POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 4

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Commtni

BY PERCY fUACE

Field-Marshal Keitelr6pbrteth^th« : . Axis is moving to the west Following the sinking sun? V; » • •» * The Kara Kid: A sudden ; thought ■ strikes me: How does ontrob.tain lambs \ tails from Shakespeare? > *.. . ■■«-. .', ..*: '■■ ;■'..■••• Ad.: "Gentleman would like to acquire substantial interest in a brewery concern." Liquid afesets. will satisfy most men. • .. • * * . *. "Cheer up," said the shipwrecked . sailor to his mate on the raft "we can't be far from civilisation now; there's a couple of bombers approaching." * . . * ' . x.* INQUIRY. Dear Percy Flage,-—I wonder could' any Postscripter tell me through Column 8 the names of the "Tarzan" films in which Johnny Weissmuller has starred. Thanking you in anticipation, and with best wishes for Column 8. N.E.H. * * . ■ '.*. INFORMATION. One of our readers wants to know how the word "diggers" first' came into the World War 1 and has been used ever since. A friend is certain that it derived from the early days when men went chasing gold aiid building fences. More likely r the word originated from the Australian soldiers on the Galhpoli Peninsula early in the last war, whose daily job was digging trenches. * «■ * GHOST MEN. / There -are men of the Middle East who talk at times of what are called the Dew Men of Crete, They are regarded as ghosts . . . shadowy forms like men which are seen on the coast of Crete just before dawn. They move along from east to west, and appear to enter an old ruined castle. They have been described by an eye-wit-ness as "like the shadows cast by people in a house which is lighted up when it is dusk outside." But no one has yet solved their mystery. * • ♦ NELSON. The music of his name puts fear to And thrills our twilight through with sense of morn; •'.,.,»„ As England was, how should not England be? No tempest yet has left her banner torn. No year has yet put. out the day when he .... Who lived and died to keep our king* ship free, . ' Wherever seas by warring winds are Died, and was one with England and the sea. _^ q swmB URNE. *v ■ * ■ .. * YEAR OF THE OX. Faithful to the old lunar calendar, 500 million Chinese celebrated New Year's Day in early April. In the name cycle China passed from the "Year of the Lamb" to the "Year of the Ox." Symbolically, when Japan first struck in the Far East it was the '.'Yeas of the Rat." In spite of all wartime restrictions, millions of vellum paper slips, with the words Kung He Hsin Hsi (respectful congratulations and wishes for new happiness) were stuck on doors throughout China. */ * '* ' ' PRONUNCIATION. Kairwan .. . Chote el Fedjaz ... El ' Hamma . . . Maknassy , . . Jebel Tebaga ... Mahares ... HOw do the BJ3.C. announcers know how to pronounce such places? Two women, Gertrude Miller and E. Anderson, are responsible for the correct and uhiform pronunciation of all the names of people and places that crop up in the daily news from air "parts of the-world. They are the 8.8.C.'s pronunciation, experts, and they have the right of reference to two highly-competent adr visers, Professor J. R. Firth, of the School of/Oriental Studies, and Daniel Jones, Professor of Phonetics at University College; London. •». , «■ • •» NAPOLEON'S ORGAN. Australia has some, clear-cut historical links with France in the.time of * the First Empire, but one '.'off the record" is in St. Peter's Church of England at Sydney Heads, writes B. Watson in "Digest of World Reading." This is an organ on which Napoleon used to play occasionally. It came into his possession on loan from the Hon. Spencer Percival, who was England's Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. •' Later he was Prime Minister, and was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons. The organ was returned to his widow in Waterloo year (1815), and in 1915 Dr. G. A. Edwards, of Sydney, bought it' He passed it on to the Conseryatorium of Music, whence it was dedicated, as a memoi'ial to fallen soldiers, at the suburban church, where it is still played. «• -::- * INTIMATION. A Reader ("Yanks May Come, Yanks May "Go"): Let them, brother. G. Searle ("Wings for Victory"): Too lengthy for our half-col. 8. D.W. and others: Your questions will be answered in their order. Blockhead (Wanganui): As the poet said, "You can't go shooting up Hitler." "Taita": Your philosophy does not appeal. Maryann: It is impossible for us to enter into such a controversy: . "Bee Hive'1: Minister Barclay appears to be doing his best J.K. (Johnsonville): Benedictine is a liqueur which used to be made at the Benedictine monastery at Ficarnp, France. "Oboe": Not for us. Melisande No. 2v Name McClancy threatens to turn up again one of these days. , "Trier": What you need in your verse is more thought, rhythm, and punctuation. ■it * ■» TRULY GREAT. My walls outside must have, some flowers, My walls within must have some books; A house that's small; a garden large, And in it leafy nooks. A little gold that's sure each week, That comes not from my living kind, ' But from a dead man in his grave, Who cannot change his mind. A lovely wife, and gentle too; Contented that no eyes but mine Can see her many charms, nor voice To call her beauty fine. Where she would in that stone cage live, A self-made prisoner with me; While many a wild bird sang around, On gate, on bush, on tree. And she sometimes to answer them,. In her far sweeter voice than all; Till birds, that love to look on leaves, Will doat on a stone wall. With this small house, this garden , large, This little gold, this lovely mate, With health in body, peace at heartShow me a man more great. . —WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES. •ft ■ i> # , DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR. Frederick Oechsner (author of "This is the Ene"my") has an anecdote about the experts on craniology who were summoned with tape measures and calipers to take the Fuhrer's head measurements: • "They measured the breadth of Hitler's skull above the ears, from forehead to vertebrae, from, aw to jaw, from chin to forehead, from eye socket to eye socket, from nose to chin. ,'- Some of the 'more mature members, of the commission were a little embarrassed (and later a little ironic) by Hitler's almost childish enchantment with the proceedings but others were typical sycophants, and made the appropriate remarks. No sooner would a certain dimension be made and recorded than one of those men would exclaim: 'Just like Napoleon's!' or 'Nothing like it since Frederick the Great!' Hitler, solemn as a judge, completely missed either the irony or the hypocrisy. and ordered happily: 'Yes, yes! Put it all , down.* " , ' >