POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1936, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

By Percy Flage.

Chronicle and Comment

Arid definitions: Worry—interest paid on trouble before it ii> due. The Spanish insurgents on the roads to Madrid have only to sustain that push and something is sure to fall. * & * Senor Barrao: "Spain prefers to die on her feet rather than live on her knees." There's a columnist in- the making for you. vr * * Wanted—a genius who will reconcile bilateral trade agreements with the development of Dominion secondary industries, and at the same time keep sweet Britain's foreign customers. * * . *■ Last month the Mullumbimby Municipal Council (N.S.W.) lost an Inch but grained Miles. It was due to the resignation of their Town Clerk, Mr. C. S. Inch and the selection of Mr. J. \V« Miles as his successor. * * .* . MORE QUEER CHRISTIAN NAMES. Following up .a note in.this column, on quaint Christian names, "One Whetu" (Otaki) sends particulars of a former Archbishop of Armagh who wa? christened Narcissus. As if that were not depressing enough, his three brothers had the unusual names" of * Onesiphorus, Epaphroditus, and Triptolemus bestowed on them by their godfathers and godmothers. "Some years ago," adds "One Whetu," ~"I came across a paragraph in a newspaper reporting that an inquest had been held on a gipsy child whose Christian name 3 were Shadrach Iscariot! * « * TWO-DAY WEEK. Sev^a days in a week—twenty-fout hours in each day. I work 44 hours per week—less than the number oi hours in two days. So I loaf, play, pot. ter, eat, and sleep five days a week, and work but two. The two-day week is here! By ths way, that Potted Pome competition didn't unearth that little gem, "The First Introduction": Madame, I'm Adam; You're Eve, I believe. NELES. Nelson. * * ■*■ THEY WANT TO KNOW. American visitors to Britain this yea are breaking all records in numbers— and in the questions they are asking. Here are some of the posers which the English-Speaking Union has recently had to answer:—Where can I study alchemy as practised in the Middle) Ages? I wish to start a collection of British insurance company's fire marks. Where can I procure some? Can you arrange for me to spend a month.in a British prison? (From a penal reformer.) When and where can I watch a sheep-dog trial? How can I arrange to be presented at Court? Can. you give me a list of the most beautiful private gardens in England? One visitor was more ambitious than the rest. He wrote "I am anxious to address the House of Lords on an important subject. Please, arrange this." .-■ ; ;.- * . •» .* ~ ;. c. '"■■".'' don mXnueitazana";- " Note on Spain's rarely-mentioned President, who, it was reported the other day, was seeking sanctuary on an Argentine cruiser. For long he worked 15 hours, a day to "free his fellow-countrymen, yet ha must, by the terms of the new Spanish. Constitution,"hold aloof from party politics. Thick-set, stocky, inscrutable this 56-year-old poet-politician, in a life of amazing incident and change, has known the security of inherited wealth and the privation of a hunted garret. Exile has been followed by, the Premiership of Spain, and imprisonment in a warship by the Presidency. Orphan child of rich parents, Manuel Azana was already a care-free young Doctor of Law when he found himself suddenly penniless. He solved that problem by passing the examination for an important post in the Department of Justice. Restless and eager for further study of international affairs, however, two years later found him in Paris, where his ideas were revolutionised. On the declaration of the Spanish Republic his colleague! appointed him Minister of War. ■■.•■• • THE NEW JINGOISM. We don't want to fight, And, of course, we'll run away. For we must love our enemies When they may come to stay. If a foreign foe approaches We will say to him "Good-day, Please take this little country at your own." \ \ We won't defend our mothers, ■ And we won't defend our wives; While as for all our sweethearts, If they want to keep their lives, They may choose another standard Than the one where freedom thrives By living in a country not their own. We don't want to fight If the King should call for men, And may produce a conscience That we never had till then. We will find such means of shelter As may come within our ken, To live upon the country we disown. We don't want to fight, As the same is ,not our style; To defend the cause of freedom Is a course that's not worth whiloj Yet we wish to live in comfort With a chance to make our, pile While others sacrifice for what w» own. JACK BLUNT. * * * BRAIN-TEASER. Solutions of Saturday's intelligence test began to flow in as early as 7 o'clock on the eevning it appeared in Col. 8. First in with the correct answer was "Worser Bay." Actually, our hot-off-the-mark friend, "Miramaiy' gave the first call, but we" were not accessible at the time; probably we were stringing up the sweet peas by torchlight. Now let him spe.-'/ tor himself: "You may flatter yourself. I spent 15 minutes 7.5 seconds looking up your beastly 'phone number in that rotten telephone directory. But, to get on with what I am writing this epistle for: I solved that very easy brainteaser. I borrowed big brother's road map, upset a bottle of red ink, and left the tap running in the bathroom. However, I say the engine-driver's name is ' '•" And so it is. Othee successful solvers were (per 'phone): "Just Me," L.D., "Highland Park" ("took me 20 minutes"), "Ewan Me* (by mail), "Jones," "State Fire," "Elsie and Jack," "Dad" (aged 57), "Morrigard Jim" (who tosses us a bouquet), "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" (who sprinkles his covering note with some French), "Jingle Bells" (in a jingle), Scott;- Morris, "Nicolas Carter" (who has taken a correspondence course in the Sherlock Holmes School of Deduction, he says), and "J. H." Finally (for the present). "Cameraman," all dressed up and business-like, called on us iii person to convey his solution, Which also was correct. He had "two goes" at it.