A MIXED BAG.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19373, 8 January 1925, Page 4

A MIXED BAG.

By The Gleanee. The Police Amateur Athletic Club is now the premier track and field club of New South Wales. It established itself in this position In the recently-concluded Dunn Shield Sports in Sydney. George R. Parker, tho walking policeman, whoso performances of breaking four State and two shield records have been chronicled already, helped largely to this success. Tho club secured its position after a strenuous light with Botany Harriers. Sydney University, tho previous holder of the trophy, faded from tho picture. Mike MTigue, the world’s light heavyweight champion, has announced that ho will start a suit against tho Now York State Athletic Commission, claiming 200,000 dollars damages, on tho ground thar he had been prevented from obtaining a license for boxing in that State. M'Tigue’s action followed the recommendation of tho commission that its license committee refuse him a license for a year owing to his failure to accept the challenge of Gene Tunney, the American List 71b champion, for a title match. This recommendation, however, has not yet been acted upon by the license committee. Here is an opportunity that N. P. M'Gregor missed! During a football match ot Trowbridge, Wiltshire, a high punt was fielded by a Great Western railway train bound for South Wales. Tho train was pulled up by a tackle through the medium of the telephone, and the ball was recovered. In a small boxing club in a , smaller U.S.A. town recently the local announcer, introducing a nig lumbering light-heavy, said: “In this corner, ladies and gentlemen, Battling , one of the idols of Boston.” In a few seconds a voice from the gallery squawked; “Idle is right—the big dub is always idle.” In the examination in the English Bankruptcy Court of Arnold Wilson, who was unable to meet his financial engagements of the Bloomticld-GLbbons match at Wembley in August, it was shown that liabilities were £17,316, and assets £344. Wilson said he lost £15,000 in promoting the light. At latest reports Sir Harry Lauder was at Bombay cu his farewell tour of the world. Bombay curry may sharpen Sir Harry’s accent, and he would then go stronger than ever. There Ims been a great outcry in some of (ho Sunday pa tiers about the foul methods of the New Zealanders. Really, they aren’t as black as their jerseys are painted (states (lie Star, London). Certainly their forwards do break the rules, but they get penalised for that, am! it was the tourists who suffered more from whole-hearted tackling than the London men at Twickenham. Some of the critics pressed into service for the week-end were there to get a "sensational” story. And they seem to have forgotten the exhilaration with which lull-blooded youth goes into the fray. It may have occurred to some people that tlio modern Ixmdon cabaret ia a, throw-back to the old “cave of harmony.” There is a print of tiho old Canterbury music hall which shows tho audience seated at tables and consuming refreshments largely of a liquid nature, which tho performance goes on. Mr Archibald Haddon haa written an interesting littlo brochure on tho origin and rise of tho music hall. “In the boginning,” ho says, “ the music hall was a supper room in a tavern,” but there was an early beginning in the Oaves of Harmony which Thackeray describes in “The Nowocanes.” Tho Coal Hole in the Strand was one of these, and tlio Cyder Collars in Maiden Lane was another. It is said that in the old days tho payment of sixpence secured a pass to tho gallery at a certain Birmingham music hall, and a pint of porter at the gallery bar. Mr James Taylor, chairman of tho Australian Olympic Federation, says that the president of tho International Olympic Committee, Baron Pierre du Ooubortin, holds that tho Olympic ideals have become a great tie between young men all round tho earth. If that is so (remarks tho Sydney Referee) and not a more sentiment, it ought to bo thought easy to arrange for tho visit to this country of some of those young men who have mot in competition those of Australia in different Olympic teams. And yot how many Englishmen, as well os Europeans, have over come this way? Again, the foot of so many Olympic Games competitors subsequently becoming professionals casts doubt on tho value, to amateur sport in tliis country of tlio Olympic ideal as carried out in these Games. , The onoo great comedian, Arthur Roberts, who after delighting generations of London playgoers, foil on evil days, was recently given a benefit which gathered £3OOO for him. The latest star turn at Maskelyne’s, St. George’s Hall, London, is tho placing of a girl in a barrel, which is then put on top of a similar barrel, but separated from it by a solid steel plate, pierced only by a two-inch hole. In addition, four stout rods are stuck through tlio lower barrel, and yot tho girl passes from ono barrel to (ho otter. i myself (says tlio theatrical critic of the London Sportsman) tied her up and hold tho end of tho rope all tlio timo, and 1 examined all tho apparatus. Truly, yO years of magic have taught tho Mnskelyne family something very like tho real thing. Tho most coveted of all speed records was beaten at Brook!amis recently by J. G. P. Thomas on a Lcyland-Tlroraas, when ho covered IC9 miles 160 yards in tho hour. Tho liour record has a tragic history. In October, 1915, P. Lambert obtained tho 50-mile world’s record, and in continuing for tho hour record his ear overturned, andho was killed. The famous racing motorist, J. Chassagno, then took tho hour record with 107 rnilos 1500 yards. For two years Thomas haa tried to soouro tho record, but not until yesterday was ho successful. 'The terrific strain on tyres has robbed him ot tho record, and yesterday ho changed all four whools arid, tyros us u precautionary measure at tho half-distanoo Even so he teat tho record by well over a mile. Incidentally Thomas boat tho 100-milo record in 55min 11.2650 a, at 103-72 m.p.h. The Now Tori Herald states that members of tho Brown University football team have discovered a new way of mooting tlio tuition fees, the board bill, and tho tailor bill. Tboy are soiling their blood in transfusion operations. Adolph W. Eckstein, ventre for tho team, took tho lead when ho sold two pints of his blood for 100 dollars. Several other members of tho team since have raised money by soiling their blood for transfusions. At ono timo thoro was no better known or more popular name in our theatrical world than Bland Holt. His final season in Dunedin extended over six weeks, playing to capacity houses at His Majesty’s Tlmatro. No individual company has since obtained such a grip on playgoers, but tho Nellie Brandcy Company has boon playing to packed houses for months and months wherever they go, and whenever they return to any town in New Zealand they also have received the appreciative patronage of worshippers at the Thespian shrine. Hie Nellie Bramley Company has a very extensive repertoire made up entirely of proved successes, and so it is not surprising that tho original plan of campaign in New' Zealand has been extended again and again. It was originally intended to visit Dunedin some months ago, but popularity has kept a brake on the movements of tho company, and prolonged seasons in various places visited during tlio tour have delayed arrival here. A correspondent of an English paper selected tho following team to meet the All Blacks :—Full-back, Agamemnon ; threequarters, Achilles Batroclus, Meriones, Idoi none us; half-backs, Ajax, LEneas, Monolaus Antilochus, Philoctoles, Sarpendon, Ulysses (as rover); touch judge, Paris. Some of these may now be past their best, but if in form they would prove about the only combination capable of giving theA.ll Blacks a good run. Wo have waited eagerly for the appearance of Mr Maurice Moscovitch in “The Merchant of Venice,” and our expectations have been more than justified, for Mr MosDovitoh is a great actor (says the Australasian). Veteran playgoers who have seen Shylock played by the most famous actors of the English-speaking stage for many years past unanimously agreed that Mr Moscoviteh’s interpretation is the finest they have seen. There is all the hatred of the Jew for the insolent Venetians who despite and insult him : hut this is a Shylock who only under tho greatest, provocation forgets that sufferance is tho badge of all his tribe. His hiitor resentment dees not show too obviously when his enemy turns to him for help, but it is the more sinister for being partially suppressed. In Hie court scene Mr Moscovitch was magnificent. S-hylock’s hatred, his lust for revenge, wore almost terrifying, and when, thwarted and furious he learns first of his defeat and then of the hard conditions upon which has own life may bo spared, one quite forgot for a. minute or two that it was all acting, and feared that the old man was going to have a fit or a paralytic stroke. TTo was poignantly pathetic as he stumbled from tho court, a broken and suddenly aged man. Tho whole thing was ono of the most wonderful stage performances ono remembers ever having seen. The fact, too. (hat Mr Moscovitch speaks tho linos with a strong Jewish accent makes tho part still more convincing.