ASKING A BLESSING.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1930, Page 3

ASKING A BLESSING.

FOR /I NEW HOUSE. This is the human story that lies behind a girl’s discovery of a lost mediaeval hymn. A London Girl Guide, says the “Daily Chronicle’’ was turning the leaves of an old scrap-book at home. Among the old-fashioned cut-out soldiers and dogs and fairies she saw quaint lines of script verse. The verses were in the form of a dedication of a. new house in archaic spelling, and she was so struck with her discovery that she gave it to her Guide captain. The Guide chiefs thought, it was worth reviving. The hymn from a scrap-book was sung recently when the new London Guide headquarters were inaugurated, before Princess Mary, Lord BadenPowell, and the Mayor and Mayoress of Westminster. It runs: —

Blcsse ye foure corners of thys house, And be ye Lintel Blest; And Blesse ye hearths and blesse ye bord, And Blesse eche place of Rest. And Blesse ye doore that opens wyde, To strangers as to kin, And Blesse eche cristal windowpane, That lets ye Sunlighte in. And blesse ye Roofe-tree overhede, and everie sturdye wall, Ye Peace of God, ye peace of Man, Ye peace of Love on alle. Princess Mary was charmed with ( the newly-discovered ’Blessing’ when she heard it, and it will probably be used again.

ANTI-FLY COLOURS. A man who wondered why the flies on his dining room lamp shade never settled on the window curtains has given science a. clue which may revolutionise /the war against insect pests (says the ‘Sunday Express’). He reported his armchair musings to a scientific laboratory, and from their experiments springs this remark, able discovery: Flies hate red and yellow; They love blue and green. That is the finding of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. It is argued that if you decorate your home with red curtains, yellowceilings, and orange wallpaper the house fly flies —straight out of the window. The tests which followed the amateur’s observations were thus described to a. ‘Sunday Express’ representative by Professor W. Patton, the well-known entomologist; “The layman noted that flies seemed to be attracted by one range of colours and to shun another set of colours used in household decoration.

“This led to systematic investigation by scientists, which produced results of great value. “It was found that flies showed a marked antipathy for the red range of colours. If any other colour was in they settled on it instantly. Blue drew them like a magnet. The fly is attracted by violet, blue, green. The fly is repelled by red, orange, yellow. “Data already collected would suggest that if there were a national campaign to guide the decoration of hospital wards, kitchens, larders, schoolrooms, and other interiors, the menace of germ-carrying flics could be substantially reduced. “The difficulty would be to get the whole population to adopt red-yellow colour schemes for house decoration.” NO MORE “LADDERS.” An enterprising firm has opened a depot, in the West. End where silk stockings damaged in the rough and tumble of shopping, can be mended on the spot. The business being done, wo are told, is tremendous owing to the fashion for wearing the thinnest of chiffon stockings with heavy shoes. “Ladders” and “runs” are the bugbear of all women who affect the fashionable gossamer stockings, which must be mended immediately any damage is apparent, or they will develop such defects that no restoration is possible. The woman with an invisible mender in. tlu? West End is for this reason being kept hard at work all day, and ought to be making,a lot of money.