Ballade of the INFALLIBLE GADGET

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 150, 22 December 1938, Page 18 (Supplement)

Ballade of the INFALLIBLE GADGET

"Hemi Pango"

7 HE buffets handed out b$ Fate Wring forth from me a plaintive cry; So scourged am I and castigate, The fount of tears is long since dry. I almost wish that I might die, But lambent gleam of brightness lurks — A pearl in an Augean sky — My petrol-lighter always works! Though love be not my meed, but hate, And gall and dust my drink and k<*i>' Though pain be my familiar mate, And penury be standing by: 'Midst gloom and chaos I espy A glimpse of gladsome little quirks, That all vicissitudes defy — My petrol-lighter always works! A doleful view I deprecate; To me despair shall not draw nigh; Some joy abides, to compensate For woes thai with each other vie; Ne'er need I frenzied force apply fVith futile, fretful, frantic jerks, Nor with exasperation sigh — My petrol-lighter always works! L* Envoi Iris! Thy bow is in the sky! One thing its duty never shirks; Though all things else may go awry — My petrol-lighter always works!

On Twelfth Night they were opposite the Three Kings as he called the three greafr rocks in the north. A waterfall couM be seen later .in the distance dashing down a steep and men with tongues furred by* brackish liquids looked on it as if it were earth's last gushet; but the boat could not make for the shore for the surf was against it and the stream might have been an eastern mirage for all it refreshed them. Tasmari noted, too, a south-east swell. Could that come flashing in if there were land on that side? No continent over there then and in this country he had found he had not set foot.

That night he could not sleep and he wandered on deck in the summer gloom. He was reminded of his watches as mate on the Weesp as it slid under the stars from Batavia to Amboyna. One night on the fly-ship, the Engel, he had seen a shooting star so close that its light seemed to play on his shoulders.

Suddenly from above his head there came across the winddrift a sound.like a cricket dreaming on -an autumn tree. The night was dark with only patches of starlight and a whining wind. He lost his air of authority and became the nimble sailor he had been in his first days out from Groningen.

TN his cabin he examined his prize. Blue with cold, it was clasping a fiddle. Tasman took it from him sternly: "How did you get this?"

Something that was almost contempt glimmered in the stripling's eyes. "He snores," he said briefly. And to another question: "I knew I'd be blamed so I got Jan to sleep in my bunk."

Tasman eyed him thoughtfully. "You know what you will get for this?"

The lad's chin shot up: "Commander, it is worth it." And as suddenly that question which was shelved in Tasman's mind was answered.

"Put the fiddle back tonight," he said. "I will deal with you tomorrow." The boy vanished, cat-foot, into the dark.

Left alone, Tasman leant his head on his hand. He thought of the instructions of the Governor of Batavia to feign no interest if the natives showed them gold, so that they might sell it for the bright bolts of cotton and the gadgets in the hold. For this those men had died in Moordenaars Bay, not so much for Holland as for Holland's trade. And yet, he searched his heart, did he not love the adventure of it that dared his wits and his courage? In part he did but the flame in him was a smoky smoulder compared with its fierce jet in that half-famished boy. He had enough idealism to recognise that kiln of dedication and suddenly he felt a clean longing to be in mid-ocean again seeking only for the joy of the search.

VTEXT day he said carefully to Ide. "The men "^ seem moody with all this damn ghosting. Let that tnooner have his fiddle and threaten him with the yard-arm if he plays anything but dances." He did not look Ides way. His eyes were on a small cloud in the west; it seemed to speed at him like an arrow feathered with flame.

"All right," said Ide as one to whom nothing now mattered. "Will the wells be dry in Batavia?"

at Rome, the veritable manger in which the ChristChild lay. It was removed to Rome in the seventh century, during the Mohammedan invasion of the Holy Land, and there it is preserved, in a strong brazen chest, from which it is brought forth on Christmas Day, when it is placed on the Grand Altar,. -It is mounted upon a stand of silver, which is inlaid with gold and gems, and. the shrine in which it rests is of purest rock crystal. In the days in which this was accomplished men, whatsoever may have been their shortcomings in other directions, gave magnificently to the Church Visible. . ; T AST year 25,000,000 cigars were imported from Havana, most of them being smoked _at Christmas time. This year there has been an even bigger demand, and thousands of women have added themselves to the discerning army of cigar smokers, among them famous women like Miss Margery Lawrence, the novelist; • ~ Few people realise. why the Havana cigar is so expensive arid imagine that someone is raking in a good, profit. But such is not the case. The best Havanas are composed of twenty-seven leaves, each of a different crop. They are rolled by hand, and workers who are paid as much as thirty-six shillings a day .turn but no more than 150 in that period. Each, roller is allowed five cigars for his own use every day. T\O you know that a full moon on Christmas Day is supposed to be unlucky? This is only one of many superstitions connected with Christ-, mas. They say that, a windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas are lucky omens, and that if it rains during the twelve days following the 25th, the next year will be wet. This prophecy proves curiously accurate in Britain! Always take note of your fire at Christmas, for if it burns brightly the coming year will be prosperous. Always wear something new, and open the day with a cheerful word; those who begin the day with a grumble are asking for bad luck. And do not forget to preserve your holly until the Twelfth Night, for if you burn or destroy a single leaf or berry you are inviting trouble. r^HRISTMAS has not always been a season for festivity, and when Oliver Cromwell was Protector all fun and feasting was forbidden at this time of the year. There are a great many other things about Christmas which' people do not know; the fact, for instance, that Norwegian farmers give their cattle, tubs of home-brewed ale on Christmas "Eve, or that at twelve midnight on the same day people in Madrid eat twelve grapes for good luck in the coming year. In Hungary they consider the needy. and all the richer citizens are levied so that the poor may have sufficient to eat and drink. How mahy know that there are 175 different kinds of holly, that during Shakespeare's time Christmas festivities lasted for twelve days, or that Christmas has been celebrated on more than 100 different days in various. parts of the world? Our present holiday on December 25 we owe to Pope Julius I. who fixed the date in the year 351. Y"ES, there is a Santa Claus. If you look very hard at a large map, you'll find it nestling in southern Indiana. Santa Claus, Indiana, is only a hamlet, of course. A few frame dwellings, a store, a blacksmith shop. That's about all. Not many people live there—fewer than a hundred. "Beyond doubt, the biggest man in this hamlet is Santa Claus himself," says a bulletin of the National Geographic Society. "A 25-foot statue of him, complete with whiskers and bulging sack," stands near Martin's general store and post office. There are no motion picture theatres or other places of amusement. But on the edge of the village there is a pretty park with gravel walks and evergreen trees. It is there, around a huge Christmas tree, thtft the children of Santa Claus celebrate the Yuletide. They call it Fairyland Park. ■ A correspondent asks what one takes on a walking tour. After a few miles, a train.

quick to catch its mellowness, while others wert a bit slow on the-uptake. . - In New Orleans a 68-year-old man gave the cornea of his left eye in order that a. 19-year-old youth, going blind, might recover his sight, and. in New York a middle-aged confidence man swindled a 12-year-old hootblack out of four nickels he had earned shining shoes. In Birmingham, Alabama, an elderly gentleman, imbued with the charitable spirit of Yuletide, took food, clothing, and coal to a neighbour in distress, and the neighbour, not satisfied, promptly stole his benefactor's overcoat. In Denver a policeman, rescuing a shepherd dog from a brutal master, brought it to his own house, gave a party in its honour, and in a certain midwestern city, a disgruntled farmer went into court and asked for legal permissibn to throw his 92-year-old mother-in-law out of his home. "She disrupts the whole family," he said.