POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

SY PERCY FLAGE

Of course, the smaller Powers declare they don't fear aggression. They know a Big Bad Wolf when they see one. » * # Judging by the signs and omens, Mr. Savage will have to get his insulation scheme under way pretty soon. *. * # The trouble is, dear Mr. Troubled Nash, that we have spent so much for prosperity that we have d d little to save. # * » On Saturday a Big Business man rang up his manager to ask what he thought of the new import restrictions. "Things might be worse," was the reply. "There is no prohibition oncoffins entering the country." « * • ' COMRADESHIP. ' They will march with you in the dawri. And though no word be spoken, You will feel a hand on your shoulde* As a token. P.F. • * • CHILD'S PATRIOTISM. From "The Times."—A child, like a man, cannot love his country unless he does something for her. If this patriotism consists of flag-waving and cheering it is himself that he cheers rather than her. N * * * ::, PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP. Dear P.F.,—The supreme political power once vested in the Kong has by degrees been taken away by the executive, legislative, judicative, administrative, and social functions of government until, as recently admitted in New Zealand (a self-governing country)', it is vested in the National Executive of the Labour Party, to whom the Prime Minister and his colleagues must give implicit obedience. .What next? Yours truly, TOPSY-TURVY. * * # INFORMATION .DEPT. In reply to Wollaston (Petone).—-The first artificial silk was made by Sir Joseph Swan, pioneer of the incandescent lamp. Seeking to invent a new type of filament for the lamp, he squeezed a mixture of wood and cotton pulp through tiny holes, and produced a thread not unlike the silkworm's. The women o£ his house crocheted these threads into mats, which were, placed on view at the Inventions Exhibition in 1883. Thus, over fifty years ago, the British public saw artificial silk for the first time. « * * AFTER THE FIRE. When that happened which had been so long in happening and the world hit a black uncharted star, certain tremendous creatures out of some other world came peering among the embers to see if there werg anything that it were, worthwhile to remember. They spoke of the great things that the world was known to have had; they mentioned the mammoth. And presently they saw man's temples, silent and windowless, staring like empty, skulls. "Some great thing has been here," said one, "in these -huge- places." "It was the mammoth,7 said one. "Something greater than he," said another. And then they found that the greatest thing in the world had been the dreams of men. LORD DUNSANY. * * * BRAIN-TEASER. It was not until 7.30 on Saturday , evening that the first call to arms '_ (which means the telephone) reached us. The next was shortly after 8, the ' third and fourth about 9. The which indicates that various grey matters had had a churning up. R.J.W. led the way this time with 100 per cent, of answers. Blotto worked but No. 1, but it was Mistress Blotto who fossicked out the hidden words; to her our congratulations. Just Me, another member of the fairest sex, was third. She balked at No. 1, but overcame NO. 2 "after a hanguva headachy tussle"—as she put it. Our last caller for the evening was ' "O'L.,"-who score 4 a double. No. 1 gave her no trouble, but No. 2 defied her until she alighted on those somethings down in Picton Sounds. Late to J the telephone we missed another ring. 1 Perhaps it was just as well, because it might have been our plumber, to whom '. we are in debt' to the extent of several pounds (New Zealand currency). Then Iwe tried to fashion an appropriate verse or two for Anzac Day, but in- ' spiration stood sulkily aloof, and we crept up to bed in low dudgeon. ■,_-.•; P.S.—A small four-line1 thought \ touched us on our way this morning.. OUR DEAD. <They: have not gone from tis. O*nol they are The inmost essence of each thing that " is Perfect for us; they flame in every star; The trees are emerald, with their presences. They are not gone from us; they. dp not roam The flow and turmoil of the lower deep, But have now made the whole wide world their home, And in its loveliness themselves they sleep. They fail not ever; theirs is the diurn Splendour of sunny hill and forest grave; In every rainbow's glittering drop they burn, They dazzle in the massed clouds' architrave; They chant on every wind, and they return In the long roll of any deep blue wave. ROBERT NICHOLS. » * * - LAST WORDS. (As requested by "Mignon.") Beethoven, musical genius, turned to a friend and pupil, and with his last breath asked: "Is it not true that I have some talent after all?" Theodore Roosevelt, his life fast ebbing, said to a servant: "Put out the light, please." "Stonewall" Jackson died in delirium after being accidentally shot down by his own soldiers. His last words were: "Let us go oyer .the river and sit down in the refreshing shadow of the trees." The extraordinary French genius of the pen, Rabelais, whose will read: "I. have nothing; I owe much; the rest I give to the poor," said as he closed his eyes for the last time: "Draw the curtain, the farce is ended," Anne Boleyn, sacrificed to the axe by the notorious Henry VIII, clasped her fingers around her neck and said: "It is small, very small indeed." Pitt, youngest of Britain's Prime Ministers, was worried about the country he had served so well. As he died, he uttered: "My country, how I leave thee!" Note.—Many, of the last words attributed to the famous, like much of our history, belong- to the region of phras« and fable.