POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 9, 10 July 1943, Page 4

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

If Hitler is setting himself for Moscow he had better beware of the scorched panzers—or pants. * * * Only one light is now allowed in the beHrooms of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. <». *• * Julius Caesar said: "I came, I saw, I conquered." Mussolini will be saying later on: "I came, went, and war stonckered." * * * INFORMATION. J.A.M. (Carterton) writes: Could you please inform me through your column the correct pronunciation of the word "majoribank." Is it "marshbank"? I'm referring to a street in Wellington. Thanking you. "Marshbank" is correct. * «•. * SALUTE COTTON. With a population of 350, Cotton, one of Suffolk's smallest villages, is almost entirely self-supporting. In addition to vegetables, etc., the village keeps twenty-eight pigs, and last year produced 2271b of rabbit meat. The tea ration is practically the only thing for which they have to rely on the Navy. , * * • YES. WHAT? The /martinet of a sergeant passed slowly down the line, closely inspecting the equipment of each man as he went. At last he paused before Private Bates. "Everything complete?" he asked. "Yes," was the reply. "Yes what?" barked the sergeant "Do you think I'm a dog, or what?" "Yes, sergeant," came a mild response, and the sergeant wondered why the company laughed. -:=■«■* AS USUAL. Dear Percy Flage,—l humbly submit the following lines, hoping that their publication may' throw some light on a much-debated question. Absolute knowledge I have none, but grandmother's uncle's niece's son Heard one of the waitresses down at the pub Telling her mate as she passed the grub That she has a nephew whose sister's friend KNOWS WHEN THE WAR IS GOING TO END. . —R.E.L. Nelson. * * . * STILL, DRIZZLING From "Kentish": The Sunday School lesson was from 2 Kings XXII, and read: "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem." On describing the lesson to his mother, John, aged five, said: "The lesson was about a good rain, and there was a little boy named Josiah, and it began to rain when he was eight, and when he was thirty-one it was still drizzlin'." * -* * ■ ■ MUSIC. Once while listening to an exquisite melody emanating from the wireless I meditated thus: Here, in music, is a language universally understood, wordless, yet able to stir our emotions more deeply than the most eloquent oratory. How the bright strains of the march or dance arouse even the most jaded, how its more solemn measures calm the mind and draw it to nobler thoughts, the lovely sonatas that inspire the soul to all thai is beautiful. Orpheus, the musician hero of Ancient Greek legend, with it pacified the dark powers of a netherworld and tamed wild animals. It is marvellous that W is not used more to subdue the cruel savagery of mankind. It musi have had its birth in a realm fai beyond this mundane existence, and if man is an outcast from paradise he has kept at least one of its blessings I and that is music. "ADMIRER ROMANTIC." * W * MEDLEY. Dear Fiage,—l made this song medlej up myself, and have been wondering whether or not to send it in. I hay« decided to, so here it is:— "Mr. Brown of London Town" received "A Pair of Silver .Wings" because of bravery "Over There." H« helped "Sierra Sue" in the "Whitt Christmas" because she was "Cominj Through the Rye," and she though! that she was "Down Mexico Way' when she was at the "Bonny Banks o: Loch Lomond" all the time. He ther travelled "All Over the Place" befors going to the "White Cliffs of Dover,' where he heard "Charmaine" saying tc "Sylvia" that she longed for "The Ok Folks at Home." He soon left foi Buckingham Palace, where he sa\^ "The Changing of the Guard," anc was then met by "Annie Laurie," whc said that "The King Was Still in Lon don." He then returned to his "Littl< Grey Home in the West," where h< "Kept the Home Fires Burning." D. WARR. * * * THE DIGGER'S MISTAKE. This from "Okey Doke": The 01113 bed the Digger could obtain while or leave was one shared by an Americar negro. One night, just before retiring the Aussie asked the landlord to cat him at 5 o'clock, as he had an earlj morning train to catch. During th< night, however, the nigger decided t< have a joke with his bed-mate, s< burned a cork and blackened the sleeping Digger's face. All went well thi following morning until the Aussie hurrying to catch the early train glanced in a mirror on the statior platform. For a few seconds he starec at his reflection. "Blimey," he gasped "if this don't lick "ell!" "What's the matter?" asked a pass ing porter. , ~ , "It's that fool of a landlord. He'; gone and .woke that —- nigger anc left me sleepin'." * * ♦ THE SEARCHLIGHTS. In measured ancient payanne staid Crossing, bowing, lifting, Across the sky slow searchlights playec Silent, wheeling, shifting. Seemed spirits from an older day Had burst Tune's prison bars To dance, each one a silver ray, Upon a floor of stars. And there within the bowl of night Cloud-decked and star besprent, Began a dance in radiant light Of stately figures blent. Light-lances bent with sweeping graci To rise again erect; Then swift-revolving, interlace In beauty silver-checked. Each silver beam that slender swayed Some graceful pattern formed; , That, lovely, one brief moment stayec In living light that warmed A soul to whom the vision chanced, Ere melting into jet. The beauty when the searchlighti danced, This soul will not forget. —W. B. TOCKER. * «- ♦ FIRST MEDALS. The first war medal to be awarded to an Englishman—and fhe earliest medal still in existence (it is preserved at the British Museum) —was that granted to John Kendal in 1480. Kendal, who was Prior of the English Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, won his decoration for relieving the city > of Rhodes. Although decorative medals were common before her reign, Queen Elizabeth was the first English Sovereign to bestow medals for particular military service to the Crown. She distributed medals bearing the design, of an "ark in flood" to some of the principal captains concerned in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Two cases are known, in which medals for military prowess have been awarded by private individuals. Davison, Lord Nelson's prize agent, presented a medal to every man who took part in the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and his example was followed by Boulton, of the Soho Mint, Birmingham, who made a similar award to every man who took part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Such was the economy, however, that the medals were struck in pewter, and most of the recipients, deeming them of no value, threw them away!