POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 59, 9 March 1940, Page 12

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

All this talk of Blitzing and blasting is sheer Boche. » * • Why should Russia put forward proposals when, on her own word, she is not at war with Finland? _\ | * « • A man's worth, says Ernest Renan, must be measured by his faculty for admiration. '.'■■_ ♦"'*"■"• Fun in the ads.: Hitler's "Mem Kampf" (8s 6d edition) ; would exchange for Churchill's "Step by Step."—Belfast "Post" DIMINUTIVE POEM. (Robert's idea.) Stalin's brethren Need a leatherin'. O. SELVES. ' ■ ■■',» \ * . .*■■■' ' EXACTITUDE. ■ Clipped from a N.Z. paper: " "Mr. X was twice married, his £. wife prodeceasing him some years ago, and his second wife a few years ago." So we as 1 definitely-state,.comments Slim Jim, that" he'./was a widower a while ago. ' " B. 1817; d. 1893. A letter arrived in Oxford recently from the United States, addressed "Dr. Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol." One of the college authorities opened it and discovered a cheque for: five dollars, with a note explaining that it was offered in payment for reprinting an aphorism of the doctor's. "It is important in this world to be pushing, but it is fatal to seem so." The note was signed "The Reader's Digest." •-.."■*, * . * NURSERY RHYMES. "HICKORY DICKORY DOCK." Prosit! Heil Hitler! and Hoch!! The Fuhrer has Wound up the clock. , When the war is won, And his clock is run down, Blinketyl! BJankety!! Sock!! "MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB." Hitler has his woolly lambs, (Their wool's not white as snow) Wherever Hitler goose-steps, His lambs will surely go. They follow him ta War today At which he breaks each rule. He's led his little lambs astray And sure will prove a fool. M. SIRRON. ■» » » INTIMATION. "What Ho!" (Wanganui): (1) This, your second marching song, is not quite so appealing as your No. 1. (2) That was a cheering note you had from London's "Sunday Chronicle." C.L.: Good verse, but the subject is not now topical. Gemini: Those luscious Pearmains! Thanks ever so much. Johnr-Just John: ; That birthdayquotation was' scarcely poetry, but at least it was sincere. Your kindly comment is appreciated. A.K. (Masterton): Play fair! "Chronique r Scandaleuse" ~.o;( Lyall Bay): The full,name'ofj.Miss.J^eemanMitford -is Hon. Unity Valkyrie Free-man-Mitford,, fourth daughter of Lord - Redesdale of Redesdale. », ■ # ■ - .., * SCHOOL'S IN. Do you . know that-:- , (1) Virginia * Parysh. of Columbus Ohio, has for four years in succession won the local pie-eating contest? (2) Horses' skulls^ were at one time built into church towers in the belief that they were a protection against lightning? (3) Heinrich Hoffman, the Fuhrer's personal photographer, has opened a branch store in Warsaw to give Poles an opportunity to buy official pictures of Hitler? •. (4). M. Appert, a Parisian chef, was the first man to bottle foods and sterilise the contents by placing them in boiling water? (5) Though considered the epitome of Oriental transportation, the jinricksha is far out-numbered in Tokio by bicycles? (6) Back in 1839. a girl's three inner petticoats weighed 51foz, her horsehair outer petticoat 12oz, and her silk dress 270z? (7) Becquerel left a piece of uranium ore on a photograph plate—and radium was discovered as a result? (8) Queen Victoria's voice is now being coaxed from a long-forgotten phonograph cylinder which was found recently," covered with fungus? (9) There is a Negro organisation in the United States called the Co-opera-tive Too Utter Utterly Utter Marriage Aid Association? <10) / Stalin is a Georgian by birth —and in Georgia there are 38 separata peoples, each with its own dialect and •culture? * * « "ADLESTROP." Yes. I remember Adlestrop— The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express train drew up ther« Unwontedly. It was late-June. The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat, , No one left and no one came On the bare platform. What I saw Was Adlestrop—only the'name. . And willows, willow-herb, and grass, And meadowsweet and haycocks dry, ' No whit less still and lonely fair Than the high cloudlets in the sky. And for,that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. This poem of Edward Thomas has a natural simplicity and genuine feeling which stir the imagination. It came to us from Gemini, an exile from Gloucestershire. It appeals to her for one reason in particular, as she explains: "We 'drew up unwontedly'' at such a place in Hawke's Bay." A significant word, "unwontedly." * ■ #■■ •#■;.". > INFORMATION DEPT. My Dear Flage.—r like col. 8. Can you tell me whether Will Lawsdh evec wrote verse for the weekly suppler ment of "The Post" printed over 30 years ago. I thirik his pen-name was . "Quilp N." Is that right? And who was "J. 8.." who wrote verse about the same time in "The Post"? Thanking you, : R. W. H. WOOD, Borough Librarian. Box 32, Feilding. v •' Will Lawson used the pseudonytt* "Quilp N." when he started on a literary career. He wrote short stories and descriptive articles as well; as" lively verse. "J. 8." in all probability was John Barr, then a member of the "Evening Post's" literary, staff. Barr1 wrote clever topical jingles .» > had a flair for that sort of thing. He .went to the "Bulletin" before our tirce as a newspaperman, and later becaMe As-'. sociate-Editor of that journal. John; Edmond was in charge. We enjoyed i the warm hospitality of Barr in ,1924 !. ... some time before he pulled out of the "Bulletin." He is stilt singingalonf the Inky Way. From this desks W» salute him ... a gallant old-timer.