TO BE BURNT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 99, 24 October 1938, Page 8

TO BE BURNT

R. D. BLACKMORE'S DIARIES

It is likely that no one will ever know what were the private thoughts and memories of Richard Doddridge Blackmore, author of "Lornavpbone." His "life" will never be written; *the diaries, which contained valuable secrets about him, are to be burned. For years they were guarded by his niece, Mrs. Adalgisa Pinto-Leite; who lived in the house the author built at Teddington. She died in February, and the destruction of the diaries is ordered in her will.

Mrs. Augustus Pinto-Leite, her sister-in-law, said recently: "Adalgisa and her .elder sister, Eva, were like daughters to Richard Blackmore. They lived with him all their lives, and we have the desk he used when writing 'Lorna Doone.' Eva, who died many years ago, was the heroine of' The Maid of Sker,' which was Richard Blackmore's <tevourite among all the books he wrote." Mrs. Adalgisa Pinto-Leite left £13,712. She gave to Exeter College, Oxford, the manuscript of "Cripps, the Carrier"; to the British Museum all manuscripts of other books by Richard Blackmore, with the exception of "Lorna Doone," which was sold for a large sum of money in America; and a hundred pounds on trust for the upkeep of the author's grave at Teddington Cemetery. Nobody else got beri-beri. They must have become accustomed to the food on the voyage out. IN THE TRADE WINDS. "Once we struck the trade winds life was ideal. The sails required little handling, the ship bowled along, and we painted, scraped teak, or scrubbed decks. Some days we were becalmed, and there were days in the doldrums when we made only a few miles. For the latter part of the voyage I was appointed a day man, being taken out of the watch to attend to the captain's motor-boat, and to use my own brush for signwriting the name of the ship , on life buoys and boats.

"A confirmation of passing the Azores was the appearance of a small martin on deck. We never saw the islands, but gradually made for the Irish coast until we picked up the Galley Light. We anchored six miles off Cork on August 23, where the captain received orders to take the wheat to Belfast. I took the captain ashore in the motor-boat at Queenstown, and we were eight days beating up the coast to Belfast, where I signed off."

Mr. Ellingham is now in London. He plans to buy a car and tour England and Scotland for two months before returning to Takapuna. He hopes to arrive home in time for Christmas.

"It was a great experience sailing in the Moshulu," he said, "but I would think twice about doing it again. It was very uncomfortable rounding the Horn, continually wet and the decks awash; we were sometimes" miserable with the cold. But I am thoroughly glad.that I made/the trip," ...^ -. :^_.

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

A Dorothy Parker wisecrack.—Hollywood: The land of yes-men and acquiyes girls. • ♦■ ♦■.■ In this year of our Lord there appear to be many more worriers than warriors. • • * In the last race at Trentham on Sat* urday punters, like the horses, had a sticky time. • * •' '•'.'■. Henry.—"Fat Sh*ep Values Ease," says a heading on the commercial page. Why shouldn't it? We do, • ....»■■•■ ■•.■:■ Lady Astor.—"A Press in any country is as free as the people want it to be." Or as a hyper-sensitive Government wants it to be. '■ ■ * ••■• v. * * ' MIXED METAPHOR. This one from "Funnybone".— A political orator, when inveighing against Home Rule, became mixed' ia his metaphor. Alluding to a box labelled "Home Rule," he asked: "Was it right to expect the people to swallow/ blindfolded, the box, when, previous boxes bearing the same label, had been rejected after their contents had been revealed?" The electors found it easy enough to digest Home Rule, but nobody in his senses expected them to swallow the box. • ■ • ■ » '■"•'■ NEWS ODDITIES. In St. Louis, U.S.A., a woman asked to be freed because her husband objected to sauerkraut and spareribs for their first meal together. In the zoological gardens near Brussels, a few minutes before the recent earthquake began, some animals showed signs of restlessness. The lions roared abnormally; bisons, antelopes, and deer turned round in circles and charged the bars of their cages, as if trying to get out. Immediately after the shock the maddened beasts became calm again. ': _' - When Hilda Schneiderman, of Ealing, was summoned for obstructing a pedestrian crossing, she explained that the excitement of becoming engaged that day had distracted her usual attentive* ness. Result: 2s costs, summons dlfr missed. • • • COINCIDENCE. Writes J.H.M!—"You have had « nice run with names, curious and otherwise, but what about a change to other s6rts of coincidences? Here's pne which is associated with a dream: Izaak Walton tells the story in his "Life of Sir Henry Wotton":, Wotton was staying in Kent, when one night he dreamed that the treasury of Oxford University was robbed by five men. The next day he happened to be writing to his son, Henry, Jun., who was a student at Oxford. In a postscript he mentioned the curious dream. and described the thieves as they appeared to him. The letter arrived th« morning after the N robbery had been committed at the university. Henry took the letter to the authorities, who acted on> the . information he.gave. , Frpm.his,father's-descrip-tion, five men, who proved to be ,th« robbers, were discovered, apprehended, and imprisoned. • • • INFORMATION DEPARTMENT. "Voltage" asks if there is such ft thing as a "soundless light switch." ■ There is: if a recent report from th« U.S.A. is reliable. Electrical engineers have just an» nounced the perfection 6f a new mercury switch in which the contact is made and broken by a flow of mercury. The snapping sound of a switch will no longer be heafcd when you turn your lights on or off. Tne silent switch has no moving.parts to wear out since there are no springs or blades to break. . Over a period of two years the switches were tested, being operated more than 65,000.000 times without failure. The new switch is similar in appearance to the conventional snap switch. It is easily interchanged with the standard type. "Wager"—You lose. Britain took , Gibraltar from the Moors in "04 and has held it ever since. Strictly speak- ££ Gibraltar is a small garrison town with a population of about 19,000, exclusive of soldiers m* Jf^lS fugees. The Rock, which is 14W feet high, is amass of limestone and ffiS^trth^re^^ Spanish navies. # BALLADE OF MORBID MILLINERY. Things passing strange are sometimes seen, • • Some things are quaint and some are queer, . I'm told that some most rare nay» been • Direct result of too much beer; And these, as,is their wont, appear In D.T. wards as dingle-bats: E'en they are circumstances mere To things that women wear for nata, Though I, with observation keen, Seek high and low, and far and near. Midst young and old and fat and lean, I cannot see, nor can I hear, Of one with either front or rearAesthetic they as coco-mats: Or cauliflowers old and sere— Those things that women wear xa» hats. The crop doth show the soil: I mean These things that women hold so dear Too oft adorn an empty bean. That this is fact—not idle fear — Is proved by how the1 wearers peer One-eyed as Cyclops. Suffering cats! They're worse again than yesteryear— Those things that women wear for hats! L'Envoi. ■ Ate! My sorrow is sincere: I have a pain beneath my slats. Furtive, I wipe away a tear For time when women's hats we*» hats. HEMI PANGO. . ' ■ ♦ ♦_.*•. STRANGE RESTAURANT. This comes all the way from London from Leonard Curtiss, a New Zealander with whom we forgathered in years agone. He writes: It is astonishing how middle-aged people can lose touch with the very latest movements. A young friend took me to a Japanese restaurant the existence of which I had been totally unaware. It is a small place just off the Strahd. near Charing Cross Station. Its peculiar appeal is that you cook your own meals. Whether that would appeal to everyone is, of course, a matter of some doubt; but the regular patrons regard it as "It." You sit at & table, order your food, snd, when it is brought by a waiter, you place it ia its little dish over a gas-ring on your table. It takes about twenty minutes, as a rule, to cook the usual Oriental meal one gets at this sort of place. The period of waiting is enlivened by smart conversation about international politics and literature. Meanwhile, the smell of the cooking helps to whet your appetite. How it would go down with a really ravenous party I hay* not>•!:.:. had an opportunity to judgt, .^: