POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 81, 2 October 1940, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

Latest name for the air-raid siren: "The Collywarbles."

We can leave it to the R.A.F. "pirates" to ensure the Nazis getting their full share of hot coffee. » ■■ -M- # Henry: The one verse in the Bible which contains all the letters of the i alphabet is the 21st of the 7th chapter of Ezra. So what? i « * •' "Would it be right to say," asks Melisande, "that the Nazi Channel skaters would be skidding on thin, ice?" That would be near enough, my dear, if they didn't become seasick. ■ «• •» * G. B. Shaw: Far from objecting to the assistance of British troops the Irish ought to be -the first people to ask for it. ■ * «■ ■♦■~-■ AFTER MEDITATION AND CONSIDERATION, THIS IS MY TERMINATION: It is Hitler's love of adulation, sensation, and self-glorification which is the foundation of the irritation of the present situation. There- is only one termination —his utter obliteration— and it would be a matter for congratulation if his extermination should come by strangulation, through the participation of the population of his owa nation. M.J.R. Taita. # ; ■•■» ....,#.-■■ HERS? LIES. In life he lied, and dead be lies. While noble souls to higher splendour rise, No children's love, no saving grace did tide him o'er the Stysp. ■■;-•■ His body's here, his-soul is .lost to aJJ save conscience pricks. RECIPES. . (Two oGo'd Cakes.) ■ These country newspapers! My friend remarked that he had had > these cakes in his home. I seem to recognise them without even the recipe. We now refer to them, politely, so as not to drop any bricks, as Q.Gi. cakes. RICHARDS. ♦ ♦ * «■ , INFORMATION DEPX In reply to several inquiries: The Vichy Government is so named from the French" town where Petain, Laval, and Co. continue to fool their people and crawl to the Axis gang. "Just Curious": The "Fourth. Estate of the Realm" is the daily Press. The most powerful of all, the others' are the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons. Burke, referring to the Reporters' Gallery, is credited with having said: "Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, more important than them all," but it does not appear in his published works. A.J.G.: The inventor of the "tommy" sub-machine-gun was J. T. Thompson, who retired from the American army-in 1914 after thirty-two years* artillery service. Thompson died only a month or two ago. ... \- ' r ~ HOME AWAY FROM HOME. r ■ Some people may remember the cartoon of the last war wherein an Australian colonel is depicted admonishing his troops to bs on their best behaviour when the general inspects them: "Now, remember—no smokin* or spittin' in the ranks, and for the Lord' 3 sake, don't call me 'Erb." Well, I'm thinking that, before, Jong, visitors to our New Zealand prispns, where the "guests" how have their daily shave and put on their best clothes after their "hard" labour, thanks to the kindheartedness of our benign Government, which is just as likely to let you out of gaol as to put you there, no matter how bad you are, will be solemnly adjured by the warders to be careful to kiss each, gaolbird on entering the portals, not omitting to address each man as ''Mr," BRAW DARROW. • * * LONDON, 1940. What do they tell of London— Deptford or Kensal Rise? .... . 'They speak of death in the Londoa- ! streets From the reeling, screaming skies. They tell of a trail of carnage Where the drift o' the Thames roll* wide; . • ~ . They tell of the crumpling Londoa walls; . And they speak of those who died. They tell of the wounds of London—< Lambeth or Grosvenor Place, The scars that a war-mad War Lord made 'Cross a grey old lady's face. ■Mid the mill of the Circus maelstrom, In the peace that the by-mews give, They tell of the way that London dies. That London yet shall live. They tell of the voice of LondonChelsea or Waterloo, . The London guns are the London voice, , And the London voice rings true. In the breathless time of th davmutf» When the soul-seared night has sped, They speak of a meeker, muted voice— And London counts her dead. They tell of the Soul of London— £?%L?JT%SZ»m spirit, there— By the blast and the scorching They sweafto a tyrant fettered-cowed By the Soul that knows not death. WALTER D. CHARLTON. Wadestown. * ■*. INCOME TAX. Did you know that there were three lucky years in the history of England when [here, wasn't any £**«*«* all' It was even so-m 18DZ, «». 7nd i«ain in 1841. Today the rate (m England) i\eavy enough to bend an ia?l McCready nearly double. Collecting income tax is a complicated ob, and, according to one commentator the authorities in ihe Old Dart have their own "CMnen" to detect and tackle tax-dodgers. One man for example, always produced one banking account to show his income. Actually, he had eighteen different accounts. Another business man who, however, maintained that he was getting no profit from his business, persisted in tha deception. He got three years. Somerset House has had some trying, and some amusing, experiences. One man owed £100, and as the correspondence progressed letters (on his side at least) became more and more heated. At last he had to give in. He paid, but in farthings! He sent 96,000 of them along in an old munitions box. The authorities took the money in that form and passsd it on to the bank. And one dear old lady, unable, as the said, to find the cash for her arrears, I turned up with vast quantities of I bramblo jslly, mr.de, she insisted, with, I her own hands, and most delicious! Tactful officials explained that they weren't allowed to eat the national revenue!