FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” lIAPPY ISLE Mr. H. Fisli, Republican member for Garrison, New York, has suggested that all Communists should be sent to a desert island. If Mr. H. Fish, of New York, had his wish, Ail Communists, .Bolshies, and such, Would he gathered one day, and put out of the way. On an island where ships never touch. On that isle of the blest they could put to the test Their doctrines of brotherly love. On that sea-girded shore, sans the limbs of the law, o They could see if the hand fits the glove. But they’re looking askance at this wonderful chance To be happy and free as the birds. What they mean by an isle is a rhetoric pile Entirely surrounded by words. A.H. RELATIONSHIPS Unusual family relationships have been brought about by a marriage solemnised recently in one of Auckland's maritime suburbs. A man who is a grandfather has married the sister of his son's wife. His son now becomes his brother-in-law, and (read slowly and carefully) his daughter-in-law becomes his sister-in-law. His grandchildren will now have the choice of calling him either uncle or grand-dad, while his wife, besides being an aunt, will also be a grandmother. To her sister she will be a stepmother-in-law, and her husband will be her sister’s father-in-law and brother-in-law. In the event of their being any issue of the recent marriage, the bridegroom will be grandfather, father, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and uncle. Furthermore, .. . (At this stage the contributor of the foregoing paragraph began writhing and tearing his hair. He was removed gently from the sanctum—L.O.M.) “ JOHNNIE'S ” TEARS Not content with stressing the fact that Amy Johnson is a girl who has equalled men at the game of longdistance flying, correspondents in Northern Australia seemed determined to brand her as a nervous, hysterical woman, terrified at everything. This may be with the object of emphasising the remarkable nature of her achievement, but it does not make happy reading. Like others who have had greatness thrust upon them, “Johnnie” is as yet unused to interviewers, and is indiscreet enough to tell all she thinks and feels. More cautious man (who also might have “laughed and cried alternatively” when he sighted Australia) would be vain enough to keep that fact to himself. Perhaps after seven months’ journalistic experience in London at a salary of nearly £SO a day, “Johnnie” will have learned the lessou that. In this crazy world, hysteria can have a news value greater than that of impassiveness. FROM ACADIA

A.C. —Your mention of the passing of the “Acadian Recorder” reminds one that man}' of the original French settlers who wer edriven from Acadia, or Nova Scotia, found their way to the South, where successive generations of their descendants have lived ever since. As a race the Acadians, or “Cadians of the Evangeline Country,” as they are now known, have degenerated. They have fallen in completely with the ways of the lazy lands to which they migrated, and their native tongue has become a peculiar language of simple sounds —a language not unlike that of the genuine Africa negro. It is one of those cases where the white man has attempted to work on level terms with the coloured man, and the attempt has resulted In the white man descending to the other’s mental and social level.

METHODS MACABRE Strange and macabre were the methods employed recently to aid the hunt for Dusseldorf’s arch-murderer, who has now reopened his campaign, apparently with the object of proving that the police have arrested the wrong man. Assuming that the author of the crimes was a person of warped mentality, detectives arranged with a theatrical company to stage a drama of violence likely to appeal to such a one. Behind concealed peepholes, survivors of the madman’s attacks scrutinised all who entered the theatre. This plan failed, so the police did the rounds of notorious cabarets, carrying with them a closed coffin. At each establishment a dramatic and gruesome scene was enacted. A detective described the sufferings of the victim of a certain crime, concluding by shouting, “And here is the corpse!” At the same moment the lid of the coffin was thrown aside and a jack-in-the-box caused a realistic, blood-stained dummy to sit bolt upright. It was thought that the murderer, if present, would be unnerved Into making a confession. This piece of theatricalism also was a complete failure.