POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 106, 1 November 1933, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FUGE

That Gandhi is "dyingsor co-opera-tion" with the Government is an encouraging indication that he is still living in hope of getting his own way. # 7 # * The nations had better beware. Judging by the peace the world has had to en ( dure since 1918 few people would want the next war-to-end-war to ceasei • • • . The only explanation of Roosevelt's gold policy we can discern is that by some inspirational economic- alchemy he is trying to transmute the more precious metal into a gilver lining. '■ • ' •4 ;' • .: . "Post" headings:— IRELAND'S TROUBLES. BLUE SHIRTS BLUDGEONED. -Perhaps "bloodgeoned" would lM more apt in the circumstances-. # # • .FRIENDSHIP.' The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that you had need Be very much, his friend indeed - To pardon or to bear it. Though Cowper died in ,1800 he ia wonderfully fresh today. DRUM. • • ■ . • ■. PLEASING SOUNDS. Flage,—Kindly add these to your list. The best-girl-in-the-world's "I love you"; the boss's "I think you deserve a rise"; the wife's "You simply must have a holiday"; my impecunious son-in-law's ."Gotter job at last"; the grocer's "Butter's down another penny"; the landlord's ."Forget about those arrears of rent"; and.after that you wake up. '-'.'' .■ - BOLIVAR. V * *■'■.' #■■ .-,-. '• , . BEES, ETC. That story of the Springfield mail who escaped in an exhausted, condition, after being' savagely attacked by bees can be matched. A Spanish farmer lost his life when a swarm of bees attacked the horse he was riding; The maddened animal threw its owner and broke his neck. la South Australia a motor driver piled up his car as the result of running into a swarm, and, spent the next three months in .hospital. In an English village a thinly farm labourer inadvertently swallowed a wasp with his ale, was stung in the> thr.oat, and died the next day. Then, • there, art army ants—but we' refrain from delving into that subject at-the moment > because the'ferocity of those injects ii almost incredible. ,- '.-.'•.. ■ ♦ m s ■■'*'■ POSTED ... MISSING. "That's Torn It."—Not' altogether a- pleasant predicament, but worse things happen at sea, .."Aberdeen."- —Not quite up to you* best, that one. ■,<... "Anthony M."—Opened promisingly, only to fade away—like those old soldiers. • . ■■ ... , G.W.W.—We had rather you -had stated your case in plain prose. "How's This?"—Lbw'd, caught, stumped, run out, and bodyrlinedj all in one. ' ,"Spalpeen. 'Jrr*YZp: shall;-loose an "Omadhaun" on to you if you're not more careful. •■'...-. . "Q.E.D." —Cannot quite grasp your meaning,, and you have forged better rhymes than these. ■ ... ■ "Passe Partout.'.'—Thanks for note of appreciation. That joke is an old« timer. "A.8." (Karori).—You will find it in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Crusty."—Will, use it in. the School's In section. Thanks. "Bolivar."—We rarely . •' publish serious verse in this column unless it is well done and topical. • Yours is creditable work. . , ■.*'■" ♦ ♦' •' WE'RE SORRY FOR MARIANNE. The enclosed poem (?), culled from an obscure English journal, which stated that it is a magazine for poets and students of poetry,'might possibly qualify for column 8. In fairness to the journal in question I.'must'tell .you that the editor saw fit to insert th-i following foot-note: "The above verse is printed as an interesting example of extreme, modernist poetry, but its in* elusion must not be regarded'as conveying with it the editorial blessing.—. Ed." ■:.■■■'■. Interesting? Undoubtedly! It should fairly fascinate Mame. . Yours with a blank verse—sorry, I mean face, ; - ■ ' . STARGAZEB. HOMAGE A MARIANNE MOOSE. (A. L. MORTON.), Many of my poems were written on "a Compact Solid Writing Pad tor owtai' ary or Commercial use*" 'Just so, they may be used in a number of ways. Such as: lighting fires: wrapping up fish aud chips; or perhaps printed and left' V drawing-room, tables. Any thing in fact except to be read and . /. understood. -■■'■■■' : ■ , ♦ *-.-•.*.>. ■ .. ENGLAND'S MEDIEVA& VILLAGE. . ; , . Laxton, in one respect, must be IW quaintest rurality in England. It ii the only medieval -village where the old land customs have, undergone practically no change since Norman, or eve» Saxon, times. Scientists who lately: . visited the village were much inter-, ested in the- old open-field system, ot cultivation, where for successive generations three large fields, . each of about 300 acres, are farmed- by some sixty people with strips of land in. each field. Under this system a fielS will be one year under wheat, the next year under other corn,-and the third yfi.ir will lie fallow. A coivt leet meets once yearly, when a jury for each field decides any dispute as to a man's boundaries, for there are no hedges, and enforces the system, of cultivation. Thechurch bell is rung .when ploughing can begin in the respective fields. Certain cottages in the village carry with! them toft rights, uuder which the ten* ant may graze ten sheep, three- cattle, or two horses on the eighty-acre common. Others have gait rights, which' entitle them to the proceeds from grass that is mown from small patches of grass called sykes in the boggy parts of the big fields. This grass is sold bvauction on the same Tuesday in July, each year, but the proceeds do not g» to the gait-right holders themselves, but to the lord of the manor, Lord Manvers, who deducts it from theif rent. The old system is still complete, even to a semi-Communism, in imple« ments. The unwritten ,Jaw runs that_ a man with a horse and" cart uses it ia the general interest without any payment except the labour of his -neighbours, and a similar reciprocity by the man who Owns a plough, a set of harrows, or an extra horse. . The only advantage of ownership is that the owner uses his implement on- his own land first, assisted by neighbours,- who ar« eager for .him; to finish, his -own ptot iM.guickls as possible.