"EDUCATED" CLOWNS

NZ Truth, Issue 1273, 24 April 1930, Page 1

"EDUCATED" CLOWNS

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' FOOLISHNESS COME of the young "gentlemen" who study at the Universities are fond of gaining cheap notoriety by making ! themselves foolishly conspicuous whenever there is an opportunity. Every year at a regular time, the public are regaled with a day of exuberant buffoonery which makes up for what it lacks m wit by asinine antics, and jokes which often are m exceptionally bad taste. Most; of those who thus parade their conceptions of humor only succeed m making themselves more inane than nature intended them to be. And not only do they make themselves a laughing stock, .but also a nuisance. The latest example of "Varsity" tomfoolery was seen at Auckland j on Good Friday when a crowd of budding intelligentsia turned out of their warm beds early to welcome a crowd of southern students at the railway station. The N local wags dressed themselves m pyjama suits and caps. Not to be outdone the South Island "brainstorms" wore little berets, with yellow tassels. The young men from the northern educational factory discarded their pyjamas as the day grew older and -more sedate, but the Southern' students, 'doubtless fearing that they might pass unnoticed unless distinguished from the common ruck, retained their pretty little caps all day and wore m many cases a yard or two of ribbon as well. If they succeeded m being taken for

nothing more exalted than a band of jazz players from Jugo-Slavia, or a troupe of foreign jugglers, it is hoped that they : lived the day N not entirelj r unnoticed. This sort of "dressing ' up" offers great possibilities, and as life is becoming so drab and most people so | serious-minded m spite of the eternal pursuit of amusement, .politicians, social reformers, confex-ring farmers, and Rotarians might find some equally diverting manner of making themselves conspicuous. v Politicians, for instance, might turn out disguised as balloons of varied colors and, forming themselves into a "snake," hands on shoulders, caper to Parliament House at the opening of the next session, typifying their identity by preserving silence!