Round the Compass

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18396, 24 February 1928, Page 8

Round the Compass

FAMOUS LANDMARK. LTUNDREDS of New Zealanders have visited the Eiffel Tower. It was z familiar sight to soldiers on leaAe

in war-tijne. From time to time there have been rumours (hat the Tower is to be pulled down, but the latest of these rumours is now denied. For nearly forty years t has been one of the most famous landmarks in the vorld. and in the minds of countless

travellers has stood forth as a kind oi

symbol of Paris. The city has, indeed, never had a finer advertisement, and most people woOld think a first visit to Paris incomplete without a glimpse of that vast :-pire tapering skywards. And yet it was built as a mere adjunct to the Paris Exhibition of 1889. When it had served its original purpose it was generally regarded as a white elephant, just as the Great Eastern steamship, which laid the first satisfactory Atlantic cable and thus wrought a revolution, was regarded 'as a white elephant when she was launched seventy years ago. In the early days of the Eiffel Tower's existence its value, both as an advertisement and as a wireless station, was never dreamt of. But in war, as in peace, it proved itself of immense service. Its powerful transmitting plant was able to broadcast Allied war news to the world and to jam the German wireless with great success. Undoubtedly, in this latter respect, the Eiffel Tower helped to win the Battle of the Marne. HENRY FORD'S HEAVEN. CTRANGELY enough, the trouble with most visionaries, seers, poets, prophets, and idealists is that they wish to set up boundaries of their own devising in the Utopia that is to be. Henry Ford has the world with him when he hopes for homes devoid of housework, farms that sow and reap without physical effort, human bodies that cure their own ills, and offices that sound no recall on airy Monday mornings. He jettisons votes by the million, however, when he declares that the State of Perfection will begin only wh*en there is universal prohibition of liquor and tobacco. These things are not permitted in the Ford works at Detroit. Therefore, says the great captain of industry, Paradise must go without them, too, which is a harsh edict. What would be the good of an annual holiday that runs into fifty-two weeks a year if one has never the chance of taking a bottle of honest ale out of the ice-cbest in the heat of a nor’-westery mid-day, or putting a match to a well-loved pipe in the dusk of evening? Henry Ford's Heaven, we fear, would always be a desolate piace. though possessing perhaps one great advantage—there would be no need of traffic restrictions. ACTOR’S SMILE. HICKS, the actor who has given joy to many thousands of New Zealand theatre-goers, is noted for his sunny smile. The secret, he says, is a happy and contented mind. He and his wife, Miss Ellaline Terriss, are now touring Canada. "Though your worldly possessions be little.” says Mr Hicks in “Pearson's Magazine.” “if you have brains enough to realise that true happiness means the power of being contented with your lot you are ten times a millionaire.” The accumulation of money ought not to be the be-all and end-all of life. That way true happiness does not lie. One cannot buy happiness, and it is not offered for sale anywhere. “Ask

y ourself,” proceeds Mr Hicks, “am T well? Have I enough to jog along* with? Is my home, even in its small wav, a kingdom where 1 am welcome and where I am loved as much as I love those who are its queens and other more than Royal personages? Is my word in the outside world one that can be taken ? Can you answer all these self-set questions in the affirmative? If you can, what more do you want? You have what matters most in the world—real happiness.’* Mr Hicks—happily mated, successful in his career, universally esteemed—is truly happy. Hence that smile! « FAMOUS DAILY SOLD. changes have the last few years witnessed in the realm ol London journalism! The day is not, so far past when, in addition to th# papers now published, there were th# “Standard.” the “Tribune.” the “Pall Mall Gazette." the “St James's Ga- ] zette,” the “Globe," and the “Eoho.’ , All have vanished, and so, too. ha* < the “Daily Graphic," now merged in the “Daily Sketch .” “The Times” succumlied to Lord Xorthcliffc, who secured its controj, and now another great newspaper, the “Daily Telegraph.” has passed into hands other than those of Lord Burnham. In the “Newsagent and Booksellers’ Review,’* one writer, who styles himself an “old-

timer" in Fleet Street, declares that Lord Northcliffe and Mr Cecil Rhodes, the great Afrikander, conspired to buy “The Times,” the “Telegraph” and the “Morning Post.” It was calculated that £10,000,000 would be required. The late Lord Burnham—then Mr Lawson—is said to have refused £3.000,000 for the “Telegraph.” whilst an offer of £1.000.000 for the “Morning Post” was rejected by Sir Algernon Borthwick (afterwards Lord Glenesk). No better luck attended the then negotiations to buy “The Times.”- Then, it was, we are assured, that Mr Cecil Rhodes agreed to provide £25,000 to help found a daily paper, styled the “Daily Mail,” “to apprise the world of the wickedness of the Boers and that arch-fiend Kruger.” That is carrying us back thirty-two years or there* abouts. :: :* » HAPPY COUPLE.

A NOTHER well-known couple, who have toured New Zealand often.

and are known tqbe very happy, are Dame Clara Butt and her husband, Mr Kennerley Rumforci- They are at present in India enjoving a holiday. jD am a (’lara’s career has been a wonderful one. Fame and fortune—and happiness—have been her reward.