SCRAP BOOK

Southland Times, Issue 23989, 2 December 1939, Page 10

SCRAP BOOK

The Pigeon Of Menin Road

NEAR the Horse Guards in Whitehall, London, is a museum known as the “Services.” It is a shrine of orders and insignia; ribbons, clasps, bars, and glory, all reapings of the Flanders fields, where brave men sleep amid the scarlet poppies and tall yellow corn. In a comer close by a window you will read on a card of the heroism of the pigeon of Menin Road. It tells you that it died of wounds received in action on October 4, 1917. “In this action, which was fought in the region of the Menin Road, on October 3,1917, the bird was despatched with a message from the front line to divisional headquarters at 1.30 p.m. It was hit by a bullet which broke one of its legs, drove the message carrier into its body, and passed out through its back. In spite of wounds and driving rain, the bird struggled home to its loft, a distance of nine miles, and delivered its message, at 10.53 a.m. on October 4. It died shortly afterwards. Can we not guess the husky cheers? . . . Can we not imagine the instinctive pity in the eyes of those for whom this brave little bird gave its life; they who gave theirs for their King and country every hour?—Linda Prince in The Sydney Morning Herald. Ash, Kan. HERE is a list of towns with odd names which, with the State included, make interesting combinations: Ash, Kan.; Carpet, Tex.; Ogop, Ga.; Odear, Me.; Skeleton, Ky.; Shoo, Fla.; Kay, O.; Houdy, Miss.; Fiven, Tenn. —Wall Street Journal, New York.

| Reserved IN illustration of the Coolidge reserve is the case of a reporter who attempted an interview with the monosyllabic late President: “Do you wish to say anything about prohibition?” was the first question. “No.” . “About the farm bloc?” “No.” “About the World Court? “No.” ! , The reporter turned to go. By the way,” added Coolidge, unexpectedly calling him back, “don’t quote me.” Mind-Readers DID you hear about the two mindreaders who met in the street? One looked at the other hard for a moment and then said: “You’re all right—how Formby in The Sunday Express. Boxing BOXING is not merely a contest between two splendidly developed bodies. You’ll very frequently see a boxer of inferior physique make rings round an absolute young Hercules, because he has established a complete intellectual and moral ascendancy over him. The fact is boxing is also a contest between two minds and two characters —and that is exactly what great drama is. It is an art that both creates charactoand and Tide. Hitler’s Diet EILEEN Murphy, of the British Commercial Gas Association, speaking at Stoke on' modern home-making, said that if Hitler changed his diet he might be a more reasonable man. She added: Hitler does not drink, smoke, or eat meat, but his diet contains too many eggs and too much fat. His chef has to cook eggs in 30 different ways, and he is very fond of vegetables done with fat. Eggs and fat are good when eaten in moderation, but too much of them tends to upset the liver. A man with a torpid liver is usually bad tempered, unreasonable, and hard to live with. According to Henry Ford, most crimes are due to wrong mixtures in' the stomach. An ill-balanced produce an ill-balanced man. ‘lf Hitler had less eggs and butter and the German people had more the world would be a more peaceful place.” Aircraft in Battle

AT the present moment, when the military use of aircraft is so much in everyone’s thoughts, it may be interesting to inquire when they -were first used for this purpose. If balloons are to be classed as aircraft, this occurred as early as 1794, at the battle of Fleurus in Belgium, then the Austrian Netherlands, fought between the Austrians and the French Revolutionary troops. At this battle the French sent up an observer in a captive balloon, and it is said that his reports to the French commander, General Jourdan, as to the movements of the Austrian troops, assisted considerably towards the French victory in this battle. This engagement also affords the first instance of anti-aircraft fire, as the Austrian artillery fired a number of rounds at the balloon, of course, quite ineffectively. These occurrences, although they led to nothing at the time, are an interesting example of coming events casting their shadows a long way before them. The balloon had been invented only 11 years previously, in 1782, so the French Government was certainly up-to-date in its methods. It is interesting to note that General Jourdan was later the Marshal Jourdan who, 19 years afterwards, was defeated by Wellington at Vittoria in northern Spain—an event which compelled the final evacuation of Spain by the French. —B.S. in The Sydney Morning Herald.