SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 22 May 1941, Page 9

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL ADVERTISEMENTS AS GLIDE TO BRITISH COURAGE In any period of modern history the { newspaper advertisements have been j , an abstract and brief chronicle of our j . times —to-day more than ever, especial- ! . ]y in England. The advertisements in j . the English Press nowadays are a vivid i . mirror of the moment —nearly every j , insertion tells of comedy, or of tragedy, j , or of courage, or of the priceless boon i of humour, writes Neville Cardus. j , For example (to begin with), the; ‘‘To Let’* column in “The New Statesman" recently printed this announce- | ment: “Perfectly charming and per- 1 fectly unsafe studio flat in so far lucky neighbourhood. Studio 25ft by 20ft. i And from the same journal: “A group is being formed for More Vigorous Prosecution of the War. Interested Persons please communicate: *BM ATTACK. W.C.l.’” And:— “Spring Beds, constant hot water, log fires, own produce, four guineas weekly. Perfect peace.” The daily newspapers of England are ; probably reducing Dr. Goebbels to J: bewilderment and disgust. A copy of the London “Sunday Times" now before i me, published a few days after the attempt of the Luftwaffe to set the city on fire, contains more than a dozen . columns of announcements of new books. “The Spring Publishing Season" —and yet less than a week earlier. : air-raids more or less destroyed Paternoster Row. and several famous pub-, lishing houses were burned entirely. ; with a total loss of stock. Simpkin Mar- j shall lost 3.500,000 volumes: new addresses have had to be found by Col- ( lins, Whitaker, Hutchinson, and Black- |, wood. Longman’s lost their offices in I. Paternoster Row and in Southwark; 1 0.000 -volumes were destroyed (includ-jj ing all the stock of one of my Yet next day. Longman’s opened at a j' new address, with a dozen titles! The !' latest information to reach me says that j the London publishers are anticipating a “record spring season." AN INSPIRATION

The way the people in England are j _ keeping alight the torch of culture: the : way they are holding on to books. music, art. and the theatre, is an in- j ; spiring example to Australia—unbomb 1 ■ eci Australia. In the London “Sunday j Times" of 12th January, there are, be- 1 sides two pages of literary criticism, a j long article on the theatre, a long ar- i tide on music, and a long article on 1 painting. These articles are-not merelv ' topical reviews (there is pre (.us little : theatre or music in London to review just now); they are well-written ancl considered essays on the arts in geneIn spite of severe reduction of space, the representative English newspapers still give as much scope almost as usual to their writers on books, and j or. music and the drama. It is all very j inspiring—when I look at the Austral- ; ian Press in the main and see the arts i as a whole hardly reflected nt all I feel that life even in bombed London would have tremendous consolations, j A few days after Manchester was . cruelly raided—the city suffered one of the most wanton and terrific bomb- ' j ings of the war in Christmas week—the “Manchester Guardian" printed an advertisement of a “Clearance Sale" by j a large firm: the David Jones of ManChester. “This your last opportunity to invest ' in a beautiful fashionable Fur Coat. | Canadian Squirrel and Indian Lamb .... All to Clear. 49 Guineas: usually ; 69, 65, and 59 gns." . ... In the same issue, the “M.G.” prints a concert notice j of a Halle concert, which runs to half a column or more, and concludes thus; ! “The audience was wildly enthusiastic, and packed the hail from floor to ceilj ing." A week or two before this con- : cert, the Halle Concert Society’s usual j hall—the Free Trade Hall—was com- ; pletely gutted by incendiary bombs. I Next to this music notice in the “Manchester Guardian." and surrounded by photographs of destroyed buildings in Manchester, is a theatre criticism tele- • graphed from London on the "Ford ; Centenary,” which was being celebra- i ted at a matinee in the Strand Theatre, J in a thoroughfare littered with ruins | and rubble and—moreover—a thor- i oughfare which is one of the most perilous situations in London. The audience at the first performance of the Ford Centenary was so enthusiastic that it would not leave the theatre until the principal actor, Donald Wolfit, came forward and promised a repetition of ! the play (“ ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore") ; the following week. THIS IS OPTIMISM ; Another advertisement in a leading i newspaper runs: | “So that’s that, Hitler. Yet before these lines appear in print, Messrs ! I hope to have restarted their tailoring i ] business in other premises. Meanwhile, all records, patterns, and files are lost. If you are one of our customers, please communicate at once by postcard to formation about our future plans, which are more extensive and ambitious than I also like the advertisement which hails from Ludgate Hall —a favourite target for the Luftwaffe: “Inferiority Complex eradicated. Write for free book.” And this: “Young man wishes to join modest j home, preferably in London area.” Perhaps the very best of all London ! war-time 'advertisements was the sign which was stuck on a pile of sandbags in the Pentonville road; it was written in white paint on a large piece of brown paper: BEHIND THESE SANDBAGS IS A CHEMIST’S SHOP BISMUTH AS USUAL And the most effective of England’s printed advertisements at the moment is on behalf of National War Bonds. It is 1 jaded by a drawing which imitates an 18th century wood-cut, and it depicts two or three primitive balloons in the air, scaring the rustics and gentry in the meadow below. Then follows this quotation from a poem by Gray (the same Thomas Gray who wrote the “Elegy"): ' The time will come when thou shalt ! lift thine eyes To watch a long-clrawn battle in the skies, While aged, peasants, too amazed for xvords, j Stare at the flying fleets of wonI d'rons birds. England, so long the mistress of the Where winds and waves confess her sovereignty . Her ancient triumphs yet on high shall bear , And reign, the sovereign of the conquered air. These prophetic liner- were written in Latin verse by Gray in 1737, at Cambridge, under the titP “Luna I-labita-bilis." Sweet are the uses of advertisements —as Shakespeare did not, but very nearly did, say. The English newspapers e full of announcements which combine business with pleasure?—and also combine business with incredible humour, and plenty of idealism and determination to live civilised lives, even

theugh—as the young man in the Westminister flat expressed it—some places and localities are “perfectly unsafe,” if “'■rl'ectly charming.