CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 98, 25 March 1939, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “AVayfarer.”) The personal servant of a Tt rench count has written a book of reminiscences. AVe can only hope bq remembered that discretion is the better part of valet * * * * Modern stenography, tho bread and butter of so many of young people, is really quite an ancient art. Away hack in early Grecian days, at the time of the Catiline conspiracy, Cato s famous speech was preserved m lironian notes, says a corespondent in an overseas journal. This was a I°™ ot shorthand invented by a young Roman named Tiro. Even Xenophon used shorthand writing to take town tlio words of the philosopher Socrates. Sylvester 11, who was made Pope in 999, was one of the very few stenographers ol the Middle Ages. It is also said he invented the wheeled clocks. His reputation for wisdom of all kinds was so great that the superstitious public of his a.ge accused him of sorcerv and black magic. Even to-dav it would take a very smart stenographer to keep up with Sylvester in taking shorthand notes of Latin discourse. One of the reasons why his people regarded him with awe was that not only could he write so quickly in strange weird signs, but he could read what he had written. “Surely, then, ho must have power from the devil. Tt is said that recently a Jesuit priest adapted the Pitman’s shorthand to the Latin tongue. ***** Recently the congregation of a small Methodist church at AAalton, New York, were surprised when the collection plate was sent round to find that it was filled with dollar bills, of which the pastor requested each member to take one. If some had the idea that this was a gesture of generosity on the part of the trustees of the church they were speedily disillusioned. The pastor followed up this curious reversed collection with a request that each one who had taken a dollar should put it to work and return the profit that might be made to the church funds. The suggestion was acted upon with enthusiasm. I lie returns have been added up and an announcement made that whereas 127 dollars was taken no less than 477 dollars has been returned. Every single dollar has been accounted lor, and an interesting statement lias been made disclosing how individual members have used the money they received. Most of them made and sold various kinds of foodstuffs or used Die money in their farms or businesses. There is nothing said about the sermon that the pastor preached in support of this scheme, but it certainly ought to have been a discourse upon the Parable of tho Talents, observes a columnist.

The absence of the King and Queen in Canada and the United States, this year, will provide the first opportunity for the operation of the Regency Act- which was passed in 1937. During the King’s absence abroad the Act provides ior the appointment of five Counsellors of State, who shall be the Queen and the four adults next in succession to the throne. As the Queen will also be absent, four counsellors alone will presumably be appointed, and these would be the Duke nf Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, the Princess Royal, and Princess Arthur of Connaught. A point which is not clear in the Act is the age at which a person becomes qualified as a counsellor. AA’hile Princess Elizabeth can succeed to the Throne at the age of I*B. it is believed that she could not he a counsellor until she was 21, as the Act prescrilxis “full age.” The list of counsellors is destined to many variations in the next few years (says an overseas writer). A 7 iscount Lascelles, son of the Princess Royal, will take the place of the Princess Arthur in 1944.' while he in turn would I>e superseded by the Princess Elizabeth in 1947. AVhen Princess Margaret Rose conies of full age, in 1951, she will take the place of the Princess Royal as a counsellor. Another interesting point about the Regency Act is that by the Statute of AA’estminster it does not apply to the Dominions. The King, therefore, while in Canada will still have to undertake such royal duties as relate to the Dominions, although no longer responsible for home affairs. Canada will welcome this, as it would he rather an anomalous position if Canadian matters requiring the King’s approval or assent had to be sent to London while lie himself was on the spot, hut it may create delay for the other Dominions and cause a somewhat- involved situation. Australian or South African affairs will have to be sent on to Canada, but English or Scottish questions can ho dealt with by the counsellors.

Tf you stroll down Lambeth way, just across the Thames from Westminister, you will come to an old-time Cockney market, in a street about 200 yards long, running south jrom the Bishop of London’s Palace ; states a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald. Until recently few strangers visited Lambeth AVaik, as the market is called. though some famous people were born not a stone’s throw from it, and it never fails to furnish entertainment —free of charge, or nearly so. Times, of course, “are not what they was,” but the denziens of the Walk are a cheerful, bustling crowd. Cockney butchers, with their gaily decorated boater hats, vie raucously with vendors of fish and chips, whelks, jellied eels, “lovely roses,” cheap groceries, old iron hedstoads, and second-hand clothes, and “silk stockings at two boll a pair,” as they proclaim their wares. Many a fat Cockney, housewife. wearing her husband’s discarded cap back-to-front to keep her hair in place, hustles to and fro with her shopping bags. Lambeth “gals,” too, with their Lambeth pals, parade up and down in their “poshest” clothes. Tt is a lively, colourful scene. Close by in Lambeth churchyard, is the grave of our old friend, “Bounty” Bligh, forgotten by the people of Lambeth, though they all flocked to see the film about him. Arore interesting to them is Kennington’s Canterbury Music Hall, where Charlie Ohn.plin and Stan Laurel made {heir first public appearance.

On Bank Holiday night, back from the Cockney fair on Hampstead Heath (“Appv ’Amstead”'). the citizens of LamlM»th Walk indulge in gossip for n while, a.nd arm in arm skip up and down the street, dancing the traditional Cockney stops, which form the basis of tlio “Lambeth AA r nlk” itself. As they pass each other they exelm nge a hearty “Cheerio”, or an “Oi,” and shout a snatch of song—perhaps some old London ditty like “Old Bull and Bush,” or the latest American hit from Tin Pan Alley. The song. “The Lambeth Walk.” T believe, originated with a coeknev melodv 40 years old, and is the big bit in a musical oomedv in which Lunino T.nno plays the part of a Lambeth AVaik Coeknev. who inherits an earldom, and reduces Afavfnir to despair as he goes “high society.” I am told that Lambeth AVaik is becoming quite a tourist centre now that the dance had made it famous.