HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17351, 16 May 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. IRONY OF A WARNING. Mind your back. Bill, and keep clear of the waggons.” was the cry to his mate of G. W. Gibson, a sixty-one-year-old shunter at the Poplar goods depot recently. He was himself caught between two waggons, and died of his injuries. A verdict of accidental death was recorded at the inquest. •** DICKENS AND RED TAPE. 5 ouv public functionary who delights in Red Tape-—the purpose of whose existence is to tie up public questions, great and small, in an abundance of this official article —to make the neatest pssible parcels of them, ticket them, and carefully put them away on a top shelf out of human 1 each—is t.he peculiar curse and nuisance of England. says an English writer. Iron, steel, adamant can make no such drag-chain as Red Tape. An invasion of red ants in innumerable mil ions would not be half so prejudicial to Great Britain as its intolerable Red Tape. HOSPITALITY OF THE ANCIENT ENGLISH. Among the most despotic barons of the twelfth century (here was a kind of gross hospitality and indiscriminate charity which caused their tyranny to be overlooked. As. for instance, that of Sir Wiliam Fits-William, who lived about 1117. who inscribed on a cross in Sprotborough High Street the following verses : “ Whoso is hongry. and list will eate. Let him come to Sprotborough to hi# meate. And for a night,, and for a daye. His horse shall have both come and ha ye. And no man shall aske hym where he goeth aware ” THE STORY OF CHOCOLATE In preparing to celebrate the’ 400th anniversary of the introduction of chocolate "(the drink) into France, Paris has fixed upon the fourth centenary of the event rather arbitrarily. Chocolate was presumably exported into France in 1524. but it had been discovered by Cortez in Mexico only three years previously, and it was nit till another 130 years had passed that Richelieu gave the new beverage a valuable advertisement by declaring that it had cured him of some distemper. Though it was said later of Marie Theresa that ‘‘the king and chocolate were her two sole passions,’* it was not till the eighteenth century that chocolate became cheap enough to be used widely. THE MORNING TUB. The cold bath craze seems to have fizzled out” in England. There are still, it is true, hardy, adventurous souls whose boast- it is that they take a cold plunge every morning all the year round, but the days when not to indulge in such Spartan habits was to advertise oneself a weakling are gone. It may be doubted if the sudden plunging of the body into cold water while still warm from sleep ever really benefited anyone. Such a. change of temperature involves a tremendous shock to the system and the heart, and unless bathers glow suddenly and completely as soon as they leave rho water more harm than good, is done. For the large majority a slightly warmed morning ’tub” is preferable. There is no shock, and yet- all that the cold bather can accomplish is obtained. From the point, of view of cleanliness, too. it must be remembered. that whereas warm water opens the pores, and enables the dirt to be removed, cold water closes them. HOW GERMANY “ STARVES. While sentimental. but misguided* British philanthropists are appealing for money, clothing and provisions for the *‘ starving "‘ Germans, business men are overwhelmed, with luxury orders from Berlin and other parts of Germany, the “ Daily Mail ” states. German orders for expensive fruits have forced up prices to British consumers. ‘‘Starving" Germany has made a swoop on the British fur market, and has sent the wholesale price* soaring. At the public fur sales in London in January, nearly all the racoon skins sold were bought by Germany at prices thirty per cent higher than those of October last, while German buyers made big demands for opossum, southern musquash.* white fox. and otter—the last at prices nearly double those of October. Tn France agents of the “ starving" Germans have been buying the choicest wines. They have, it is estimated, taken as much as 35.000,000 francs’ worth since the beginning of the year : food and table luxuries of the very best quality are literally pouring into Germany through Holland and Belgium, while last year no less: a sum than £80.000.000 was spent in the United States on Germany's behalf. FAMOUS LITTLE RIVERS. The American accustomed to sue& rivers as the Mississippi and Missouri regard the Thames as scarcely more than a glorified brook : yet the Thames is ** liquid history." whilst the Miseissipi is “just water." The Nile is tho most famous large river, but it dce» not surpass the tii y. insignificant Jordan. which is possibly the most- famous river in the world. To the Scot, the Tay cannot compete with “Bonnie Doon." or the Clyde with the tiny Ayr, because these streams are hallowed by the genius of Burns, the national poet. One of the best-known stream* in the world is the Swanee River. ,* tiny watercourse in Florida, which * composer chose because its sound fitted his song and sang sweetly. Tt is too small to be marked on anything but a large scale map. The Tweed, too. is celebrated in song and story, but it has two tributaries which excel it—th® Teviot, the scene of Chevy Chase, and’ the Yarrow, the scene of the most famous of ail border ballads and tho subject of two great poems by Words* worth. Tnto the Teviot runs an even tinier stream called Allan Water, on the banks of which lived a certain “ miller's daughter." whose sad fata has made thousands weep But all British rivers must yield pride of place to that lovely little tributary of thn' Severn, the Warwickshire Avon. b®. cause on its bank*: a boy walked —it \ possible he swam and fished in it* waters-—who was destined to become the glory of his rare aud country, and to be called the Swan of Avon berausa of the deathless song he sang.