Oddments

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1950, Page 4

Oddments

What goes up in smoke may be judged from the announcement that Mr John Player’s estate amounted to £2,500,000. Tobacco fortunes in Britain during the last nine years have totalled £16,000,000, and have provided the Government with £10,500,000 in revenue. Outstanding have been the Wills family, who have left more than £50,000,000 since 1909. Other impressive figures have been Lord Woodbridge (Churchman’s), £1,361,076; Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, £1,353,744; and Mr Lawrence Hignett, of the Imperial Tobacco Company, just under £2,000,000. Large landed estates have been less frequent of late, though Lord Portman in 1949 left £4,500,000. x , Fortunes from breweries stand next to those from tobacco. For good or ill, any extensive reformation amongst drinkers and smokers would leave the Government with difficulties in making ends meet. ®** * * *

To be trapped in a household tank .was the ignominious fate of a Wanganui man who sought to clean one out by getting inside and scouring it. Worming through a small manhole in the top was a comparatively easy way to enter the tank, but the man found climbing out a different matter. After several vam attempts to hoist himself through the hole, he gave up and shouted for help. Unfortunately, his wife had chosen that moment to absent herself from the immediate vicinity of the tank, and it was a neighbour who answered the victim’s call. What he said on seeing the man’s predicament is not recorded, but some rough and ready surgery on the top of the tank with a pair of tin-snips soon ended the man’s imprisonment. The escapee’s only comment was: I m mighty glad it wasn’t one of those square iron .taffies.”’ * *

If there is nothing new under the sun there occasionally is under the Stars and Stripes. Reversing the usual order of things, the Columbia University Press has secured the names of the 10 most boring books among the classics. They were voted on by hundreds of editors, writers, booksellers, librarians, literary critics and ordinary readers. The doubtful honour of first place went to Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Then in order of dullness were “Moby Dick,” “Paradise Lost,” “The Faerie Queen,” “The Life of Samuel Johnson,’ “Pamela,” “Silas Marner,” “Ivanhoe,” “Don Quixote,” and “Faust.” . Of interest to educationalists is the fact that every book ever included in a high school list of required reading was mentioned at least once. Seventeen of Shakespeares plays were given dishonourable mention, but his least popular work, “As You Like It,” was down at forty-first place. Four of George Eliot’s books were in the first 30 places. The old Testament received some votes, but not enough to bring it anywhere near the top. —The Seeker