POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 120, 24 May 1939, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

BT PERCY FLAGE

Chronicle and Comment

Japan applauds the Italo-German pact as a great contribution to peace. Meanwhile, she is carrying peace to China like hell; * - .■• • We like the idea of prohibiting motorists from taking liquor within at least an hour of driving, but where are the authorities going to get the timekeepers? * #.»■■•■ Earl Baldwin says that if the totalitarian States try .to apply force again they will meet with the disapprobation of the world. And won't they fly helter-skelter from it! ■ ■■■■'• • ♦ Pommy.—l see that two English families - "have had enough of New Zealand" after a fortnight in this country. Isn't it possible that New Zealand has had enough of them? *.* . • ♦ HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.. " Dear Flage,—l must tell you: Deidr» translated "acre ex continenti importato" as "Air which they have imported from the Continent." Apparently brass and copper were suffering a restriction among the Cymri also. What so free as air, after vail? Compensation from the classroom. * - •■' ■ ♦ ' '•'''■ BELIEVE IT OR NOT. Dear Flage,—This happened when I was an auctioneer and after an auction of poultry (by the way—l have since reformed). Chinaman: You no puttem down my duck. ■ Me: Yes, I knocked them down to you. . ■ ■■-.■■;.■■■ '■'..-' .■:. Chinaman: Him no got in office. :• Me.:. I.write them down to you all right. You ask in the office for AHHUM. ,':. . Chinaman: Me not Ah Hum—me PONG KEE: A case of mistaken smellifluous identity. CAMEL FLAGE.; ■•' • . • .* NEWS ODDMENTS. \ On June 30, 1547, Jacqueline Mommand, a wig maker, of Geneva, Switzerland, was arraigned before a Consistprial Court on the charge that "She did, by means of a curling iron, imp art to the hair of (an unknown woman a ■wavy appearance which .-it had not from birth." She was found guilty, and sentenced to be burnt at the stake. The ( sentence was carried out four days later at Chamel. Cambridge boasts the only clock that strikes twice. It is in a .belfry overlooking the Great Court of Trinity College. Several hundred years ago there was a dispute as to which college owned the clock. Both sides claimed it, and the dispute was never settled. So they decided that the clock should strike, twice and acknowledge dual ownership. ;,' * ■: ■ # :"' ': ♦ ■MELISANDE. Leo Buckeridge (teacher of singingy Nelson) explains "the derivation of the song; "Melisande. in the Wood." He got it from a monograph on "Pelleas and Melisande," an opera by the glamorous Debussy. Here it is: Melisande, a mysterious maiden, weeping beside a well in the forest, is discpveredjj /wooed, and eventually married by Prince Goland, a widower. Goland's brother, Pelleas, falls deeply in love with Melisande on first seeing herj Goland is very jealous, though Meltsande remains faithful" to him, despite the love she has for Pelleas. Melisande drops her betrothal ring in an old fountain and Goland is furious and commands her to regain it. Finally Goland kills Pelleas at the fountain where the lovers have met for the last. time, and Melisande dies of grief; after convincing her husband of her fidelity. , Thanks, Mr. Buckeridge. ' » •» ■ ■ * MY MOTHER. % (To the Best of Women.) !:j Arthur H. Adams did not writS "Mother o* Mine," but he did use the phrase "mother o' mine" in a poertf. titled "My Mother." - l Here are the lines, for which we are indebted to <C; G. G. Berry, Northland:— 4 I would give it all ftp at a word from you. ': ■; ■' '■■. •: -■'■■• ■•: ; ;',, Mother o' mine! : ; But the strife has begun - That I dare to shun: ' Yet my heart looks home to the rest it knew,, '.: . ;.•:.' '■■■^ To the. questionless trust and tht? welcome true; . ■■:■.-,•,„ And you call to me now as you used to do, ' . Vi Mother 0' mine! : - The wonderful years that we shared are flown, Mother o'rninel . The world has won The heart of your son; The child has died in the man full, grown; . ~ The path of my life I mustjread alone And I dare not return when you call your own, ' . Mother o' mine! • My heart in the Chill of the world grows cold, Mother o' mine! , But lives may run Ere your love be done, And the child I remember y6U. still enfold ■ ■ ; In the passionate peace of your heart S warm hold— ....... . For ever for you I'm the child of old, Mother o' mine! In his later years Adams edited the "Bulletin's" monthly "The Lone Hand." which did not last long. When it foundered, one or two sets of our ephemeral verses went down with it . * . *.. ■ ♦ INTIMATION. D< M. R&nds, Mrs. R.C.B. ("happy to Oblige"), and K.T.^-Thanks for the Kipling "Mother ; o' Mine" verses. "Adam Wants to Know."—A higher mind than ours looked obliquely at Jonahi-^Dtfwn !n the mouth again? D.R.f, ("Night").—A nice thought expressed in verse a trifle halting. p p,.^-As you say. the omission of that letter made Sn "1" of a difference. Carlos.— Rhyme on the Berlin be? headings about as 'hrillmg as a sodden mushroom. That you have been published in —— doesn't move us one whit. • * K. (JJewtown) .—Come up and see us some time. Salaams. » . ■ Xtra.— Ordinary! .Nationalist (Palmerston iSTorth) .-^-Ndt in good taste. If you think that the Opposition leader is a "heaven-born statesman" who are we that we should raise our eyebrows? D.M- (Otaki).—(l) Mdtre. wobbles, and rhymes don't rhynie. (2) You will find that poem" in test year's "ST.Z. Best Poems." . . : "Jafcealoo."-—-It isn't. "Play Fair" (Wadestown).-—That gentleman is not worth powder and shot. Anyway, your note is packed with libel . ■-. Teresa.—Try the Australian "Women's Mirror" (the "Bulletin's" sis* ter). Thanks for your kindly references.