POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1938, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGS

From all accounts both Japan srii China are winning the battle of th 9 Yellow Eiver. Modern war can be like that. * «• » The remnants of the "German Free* dom Party" appear to run a grave risk of getting it where the chicken got the axe. . .*; .*. • There's one thing we do like about the Minister of Public Works and that is his innate aversion to anything savouring of publicity. * ♦ ft . ' "Auntie Em."—Women say they are not concerned about the lucerne flea; what they want to know is can they find a parasite to combat" the "picture theatre" flea? ■ # * #. In Hector Bolitho's new book, "Further Letters of Queen Victoria," ha quotes the Queen as describing Albert as "my heavenly angel." No comment. ■ * .* .*. "SEAMS, MADAM? NAY, I KNOW - NOT SEAMS." A new fashion' nots is that women' 3 hose will now have two down seams; one in the front and one in the back. This may cause myopic gentlemen, some difficulty in deciding if she is coming or going, also the Herrick vibrations might make for 'confusion. The ladies, too, may have doubt as to whether it is hither or thither. D.N.G.O. ' •^ *• # ' * '" MORE FARM TERMS. (Vide "Vidi."). Settler.—A person suffering from S peculiar form of delusion, who leave 3 a "cushy" job in the town with its superannuation and takes up a block of land thinking he can make a lot of, money by farming. An early symptom of this. disease is a fondness for gardening. ) Pasture Grass.—The stuff that grows in the shelter of the noxious weeds when there isn't a- drought. Docks, wild parsnip, sorrel, bidibidi, and plantain are the chief components. Obi servant farmers have frequently beeri heard to remark in the spring that "You can see it growing." Milk Cans.—Vessels used i« factories as dumb-bells, footballs, sledge hammers, and musical instruments. .♦• * ■ ' LYRICAL APPRECIATION. The "Bulletin" has' its inimitably "Bellerive," Column 8 its ''Milmay." Here are.her latest lines: Oh cave, I am under your magic spell. Yet all your beauty I cannot telL You once gave maroi shelter secure When fighting his strength could na longer endure. Bates live here making weird the night And glow worms give their tiny light, A boiling stream our side is found, Making its way underground. I Eyes open wide in pure delight. ■ ] Pastel shades, pink, amber,- green", T In a wishing well their reflection seen* Here dusky maids were given theic dream. To share its; memory you surely will g$ To Aladin's cave at Orakei Korakp. " *#. • i "THIS '"ESCALATION" 'BUSINESS,.' The Society for the Prevention' of Cruelty to Language, which I am going to found; as soon as I. can spare tha time, might very well begin by considering the case of "escalation," which; the author of the last week's Note to Japan on naval shipbuilding thrswg about with as much, nonchalance as iff it enjoyed all the consecration which use by Shakespeare, or the translators of the Bible would give it, instead oj being horribly devised, as I firmly be* lieye it to have been, .by one of the underlings of Mr. Duff Cooper or his predecessor, comments a writer in tha London "Spectator." What.on earth would anyone understand, who hit on; the phrase out of its context, by "tha right of, escalation" possessed 'by his Majesty's Government? The privilege! of riding on escalators, presumably. No dictionary, of course, knows tha word as yet. But it has probably made its footing good, and will be usetj eternally to denote the right of in«" creasing the number or tonnage of one's own ships to keep pace with another country's increase. * * ■ . *, WELLINGTON. When God first dreamed of Welling* ton, He saw a harbour fair, A fitting, home for stately ships That proudly enter there; Each age, in turn a masterpiece Of sweated brains and hands, They come, these great ambassador* Of distant foreign lands. But this means toil in blazing sun, Wharves thronged with ceaseless feet, Tall buildings where competing trains Of modern commerce meet. Because He knew^a time must come, When will to work must cease Behind the city, water proud, He gave the hills for peace. Serene, bush-crested, cool and free, . Windswept against the skies, A sanctuary for tired hearts, Hot hands, and aching eyes. , Green hills of -understanding, deep. With wisdom through each age Guard.well your sons and let therflj keep ■ ' . Their sea-girt heritage. '■ . . MARY McGOWAN, ' The poet is a Homelander who re* cently spent a year in this country, j * ♦ * ] TENNYSON DEFENDED. , '' Dear Flage,—l was sorry to read Jrt Col. 8 some days ago disparaging re< marks about Tennyson's poetry. Admittedly he wrote some unworthy stuff here and there, but what great writes has not : done similarly? Surely it is one of the fixed principles of criticism that an artist be judged by his best work, not by his worst., There is plenty 'of comparative rubbish to be found in Shakespeare, in Dickens, in Thackeray, and even in the Bible, but that fact doesn't detract in the least from the sterling gold also abundantly, evident. Few great composers, also, have been guiltless of tripe occasionally; it would not do, for instance, to appraise Beethoven on the strength of that curious piece called "Wellingt&n's Victory, or the Battle of Vittoria," which has long since been consigned to the musical dustbin. Judged, 'then, by his best work, Tennyson was a great poet, and some of his verse is intmortal. Qe was also no mean propl^i: read 0 for example, and note how the social ills he pilloried therein are in many respects just as rampant and assailable today. Moreover, certain lines in "In Memoriam" have a haunting beauty, not paralleled by the work of any living poet known to me. The sheer music of Tennyson's verse has, in my opinion, been equalled by only one other poetSwinburne. L.D.A. Our point is that in their own ia» terests, poets, artists, and musician* who occasionally descend to "tripd* should be persuaded against-inflicting tjjat "trip_e" on a patient public,—PJfc