FROM THE TOWER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 218, 14 September 1928, Page 6

FROM THE TOWER

(By

“SENTINEL”)

In the case of a doctor who died through inadvertently taking an overdose of medicine, a professor gave evidence that this was not* the first case of the kind, and that physicians wero notoriously careless about the way they took medicine themselves. That is all right if they keep their carelessness for their own use; it is not so right when they are careless in regard to others. “Sentinel” remembers the case of a patient whose doctor prescribed him a “pick-me-up” after a beano. Among other ingredients were ammonia and strychnine. “One tablespoonful in water—” was the dose ordered. Fortunately the man who made up the mixture at the pharmacy wasn’t a fool, and he rang the physician, to learn that the correct dose was one teaspoonful. Taken according to the original directions, the mixture might easily have provided a job for the undertaker. The women of Bradford havß gallantly undertaken a contract for the good of the heavy woollen industry by wearing longer skirts, in the hope of making long skirts fashionable. Their only hope ■would appear to be among the Esquimeaux or . Laplanders, who wouldn’t giv.e a great deal of extra work to- the Bradford textile manufacturers, anyway. But why worry about skirts when the silk stocking trade is so brisk? Let skirts grow shorter; the silkworm keeps on smil-

Whcn they arrange’a guidg for Scottish motorists the job is pretty thoroughly done. A copy of one which has just reached this office for review gives under each town in Scotland various addresses (hotels, garages, parking places, and so on) which are likely to be needed. Under the heading “Aberdeen” one notices, after “Restaurants and Cafes,” the entries “Hospitals” and "Police Stations.” That’s the way to make quite sure of a happy holiday. All the same, perhaps in some later edition it would be well to do the thing in really slap-up style and add “Mortuaries,” “Cemeteries,” and “Undertakers.” ♦ * ♦ • Had it been true that Mr Gene Tunney intended to become a Roman Catholic priest on leaving the ring (as reported in some quarters in America) it would have been possible to quote an interesting precedent in the case of William Thompson, known in the ring as Bendigo, who was born in 1811, entered the prize-ring in 1832, won a. championship belt in 1839, and retired in 1850. After leaving the ring Bendigo became a Nonconformist minister, and was popular and successful as a revivalist in his character of the converted champion of pugilism. Ho lived for thirty years after his retirement from fighting.

On tho other side might be quoted the case of a clergyman who entered (if only temporarily) the prize-ring. This was Jack Hannaford, vicar of Wellclosc, who “looked a good yard and a half round the chest, and his arms were like oak saplings.” There was a prize-fighting exhibition at Taunton once and the professional had to cry off. Hannaford volunteered to fill his place. During the exhibition he was recognised by a noble friend, to whom he said: “Mum, my lord! The second best man in England is laid on the shelf, so they Lad to send for the best man to take his place.” • • • • Big Ben’s chimes have recently crossed to New York by wireless and then been retransmitted from an American station back to England Thus “a Birmingham listener who was listening to Stuttgart recently heard the Hotel Metropole band play several well-known dance tunes and finally Big Ben’s chimes. The broadcast had been received from Chelmsford via New York and the German station.” It causes au English rhymstcr to put it this way:— The shades of night were falling fast As through the startled ether passed A sound which fell with famous force* But from a most unlikely) source: It was Big Ben A-striding ten— But in Hong Kong. Dear me, how wrong! So here's to the day when (he belfry of Bruges IVill resound from a station in Asia; And from Flanders, suggestive of pencil and rouge, Will emerge the guitar of the geisha! When the moose of Alaska by order will boom From the Cape of Good Hope on a crystal. And the bell of the Kremlin is heard from Khartoum Or the howl of the Deryish from Bristol! Beneath the summer evening's sun Old Kasper's daily work was done. And sweet the temple bells and gatf Upon the road to Mandalay; The sound Was hurled Around the world Straight from Cape Cod, Dear me, how odd! So here's to the day when the Dean SL Paul’s Will be heard from a Syrian mosque. And a station in uttermost Africa calls With ihe'Voice of the Cheg and the Tosk; And the nightingale sings from the land of * the Lapp, And the bul-bul is vocal in Norway— Till there isn't a sound on the whole of the map Which has not got its wrong sort of doorway! LUCIO.