands in horror. Three of Hie 32 stamps in this issue are reproductions of that genius Francisco Goya's bestknown picture, "The Nude Maia," a portrait of the bold, bare buxom Maria Theresa, Duchess of Alba. The picture caused trouble when Goya first exhibited it. The stamps were rushed. Letters from all quarters flooded the Spanish Post Office and the International Postal Union. Complaints ranged from statements that what is art in Latin countries is obscenity in the North, to threats of official proceedings against the Spanish Government for sending obscene matter through the mails. "Millions of 'innocent children collect stamps" shouted n, Swiss enthusiast at unperturbed Castile, following up the cry with a clevor but unprintable postscript. All tin's fuas notwithstanding, one or two of the originals of Goya's etchings woul(|/; delight us as a Christmas souveni% _$