POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 41, 16 August 1941, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

Reg.: Oh, my Darlan Serpentine. * * # The Duce isn't an animal; he's half jackal and half jackass. -:;- * , * Cameo telephones: Tough guy, The Dozer. Must come from the bulldozer breed. * * ■ * Before the law, said Anatole France, all are equal. But that was long before the war. * ■ ♦ * The latest definition of a millionaire: A man who can get his favourite brand of cigarettes and smell like* an onion. •* ♦ * SUGGESTIONS. Further suggestions from the author of suggestions: Parachutist-Perishutist and R.A.F. is Kiel-ling Germany. (1) Hitler, Mussolini, Konoye . . . what a b-racket! (2) Japan could not get Into China so she tries to get Indo-China. (3) Hitler attempts to conquer Pacific with the help of a mere Canoe-o,ye. L.L. * * * ' TOWN IN'EGYPT. It's a town in Egypt, begins the "Philadelphia Record." The "Record" ' spells it Bug Bug. The "New York Times" spells it Bag Bag. The Camden "Courier Post" and "New York World Telegram" spell it^ Bug Bug. The "Philadelphia Ledger" spells it Buc Buc, the Baltimore "Morning Sun" spells it Bug Bug, and the Baltimore ■■ "Evening Sun," a paper of fine old liberal tradition, splits the difference and spells it Bug Bug. «• * * PRONUNCIATION. De -Bunk writes: Some of the "w^.. cacklers" who talk over the air (including exquisite folk at the 8.8.C.) slip badly over the pronunciation of such a simple word as "respite." Search as I have through numerous dictionaries, I have found absolutely only one way of pronouncing the word, and that is "respit." The accent is on the "res" and the "i" is short as in "fit." The dictionaries consulted included the Oxford, Chambers's. (correct spelling). Routledge's, Dr. Annandale's, Collins", and Webster's. * ■» # HOME! An 84-year-old London woman "staggered" Mr. Ernest Brown, Minister o! ■, Health, during a recent tour he made of Britain's blitzed homes. As he walked down a devastated road of small houses, he came to one that "looked pretty bad." But there was one room, the kitchen, as clean as a new pin and as tidy as could be. And inside it was one old woman. "Knowing there were billets nearby, I asked her if we could fix her up," said Mr. Brown. Her reply was: "I don't want to go to any billets. I have lived here f6r 62 years. I have 52 grandchildren ... and this is my home."* * ■ * . * . ■■ .-.-■ school's in. •f v m ij;f':\"~' Do you know'that — . : . '!' (1) Russian sables al*e now so scarce that they are to furriers what diamonds are to jewellers? (2) Britain's latest types of battleship have a well-stocked library and a bookstall carrying as big a selection as many railway stations? (3) The world's gold mines employ 300,000 persons, and use 36,000 tons • of dynamite a year in blasting 60,000,000 tons of ore? (4) In a recent season of the whaling industry the best-paid gunner (a Norwegian) received more than £2000 for six months' work? (5) Ninety-five per cent, of the accidents on tube escalators are caused by. ' the small heels of women's shoes? (6) The germ causing the common cold multiplies so rapidly that if no steps are taken to prevent it, it will increase to 15,000,000 in only twelve hours? (7) The British Empire's annual output of gold is about £170,000,000, most of it coming from Canada and South Africa? (8) Irish Stew was a popular winner, and Cheese was nowhere —that was the result of a hurdle race at Plumpton (England) recently? (9) To foil dog thieves, officials of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, are tattooing the ears of dogs with identification numbers? (10) The Monroe Doctrine was an English idea, suggested to Preside;:' Monroe by George Canning? <i * * WAR. "Let us out into the wind and rain,'' she said, Remembering a young lover, bravely dead Beneath the heavens flashing into hells Above mad citadels. And so we went steadfastly into the dark, Where the trees threshed, rousing a sleepy lark Dreaming of many wings in flight against the high Blue ceiling of the sky. Our thoughts were words unsaid; we turned from Death To where Truth stood like a beacon, and the breath Of Beauty, caught when the first star was born In a lone world and lorn; And Peace, by the still waters and slow " quiet grasses . . . We knew no more then of the Great Beast that passes Shaking the earth; and heard far silver turrets ring Of songs in a golden Spring. "Let not," she said, at last, "the ravaging thunder Possess us wholly, driving our- soul deep under; Hold to the strength and loveliness that will not fail However wild the gale." FLAGE. * * * HISTORIC SPOTS. No visitors to London ever miss the quiet glory of the Temple, that home of the law just off Fleet Street, where there are great associations and magnificent lawns. It is recorded that an overseas visitor once asked a gardener how they managed to get such wonderful lawns, and he replied: "Well, first you roll them for 1000 years." "Yes," said the inquirer, "and what then?" "Then," was the reply, "you roll them for another 1000." The Temple takes us back to Drake. Chaucer, and Raleigh. Five members at the Inner or Middle Temple signed the American Declaration of Independence. Many of the greatest figures in . legal, political, and literary history were associated with this beautiful backwater. Two famous literary shrines have gone, those in Crown Office Row, where Thackeray had his chambers, and Charles Lamb passed I his early years. Part of Brick Court, famous because Lord Chief Justice Coleridge had chambers there and where Goldsmith found a home, has been razed to the ground. John Evelyn, the diarist, lived in Essex Court, ■which is damaged, but still standing.