POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1937, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAcJ

Who was it that said you cannot hope to make a fool vvise by legislation? * # » Then there was the chief speaker at a Trafalgar Day luncheon who spoke of "tho late Lord Nelson," a * <■ The annual report of the Transport' Department states that "far-reaching measures for road safety were instituted." One would bs the long arm of the Law, of course. »' # ■ # Anyway, if Germany ever returns to her lost native colonies in .Africa no expensive baby bonus scheme will be necessary to encourage the black birth-rate. , . ' *#. # ' • Some pessimists say that this generation haj: forgotten the virtue of thrift. But a 'Frisco policeman recently told a Grand Jury how he saved £IUS,OOO on a £500 a year salary. * • • SENTIMENTS OP AN INTOXICATED ENGINE-DRIVER. Yeast is yeast and beer is best, And never ths trains shall meet . Regards, G.N.C. * •• * ■ . ■ . INFORMATION WANTED. Deai* Percy Flage.^-I wonder if you could suggest, through your column, the name of a book containing instructions for the making of a gmall telescope? I have been looking for a long time, and . would be very grateful if you could help. Your sincerely, A.C t J. Can any of our mechanically-minded star-gazers oblige? ... ■ . » # # . - NEEDED DISTRACTION. Dear Sir.^-Pleaseexcuse me for Intruding on Col. 8. But when reading "Lovely Lines," I thought there were none to compare with those in Isaiah 61, verse 3: ■ "To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," , ... With all good wishes and praise for the share you are taking in passing on a little joy germ. It is.needed thesa days when the rest of the daily paper* is a record of thefts and slaughter, 1.8.A.J * -■•'■•■ VERY QUEER TRADES. Add these to your clippings book: A firm in London does '..nothing, but manufacture paper tubing' for cigarettes, .another makes only headbands for books, and- yet. another produces nothing but millions of collar studs. Perhaps the most highly specialised trader of all is the butcher who devcHes his commercial energy solfely to the sale and distribution of sweetbreads. There is a firm in New Oxford Street which makes nothing but glass eyes, Doubtless somebody must supply artificial .eyes, but it js surprising to think that there is a sufficiently largo demand for such things .to keep- a firm , fully, i engaged;. ytar after year. Th.ccc are three wig-, makers in London who spend their days providing wigs for members of the legal profession. These fire the phrenologists of their narrow world who—could they be persuaded to break silence on a question which is sub judice—could state with certainty whether the size of a legal cranium wbs an indication of legal acumen. * . * ■ ".. *-.' JAPONICA, Someone has felled the Japonica Tree CTis bursting with, bloom at this time , it would be, Budding, and breaking in red ecstasy) . . . Someone has felled the Japonica Tree. Morning on morning, come season end go, c You could see that J&pcijca lovelier grow, Watch north winds, or south, through its red'petals blow, : Or silent, the rain on iW gaiety glow. The tree-corner now, it is graced by a lawn, And green grows the grass where red blossoms were born, v (But the ground, is it lonely beneath, and forlorn • For its old garden—old, and its great beauty shorn?) A smooth lawn is peace to the tjr'd feet of man, , But mystery grew in that tree of Japan! Spring came to our hearts when jti flow'ring began ... And spring is so fleet in a r life's rapid span! Gone is the bush that bloomed riot* ously, ■ Vanished the spell of the drear* fantasy, / Broken with tears is the sad heart o* me, , . . . Why have they felled tht Japonica Tree? , MARJORIE WILLCOCKS. Would I perhaps be allowed to sat that this tree was in a garden on. Wellington Terrace, and was'old long, before I knew it, over. 20 years ago. Iti petals strayed over the fence on to the footpath, and many people (besides myself) would stoop to pick up the red, starry flowers. The garden anc fence have recently been modernised A handsome, healthy red gum'bloomec beside the Japonica also, and both have succumbed to the lesser beauty-oJ "annuals" on a strip beside a green lawn. *' ♦ # WHERE MEN ARE AT A PREMIUM Out of the 300 inhabitants of Cheniei (Bucks) ther«f are twelve men, foui young lads, three young girls, thret children, and forty widows. The res of the number is made up by marriet women and spinsters. Eleven of tht 30 odd houses in the village street havi no men folk, The main cause for tht decrease in the population is due ti the fact that the young men am women of the village have grown up and gone into the towns to work. Ther is only one courting couple in Cherile today. More than half the populatio: are old age pensioners, many of th men having retired from the estat owned by the Duke of Bedford. It i an unwritten law that when a ma: retires from the estate he is allowe to live in his cottage for the rest of hi life, and his widow is allowed to re main after him. Nobody is ever tuned out in Chenies,- Ten years ag Chenies had a fine football team, U day they have none, while the-villas cricket team is kept going by severs outsiders. No building has been ca; ried out for over a quarter of a cer tury in the village, while surroundin farms employ few hands, many < whom come from other villages, Th sister village to Chenies is Latimer, mile further down the Chess valle; Here out of a total population of £ there are 12 old age pensioners, man of whom are well over eighty yea! of age. The whole village is en ployed by the landlord, Lord Cheshan It is claimed that there are more tei totallers in Latimer than in.any'oth* village of a similar size in the county;