POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Issue 149, 20 December 1935, Page 6

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGB

Man wants but little here below— and that's about all most of us cet (says "Houghton"). • . *« * • • To date", the only important casualty due to the Italo-Ethiopian war is the fall of Sir Samuel Hoare. * * « We want peace (says Mr. Savage) and less of navies. Unfortunately we have to take what is given us nowadays. "•■"•,. •■■«,• Mussolini warns his people that it will take time to conquer the Abyssmians. It took Italy only 22 years to subjugate Libya. • -. * •".'■•■.- *. ":■ •..■.■ We are unauthorised to state that'on* of the first tasks 6f the new Government will be to prohibit-the use of th* word "depression" in the national meteorological reports. ' '■...»:■■ ■•■# ; ■.»:. : : GRIM RELIC. The only reminder of the great railway tragedy of 1879. when the Tay Bridge was blown down while a pas-senger-laden train was crossing, is shortly to come to New Zealand. -: This is a frame made of coachwork from the'wrecked train, and containing the fifty-four tickets of the doomed passengers collected at the station ot St. Fort before the crossing was begun. All these years the stationmaster has preserved the relic, and upon his death. it is to go to his son oii the other side of the world.- . . * ■■.'•■■ # ', TALKING OF RAILWAYS. Reading the reported utterances bt our outspoken' Minister of Public Works recalled one or two storiestrue stories—of the attitude of certain people in high places to the earliest railways. Queen Victoria was a slow convert to travel by rail. Other monarchs were even slower. When, in 1843 (the year following Queen Victoria's venture), Louis Philippe proposed to go to Rouen by rail, hi« Cabinet intervened and the journey was made by post-horses. And Pope Gregory XVI prohibited not only railways but telegraphs throughout his dominions. The early English railway seems to have been dreaded lor its effects upon agriculture and society as well as its presumed insecurity. la America they took into account also the matter of morals. South Caroling;' passed a law .making it a penal offence for any railway employee to wave his handkerchief to girls who watched th* passing trains. ■ ! . * ■'■-#■ <' •■ # ' '■ ' •■ FRENCH WORKMAN'S HOARD. It could "hardly have happened anywhere but in France. A man of ovet fifty, who had been out of work for eight months and "had duly drawn his unemployment allowance,, was noticed by the police recently to be wandering in a rather suspicious manner, and armed with a spade, in one of the many, forests which make so' splendid a girdle round Parisi He was seen ta look about," as if he wanted to make sure he was not watched, and then, to unearth a parcel from the ground. At this point he was arrested, and the arrest seemed to be all the more justified when it was discovered that the parcel contained notes for over 100,000 francs.1 It turns out\that this sum represents what the man had saved from his earnings and his wound pension. He was afraid to keep it in his lodgings, and hadj certainly no intention of entrusting1 it; to abank; So; he buried it in the forest . All thathe was doing when he was caught was to dig it up in order to wrap the notes in a waterproof covering before burying Jhem again for the winter. ■ There has also been a thief who is accused by an accomplice of having buried a haul of over a million francs, and a half in a soldered box In the woods at Ville 'd'Avray, but that is another story, * •-■■.• • THE CALLER. . Another serious little poem . . . embodying a wistful truth, for th* many who liked "Consolation." Th* poet is R. P. Tristram Colvin, an American student. He g6t the farm his heart was set upon For twenty years. < He opened to the sun -.'-.■ ■ ; •.■■■• ~ ■ i The fields he dreamed of opening w|tli ■ the plough.. He changed the fences round and dammed the brook To make a pool to raise pond lilies on; He even thought to see about a son, And raised a pair of legs to run th* hills. ■•".-,. ... ' , But, for all that, the man was not At home upon the place he loved, at all. '■ ■-. . - ■ ■ He was just a visitor, and he ■ Would be a visitor until he died. He knew it. Knew it by the shapes, of trees His father had not planted, by th* stones Other hands than his had heaped to walls. ■"■■■.'■'■ The house was just the ; same. Noi ;■ matter where He looked or walked, the floor boards ' were well worn By feet that moved below an alien mind; ■ The sills were set to "rhythm of oldfeet, ; •■■■ --• ; ■ ' .-;'■■ Cold now and still, and nothing to his own. . The stairs were hollowed up the way, to bed , Before him and his son.. There was no wear , That he could give to wood to wip* awax, The shape of bygone days and bygone ■■ men.. ■■•/ ' - '~' ■ ' : ■ ' ■' He was a caller of late afternoon, Come in between th.c afterglow and . dark. ~ .. . :.* * * EXPLANATION. Dear Flage,—You remind me in • footnote to my "Song of Hate" that I failed to include a signature. Ther* are reasons for that "Writing," ■■ as you know, "is much weariness Of the flesh, and of making of books there is no end." The last one I attempted was taken up by A. Constable, and harshly, criticised by the S.M., who fined me a tenner for laying tote odds. On top of that the favourite way won thft double. Hence my aversion to signing my epics too frequently. However, I am publishing a Christmas edition of certain of my poems. The binding will' be half calf; we have not decided yet which half to use. To give the publication a New Zealand flavour, the other half will be in either sheepskin Or sausage skin, probably the latter, as it is less likely to grow wooL There will be a foreword by Bernard Shaw, entitled. "Are whiskers necessary for the cultivation of common sense?" Or, "Sizzle 'em first and civilise 'em after." Please do not take the "Song of Hate" too seriously. I know there are many things which you cannot be held responsible for in the tragedy of broken hopes. As a mater of fact your judgment is superb. (See footnote referred to, which refers to my modesty.) Yours fraternally, FERYARNEK. Collingwood. As a matter of fact -we enjoyed the "Song of Hate." It served to remind us of our limitations which—an uncommonly vain person—we.'uc Inclined to forget.—P.F.