FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 979, 23 May 1930, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” A NEW FASHION

A recent advertisement; “Carpenter wanted. —Apply Beauty Parlour.”

Now had, it been a painter whom they needed. One could have understood the brief request. For painters might have practised, then succeeded In dabbing rouge and lipstick with the best. And then again a plasterer could try it—(The inference is cynical, I know), "While polishers whose steady trade was quiet Might slip along and give the job -a go. But what chance has a carpenter to deal With beauty hints- and shingles in this age? Unless by some queer turn of Fashion’s Wheel Coiffures of curly shavings are the rage!

* a * A NEW EEANDER Naval traditions will never die so long as ship-names, steeped in history, are carried on in the sea service. Soon to be laid down at Devonport (England) is a new cruiser whose name, Leander, recalls the deeds of another Leander which followed Nelson in many a famous fight more than a century ago. Bound for Gibraltar with Nelson’s dispatches after the Battle of the Nile (in which, though only a frigate, she had given a good account of herself) the Leander was overtaken by the GSnfereux, one of two French line-of-battle ships which had escaped destruction at the Nile. For six hours the Leander fought desperately against an enemy of nearly twice her weight and gun-power. She had lost over a third of her small ship’s company before she hauled down her flag. It was a costly victory for the GenSreux, which lost three times as many men as her plucky little opponent—2Bß killed and wounded. “Such a defence is unparalleled in the British Navy,” was the opinion of James, the naval historian. The Leander was subsequently used by the French in the defence of Corfu and after its fall was restored to Britain by the Tsar of Russia. Over 50 years later the guns of another Leander thundered against the Russians at the bombardment of Sebastapol. TAPROOM TRICKS

An addition to the numerous tricks and capers which are as much a part of bar-room tradition as brass rails for weary feet, is reported from Whangarei, where a trusting miner was persuaded to take part -in a weightlifting competition. After lifting and being lifted by an affable stranger ho found himself the lighter by one pocket-book. Less vicious, but equally effective, are the majority of bar jokes and customs which range from a challenge to distinguish different kinds of spirits when blindfolded, to, the notorious “funnel trick,” in which someone is invited to try his skill at tossing a coin from his head into a funnel thrust conveniently between the fold of his waistcoat. AVhen the victim is balancing the coin by leaning well back, a glass is emptied into the funnel and . . . Presto! The trick is done.

WITH THE CLOCK Among other curious customs are those associated with particular districts. A West Coaster, for instance, will more than likely tell you that in the many and popular bars of his native heath, the act of draining a glass and replacing it on the counter upside down is accepted as an intimation that he is prepared to fight any man in the room. Before today, an innocent act of this kind has spelt trouble for many a stranger. Finally, in the bad old days, there was the wager that a dozen glasses of beer could be drunk while a clock struck the hour of midnight. It is related that this sponge-like feat was accomplished at least once—on an occasion when a Southern centre embraced no-license. The glasses were emptied as the chimes actually sounded the knell of the bars and heralded the first dawn of a dry era, so, in the circumstances, the gross doggedness of the reveller concerned may perhaps be forgiven. ROCKET-DRIVEN

It is interesting to reflect that, despite the amazing advances made in the science and mechanics of propulsion in the past 30 years or so. competent men have returned again to the study of the rocket and its yet unplumbed possibilities. Rockets originated in Italy and, in their earliest form, they appeared as weapons of war employed for the sake of moral effect rather than in the hope of doing material damage to the enemy. Such is the genesis and origin of the vicious apparatus which, on Saturday, brought about the death of Herr Max Valier, rocket-car “king” and advocate of a trans-Atlantic flight by rocket airplane. Though, technically speaking. Valier’s death machine was undoubtedly a rocket, it bore no resejnblance to the original article, being more like a group of steel cylinders containing gases which could be released or retained at will. Such a means of propulsion possesses many disadvantages which have yet to be overcome, but its advantages—and they are many—include simplicity and a complete absence of wasteful friction within the propulsion machine itself.